Simulation Studies of Descending and Reflex Control of Fast Movements

Several neurological control strategies for fast head movements are considered using computer simulations of a stretch reflex model. Each control strategy incorporates a different amount of proprioceptive feedback contributing to braking and/or clamping the movement. The model behavior for each control strategy is qualitatively compared to experimental data that includes the agonist and antagonist EMGs, and the head position, velocity, and acceleration. Significance of the study is discussed with respect to the characteristic tri-phasic EMG pattern for fast voluntary movements and the possible roles that the stretch reflex may have in contributing to this pattern of activation.     

Menopausal Symptoms: Is Spirituality Associated with the Severity of Symptoms?

The aim of this study was to explore whether spirituality was associated with menopausal symptoms. Menopausal symptoms, spirituality, health and menopausal status, and socio-demographic variables were assessed in a community sample of 710 peri- and postmenopausal women. A structural model was explored using structural equation modeling. The results evidence spirituality as a significant contributor regarding the severity of most menopausal symptoms. Among others, spirituality had a significant weight in depressive mood (β = ?.414; p < .001), anxiety (β = ?.308; p < .001), cognitive impairment (β = ?.287; p < .001), aches/pain (β = ?.148; p < .001), vasomotor (β = ?.125; p = .005) and sexual symptoms (β = ?.211; p < .001). Some socio-demographic variables, as well as perceived health, also predicted the menopausal symptoms’ severity. Therefore, spirituality can have a positive impact on the menopausal symptoms’ reporting.     

Applied Participatory Ethics: Bridging the Social Justice Chasm Between Counselor and Client

The authors introduce an applied participatory ethics paradigm consistent with the contemporary focus on social justice in the practice of counseling, emphasizing participation of all rightful parties, including the client, in ethical decision‐making processes. The paradigm is an adaptation and expansion of the work of Prilleltensky, Rossiter, and Walsh‐Bowers ( 1996 ) and rests on their conceptualization of restrictive and participatory orientations. The origins of the model's added elements in 4 areas of rehabilitation and counseling literature (i.e., ethical knowledge and practices, the therapeutic alliance or relationship, client involvement, and client empowerment) are described. Finally, interrelationships between the different phases and elements of the model are discussed.     

Meta‐Analysis of Clerical Performance Predictors: Still stable after all these years

Pearlman, Schmidt, and Hunter (1980) published a seminal paper on the validity of various measures for predicting performance in clerical jobs. They concluded that for both job and training performance criteria, 10 types of tests (e.g., perceptual speed, clerical aptitude, verbal ability) predicted performance across 5 clerical job families. This paper describes a psychometric meta‐analysis of validity studies using similar measures for clerical jobs conducted since 1980 to examine the stability of Pearlman and colleagues' validity estimates. This paper contributes to the literature by investigating the long‐term stability of validity generalization estimates over a period of several decades. Clerical jobs provide a compelling case study because these jobs have changed considerably due to the increased use of computers and technology in the office environment. Results showed that the mean population estimates in the present study were consistent with, or higher than, those obtained by Pearlman and colleagues, thus demonstrating the long‐term stability of meta‐analytic estimates of validity. The relative stability of the validity estimates also supports the robustness of g as a predictor, even as jobs change over time.     

Occasion Setting and Drug Tolerance

There is considerable evidence that drug-paired cues become associated with drug effects. It has been hypothesized that these cues act as Pavlovian conditional stimuli (CSs), and elicit conditional compensatory responses that contribute to tolerance. On the basis of a conditioning analysis of tolerance, we would expect that it should be possible to establish drug-paired cues as occasion setters, as well as conditional stimuli. Using feature-positive discrimination training, we evaluated the contribution of occasion-setting stimuli (as well as CSs) to tolerance to the hypothermic effect of ethanol in rats. The results indicated that a complete associative analysis of drug tolerance should incorporate not only the CS properties of predrug cues, but also the occasion-setting properties of such cues. The findings have implications for interpreting conflicting findings concerning extinction of tolerance and for cue-exposure treatments of addiction.     

