Development of sense of coherence during two group interventions

Kähönen, K., Näätänen, P., Tolvanen, A. & Salmela‐Aro, K. (2012). Development of sense of coherence during two group interventions. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology 53, 523–527. Burnout is a serious occupational hazard. This study investigated the possibility to develop an effective salutogenic group intervention among employees suffering from severe burnout symptoms. Participants consisted of employees aged 31 to 59 years working in different public service occupations, such as police officers, tax officers, (and other public service officers), and assigned to three different groups: analytic (N = 25), psychodramatic (N = 24) and controls (N = 28). The intervention comprised 16 separate days over a nine‐month period. Changes in sense of coherence (SOC) were measured four times with the 13‐item Orientation to Life Questionnaire during the intervention and at six‐month follow‐up, and analyzed by general linear model (GLM) and using Cohen’s d to estimate effect sizes. Change in SOC between the three groups was statistically significant (F(4,148) = 2.65, p = 0.036). The psychodrama group showed a higher increase in SOC than the analytic group during the intervention, while the improvement in the analytic group was significant during the six‐month follow‐up. Total effect size from baseline to follow‐up was in the analytic group 0.71, in the psychodrama group 0.47, and in the control group from baseline to end of intervention 0.09. The results show that it is possible to improve SOC by group intervention in the occupational healthcare context. The dialogue‐based analytic method and action‐based psychodramatic method differ in their specific effects.     

Chunking or not chunking? How do we find words in artificial language learning?

What is the nature of the representations acquired in implicit statistical learning? Recent results in the field of language learning have shown that adults and infants are able to find the words of an artificial language when exposed to a continuous auditory sequence consisting in a random ordering of these words. Such performance can only be based on processing the transitional probabilities between sequence elements. Two different kinds of mechanisms may account for these data: Participants may either parse the sequence into smaller chunks corresponding to the words of the artificial language, or they may become progressively sensitive to the actual values of the transitional probabilities between syllables. The two accounts are difficult to differentiate because they make similar predictions in comparable experimental settings. In this study, we present two experiments that aimed at contrasting these two theories. In these experiments, participants had to learn 2 sets of pseudo-linguistic regularities: Language 1 (L1) and Language 2 (L2) presented in the context of a serial reaction time task. L1 and L2 were either unrelated (none of the syllabic transitions of L1 were present in L2), or partly related (some of the intra-words transitions of L1 were used as inter-words transitions of L2). The two accounts make opposite predictions in these two settings. Our results indicate that the nature of the representations depends on the learning condition. When cues were presented to facilitate parsing of the sequence, participants learned the words of the artificial language. However, when no cues were provided, performance was strongly influenced by the employed transitional probabilities.     

Resting EEG in alpha and beta bands predicts individual differences in attentional blink magnitude

Accuracy for a second target (T2) is reduced when it is presented within 500 ms of a first target (T1) in a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) - an attentional blink (AB). There are reliable individual differences in the magnitude of the AB. Recent evidence has shown that the attentional approach that an individual typically adopts during a task or in anticipation of a task, as indicated by various measures, predicts individual differences in the AB deficit. It has yet to be observed whether indices of attentional approach when not engaged in a goal-directed task are also relevant to individual differences in the AB. The current studies investigated individual differences in the AB by examining their relationship with attention at rest using quantitative measures of EEG. Greater levels of alpha at rest were associated with larger AB magnitudes, where greater levels of beta at rest were associated with smaller AB magnitudes. Furthermore, individuals with more beta than alpha demonstrated a smaller AB effect than individuals with more alpha than beta. Our results suggest that greater attentional engagement at rest, when not engaged in a goal-directed task, is associated with smaller AB magnitudes.     

Eye movements and parafoveal preview of compound words: Does morpheme order matter?

Recently, there has been considerable debate about whether readers can identify multiple words in parallel or whether they are limited to a serial mode of word identification, processing one word at a time (see, e.g., Reichle, Liversedge, Pollatsek, & Rayner, 2009). Similar questions can be applied to bimorphemic compound words: Do readers identify all the constituents of a compound word in parallel, and does it matter which of the morphemes is identified first? We asked subjects to read compound words embedded in sentences while monitoring their eye movements. Using the boundary paradigm (Rayner, 1975), we manipulated the preview that subjects received of the compound word before they fixated it. In particular, the morpheme order of the preview was either normal (cowboy) or reversed (boycow). Additionally, we manipulated the preview availability for each of the morphemes separately. Preview was thus available for the first morpheme only (cowtxg), for the second morpheme only (enzboy), or for neither of the morphemes (enztxg). We report three major findings: First, there was an effect of morpheme order on gaze durations measured on the compound word, indicating that, as expected, readers obtained a greater preview benefit when the preview presented the morphemes in the correct order than when their order was reversed. Second, gaze durations on the compound word were influenced not only by preview availability for the first, but also by that for the second morpheme. Finally, and most importantly, the results show that readers are able to extract some morpheme information even from a reverse order preview. In summary, readers obtain preview benefit from both constituents of a short compound word, even when the preview does not reflect the correct morpheme order.     

