Internet-based contingency management to improve adherence with blood glucose testing recommendations for teens with type 1 diabetes

The current study used Internet-based contingency management (CM) to increase adherence with blood glucose testing to at least 4 times daily. Four teens diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes earned vouchers for submitting blood glucose testing videos over a Web site. Participants submitted a mean of 1.7 and 3.1 blood glucose tests per day during the 2 baseline conditions, respectively, compared to 5.7 tests per day during the intervention. Participants and their guardians rated the program favorably on a number of dimensions. The results suggest that Internet-based CM is feasible, acceptable, and effective to increase self-monitoring of blood glucose in teens.     

Comparing the Effects of Loving-Kindness Meditation (LKM), Music and LKM Plus Music on Psychological Well-Being

Loving-kindness meditation (LKM), a meditative practice directing caring feelings toward self and others, is a popular, evidence-base approach to increasing well-being. Music listening is also a popular form of emotion regulation used to enhance well-being. This interdisciplinary study evaluated a novel intervention called Convergence—combining LKM with accompanying classical guitar music—and its effects on adults’ well-being, mindfulness, compassion and self-compassion outcomes. Convergence was compared to active control groups LKM-only and Music-only regarding their relative effectiveness in improving these outcomes. Participants (N?=?78; aged 18 to 69?years; 90% females; recruited from the general public) were assigned to either the Convergence, LKM-only, or Music-only condition. Each condition received a 2-hour workshop, involving psychoeducation, three prerecorded meditations, and group enquiry and discussion. Participants were assessed at pre-program, post-program, and 4-week follow-up. Findings revealed that Convergence, LKM-only and Music-only were equally effective interventions, producing improvements in dependent variables with small effect sizes. There was no additive effect of the components when delivered together as Convergence. Significant correlations were found between the amount of home practice, and mindfulness and self-compassion at follow-up. LKM, music listening and Convergence all provide brief, evidence-based alternatives for improving well-being. Practical and theoretical implications are provided, as well as recommendations for future research.     

Gait,balance, mobility and muscle strength in people with anxiety compared to healthy individuals

BackgroundAnxiety disorders are the most common mental disorders. Changes in psychomotor behavior can be observed in gross motor skills, with gait disturbances thought to reflect defective brain functions in psychiatric conditions. While balance deficits are well documented in anxiety, only little is known about gait characteristics of people with anxiety.ObjectiveThis study wishes to examine the existence of differences in gait, balance, mobility and muscle strength between people with anxiety and healthy individuals, and to investigate the relationship between level of anxiety and motor characteristics.MethodsAn observational study was conducted in a psychiatric out-patient unit at a large Israeli general hospital. The sample consisted of 93 participants, ages 18–65: 48 of them (27 female, 21 male) categorized as having anxiety, and 45 (25 female, 20 male) without anxiety. Participants were divided into two groups of various ages and both genders, and completed two questionnaires and four physical tests: objective anxiety assessment (Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale); spatiotemporal gait parameters (10-meter walking test); balance function (Unipedal Stance Test); muscle strength evaluation, and mobility (Time Up and Go Test). No attempt was made to correlate between the anxiety and control groups based on age and/or gender.ResultsParticipants with anxiety (both genders) were characterized by slower walking speed, shorter step length, and fewer steps per minute (p < 0.001), as well as balance deficiency and mobility dysfunction (p < 0.001), compared to the control group. Muscle strength in women with anxiety was found to be significantly lower than in healthy women.ConclusionsTo the best of our knowledge, this study is the first of its kind to examine spatiotemporal gait components in patients with anxiety. Based on the findings, there is room to consider implementing gait analysis into the physical examination of patients with anxiety, as well as muscle strength, balance, and mobility function. Correct assessment and proper treatment of these aspects might contribute to the well-being of patients with anxiety.     

Emotional states influence forward gait during music listening based on familiarity with music selections

Music elicits a wide range of human emotions, which influence human movement. We sought to determine how emotional states impact forward gait during music listening, and whether the emotional effects of music on gait differ as a function of familiarity with music. Twenty-four healthy young adults completed walking trials while listening to four types of music selections: experimenter-selected music (unfamiliar-pleasant), its dissonant counterpart (unfamiliar-unpleasant), each participant’s self-selected favorite music (familiar-pleasant), and its dissonant counterpart (familiar-unpleasant). Faster gait velocity, cadence, and stride time, as well as longer stride length were identified during pleasant versus unpleasant music conditions. Increased gait velocity, stride length, and cadence as well as reduced stride time were positively correlated with subjective ratings of emotional arousal and pleasure as well as musical emotions such as happiness-elation, nostalgia-longing, interest-expectancy, pride-confidence, and chills, and they were negatively related to anger-irritation and disgust-contempt. Moreover, familiarity with music interacted with emotional responses to influence gait kinematics. Gait velocity was faster in the familiar-pleasant music condition relative to the familiar-unpleasant condition, primarily due to longer stride length. In contrast, no differences in any gait parameters were found between unfamiliar-pleasant and unfamiliar-unpleasant music conditions. These results suggest emotional states influence gait behavior during music listening and that such effects are altered by familiarity with music. Our findings provide fundamental evidence of the impact of musical emotion on human gait, with implications for using music to enhance motor performance in clinical and performance settings.     

