An evaluation of video-prompting procedures via telehealth to teach first aid skills to children with intellectual and developmental disabilities

Unintentional injuries are one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality among children with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). First aid training involves teaching critical first aid skills, some of which are designed to treat unintentional injuries. To date, no study has (a) evaluated the effects of a video-prompting procedure to teach first aid skills to children with IDD or (b) attempted to teach these skills to children by using a telehealth delivery format. We used a concurrent multiple-baseline-across-skills design to evaluate the efficacy of a video-prompting procedure via telehealth to teach five children with IDD to perform first aid on themselves for insect stings, minor cuts, and minor burns under simulated conditions. For all participants, our procedure produced large improvements that maintained for a minimum of 4 weeks. Furthermore, the effects of the training generalized to novel confederates for all participants, and these effects maintained for a minimum of 4 weeks.     

视觉表象可视化——视觉表象研究的新途径

功能磁共振技术在表象研究中得到广泛应用是表象研究追求客观化精确性的必然趋势。本文介绍了功能磁共振多变量模式分析方法及其演变历程,探讨了借助该方法实现“视觉表象可视化”的理论依据与亟待解决的关键问题。分析指出“视觉表象可视化”将为表象研究提供全新的研究视角与方法途径。     

Thinking about seeing: Perceptual sources of knowledge are encoded in the theory of mind brain regions of sighted and blind adults

Blind people’s inferences about how other people see provide a window into fundamental questions about the human capacity to think about one another’s thoughts. By working with blind individuals, we can ask both what kinds of representations people form about others’ minds, and how much these representations depend on the observer having had similar mental states themselves. Thinking about others’ mental states depends on a specific group of brain regions, including the right temporo-parietal junction (RTPJ). We investigated the representations of others’ mental states in these brain regions, using multivoxel pattern analyses (MVPA). We found that, first, in the RTPJ of sighted adults, the pattern of neural response distinguished the source of the mental state (did the protagonist see or hear something?) but not the valence (did the protagonist feel good or bad?). Second, these neural representations were preserved in congenitally blind adults. These results suggest that the temporo-parietal junction contains explicit, abstract representations of features of others’ mental states, including the perceptual source. The persistence of these representations in congenitally blind adults, who have no first-person experience with sight, provides evidence that these representations emerge even in the absence of relevant first-person perceptual experiences.     

Childhood experiences of parental rearing patterns reported by Chinese patients with borderline personality disorder

The primary purposes of this study were to (1) compare the characteristics of childhood experiences of parental rearing patterns in China reported by patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD), patients with other personality disorders and patients without personality disorders; (2) identify the reported parental rearing patterns associated with BPD in China; and (3) determine whether these patterns differ for males and females. One hundred and fifty‐two patients with BPD, 79 patients with other personality disorders and 55 patients without Axis II diagnoses were administered the Chinese version of the McLean Screening Instrument for BPD and completed the Egna Minnen av Barndoms Uppfostran (EMBU), a self‐report measure of childhood parental rearing patterns. Parental rearing patterns reported by the BPD group were characterized by less emotional warmth, and greater punishment, rejection and control than patterns reported by the other two groups. Within the BPD group, males were more likely than females to report parental punishment, rejection and control. Paternal punishment, low maternal emotional warmth and female gender predicted BPD diagnosis. Negative parental rearing patterns appear to contribute to the development of BPD in China and vary with the gender of the child. Maternal emotional warmth may be a protective factor against BPD.     

The spatial metaphor of Utopia in Russian culture and in analysis

The spatial metaphor of Utopia is considered from a Jungian perspective along with its role in Russian culture and in analysis. Such post‐Jungian concepts as the cultural complex and the archetypal story pattern of a victim are used in considering the desperate longing for a rescuer in patients' narratives and in Russian society. A clinical vignette is provided to illustrate these ideas.     

Caregiver preference for reinforcement‐based interventions for problem behavior maintained by positive reinforcement

Social validity of behavioral interventions typically is assessed with indirect methods or by determining preferences of the individuals who receive treatment, and direct observation of caregiver preference rarely is described. In this study, preferences of 5 caregivers were determined via a concurrent‐chains procedure. Caregivers were neurotypical, and children had been diagnosed with developmental disabilities and engaged in problem behavior maintained by positive reinforcement. Caregivers were taught to implement noncontingent reinforcement (NCR), differential reinforcement of alternative behavior (DRA), and differential reinforcement of other behavior (DRO), and the caregivers selected interventions to implement during sessions with the child after they had demonstrated proficiency in implementing the interventions. Three caregivers preferred DRA, 1 caregiver preferred differential reinforcement procedures, and 1 caregiver did not exhibit a preference. Direct observation of implementation in concurrent‐chains procedures may allow the identification of interventions that are implemented with sufficient integrity and preferred by caregivers.     

