The Genetic Counselor in the Pediatric Arrhythmia Clinic: Review and Assessment of Services

There are minimal data on the impact of genetic counselors in subspecialty clinics, including the pediatric arrhythmia clinic. This study aimed to describe the clinical encounters of a genetic counselor integrated into a pediatric arrhythmia clinic. In the 20 months between July 2015 and February 2017, a total of 1914 scheduled patients were screened for indications relevant for assessment by a genetic counselor. Of these, the genetic counselor completed 276 patient encounters, seeing 14.4% of all patients in clinic. The most expected and common indications for genetic counselor involvement were related to suspicion for primary heritable arrhythmia conditions, though patients seen in this clinic display a wide range of cardiac problems and many additional indications for genetic evaluation were identified. Roughly 75% (211/276) of encounters were for personal history of confirmed/suspected heritable disease, including cardiac channelopathies, cardiomyopathies, ventricular arrhythmias, and congenital heart defects, and 25% (65/276) were for family history of disease, including long QT syndrome and sudden unexplained death. Overall, this study shows that about 1 in 7 patients seen in a pediatric arrhythmia clinic have indications that likely benefit from genetic counselor involvement and care. Similar service delivery models embedding genetic counselors in pediatric arrhythmia clinics should be encouraged, and this model could be emulated to increase patient access to genetic counseling services.     

Genetic Counsellors and Private Practice: Professional Turbulence and Common Values

Genetic counsellors face tensions between past and future identities: between established values and goals, and a broadening scope of settings and activities. This study examines the advent of genetic counsellors in private practice in Australia and New Zealand from the perspectives of the small numbers working in this sector and those who have only worked in public practice. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 16 genetic counsellors who had experience in private practice, and 14 genetic counsellors without private sector experience. Results demonstrated that circumstantial and personal factors can mitigate the challenges experienced and the amount of support desired by those who had established a private practice, and those who were employed by private companies. Notably, most participants with private sector experience perceived themselves to be viewed negatively by other genetic counsellors. Most participants without private sector experience expressed concern that the challenges they believed genetic counsellors face in private practice may impact service quality, but wished to address such concerns by providing appropriate support. Together, our results reinforce that participants in private and public sectors are strong advocates for peer support, multidisciplinary team work, and professional development. These core values, and seeking understanding of different circumstances and support needs, will enable genetic counsellors in different sectors to move forward together. Our results suggest supports that may be acted upon by members of the profession, professional groups, and training programs, in Australia, New Zealand, and overseas.     

Digital disruption? Maternal mobile device use is related to infant social‐emotional functioning

Mobile device use has become increasingly prevalent, yet its impact on infant development remains largely unknown. When parents use mobile devices in front of infants, the parent is physically present but most likely distracted and unresponsive. Research using the classic Still Face Paradigm (SFP) suggests that parental withdrawal and unresponsiveness may have negative consequences for children's social‐emotional development. In the present study, 50 infants aged 7.20 to 23.60 months (M = 15.40, SD = 4.74) and their mothers completed a modified SFP. The SFP consisted of three phases: free play (FP; parent and infant play and interact), still face (SF; parent withdraws attention and becomes unresponsive), and reunion (RU; parent resumes normal interaction). The modified SFP incorporated mobile device use in the SF phase. Parents reported on their typical mobile device use and infant temperament. Consistent with the standard SFP, infants showed more negative affect and less positive affect during SF versus FP. Infants also showed more toy engagement and more engagement with mother during FP versus SF and RU. Infants showed the most social bids during SF and more room exploration in SF than RU. More frequent reported mobile device use was associated with less room exploration and positive affect during SF, and less recovery (i.e., engagement with mother, room exploration positive affect) during RU, even when controlling for individual differences in temperament. Findings suggest that the SFP represents a promising theoretical framework for understanding the impact of parent's mobile device use on infant social‐emotional functioning and parent–infant interactions.     

The effect of propensity to trust and perceptions of trustworthiness on trust behaviors in dyads

Research on trust has burgeoned in the last few decades. Despite the growing interest in trust, little is known about trusting behaviors in non-dichotomous trust games. The current study explored propensity to trust, trustworthiness, and trust behaviors in a new computer-mediated trust relevant task. We used multivariate multilevel survival analysis (MMSA) to analyze behaviors across time. Results indicated propensity to trust did not influence trust behaviors. However, trustworthiness perceptions influenced initial trust behaviors and trust behaviors influenced subsequent trustworthiness perceptions. Indeed, behaviors fully mediated the relationship of trustworthiness perceptions over time. The study demonstrated the utility of MMSA and the new trust game, Checkmate, as viable research methods and stimuli for assessing the loci of trust.     

