Performance of an Adapted Version of the Timed Up-and-Go Test in People with Cognitive Impairments

In clinical practice, older people with cognitive impairment may have difficulties to understand the instructions of the Timed Up-and-Go (TUGT) test and present a bad performance. The purpose of this study was to identify differences in the TUGT performance, in an adapted version, between older adults with preserved cognition (PC), mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's disease (AD), and to identify the association between the adapted TUGT performance and cognition among groups. A cross-sectional study was conducted with 118 community-dwelling older adults divided in three groups: PC (n?=?40), MCI (n?=?40) and AD (n?=?38). The evaluation was composed by the adapted TUGT and cognitive assessment (Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination and Frontal Assessment Battery). Only the cadence of TUGT presented significant difference between groups, specifically between AD versus MCI and PC groups. The main correlations were found between time of TUGT with fluency domain and global cognitive function, especially in the AD Group. The findings contribute to the understanding of how cognition interferes on functional mobility in older people with MCI and AD. The adapted TUGT is easy to perform in clinical practice and can be useful when assessing mobility in people with cognitive impairment.     

The Gettier Intuition from South America to Asia

Journal of Indian Council of Philosophical Research - This article examines whether people share the Gettier intuition (viz. that someone who has a true justified belief that p may nonetheless fail...     

Change in body image and psychological well-being during behavioral obesity treatment: Associations with weight loss and maintenance

This study reports on outcomes from a behavioral obesity treatment program, evaluating if treatment-related changes in body image and psychological well-being are predictors of weight change during treatment and after follow-up. Participants were 142 overweight/obese women (BMI = 30.2 ± 3.7 kg/m²; age = 38.3 ± 5.8 years) participants in a behavioral treatment program consisting of a 4-month treatment period and a 12-month follow-up. Psychosocial variables improved during treatment and these changes were correlated with 4-month weight reduction. Short-term changes in body size dissatisfaction (p = .002) and mood (p = .003) predicted long-term weight loss. Additional results suggest that there might be a predictive role of short-term changes in body size dissatisfaction and self-esteem on long-term weight loss after accounting for initial weight change (p < .028). We conclude that, along with weight changes, cognitive and affect-related processes influenced during obesity treatment may be related long-term success, in some cases independently of initial weight loss.     

Patterns of Parental Rearing Styles and Child Behaviour Problems among Portuguese School-Aged Children

The majority of studies investigating the effects of parental behaviour on the child’s adjustment have a dimensional approach. We identified the existence of various patterns in parental rearing styles and analysed the relationship between different parenting patterns and behavioural problems in a group of school-aged children. A longitudinal, multi-informant study was conducted. The sample consisted of 519 school-aged children from the Portuguese general population. Parental rearing styles were measured using the EMBU-C, a questionnaire that evaluates children’s perception of parental rearing dimensions. The assessment of child behavioural problems included the evaluation of internalizing and externalizing problems, and data from multiple reporters (parents and teacher). One year later, after a school transition, the adjustment of a sub-sample of 220 children was evaluated again. Cluster analysis identified four types of parental rearing styles: low support, supportive-controller, rejecting-controller, and supportive. In both assessment periods, low support and rejecting-controller parenting patterns showed higher levels of behavioural problems than the supportive and supportive-controller parenting patterns. These patterns show significant differences between them regarding behavioural problems and have a higher predictive value regarding externalizing problems (versus internalizing problems).     

Effects of joint immobilization on standing balance

We investigated the effect of joint immobilization on the postural sway during quiet standing. We hypothesized that the center of pressure (COP), rambling, and trembling trajectories would be affected by joint immobilization. Ten young adults stood on a force plate during 60 s without and with immobilized joints (only knees constrained, CK; knees and hips, CH; and knees, hips, and trunk, CT), with their eyes open (OE) or closed (CE). The root mean square deviation (RMS, the standard deviation from the mean) and mean speed of COP, rambling, and trembling trajectories in the anterior–posterior and medial–lateral directions were analyzed. Similar effects of vision were observed for both directions: larger amplitudes for all variables were observed in the CE condition. In the anterior–posterior direction, postural sway increased only when the knees, hips, and trunk were immobilized. For the medial–lateral direction, the RMS and the mean speed of the COP, rambling, and trembling displacements decreased after immobilization of knees and hips and knees, hips, and trunk. These findings indicate that the single inverted pendulum model is unable to completely explain the processes involved in the control of the quiet upright stance in the anterior–posterior and medial–lateral directions.     

How Can Experts See the Invisible? Reply to Bilalić and Gobet

Experts in all fields are able to see what is invisible to others. Experts are also able to see what is visible to all—and this is explored by Bilalić and Gobet. We question the method of normalizing all subjects in an experimental condition, and asking experts to behave as if they were novices. We claim that method leads Bilalić and Gobet to a nonsequitur .     

Effects of repeated acquisitions and extinctions on response rate and pattern

The procedure developed by R. A. Rescorla (2002) was used to study the effects of repeated acquisitions and extinctions of head entry responses into a food cup by rats. In each of 4 20-session phases, food was delivered at the end of particular 30-s auditory and visual stimuli, but not at the end of different 30-s auditory and visual stimuli. Based on response rates to individual stimuli and compound stimuli, the increase in response rate in acquisition occurred more rapidly than the decrease in extinction. Acquisition, but not extinction, occurred faster after successive transitions between acquisition and extinction. Temporal gradients of responding developed during acquisition and remained during extinction. Conclusions based on mean response rate, temporal gradients, and transfer tests were consistent.     

Evaluating feature-category relations using semantic fluency tasks

The issue of the relationship between semantic features and semantic categories has been raised by Warrington and colleagues, who claimed that sensory and functional-associative features are differentially important in determining the meaning of living and nonliving things (Warrington & McCarthy, 1983, 1987; Warrington & Shallice, 1984). In the present study, the effectiveness of semantic memory search for living and nonliving things with sensory and functional-associative search cues was evaluated through eight different adaptations of the semantic fluency task. More living thing responses and clusters were generated from sensory than from functional-associative search cues, while the reverse pattern holds for nonliving things responses and clusters. The results thus provide consistent empirical support for the assumption that sensory properties are fundamental in the representation of living things, while functional-associative properties are fundamental in the semantic representation of nonliving things.