Sensory Modulation for People with Anxiety in a Community Mental Health Setting

Anxiety is a common mental health issue involving cognitive and physiological hypersensitivity to threat. It negatively affects occupational participation. Sensory modulation intervention aims to use calming sensory input to manage the hypersensitivity and physiological arousal associated with anxiety. The empirical evidence for using sensory interventions for anxiety, however, is limited. This mixed methods single subject case design explored the effectiveness of a 6-week sensory modulation intervention for reducing anxiety and improving occupational participation. Results showed significant reduction in anxiety and improved participation, providing further evidence that sensory modulation is an effective approach for the self-management of anxiety.     

Emotion Regulation as a Moderator of Outcomes of Transdiagnostic Group Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Emotional Disorders

The aim of this study was to examine the potential moderating effect of baseline emotion regulation skills—cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression—on the relationship between treatment allocation and treatment outcomes in primary care patients with emotional symptoms. A total of 631 participants completed scales to evaluate emotion regulation, anxiety, depression, functioning, and quality of life (QOL). The moderation analysis was carried out using the SPSS PROCESS macro, version 3.5. Expressive suppression was a significant moderator in the relationship between treatment allocation and treatment outcomes in terms of symptoms of anxiety (b = −0.530, p = .026), depression (b = −0.812, p = .004), and QOL (b = 0.156, p = .048). Cognitive reappraisal acted as a moderator only in terms of QOL (b = 0.217, p = .028). The findings of this study show that participants with higher scores of expressive suppression benefited more from the addition of transdiagnostic cognitive-behavioral therapy to treatment as usual (TAU) in terms of anxiety and depressive symptoms, and QOL. Individuals with higher levels of cognitive reappraisal obtained a greater benefit in terms of QOL from the addition of psychological treatment to TAU. These results underscore the relevant role that emotion regulation skills play in the outcomes of psychological therapy for emotional symptoms.     

“近朱者赤”：同事主动行为如何激发员工动机和绩效

以往有关主动性的研究通常聚焦员工本身, 忽略了团队或组织中同事会对员工行为产生影响这一重要管理实践和理论视角。为此, 本研究以社会学习理论为基础, 探讨了同事主动行为对员工自主动机和工作绩效的影响, 以及员工主动性人格的调节作用。通过多时点、上下级匹配问卷(研究1)及情景实验(研究2)两项研究, 本文发现, 同事主动行为可以激发员工的自主动机, 进而提升工作绩效; 并且, 员工主动性人格强化了同事主动行为对员工自主动机的正向作用。本研究不仅从理论上将现有关于主动行为的研究视角迁移到同事, 也为如何更好地激励员工提供了实践指导。     

员工跨界行为的收益与代价：元分析的证据

为探究员工跨界行为产生的影响、作用机制和边界条件, 通过文献检索、筛选和编码, 对50项员工跨界行为研究的52个独立样本(总样本量N = 14366)进行元分析, 结果表明: 员工跨界行为既会产生收益也需要付出代价, 收益表现为员工跨界行为提升工作满意度、组织承诺、绩效和创新, 付出的代价表现为跨界行为引发角色压力。员工跨界行为与结果变量的关系受员工类型(知识型员工-非知识型员工)和个人主义-集体主义、权力距离的调节。工作态度在员工跨界行为和绩效、创新的关系中发挥中介效应, 但在跨界行为和压力与耗竭的关系中出现了遮掩效应。本元分析为员工跨界行为提供了综合而可靠的结论, 对未来员工跨界行为的相关研究具有一定借鉴意义。     

Executive functions,math anxiety and math performance in middle school students

Previous studies mainly investigated working memory (WM) and math anxiety (MA) leaving almost unexplored other aspects of executive functions (EFs) in middle school period. Filling the gap in the literature, the aims of this study were: (1) to better examine the relationship between MA and math performance, (2) to better examine the relationship between EFs and math performance and (3) to investigate the interplay between EFs and MA on math performances. This study confirmed a significant and negative relationship between MA and math performance, indicates a significant and positive relationship between visuospatial WM and math performance, shifting and math performance and highlight a scarcely investigated indirect influence of MA through the measure of shifting on math performance. Our findings shed further light on the mediating role of EFs between MA and math performance and underline some future perspectives.     

The relationship between simulator sickness and driving performance in a high-fidelity simulator

Driving simulators are highly valuable tools for various applications such as research, training, and rehabilitation. However, they are also known to cause simulator sickness, a special form of traditional motion sickness. Common side effects of simulator sickness include nausea, headache, dizziness, eye-strain, and/or disorientation, all symptoms which may negatively impact driving performance. The goal of the present study was to investigate the relationship between simulator sickness and driving performance obtained in a high-fidelity driving simulator. Twenty-one healthy participants were engaged in a simulated driving task containing rural, city, and highway sections for approx. 25 min. Participants were asked to drive naturally while obeying traffic rules and completing common driving maneuvers (including reactions to sudden events). Driving performance was evaluated based on various driving measures, such as lane positioning, speed measures, following distance, or the number of steering reversals. Simulator sickness was measured before, during, and after the simulated drive using a combination of the Simulator Sickness Questionnaire and the Fast Motion Sickness scale. Overall, correlations between the level of simulator sickness and driving performance measures were low to moderate (r’s from -0.37 to 0.40) and were not significant. Additionally, participants who reported higher levels of simulator sickness did not differ with regards to their driving performance from those who reported lower simulator sickness scores. Our results suggest that the presence of simulator sickness is not strongly related to performance in a driving simulator.     

