Children born with very low birth weight show difficulties with sustained attention but not response inhibition

Children born with very low birth weight perform poorly on executive function and attention measures. Any difficulties with sustained attention may underpin impairments in performance on tasks measuring higher order cognitive control. Previous sustained attention research in very low birth weight cohorts has used tasks that involve arousing stimuli, potentially spoiling the measure of sustained attention. The aim of this study was to compare the performance of very low birth weight and normal birth weight children on a well-controlled task of sustained attention. The Fixed and Random versions of the Sustained Attention to Response Task were given to 17 very low birth weight and 18 normal birth weight children. The very low birth weight group performed the Fixed and Random Sustained Attention to Response Tasks in a similar manner as the normal birth weight group on all measures except for the omission error and Slow Frequency Area under the Spectra variables on the Fixed Sustained Attention to Response Task. These measures index lapses in sustained attention that may be underpinned by declining arousal. The very low birth weight group showed no response inhibition deficits. Omission errors and slow-timescale response-time variability on predictable tasks may thus present sensitive indices of difficulties with sustained attention and arousal associated with premature birth and low birth weight.     

Local and global aspects of biological motion perception in children born at very low birth weight

Biological motion perception can be assessed using a variety of tasks. In the present study, 8- to 11-year-old children born prematurely at very low birth weight (<1500 g) and matched, full-term controls completed tasks that required the extraction of local motion cues, the ability to perceptually group these cues to extract information about body structure, and the ability to carry out higher order processes required for action recognition and person identification. Preterm children exhibited difficulties in all 4 aspects of biological motion perception. However, intercorrelations between test scores were weak in both full-term and preterm children—a finding that supports the view that these processes are relatively independent. Preterm children also displayed more autistic-like traits than full-term peers. In preterm (but not full-term) children, these traits were negatively correlated with performance in the task requiring structure-from-motion processing, r(30) = ?.36, p < .05), but positively correlated with the ability to extract identity, r(30) = .45, p < .05). These findings extend previous reports of vulnerability in systems involved in processing dynamic cues in preterm children and suggest that a core deficit in social perception/cognition may contribute to the development of the social and behavioral difficulties even in members of this population who are functioning within the normal range intellectually. The results could inform the development of screening, diagnostic, and intervention tools.     

What difference does counselling make? – The perceptions of drug‐using clients on low incomes

Context: This paper reports on a qualitative study looking at the perceptions of clients who use drugs and are on low income. Research suggests that counselling services can experience difficulties in reaching and retaining such clients, and outcomes of counselling can be disappointing. Aim: To learn from clients who had engaged in counselling for over six months what difference it had made to their lives. Method: Grounded theory methodology was used to analyse semi‐structured interviews with six participants. Findings: Findings included changes in the clients’ internal world, their connectedness with society, their familiarity with counselling, and their perception of the relationship with the counsellor. Factors within the counselling process which helped and hindered change were identified. The study documents how participants were able to use counselling to improve their lives.     

不同视觉区域OUP效应的眼动研究

摘 要 采用眼动方法,通过两个实验考察了不同视觉区域的OUP效应。结果显示：（1）当刺激材料分别平行呈现于左侧视觉区域和右侧视觉区域时,在右侧视觉区域产生了OUP效应,而在左侧视觉区域没有OUP效应,我们假设是由于左侧视觉区域首字母距离中央凹的不利位置影响了OUP效应的产生。（2）当垂直方向呈现刺激时,在两侧视觉区域均产生了明显的OUP效应,表明首字母距离中央凹处于有利位置时不会影响OUP效应的产生。实验结果支持了大脑左半球和右半球在词汇识别时的策略为系列加工,对左半球平行加工右半球系列加工的结论提出了质疑。     

Automatic and controlled cognitive responses to intergroup threat as assessed using the process dissociation procedure: a study of a low-status group from China

Xiang, L. & Zhao, Y. (2012). Automatic and controlled cognitive responses to intergroup threat as assessed using the process dissociation procedure: A study of a low-status group from China. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology 53, 280-285. Explicit and implicit methods are typically employed to investigate the respective controlled and automatic cognitive responses to intergroup threat. However, these may not be "process pure" measures of automatic or controlled responses. The present study used the process dissociation procedure to investigate the relative contributions of automatic and controlled cognitive responses to intergroup threat. Following exposure to a threat/no threat manipulation, fifty Chinese rural undergraduates who were regarded as low-status group members completed a recognition memory task, in which they were asked to identify all or select "old" (previously presented) trait words relating to an urban outgroup. The results showed that compared to the non-threat group, when rural members perceived threat from an urban group, their automatic response was a decrease in favoritism for this outgroup, but was not derogative, whereas the controlled response was neither positive nor negative. These findings are inconsistent with previous research using explicit and implicit methods. The reasons for this discrepancy are discussed.     

The pigeon's perception of saturation.

Three experiments used similar methods to investigate the pigeon's perception of saturation of monochromatic lights. This trial-wise procedure consisted of brief presentations of positive and negative stimuli in random sequence. Pecks to the positive stimuli were occasionally reinforced on a low fixed-ratio schedule. The first study determined absolute thresholds for "white" and monochromatic lights by establishing a discrimination between lights of various radiances and a dark key. Experiment II investigated generalization from a white light to various monochromatic lights under conditions that minimized the use of luminance as a cue. The third experiment examined discrimination of various monochromatic lights along a colorimetric purity continuum; responses to white light were reinforced, while responses to lights that combined white and monochromatic lights in various proportions were not. The results indicated that lights of different wavelength differ in saturation, but that all are discriminable from white. Wavelengths between 550 and 600 nm are least saturated for the pigeon, and saturation increases markedly as wavelength decreases below this region of the spectrum.     

Studies of operant and reflexive key pecks in the pigeon

The duration of pigeons' key pecks was studied in three experiments. Experiment I revealed that key pecks early in exposure to continuous reinforcement were of short duration, as were key pecks observed on an omission procedure in which pecks prevented food delivery. Key pecks later in exposure to continuous reinforcement, and those that occurred on positive automaintenance procedures, were of long duration. In Experiment II, pigeons were exposed to fixed-interval and fixed-ratio reinforcement schedules, and durations were recorded separately for each quarter of each interval or ratio. On fixed interval, durations were shorter in the first quarter of each interval than in subsequent quarters; on fixed ratio, durations were longer in the first quarter of the ratio than in subsequent quarters. These data parallel observations of concurrent operant responding and salivation in dogs. In Experiment III, pigeons were exposed to a discrete trial, differential-reinforcement-of-low-rate 6-sec schedule. Durations of responses in the first 2 sec of the trial were substantially shorter than those of responses that occurred later. The data from all three experiments support the view that the pigeon's "key peck" actually consists of two subclasses of peck, one reflexive and one operant.