Teachers’ Experience, Attitudes, Feelings and Behavioural Intentions towards Children with Special Educational Needs

This project examined teachers’ attitudes to children with special educational needs. Understanding the implicit and explicit attitudes of teachers is an important precursor to improving teaching practices for children with special needs. Participants (N=77) were pre-service teachers and experienced teachers during in-service training courses. Results showed that behavioural intentions related to explicit rather than implicit attitudes, and that feelings of guilt and anxiety were associated with intentions for negative actions. Profiles of attitudes were substantially similar in terms of personal and teaching experiences. However, attitudes were less positive about children with low social skills and more positive about children with low cognitive skills. Findings have direct application to training teachers of children with special educational needs.     

阿尔兹海默症及轻度认知障碍静息态大尺度脑网络功能连接的改变

静息态功能磁共振成像作为非侵入性可视化成像方法, 且数据采集简便易行, 已成为探索阿尔兹海默症及轻度认知障碍脑功能变异的主要成像手段。近年来静息态研究显示在其前驱症状期轻度认知障碍阶段患者已显现出静息态脑网络的变异, 而阿尔兹海默症患者的网络改变更加弥散。研究发现随着病程推进, 患者显示出默认网络连接逐渐减弱以及额叶认知网络连接先增强后减弱的整体趋势。此外, 脑结构和功能网络的改变并非单向因果关系, 二者在病程进展中存在交互作用。未来研究可以从诊断的标志性神经通路、疗效的大尺度脑网络标记, 以及疾病的异质性等角度入手, 进一步探索静息态脑网络作为阿尔兹海默症诊断和病程监控指标的可能性。     

Mental health and mediumship: an interpretative phenomenological analysis

There is a lack of research examining the mental health of practicing mediums, yet the nature of mediumship work inherently presents a number of challenges to the mental health of practitioners. In this study, we aimed to gain an understanding of how mediums experience their mental health in relation to their mediumistic practice and how they recognise and respond to psychological difficulties experienced by their clients. Fourteen mediums from the North West of England took part in one-to-one interviews, which were transcribed and subject to interpretative phenomenological analysis. Four themes were identified: from past traumas to mediumistic identity; spirit makes sense, mental illness is chaos; being resilient but vulnerable; and ethical mediumistic practice. The research highlights the value of not dismissing or attempting to change appraisals of valued aspects of mediums’ anomalous experiences. However, the findings do indicate that support for exposure to clients’ difficulties might be helpful.     

Visual associations to retrieve episodic memory across healthy elderly,mild cognitive impairment,and patients with Alzheimer’s disease

Episodic memory tests need to determine the degree to which patients with moderate to severe memory deficits can still benefit from retrieval support. Especially in the case of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), this may support health care to be more closely aligned with patients’ memory capacities. We investigated whether the different measures of episodic memory of the Visual Association Test-Extended (VAT-E) can provide a more detailed and informative assessment on memory disturbances across a broad range of cognitive decline, from normal to severe impairment as seen in AD, by examining differences in floor effects. The VAT-E consists of 24 pairs of black-and-white line drawings. In a within-group design, we compared score distributions of VAT-E subtests in healthy elderly controls, mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and AD (n = 144), as well as in relation to global cognitive impairment. Paired associate recall showed a floor effect in 41% of MCI patients and 62% of AD patients. Free recall showed a floor effect in 73% of MCI patients and 84% of AD patients. Multiple-choice cued recognition did not show a floor effect in either of the patient groups. We conclude that the VAT-E covers a broad range of episodic memory decline in patients. As expected, paired associate recall was of intermediate difficulty, free recall was most difficult, and multiple-choice cued recognition was least difficult for patients. These varying levels of difficulty enable a more accurate determination of the level of retrieval support that can still benefit patients across a broad range of cognitive decline.     

