Changes in cry acoustics and distress ratings while the infant is crying

Acoustics and distress ratings were examined during four minutes of naturally occurring crying from 20 healthy, 1‐month‐old infants. Two listeners made continuous judgements of infant distress during every 10‐s segment of each cry sample. Dysphonation, number of wails, and pause duration were related to distress ratings across the 4 min of crying. Means and variances of ratings and acoustics, and the predictive value of each acoustic variable to ratings, differed in the first and second halves of the samples. Differences in the pattern of results occurred for individual infants. The results highlight the importance of studying the cry as a dynamic acoustic signal that may provide unique information about an individual infant's level of distress. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Unfamiliar face recognition in children with autistic spectrum disorders

We investigated unfamiliar face recognition in low‐functioning children with autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) using a ‘part‐of‐face’ method. This method has not previously been used for unfamiliar faces with this population. The ‘part‐of‐face’ procedure provides measures of both face recognition accuracy and of processing style. We compared the performance of the children with ASD with three control groups: children with developmental delay (DD), typically developing (TD) children matched for verbal cognitive ability and TD children matched for chronological age (CA). Compared to the DD group, the ASD group showed similar processing in recognition accuracy and processing style. Compared to the TD children, the ASD group did not show the same level of accuracy as controls of the same CA, instead showing similar performance to younger TD children. However, as both children with ASD and DD showed the same performance, no ASD‐specific deficit was found. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Healing relationships and the existential philosophy of Martin Buber

The dominant unspoken philosophical basis of medical care in the United States is a form of Cartesian reductionism that views the body as a machine and medical professionals as technicians whose job is to repair that machine. The purpose of this paper is to advocate for an alternative philosophy of medicine based on the concept of healing relationships between clinicians and patients. This is accomplished first by exploring the ethical and philosophical work of Pellegrino and Thomasma and then by connecting Martin Buber's philosophical work on the nature of relationships to an empirically derived model of the medical healing relationship. The Healing Relationship Model was developed by the authors through qualitative analysis of interviews of physicians and patients. Clinician-patient healing relationships are a special form of what Buber calls I-Thou relationships, characterized by dialog and mutuality, but a mutuality limited by the inherent asymmetry of the clinician-patient relationship. The Healing Relationship Model identifies three processes necessary for such relationships to develop and be sustained: Valuing, Appreciating Power and Abiding. We explore in detail how these processes, as well as other components of the model resonate with Buber's concepts of I-Thou and I-It relationships. The resulting combined conceptual model illuminates the wholeness underlying the dual roles of clinicians as healers and providers of technical biomedicine. On the basis of our analysis, we argue that health care should be focused on healing, with I-Thou relationships at its core.     

Object permanence in dogs: Invisible displacement in a rotation task

Dogs were tested for object permanence using an invisible displacement in which an object was hidden in one of two containers at either end of a beam and the beam was rotated. Consistent with earlier research, when the beam was rotated 180°, the dogs failed to find the object. However, when the beam was rotated only 90°, they were successful. Furthermore, when the dogs were led either 90° or 180° around the apparatus, they were also successful. In a control condition, when the dogs could not see the direction of the 90° rotation, they failed to find the object. The results suggest that the 180° rotation may produce an interfering context that can be reduced by rotating the apparatus only 90° or by changing the dogs’ perspective. Once the conflict is eliminated, dogs show evidence of object permanence that includes invisibly displaced objects.     

Statistical patterns in children’s early writing

Many theories of spelling development claim that before children begin to spell phonologically, their spellings are random strings of letters. We evaluated this idea by testing young children (mean age = 4 years 9 months) in Brazil and the United States and selecting a group of prephonological spellers. The spellings of this prephonological group showed a number of patterns that reflected things such as the frequencies of letters and bigrams in children’s language. The prephonological spellers in the two countries produced spellings that differed in some respects, consistent with their exposure to different written languages. We found no evidence for reportedly universal patterns in early spelling such as the idea that children write one letter for each syllable. Overall, our results reveal that early spellings that are not phonological are by no means random or universal and preserve certain patterns in the writing to which children have been exposed.     

The neural evidence for simulation is weaker than I think you think it is

Simulation theory accounts of mind-reading propose that the observer generates a mental state that matches the state of the target and then uses this state as the basis for an attribution of a similar state to the target. The key proposal is thus that mechanisms that are primarily used online, when a person experiences a kind of mental state, are then co-opted to run Simulations of similar states in another person. Here I consider the neuroscientific evidence for this view. I argue that there is substantial evidence for co-opted mechanisms, leading from one individual’s mental state to a matching state in an observer, but there is no evidence that the output of these co-opted mechanisms serve as the basis for mental state attributions. There is also substantial evidence for attribution mechanisms that serve as the basis for mental state attributions, but there is no evidence that these mechanisms receive their input from co-opted mechanisms.     

Exposure to Violence, Support Needs, Adjustment, and Motivators Among Guatemalan Humanitarian Aid Workers

Indigenous aid workers carry out the majority of humanitarian aid work, yet there is little empirical information available on their support needs in different contexts. Focus groups (N = 26: Study 1) and a survey (N = 137; Study 2) were conducted with Guatemalan aid workers to explore their exposure to violence, posttraumatic stress symptoms, burnout, support needs, and motivators. Participants reported experiencing an average of 13 events of community violence and 17% reported symptoms consistent with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Direct community violence exposure and levels of emotional exhaustion were positively related to PTSD symptoms, while levels of personal accomplishment were inversely related to PTSD symptoms. Expressed support needs, motivators and rewards for aid work in the face of adversity are also reported as potential protective factors for further exploration. Implications for training and support of aid workers in similar contexts are also suggested.     

Consciousness and Modal Empiricism

David Chalmers supports his contention that there is a possible world populated by our zombie twins by arguing for the assumption that conceivability entails possibility. But, I argue, the modal epistemology he sets forth, ‘modal rationalism,’ ignores the problem of incompleteness and relies on an idealized notion of conceivability. As a consequence, this epistemology can’t justify our quotidian judgments of possibility, let alone those judgments that concern the mind/body connection. Working from the analogy that the imagination is to the possible as perception is to the actual, I set forth a competing epistemology, ‘modal empiricism.’ This epistemology survives the incompleteness objection and allows some of our everyday modal judgments to be justified. But this epistemology can’t justify the claim that Zombie World is possible, which leaves Chalmers’s property dualism without the support it needs.

Domestic violence and sexual assault services: Inside the black box

Research examining the efficacy of community-based domestic violence and sexual assault services is yielding promising findings; however, little is known about the structure, components, and content of these services. Although service guidelines exist, a critical gap persists because review, comparison, and synthesis of these recommendations have not been undertaken. This research addresses this knowledge gap through a review of the domestic violence and sexual assault services literature. We gathered relevant literature by conducting systematic searches of databases, and by soliciting the service guidelines and training manuals from all the Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Coalitions in the United States. These efforts yielded 43 articles, books, or manuals for review. The findings show strong consensus on core services for survivors, including crisis services, legal and medical advocacy, support groups, individual counseling, and shelter. This article presents the review results in tables comparing the service goals, intervention strategies, and recommendations for service delivery. We also found areas of contention (e.g., whether to continuously staff domestic violence shelters, and whether combined agencies can effectively offer both domestic violence and sexual assault services). Building upon the review findings, we discuss the implications for domestic violence and sexual assault services and intervention research.