When and how did you go wrong? Characterizing mild functional difficulties in older adults during an everyday task

ABSTRACT

Mild functional difficulties associated with cognitive aging may be reliably measured by coding “micro-errors” during everyday tasks, like meal preparation. Micro-errors made by 25 older adult and 48 younger adults were coded on four dimensions to evaluate the influence of: 1) poor error monitoring; 2) goal decay; 3) competition for response selection when switching to a new subtask; and 4) interference from distractor objects. Micro-errors made by young adults under a dual task load also were analyzed to determine the influence of overall performance level. Older adults’ micro-errors were observed when switching to a new subtask and to unrelated distractors. Slowed error monitoring and goal decay also influenced micro-errors in older adults, but not significantly more so than younger adults under the dual task. Interventions to reduce interference from distractors and to increase attention at critical choice points during tasks may optimize everyday functioning and preclude decline in older adults.     

儿童语言和认知（思维）发展的关系

在对幼儿从出生到３岁语言发展追踪研究和有关实验研究结果的基础上,比较、分析儿童语言和认知（思维）发展的各阶段及起作用的因素,探讨语言发展和认知发展的关系,提出以下几点看法：（１）儿童在１岁前（前语言期）的具体思维阶段有认知（有感知、记忆、表象和思维）,但还没有真正的语言。这说明语言不是先于思维,也不是所有的思维都与语言相联系。但是,人类特有的抽象思维却与语言有着密切的联系。（２）认知（思维）发展是语言发展的基础。（３）认知（思维）发展和语言发展的关系是双向的,辩证的,是复杂地交互作用的。（４）应以辩证的唯物主义的观点来看语言和认知（思维）的产生。人类所以有语言,有高度抽象概括的思维,都源于人类的实践活动。     

Recent advances in research on school-based extracurricular activities and adolescent development

Updating a previous systematic review of the literature, this review summarizes the literature over the last 5 years on the relationship between school-based extracurricular activity participation and academic achievement, substance use, sexual activity, psychological adjustment, and delinquency. The review also considers mediators and moderators of these relationships. This review also discusses recent advances in activity research including participation measurement (intensity, breadth, and duration), person-centered approaches, and an exploration of the overscheduling hypothesis. The review reveals a mixed picture of the relationship between activity participation and these adolescent developmental outcomes. A call for continued exploration into measurement issues, analysis approaches, outcome measures, and causal models of activities and adolescent functioning is made.     

Spiritual Activities for Adults with Alzheimer's Disease: The Cognitive Components of Dementia and Religion

SUMMARY

Engaging adults with Alzheimer's disease in activities can prevent disease related agitation. Finding meaningful and enjoyable activities proves to be a difficult task due to severe damage to explicit memory and executive functioning. Fortunately, many spiritual and religious activities rely on more resilient cognitive features such as procedural memory and limbic system aspects of attachment and motivation. Such spiritual activities, if properly selected, can be used to engage adults with dementia. This approach, called Procedural and Emotional Religious Activity Therapy, can be used by various religious traditions and extended to multiple therapeutic venues.     

Reductive and Emergent Views on Motor Learning in Rehabilitation Practice

To allow different views on motor learning to inform rehabilitation research, the authors aimed to explicate a frequently missed yet fundamental difference in starting point of such views. By considering how rehabilitation in practice answers the question of what parts an activity consists of, reductive and emergent approaches to motor learning are identified and traced throughout rehabilitation practice. The authors show that when a task is cut up along reductive dimensions while also apparently relying on emergent components, this unequally favors the reductive approach and acts to limit the views on motor learning available. By showing the approaches in practice, the authors hope to inspire an awareness that brings both approaches the opportunity to independently inform research so that new theories and practices can proliferate.     

婴儿气质及母亲的养育态度与亲子日常活动的关系

本研究以430名母亲及其婴儿作为研究对象,应用婴儿气质行为评定量表(Infant Behavior Questionnaires,IBQ)、养育压力量表(ParentingStress Index,PSI)及母亲与婴儿的日常活动问卷对6个月婴儿气质、母亲的养育态度及母亲与婴儿的日常活动进行调查。结果表明婴儿气质中的积极情绪与母亲-婴儿日常活动有显著的正相关关系;母亲的养育态度,主要是母亲对养育困扰的评价,与亲子日常活动中的认知刺激活动呈显著的负相关性;多元回归分析表明母亲的受教育水平在婴儿气质、母亲的养育态度与亲子日常认知刺激活动之间的关系中具有调节作用。     

Your Own Personal Jesus? Doctrinal Beliefs Versus Personal Spirituality Among Inmates Involved in the Monastery Route in Swedish Prisons

Previous studies, mainly from the United States, have indicated that religious beliefs can help inmates to cope with imprisonment and to build hopes for the future. The purpose of this study was to examine if this is the case also in Sweden, which is usually considered to be one of the most secular countries in the world. The data consist of semistructured interviews with 14 prisoners participating in the so‐called Monastery Route activities within Swedish prisons. Although the activities are based on Christianity, the explicit aim is to invite individuals from all religions, as well as those with an open attitude toward spirituality. How do the inmates formulate their beliefs (if any) along the lines of doctrinal religiousness and personal spirituality, respectively? And, how does this orientation affect the ability to cope with imprisonment, as well as the views of the future? The results show that a small number of the participants defined themselves as Christian, but that the majority had instead developed a more personal form of spirituality. This provided them with a means of working with themselves and gave them a sense of inner calm. The study's findings are contrasted against conflicting results from the United States.     

Newcomer psychological contracts and employee socialization activities: Does perceived balance in obligations matter?

We sought to determine the extent to which one’s beliefs about the relationship between an employee and an organization at the start of employment influence subsequent socialization activities. The balance of employee exchange relationships, employee perceptions of both their own obligations and the employers’ obligations, were collected from 120 newcomers in a public sector organization on the first day of employment and again three months later. We found the relationship between employee obligations and two socialization activities (time with mentor and time spent in training) depended on the employee’s perceptions of what the employer owed the employee, such that employees in unbalanced relationships tended to engage in more socialization activities than employees in balanced relationships.     

Happiness in Everyday Life: The Uses of Experience Sampling

This paper uses the Experience Sampling Method data drawn from a national sample of American youth. It examines the proximal environmental factors as well as behaviors and habits that correlate to personal happiness. Momentary-level scores show that reported happiness varies significantly both by day of week and time of day. Furthermore, particular activities are associated with varying degrees of happiness. School activities rate below average scores in happiness, while social, active and passive leisure activities are above average. Particular companions also correlate to differing level of happiness. Being alone rates the lowest levels of happiness, while being with friend corresponds to the highest. Person-level averages of happiness suggest that both higher social class and age correlate with lower levels of happiness, while gender and race do not. Paradoxically, youth who spend more time in school and social activities are happier than those who spend less. Unexpectedly, students who spend more time pleasure reading report lower levels of happiness. Finally, feeling good about the self, excited, proud, sociable, active as well as being in the conditions for flow experience are the strongest predictors of trait happiness.