‘Learning from research’: Therapist perspectives on the benefits and challenges of participating in a longitudinal,systematic case‐study

Objectives: In psychotherapy research we have often neglected to examine the impact of research procedures on therapy process and outcome. Such information is extremely important in helping us evaluate the validity of our findings, increase relevance of research for practice, and choose appropriate methods for future projects. The aim of this paper is to share the experience of six person‐centered therapists, who participated in a longitudinal, systematic study, and present their reflections about the impact of research on therapy process, therapeutic engagement and professional development. Methods: The findings have emerged from semi‐structured interviews that took place after the first, sixth (middle) and last therapy session. In total 18 interviews were conducted. These data were part of a much larger research protocol that included a number of outcome and process measures. Results & Conclusions: The analysis of therapist narratives revealed important benefits for those participating in systematic case study research. The use of Brief Structured Recall methods and qualitative interviewing was an important factor in promoting therapist reflexivity and professional development. The importance of a strong research alliance and the active involvement of the client in the research process is discussed.     

Hypercorrection of high confidence errors: Prior testing both enhances delayed performance and blocks the return of the errors

How people correct their mistakes and sustain those corrections over time is a problem of central interest to education. It might be thought that the erroneous beliefs that people hold with high confidence would be especially difficult to correct. Interestingly, people correct these high confidence errors more easily than low confidence errors, a phenomenon known as the ‘hypercorrection effect’. Unfortunately, though, with a delay in testing there is a tendency for some of these high confidence errors to reemerge – a finding with serious consequences for education. This study investigated the effect of intervening a test immediately after corrective feedback on preventing the return of the errors. It also investigated processing differences between prevention-focused and promotion-focused people. The most educationally important new finding was that testing immediately after corrective feedback not only greatly enhanced memory for the correct answers but also blocked the return of the errors.     

Optimizing group collaboration to improve later retention

In educational settings, collaborative learning and recall are often encouraged and sometimes required. Yet, we know very little about the cognitive processes that operate during collaboration, and how they can be optimized to improve later individual retention. The current study aimed to address this gap by testing how the operations of three cognitive processes during collaboration: (1) retrieval disruption, (2) re-exposure and (3) cross-cuing, influence the formation of individual and group recall strategies. Across two experiments, 252 undergraduates studied a word list and recalled it in a Collaborative–Collaborative–Individual–Individual (CCII), an Individual–Collaborative–Individual–Individual (ICII), or an Individual–Individual–Individual–Individual (IIII) sequence. A 40-min delay was inserted early (CC-delay-II, IC-delay-II and II-delay-II; Experiment 1) or later in the recall sequence (CCI-delay-I, ICI-delay-I and III-delay-I; Experiment 2) to assess the differential benefits of different recall sequences. Regardless of where the delay occurred in the recall sequence, both collaboration conditions (CC and IC) benefited later individual recall to a greater extent than the individual recall condition (CCII > III and ICII > IIII). Repeated collaboration (CC) generated greater post-collaborative recall benefits than single collaboration (IC) when the delay was inserted early in the recall sequence (CC-delay-II > IC-delay-II), but the benefits were equivalent when the delay was inserted later in the recall sequence (CCI-delay-I–ICI-delay-I). Implications for future research and educational applications are discussed.     

中文阅读中的预视效应与词切分*

通过眼动随动显示技术操作注视点右侧文字的掩蔽范围和掩蔽单元,考察中文阅读的预视效应和词切分现象。研究包括两项实验。实验一以词为单元掩蔽注视点右侧的文字,发现词 n 右侧文本掩蔽(条件1)、词n+1右侧文本掩蔽(条件2)和词n+1掩蔽(条件3)均显著影响总阅读时间。其中,条件2剥夺了词n+1以右文字的预视加工,同时提供了词n+1的右侧边界线索,结果导致总阅读时间增加,并减少基于单词的平均凝视时间和再注视概率。实验二采用与实验一相同的处理方式,以不提供词边界的双字为单元掩蔽注视点右侧文字,结果发现掩蔽条件对阅读的影响程度甚于实验一,条件2基于词的平均凝视时间显著高于控制条件。综合两个实验的结果可见,中文读者能够切分出注视点右侧的第一个词汇,并以词为单元识别词n和词n+1处的汉字,在注视词n的时间内可加工到词n+2处的文字。     

Persistent Problems in Systematic Psychology IV. Structural versus Functional Analysis

The purpose of this investigation was to determine the effect of iris color on critical flicker frequency (CFF). CFF thresholds were obtained on 56 male subjects between the ages of 18 and 25 divided into three groups on the basis of iris color (blue, green, and brown). The results indicate that iris color is a statistically significant factor in the determination of CFF (p < .05), though it was emphasized that the effect may have been due to the correlation between iris color and other ocular pigmentation. The blue-eyed group received the highest mean CFF and the brown-eyed group the lowest mean CFF with the mean CFF threshold of the green-eyed group falling between these values.     