Concurrent cognitive processes in rat serial pattern learning: II. Discrimination learning,rule learning,chunk length,and multiple‐item memories

The current experiment examined the factors that determine acquisition for elements of highly structured serial patterns. Three groups of rats were trained on three patterns with parallel rule‐based hierarchical structure, but with 3‐, 4‐, or 5‐element chunks, each with a final violation element. Once rats mastered their patterns, probe patterns were introduced to answer several questions. To assess the extent to which the learned response pattern depended on intrachamber location cues for anticipating different element types, Spatial Shift Probes shifted the starting lever of patterns to locations that positioned chunk boundaries where they had never been experienced during training. To assess the extent to which a phrasing cue is necessary for rats to perform a chunk‐boundary response, a Cue Removal Probe tested whether rats would produce a chunk‐boundary response in the correct serial position if the phrasing cue was omitted. To assess the extent to which cues from multiple trials leading up to the violation element are required to anticipate the violation element, Multiple‐Item Memory Probes required rats to make an unexpected response on one of the elements in the last two chunks of the pattern prior to the violation element. The results indicated that rats used multiple concurrent learning and memory processes to master serial patterns, including discrimination learning, rule learning, encoding of chunk length, and multiple‐item memories.     

A shortened version of Raven’s standard progressive matrices for children and adolescents

Numerous developmental studies assess general cognitive ability, not as the primary variable of interest, but rather as a background variable. Raven’s Progressive Matrices is an easy to administer non-verbal test that is widely used to measure general cognitive ability. However, the relatively long administration time (up to 45 min) is still a drawback for developmental studies as it often leaves little time to assess the primary variable of interest. Therefore, we used a machine learning approach – regularized regression in combination with cross-validation – to develop a short 15-item version. We did so for two age groups, namely 9 to 12 years and 13 to 16 years. The short versions predicted the scores on the standard full 60-item versions to a very high degree r = 0.89 (9–12 years) and r = 0.93 (13–16 years). We, therefore, recommend using the short version to measure general cognitive ability as a background variable in developmental studies.     

心理理论与社会互动方式对初中生社会善念发展的影响

为了探讨初中生社会善念的发展特点及相关影响因素,实验1采用卡通插图范式和SoMi范式,以628名7~9年级初中生为被试,考察不同心理理论类型初中生的社会善念的发展;实验2使用社会互动情境和SoMi范式,以360名7~9年级初中生为被试,考察社会互动方式与反馈类型对不同年级初中生社会善念的影响。结果发现:(1)初中生的社会善念不存在年级和性别差异,但7年级中高情感心理理论初中生的社会善念显著多于高认知心理理论初中生;(2)7年级初中生在积极反馈条件下的社会善念较多,而8年级初中生在消极反馈条件下较多,9年级初中生在这两种条件下则不存在显著差异;(3)在合作情境中,初中生在积极反馈下的社会善念更多,而在竞争情境中,初中生在消极反馈下的社会善念更多。研究说明初中生的社会善念具有跨年龄和跨性别的稳定性,并且会受到心理理论、社会互动方式及反馈类型的影响。     

The role of the dorsal and ventral hippocampus in olfactory working memory

Olfactory working memory and pattern separation for odor information was assessed in male rats using a matching-to-sample for odors paradigm. The odor set consisted of a five aliphatic acids with unbranched carbon chains that varied from two- to six-carbons in length. Each trial consisted of a sample phase followed by a choice phase. During the sample phase, rats would receive one of five different odors. Fifteen seconds later during the choice phase one of the previous odors was presented simultaneously side by side with a different odor that was based on the number of aliphatic acids that varied in the carbon chains from two- to six-carbons in length and rats were allowed to choose between the two odors. The rule to be learned in order to receive a food reward was to always choose the odor that occurred during the study phase. Odor separations of 1, 2, 3 or 4 were selected for each choice phase and represented the carbon chain difference between the study phase odor and the test phase odor. Once an animal reached a criterion of 80–90% correct across all temporal separations based on 40 trials, rats received a control, dorsal hippocampal, or ventral hippocampal lesion and were retested on the task. On postoperative trials, only the ventral hippocampal lesion group was impaired relative to both control and dorsal hippocampal groups groups. There were no effects on odor pattern separation. All groups of rats could discriminate between the odors. The data suggest that the ventral hippocampus, but not dorsal hippocampus, supports working memory for odor information.