Effects of White Noise on Off-Task Behavior and Sleep for Elementary-Age Students with ADHD

Abstract

Children with ADHD were administered 75?dB of continuous white noise during independent seat work in the classroom and during bedtime in their homes. Compared to baseline all three students exhibited decreases in off-task behavior. Off-task behavior returned to original baseline levels when white noise was removed and decreased again when reintroduced in classrooms. White noise also decreased bedtime sleep latency and spontaneous night wakings at home. Both sleep latencies and night wakings increased during return-to-baseline conditions. Surprisingly, when white noise was reintroduced only in the classrooms sleep improved a second time. White noise in classrooms with or without simultaneous treatment during sleep at night resulted in lower levels of off-task classroom behavior as well as less disruptive sleep. Results were independent of whether children were on ADHD medication. Children, teachers, and parents all rated white noise favorably.     

Bion’s discovery of alpha function: Thinking under fire on the battlefield and in the consulting room

This paper has traced Bion’s discovery of alpha function and its subsequent elaboration. His traumatic experiences as a young tank commander in World War I (overlaid on, and intertwined with, childhood conflicts) gave him firsthand exposure to very painful emotions that tested his capacity to manage. Later, in the 1950s, after his analysis with Melanie Klein and marriage to Francesca Bion, he undertook the analysis of psychotic patients and learned how they disassembled their ability to know reality as a defense against unbearable emotional truths in their lives. This led Bion to identify an aspect of dreaming that was necessary in order for reality experience to be given personal meaning so that one may learn from experience. Simultaneous with working out this new theory of dreaming, Bion also revisited his World War I experiences that had remained undigested and all these elements coalesced into a selected fact – his discovery of alpha function. In subsequent writings, Bion explored the constituent factors of alpha function, including the container/contained relationship, the PS?D balance, reverie, tolerated doubt and other factors which I have termed the ‘Constellation for Thinking’.     

Clinical issues in analyses over the telephone and the internet

There is professional consensus that teleanalysis, the practice of psychoanalysis conducted remotely using the telephone and the Internet, is increasing in response to more mobility in the population. But there is controversy as to whether the use of technology leads to a dilution of analysis or to adaptive innovation that is clinically effective and true to the tenets of psychoanalysis. The author reviews the psychoanalytic literature and shows the development of analytic thinking about this technology-assisted practice of psychoanalysis. She summarizes analysts' perceptions and experiences of the advantages and disadvantages, and considers the indications and contra-indications. She focuses on the clinical concerns that arise in terms of the frame, resistance, and the development of analytic process through the unconscious communication of internal objects, unconscious fantasy, transference and countertransference. She gives vignettes from the analysis of a man with trauma-related depression to address the concerns raised and to support her argument that analysis using the telephone and the Internet is a viable, clinically effective alternative to traditional analysis where necessary.     

Critical notice for Michail Peramatzis's Priority in Aristotle's Metaphysics,Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2011

I discuss Peramatzis's (2011) argument that the form of a natural substance is essentially enmattered and so contains a material component.     

Integrating Women's Voices and Theory: A Comprehensive Domestic Violence Intervention for Latinas

Using both academic theories and two decades of experience in community, this article presents the work conducted by Caminar Latino (Latino Journey), a comprehensive intervention for Latino families affected by domestic violence. Having developed in both analogous and independent ways from theories in the academic field, Caminar Latino provides a unique opportunity to explore ways in which ecological theory and tenets of feminist therapy can be combined within a social justice framework to address this severe social problem. Of particular relevance to therapists, advocates and others working in this field is the ongoing inclusion of the voices of women participants as a central tenet of the intervention.     

