A convenient and accurate parallel Input/Output USB device for E-Prime

Psychological and neurophysiological experiments require the accurate control of timing and synchrony for Input/Output signals. For instance, a typical Event-Related Potential (ERP) study requires an extremely accurate synchronization of stimulus delivery with recordings. This is typically done via computer software such as E-Prime, and fast communications are typically assured by the Parallel Port (PP). However, the PP is an old and disappearing technology that, for example, is no longer available on portable computers. Here we propose a convenient USB device enabling parallel I/O capabilities. We tested this device against the PP on both a desktop and a laptop machine in different stress tests. Our data demonstrate the accuracy of our system, which suggests that it may be a good substitute for the PP with E-Prime.     

Prevalence and differentiating aspects related to gender with regard to the bullying phenomenon in poor countries

There is a large body of scientific knowledge about school violence and bullying in Europe and some other regions of the so-called developed world. However, improvement is scarce in poor and developing regions, as in the case of Latin America and, in particular, Nicaragua. The goal of this work was to determine the prevalence of the bullying phenomenon in Nicaraguan primary schools, to analyze the eventual relationships between the different forms of violence used by the students and to explore, in relation to these aspects, the similarities and differences between boys and girls. For this purpose, we surveyed 3042 pupils of primary school (50.3% girls) using the "Cuestionario sobre Convivencia, Violencia y Experiencias de Riesgo" (COVER, in English, Questionnaire about Living Together, Violence and Risk Experiences). We found that the level of involvement in bullying is significantly higher than in developed countries, that boys are more involved than girls in verbal, physical and psychological bullying, and that there are no differences with regard to social exclusion. The results are discussed, comparing them with studies conducted in different countries but with similar methodologies.     

A model of the effects of child sexual abuse on post-traumatic stress: the mediating role of attributions of blame and avoidance coping

Employing structural equation modeling, the direct and indirect effects of the severity of Child Sexual Abuse (CSA), attributions of blame for the abuse, and coping strategies on Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptomatology are analyzed. The effects of other types of child maltreatment on PTSD were also controlled. The sample comprised 163 female college students who were victims of CSA. The results suggested that victims of more severe abuse showed higher levels of avoidant coping, self blame, and family blame. Having suffered other kinds of abuse or neglect was also related to higher family blame attributions. Lastly, both attributions of blame scales were indirectly related to PTSD symptomatology through avoidant coping. The strong relationships between attributions of blame, coping strategies, and PTSD suggest that it might be useful to intervene early with children who have suffered CSA in an effort to modify the attributions they make about the abuse and the way they cope with it.     

Parenting practices and adolescent social anxiety: A direct or indirect relationship?

Background/ObjectivesAccording to existing evidence, parental educational practices and social anxiety are to some degree connected. However, the possibility that this relationship is an indirect one and is mediated by individual factors such as self-esteem or emotional regulation has not yet been explored. The aim of this study was therefore to explore the relationship between maternal and paternal educational practices and social anxiety, and test both the direct and the indirect pathways. Method: The representative sample consisted of 2,060 Andalusian students (47.7% girls, M_age = 14.34) who filled in various self-reports. Results: The structural equation models confirmed that a direct relationship, with a low effect size, exists between parental educational practices and social anxiety and that there is also an indirect relationship, mediated by negative self-esteem and emotional suppression (the emotional regulation strategy), which accounted here for 49.1% of the variance in social anxiety. Conclusions: Parental education practices seem to act as a family asset which either promotes or hinders the development of basic attitudes and competencies such as self-esteem or emotional regulation and, by doing this, either encourages or prevents the emergence of problems such as social anxiety.     

On the syndrome of the "spare limb": one case

We describe a case of a brain-damaged patient who had a peculiar bodily illusion which could not be labelled an hallucination but seemed somatognosically and phenomenologically similar to the phantom limb without amputation. The patient, who showed left hemiplegia, felt a third upper limb (without seeing it) which he himself defined as "spare." The spare limb was not deformed; it could be moved and controlled by the patient, and there was no sensation of pain. The patient did not show psychopathological or cognitive disorders. A possible interpretation of the phenomenon is as a "phantom movement" of the paralysed limb: the mental representation of the movement of the limb was dissociated from the bodily representation of his own limb and so was still present in his consciousness despite the paralysis.     

Developing mechanisms of temperamental effortful control

Studies of temperament from early childhood to adulthood have demonstrated inverse relationships between negative affectivity and effortful control. Effortful control is also positively related to the development of conscience and appears as a protective factor in the development of behavior disorders. In this study, the development of attentional mechanisms underlying effortful control was investigated in 2- to 3-year-old children, as indexed by their performance in a) making anticipatory eye movements to ambiguous locations and b) resolving conflict between location and identity in a spatial conflict task. The ability to make anticipatory eye movements to ambiguous locations within a sequence was clearly present at 24 months. By 30 months, children could also successfully perform a spatial conflict task that introduced conflict between identity and location, and at that age, children's success on ambiguous anticipatory eye movements was related to lower interference from conflict in the spatial conflict task. Children's performance on the eye-movement task was correlated with performance and reaction time on spatial tasks, and both were related to aspects of effortful control and negative affect as measured in children's parent-reported temperament.     

