Selective impairment of living things and musical instruments on a verbal 'Semantic Knowledge Questionnaire' in a case of apperceptive visual agnosia

Semantic memory was investigated in a patient (MR) affected by a severe apperceptive visual agnosia, due to an ischemic cerebral lesion, bilaterally affecting the infero-mesial parts of the temporo-occipital cortices. The study was made by means of a Semantic Knowledge Questionnaire (Laiacona, Barbarotto, Trivelli, & Capitani, 1993), which takes separately into account four categories of living beings (animals, fruits, vegetables and body parts) and of artefacts (furniture, tools, vehicles and musical instruments), does not require a visual analysis and allows to distinguish errors concerning super-ordinate categorization, perceptual features and functional/encyclopedic knowledge. When the total number of errors obtained on all the categories of living and non-living beings was considered, a non-significant trend toward a higher number of errors in living stimuli was observed. This difference, however, became significant when body parts and musical instruments were excluded from the analysis. Furthermore, the number of errors obtained on the musical instruments was similar to that obtained on the living categories of animals, fruits and vegetables and significantly higher of that obtained in the other artefact categories. This difference was still significant when familiarity, frequency of use and prototypicality of each stimulus entered into a logistic regression analysis. On the other hand, a separate analysis of errors obtained on questions exploring super-ordinate categorization, perceptual features and functional/encyclopedic attributes showed that the differences between living and non-living stimuli and between musical instruments and other artefact categories were mainly due to errors obtained on questions exploring perceptual features. All these data are at variance with the 'domains of knowledge' hypothesis', which assumes that the breakdown of different categories of living and non-living things respects the distinction between biological entities and artefacts and support the models assuming that 'category-specific semantic disorders' are the by-product of the differential weighting that visual-perceptual and functional (or action-related) attributes have in the construction of different biological and artefacts categories.     

Emotional Relationships in Mothers and Infants: Culture-Common and Community-Specific Characteristics of Dyads from Rural and Metropolitan Settings in Argentina, Italy, and the United States

This study uses country and regional contrasts to examine culture-common and community-specific variation in mother-infant emotional relationships. Altogether, 220 Argentine, Italian, and U.S. American mothers and their daughters and sons, living in rural and metropolitan settings, were observed at home at infant age 5 months. Both variable- and person-centered perspectives of dyadic emotional relationships were analyzed. Supporting the notion that adequate emotional relationships are a critical and culture-common characteristic of human infant development, across all samples most dyads scored in the adaptive range in terms of emotional relationships. Giving evidence of community-specific characteristics, Italian mothers were more sensitive, and Italian infants more responsive, than Argentine and U.S. mothers and infants; in addition, rural mothers were more intrusive than metropolitan mothers, and rural dyads more likely than expected to be classified as mid-range in emotional relationships and less likely to be classified as high in emotional relationships. Adaptive emotional relationships appear to be a culture-common characteristic of mother-infant dyads near the beginning of life, but this relational construct is moderated by community-specific (country and regional) context.     

Motherhood in adolescent mothers: Maternal attachment,mother–infant styles of interaction and emotion regulation at three months

Early motherhood is considered a risk factor for an adequate relationship between mother and infant and for the subsequent development of the infant. The principal aim of the study is to analyze micro-analytically the effect of motherhood in adolescence on the quality of mother–infant interaction and emotion regulation at three months, considering at the same time the effect of maternal attachment on these variables. Participants were 30 adolescent mother–infant dyads compared to 30 adult mother–infant dyads. At infant 3 months, mother–infant interaction was video-recorded and coded with a modified version of the Infant Caregiver Engagement Phases and the Adult Attachment Interview was administered to the mother. Analysis showed that adolescent mothers (vs. adult mothers) spent more time in negative engagement and their infants spent less time in positive engagement and more time in negative engagement. Adolescent mothers are also less involved in play with their infants than adult mothers. Adolescent mother–infant dyads (vs. adult mother–infant dyads) showed a greater duration of negative matches and spent less time in positive matches. Insecure adolescent mother–infant dyads (vs. insecure adult mother–infant dyads) demonstrated less involvement in play with objects and spent less time in positive matches. To sum up adolescent mother–infant dyads adopt styles of emotion regulation and interaction with objects which are less adequate than those of dyads with adult mothers. Insecure maternal attachment in dyads with adolescent mothers (vs. adult mother infant dyads) is more influential as risk factor.     

Prevalence and Significant Determinants of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder in a Large Sample of Patients with Multiple Sclerosis

Chronic and life-threatening neurodegenerative diseases may be associated with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Therefore, the current study was an investigation of the prevalence of PTSD in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients, and identification of significant determinants of PTSD. Two hundred thirty-two MS patients were consecutively recruited and screened for the presence of PTSD with the Impact of Event Scale-Revised, corroborated by the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV. Furthermore, participants were administered the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and the Fatigue Severity Scale. Twelve patients (12/232, i.e. 5.17 %) were diagnosed as suffering from PTSD. Levels of education, anxiety and depression were significant determinants of the presence of PTSD. The role played by the levels of education, anxiety and depression in determining the presence of PTSD has been discussed. Further research on the psychological features of neurodegenerative diseases is urgently needed in order to plan appropriate treatments and improve patients’ quality of life.     

