Barriers to evidence-based treatment: developmental psychopathology and the interdisciplinary disconnect in school mental health practice

Reframing the role of school psychologists and related school professionals in a public health and primary prevention model represents a proactive antidote to their more traditional reactive stance to mental health problems. Two additional concepts, developmental psychopathology and complex comorbidity, are suggested as critical to complete this transition, and illustrations of these concepts for more effective school mental health services are provided.     

Cognitive Offloading: Structuring the Environment to Improve Children's Working Memory Task Performance

Research has shown that adults can engage in cognitive offloading, whereby internal processes are offloaded onto the environment to help task performance. Here, we investigate an application of this approach with children, in particular children with poor working memory. Participants were required to remember and recall sequences of colors by placing colored blocks in the correct serial order. In one condition the blocks were arranged to facilitate cognitive offloading (i.e., grouped by color), whereas in the other condition they were arranged randomly. Across two experiments (total N = 166) the ordered condition improved task performance for children with low working memory ability. In addition, participants in Experiment 2 rated the difficulty of the two arrangements and performed a further condition in which they were given an opportunity to freely arrange the blocks before completing the task. Despite performing better in the ordered condition, children with low working memory ability did not rate the ordered arrangement as easier, nor did they choose an ordered arrangement when given the opportunity to do so. This research shows that cognitive offloading can also be a useful process in populations other than typical adults, and the implications of this work for supporting children with poor working memory are discussed.     

The examination of factors influencing the recognition of affective states associated with tennis players’ non-verbal behaviour

In tennis, the non-verbal behaviours shown after a rally may indicate the affective state of players. The purpose of the present study was to assess whether (a) the point outcome, (b) the duration of video-excerpts, and (c) the tennis expertise of the participants would influence the recognition rates of the affective state. To that end, 115 participants were shown non-verbal behaviour of tennis players after a point and asked to rate whether the player had just won or lost a point. The results indicate that the recognition rates were higher for lost than for won points. Moreover, participants who were members of a tennis club had a higher recognition rate. Finally, there was no difference in the recognition rate regarding the duration of video excerpts. The findings point to a negativity bias and the bio-cultural framework in relation to the recognition of affective states associated with non-verbal behaviour.     

大生态医学—21世纪医学发展的战略走向

文章基于可持续发展战略思想和对现代医学弊端的分析,认为医学正面临一轮新的革命。结合传统中国文化思想和世界性潮流,提炼出新的健康概念,并以此为基石构建大生态医学模式,认为它将代表２１世纪医学发展的战略走向     

Self-deception as affective coping. An empirical perspective on philosophical issues

In the philosophical literature, self-deception is mainly approached through the analysis of paradoxes. Yet, it is agreed that self-deception is motivated by protection from distress. In this paper, we argue, with the help of findings from cognitive neuroscience and psychology, that self-deception is a type of affective coping.First, we criticize the main solutions to the paradoxes of self-deception. We then present a new approach to self-deception. Self-deception, we argue, involves three appraisals of the distressing evidence: (a) appraisal of the strength of evidence as uncertain, (b) low coping potential and (c) negative anticipation along the lines of Damasio’s somatic marker hypothesis. At the same time, desire impacts the treatment of flattering evidence via dopamine. Our main proposal is that self-deception involves emotional mechanisms provoking a preference for immediate reward despite possible long-term negative repercussions. In the last part, we use this emotional model to revisit the philosophical paradoxes.     

Exploring inter-task transfer following a CO-OP approach with four children with DCD: A single subject multiple baseline design

IntroductionCognitive Orientation to daily Occupational Performance (CO-OP) approach has been shown to be effective for improving the performance of tasks worked on in therapy and the use of cognitive strategies. No study to date seems to have explored its effectiveness for improving performance of untrained tasks (inter-task transfer) in children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD).ObjectiveThis study aimed to determine whether CO-OP leads to improved performance in an untrained task.MethodsA single-subject design with multiple baselines across skills was adopted, with three replications. Four children with DCD (7–12 years) received 10 sessions of CO-OP intervention where each child worked on three tasks during therapy sessions and a fourth task was identified, but not worked on, to verify inter-task transfer. Task performance was rated over four phases (baseline, intervention, post-intervention, follow-up) using the Performance Quality Rating Scale (PQRS-OD). Graphed data was statistically analyzed using a two or three standard deviation band method.ResultsSignificant improvement was obtained for 11 of 12 tasks worked on during therapy and for two of the four untrained tasks.ConclusionThese results indicate that the effectiveness of CO-OP to improve untrained tasks in children merit further exploration.     