Neural activation underlying cognitive control in the context of neutral and affectively charged pictures in children

The neural correlates of cognitive control for typically developing 9-year-old children were examined using dense-array ERPs and estimates of cortical activation (LORETA) during a go/no-go task with two conditions: a neutral picture condition and an affectively charged picture condition. Activation was estimated for the entire cortex after which data were exported for four regions of interests (ROIs): ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC), dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), and orbitofrontal/ventromedial prefrontal cortex (OFC/VMPFC). Results revealed faster reaction times, greater N2 activation, and greater prefrontal activation for the affectively charged picture condition than the neutral picture condition. The findings are discussed in reference to the impact of affective stimuli on recruitment of specific brain regions involved in cognitive control.     

The cost of action miscues: hemispheric asymmetries

Adaptive behaviors require preparation and when necessary inhibition or alteration of actions. The right hemisphere has been posited to be dominant for preparatory motor activation. This experiment was designed to learn if there are hemispheric asymmetries in the control of altered plans of actions. Cues, both valid and invalid, which indicate the hand most likely to be called onto respond, as well as the imperative stimuli that indicate the actual response hand, were presented to either the right or left visual fields of 14 normal right handed participants. The delay after a miscue is dependent on the time taken to inhibit the premotor and motor systems of the incorrectly activated hemisphere, as well as to activate the motor systems of the opposite hemisphere, which might have been interhemispherically inhibited by this miscue. Analyses of reaction times revealed that miscues presented in left hemispace (right hemisphere) cost more time than those miscues presented in right hemispace (left hemisphere), suggesting that activation of the preparatory systems controlled by the right hemisphere may take longer to reverse than those controlled by the left hemisphere. This asymmetry may be related to asymmetries in the strength of hemispheric activation with contralateral inhibition.     

RACE/A: an architectural account of the interactions between learning, task control, and retrieval dynamics

This article discusses how sequential sampling models can be integrated in a cognitive architecture. The new theory Retrieval by Accumulating Evidence in an Architecture (RACE/A) combines the level of detail typically provided by sequential sampling models with the level of task complexity typically provided by cognitive architectures. We will use RACE/A to model data from two variants of a picture-word interference task in a psychological refractory period design. These models will demonstrate how RACE/A enables interactions between sequential sampling and long-term declarative learning, and between sequential sampling and task control. In a traditional sequential sampling model, the onset of the process within the task is unclear, as is the number of sampling processes. RACE/A provides a theoretical basis for estimating the onset of sequential sampling processes during task execution and allows for easy modeling of multiple sequential sampling processes within a task.     

Children's human figure drawings do not measure intellectual ability

Children typically follow a well-defined series of stages as they learn to draw, but the rate at which they progress through these stages varies from child to child. Some experts have argued that these individual differences in drawing development reflect individual differences in intelligence. Here we assessed the validity of a drawing test that is commonly used to assess children’s intellectual abilities. In a single study, 125 5- and 6-year-olds completed the Draw-A-Person: A Quantitative Scoring System (DAP:QSS) and the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence-Revised (WPPSI-R) or the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (WASI). Although there was a statistically significant correlation between scores on the DAP:QSS and scores on the Wechsler tests, when the scores of individual children were examined, the DAP:QSS yielded a high number of false positives and false negatives for low intellectual functioning. We conclude that the DAP:QSS is not a valid measure of intellectual ability and should not be used as a screening tool.     

Hemispheric asymmetry in cross-race face recognition

This study examines two phenomena related to face perception, both of which depend on experience and holistic processing: perceivers process faces more efficiently in the right hemisphere of the brain (a hemispheric asymmetry), and they typically show greater recognition accuracy for members of their racial ingroup (a cross-race recognition deficit). The current study tests the possibility that these two effects are related. If asymmetry depends on experience, it should be particularly evident with (more familiar) ingroup faces; if cross-race recognition relies on holistic processing, it should be particularly evident for faces presented to the right hemisphere. Black and White participants viewed Black and White faces presented to either the left or right visual field. As predicted, participants showed a more pronounced asymmetry for ingroup (rather than outgroup) faces, and cross-race recognition deficits were more pronounced for stimuli presented to the left (rather than the right) visual field.