Sensory substitution: an approach to the experimental study of perception / Sustitución sensorial: un abordaje para el estudio experimental de la percepción

Abstract

Sensory substitution refers to the phenomenon where object and environment information normally acquired through one sense can be obtained by another sense. For example, visual input being provided by hearing or touching. Sensory substitution devices are technological designs that transform the characteristics of one sensory modality into stimuli of another sensory modality. These devices were developed with two purposes: (1) to assist people with sensory disabilities in daily tasks; and (2) to study the involved mechanisms of brain plasticity. This article reviews studies in which sensory substitution phenomenon is employed as a methodological strategy to study visual perception. Furthermore, its use is discussed as an experimental platform to contrast new perceptual theories and underlying neurophysiological mechanisms that are currently under review.     

The Soul Cluster: Reconsideration of a Millennia Old Concept

The article presents a comparative analysis of the theories on conceptions of soul in indigenous and early European traditions. The focal point of the study is the observation that the concept of soul is noticeably complex in aboriginal cultures, and its plural—especially tripartite—nature is the rule rather than the exception. Another observation is that the described pluralism, the number of soul components, and their attributes go through speculative changes as the tradition moves away of tribal origins, which have the shamanic state of consciousness as experiential source of knowledge instead of scholarly theorization. A three-network model of human experience is drawn to support the tripartition cum trilocation concept of soul.     

Aversive-Nonaversive Issue: Tip of the Iceberg

ABSTRACT

This article addresses the lack of communication between child behavior analysis (CBA) and what has been referred to as “mainstream clinical child psychology” (MCCP). It is suggested that the emotionality of the aversive-nonaversive debate is attributable in part to a lack of information exchange among these two sub-specialties. Distinct contributions of CBA and MCCP are examined in each of the following four areas: population, assessment, research, and treatment. Recommendations are made for enhancing child clinical psychology by (a) promoting constructive communication, and (b) integrating components of the two approaches.     

Identity in the asphalt jungle

We present a study of 40 youngsters who live and work in the streets of Mexico City and who have abandoned their homes for significant periods of time. They seek out their own means of survival from a very young age. In many cases they have children of their own already as teenagers. The Seminario de Sociopsicoanálisis was invited to take part in a project aimed at facilitating the access of these children to graphic arts, artistic creation and therapeutic listening. This article presents our principal findings of the children's everyday life conditions, their work and their dreams, based on data obtained from social character questionnaires – with which therapeutic intervention in this project began. Vignettes of two case studies are also presented. The interviews were complemented by data gathered in weekly sessions attended by the youngsters on a voluntary bases. The sessions attested to both the narcissistic, aggressive impulsiveness of these youngsters and the vital effort they make toward their own recovery and toward establishing affective emotional ties with instructors and therapists. We found that socio‐psychoanalytic methods could be used successfully to expand the scope of psychoanalytic theoretic postulates about character to a non‐clinical, disadvantaged population. By analyzing the content of the psychoanalytically guided interviews we were able to recognize the central, distinctive motive, which leads these youngsters to run away from home and forge their own sense of identity.     

EDITORIAL

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the usefulness of Barkley’s (1997a) model of inhibition and executive functioning in describing the deficits associated with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Besides group differences, the present study addressed the question of independent effects of inhibition and the other executive functions in discriminating between children with ADHD and controls and how well, in terms of sensitivity and specificity, these measures can classify the children into the correct group. The results showed that children with ADHD differed significantly from controls with regard to measures of inhibition as well as all other executive function measures, except repetition of hand movements. In logistic regression models, three different measures tapping inhibition, working memory and emotion regulation were shown to be significant independent predictors of group membership. The sensitivity for these three variables as a set was 76.2, the specificity was 90.5, with a total of 86% of the sample correctly classified. When excluding the parental rating of emotion regulation, the overall classification rate decreased some, but was still relatively high in comparison with previous studies within this area of research.     

Editorial

With the aim of increasing knowledge about processes of change in psychodynamic individual child psychotherapy, sessions that could be called turning points were analysed.     

