COVID-19 Adaptations for Health Service Psychology Internship Training in a Medical School

Health service psychology internship directors confronted a myriad of training challenges in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, internship training directors were tasked with ensuring that interns received appropriate training in each of the nine profession-wide competency (PWCs) areas while also ensuring the physical and emotional well-being of staff and trainees. The purpose of this paper is to describe one internship’s approach to adapting the nine PWCs during COVID-19 in the context of an academic medical setting. Successes and challenges associated with training adaptations in the context of each of the nine PWCs will be shared along with considerations for improving academic medical training programs’ ability to support interns’ educational goals and training requirements throughout and following the COVID-19 pandemic.

     

The effects of video modeling with voiceover instruction on accurate implementation of discrete-trial instruction

The present study replicates and extends previous research on the use of video modeling (VM) with voiceover instruction to train staff to implement discrete-trial instruction (DTI). After staff trainees reached the mastery criterion when teaching an adult confederate with VM, they taught a child with a developmental disability using DTI. The results showed that the staff trainees' accurate implementation of DTI remained high, and both child participants acquired new skills. These findings provide additional support that VM may be an effective method to train staff members to conduct DTI.     

A comparison of intraverbal training procedures for children with autism

We compared the effectiveness of three training procedures, echoic and tact prompting plus error correction and a cues-pause-point (CPP) procedure, for increasing intraverbals in 2 children with autism. We also measured echoic behavior that may have interfered with appropriate question answering. Results indicated that echoic prompting with error correction was most effective and the CPP procedure was least effective for increasing intraverbals and decreasing echoic behavior.     

Testing the myth of the encoding–retrieval match

The view that successful memory performance depends importantly on the extent to which there is a match between the encoding and retrieval conditions is commonplace in memory research. However, Nairne (Memory, 10, 389–395, 2002) proposed that this idea about trace–cue compatibility being the driving force behind memory retention is a myth, because one cannot make unequivocal predictions about performance by appealing to the encoding–retrieval match. What matters instead is the relative diagnostic value of the match, and not the absolute match. Three experiments were carried out in which participants memorised word pairs and tried to recall target words when given retrieval cues. The diagnostic value of the cue was varied by manipulating the extent to which the cues subsumed other memorised words and the level of the encoding–retrieval match. The results supported Nairne’s (Memory, 10, 389–395, 2002) assertion that the diagnostic value of retrieval cues is a better predictor of memory performance than the absolute encoding–retrieval match.     

Secondary transfer effects of interracial contact: the moderating role of social status

The contact hypothesis asserts that intergroup attitudes can be improved when groups have opportunities to interact with each other. Recent research extending the contact hypothesis suggests that contact with a primary outgroup can decrease bias toward outgroups not directly involved in the interaction, which is known as the secondary transfer effect (STE). The present study contributes to growing research on STEs by investigating effects among Asian, Black, Hispanic, and White undergraduate students (N = 3,098) attending 28 selective colleges and universities. Using hierarchical linear modeling, our results reveal numerous positive STEs among Asian, Black, and Hispanic college students. No significant STEs were observed among White students. Mediated moderation analyses support an attitude generalization mechanism, because STEs were explained by changes in attitudes toward the primary outgroup. This research speaks to equivocal findings in the extant STE literature and highlights directions for future research on social cohesion and bias reduction.     

Enhanced embodied response following ambiguous emotional processing

It has generally been assumed that high-level cognitive and emotional processes are based on amodal conceptual information. In contrast, however, "embodied simulation" theory states that the perception of an emotional signal can trigger a simulation of the related state in the motor, somatosensory, and affective systems. To study the effect of social context on the mimicry effect predicted by the "embodied simulation" theory, we recorded the electromyographic (EMG) activity of participants when looking at emotional facial expressions. We observed an increase in embodied responses when the participants were exposed to a context involving social valence before seeing the emotional facial expressions. An examination of the dynamic EMG activity induced by two socially relevant emotional expressions (namely joy and anger) revealed enhanced EMG responses of the facial muscles associated with the related social prime (either positive or negative). These results are discussed within the general framework of embodiment theory.     

Enhanced embodied response following ambiguous emotional processing

It has generally been assumed that high-level cognitive and emotional processes are based on amodal conceptual information. In contrast, however, “embodied simulation” theory states that the perception of an emotional signal can trigger a simulation of the related state in the motor, somatosensory, and affective systems. To study the effect of social context on the mimicry effect predicted by the “embodied simulation” theory, we recorded the electromyographic (EMG) activity of participants when looking at emotional facial expressions. We observed an increase in embodied responses when the participants were exposed to a context involving social valence before seeing the emotional facial expressions. An examination of the dynamic EMG activity induced by two socially relevant emotional expressions (namely joy and anger) revealed enhanced EMG responses of the facial muscles associated with the related social prime (either positive or negative). These results are discussed within the general framework of embodiment theory.     

Deaf and hearing adults' recollections of childhood and beyond

Whereas the average age of earliest reportable personal memory among adults is 3 to 3½, there is considerable individual and group variability in the age of earliest autobiographical memory. Some of the variability is thought to be attributable to differential narrative socialisation. In the present research we tested the hypothesis that by virtue of later exposure to language, individuals born deaf to hearing parents will have earliest memories from later in life, relative to hearing individuals. The average age of single earliest identifiable memory for adults who are deaf and adults who are hearing did not differ. Nevertheless, adults who are deaf were found to have less dense representations of early autobiographical memories and to include in their narrative reports fewer categories of information, including visual-spatial information, relative to hearing adults. Participants' ratings of their memories on a number of dimensions were found to have low utility in predicting the content of autobiographical reports from both early and later in life (i.e., after age 10 years).     

Teaching Engineering Ethics using BLOCKS Game

The aim of this study was to investigate the use of a newly developed design game called BLOCKS to stimulate awareness of ethical responsibilities amongst engineering students. The design game was played by seventeen teams of chemical engineering students, with each team having to arrange pieces of colored paper to produce two letters each. Before the end of the game, additional constraints were introduced to the teams such that they faced similar ambiguity in the technical facts that the engineers involved in the Challenger disaster had faced prior to the space shuttle launch. At this stage, the teams had to decide whether to continue with their original design or to develop alternative solutions. After the teams had made their decisions, a video of the Challenger explosion was shown followed by a post-game discussion. The students’ opinion on five Statements on ethics was tracked via a Five-Item Likert survey which was administered three times, before and after the ethical scenario was introduced, and after the video and post-game discussion. The results from this study indicated that the combination of the game and the real-life incident from the video had generally strengthened the students’ opinions of the Statements.