Do Coping Strategies Discriminate Eating Disordered Individuals Better Than Eating Disorder Features? An Explorative Study on Female Inpatients with Anorexia and Bulimia Nervosa

The purpose of this explorative research was to examine how the COPE (Coping Orientation to Problem Experienced Inventory), an established instrument for measuring coping styles, and EDI-2 (Eating Disorder Inventory-2), a widely used questionnaire for assessing psychological and behavioural features of eating disorders (ED), discriminate among healthy individuals, inpatients with anorexia nervosa (AN) and inpatients with bulimia nervosa (BN). A discriminant analysis approach was used. Results showed that coping styles such as positive attitude, planning and social support are even more discriminative variables than eating disorder features. Implications for further studies are discussed.     

Resampling approach to statistical inference: Bootstrapping from event-related potentials data

We propose the use of the bootstrap resampling technique as a tool to assess the within-subject reliability of experimental modulation effects on event-related potentials (ERPs). The assessment of the within-subject reliability is relevant in all those cases when the subject score is obtained by some estimation procedure, such as averaging. In these cases, possible deviations from the assumptions on which the estimation procedure relies may lead to severely biased results and, consequently, to incorrect functional inferences. In this study, we applied bootstrap analysis to data from an experiment aimed at investigating the relationship between ERPs and memory processes. ERPs were recorded from two groups of subjects engaged in a recognition memory task. During the study phase, subjects in Group A were required to make an orthographic judgment on 160 visually presented words, whereas subjects in Group B were only required to pay attention to the words. During the test phase all subjects were presented with the 160 previously studied words along with 160 new words and were required to decide whether the current word was “old” or “new.” To assess the effect of word imagery value, half of the words had a high imagery value and half a low imagery value. Analyses of variance performed on ERPs showed that an imagery-induced modulation of the old/new effect was evident only for subjects who were not engaged in the orthographic task during the study phase. This result supports the hypothesis that this modulation is due to some aspect of the recognition memory process and not to the stimulus encoding operations that occur during the recognition memory task. However, bootstrap analysis on the same data showed that the old/new effect on ERPs was not reliable for all the subjects. This result suggests that only a cautious inference can be made from these data.     

Changing auditory time with prismatic goggles

The aim of the present study was to explore the spatial organization of auditory time and the effects of the manipulation of spatial attention on such a representation. In two experiments, we asked 28 adults to classify the duration of auditory stimuli as "short" or "long". Stimuli were tones of high or low pitch, delivered left or right of the participant. The time bisection task was performed either on right or left stimuli regardless of their pitch (Spatial experiment), or on high or low tones regardless of their location (Tonal experiment). Duration of left stimuli was underestimated relative to that of right stimuli, in the Spatial but not in the Tonal experiment, suggesting that a spatial representation of auditory time emerges selectively when spatial-encoding is enforced. Further, when we introduced spatial-attention shifts using the prismatic adaptation procedure, we found modulations of auditory time processing as a function of prismatic deviation, which correlated with the interparticipant adaptation effect. These novel findings reveal a spatial representation of auditory time, modulated by spatial attention.     

Not all implicit measures of attitudes are created equal: Evidence from an embodiment perspective

We hypothesize that while evaluative priming involves proprioceptive cues, the IAT is representational due to its structural features and the specific algorithm upon which the IAT-effect rests. As predicted, evaluative priming is shown to rely on differential facial muscle activity while the IAT as a measurement instrument is not influenced by proprioceptive information. Evaluative priming does not yield differential responsiveness for congruent and incongruent trials when facial muscle activity is inhibited whereas the IAT-effect is shown to be impervious to such inhibition. Implications for the underlying mechanisms of implicit measures are discussed.     

Improved mental representation of space in beginner orienteers

The purpose of the present study was to monitor any improvement in orienteering skills attributable to acquiring a better mental representation of space. Two groups were examined: the experimental group, who attended 6 mo. of orienteering lessons, versus the control group, who did jogging training instead. Each group, consisting of 20 children, was tested on the Corsi Block-tapping Test, run Forward and Backward, and the Star-Butterfly Test. Pre- and post-tests were administered. In the experimental group, scores increased in mean complexity from pre- to post-test on the Forward and the Backward Corsi tests, while on the Star-Butterfly Test both time and mistakes had decreased after the training. In the control group, mean complexity and Star-Butterfly Test scores were unchanged from pre- to post-test. These results showed that after continual training in orienteering techniques, the orienteering group was able to remember and repeat sequences of events with greater precision than before the training, while these skills were unchanged in the control group after training in jogging.     