Serial position-dependent false memory effects*

ABSTRACT

Evidence for false recognition within seconds of encoding suggests that semantic-associative influences are not restricted to long-term memory, consistent with unitary memory accounts but contrary to dual store models. The present study sought further relevant evidence using a modified free recall converging associates task where participants studied 12-item lists composed of 3 semantically distinct quartets (sublists) related to a separate, non-presented theme word (i.e., words 1–4/theme1, 5–8/theme2, and 9–12/theme3). This list construction permits assessment of false recall errors from each sublist, and, particularly, the primacy and recency sublists that have been linked to long- and short-term memory stores. Experiment 1 tested immediate free recall for items. Associative false memories were evident from all sublists, however, significantly less so from the recent sublist, which also showed the highest levels of veridical memory. By inserting a brief (3?s) distractor prior to recall, Experiment 2 selectively reduced veridical memory and increased false memory for the recent sublist while leaving the primacy sublist unaffected. These recall results converge with prior evidence indicating the immediacy of false recognition, and can be understood within a unitary framework where the differential availability of verbatim features and gist-based cues affect memory for primacy and recency sublists.     

Do children use different forms of verbal rehearsal in serial picture recall tasks? A multi-method study

ABSTRACT

Use of verbal rehearsal is a key issue in memory development. However, we still lack detailed and triangulated information about the early development and the circumstances in which different forms of rehearsal are used. To further understand significant factors that affect children’s use of various forms of rehearsal, the present study involving 108 primary school children adopted a multi-method approach. It combined a carefully chosen word length effect method with a self-paced presentation time method to obtain behavioural indicators of verbal rehearsal. In addition, subsequent trial-by-trial self-reports were gathered. Word length effects in recall suggested that phonological recoding (converting images to names – a necessary precursor for rehearsal) took place, with evidence of more rehearsal among children with higher performance levels. According to self-paced presentation times, cumulative rehearsal was the dominant form of rehearsal only for children with higher spans on difficult trials. The combined results of self-paced times and word length effects in recall suggest that “naming” as simple form of rehearsal was dominant for most children. Self-reports were in line with these conclusions. Additionally, children used a mixture of strategies with considerable intra-individual variability, yet strategy use was nevertheless linked to age as well as performance levels.     

Music Training and Semantic Clustering in College Students

College students with 5 or more years of music training recalled significantly more words from a 16-item word list than did students with 0-4 years of training. The superior recall of the extensively trained students linked to better application of a semantic-clustering strategy across a series of 3 test trials. Music education and language experience may have similar influences on the development of verbal memory.     

Amplitude Scaling Compensates for Serial Delays in Correcting Eye and Arm Movements

Spatial and metrical parameters of the eye and arm movements made by human subjects (N = 7) in response to visual targets that were stepped unexpectedly either once (single step) or twice (double step) were studied. For the double-step, the displacement of a visual target was decreased or increased in amplitude at intervals before and during a movement. Provided the second target step occurred more than 100 ms before the onset of movement, the amplitude of the subjects' first response was altered in the direction of the new target location. But this amplitude scaling was not always sufficient to reach the new target location, and a second corrective response was required. The latency in producing this second response was greatly increased above reaction time latencies of movements to single-step targets, especially when the target change occurred 100 ms or more before movement onset. These findings suggest that even though serial processing limitations delay the production of a second corrective response, continuous parallel processing of visual information enables the amplitude of the first response to be altered with minimal delay. This enables some degree of real-time continuous control by the visuomotor control system.     

South African Serial Homicide: A Victim‐Focused Behavioural Typology

This current study assessed the value of the Interpersonal Model in differentiating serial homicide offences in South Africa, notably in terms of how the offender may display behavioural patterns that are indicative of them dealing with the victim as a Person, an Object, or a Vehicle. The sample consisted of 302 offences committed by 33 offenders that occurred from 1953 to 2007 in South Africa. Multidimensional scaling analysis was used to test the Interpersonal Model and results indicated that crime themes did not directly correspond to the threefold model. Instead, two crime scene types were present: Victim as Object (where the focus was on tangible gains, interaction with the victim throughout the phases of the crime was limited, and victims included men and live women) and Victim as Vehicle (where the victim might be construed as a conduit through whom the offender could realise their specific psychological needs, the interaction was extensive, and victims tended to be vulnerable). South African serial homicides did not appear to have a specific sub‐theme of Victim as Person, suggesting that the themes engaged in centred more on instrumentally focused actions but in qualitatively different ways. However, victim types were integral to the overall behavioural model. Using the Victim as Object/Vehicle dichotomy, 85.7% of the offences could be seen to engage dominantly in one of the two patterns at the crime scene. This not only supported the results of a twofold model, but having these many offenders showing a dominant crime scene type also shows that the model is an excellent representation of serial homicide offending in South Africa. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.