A software system for the collection of retrospective protocols prompted by eye fixations

A software system is capable of recording eye position, reducing these data to a sequence of eye fixations, and immediately replaying this fixation sequence superimposed over the original stimulus. The replay can be controlled by the subject to produce various speeds, to pause, or to back up to earlier fixations. The purpose of the replay software is to enable the eye fixations to prompt a retrospective verbal protocol. Such a prompted protocol should reduce the forgetting and fabrication problems that are often associated with retrospective protocols. In a preliminary experimental test, the prompted protocol method yielded longer protocols and contained more words than those generated by either the concurrent or retrospective protocol methods.     

Grounding abstract object characteristics in embodied interactions

Recent studies in cognitive linguistics have demonstrated that objects are conceptualised in terms of the actions they afford, i.e., in terms of their spatial-functional meaning. Since our interactions are constrained by the structure of our body, these studies view conceptualisation as essentially embodied. In this paper we argue that an object's abstract/figurative meaning is also embodied in that it is grounded in patterns of recurrent interactions with our environment, referred to as image schemas. On the basis of the spatial, relational structure of three such image schemas, two everyday products, a jug and an alarm clock, were systematically varied on form dimensions. Experiment 1 showed that participants with a background in design relate abstract characteristics to the form changes in the way predicted. To rule out the possibility that the relations uncovered are due to learned associations, a replication of the experiment was conducted with nai ve participants (experiment 2), leading to highly similar results. In experiment 3, we tested the cross-cultural consistency of our findings by performing a second replication with Brazilian participants. The results of this experiment were only partly in line with our predictions, suggesting that cultural differences in interacting with the environment to some degree affect our understanding of the abstract meaning of objects.     

Anxiety modulates the degree of attentive resources required to process emotional faces

The present study contributes to the ongoing debate over the extent to which attentive resources are required for emotion perception. Although fearful facial expressions are strong competitors for attention, we predict that the magnitude of this effect may be modulated by anxiety. To test this hypothesis, healthy volunteers who varied in their self-reported levels of trait and state anxiety underwent an attentional blink task. Both fearful and happy facial expressions were subject to a strong attentional blink effect for low-anxious individuals. For those reporting high anxiety, a blink occurred for both fearful and happy facial expressions, but the magnitude of the attentional blink was significantly reduced for the fearful expressions. This supports the proposals that emotion perception is not fully automatic and that anxiety is related to a reduced ability to inhibit the processing of threat-related stimuli. Thus, individual differences in self-reported anxiety are an important determinant of the attentional control of emotional processing.     

Relative deprivation,national GDP and right-wing populism: A multilevel,multinational study

We conducted a secondary analysis of the 2018 (ninth round) European Social Survey dataset (N = 19,512, nested in 24 countries) to analyse the association between relative deprivation and right-wing populist voting, moderated by participants' income and their country's GDP. A multilevel moderated model showed that relative deprivation, income and GDP had no association with right-wing populist votes by themselves. However, income and GDP moderated the relation between relative deprivation and right-wing populist votes, that was significant for participants with high incomes and for those living in wealthy countries. The strengths, limitations and future developments of the study are discussed.     

Cognitive counseling for health care compliance

This paper proposes a therapy/counseling model based on RET and other cognitive approaches to enable the therapist in a health care setting to enhance patient compliance with medical and life-style treatment recommendations. Problems and reasons for low rates of compliance with treatment regimens in health settings are discussed. A four phase treatment/therapy approach including Assessment, Insight, Working Through and Homework is presented.     

Coping profiles associated with psychiatric, physical health, work, and family problems

Compares the coping profiles of 11 samples (total N = 1,298) of individuals experiencing psychiatric, physical health, work, or family problems. Comparisons are made in individuals with and without anxiety and depression to control for the effects of distress. Coping was similar for samples in similar problem categories but different for samples in different categories. Psychiatric patients made more use of avoidance and less use of social supports than individuals in the other categories. Samples with physical health problems were among the most frequent users of social supports. Individuals with a family problem were among the most frequent users of problem-focused coping and the least frequent users of self-blame. Groups with work stress were the most frequent users of self-blame. These results suggest that coping profiles may be useful in describing and differentiating groups of stressed individuals.     

Differences in cortical activity related to motor planning between experienced guitarists and non-musicians during guitar playing

The influence of motor skill learning on movement-related brain activity was investigated using electroencephalography. Previous research has indicated that experienced performers display movement-related cortical potentials (MRCPs) of smaller amplitude and later onset compared to novices. Unfortunately, previous studies have lacked ecological validity with experimenters recording the MRCP prior to simple motor tasks and applying the results to more complex motor skills. This study replicated previous research using an ecologically valid motor skill; recording the MRCP from a group of experienced guitarists and a control group of non-musicians while they played a simple scale on the guitar. Results indicated no difference between groups in early motor planning. In contrast, the later, negative slope and motor potential components were of smaller amplitude and the negative slope began later in the experienced guitarists. The data may indicate that, for experienced guitarists, a reduced level of effort is required during the motor preparation phase of the task. These findings have implications for musical instrument learning as well as motor skill acquisition in general.     

Efficacy of a Train-the-Trainer Curriculum for Increasing Occupational Therapists’ Mental Health Knowledge

The marked prevalence and under detection of affective disorders including depression in older adults is associated with poor functional outcomes and patient mortality. Although occupational therapists are trained in mental health assessment and intervention, these skills are underutilized in practice. A two-group wait-list control design was used to test a DVD-based educational curriculum to increase knowledge about depression in a sample of occupational therapists. The educational intervention was delivered using a train-the-trainer model. The train-the-trainer model was found to be effective and study results showed that knowledge increased significantly after the DVD training.     

Functions and Mechanisms in Structural-Modelling Explanations

One way social scientists explain phenomena is by building structural models. These models are explanatory insofar as they manage to perform a recursive decomposition on an initial multivariate probability distribution, which can be interpreted as a mechanism. Explanations in social sciences share important aspects that have been highlighted in the mechanisms literature. Notably, spelling out the functioning the mechanism gives it explanatory power. Thus social scientists should choose the variables to include in the model on the basis of their function in the mechanism. This paper examines the notion of ‘function’ within structural modelling. We argue that ‘functions’ ought to be understood as the theoretical underpinnings of the causes, namely as the role that causes play in the functioning of the mechanism.