To be in touch

This study examined the constellation of interaction structures – repetitive patterns of interactions between patient and therapist over the course of treatment – that emerged in the psychodynamic therapy (PDT) of a child diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and treated by two doctoral student therapists. Identification of these interaction structures can inform therapists of what might be expected from patients with particular symptom or behaviour patterns and how interactions change over time. This study also examined each session’s adherence to three session prototypes: PDT, cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) and reflective functioning (RF) process. The Child Psychotherapy Q-Set (CPQ) is a 100-item instrument that assesses the processes within a single psychotherapy session. Items reflect a wide range of therapist attitudes and behaviours, patient attitudes and behaviours and interactions between therapist and patient. Experts used the CPQ to define PDT, CBT and RF process session prototypes. The results suggested that four distinct interaction structures could be identified and that their constellations differed between the two therapists and also differed over time within each treatment. Therapists were more structured and accommodating early on in their treatments and more interpretive later. Prototypical PDT process was more prominent in the sessions than RF process, which in turn was more prominent than CBT process. Unique therapeutic processes are at work in every dyad, despite holding the patient and theoretical orientation constant. An effective treatment in one dyad might not work in another due to therapist-specific and dyad-specific effects.     

依赖于唤醒与效价的情绪记忆增强效应：自动与控制加工*

情绪记忆增强(Emotionally Enhanced Memory, EEM)效应受到刺激的唤醒度和效价的影响。Kensinger 等人提出依赖于唤醒的 EEM 效应与自动加工相联系,依赖于效价的 EEM 效应与控制加工相联系。然而现有研究并不能为这一假设提供充分的证据。本研究的三个实验采用学习--再认范式和 DA 范式(divided attention paradigm)相结合的方法,分别考察了在两种注意条件下依赖于唤醒和依赖于效价的EEM 效应在编码阶段的加工机制。结果发现,中性词、正性非唤醒词、负性非唤醒词在集中注意条件下的记忆再认成绩显著高于分散注意条件下的记忆再认成绩;正性唤醒词在集中注意条件下的记忆再认成绩也显著高于分散注意条件下的记忆再认成绩,但负性唤醒词的记忆再认成绩在两种注意条件下不存在显著差异。这表明依赖于效价的 EEM 效应与控制加工相联系,而依赖于唤醒的 EEM 效应并不总是与自动加工相联系,其加工还受到情绪效价的调节,对于负性刺激,依赖于唤醒的 EEM 效应与自动加工相联系;对于正性刺激,依赖于唤醒的EEM效应则与控制加工相联系。     

Adolescents’ movement towards cessation of smoking: Role and relative value of the processes of change and nicotine dependence

The present study addresses the applicability of the Transtheoretical Model's processes of change in explaining adolescents’ readiness to quit smoking. Furthermore, the association between nicotine dependence and readiness to quit was assessed both directly, as well as indirectly through the processes of change. A cross-sectional survey was conducted, identifying 1547 weekly smokers aged 14–18 years. Structural equation modelling showed that the processes of change were only marginally associated with readiness to quit. Adding nicotine dependence to the model showed a direct association between nicotine dependence and readiness to quit. Only one process of change, self-liberation (i.e. choice/commitment to change and belief in the ability to change), was found to mediate this association. Nicotine dependence appeared to be highly important in adolescents’ readiness to quit.     

Risk perceptions,worry, and attitudes about genetic testing for breast cancer susceptibility

This study assessed the unique associations of risk perceptions and worry with attitudes about genetic testing for breast cancer susceptibility. Women (general practitioner clinic attenders, university students, and first-degree relatives of breast cancer survivors; N?=?303) read information about genetic testing and completed measures assessing perceived cancer risk, cancer worry, and genetic testing attitudes and beliefs. Worry was associated with greater interest in genetic testing, stronger beliefs that testing has detrimental emotional consequences, and positive beliefs about benefits of testing and risk-reducing surgeries. Perceived risk was unrelated to interest and associated with more skeptical beliefs about emotional consequences and benefits of testing and risk-reducing surgeries. At low worry levels, testing interest increased with more positive beliefs about testing benefits; at high worry levels, interest was high regardless of benefits beliefs. The findings support Leventhal's Common-Sense Model of self-regulation delineating interactive influences of risk-related cognitions and emotions on information processing and behavior.