Optimal versus heuristic planning of object manipulations: A review and a computational model of the continuous end-state comfort effect

Human beings select actions that facilitate the execution of later actions. For example, humans tend to select grasps that ensure that forthcoming object manipulations end in a comfortable posture (“end-state comfort effect”). Basic experimental results and their explanation within the optimal control framework are reviewed. I conclude that the discrete grasp selection tasks, which are commonly used to study anticipatory planning, leave room for alternative explanations. Moreover, the results of seven experiments employing a continuous grasp selection task seem incompatible with the optimal control (of end-state comfort) account. I introduce the weighted integration of multiple biases (WIMB) model, which accounts for many aspects of the selection of human grasp orientations in continuous tasks. Additionally, it accounts for the precision effect and hysteresis effect. The model shows that the brain may rely on a simple heuristic and does not actually has to anticipate the end-state of a movement to select effective grasps for object manipulations.     

A Little Goes a Long Way: The Impact of Distal Social Support on Community Integration and Recovery of Individuals with Psychiatric Disabilities

Although an extensive body of literature highlights the important role of social support for individuals with psychiatric disabilities, definitions of support tend to be restricted—focusing on intimate relationships such as friend and family networks and ignoring the role of casual relationships existing naturally in the community. This mixed-methods study of 300 consumers of mental health services in the Southeastern US aims to better understand the impact of community supports, termed distal supports, on community integration and recovery from mental illness. Qualitative content analysis, tests of group mean differences, and hierarchical linear regression analyses revealed the following: (1) participants primarily reported receiving tangible support (e.g., free medication/discounted goods) from distal supports rather than emotional support (e.g., displays of warmth/affection) or informational support (e.g., provision of advice); (2) women and older participants reported more distal supports than men or younger participants; and (3) distal supports played a unique role in predicting community integration and recovery even after accounting for the influence of traditional support networks. Results highlight the importance of considering diverse types of social support in naturally occurring settings when designing treatment plans and interventions aimed at encouraging community participation and adaptive functioning for individuals with psychiatric disabilities.     

A Controlled Pilot-Outcome Study of Sensory Integration (SI) in the Treatment of Complex Adaptation to Traumatic Stress

This study tested whether sensory integration (SI) treatment combined with psychotherapy would improve symptom outcome over psychotherapy alone in the treatment of complex posttraumatic stress, as measured by the Disorders of Extreme Stress Not Otherwise Specified (DESNOS) clinical construct in a group of 10 adult patients with histories of childhood abuse. DESNOS symptoms were assessed at three time periods (T1, baseline; T2, after experimental group SI treatment; and T3, after wait-list control group SI treatment) using the Structured Interview for Disorders of Extreme Stress (SIDES). The Sensory Learning Program? (SLP), developed by the Sensory Learning Institute of Boulder, Colorado, was used as the SI treatment modality. Results indicated significant differential improvement for the group treated with SLP in SIDES Total Score (T1/T2 and T2/T3), Self Perception (T1/T2 and T2/T3), Affect Regulation (T2/T3), and Alterations in Meaning (T1/T2).     

The integrative attitude–a personal journey

The origins of clinical psychotherapy date from the beginning of last century and the development of broadly four foundational schools–psychoanalytic, cognitive-behavioural, humanistic and transpersonal psychologies. The imperative to integrate these schools, however, is relatively recent and in the last 25 years a professional integration movement has developed, exemplified by the formation of SEPI and the UKAPI, and ‘integrative psychotherapist’ is now the most popular nomenclature used in the profession. This article gives a brief history of the integration movement, reviews some issues raised by developments so far, and discusses the personal dilemma that integration evokes in the would-be integrative practitioner. Using my own journey I espouse an integrative attitude that is based on the nature of integration as an evolving personal process rather than an ideal, fixed, profession-wide position. I describe three interweaving modalities of integration I call constructive, complicit and contiguous integration, which form a developmental framework that aims to encourage the individual activity of questioning, inventing, researching and interrogating the discipline within its philosophical, professional and social context. In concluding, this article exhorts the profession to see integration as a personal journey, as a way of being that is constantly becoming and unfolding in relation with the therapist's training, experience and interaction with peers and clients. The result is indefinable and unnameable, and perhaps represents the soul of integrative psychotherapy.     

