Influence of Perspective of Action Observation Training on Residual Limb Control in Naïve Prosthesis Usage

Prior work in amputees and partial limb immobilization have shown improved neural and behavioral outcomes in using their residual limb with prosthesis when undergoing observation-based training with a prosthesis-using actor compared to an intact limb. It was posited that these improvements are due to an alignment of user with the actor. It may be affected by visual angles that allow emphasis of critical joint actions which may promote behavioral changes. The purpose of this study was to examine how viewing perspective of observation-based training effects prosthesis adaptation in naïve device users. Twenty nonamputated prosthesis users learned how to use an upper extremity prosthetic device while viewing a training video from either a sagittal or coronal perspective. These views were chosen as they place visual emphasis on different aspects of task performance to the device. The authors found that perspective of actions has a significant role in adaptation of the residual limb while using upper limb prostheses. Perspectives that demonstrate elbow adaptations to prosthesis usage may enhance the functional motor outcomes of action observation therapy. This work has potential implications on how prosthetic device operation is conveyed to persons adapting to prostheses through action observation based therapy.     

Can voicing conflict within experiential learning groups facilitate connection? building and developing effective multi-disciplinary team-working skills

In the UK, Clinical Psychologists (CPs) work in a variety of settings within the National Health Service (NHS), often within Multi-Disciplinary Teams (MDTs). Problem-Based Learning (PBL) within CP training at the University of Hertfordshire (UH) offers unique opportunities to combine scientist-practitioner and reflective-practitioner models to learn about group dynamics from the personal experience of working within an experiential learning group.

Further, given Trainees work three days per week on placement within MDTs in the NHS, the learning gained within a ‘safer’ PBL context can be utilised within these clinical settings. For two years, Trainees at UH have to work in small PBL groups with five or six members learning to work together to achieve a goal (four assessed presentations) negotiating their own personal and professional journey, as well as a group journey. Consequently, PBL offers trainees opportunities to learn (1) how individuals work within a group; (2) how personal experiences influence this process; (3) how others influence them and are influenced by them; and (4) how a group of diverse individuals conceptualise, understand and convey case vignettes to an audience. Within these groups, many Trainees learn to speak out, reflect, listen attentively, empathise, validate and accept diverse experiences. Further, when differences dominate they often learn to negotiate these, finding a way to maintain effective team working in order to complete the presentation. Focusing on the conflict that can occur within (any) group, this paper explores themes from the reflective narratives of six trainees: parallels and differences between MDTs and PBL groups, striving for and achieving authenticity; and conflict as a ‘swear’ word. We conclude that exploring the role PBL can play in training individuals to work effectively in teams may be of benefit within the training of other professional groups.     

Treating Adults With Complex Trauma: An Evidence‐Based Case Study

This article presents an overview of complex trauma and a case study describing the evidence‐informed treatment of a 25‐year‐old woman with chronic complex trauma symptoms resulting from childhood sexual, physical, and psychological abuse from a caregiver. Treatment followed a relationship‐based, cognitive behavior therapy model across 3 treatment phases. Significant reductions in trauma and general distress symptoms occurred from pre‐ to posttreatment, although firm conclusions about cause cannot be drawn from case studies. Verbatim vignettes illustrate specific interactions.     

Applying organizational justice theory to admission into higher education: Admission from a student perspective

Applicant perceptions of methods used in admission procedures to higher education were investigated using organizational justice theory. Applicants to a psychology study program completed a questionnaire about several admission methods. General favorability, ratings on justice dimensions, relationships between general favorability and these dimensions, and differences in perceptions based on gender and on the aim of the admission procedure (selection or matching) were studied. In addition, the relationship between favorability and test performance, and the relationship between favorability and behavioral outcomes were investigated. Applicants rated interviews and trial‐studying tests most favorably. Contrary to expectations based on the existing literature, high school grades were perceived least favorably and there was no relationship between applicant perceptions and enrollment decisions. In line with previous research in the employment literature, general favorability was most strongly related to face validity, study‐relatedness, applicant differentiation, the chance to show skills, perceived scientific evidence, and perceived wide‐spread use. We found no differences in applicant perceptions based on gender and small differences based on the aim of admission procedures. These results extend the applicant perceptions literature to educational admission and the results are useful for administrators when choosing methods to admit students.     