Do children with grapheme-colour synaesthesia show cognitive benefits?

Grapheme-colour synaesthesia is characterized by conscious and consistent associations between letters and colours, or between numbers and colours (e.g., synaesthetes might see A as red, 7 as green). Our study explored the development of this condition in a group of randomly sampled child synaesthetes. Two previous studies (Simner & Bain, 2013, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 7, 603; Simner, Harrold, Creed, Monro, & Foulkes, 2009, Brain, 132, 57) had screened over 600 primary school children to find the first randomly sampled cohort of child synaesthetes. In this study, we evaluate this cohort to ask whether their synaesthesia is associated with a particular cognitive profile of strengths and/or weaknesses. We tested our child synaesthetes at age 10–11 years in a series of cognitive tests, in comparison with matched controls and baseline norms. One previous study (Green & Goswami, 2008, Cognition, 106, 463) had suggested that child synaesthetes might perform differently to non-synaesthetes in such tasks, although those participants may have been a special type of population independent of their synaesthesia. In our own study of randomly sampled child synaesthetes, we found no significant advantages or disadvantages in a receptive vocabulary test and a memory matrix task. However, we found that synaesthetes demonstrated above-average performance in a processing-speed task and a near-significant advantage in a letter-span task (i.e., memory/recall task of letters). Our findings point to advantages for synaesthetes that go beyond those expected from enhanced coding accounts and we present the first picture of the broader cognitive profile of a randomly sampled population of child synaesthetes.     

公司形象和产品属性超越的协同效应：基于刻板印象内容模型

由于消费者和品牌之间的关系与人际关系存在许多相似之处, 反映人际感知的刻板印象内容模型为品牌感知研究提供了全新的视角。然而, 以往研究多关注品牌感知两大维度--“感知能力”和“感知温情”二者之间的作用关系, 鲜有研究同时基于公司层面和产品层面考察品牌感知不同维度的前因变量及其交互作用机理。鉴于此, 本文实验1考察了公司形象/产品属性超越的不同维度与“感知能力”和“感知温情”的对应关系, 在此基础上进一步发现公司形象和产品属性超越对购买意愿的协同效应。具体而言, 当公司形象为能力型时, 产品享乐性(相对于功能性)属性超越下消费者的购买意愿更高; 当公司形象为诚信型时, 产品功能性(相对于享乐性)属性超越下消费者的购买意愿更高。而且, 品牌赞赏感在上述协同效应中发挥中介作用。实验2探究感知风险调节公司形象和产品属性超越对购买意愿的协同影响。文章最后讨论了本文的理论贡献, 对企业如何实现公司形象策略和产品属性策略的协同促进等方面的营销启示, 以及未来研究方向。     

提取诱发遗忘中的相关代价与效益问题：反应抑制能力与项目竞争强度的影响

采用提取练习范式,通过操作反应抑制能力和项目竞争强度两个变量,考察相关代价与效益问题（CCB）对大学生提取诱发遗忘（RIF）的影响。实验为2（反应抑制能力：高、低）×2（项目竞争强度：高、低）×3（项目类型：Rp+、Rp-、Nrp）三因素混合设计。结果发现,高反应抑制能力者在高项目竞争强度下产生了RIF,在低项目竞争强度下则未产生;低反应抑制能力者在高、低项目竞争强度下均未产生RIF。这些结果表明,对反应抑制能力正常的大学生而言,需要认知资源的抑制控制加工是RIF的产生机制,且这种抑制性RIF不受CCB的影响。     

资源困境中共同收益延迟的影响：时间折扣的调节效应

通过测量83名大学生的时间折扣率和不同共同收益延迟时距上的金币拿取量,以探讨资源困境中共同收益延迟对个体决策的影响及时间折扣的调节效应。结果表明：（1）金币拿取量随共同收益延迟时距的增长而增加,增加趋势和初始时间点的金币拿取量均存在显著的个体差异;（2）时间折扣率反向调节初始延迟时间点的金币拿取量,正向调节金币拿取量随延迟时距增长而增加的速率。这表明资源困境与跨期选择两个不同研究领域具有紧密联系,对当前资源保护制度的制定与实施具有一定的启发意义。     

Mutual Help Groups, Perceived Status Benefits, and Well-Being: A Test with Adult Children of Alcoholics with Personal Substance Abuse Problems

A field experiment was conducted to examine the potential effects of mutual help group participation on perceived status benefits, depression, and substance use among adult children of alcoholics (ACOAs) with personal substance abuse problems. Participants were randomly assigned to attend either ACOA-specific mutual help group meetings or substance abuse education classes during the initial month that they were enrolled in a residential treatment program for low-income substance abusers. Analyses were based on assessments made at baseline, a 1-month posttest, and a 6-month follow-up. Results indicated that participation in the mutual help group promoted perceived status benefits, which in turn led to reductions in depression and substance use. These findings have clear implications for consumers of ACOA groups and can inform research on the social psychological underpinnings of different types of mutual help groups.