Psychosoziale Belastungen von Bahnpendlern

The increasing number of commuters in our society raises the question of the consequences, in particular of psychiatric and somatic symptoms and the quality of life. A total of 407 commuters at the main railway stations in Stuttgart and Ulm (southern Germany) were included in a study in order to assess the psychiatric symptoms of commuters and if they are able to make use of psychosocial care despite the long periods of time spent commuting to work. An important result was that especially long-term commuters pay a high price: 31.3% of male and 37.3% of female commuters exceeded the cut-off point for psychiatric illness in the Outcome Questionnaire (OQ-45.2). The high prevalence of psychiatric disorders coincides with a high rate of unmet needs so that a high rate of false and under-treatment for commuters can be assumed.     

Salespeople as knowledge brokers: a review and critique of the challenger sales model

Over the last several years, there has been increasing interest in a new sales training approach – referred to as the Challenger Sales model – to engage customers. This approach, focusing on purposefully generating tension with customers to spark new ways of thinking, has gained traction among leading sales organizations. Although generating tension with customers has received a great deal of interest, researchers have yet to complete a systematic, in-depth examination of the Challenger model. The purpose of this article is to provide a much needed comprehensive review and critique of the approach. By conducting both an empirical and conceptual review of the framework, we offer insight into its novelty, merits and weaknesses.     

ASSESSMENT OF THERAPISTS' PREFERENCES FOR DISCONTINUOUS MEASUREMENT SYSTEMS

Recent studies have evaluated the sensitivity of discontinuous recording methods for detecting behavior changes; however, relatively few have evaluated observers' preferences for such methods. To address this limitation, this study used a concurrent chains design to evaluate eight therapists' preferences for collecting data using momentary time sampling (MTS) and partial interval recording with interval sizes of 10 s and 1 min. Results of the preference assessment showed that six of the eight therapists preferred to collect data using 1‐min MTS; however, results of a follow‐up questionnaire suggest that most therapists preferred 1‐min MTS primarily because it was easy to use rather than that it was accurate. These results are discussed with respect to recent findings on the sensitivity of MTS and partial interval recording. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Representation of letter position in spelling: Evidence from acquired dysgraphia

The graphemic representations that underlie spelling performance must encode not only the identities of the letters in a word, but also the positions of the letters. This study investigates how letter position information is represented. We present evidence from two dysgraphic individuals, CM and LSS, who perseverate letters when spelling: that is, letters from previous spelling responses intrude into subsequent responses. The perseverated letters appear more often than expected by chance in the same position in the previous and subsequent responses. We used these errors to address the question of how letter position is represented in spelling. In a series of analyses we determined how often the perseveration errors produced maintain position as defined by a number of alternative theories of letter position encoding proposed in the literature. The analyses provide strong evidence that the grapheme representations used in spelling encode letter position such that position is represented in a graded manner based on distance from both-edges of the word.     

The costs of taking it slowly: fast and slow movement timing in older age

We investigated adult age-differences in timing control of fast vs. slow repetitive movements using a dual-task approach. Twenty-two young (M = 24.23 yr) and 22 older adults (M = 66.64 yr) performed three cognitive tasks differing in working memory load and response production demands and they tapped series of 550-ms or 2100-ms target intervals. Single-task timing was comparable in both groups. Dual-task timing was characterized by shortening of produced intervals and increases in drift and variability. Dual-task costs for both cognitive and timing performances were pronounced at slower tapping tempos, an effect exacerbated in older adults. Our findings implicate attention and working memory processes as critical components of slow movement timing and sources of specific challenges thereof for older adults.     

Teaching with Massed Versus Interspersed Trials: Effects on Acquisition,Maintenance, and Problem Behavior

The current study evaluated the effects of teaching three programs using massed‐trial teaching (MTT) versus interspersed‐trial teaching (ITT) for three participants diagnosed with autism. Specifically, we compared the (i) rate of response acquisition, (ii) percentage of trials per session with problem behavior, and (iii) number of acquisition targets maintained following mastery. For all three participants, the rate of acquisition was higher under MTT than ITT, and levels of problem behavior were similar in both conditions for each participant. Perhaps the only advantage of ITT over MTT was maintenance of targets at the follow‐up probes for two participants; however, neither approach yielded consistently high levels of correct responding across 2‐, 4‐, and 6‐week follow‐up probes. Collectively, results for these three participants provide some evidence for the additive benefit of MTT over ITT. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Challenges to Doing Sexual Violence Work

Sexual assault victims experience a number of effects as a result of their victimization. Sexual assault crisis workers are assigned the responsibility of trying to minimize the negative consequences of sexual assault. In their efforts to serve sexual assault victims, it is likely that certain problems make it difficult to adequately help victims. This study considers how 43 sexual assault crisis workers (27 directors of sexual assault crisis centers and 16 workers) define the challenges of serving sexual assault victims. Major challenges reported included a lack of awareness about sexual assault, victim blaming, and a lack of resources. Implications are provided.