A case-controlled field study evaluating ICD-11 proposals for relational problems and intimate partner violence

Background/Objective: Intimate partner relationship problems and intimate partner abuse and neglect — referred to in this paper as “relational problems and maltreatment” — have substantial and well-documented impact on both physical and mental health. However, classification guidelines, such as those found in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10), are vague and unlikely to support consistent application. Revised guidelines proposed for ICD-11 are much more operationalized. We used standardized clinical vignette conditions with an international panel of clinicians to test if ICD-11 changes resulted in improved classification accuracy. Method: English-speaking mental health professionals (N = 738) from 65 nations applied ICD-10 or ICD-11 (proposed) guidelines with experimentally manipulated case presentations of presence or absence of (a) individual mental health diagnoses and (b) relational problems or maltreatment. Results: ICD-11, compared with ICD-10, guidelines resulted in significantly better classification accuracy, although only in the presence of co-morbid mental health problems. Clinician factors (e. g., gender, language, world region) largely did not impact classification performance. Conclusions: Despite being considerably more explicated, raters’ performance with ICD-11 guidelines reveals training issues that should be addressed prior to the release of ICD-11 in 2018 (e. g., overriding the guidelines with pre-existing archetypes for relationship problems and physical and psychological abuse).     

任务类型对上下视野优势的影响

视觉信息加工的单侧视野优势效应一直是认知心理学领域的研究热点。本研究采用变化检测范式探讨文字和几何信息在上下视野中的优势效应。结果发现：当加工文字材料时,颜色和位置检测任务均出现上部视野优势效应;加工几何图形时,则出现下部视野优势效应。上述结果表明,任务信息所需要的加工类型影响上下视野的优势效应,支持Previc提出的视野优势效应的生态假说。     

Negations in syllogistic reasoning: Evidence for a heuristic–analytic conflict

Research indicates that cognitive age differences can be influenced by metacognitive factors. This research has generally focused on simple memory tasks. Age differences in working memory (WM) performance are pronounced, but are typically attributed to basic cognitive deficits rather than metacognitive factors. However, WM performance can be influenced by strategic behaviour that might be driven by metacognitive monitoring. In the current project, we attempted to connect these lines of research by examining age differences in metacognitive WM monitoring and strategies. In Experiment 1, younger and older adult participants completed a computerized operation span task in conditions that either required or did not require monitoring reports. Participants in the monitoring condition predicted and postdicted global performance for each block and rated their responses following each trial within a block. In Experiment 2, participants also reported their trial-level strategic approach. In contrast to the age equivalence typically found for simple memory monitoring, results demonstrated age differences in WM monitoring accuracy. Overall age differences in strategy use were not found, but using effective strategies benefited older adults' performance more than younger adults'. Furthermore, age-related differences in the WM task appear to be mediated by the accuracy of performance monitoring.     

The modulation of stimulus structure on visual field asymmetry effects: The case of Chinese character recognition

Recent research suggests that visual field (VF) asymmetry effects in visual recognition may be influenced by information distribution within the stimuli for the recognition task in addition to hemispheric processing differences: Stimuli with more information on the left have a right VF (RVF) advantage because the left part is closer to the centre, where the highest visual acuity is obtained. It remains unclear whether visual complexity distribution of the stimuli also has similar modulation effects. Here we used Chinese characters with contrasting structures—left-heavy, symmetric, and right-heavy, in terms of either visual complexity of components or information distribution defined by location of the phonetic component—and examined participants' naming performance. We found that left-heavy characters had the largest RVF advantage, followed by symmetric and right-heavy characters; this effect was only observed in characters that contrasted in information distribution, in which information for pronunciation was skewed to the phonetic component, but not in those that contrasted only in visual complexity distribution and had no phonetic component. This result provides strong evidence for the influence of information distribution within the stimuli on VF asymmetry effects; in contrast, visual complexity distribution within the stimuli does not have similar modulation effects.     

An analytic hierarchy process model to apportion co-author responsibility

The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) can be used to determine co-author responsibility for a scientific paper describing collaborative research. The objective is to deter scientific fraud by holding co-authors accountable for their individual contributions. A hiearchical model of the research presented in a paper can be created by dividing it into primary and secondary elements. The co-authors then determine the contributions of the primary and secondary elements to the work as a whole as well as their own individual contributions. They can use the results to determine authorship order.     

The mind-brain relationship: the emergent self

This paper explores the mind-brain relationship, using insights from contemporary neuroscience. It seeks to investigate how our brains become who we are, how subjective experience arises. In order to do this some explanation is given of the basic concepts of how the brain produces our subjective mental life. Current neuropsychological and neurobiological understanding of early brain development, memory, emotion and consciousness are explored. There is also an attempt at mapping the mind-brain-self relationship from a uniquely Jungian perspective. Clinical material is included in order to show the relevance of these insights to our work in the consulting room, arguing the value of the affect-regulating, relational aspects of the analytic dyad that forge new neural pathways through emotional connection. Such experience forms the emotional scaffolding necessary for the emergence of reflective function.     

This new science of ours: a more or less systematic history of consciousness and transcendence. Part I

This paper is a search for the origins and nature of human consciousness. This portion, the first part of two, takes up a signal work of Jung and one of Freud, both published in 1911 and both deriving thinking as the first embodiment of higher mental functions. Thinking and consciousness (and subsequently spirit) are elaborated in terms of the nature and vicissitudes of libido. Jung's less well understood theory regarding a quantitative libido is particularly addressed as are his non-Cartesian ways of reasoning. Also addressed is Jung's turning away in the final analysis from a frankly metaphysical and transcendent position as compared to the pre-Socratic philosophers with whom focused thinking began in the western world. Differentiation is made between mechanistic and energetic field dynamics in how reality is viewed.     

Evaluating a split processing model of visual word recognition: effects of orthographic neighborhood size

The split fovea theory proposes that visual word recognition of centrally presented words is mediated by the splitting of the foveal image, with letters to the left of fixation being projected to the right hemisphere (RH) and letters to the right of fixation being projected to the left hemisphere (LH). Two lexical decision experiments aimed to elucidate word recognition processes under the split fovea theory are described. The first experiment showed that when words were presented centrally, such that the initial letters were in the left visual field (LVF/RH), there were effects of orthographic neighborhood, i.e., there were faster responses to words with high rather than low orthographic neighborhoods for the initial letters ('lead neighbors'). This effect was limited to lead-neighbors but not end-neighbors (orthographic neighbors sharing the same final letters). When the same words were fully presented in the LVF/RH or right visual field (RVF/LH, Experiment 2), there was no effect of orthographic neighborhood size. We argue that the lack of an effect in Experiment 2 was due to exposure to all of the letters of the words, the words being matched for overall orthographic neighborhood count and the sub-parts no longer having a unique effect. We concluded that the orthographic activation found in Experiment 1 occurred because the initial letters of centrally presented words were projected to the RH. The results support the split fovea theory, where the RH has primacy in representing lead neighbors of a written word.