Volume completion in 4.5-month-old infants

In this study, we examined 4.5-month-old infants' visual completion of self-occluding three-dimensional objects. A previous study on this topic reported that 6-month-old, but not 4-month-old infants extrapolate a convex, symmetric prism from a limited view of its surfaces (Soska & Johnson, 2008). As of yet, studies on the development of amodal completion of three-dimensional, self-occluding objects are scarce. Given 4-month-old infants' abilities to derive three-dimensional shape from a variety of visual cues, three-dimensional amodal completion may well depend on the perceptual strength of three-dimensionality in the stimulus displays. The first experiments (1A and 1B) tested this hypothesis by means of a habituation paradigm and showed that 4.5-month-old infants are indeed able to amodally complete the back of a self-occluding object when sufficient three-dimensional cues are available. Further support for volume completion in 4.5-month-old infants was found in a second experiment, again using a habituation paradigm, that measured perceived connectedness between two visually separated, self-occluding, three-dimensional objects.     

Variability in photos of the same face

Psychological studies of face recognition have typically ignored within-person variation in appearance, instead emphasising differences between individuals. Studies typically assume that a photograph adequately captures a person’s appearance, and for that reason most studies use just one, or a small number of photos per person. Here we show that photographs are not consistent indicators of facial appearance because they are blind to within-person variability. Crucially, this within-person variability is often very large compared to the differences between people. To investigate variability in photos of the same face, we collected images from the internet to sample a realistic range for each individual. In Experiments 1 and 2, unfamiliar viewers perceived images of the same person as being different individuals, while familiar viewers perfectly identified the same photos. In Experiment 3, multiple photographs of any individual formed a continuum of good to bad likeness, which was highly sensitive to familiarity. Finally, in Experiment 4, we found that within-person variability exceeded between-person variability in attractiveness. These observations are critical to our understanding of face processing, because they suggest that a key component of face processing has been ignored. As well as its theoretical significance, this scale of variability has important practical implications. For example, our findings suggest that face photographs are unsuitable as proof of identity.     

The education of attention as explanation of variability of practice effects: learning the final approach phase in a flight simulator

The present study reports two experiments in which a total of 20 participants without prior flight experience practiced the final approach phase in a fixed-base simulator. All participants received self-controlled concurrent feedback during 180 practice trials. Experiment 1 shows that participants learn more quickly under variable practice conditions than under constant practice conditions. This finding is attributed to the education of attention to the more useful informational variables: Variability of practice reduces the usefulness of initially used informational variables, which leads to a quicker change in variable use, and hence to a larger improvement in performance. In the practice phase of Experiment 2 variability was selectively applied to some experimental factors but not to others. Participants tended to converge toward the variables that were useful in the specific conditions that they encountered during practice. This indicates that an explanation for variability of practice effects in terms of the education of attention is a useful alternative to traditional explanations based on the notion of the generalized motor program and to explanations based on the notions of noise and local minima.     

The motivational properties of hope in goal striving

We argue that hope is not an expectancy based on beliefs about pathways to desired goals and personal capacities to act on them, but an experience of the mere possibility of a desired outcome. We propose that in the latter sense, hope has unique motivational consequences for goal striving. Specifically, we predicted that hope buffers against the detrimental impact of negative feedback on goal-progress. The results of the two studies confirmed this prediction. In Study 1, we measured participants’ hopes of attaining a weight-loss goal. In Study 2, we induced hope at solving an unsolvable mathematical puzzle. In both studies, receiving negative feedback on goal-progress resulted in lower levels of success (Study 1) and persistence (Study 2) in goal-striving, but not for participants who experienced hope. We discuss the role of hope as an affective mechanism that functions to regulate energy expenditure in goal-striving.     

People cannot locate the projection of an object on the surface of a mirror

People cannot veridically perceive reflections of objects as projections on the surface of mirrors. People tried to locate an object’s projection on a flat mirror. The observer stood at the opposite end of a long mirror to the experimenter. They were told to remember the location of the projection of the experimenter’s face. The experimenter then moved and the observer stuck a card onto the mirror at this remembered location. The actual location was midway along the mirror between the experimenter and the observer. However, cards were placed much too close to the experimenter. Repeated testing with feedback reduced, but did not eliminate, errors. Our perception of mirrors is dominated by what appears to be visible through the mirror, not what is projected onto its surface. In contrast, if the experimenter stuck a card onto the mirror then removed it, observers remembered this physically-specified location accurately.     

Selective Abortion for Down Syndrome: The Relation Between the Quality of Intergroup Contact,Parenting Expectations,and Willingness to Terminate

This study examines the links between familiarity with individuals with Down syndrome (DS), perceptions of parenting a child with DS, and willingness to consider selective termination subsequent to a fetal diagnosis of DS. Within a sample of childless young adults (N = 280), those reporting personal familiarity indicated both more positive attitudes toward parenting a child with DS and more certainty that they would not abort following a prenatal diagnosis. In further support of contact theory, the quality of the past intergroup interactions moderated these findings. The potential role of negative stereotypes in selective‐abortion decision making and implications for prenatal counseling protocols are discussed.