Not by thoughts alone: how language supersizes the cognitive toolkit

We propose that Vaesen's target article (a) underestimates the role of language in humans' cognitive toolkit and thereby (b) overestimates the proposed cognitive discontinuity between chimps and humans. We provide examples of labeling, numerical computation, executive control, and the relation between language and body, concluding that language plays a crucial role in "supersizing humans' cognitive toolkit."     

Quality of life of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

The aim of this study is to evaluate the correlation between different measures of quality of life (QoL), functional status and mood status in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). A sample of 40 patients with ALS was recruited and scales for the evaluation of health-related QoL (SF36), patient-centered QoL (SEIQoL), functional status (ALSFRS) and depression (ZDS) have been administered to them. All the correlations (Pearson's r) between the scores have been considered and the t-test was performed in order to compare male with female patients. No correlation emerged between the different measures of QoL and functional status, apart from the scores of the Physical Functioning subscale of the SF36 which resulted positively correlated (p?相似文献   

Multisensory Assessment of Acoustic Comfort Aboard Metros: a Virtual Reality Study

In this study, a multisensory methodology is used to assess acoustic comfort aboard different real‐world metros by means of subjective annoyance and cognitive performance measures. Two experimental conditions were compared: unimodal versus bimodal. Immersive virtual reality was used to simulate journeys aboard metro coaches. Participants performed four tasks (Rey Test, Verbal Fluency, Backward Counting and Auditory Words Discrimination) while listening to metro sounds (unimodal condition) or while listening to metro sounds within a virtual metro coach (bimodal condition). At the end of each journey, participants reported their degree of noise annoyance. The results showed that cognitive performances were worse in the bimodal than in the unimodal condition. Moreover, the bimodal condition affected negatively the capacity to discriminate words and to count backward. However, reported noise annoyance was higher in the unimodal than bimodal condition. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Individual reactions to a multisensory immersive virtual environment: the impact of a wind farm on individuals

The aim of this study was to assess the impact of a wind farm on individuals by means of an audio-visual methodology that tried to simulate biologically plausible individual-environment interactions. To disentangle the effects of auditory and visual components on cognitive performances and subjective evaluations, unimodal (Audio or Video) and bimodal (Audio + Video) approaches were compared. Participants were assigned to three experimental conditions that reproduced a wind farm by means of an immersive virtual reality system: bimodal condition, reproducing scenarios with both acoustic and visual stimuli; unimodal visual condition, with only visual stimuli; unimodal auditory condition, with only auditory stimuli. While immersed in the virtual scenarios, participants performed tasks assessing verbal fluency, short-term verbal memory, backward counting, and distance estimations (egocentric: how far is the turbine from you?; allocentric: how far is the turbine from the target?). Afterwards, participants reported their degree of visual and noise annoyance. The results revealed that the presence of a visual scenario as compared to the only availability of auditory stimuli may exert a negative effect on resource-demanding cognitive tasks but a positive effect on perceived noise annoyance. This supports the idea that humans perceive the environment holistically and that auditory and visual features are processed in close interaction.     

Intrapsychic and interpersonal guilt: a critical review of the recent literature

Various authors hold that some emotions (i.e., moral emotions) have the function of orienting people toward ethical actions. In addition to embarrassment, shame and pride, the moral emotion of guilt is believed to affect humans’ behavior when they carry out transgressions that violate social and cultural standards. Over the past century, many studies (including controversial ones) have been conducted on guilt. In this study, we analyzed and summarized mainly the most recent literature on this emotion. On one side, the destructiveness of guilt is emphasized. It inflicts punishment and pain on individuals for their errors and can lead to psychopathology (e.g., depression). On the other side, it is described as a “friendly” emotion that motivates behavior adapted to social and cultural rules. How can this asymmetry be explained? Different existing views on guilt are presented and discussed, together with recent proposals, supported by research data. Finally, we discussed some systematic models that try to incorporate these different views in a single framework that could facilitate future researches.