Going virtual in the early years: 30-month-old toddlers recognize commonly used emojis

People nowadays do not only display facial expressions in face to face communication but also in on-line communication using graphical symbols named emojis. The present study explored 30-month-old toddlers’ ability to recognize emojis that represented six basic human emotions. In the study, 38 toddlers first saw scenarios that elicited different emotions in an actor and were asked to visually identify the matching emoji in the presence of a distractor. Eye-tracking results showed that toddlers could correctly identify the emoji that represented the emotion in each scenario. Toddlers then heard different emotion words and were again found to be able to identify the matching emoji. These findings provide preliminary evidence that the ability to recognize and understand the emotional value of emotion symbols in the virtual world emerges early in development.     

‘You have to treat the person,not the mouth only’: UK dentists’ perceptions of communication in patient consultations

Effective communication between patients and health professionals is a key component of patient-centred care. Although there is a large body of literature focusing on doctor-patient communication, there has been limited research related to dentist-patient communication, especially presented from the dentists’ perspective. The aim of our study was to explore UK dentists’ perceptions of communication in their consultations, and the factors they perceive may influence this. We conducted semi-structured interviews with eight dentists in UK dental NHS practices. Thematic analysis revealed three themes (‘Treating the whole person’, ‘Barriers to patient-centred communication’ and ‘Mutuality of communication’), which reflected the dentists’ perceptions of their own communication during consultations, the patients’ interaction skills, attitudes (and characteristics that may affect them), and external factors, such as time constraints, that can influence dentist-patients’ encounters. These in-depth accounts are valuable, in that we see what dentists perceive is important, obstructive and facilitative. They report using a patient-centred approach in their everyday dental practice; however this is often difficult due to factors such as time constraints. Although they emphasized that the patient has an active role to play in the communication process, it may be the case that they also need to play their part in facilitating this.     

‘Hope givers’? A scoping review of new media and mental health in 27 Australian Christian organisations

This article explains a range of conceptual and methodological innovations in the use of new media for the clinical practice and public communication of mental health. Building on two current contexts – the emerging research area of new media and mental health, and major reform of the mental health system in Australia – this article presents a scoping review of the online communication of Christian organisations that offer mental health care in Australia. This article compares the websites of 27 Australian Christian mental health organisations, analysing these organisations’ configurations of mainstream and religious modalities of mental health care, their discursive and visual communication strategies, as well as their use of social media platforms.     

父母受教育水平与青少年学业适应的关系：父母教养与亲子沟通的中介作用

选取716名高一和高三青少年为被试考察父母受教育水平与青少年学业适应之间的关系,揭示父母教养行为与亲子沟通在其中的中介作用。结果发现,（1）父母受教育水平、亲子沟通、教养行为以及学业适应之间均存在显著相关。（2）父母教养行为的接纳/参与、严厉/监督维度以及亲子沟通在父母受教育水平与青少年学业适应之间起中介作用。（3）直接效应模型和中介模型具有跨性别、城乡和年级等同性。因此,既应关注父母受教育水平与青少年学业适应的直接关系,也应重视亲子互动在其中的重要作用。     

Cell phone-induced ostracism threatens fundamental needs

Cell phones are useful tools with both practical and social benefits. However, using them in the context of face-to-face conversations may be problematic. We consider this behavior a form of ostracism and test its effects on the satisfaction of basic psychological needs for belonging, self-esteem, control, and meaningful existence. In Study 1 participants who recalled a time in which a friend was checking a cell phone during a serious conversation reported feeling more ostracized (ignored and excluded), greater pain, and threat to basic needs than participants recalling a conversation without a cell phone interruption or a control event. Study 2 replicated and extended this effect: Cell phone-induced ostracism’s effects were partially mediated by decreased feelings of relational evaluation, and threatened basic needs both in serious and casual conversation contexts. Findings from both studies also indicated that cell phone-induced ostracism hurts women more so than men.     

Comparing What to What,on What Scale? The Impact of Item Comparisons and Reference Points in Communicating Risk and Uncertainty

The mandated public availability of individual hospital's audit data for children's heart surgery in the UK creates a challenging scenario for communicating these complex and sensitive data to diverse audiences. On the basis of this scenario, we conducted three experiments with the aim of understanding how best to help lay people understand these data and the practical goal of improving the public presentation of these data. The experiments compared different outcome measures for displaying the survival rate (percentage scale versus the ratio of the predicted/observed rates) and presentation formats (individual hospital versus all hospitals shown) for outcomes data presented relative to prediction intervals generated by a risk model that adjusts for case mix. Our data highlight how easily inappropriate comparisons can influence evaluations of complex data: for instance, both a survival ratio of 1 and the presence of other hospitals seemingly provided reference points that resulted in inappropriately harsh evaluations of some hospitals. By drawing on evaluability theory, we demonstrate how to enhance people's understanding of these complex data while also discouraging inappropriate comparisons, which has implications for communicating risk and uncertainty and for choice architecture design in a range of contexts. Copyright © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Visual Spatial Learning Test: Differential impairment during the premanifest and manifest stages of Huntington's disease

Visual spatial memory was assessed using the Visual Spatial Learning Test (VSLT) in individuals with mild to moderate Huntington's disease (HD), pre‐manifest gene carriers for HD, and demographically similar controls. The VSLT has been demonstrated to be a valid, normed measure of non‐verbal memory involving minimal motoric responses. The VSLT assesses immediate and delayed memory for designs, positions of the designs, and design/position associations. The HD group was significantly impaired (p < .05) relative to both the control and Pre‐HD groups on immediate and delayed memory for the designs, positions, and design/position associations. Although there were no differences between the Pre‐HD and control groups on immediate or delayed memory for designs or positions, the Pre‐HD group was significantly impaired (p < .05) relative to the control group on immediate and delayed memory for design/position associations. The results offer novel insight into a relatively unexamined memory deficit that may occur in gene carriers for HD prior to phenoconversion. The data indicate that the VSLT may be a useful measure of visuospatial memory during the premanifest and manifest stages of HD.     

The Association Between Psychological Well-Being and Problematic Use of Internet Communicative Services Among Young People

Previous studies on problematic Internet use have focused almost exclusively on the fact that presence of negative functioning, such as social anxiety, depressive symptoms, or loneliness, represents a risk factor for unhealthy use of the web. For this reason the aim of the present study was to investigate the association between psychological well-being dimensions and problematic use of Internet communicative services. In the current study 495 undergraduate students were recruited. The Italian adaptations of the Psychological Well-being Scales and the Generalized Problematic Internet Use Scale 2 (GPIUS2) were used to assess psychological well-being dimensions and generalized problematic Internet use, respectively. Psychological well-being dimensions explained a significant portion of variance for the GPIUS2 total score levels, after controlling for sex, age, and occupational status. The levels of Autonomy, Environmental Mastery, and Positive Relations with Others acted as significant negative predictors of the tendency to use the web for regulating negative feelings, compulsive use of the web, and the negative outcomes that can arise as a result. The overall findings of the present study provide preliminary evidence that low psychological well-being is associated with problematic use of Internet communicative services.     

Student-produced representations as a means for interrupting the flow of an interview / Representaciones producidas por una alumna para interrumpir el flujo de una entrevista

Abstract

This work provides evidence that children as young as six years old successfully leverage written representations to their own purposes. During a modified clinical interview, Maggie created an idiosyncratic written representation to negotiate understanding of the interview task. In this move, Maggie shifted her role in the interview from sharing her own thinking to understanding the interviewer’s thinking. Her representations were not strictly for communication but also for control. This fleeting but illuminating episode points to young children’s intuitive perspective on written representations as a cultural tool.