Music Training and Semantic Clustering in College Students

College students with 5 or more years of music training recalled significantly more words from a 16-item word list than did students with 0-4 years of training. The superior recall of the extensively trained students linked to better application of a semantic-clustering strategy across a series of 3 test trials. Music education and language experience may have similar influences on the development of verbal memory.     

Effects of Frustration Increase and Decrease on Percentage of Short Interresponse Times

The finding by H. L. Armus (1986) that short (less than 1 s) interresponse times (IRTs) occur with greater frequency at higher levels of required lever-pressing effort was investigated. It has been hypothesized that greater percentages of short IRTs at higher effort requirements are an expression of frustration (S. Boyer & R. Carroll, 1980); in the present study, between-groups manipulations of effort and reward combinations were made in an attempt to increase and decrease relative frustration and thereby increase and decrease percentages of short IRTs. The subjects were 17 experimentally naive, male Long-Evans rats. Manipulation of effort requirements and reward magnitudes yielded both an increase and a decrease in percentage of short IRTs. The rats switched from low effort and high reward to high effort and low reward demonstrated the greatest increase in percentage of short IRTs, whereas the rats switched from low effort and low reward to high effort and high reward demonstrated a decrease in short IRTs.     

Health psychology in international perspective: A summary and some thoughts for the future

This article reviews the progress made by the field in its short history and attempts to look at developments which seem likely to occur as the field matures.

Recommendations are made for training of health psychologists in the future and a plea is made for international standardisation of health psychology training programmes at the Ph.D. level which incorporate research and clinical training. Health psychologists are further encouraged to take a more active public and political role in order to provide needed visibility for their work.     

Implementing a behavioral medicine program in an internal medicine residency: A description of curriculum content,resources and barriers encountered

Abstract

Many internal medicine training programs are currently developing curricula designed to teach the psychosocial aspects of patient care and doctor-patient communication skills. However, faculty may lack expertise regarding how to accomplish new educational goals in these areas. This article is designed to assist programs by describing in detail how a comprehensive behavioral medicine program was integrated into a general internal medicine program at a university-affiliated community hospital. It describes the program goals, resources needed, content included, obstacles to implementation and potential solutions to the problems encountered.     

Testing mediator variables in a resistance training intervention for obese adults with type 2 diabetes

A poor understanding of behaviour change mechanisms has hindered the development of effective physical activity interventions. The aim of this study was to identify potential mediators of change in a home-based resistance training (RT) program for obese individuals with type 2 diabetes. Obese individuals with type 2 diabetes (N?=?48) were randomly allocated to either an RT intervention (n?=?27) or a control group (n?=?21) for the 16-week study period. The study sample included 16 men and 32 women and the mean age of participants was 54.4 (±11.7) years. Participants in the RT group received a multi-gym and dumbbells and home supervision from a certified personal trainer. RT behaviour was measured using a modified Godin Leisure Time Questionnaire. Social-cognitive constructs were measured and tested in a mediating variable framework using a product-of-coefficients test. The intervention had a significant effect on RT behaviour (p?<?0.001) and muscular strength (p?<?0.001). The intervention had a significant effect on RT planning strategies (p?<?0.01), which mediated the effect of the intervention on RT behaviour. The home-based RT program successfully targeted participants’ RT planning strategies which contributed to their exercise adherence.     

Measuring Situation Awareness in Virtual Environment-Based Training

We evaluated the efficacy of a computer-based situation awareness (SA) measurement system for training dismounted infantry SA in an urban terrain virtual reality (VR) simulation. Based on past research, we hypothesized that the SA measures would be sensitive to individual (squad leader) differences, and that the frequency of specific probes would reveal differences in critical SA requirements among scenarios. Three infantry squads performed multiple trials across two different scenarios. A confederate platoon leader posed probes to squad leaders during trials and experts made ratings afterward. Results revealed squad leaders had similar responses to probes, despite differences in combat experience. Analysis of probe frequency revealed different high priority SA elements and decisions for each scenario. The SA behavior and communication ratings revealed differences among squads, which trended with experience. Measures of SA were also consistent across the test scenario as a result of similar mission types and task difficulties. We discuss the implication of our findings for future research and theory within this area.     

PC-Based Game Features That Influence Instruction and Learner Motivation

PC-based games are currently being used for military training, but the instructional and motivational features of such technology are not well understood. To identify features of training games that influence instruction and motivation, a popular first-person-perspective game with a military theme was analyzed empirically. Twenty-one participants played the “basic training” portion of the game, which included Army background information, virtual marksmanship training, an obstacle course, virtual weapons familiarization, and an urban terrain training mission. The results of this research provide useful information to individuals developing training games, desktop simulations, and interactive multimedia courseware to meet optimal training objectives and strategies.     

Transforming Training: A Perspective on the Need for and Payoffs From Common Standards

Standards today position the research community on the eve of scientific breakthrough. Efficiency and warfighter competency are likely to improve greatly as a result of the feedback and research studies enabled by the use of common standards for defining competencies, assessing performance, and enabling technologies to collect data. Such standards make it possible to evaluate warfighter performance across sites and across time. Standards also make it possible to do rigorous comparisons in the lab, operational simulator settings, and even live exercises. The standardized methods and leveraging of common data will yield unprecedented scientific power and opportunity to rapidly transform training.     

On the Nature of Nonverbal Working Memory Fractionation: A Case of Selective Spatial Short-Term Memory Deficit in a Child

Several lines of research on adult subjects demonstrate a visual/spatial fractionation of nonverbal working memory (WM), while behavioral studies on normal children support the idea of a static/dynamic distinction. In the present paper, we report a child (Z.M.) who failed on nonverbal WM tasks. To verify the nature of his defect, we carried out two experiments: in Experiment 1, Z.M. failed on spatial WM tasks but not on visual WM tasks and was not affected by the static/dynamic format of stimulus presentation; in Experiment 2, this visual/spatial dissociation was extended to the imagery domain. These results are best accounted for within the visual/spatial fractionation of WM and confirmed the role of WM in mental imagery. Clinical and rehabilitative implications of the present findings are also discussed.     

The partnership between the Early Intervention Institute,St Petersburg,and the Anna Freud Centre,London

The authors describe study and teaching links between the Early Intervention Institute in St Petersburg and the Anna Freud Clinic in London. Some brief clinical examples from a variety of settings are given as well as a longer case presentation. The impact of widespread institutional care, alcoholism and terrible housing conditions on child mental health are illustrated. This raises questions about the role of child psychotherapy when social conditions are so harsh. The case material indicates that, despite this, children can be helped in some measure to feel more secure, by the therapist providing constancy and reliability within an often frightening and dangerous external world.