The WISC-V in children and adolescents with epilepsy

Despite its popularity in the neuropsychological evaluation of children, the utility of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children – Fifth Edition (WISC-V) has not yet been investigated in children with epilepsy. Eighty clinically referred children and adolescents with epilepsy were administered the WISC-V as part of a comprehensive assessment and scores were compared to matched controls from the WISC-V standardization sample. T tests compared WISC-V indices and subtests between patients and controls and Chi-square analyses compared the rates of low scores. Correlational analyses assessed the relationships between epilepsy severity variables (e.g., age of onset, duration of epilepsy, number of antiepileptic drugs, seizure frequency). All WISC-V composites and subtests were significantly lower in patients versus controls and the rate of low scores was higher in patients than controls for all composites and subtests with the exception of Figure Weights. The Working Memory Index and Processing Speed Index were most sensitive to impairment, while the Verbal Comprehension Index and Fluid Reasoning Index were least sensitive. Of the epilepsy severity variables, age of seizure onset and number of antiepileptic drugs were strong predictors of deficits, whereas seizure frequency was the weakest predictor. Importantly, no significant differences were seen in children with right hemisphere epilepsy versus left on the five WISC-V composites, though a trend was seen towards a lower Visual-Spatial Index in those with right-sided focal seizures.     

Do emotions play an essential role in moral judgments?

The past few decades of moral psychology research have yielded empirical anomalies for rationalist theories of moral judgments. An increasing number of psychologists and philosophers argue that these anomalies are explained well by sentimentalism, the thesis that the presence of an emotion is necessary for the formation of a sincere moral judgment. The present review reveals that while emotions and moral judgments indeed often co-occur, there is scant evidence that emotions directly cause or constitute moral judgments. Research on disgust, anger, sympathy, and guilt indicates that people only reliably experience emotions when judging conduct that is relevant to the welfare of the self and valued others. Moreover, many recent studies have either failed to replicate or exposed crucial confounds in the most cited evidence in support of sentimentalism. Moral psychologists should jettison sentimentalism, and focus instead on how considerations of harm and welfare—the core concepts of rationalist theories— interact with empirical beliefs to shape moral judgments.     

The Perceptual Basis of Vast Space

“Vast” is a word often applied to environmental terrain that is perceived to have large spatial extent. This judgment is made even at viewing distances where traditional metric depth cues are not useful. This paper explores the perceptual basis of vast experience, including reliability and visual precursors. Experiment 1 demonstrated strong agreement in ratings of the spatial extent of two-dimensional (2D) scene images by participants in two countries under very different viewing conditions. Image categories labeled “vast” often exemplified scene attributes of ruggedness and openness (Oliva & Torralba, 2001). Experiment 2 quantitatively assessed whether these properties predict vastness. High vastness ratings were associated with highly open, or moderately open but rugged, scenes. Experiment 3 provided evidence, consistent with theory, that metric distance perception does not directly mediate the observed vastness ratings. The question remains as to how people perceive vast space when information about environmental scale is unavailable from metric depth cues or associated scene properties. We consider possible answers, including contribution from strong cues to relative depth.     

Examining the Unique Characteristics of a Non-Probability Sample of Undocumented Female Sex Workers with Dependent Children: The Case of Haitians in the Dominican Republic

Haitians in the Dominican Republic (DR) are increasingly marginalized due to recent legislation that stripped Haitian-Dominicans of their citizenship and increased Haitian migrants’ deportation risk. Haitian female sex workers (FSWs) are particularly vulnerable, though little is known about them. This study will help public health efforts targeted at sex workers to better reach Haitian FSWs and address their needs by identifying a profile of characteristics unique to this group compared to Dominican FSWs. Data were collected in 2014 among Haitian and Dominican FSWs in Puerto Plata, DR. Surveys assessed respondents’ demographics, health consciousness, depression, and stigma. Adjusted logistic regressions showed that Haitian FSWs were disadvantaged: they had significantly lower rates of education, more children, and less permanent income. Furthermore, Haitian FSWs were more likely to work independently and for fewer hours. Interestingly, Haitian FSWs internalized less stigma than Dominicans. Though we can only speculate, this could be due to migration for sex work, or the lack of formal employment for Haitians. Initiatives to alleviate poverty, create formal jobs, and overturn discriminatory legislation may have the most impact for Haitian FSWs.     