The differential outcomes procedure can interfere or enhance operant rule learning

The differential outcomes effect—the enhancement of learning and memory performance by correlating distinct reinforcers with to-be-remembered events (sample stimuli)—has been stated to be one of the most robust phenomena in learning psychology. However, in this paper we demonstrate that the correlation between unique samples and unique reinforcers can either interfere with or enhance learning a spatial matching-rule, dependent on whether these two processes are trained concurrently or sequentially. If the Pavlovian conditioning (unique sample-reward pairings) occurs before the matching rule is learned (sequentially), the conditioned expectations of unique rewards will enhance the acquisition of the spatial matching-rule in rats (the differential outcomes effect will be observed). However, if rats are required to learn the Pavlovian associations and the matching-rule concurrently, they are impaired in acquiring the spatial matching-rule. Thus, employing the differential outcomes procedure can either enhance or detract from learning and remembering the task rule—dependent on the nature of the task and order of training. These data suggest that under some circumstances learning Pavlovian associations can compete with the formation of instrumental behavior.     

Goal orientations, motivational climate, equality, and discipline of Spanish physical education students

This study analyzes how dispositional goal orientations and perception of different motivational climates are related to the students' perception of sex-related egalitarian treatment and the appearance of disciplined or undisciplined behaviors in physical education classes. Analyses showed that ego orientation is a predictor of undisciplined behavior. Task orientation was positively associated to discipline. The perception of task-involving motivational climate is related to the students' perception of equal treatment. On the contrary, the perception of ego-involving climate has been linked positively to the prediction of the perception of sex discrimination in physical education classes and negatively to the perception of equality and the appearance of disciplined behavior. This study discusses the implications of these results related to teaching instructional actions in physical education classes.     

Resilience and the burnout-engagement model in formal caregivers of the elderly

This paper investigates the relationship between resilience and positive/negative mental aspects of psychological well-being in formal caregivers for the elderly. The sample consisted of 265 caregivers who work in different residential homes in Extremadura and Castilla y León (Spain). The instruments used included the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale , the Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey and the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale. The most significant findings show that caregivers with higher levels of resilience also have higher levels of professional efficacy and job engagement (vigor, dedication and absorption) and appear to be less emotionally exhausted or cynical than caregivers with lower levels of resilience. It cannot be concluded that more resilient caregivers will not get burned out, but they develop better engagement skills. As they strengthen these personal attributes, they become less vulnerable to burnout.     

Using the multifaceted Rasch model to improve the TAT/PSE measure of need for achievement

We used the Rasch (1980) model to develop new pictures for the Thematic Apperception Test (C. D. Morgan & Murray, 1938; McClelland, Atkinson, Clark, & Lowell, 1953) or picture story exercise to measure need for achievement (nAch). In Experiments 1 and 2, we analyzed stories to assess the difficulty level of a total of 8 pictures using the multifaceted Rasch model with picture difficulty, story probe difficulty, and participant ability as facets with a partial credit model (FACETS; Linacre, 2005). A total of 6 pictures were retained and 4 new ones added for Experiment 3 in which 201 participants wrote 6 stories to a random set of the 10 pictures. FACETS analysis revealed improved person separation reliability. In Experiment 4, 206 participants wrote 1 story to the Studying picture either before or after filling out a battery of achievement-related questionnaires. The 2 experimental groups did not differ in the amount of nAch in their stories. The coder facet was demonstrated with 2 independent coders using the revised coding system for nAch.     

Hippocampal gene expression profiling in spatial discrimination learning

Learning and long-term memory are thought to involve temporally defined changes in gene expression that lead to the strengthening of synaptic connections in selected brain regions. We used cDNA microarrays to study hippocampal gene expression in animals trained in a spatial discrimination-learning paradigm. Our analysis identified 19 genes that showed statistically significant changes in expression when comparing Nai;ve versus Trained animals. We confirmed the changes in expression for the genes encoding the nuclear protein prothymosin(alpha) and the delta-1 opioid receptor (DOR1) by Northern blotting or in situ hybridization. In additional studies, laser-capture microdissection (LCM) allowed us to obtain enriched neuronal populations from the dentate gyrus, CA1, and CA3 subregions of the hippocampus from Nai;ve, Pseudotrained, and spatially Trained animals. Real-time PCR examined the spatial learning specificity of hippocampal modulation of the genes encoding protein kinase B (PKB, also known as Akt), protein kinase C(delta) (PKC(delta)), cell adhesion kinase(beta) (CAK(beta), also known as Pyk2), and receptor protein tyrosine phosphatase(zeta/beta) (RPTP(zeta/beta)). These studies showed subregion specificity of spatial learning-induced changes in gene expression within the hippocampus, a feature that was particular to each gene studied. We suggest that statistically valid gene expression profiles generated with cDNA microarrays may provide important insights as to the cellular and molecular events subserving learning and memory processes in the brain.