Visuospatial counter‐interrogation strategies by liars familiar with the alibi setting

This study examines counter‐interrogation strategies employed by liars giving false alibis. Participants (N = 144) visited a restaurant to buy a sandwich (truth‐tellers) or to use it as a false alibi (liars). Half of the liars were informed they might be asked for a drawing of the alibi setting if interviewed (informed liars). Participants spent either 10 min (high familiarity condition) or 30 s (low familiarity condition) in the restaurant. All participants were asked to provide two visuospatial statements, which were assessed for salient details, nonsalient details, between‐statement consistency, and statement‐alibi setting consistency. Informed liars provided significantly more salient and nonsalient details than uninformed liars and truth‐tellers, particularly in the high familiarity condition. No differences emerged for statement consistency types. The results suggest that liars are more concerned than truth‐tellers about making a positive impression on the interviewer, and they fail to accurately reflect on truth‐tellers' visuospatial statements.     

Using unexpected questions to elicit information and cues to deceit in interpreter‐based interviews

We examined whether speech‐related differences between truth tellers and liars are more profound when answering unexpected questions than when answering expected questions. We also examined whether the presence of an interpreter affected these results. In the experiment, 204 participants from the United States (Hispanic participants only), Russia, and the Republic of Korea were interviewed in their native language by a native‐speaking interviewer or by a British interviewer through an interpreter. Truth tellers discussed a trip that they had made during the last 12 months; liars fabricated a story about such a trip. The key dependent variables were the amount of information provided and the proportion of all statements that were complications. The proportion of complications distinguished truth tellers from liars better when answering unexpected than expected questions, but only in interpreter‐absent interviews. The number of details provided did not differ between truth tellers and liars or between interpreter‐absent and interpreter‐present interviews.     

The Two Worlds of Aggression for Men and Women

The purpose of this research was to assess differences in the nature of physical aggression experienced by men and women. Random digit dialing with Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing was used to obtain a sample of 1,753 Ontario adults aged 18–60 (response rate of 67%). This method of sampling obtains respondents who reflect the ethnic and social diversity of Ontario. Respondents were asked to describe the most recent incident of physical aggression in which they had been personally involved during the past year. Most incidents reported by females were with a male opponent, usually a spouse, partner, or friend, did not involve alcohol consumption, resulted in high negative emotional impact, and pertained to jealousy. Incidents reported by males tended to be with other males, friends or strangers, in bars or public places, and involved four or more participants who had been drinking. Incidents involving only men had lower emotional impact on respondents and included more punching, threatening, and insulting behavior compared to incidents involving other gender combinations. These results are discussed in terms of the implications for violence generally and the importance of addressing male-to-male aggression and factors that foster this form of aggression.     

Feeling good: autonomic nervous system responding in five positive emotions

Although dozens of studies have examined the autonomic nervous system (ANS) aspects of negative emotions, less is known about ANS responding in positive emotion. An evolutionary framework was used to define five positive emotions in terms of fitness-enhancing function, and to guide hypotheses regarding autonomic responding. In a repeated measures design, participants viewed sets of visual images eliciting these positive emotions (anticipatory enthusiasm, attachment love, nurturant love, amusement, and awe) plus an emotionally neutral state. Peripheral measures of sympathetic and vagal parasympathetic activation were assessed. Results indicated that the emotion conditions were characterized by qualitatively distinct profiles of autonomic activation, suggesting the existence of multiple, physiologically distinct positive emotions.     

T1 difficulty affects the AB: manipulating T1 word frequency and T1 orthographic neighbor frequency

Colored target words were presented with distractor nonwords in a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) task. In Experiment 1, the attentional blink (AB) effect on T2 accuracy was larger when T1 was a difficult (low-frequency) word than when it was a high-frequency word. In Experiment 2 the effect of T1 frequency on the AB was replicated in a between-participants design, and the frequency of T1’s one-letter different neighbors (e.g., case, bare, for care) interacted with T1 frequency in its effects on T2 accuracy. Experiment 3 confirmed the effect of T1 frequency over 6 T1-T2 lags. The effects of T1 characteristics were sensitively assessed in the AB and were more consistent with resource depletion theories than control-process accounts.     

Orthography influences the perception and production of speech

One intriguing question in language research concerns the extent to which orthographic information impacts on spoken word processing. Previous research has faced a number of methodological difficulties and has not reached a definitive conclusion. Our research addresses these difficulties by capitalizing on recent developments in the area of word learning. Participants were trained to criterion on a set of associations between novel pictures and novel spoken words. Spelling-sound consistent or spelling-sound inconsistent spellings were introduced on the 2nd day, and the influence of these spellings on speech processing was assessed on the 3rd day. Results showed significant orthographic effects on speech perception and speech production in a situation in which spelling-sound consistency was manipulated with perfect experimental control. Results are discussed in terms of a highly interactive language system in which there is a rapid and automatic flow of activation in both directions between orthographic and phonological representations.