Concurrent validity of the differential ability scales,second edition with the Mullen Scales of Early Learning in young children with and without neurodevelopmental disorders

Estimates of intelligence in young children with neurodevelopmental disorders are critical for making diagnoses, in characterizing symptoms of disorders, and in predicting future outcomes. The limitations of standardized testing for children with developmental delay or cognitive impairment are well known: Tests do not exist that provide developmentally appropriate material along with norms that extend to the lower reaches of ability. Two commonly used and interchanged instruments are the Mullen Scales of Early Learning (MSEL), a test of developmental level, and the Differential Ability Scales, second edition (DAS-II), a more traditional cognitive test. We evaluated the correspondence of contemporaneous MSEL and the DAS-II scores in a mixed sample of children aged 2–10 years with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), non-ASD developmental delays, and typically developing children across the full spectrum of cognitive ability. Consistent with published data on the original DAS and the MSEL, scores on the DAS-II and MSEL were highly correlated. However, curve estimation revealed large mean differences that varied as a function of the child’s cognitive ability level. We conclude that interchanging MSEL and DAS-II scores without regard to the discrepancy in scores may produce misleading results in both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies of children with and without ASD, and, thus, this practice should be implemented with caution.     

Minimizing Mistreatment by Female Adults: The Influence of Gender-Based Social Categories and Personality Differences on Attitudes about Child Sexual Abuse

We investigated the effects of gender-based social categories (i.e., men, women, boys, and girls) on attitudes about child sexual abuse and individual differences in the use of such categories. In four experiments, we systematically varied perpetrators’ sex and victims’ sex. In three investigations, we assessed personality variables potentially related to participants’ use of these social categories. Across these four experiments, we varied perpetrator-victim relationships (teacher-student, neighbors) and victims’ ages. In experiment one, individuals had the least negative attitude about child sexual abuse involving adult female neighbors and eighth grade male neighbors. In experiment two, we replicated this effect with fifth grade victims and demonstrated that attitudes were moderated by individual differences in intolerance of ambiguity. In experiment three, we again replicated the aforementioned effect while (a) extending this finding to teacher-student relationships with eighth grade adolescent victims and (b) demonstrating the need for cognition was a moderator. In experiment four, we again replicated (a) our perpetrator sex/victim sex interactive effect and (b) need for cognition moderation while also demonstrating that these effects were applicable to fifth grade victims. Methodological limitations as well as clinical and policy implications (e.g., attenuating the underreporting incidents of child sexual abuse) are discussed.     

Positive School Climate as a Moderator of Violence Exposure for Colombian Adolescents

In Colombia, many adolescents have experienced violence related to the decades‐long armed conflict in the country and have witnessed or been directly victimized by violence in their communities, often related to gang activity or drug trafficking. Exposure to violence, both political and community violence, has detrimental implications for adolescent development. This study used data from 1857 Colombian adolescents in an urban setting. We aim to understand the relations between exposure to violence and adolescent outcomes, both externalizing behaviors and developmental competence, and then to understand whether school climate (i.e., safety, connectedness, services) moderates these relations. Results demonstrate that armed conflict, community violence victimization, and witnessing community violence are positively associated with externalizing behaviors, but only armed conflict is negatively associated with developmental competence. School safety, connectedness, and services moderate the relation between community violence witnessing and externalizing behaviors. School services moderates the relation between community violence victimization and developmental competence. As students perceived more positive school climate, the effects of community violence exposure on outcomes were weakened. This study identifies potential levers for intervention regarding how schools can better support violence‐affected youth through enhancements to school safety, connectedness, and services.     

A mechanism for biasing the appraisal process in affective agents

In this paper we present a mechanism to model the influence of agents’ internal and external factors on the emotional evaluation of stimuli in computational models of emotions. We propose the modification of configurable appraisal dimensions (such as desirability and pleasure) based on influencing factors. As part of the presented mechanism, we introduce influencing models to define the relationship between a given influencing factor and a given set of configurable appraisal dimensions utilized in the emotional evaluation phase. Influencing models translate factors’ influences (on the emotional evaluation) into fuzzy logic adjustments (e.g., a shift in the limits of fuzzy membership functions), which allow biasing the emotional evaluation of stimuli. We implemented a proof-of-concept computational model of emotions based on real-world data about individuals’ emotions. The obtained empirical evidence indicates that the proposed mechanism can properly affect the emotional evaluation of stimuli while preserving the overall behavior of the model of emotions.