Slow Cortical Potential Versus Live Z-score Neurofeedback in Children and Adolescents with ADHD: A Multi-arm Pragmatic Randomized Controlled Trial with Active and Passive Comparators

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - Neurofeedback (NF) as a treatment for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) has been evaluated in several trials, but the specificity...     

Ontogenetic Emergence of Cognitive Reference Comprehension

Prelinguistic cognitive reference comprehension is foundational to language acquisition and higher cognitive functions. However, its ontogenetic origins in the first year of life are currently not well understood. The current study pitted cognitivist against social interactionist views. We worked with infants monthly from 10 to 13 months of age and observed their behavioral search during a reference comprehension task. Our goal was to first establish the age at which infants begin to cognitively expect an occluded object in one of two locations following a communicative pointing cue. We then tested whether infants' cognitive referential expectations would prospectively predict social interaction skills and experiences (as assessed by spontaneous infant and parent pointing) or, conversely, be predicted by social interaction skills and experiences. Results revealed a linear increase in cognitive reference comprehension, with clear above chance performance, individual stability in month-to-month correlations, and a synchronous correlation to referential pointing all emerging at 12 months but not earlier. Regarding developmental predictions, infants' cognitive referential expectations were not predictive of social interaction skills and experiences; on the contrary, they were predicted by social interaction skills and experiences. Findings suggest that a nonverbal cognitive understanding of reference to occluded entities is neither early emerging, hard wired, nor causal to infants' or caregivers' referential pointing. Instead, this foundational skill is predicted by earlier social interaction. Findings are consistent with the view that cognitive reference comprehension develops via a social construction process in the first year of life.     

Electro-aversion therapy of chronic alcoholism

Twenty-six male patients with severe chronic alcoholism were treated with electro-aversion therapy according to two different designs. At follow-up after 12 months, 24 per cent had not had any relapse requiring admissions to hospital, 12 per cent were lost during the follow-up period, and 64 per cent had relapses. Before treatment all the patients had been admitted to hospital several times a year.

Aversion therapy without supplementary treatment is indicated mainly for patients who have intact social relationships and regular work. Treatment of advanced states of alcoholism requires supplementary treatment in the form of anxiety-relieving methods, psychosocial support and teaching the patient new and alternative habits.     

How does green suit me? Consumers mentally match perceived product attributes with their domain‐specific motives when making green purchase decisions

Nowadays, environment‐friendly products are widely accepted by society. However, market share of sustainable technologies demanding higher investments or behavioral changes is rather small, indicating that consumers seem to generally approve of sustainable products, but rarely perceive them as being compatible with their needs. The present research introduces a model emphasizing the importance of consumers perceiving the product as being suitable to match their motives relevant to the product domain. In investigating a sample of 531 car drivers, the hypothesized model was tested in the realm of a highly relevant sustainable product: electric vehicles (EVs). Findings based on structural equation modeling showed that participants' perceived matching with EV attributes was related to their domain‐specific motives (hedonic, freedom, ecological, and financial motives) and a global preference towards the product. Specific to sustainable products, ecological motives strongly influenced participants' matching processes by positively affecting perceived matching with all product attributes. Participants' purchase intentions, in turn, were strongly affected by their perceived matching of the product with their motives. The added value of the model with respect to self‐image theories and implications for sustainable product marketing are examined through discussion. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Mindfulness‐based cognitive therapy is effective as relapse prevention for patients with recurrent depression in Scandinavian primary health care

This study examined the effectiveness of mindfulness‐based cognitive therapy (MBCT) in primary care for patients with recurrent depression (major depressive disorder: MDD). According to the World Health Organization (WHO), MDD is now the leading cause of disease burden in middle‐ and high‐income countries. Patients (N = 45) with three or more previous depressive episodes were recruited to participate in MBCT as a preventative intervention. Using a benchmarking approach, outcome data was compared with data from a recent efficacy study. The methodology is a rigorous approach to assessing effectiveness when evidence‐based UK protocols are transferred into the existing Scandinavian service delivery. Additionally, a person‐centred methodological approach was used to assess clinical significance on the Reliable Change Index (RCI). The analysis revealed comparable or larger effects from pre‐test to post‐test in reduced psychiatric symptoms, increased quality of life and level of mindfulness, and the effects were maintained over 14 months. Analysis of the relapse rate in the current study (16%) compared to the TAU in the efficacy study (68%) yielded an h value of 0.78, a moderate effect size. Only 13% dropped out of the treatment. According to the RCI findings, 65% to 67% of participants in the clinical group improved, no individual worsened, and women showed a significantly greater improvement of depression and anxiety than men. Therapeutic alliance and motivation had no impact on the outcome. The overall result suggests that MBCT can be implemented successfully in Scandinavian primary health care as a preventive intervention for patients with recurrent depression.     

What’s Wrong with the Adequacy-argument? A Pragmatic Diagnosis

When confronted with the question of which philosophical conception of religion to consider most adequate, many philosophers appeal to what I call the adequacy-argument: that we should prefer the one that looks most adequate from the perspective of religious believers. In this paper, I provide a critique of the adequacy-argument based on a pragmatic analysis of adequacy-judgments according to which reflective adequacy-judgments are forward-looking, and hence include considerations of the consequences of adopting different judgments as guides for conduct. It is this forward-looking character that is virtually absent within the current adequacy-debate. The major advantage of a pragmatic analysis of adequacy is itself forward-looking: it would enable philosophers of religion to play a more critical and constructive role vis-à-vis religious practices than presently.     

Do men with excessive alcohol consumption and social stability have an addictive personality?

The existence of an "addictive" personality has been extensively debated. The current study investigated personality in male individuals with excessive alcohol consumption (n=100) in comparison to a population-based control group (n=131). The individuals with excessive alcohol consumption were recruited by advertisements in a regional daily newspaper and controls from a population based Swedish Twin Registry. Personality was assessed by the Karolinska Scales of Personality (KSP). Comparisons were made with normative data. Furthermore, by using a multivariate projection-based approach (Principal Component Analysis; PCA), hidden structures of traits and possible relationships among the individuals with excessive consumption and the controls was investigated. The individuals with excessive alcohol consumption as well as the controls had mean values within the normative range in all scales of the KSP. Moreover, the PCA analysis revealed no systematic between-group separation. Taken together, this result demonstrates that male individuals with excessive alcohol consumption do not have a personality different from that of a general population, which supports the notion of no "addictive personality".     

Against Boghossian, Wright and Broome on inference

I argue that the accounts of inference recently presented (in this journal) by Paul Boghossian, John Broome, and Crispin Wright are unsatisfactory. I proceed in two steps: First, in Sects. 1 and 2, I argue that we should not accept what Boghossian calls the “Taking Condition on inference” as a condition of adequacy for accounts of inference. I present a different condition of adequacy and argue that it is superior to the one offered by Boghossian. More precisely, I point out that there is an analog of Moore’s Paradox for inference; and I suggest that explaining this phenomenon is a condition of adequacy for accounts of inference. Boghossian’s Taking Condition derives its plausibility from the fact that it apparently explains the analog of Moore’s Paradox. Second, in Sect. 3, I show that neither Boghossian’s, nor Broome’s, nor Wright’s account of inference meets my condition of adequacy. I distinguish two kinds of mistake one is likely to make if one does not focus on my condition of adequacy; and I argue that all three—Boghossian, Broome, and Wright—make at least one of these mistakes.