A New Perspective on Temperamental Shyness: Differential Susceptibility to Endoenvironmental Influences

In this review, we adapt and extend a model recently used to account for differences in risk and resiliency outcomes to explain individual differences in temperamental shyness. The differential susceptibility to environmental influences model posits that heightened biological sensitivity and reactivity in the individual can predict different outcomes for better or for worse, depending on environmental influences outside (i.e., exogenous) of the individual. In this article, we extend this existing model and argue that the environment can also be conceptualized as a unique set of dynamic conditions and influences operating within (i.e., endogenous) the individual that are orthogonal to some biological sensitivity factors. In this new model, continuous brain electrical activity at rest constitutes one endogenous environmental condition that can vary (leftward to rightward) and influence gene expression to confer different outcomes, for better (sociability) or for worse (shyness). We then discuss how this model can be tested, as well as its potential implications for theory, development, and practice.     

Analytical Inverse Optimization in Two-Hand Prehensile Tasks

The authors explored application of analytical inverse optimization (ANIO) method to the normal finger forces in unimanual and bimanual prehensile tasks with discrete and continuously changing constraints. The subjects held an instrumented handle vertically with one or two hands. The external torque and grip force changed across trials or within a trial continuously. Principal component analysis showed similar percentages of variance accounted for by the first two principal components across tasks and conditions. Compared to unimanual tasks, bimanual tasks showed significantly more frequent inability to find a cost function leading to a stable solution. In cases of stable solutions, similar second-order polynomials were computed as cost functions across tasks and condition. The bimanual tasks, however, showed significantly worse goodness-of-fit index values. The authors show that ANIO can be used in tasks with slowly changing constraints making it an attractive tool to study optimality of performance in special populations. They also show that ANIO can fail in multifinger tasks, likely due to irreproducible behavior across trials, more likely to happen in bimanual tasks compared to unimanual tasks.     

On Progress in Philosophy

This article seeks to clarify the concept of progress in philosophy. It treats progress as a kind of development. But not every development is a progress. When we talk about progress, what really matters is the direction of development. In some cases it is relatively easy to reach agreement about this direction. But not in the case of philosophy, if we abstract it from the obvious and the trivial, like the number of books on philosophy. As a result, the article concludes that there cannot be progress in philosophy. Instead we see a continual multiplication of interpretations.     

The philosophy of science in Eastern Europe a concise survey

Journal for General Philosophy of Science - An introductory article, giving first a short historical exposition of philosophical thinking in Russia and Czechoslovakia. Second, basic trends in the...     

Error monitoring recovery after abstinence and treatment in cocaine addicts / Recuperación del procesamiento de errores tras abstinencia y tratamiento en adictos a cocaína

Abstract

Cocaine addiction is associated with different cognitive functions. Error monitoring and inhibition of behaviour are of great significance, they are specifically relevant because of their connection with problems in decision making and relapse. The aim of this work is to not only study the deficits but also to see if recovery is possible after treatment and abstinence. We evaluated 23 participants with cocaine dependence and 23 control subject with a modification of the Eriksen Flanker Task. Participants with addiction showed lower scores than control subjects in congruent and incongruent conditions. As treatment time increased the number of correct responses improved, especially in post-error hits. We conclude that the processes of rehabilitation and detoxification could improve the ability to monitor errors and inhibiting behaviour.     

Best Unifiers in Transitive Modal Logics

This paper offers a brief analysis of the unification problem in modal transitive logics related to the logic S4: S4 itself, K4, Grz and Gödel-Löb provability logic GL. As a result, new, but not the first, algorithms for the construction of ??best?? unifiers in these logics are being proposed. The proposed algorithms are based on our earlier approach to solve in an algorithmic way the admissibility problem of inference rules for S4 and Grz. The first algorithms for the construction of ??best?? unifiers in the above mentioned logics have been given by S. Ghilardi in [16]. Both the algorithms in [16] and ours are not much computationally efficient. They have, however, an obvious significant theoretical value a portion of which seems to be the fact that they stem from two different methodological approaches.     

Changes in EEG cross-frequency coupling during cognitive behavioral therapy for social anxiety disorder

Coupling between EEG delta and beta oscillations is enhanced among anxious and healthy individuals during anticipatory anxiety. EEG coupling patterns associated with psychotherapy have not yet been quantified in socially anxious individuals. In this study, we used a double baseline, repeated measures design, in which 25 adults with a principal diagnosis of social anxiety disorder completed 12 weekly sessions of standardized group cognitive behavioral therapy and four EEG assessments: two at pretreatment, one at midtreatment, and one at posttreatment. Treatment was associated with reductions in symptom severity across multiple measures and informants, as well as reductions in delta-beta coupling at rest and during speech anticipation. Moreover, the clinical group exhibited greater coupling at pretreatment than did post hoc control participants with low social anxiety. The EEG cross-frequency profiles in the clinical group normalized by the posttreatment assessment. These findings provide evidence of concomitant improvement in neural and behavioral functioning among socially anxious adults undergoing psychotherapy.     

Career Preparation: A Longitudinal, Process-Oriented Examination

Preparing for an adult career through careful planning, choosing a career, and gaining confidence to achieve career goals is a primary task during adolescence and early adulthood. The current study bridged identity process literature and career construction theory (Savickas, 2005) by examining the commitment component of career adaptability, career preparation (i.e., career planning, career decision-making, and career confidence), from an identity process perspective (Luyckx, Goossens, & Soenens, 2006). Research has suggested that career preparation dimensions are interrelated during adolescence and early adulthood; however, what remains to be known is how each dimension changes over time and the interrelationships among the dimensions during the transition from high school. Drawing parallels between career preparation and identity development dimensions, the current study addressed these questions by examining the patterns of change in each career preparation dimension and parallel process models that tested associations among the slopes and intercepts of the career preparation dimensions. Results showed that the career preparation dimensions were not developing similarly over time, although each dimension was associated cross-sectionally and longitudinally with the other dimensions. Results also suggested that career planning and decision-making preceded career confidence. The results of the current study supported career construction theory and showed similarities between the processes of career preparation and identity development.