Online communication and social well‐being: how playing World of Warcraft affects players' social competence and loneliness

This study was designed to examine the effects of playing the online game World of Warcraft (WoW) on adolescents' social competence and loneliness, and to investigate the underlying mechanisms of the Internet‐affected social compensation hypothesis. The hypothesis states that being online affects adolescents' social competence as a result of a variety of communication partners and identity experiments online. A survey was conducted among 790 high school students. There appeared to be no direct effect between playing WoW and adolescents' social competence and loneliness. We did find an indirect effect via variety of communication partners. Adolescents who play WoW vary more in their communication partners, leading to an increase of social competence and a decrease of loneliness.     

Does maternal prenatal stress adversely affect the child's learning and memory at age six?

Prenatal maternal stress has been shown to affect postnatal development in animals and humans. In animals, the morphology and function of the offspring's hippocampus is negatively affected by prenatal maternal stress. The present study prospectively investigated the influence of prenatal maternal stress on learning and memory of 112 children (50 boys, 62 girls, Age: M=6.7 years, SD=8.4 months), with the Test of Memory and Learning (TOMAL). Maternal stress levels were determined three times during pregnancy by self-report questionnaires. Furthermore, maternal saliva cortisol samples were used as a measure of hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis functioning. Results of hierarchical multivariate regression analyses showed that maternal life events measured during the first part of pregnancy were negatively associated with the child's attention/concentration index, while controlling for overall IQ, gender, and postnatal stress. No associations were found between prenatal maternal cortisol and the offspring's learning and memory.     

Focal distraction: spatial shifts of attentional focus are not required for contingent capture

Contingent capture occurs when distractors that share the target's defining attribute capture attention and slow down target identification. This slowdown has been attributed to an involuntary attentional shift to the location of a pertinent distractor. The present study examined an additional source of delay: the time spent in processing pertinent distractors. In 7 experiments, distractors were presented at fixation, and targets were presented either at fixation or peripherally. Contingent capture invariably occurred when a salient distractor was presented within about 600 ms before the target, even when spatial shifts in attentional focus were ruled out. A 2-stage model is proposed in which stimuli must pass an input filter tuned to the target's defining attribute before gaining access to a high-level stage that is unavailable while a distractor is being processed.     

AN EVALUATION OF LABELING-THEN-DOING WITH MODERATELY HANDICAPPED PERSONS: ACQUISITION AND GENERALIZATION WITH COMPLEX TASKS

We conducted two experiments in which moderately mentally retarded persons were trained first to label and then to enter characters into a computer, calculator, or checkbook (label-then-do) within a multiple baseline design. In Experiment 1, 5 young adults were trained to enter statistical programs into computers in an office setting. Following training, all subjects' use of verbal labels and key-entry skills generalized across tasks (programs) and settings (offices and computer terminals). In Experiment 2, 3 junior high school students were trained with self-labeling procedures to complete a key-entry task and to balance a checkbook. The performance of all students generalized across tasks and settings, and the use of labels generalized for 2 of the students. Results are discussed relative to mediated generalization and to establishing verbal control over behavior.     

Cognitive-behavioural approaches in the treatment of hypochondriasis: six single case cross-over studies.

This study evaluates a cognitive and a behavioural treatment protocol for hypochondrical complaints. In a cross-over design, six patients with a primary diagnosis of hypochondriasis were treated. Three of them first received a block of behavioural therapy (exposure in vivo and response prevention), followed by a block of cognitive therapy. The other three patients were first treated with cognitive therapy followed by behavioural therapy. The results were promising: four patients made significant improvements. The behavioural therapy sessions appeared to account more often for improvement than did the cognitive sessions. The sequence of behavioural therapy followed by cognitive therapy tended to be more successful than the other way around. The results of these six case studies suggest that exposure in vivo with response prevention and cognitive therapy may both be useful in the treatment of hypochondriasis. A journal controlled study is recommended.     

Perceptions of primary family therapy supervisory techniques: A critical incident analysis

This study surveyed a randomly selected group of Approved Supervisors of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (n=275) and their supervisees (n=266) on their perceptions of the primary supervisory technique used in supervisory incidents that had a positive effect on supervisee development. Individual case consultation was the technique most often identified by both supervisors and supervisees.This study was funded in part by grants from the Research Committee of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy; the Agricultural Experiment Station, Purdue University; and the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Purdue University Calumet.     

The formalization of Interpretability

This paper contains a careful derivation of principles of Interpretability Logic valid in extensions of I₀+₁.     

A propositional logic with explicit fixed points

This paper studies a propositional logic which is obtained by interpreting implication as formal provability. It is also the logic of finite irreflexive Kripke Models.A Kripke Model completeness theorem is given and several completeness theorems for interpretations into Provability Logic and Peano Arithmetic.     

You never know where you are going until you know where you have been: Disorganized search after stroke

Disorders in spatial exploration can be expressed in a disorganized fashion of target cancellation. There is debate regarding whether disorganized search is related to stroke in general, to right brain damage or to unilateral spatial neglect (USN) in particular. In this study, 280 stroke patients and 37 healthy control subjects performed a computerized shape cancellation test. We investigated the number of perseverations and several outcome measures regarding disorganized search: Consistency of search direction (best r), distance between consecutive cancelled targets and intersections with paths between previous cancelled targets. We compared performance between patients with left and right brain damage (L, R) and with and without USN (USN+, USN?), resulting in four subgroups: LUSN?, RUSN?, LUSN+, and RUSN+. Higher numbers of intersections were found for the left brain‐ and right brain‐damaged patients with USN and for the right brain‐damaged patients without USN, compared to healthy control subjects. Furthermore, right brain‐damaged patients with USN showed a higher number of intersections compared to right brain‐damaged patients without USN and compared to left brain‐damaged patients with USN. To conclude, disorganized search was most strongly related to the neglect syndrome, and patients with more severe USN were even more impaired.