Challenging Doris’ Attack on Aggregation: Why We are Not Left “Completely in the Dark” about Global Virtues

Aggregation (the process of collecting multiple observations of behavior and averaging them before predicting behavior) shows that virtue-relevant behavior is indeed highly predictable, and that individual differences in global virtues do indeed exist. Aggregation is a key response to the situationist argument against the existence of broad virtues. However, a concern with aggregation is that, because it is an average, the specifics of what are included in that average matter. In particular, if heinous actions could be included in the average, then aggregates cannot provide enough confidence that the holders of high aggregates (e.g., highly compassionate people) have not conducted heinous actions and thus cannot provide enough confidence that such people qualify as virtuous. Doris (2002) has challenged aggregation with this concern, and no one has responded substantively to this challenge. If Doris’ challenge is in fact correct, then the situationist argument against the existence of broad virtues stands. In the article, we present a full response to this concern. We argue that aggregation does not in fact allow heinous exceptions, because aggregates do indeed predict extreme single behaviors very well. In fact, aggregates do allow confidence that holders of high aggregates do not commit heinous actions. Thus, Doris’ rejection of the aggregation solution does not defeat aggregation, aggregation continues to stand in the defense of global virtues, and the situationist argument does not threaten the existence and predictive power of global virtues. Models of traits that rely on aggregates, such as Whole Trait Theory (Fleeson and Jayawickreme 2015), may provide useful post-situationist models of virtues.     

Repeated Play Reduces Video Games’ Ability to Elicit Guilt: Evidence from a Longitudinal Experiment

Statements supported mostly by correlational and cross-sectional studies suggest that playing violent video games can cause emotional desensitization. A longitudinal experiment examined a) whether repeated violent game play leads to emotional desensitization and b) whether desensitization generalizes to other play and real-life experiences. Participants played alternative versions of the same violent game for the first four days; on these days, the character role was varied between-subjects to be moral (United Nations soldier) or immoral (terrorist soldier). On Day 5, all participants played a novel game as a terrorist. Results indicate two things. First, habituation occurs over repeated game play: Repeated exposure decreased the ability of the original game to elicit guilt. Second, the decreased ability to elicit guilt can generalize to other game-play experiences: Guilt elicited by the novel game on Day 5 was reduced for the immoral character condition compared to the moral character condition. The current study provides causal, longitudinal evidence regarding the potential for video game play to lead to emotional desensitization with regard to future video game-play experiences.     

Creating state of the art,next-generation Virtual Reality exposure therapies for anxiety disorders using consumer hardware platforms: design considerations and future directions

Decades of research and more than 20 randomized controlled trials show that Virtual Reality exposure therapy (VRET) is effective in reducing fear and anxiety. Unfortunately, few providers or patients have had access to the costly and technical equipment previously required. Recent technological advances in the form of consumer Virtual Reality (VR) systems (e.g. Oculus Rift and Samsung Gear), however, now make widespread use of VRET in clinical settings and as self-help applications possible. In this literature review, we detail the current state of VR technology and discuss important therapeutic considerations in designing self-help and clinician-led VRETs, such as platform choice, exposure progression design, inhibitory learning strategies, stimuli tailoring, gamification, virtual social learning and more. We illustrate how these therapeutic components can be incorporated and utilized in VRET applications, taking full advantage of the unique capabilities of virtual environments, and showcase some of these features by describing the development of a consumer-ready, gamified self-help VRET application for low-cost commercially available VR hardware. We also raise and discuss challenges in the planning, development, evaluation, and dissemination of VRET applications, including the need for more high-quality research. We conclude by discussing how new technology (e.g. eye-tracking) can be incorporated into future VRETs and how widespread use of VRET self-help applications will enable collection of naturalistic “Big Data” that promises to inform learning theory and behavioral therapy in general.     

Self‐regulation principles underlying risk perception and decision making within the context of genomic testing

Advances in theory and research on self‐regulation and decision‐making processes have yielded important insights into how cognitive, emotional, and social processes shape risk perceptions and risk‐related decisions. We examine how self‐regulation theory can be applied to inform our understanding of decision‐making processes within the context of genomic testing, a clinical arena in which individuals face complex risk information and potentially life‐altering decisions. After presenting key principles of self‐regulation, we present a genomic testing case example to illustrate how principles related to risk representations, approach and avoidance motivations, emotion regulation, defensive responses, temporal construals, and capacities such as numeric abilities can shape decisions and psychological responses during the genomic testing process. We conclude with implications for using self‐regulation theory to advance science within genomic testing and opportunities for how this research can inform further developments in self‐regulation theory.     

Human agency in the twenty-first century: the views of P. S. Davies,R. Niebuhr,and A. N. Whitehead

With neuroscience and psychology making significant advances in contemporary brain research, fundamental questions concerning the nature of human life and activity will become evermore critical as we proceed further into the twenty-first century. Put simply, are we creatures who exercise some genuine degree of freedom and agency in the world or are we creatures whose actions are largely if not wholly determined by biological, neurological, and psychological factors far below the radar of our conscious awareness? This article explores this important and timely question by examining the views of Paul Sheldon Davies, Reinhold Niebuhr, and Alfred North Whitehead. Drawing on contemporary science, Davies dismisses Niebuhr’s existential analysis of human existence and any meaningful conception of human agency. Succinctly stated, can one take both the results of contemporary neuroscience seriously, as Davies does, and the affirmation of human agency seriously, as Niebuhr does? The thesis of this essay is that Whitehead offers a constructive bridge between Davies’ affirmation of science and Niebuhr’s existential account of human existence. In sum, it is argued that Whitehead’s process philosophy enables us to affirm the genuine influence of nonconscious factors in experience as well as the authenticity of human agency and subjectivity in the world.