Satisfaction profile (SAT-P) in 732 patients: Focus on subjectivity in hrqol assessment

Abstract

A 32-item questionnaire aimed at assessing patient's satisfaction about every day life is presented. In the Satisfaction Profile (SAT-P) patients are asked to evaluate their own satisfaction level on 32 daily life aspects concerning the last month. 732 participants were enrolled into the study: 490 in-patients suffering from different types of chronic diseases (e.g., chronic heart failure, severe respiratory failure, coronary heart disease) and 242 healthy persons of working age. SAT-P validity was confirmed by comparing its scores with the NHP, EPQ and STAI-X2 scores. The factor analysis extracted 5 factors which corresponded to the hypothesised areas (54% of variance explained). Test-retest reliability and internal consistency were confirmed: Pearson's coefficients were ranging from 0.45 to 0.93 and Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.92. SAT-P responsiveness, evaluated by comparing baseline and 6 months follow up scores from 45 chronic heart failure patients, resulted to be satisfatory, although further studies are needed. These results, together with the “user-friendly” structure, the brief administration and scoring time, the simple graphic representation, suggest to consider the SAT-P a useful complementary tool in HRQoL assessment. The Italian, English and French versions are available.     

Volunteer engagement and intention to quit from a self‐determination theory perspective

Drawing on self‐determination theory, the current study investigates the mediation process of satisfaction with the 3 basic needs (i.e., autonomy, competence, relatedness) between autonomous motivation and volunteers' turnover intention and work engagement. A study of 349 Romanian volunteers reveals an interesting dichotomy. For work engagement, the positive effect of autonomy and competence needs satisfaction appears to have been partially mediated by autonomous motivation. Turnover intention, however, was directly influenced by the degree of autonomy and competence needs satisfaction. Moreover, satisfaction of the relatedness need had no effect on the 2 outcome variables when controlling for satisfaction of autonomy and competence needs. Implications and possible explanations are suggested.     

The psychological pleasure and pain of choosing: when people prefer choosing at the cost of subsequent outcome satisfaction

This empirical investigation tested the hypothesis that the benefits of personal choosing are restricted to choices made from among attractive alternatives. Findings from vignette and laboratory studies show that contrary to people's self-predictions prior to actually choosing, choosers only proved more satisfied than nonchoosers when selecting from among more preferred alternatives. When selecting from among less preferred alternatives, nonchoosers proved more satisfied with the decision outcome than choosers. Subsequent analyses revealed that differences in outcome satisfaction between choosers and nonchoosers emerge even before the decision outcome is experienced and that interventions during the decision-making process can serve to attenuate these differences. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Teaching 'Yes' and 'No' responses to children with multiple disabilities through a program including microswitches linked to a vocal output device

The present study introduced two children (a boy and a girl of 9.2 and 12.3 yr. of age, respectively, with multiple disabilities) to an intervention program for establishing Yes and No responses in relation to preferred and nonpreferred stimuli and assessed the acquisition and generalization of those responses. The program involved the use of microswitches, which monitored the nonverbal Yes and No responses performed by the children and ensured that these responses produced the matching verbal utterances via a vocal output device. Analysis showed children acquired Yes and No responses in relation to the stimuli used for the intervention and, to a comparable degree, to the stimuli used for generalization checks as well. An interview of 30 educational staff of a center for persons with multiple disabilities indicated that they considered the presence of Yes and No verbal utterances preferable to the absence of such utterances, and thought that the utterances could be helpful for the children's response acquisition and would be useful and pleasing for staff and parents. General implications of the findings were discussed.     

What can subjective forgetting tell us about memory for childhood trauma?

In the present study, we examined the prevalence and predictors of subjective forgetting (i.e., self-reported amnesia) of child sexual abuse (CSA). Adults who, as children, were involved as victims in legal prosecutions were questioned about their CSA experiences, which had been documented in the 1980s, and about lost and recovered memory of those experiences. Males and individuals who experienced more severe abuse were more likely to report forgetting. The majority of individuals attributed their forgetting to active attempts to avoid thinking about the abuse. In contrast, when predictors of subjective forgetting were used to predict objective memory of abuse, more severe abuse and more extended legal involvement were associated with fewer memory errors. The differences between subjective and objective memory underscore the risks of using subjective measures to assess lost memory of abuse.     

Traumatic impact predicts long-term memory for documented child sexual abuse

Prospective studies of adults' memories of documented child sexual abuse (CSA) reveal that the majority of individuals remember their victimization. However, the accuracy of these memories has rarely been investigated scientifically. The present study examined predictors of memory accuracy and errors 12 to 21 years after abuse ended for individuals with legal experiences resulting from documented CSA. Severity of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptomatology was positively associated with memory accuracy. However, individuals nominating CSA as their most traumatic life event exhibited relatively accurate memory regardless of indicators of PTSD. Predictors of memory errors were also identified (e.g., less maternal support). These results indicate that, in addition to understanding the role of traditional cognitive factors, understanding an event's traumatic impact is important for predicting the accuracy of long-term memory for reported CSA.