Be a Mom: Formative Evaluation of a Web-Based Psychological Intervention to Prevent Postpartum Depression

A formative evaluation (consisting of two phases: a scoping literature review and a focus group with mental health professionals) was conducted to inform the design of a web-based intervention to prevent postpartum depression, in terms of its characteristics and content: the Be a Mom program. The results showed that the web-based intervention should be short-term, delivered postnatally, and grounded in cognitive-behavior therapy principles. Moreover, the intervention should include weekly sessions targeting basic contents: motherhood changes, reorganizations and emotional experience; cognitions, self-criticism, and self-compassion; parenting values, social support, and assertive communication skills; couple relationship, negotiation and conflict resolution skills; and postpartum depression signs and professional help-seeking. These results may improve the Be a Mom’s adequacy, implementation success, and effectiveness.     

Japanese preschoolers’ evaluation of circular and non-circular arguments

Observational and experimental data have revealed that preschoolers possess some argumentation skills, both in the production and the evaluation of arguments. However, these skills might have been fostered by the particular cultural context of Western middle- and upper-classes families, to which most children studied belong. Some data suggests that children in other cultures possess at least some of these skills, but no experimental data had been gathered in Eastern cultures. These cultures are supposed to frown on argumentation, and might thus be less conducive to the early development of argumentation skills. We test the emergence of argument evaluation skills in Japanese 5-year-olds by presenting them with a choice between endorsing a strong, perceptual argument, and a weak, circular argument. A first experiment revealed a trend in the direction of the strong argument. A second experiment that addresses some methodological concerns of the first demonstrates a significant tendency to follow the strong argument. These results are similar to those previously gathered in two other cultures (Swiss and Maya), and suggest that some basic argumentation skills are early developing across cultures.     

Personality as a predictor of driving performance: An exploratory study

Objective

To examine the role of psychological type in older driver performance.

Methods

A convenience sample of 50 older adults was prospectively enrolled in the study. Each completed a demographic profile, the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®) Step III™ instrument, a self-reported Safe Driving Behaviors Measure (SDBM), clinical tests and a standardized on-road driving evaluation yielding a fail/pass determination and Sum of Maneuvers Score (SMS).

Results

Participants (M age = 72.96, SD = 4.78) who had Extraversion and Judging preferences were better drivers than those with Introversion or Perceiving preferences. Those with Sensing vs. Intuition preferences rated themselves better on the SDBM (S = 317.62, N = 305.33; t(48) = 2.19, p = .03). Those with Introvert preferences failed the on-road course with sensitivity = .714, specificity = .767, area under the curve = .76, p = .03.

Conclusion

Our findings provide the basis for further research investigating personality and driving. Specifically, if the main findings are consistent in a representative sample of older drivers, personality testing may be added to a driving assessment battery. Future research must build on these findings to more clearly identify the risk associated with psychological type and examine how personality profiles can be used to keep older drivers on the road longer and more safely.     

Animacy in the adjunction of Spanish RCs to complex NPs

The present paper focuses on the role of animacy in the processing of relative clauses (RCs) after complex NPs. We follow research by the Desmet et al. team on Dutch in exploring the role of animacy in Spanish RCs. We present data from a corpus study and two self-paced experiments and we compare the three studies and the Dutch and Spanish results. Our main objective is to fill important gaps in past research on the processing of adjunction ties in Spanish and to offer a more detailed exploration of grain effects in exposure-based accounts. In particular, we have sought both to analyse the match between corpus studies and online processing in Spanish much more closely than it has been until now and to see whether animacy could revert the well-established tendency of Spanish RCs to attach high inside the complex noun phrase.     

The Role of Animacy in Children's Interpretation of Relative Clauses in English: Evidence From Sentence–Picture Matching and Eye Movements

Subject relative clauses (SRCs) are typically processed more easily than object relative clauses (ORCs), but this difference is diminished by an inanimate head-noun in semantically non-reversible ORCs (“The book that the boy is reading”). In two eye-tracking experiments, we investigated the influence of animacy on online processing of semantically reversible SRCs and ORCs using lexically inanimate items that were perceptually animate due to motion (e.g., “Where is the tractor that the cow is chasing”). In Experiment 1, 48 children (aged 4;5–6;4) and 32 adults listened to sentences that varied in the lexical animacy of the NP1 head-noun (Animate/Inanimate) and relative clause (RC) type (SRC/ORC) with an animate NP2 while viewing two images depicting opposite actions. As expected, inanimate head-nouns facilitated the correct interpretation of ORCs in children; however, online data revealed children were more likely to anticipate an SRC as the RC unfolded when an inanimate head-noun was used, suggesting processing was sensitive to perceptual animacy. In Experiment 2, we repeated our design with inanimate (rather than animate) NP2s (e.g., “where is the tractor that the car is following”) to investigate whether our online findings were due to increased visual surprisal at an inanimate as agent, or to similarity-based interference. We again found greater anticipation for an SRC in the inanimate condition, supporting our surprisal hypothesis. Across the experiments, offline measures show that lexical animacy influenced children's interpretation of ORCs, whereas online measures reveal that as RCs unfolded, children were sensitive to the perceptual animacy of lexically inanimate NPs, which was not reflected in the offline data. Overall measures of syntactic comprehension, inhibitory control, and verbal short-term memory and working memory were not predictive of children's accuracy in RC interpretation, with the exception of a positive correlation with a standardized measure of syntactic comprehension in Experiment 1.     

