Effectiveness of a Hearing Conservation and Vocal Hygiene Program for Kindergarten Children

Abstract

Noise-induced hearing loss and disorders of the voice are two potentially preventable communication disorders. This study sought to determine if young children's knowledge regarding potentially abusive hearing and voice behaviors can be changed through education. An interactive educational program-“Ears for Listening, Voice for Speaking” (ELVS)-was presented to 66 kindergarten students. A questionnaire, testing the students' knowledge regarding anatomy, abusive behaviors, and conservation practices, was administered pre- and post-ELVS participation. A statistically significant increase was found in the students' knowledge post-ELVS participation. Scores on the voice questions were lower than hearing, and, although the difference was not statistically significant, girls scored higher than boys, both pre- and post-ELVS participation. This study highlights the importance of early intervention through education in preventing noise-induced hearing loss and voice disorders.     

Behavioral Marital Therapy: An Outcome Evaluation of Conjoint,Group and One Spouse Treatment

Abstract

Behavioral Marital Therapy has focussed on the modification of marital behavior in conjoint and couples group settings. This study extends previously published outcome studies in that one treatment condition involved treating only one of the partners. Fifty-seven couples were consecutively assigned to one of the three treatment conditions. Outcome evaluations included an independent assessment, marital satisfaction, sexual adjustment and an assessment of target problems. The results revealed no significant differences between the three treatment conditions. However, couples in the conjoint treatment resolved their target problems more rapidly than the other two treatments. The implications of the result as well as issues of outcome prediction, cost-effectiveness and the viability of treating one spouse are discussed.     

Prospective conceptual model of Tomatis® method effects on students’ self-regulation

This study aimed to develop a preliminary conceptual model that explains the perceived effect of the Tomatis® method on university students’ self-regulation for study course learning. Seven beginning graduate students (6 female; 3 black, 4 white) with a large South African university completed a Tomatis® method programme student learning support intervention. The students participated in focus group discussion and brief survey on their Tomatis® method programme student learning support experiences. Thematic analysis identified five themes that define Tomatis® method programme self-regulation effects on students: i) being self-aware and enhanced environmental sensitivity; ii) improved study concentration per time frame; iii) perspective taking, willingness, and ability to listen to others’ opinions; iv) self-reflection or enhanced inward learning experience; and v) boldness, creativity and open-mindedness. Findings support a conceptual working model of the Tomatis® method for the promotion of learner self-regulation and behavioural change in a university setting.     

声音影响饮食行为:实证进展与理论构思

饮食行为包含个体对饮食的风味感知、口感评价、情绪感受、个人饮食偏好以及外显的进饮动作等一系列心理与行为过程。研究相继表明:声音主要通过影响人们对饮食的感官感受性与喜好程度来影响饮食行为。饮食行为中的声音信息包括内感受性线索(Interoceptive cues),即个体与饮食的交互音(如咀嚼食物声、吞咽饮品声,制作与准备饮食过程中的声音等);外感受性线索(exteroceptive cues),即环境音(主要指噪音)与背景音乐。行为研究结果普遍强调认知因素在声音与饮食间所起的作用,如注意的分散与转移、跨通道联结(匹配性效应)、期望与回避(潜在的音画效应)等。而神经科学则以"听-嗅-味"为突破口,从"多通道整合"的角度为理论间的争议寻求更为清晰的证据与潜在的内部机制;与此同时,情绪唤醒、躯体标示(内隐联结)与具身认知视角有望成为新的理论整合点。     

The influence of attachment and temperament on venipuncture distress in 14-month-old infants: the Generation R Study

Objective

This study examined the effects of attachment and temperament on infant distress during venipuncture.

Method

The study was embedded in the Generation R Study, a prospective population-based study. Two different research procedures (i.e., blood sampling and the Ainsworth Strange Situation Procedure) yielded measures of venipuncture distress and attachment security and disorganization in 246 infants aged 14 months. Four temperament traits (distress to limitations, fear, recovery from distress, and sadness) were assessed using the maternally reported Infant Behavior Questionnaire - Revised, at the age of 6 months.

Results

There were no differences between mean levels of distress during venipuncture in infants classified as having insecure attachment, but there was a trend for disorganized attachment. The temperament traits were not related to distress. However, children with a disorganized attachment and higher temperamental fear had more venipuncture distress.

Conclusion

When different risk factors are present simultaneously, infant distress is heightened.     