Individually tailored internet-based cognitive behaviour therapy for older adults with anxiety and depression: a randomised controlled trial

Mixed anxiety and depression is common among older adults. The aim of the study was to compare the effects of an eight-week-long tailored internet-supported cognitive behaviour therapy (ICBT) programme and to compare against the provision of weekly general support. A second aim was to investigate if pre-treatment cognitive flexibility and self-reported cognitive problems would predict outcome. We included 66 older adults (aged over 60 years) with mixed anxiety/depression following media recruitment and randomised them into treatment and control groups. We also included a one-year follow-up. As a measure of executive function, we used the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (perseverative errors) and the Cognitive Failures Questionnaire during the pre-treatment phase. Results showed a moderate between-group effect on the main outcome measure, the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) (d= .50), favouring the treatment group. Nearly half (45.5%) of that group were classified as responders. One person (3%) in the treatment group deteriorated. There were significant correlations between perseverative errors and outcome (on the BAI r = ?.45), but not among self-reported cognitive function. We conclude that guided, tailored ICBT may be effective for some older adults and that the role of cognitive function needs to be investigated further.     

Ethical Education in Software Engineering: Responsibility in the Production of Complex Systems

Among the various contemporary schools of moral thinking, consequence-based ethics, as opposed to rule-based, seems to have a good acceptance among professionals such as software engineers. But naïve consequentialism is intellectually too weak to serve as a practical guide in the profession. Besides, the complexity of software systems makes it very hard to know in advance the consequences that will derive from professional activities in the production of software. Therefore, following the spirit of well-known codes of ethics such as the ACM/IEEE’s, we advocate for a more solid position in the ethical education of software engineers, which we call ‘moderate deontologism’, that takes into account both rules and consequences to assess the goodness of actions, and at the same time pays an adequate consideration to the absolute values of human dignity. In order to educate responsible professionals, however, this position should be complemented with a pedagogical approach to virtue ethics.     

Disentangling the Mechanisms of Symbolic Number Processing in Adults’ Mathematics and Arithmetic Achievement

A growing body of research has shown that symbolic number processing relates to individual differences in mathematics. However, it remains unclear which mechanisms of symbolic number processing are crucial—accessing underlying magnitude representation of symbols (i.e., symbol‐magnitude associations), processing relative order of symbols (i.e., symbol‐symbol associations), or processing of symbols per se. To address this question, in this study adult participants performed a dots‐number word matching task—thought to be a measure of symbol‐magnitude associations (numerical magnitude processing)—a numeral‐ordering task that focuses on symbol‐symbol associations (numerical order processing), and a digit‐number word matching task targeting symbolic processing per se. Results showed that both numerical magnitude and order processing were uniquely related to arithmetic achievement, beyond the effects of domain‐general factors (intellectual ability, working memory, inhibitory control, and non‐numerical ordering). Importantly, results were different when a general measure of mathematics achievement was considered. Those mechanisms of symbolic number processing did not contribute to math achievement. Furthermore, a path analysis revealed that numerical magnitude and order processing might draw on a common mechanism. Each process explained a portion of the relation of the other with arithmetic (but not with a general measure of math achievement). These findings are consistent with the notion that adults’ arithmetic skills build upon symbol‐magnitude associations, and they highlight the effects that different math measures have in the study of numerical cognition.     

Efficacy and feeling of a vibrotactile Frontal Collision Warning implemented in a haptic pedal

A haptic pedal has been designed to emulate the behaviour of a common vehicle pedal and render superimposed vibrations with different characteristics. It was installed in a driving simulator, as an accelerator pedal with the secondary function of a vibrotactile Frontal Collision Warning (FCW). The efficacy and feeling of this solution was tested with 30 subjects using vibrotactile signals with 0.50, 1.05, and 1.60 Nm, at 2.5, 5, and 10 Hz, against a baseline visual FCW. Participants had to match the speed of a leading vehicle when the FCW was triggered. Their braking response was evaluated in terms of brake reaction time, matching speed time, control of velocity and headway reduction. Driver’s feelings were assessed with Kansei methodologies. Haptic stimuli were found to be more effective than visual signals, and the characteristics of the vibration also influenced the results. The best performance was achieved at the maximum amplitude, and in the range between 5 and 10 Hz. The perceived functionality and discomfort followed a trend coherent with the objective measurements. The conclusions of this study may be applied to develop effective and safe warning systems in vehicles, limiting the annoyance that they might cause to drivers.