排名列表项目展示方式对于项目评价的极化效应

排名列表是帮助消费者快速识别品牌或产品优劣的手段。研究基于空间隐喻理论, 探究排名列表的不同展示方式(垂直vs水平)对消费者列表项目评价的极化影响及作用机制。通过5个实验发现: 消费者对于垂直排名列表相比水平排名列表中的项目具有更大的评价极化效应, 并且验证了项目感知差异在上述关系中的中介作用, 即垂直排名列表的评价极化效应是由个体较高的排名列表项目感知差异所驱动的。此外, 当属性可评估性较低时, 才会出现不同列表项目的评价极化效应; 相反, 当排名列表项目属性可评估性较高时, 该评价极化效应消失。     

不同抑郁状态个体对情绪面孔的评价研究

目的:为探讨不同抑郁状态个体对情绪面孔的效价评价情况。方法:以BDI、SDS、CCMD-3和汉密顿抑郁量表为工具筛选出42名正常对照组、54名抑郁情绪组、17名抑郁康复组和24名抑郁患者组成员,所有被试完成情绪面孔的效价评价任务。结果:发现抑郁患者组和抑郁情绪组对高兴面孔的评价分数显著低于其他两组(F=7.427,p=0.000);抑郁患者组和抑郁康复组对悲伤面孔的评价分数显著低于其他两组(F=4.956,p=0.003);抑郁患者组和抑郁康复组在情绪评价任务中对高兴和中性面孔的反应时显著长于其他两组(F=13.735,p=0.000;F=18.008,p=0.000),对悲伤面孔的反应时与其他两组无显著差异(p>0.05),抑郁患者组对中性面孔的反应时显著长于悲伤面孔(F=4.240,p=0.018)。结论:抑郁个体对正性刺激存在感知缺陷,对负性刺激存在夸大加工倾向和加工易化效应,其中前者是抑郁的状态特征,后两者是抑郁的特质特征。     

The pop out of scene-relative object movement against retinal motion due to self-movement

An object that moves is spotted almost effortlessly; it "pops out". When the observer is stationary, a moving object is uniquely identified by retinal motion. This is not so when the observer is also moving; as the eye travels through space all scene objects change position relative to the eye producing a complicated field of retinal motion. Without the unique identifier of retinal motion an object moving relative to the scene should be difficult to locate. Using a search task, we investigated this proposition. Computer-rendered objects were moved and transformed in a manner consistent with movement of the observer. Despite the complex pattern of retinal motion, objects moving relative to the scene were found to pop out. We suggest the brain uses its sensitivity to optic flow to "stabilise" the scene, allowing the scene-relative movement of an object to be identified.     

Wraparound care in vermont: Program development,implementation, and evaluation of a statewide system of individualized services

Over the past decade, there has been a dramatic shift in the provision of mental health services to children, adolescents, and their families. This shift has been marked by a movement away from restrictive treatment options toward the development of comprehensive community-based systems of care designed to keep the most challenging children in their homes, schools, and communities. Based on a model of intensive case management referred to as Wraparound Care, Vermont's statewide approach emphasizes aggressive outreach, use of the least restrictive treatment options, and care that is flexible, unconditional, and child- and family-centered. We chart the development of Vermont's Wraparound Care Initiative and present residential, educational, and behavioral outcome data for a cohort of 40 youth receiving Wraparound Care over a 12-month period. The results showed that after 12-months, youth who had been previously removed from their homes or were at imminent risk of such removal, were residing in significantly less restrictive community-based living arrangements and exhibiting significantly fewer problem behaviors than at intake. These results are discussed in light of recent national studies and previous studies on similar cohorts of Vermont youth receiving Wraparound Care.     

Older is wiser? It depends who you ask… and how you ask

Interacting with older adults can trigger a number of stereotypes. Negative stereotypes tend to dominate, but a persistent positive perception of aging in the popular psyche is that age brings wisdom. Despite this common belief, previous research suggests that the relationship between age and wisdom is weak and inconsistent. We propose that this is due to opposing perceptions of aging – gains in life experience and socioemotional skills, counteracted by declines in cognitive skill – that also vary with characteristics of the perceiver and the context. We investigated these paradoxical perceptions of aging by asking younger (aged 20–40) and older (aged 60–80) adult judges to rate adult speakers (aged 30–89) on the basis of their responses to three narrative prompts. Several aspects of wisdom were judged, including those related to cognitive skills, and those related to socioemotional aspects of wisdom. We examined the impact on ratings of speaker and rater characteristics, as well as the interaction of these characteristics with the dimension being rated. Findings showed that the wisdom ratings were higher for speakers with better verbal fluency, and that the relationship between age and perceived wisdom was moderated by the speaker’s gender. Consistent with prior work, speaker age (relative to rater’s age) had a negative effect on cognitive aspects of wisdom, but a positive effect on socio-affective aspects of wisdom. Implications for understanding age-related stereotypes and conceptions of wisdom are discussed.