汉语聋生与健听生口语叙事和书面叙事发展特征的比较研究

以小学3-5年级的汉语聋生为被试,考察其口语叙事与书面叙事的发展特征,并与健听生比较,揭示聋生叙事发展特征的特异性。结果发现：（1）无论口语叙事还是书面叙事,聋生和健听生在宏观结构上表现相当,但聋生在微观结构上表现较差。（2）在宏观结构和平均句长上,无论健听生还是聋生,书面叙事得分均显著好于口语叙事;（3）在词汇密度上,健听生在口语叙事和书面叙事上的表现相当,但聋生的词汇密度在口语叙事下表现较差。（4）在词汇丰富性和词汇密度指标上,聋生和健听生存在年级间发展特征的差异。研究结果对聋生的叙事教学有重要启示。     

Neuropsychological Functioning Associated with High-Altitude Exposure

This article focuses on neuropsychological functioning at moderate, high, and extreme altitude. This article summarizes the available literature on respiratory, circulatory, and brain determinants on adaptation to hypoxia that are hypothesized to be responsible for neuropsychological impairment due to altitude. Effects on sleep are also described. At central level, periventricular focal damages (leuko-araiosis) and cortical atrophy have been observed. Frontal lobe and middle temporal lobe alterations are also presumed. A review is provided regarding the effects on psychomotor performance, perception, learning, memory, language, cognitive flexibility, and metamemory. Increase of reaction time and latency of P300 are observed. Reduced thresholds of tact, smell, pain, and taste, together with somesthetic illusions and visual hallucinations have been reported. Impairment in codification and short-term memory are especially noticeable above 6,000 m. Alterations in accuracy and motor speed are identified at lower altitudes. Deficits in verbal fluency, language production, cognitive fluency, and metamemory are also detected. The moderating effects of personality variables over the above-mentioned processes are discussed. Finally, methodological flaws found in the literature are detailed and some applied proposals are suggested.     

Towards a geography of voice-hearing

The social psychiatrists Marius Romme and Sandra Escher argue that boundaries are of critical importance in the therapeutic treatment of so-called ‘auditory verbal hallucinations’ (AVH), or, what is better known as, ‘hearing voices’. Limiting voices to a specific time and place, they argue, helps ‘voice-hearers’ to take back control from their voices. This paper draws inspiration from contemporary debates on sonic geographies to explore what it means for voice-hearers to engage in a complex relationship with their voices. We analyse a range of material and affective spaces to understand what it means for a voice-hearer to transcend, mediate and rework the boundaries between interior and exterior worlds. Besides a detailed conceptual discussion on the geography of voices and voicehearing, we conducted semi-structured interviews with a sample of thirty voice-hearers in North-East and South-East England to gain insight into their voice geographies. The participants move us to appreciate how voice-hearers construe relationships with their voices in complex and ambiguous ways. Some voice-hearers were able to challenge and even change the balance of power, allowing them to be ‘in control’, while others were not. The paper is aimed at introducing voice-hearing to a growing body of work on geographies of the voice.     

Examining the reliability of ADAS-Cog change scores

The purpose of this study was to estimate and examine ways to improve the reliability of change scores on the Alzheimer’s Disease Assessment Scale, Cognitive Subtest (ADAS-Cog). The sample, provided by the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative, included individuals with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) (n = 153) and individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) (n = 352). All participants were administered the ADAS-Cog at baseline and 1 year, and change scores were calculated as the difference in scores over the 1-year period. Three types of change score reliabilities were estimated using multivariate generalizability. Two methods to increase change score reliability were evaluated: reweighting the subtests of the scale and adding more subtests. Reliability of ADAS-Cog change scores over 1 year was low for both the AD sample (ranging from .53 to .64) and the MCI sample (.39 to .61). Reweighting the change scores from the AD sample improved reliability (.68 to .76), but lengthening provided no useful improvement for either sample. The MCI change scores had low reliability, even with reweighting and adding additional subtests. The ADAS-Cog scores had low reliability for measuring change. Researchers using the ADAS-Cog should estimate and report reliability for their use of the change scores. The ADAS-Cog change scores are not recommended for assessment of meaningful clinical change.     

Trainee therapists’ views on the alliance in psychotherapy and supervision: a longitudinal study

The shape of alliance in psychotherapy and supervision using growth curve modeling was examined for clinically inexperienced trainee therapists, who were engaged in long-term cognitive behavioral - or psychodynamic individual psychotherapy at a Psychology Clinic in Sweden. Trainee therapists rated their view of the alliance with their clients and their supervisors on the Working Alliance Inventory at five time points. The alliance to the client show a consistent, positive development throughout the therapy. The alliance to the supervisors show initially a decrease, followed by an increase, and then again, the rate of increase in the supervisory alliance ratings slowed down indicating a more complex view of the supervisory alliance compared to the view of the alliance in psychotherapy.