双任务协调、任务呈现方式影响成人算术策略执行:估算证据

前人研究显示中央执行影响算术策略的执行。双任务协调作为中央执行的执行功能之一,是否会影响个体的策略执行?采用选择\无选法与改进的心理不应期范式,探讨随机/固定呈现方式下,双任务协调对算术策略执行的影响。结果表明:双任务协调影响策略执行,双反应策略执行效能显著差于单反应;任务呈现方式影响策略执行,固定方式优于随机方式;任务呈现序列影响策略执行反应时,数字先呈现的估算策略执行效能显著差于图形先呈现。总之,双任务协调、任务呈现方式影响算术策略执行,固定方式引起更明显的双任务协调代价。     

Exercising the Body,Exercising Citizenship: On the History of Scouting in Saudi Arabia

ABSTRACT

Scouting was one of the first modern ‘sports’ to reach Saudi Arabia, with the first boy scout troops dating back to 1943. Yet scouting has largely escaped the attention of historians and social scientist who study the Arab Gulf states, since this uniformed youth movement does not conform to the ‘tribal modern’ identity that is today propagated and researched within the region, as found, for example, in the discourse on heritage sports. How did a Saudi scouting movement take root, importing what is still largely perceived to be a Western cultural practice, identified with a white British-North American middle class? The research demonstrates that the scouting movement was able to take hold in the region by negotiating the universal ideals of modernity and internationalism of the scouting movement with more particular understandings of nationalism and social reform. Following the trajectories of the early Saudi scouting movement, the analysis traces how the conception of what constitutes ‘modern’ evolved from an understanding that emphasizes universal traits, toward a negotiated and particularised interpretation of what ‘modern’ means and should mean in the local context of Saudi Arabia.     

The bicycle and the dream of a sustainable city: An explorative comparison of the image of bicycles in the mass-media and the general public

This paper explores the representation of the bicycle by comparing data from various mass media sources and the general public in Italy. In study 1, a number of commercial advertisements published on paper magazines and aired by the major TV channels, as well as 405 articles published by the major online newspapers were content analysed in order to identify the main concepts and evaluations characterising the representation of bikes in the media. In study 2, 94 Rome residents were interviewed on their beliefs regarding the pros and cons of using the bike in the city and their perceived social approval. Results showed several points of overlap between the two representations, although different themes and structures emerged as well.     

Envisioning human service organizations free of microaggressions

Microaggressions refer to verbal or non-verbal communications that invalidate those with non-dominant group identities across all dimensions of human diversity. Within human service organizations (HSOs), microaggressions may lower therapeutic alliance, reduce retention, and result in negative outcomes. While understanding the type, frequency, and damaging impact of microaggressions are useful and well established in research, less is known about the organizational policies, practices, behaviors, and values needed to reduce or eradicate microaggressions within human service contexts. Utilizing three focus groups and four individual interviews with adults who received services from HSOs, this qualitative study explored: What would HSOs need to learn, practice, and believe in order to be free of microaggressions? Sixteen participants reported on the provider's knowledge and behaviors, organizational environment, and institutional characteristics needed to create an organization free of microaggressions. Limitations of existing approaches and implications to develop more equitable practices within HSOs are discussed.     

The minimal self hypothesis

For millennia self has been conjectured to be necessary for consciousness. But scant empirical evidence has been adduced to support this hypothesis. Inconsistent explications of “self” and failure to design apt experiments have impeded progress. Advocates of phenomenological psychiatry, however, have helped explicate “self,” and employed it to explain some psychopathological symptoms. In those studies, “self” is understood in a minimalist sense, sheer “for-me-ness.” Unfortunately, explication of the “minimal self” (MS) has relied on conceptual analysis, and applications to psychopathology have been hermeneutic, allowing for many degrees of interpretive latitude. The result is that MS’s current scientific status is analogous to that of the “atom,” at the time when “atom” was just beginning to undergo transformation from a philosophical to a scientific concept. Fortunately, there is now an opportunity to promote a similar transformation for “MS.” Discovery of the brain’s Default Mode Network (DMN) opened the door to neuroimaging investigations of self. Taking the DMN and other forms of intrinsic activity as a starting point, an empirical foothold can be established, one that spurs experimental research and that enables extension of research into multiple phenomena. New experimental protocols that posit “MS” can help explain phenomena hitherto not thought to be related to self, thereby hastening development of a mature science of self. In particular, targeting phenomena wherein consciousness is lost and recovered, as in some cases of Unresponsive Wakefulness Syndrome (UWS), allow for design of neuroimaging probes that enable detection of MS during non-conscious states. These probes, as well as other experimental protocols applied to NREM Sleep, General Anesthesia (GA), and the waking state, provide some evidence to suggest that not only can self and consciousness dissociate, MS might be a necessary precondition for conscious experience. Finally, these findings have implications for the science of consciousness: it has been suggested that “levels of consciousness” (LoC) is not a legitimate concept for the science of consciousness. But because we have the conceptual and methodological tools with which to refine investigations of MS, we have the means to identify a possible foundation—a bifurcation point—for consciousness, as well as the means by which to measure degrees of distance from that foundation. These neuroimaging investigations of MS position us to better assess whether LoC has a role to play in a mature science of consciousness.     

Evaluation of The Practitioner Online Referral and Treatment Service (PORTS): the first 18 months of a state-wide digital service for adults with anxiety,depression, or substance use problems

ABSTRACT

The Practitioner Online Referral and Treatment Service (PORTS) is a new digital mental health service (DMHS) providing assessment, treatment, and consultation across Western Australia, for adults with anxiety, depression, or substance use problems, and experiencing financial hardship or geographical disadvantage. From July 2017 to December 2018, a total of 2,527 individuals were referred to PORTS. Of these, 150 (6%) did not give consent for their results to be analysed. Of the remaining 2,377 patients, 615 (26%) could not be contacted to confirm the referral, 596 (25%) received assessment or information from PORTS, 427 (18%) were referred to another service, and 739 (31%) commenced treatment at PORTS. Almost half (47%) of patients were from areas with significant socio-economic disadvantage. Those referred by another mental health service were more likely to engage in treatment than those referred by a General Practitioner (GP). Overall outcomes were excellent, with large effect sizes (Cohen’s d: 1.1–1.4), from assessment to post-treatment and 3-month follow-up, reliable deterioration was low, and GP and patient satisfaction was high. These results indicate that the PORTS DMHS model is a promising method for engaging primary care patients with anxiety and depression, including those experiencing financial and geographical disadvantage.