Effect of multiple monitoring requests on vigilance and readiness by measuring eye movement and takeover performance

Drivers do not need to supervise the L3 automated driving system but have to resume dynamic driving tasks when necessary, where the takeover request system plays a crucial role in alerting drivers to take over control. Previous studies have investigated the feasibility of the two-stage takeover system, which divides the takeover request system into monitoring requests and takeover requests. However, whether it will affect drivers’ situation awareness and takeover performance if the monitoring request is issued multiple times without the takeover request has not been fully considered. This research conducted a driving simulation study to investigate the effect of multiple monitoring requests on participants’ vigilance to monitoring requests and readiness for takeover requests by measuring their eye movement and takeover performance. Forty-two participants experienced three kinds of takeover conditions: no monitoring request, once monitoring request, and four monitoring requests. Simultaneously, the eye movement and takeover performance of participants were recorded and analyzed. Results showed that participants gained sufficient situation awareness in the monitoring request phase and showed better takeover performance in the two-stage takeover system than the single-stage takeover system. However, participants’ vigilance to the monitoring request and readiness for the takeover request decreased after experiencing multiple monitoring requests. Specifically, 62% and 59% of participants put their hands on the steering wheel during the monitoring request phase when experiencing the first monitoring request, which decreased to 35% after experiencing four monitoring requests. Moreover, after experiencing multiple monitoring requests, more participants shifted their attention to non-driving-related tasks after first observing the road and with a reduced percentage of time in the road center. These findings suggest that the monitoring request should be more reasonable to avoid reducing the vigilance and readiness of drivers to take advantage of the two-stage takeover system effectively.     

Critical reflections on second-generation mindfulness-based interventions

ObjectivesThe purpose of this paper is to provide a critical introduction on Second-Generation Mindfulness-Based Interventions (SG-MBIs) to sport and performance psychology scholars and practitioners.MethodThis essay is written as a commentary on Roychowdhury et al.’s, (2021, this issue) article in this issue. Specifically, I apply theoretical insights from Roychowdhury et al., (2021, this issue) to the practical model of SG-MBIs.ResultsI find that SG-MBIs attempt to respond to ethical concerns with the ways that mindfulness has been commodified, secularized, and universalized through appeals to cultural authenticity.DiscussionWhile acknowledging the cultural contexts from which practices like mindfulness have been taken is important, appeals to cultural authenticity often reproduce fixed and essentializing constructions of culture and are easily coopted by neoliberal multiculturalism.ConclusionAs sport and performance psychology professionals reflect on the next generation of mindfulness-based interventions, it will be important to attend to the contextual flexibility of neoliberalism to universalize and essentialize.     

What do we know about the effects of mental training applied to combat sports? A systematic review

ObjectivesThis study aimed to investigate the effects of mental training applied to combat sports athletes.MethodsA systematic review was conducted, following the criteria recommended by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement, from inception up to February 2021, with an electronic search in PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, PsycINFO, and SPORTDiscus databases. As eligibility criteria, this review included original studies that carried out any type of mental training, with or without a control group, acute or chronic, in combat sports athletes, of both sexes, age >16 and < 45 years old, from any competitive level, and evaluated the effect of these interventions on psychological measures. The quality assessment was conducted through the application of the Cochrane Collaboration tool.ResultsIn total, 1921 studies were found and after application of the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 21 articles were included in this review. A total of 417 subjects were investigated from the 21 studies. As results, despite the variations in the type and characteristics of the interventions, studies showed that mental training seems to improve anxiety, mood, self-confidence, emotions, cohesion, emotional balance, and relaxation, in addition to physical and athletic performance.ConclusionsThis systematic review based on the evidence from the selected studies indicates that mental training seems to be beneficial for athletes in combat modalities, while combat sports can benefit from mental training in preparation, competition, and recovery. However, the interpretation of these findings must consider that there is limited scientific production with good quality studies investigating the effects of psychological intervention protocols in athletes of combat sports in different combat modalities.Prospero register numberCRD42020169793.     

Simultaneous and alternate combinations of action-observation and motor imagery involve a common lower-level sensorimotor process

Combining the motor simulation techniques of action observation and motor imagery (AOMI) is known to enhance motor performance more than when these techniques are presented in isolation. The present study examined the involvement of lower-level sensorimotor processes for the improvement in a dart-throwing task using AOMI. Novice participants (n = 70) were assessed on their dart-throwing both before and after a six-week AOMI training intervention that was contingent upon the random allocation of groups. Participants were randomly allocated into groups involving AOMI, where they observed either a congruent action, incongruent action or fixation cross (control), while simultaneously or alternately imagining the dart-throwing task. Dart-throwing performance was significantly more improved for the simultaneous- and alternate-congruent groups compared to the simultaneous-fixation and control groups. There was no indication of improvement by any of the other groups. This improvement appeared to coincide with lower EMG activity at the agonist and antagonist muscles, which would indicate greater movement efficiency. The findings suggest that AOMI involves a common lower-level sensorimotor process, which can lead to motor facilitation or interference, dependent upon whether the simulation techniques are congruent or incongruent with each other, respectively. What's more, this feature does not appear to differ as a function of the structure of delivery (i.e., simultaneous vs. alternate).