Rehabilitative Beit Midrash as a means for advancing the community integration of Ultra Orthodox Jewish persons with severe mental illness

ABSTRACT

Religious Jews with severe mental illness often encounter barriers to involvement in religious activities in their community affecting their ability to become integrated into their community. Therefore, a study was conducted in Israel examining the contribution to community integration through a programme providing religious persons with mental illness an opportunity to participate in religious studies. An A-B research design was implemented among 42 Ultra-Orthodox Jewish persons with severe mental illness utilising a culturally-oriented structured instrument. The study showed that the opportunity for involvement in religious studies could advance the participants’ sense of social interaction in their community as well as their sense of psychological integration with other religious people. It also strengthened their confidence in their ability to further get involved in religious studies in the community. Rehabilitation services providing persons with severe mental illness an opportunity for involvement in religious studies can act as a springboard for advancing their community integration.     

Exploring early developmental changes in face scanning patterns during the perception of audiovisual mismatch of speech cues

Young infants are capable of integrating auditory and visual information and their speech perception can be influenced by visual cues, while 5-month-olds detect mismatch between mouth articulations and speech sounds. From 6 months of age, infants gradually shift their attention away from eyes and towards the mouth in articulating faces, potentially to benefit from intersensory redundancy of audiovisual (AV) cues. Using eye tracking, we investigated whether 6- to 9-month-olds showed a similar age-related increase of looking to the mouth, while observing congruent and/or redundant versus mismatched and non-redundant speech cues. Participants distinguished between congruent and incongruent AV cues as reflected by the amount of looking to the mouth. They showed an age-related increase in attention to the mouth, but only for non-redundant, mismatched AV speech cues. Our results highlight the role of intersensory redundancy and audiovisual mismatch mechanisms in facilitating the development of speech processing in infants under 12 months of age.     

Multisensory integration in the Müller-Lyer illusion: From vision to haptics

The Müller-Lyer figure is a powerful illusion in both vision and touch, although it is still unclear whether the visual and haptic illusory effects are due to modality-specific or shared processes. In order to investigate the hypothesis of a common underlying mechanism, the performance of 24 undergraduates in a manual bisection task of the Judd variant of the Müller-Lyer figure was assessed under visual, haptic, and visuo-haptic presentations (Experiment 1). In the bimodal condition participants saw the arrowheads on the front and touched the shaft on the back of a stimulus-supporting board. Illusory effects were comparable in touch and vision and were present, albeit reduced, in the bimodal visuo-haptic condition. In Experiment 2 we used the bimodal task of Experiment 1, manipulating the spatial position of the horizontal shaft on the backside of the board. The visual arrowheads affected haptic bisection, bringing about the illusory effects, only when the shaft was aligned with them. In conclusion, illusory effects transfer cross-modally from vision to haptics only in the presence of spatial coincidence, which appears to be a crucial factor for cross-modal integration. Implications for multisensory processes are discussed.     

Cross-modal integration of emotional face and voice in congruous and incongruous pairs: The P2 ERP effect

The study investigates cross-modal simultaneous processing of emotional tone of voice and emotional facial expression by event-related potentials (ERPs), using a wide range of different emotions (happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise, and disgust). Auditory emotional stimuli (a neutral word pronounced in an affective tone) and visual patterns (emotional facial expressions) were matched in congruous (the same emotion in face and voice) and incongruous (different emotions) pairs. Subjects (N=31) were required to watch and listen to the stimuli in order to comprehend them. Repeated measures ANOVAs showed a positive ERP deflection (P2), more posterior distributed. This P2 effect may represent a marker of cross-modal integration, modulated as a function of congruous/incongruous condition. Indeed, it shows an ampler peak in response to congruous stimuli than incongruous ones. It is suggested P2 can be a cognitive marker of multisensory processing, independently from the emotional content.     

The Ojibwa Vision Quest

Like other Algonkian-speaking groups, the Ojibwa traditionally sought personal relations with guardian spirits whom they encountered in visions, as a rite of passage into status as adults. Visions were sometimes sought as early as age three or four, and were generally accomplished no later than puberty. The procedures for cultivating visions blended practical and ritual elements. The procedures were both explained informally and portrayed in myths and belief-legends. Roheim interpreted vision quests in keeping with Freud's general theory of religion, as evidence of fixated Oedipus complexes; but a pathologizing interpretation is inappropriate. Detailed analyses of both boys' and girls' self-reports readily support diagnoses of healthy genitality, rather than Oedipal fixation. Vision quests are better regarded as manifestations of ego ideals, leading in most cases to improved ego–superego integration.