动态系统累积变量判断中的关联启发式

关联启发式是指在累积变量判断中, 将存量与流量建立正相关关系, 认为存量变化特征与流量变化特征具有相似性而导致判断偏差的思维模式。在多特征交互及简单动态系统任务判断中, 关联启发式偏差以不同形式的S-F错误表现出来。作为一种内生性的、顽固的思维模式, 对于关联启发式的心理机制提出了客体偏差、特征替代、不充分调整等多种观点解释。影响关联启发式的个体因素和情境因素的研究结果不尽一致。由于关联启发式偏差直接影响人对复杂系统的可持续性决策和行动, 减少偏差策略的研究也已实现起步。本文系统总结和分析了关联启发式研究的发展脉络, 针对澄清关联启发式的发生机制、系统考察关联启发式的影响因素及其相互作用、丰富和深化关联启发式的研究范式、开发减少关联启发式的有效途径等方面, 提出了深化研究的方向和思路。     

The influence of a pedestrian countdown display on pedestrian behavior at signalized pedestrian crossings

Pedestrian behavior has been a subject of surveys carried out at two signalized pedestrian crossings, in the city of Doboj (BIH, Republic of Srpska). The analysis is made on the basis of video recordings, and includes behavior at pedestrian crossings, in various conditions (two locations, different vehicle flows, with or without a countdown display). The analysis also includes the distribution of illegal crossings (at the pedestrian red light) of different categories of pedestrians (gender, age), before and after the installation of a pedestrian countdown display, at two different pedestrian crossings. The results of the study have shown that a countdown display reduces statistically significantly the total number of violators, regardless of its location and traffic flow. However, this reduction is not the same at various categories of pedestrians (male, female, elderly, young people). The influence of the display has been particularly dominant at the pedestrian crossing located outside the centre of the city, with the smaller intensity of traffic. Children pedestrians do not accept the behavior in accordance with the countdown display in case of a reduced intensity of traffic, at a pedestrian crossing located in the backstreet. A countdown display does not statistically significantly change the distribution form of the number of offences during the red light for pedestrians, regardless of the pedestrian environment. However, there is a statistically significant difference in certain intervals (during the first and last 4 s) in the total distribution, as well as in the categories (female pedestrians, children). A countdown display does not reduce the overall number of “slow” pedestrians, but the impact on certain categories of “slow” pedestrians (gender/children), as well as on pedestrian violators, per age categories, varies depending on the location and traffic flow at an intersection.     

Personality related traits as predictors of music practice: Underlying environmental and genetic influences

Little is known about reasons for individual differences in practice behavior – why do some individuals practice more than others? Here we explore personality related traits such as openness, motivation and flow proneness as well as IQ as potential predictors of music practice. Using a large Swedish twin cohort of more than 10,500 individuals we also estimated genetic and environmental influences underlying such associations. Significant associations with music practice were found for IQ, intrinsic motivation, music flow, and openness. With all predictors in the same model (including sex and age) we could explain about 25% of variance in music practice. However, IQ and intrinsic motivation became non-significant in the full model, with music specific flow being the strongest predictor of music practice. Multivariate genetic modeling with the two remaining significant predictors (openness and music flow) and music practice suggested that the associations between the variables were largely due to shared genetic influences with some additional non-shared environmental influences. Our findings suggest that common genes may influence both music practicing behavior and traits related to artistic interests and musical enjoyment (flow).     

Taking Racism to Heart: Race-Related Stressors and Cardiovascular Reactivity for Multiracial People

Multiracial people experience an accumulation of racial stress for both their minority and their multiracial identities, yet no research has examined the physiological impact of this stress. This within-groups experimental study examined whether two race-related stressors—identity invalidation and discrimination from family—affect cardiovascular reactivity for Black/White multiracial adults (N = 60). The authors found a Condition × Phase interaction effect indicating that discrimination from family affected blood pressure. Invalidation had no effect on blood pressure. Las personas multirraciales experimentan una acumulación de estrés racial tanto a causa de su identidad multirracial como de su identidad como minoría, pero no hay investigaciones que hayan examinado el impacto psicológico de este estrés. Este estudio experimental dentro de grupos examinó si dos factores causantes de estrés relacionados con la raza (la invalidación de la identidad y la discriminación por parte de la familia) afectan a la reactividad cardiovascular de personas adultas multirraciales blancas/negras (N = 60). Los autores hallaron un efecto de interacción Condición × Fase que indica que la discriminación por parte de la familia tuvo un efecto sobre la presión sanguínea. La invalidación no tuvo efecto sobre la presión sanguínea.     

咖啡因与心理紧张对血压的影响 --交叉文化的比较研究

研究表明，摄入咖啡因后，其中的甲基黄嘌呤会使血压持续增高，在国外咖啡因每年人均消耗量与致命的缺血性心脏病的发生率有极大的相关。本文探索不同文化背景的中国受试者在咖啡因和紧张的心理刺激作用下是否会有与习惯饮用咖啡的西方国家，如美、英、法等有相同的结果。本研究结果部分地支持了GREENBERG的实验结果，咖啡因会引起血压的持续升高，咖啡因跟紧张的思考活动结合一起会引起相当大的血压变化等。