A tutorial on how to do a Mokken scale analysis on your test and questionnaire data

Over the past decade, Mokken scale analysis (MSA) has rapidly grown in popularity among researchers from many different research areas. This tutorial provides researchers with a set of techniques and a procedure for their application, such that the construction of scales that have superior measurement properties is further optimized, taking full advantage of the properties of MSA. First, we define the conceptual context of MSA, discuss the two item response theory (IRT) models that constitute the basis of MSA, and discuss how these models differ from other IRT models. Second, we discuss dos and don'ts for MSA; the don'ts include misunderstandings we have frequently encountered with researchers in our three decades of experience with real‐data MSA. Third, we discuss a methodology for MSA on real data that consist of a sample of persons who have provided scores on a set of items that, depending on the composition of the item set, constitute the basis for one or more scales, and we use the methodology to analyse an example real‐data set.     

HUMAN RESPONDING ON RANDOM‐INTERVAL SCHEDULES OF RESPONSE‐COST PUNISHMENT: THE ROLE OF REDUCED REINFORCEMENT DENSITY

An experiment with adult humans investigated the effects of response‐contingent money loss (response‐cost punishment) on monetary‐reinforced responding. A yoked‐control procedure was used to separate the effects on responding of the response‐cost contingency from the effects of reduced reinforcement density. Eight adults pressed buttons for money on a three‐component multiple reinforcement schedule. During baseline, responding in all components produced money gains according to a random‐interval 20‐s schedule. During punishment conditions, responding during the punishment component conjointly produced money losses according to a random‐interval schedule. The value of the response‐cost schedule was manipulated across conditions to systematically evaluate the effects on responding of response‐cost frequency. Participants were assigned to one of two yoked‐control conditions. For participants in the Yoked Punishment group, during punishment conditions money losses were delivered in the yoked component response independently at the same intervals that money losses were produced in the punishment component. For participants in the Yoked Reinforcement group, responding in the yoked component produced the same net earnings as produced in the punishment component. In 6 of 8 participants, contingent response cost selectively decreased response rates in the punishment component and the magnitude of the decrease was directly related to the punishment schedule value. Under punishment conditions, for participants in the Yoked Punishment group response rates in the yoked component also decreased, but the decrease was less than that observed in the punishment component, whereas for participants in the Yoked Reinforcement group response rates in the yoked component remained similar to rates in the no‐punishment component. These results provide further evidence that contingent response cost functions similarly to noxious punishers in that it appears to suppress responding apart from its effects on reinforcement density.     

Rapid acquisition of choice and timing and the provenance of the terminal-link effect

Eight pigeons responded in a concurrent-chains procedure in which terminal-link schedules changed pseudorandomly across sessions. Pairs of terminal-link delays either summed to 15 s or to 45 s. Across sessions, the location of the shorter terminal link changed according to a pseudorandom binary sequence. On some terminal links, food was withheld to obtain start and stop times, measures of temporal control. Log initial-link response ratios stabilized within the first half of each session. Log response ratio was a monotonically-increasing but nonlinear function of programmed log terminal-link immediacy ratio. There was an effect of absolute terminal-link duration on log response ratio: For most subjects, preference for the relatively shorter terminal-link delay was stronger when absolute delays were long than when absolute delays were short. Polynomial regressions and model comparison showed that differences in degree of nonlinearity, not in sensitivity to log immediacy ratio, produced this effect. Temporal control of stop times was timescale invariant with scalar variability, but temporal control of start times was not consistent across subjects or terminal-link durations.     

Hot Sauce,toy guns,and graffiti: A critical account of current laboratory aggression paradigms

In 1996, Tedeschi and Quigley published a review of laboratory aggression research that included many damning criticisms of the genre. This paper revisits Tedeschi and Quigley's critique, and examines the ways that subsequent researchers have addressed the weaknesses they identified. In particular, it examines three new laboratory aggression paradigms (Hot Sauce, Bungled Procedure, and Experimental Graffiti Paradigms) that have attempted to improve upon the “classic” paradigms (Teacher/Learner & Essay Evaluation Paradigms, Competitive Reaction Time Game, Point Subtraction Aggression Paradigm, and Bobo Modelling Paradigm). In each case, this review will show, that although some aspects of the new designs are indeed improvements, many of Tedeschi and Quigley's arguments still apply. In conclusion, this investigation will identify a number of factors that future laboratory aggression researchers should consider. These include: The perceptions and motivations of the aggressor; the apparent distance between the aggressor and the target; the availability of non‐aggressive response options; the problems of demand characteristics, permissive cues and agentic shift; the differences between proactive and reactive aggression, and the distinction between overt and covert forms of aggression. Aggr. Behav. 00:000–000, 2005. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

安乐死立法比较兼立法原则理论初探

通过介绍与借鉴荷兰、美国、日本、比利时等国安乐死立法经验,结合我国立法难的现状,对我国安乐死立法进程进行思考,同时建设性提出了我国安乐死的立法原则:生命权神圣不可侵犯原则,死亡方式选择权有限制的自主决定原则,知情自愿原则,严格程序原则等。