Positive experiences of doctoral-level supervisors-in-training conducting group-format supervision: a qualitative investigation

Experiential learning opportunities are powerful in shaping positive supervisor behaviours. We were interested in examining the positive experiences of supervisors-in-training during their first practice experience as supervisors. Our study was guided by two research questions: (a) what are the experiences that supervisors-in-training viewed as positive during the course of providing clinical supervision to master's-level counselling trainees? and (b) how did these positive experiences contribute to their professional development? We employed a variation of the consensual qualitative research method developed by Hill, Thompson, and Nutt-Williams (1997) and interviewed 10 supervisors-in-training regarding their positive experiences in supervising master's-level counselling trainees. The results included five major categories of positive experiences: (a) the positive value of feedback; (b) enhanced confidence in using a wider variety of supervision tasks and procedures; (c) the impact of the experience on other aspects of professional practice; (d) increased familiarity with the multiple roles of the supervisor; and (e) for some, increased comfort navigating co-supervision dynamics. Each of these categories included subcategories. We discuss our findings within the context of supervision training in graduate education.     

Composer avec la diversité culturelle en classe de maternelle: résultats d’une analyse de récits de pratique enseignante

This article offers an analysis of teachers’ narrative within which kindergarten teachers have rebuilt their intercultural experience in the classroom, through a situation featuring a child "from another culture". The progressive scheduling in, oriented towards the ideal type of commitment to the child "of another culture", which led the analysis, will be presented and interpreted from two angles, therefore providing a definition of what we named the "otherness in act ", referring to some "enactment" of the paradigm of otherness (Abdallah Pretceille, 1996, 1999, 2003).     

Age differences in enumerating things that move: Implications for the development of multiple-object tracking

The attentional theory of spatial enumeration (Trick & Pylyshyn, 1994) predicts that subitizing, the rapid process (40-120 msec/item) used to enumerate 1-4 items, employs the same mechanism that permits individuals to track 4-5 moving items simultaneously, whereas enumerating more items requires moving attentional focus from area to area in the display. To test this theory, enumeration of static and moving items was investigated in 8-, 10-, 12-, and 20-year-old participants using a number discrimination task. As was predicted, random independent item motion did not substantially impede enumeration of 1-4 items regardless of age. However, even movement within a 1.14 degree square area slowed enumeration of 6-9 items, although on average the interference decreased with age from 788 msec for the 8-year-olds to 136 msec for the 20-year-olds. The relevance of this finding for theories of enumeration, multiple-object tracking, visual working memory, and object-based attention is discussed.     

Environmental enrichment in male CD-1 mice promotes aggressive behaviors and elevated corticosterone and brain norepinephrine activity in response to a mild stressor

Housing rodents in an enriched environment (EE) has been typically considered to have positive effects on well-being and cognitive functioning of the animals. However, in some strains of mice, EEs have also been reported to elicit aggression and to promote stress-related outcomes. In the current investigation, we examined whether environmental enrichment would elicit aggression among CD-1 male mice and thus sensitize responses to a subsequent mild stressor. It was first observed that mice housed in an EE for 2 weeks displayed more aggressive behaviors than did mice that had been housed in a standard environment (SE). In the second experiment, it was noted that after 4 weeks of EE or SE housing, mice exhibited comparable plasma corticosterone concentrations as well as levels of brain norepinephrine and its metabolite, 3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenylglycol (MHPG), in the absence of a challenge. However, upon exposure to mild stressor (placement in a novel cage), relative to their SE counterparts, EE mice were more active and displayed higher plasma corticosterone concentrations and enhanced MHPG accumulation in the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus. It seems that enrichment in male CD-1 mice promotes aggression, and may sensitize biological processes, possibly increasing vulnerability to stressor-related outcomes.     

Relations of diabetes intrusiveness and personal control to symptoms of depression among adults with diabetes.

The generalizability of a model linking illness characteristics to psychosocial well-being was tested in a cross-sectional study of 237 adults with type 2 diabetes. It was hypothesized that diabetic complications increase illness intrusiveness, which in turn increases depressive symptomatology either directly or indirectly by reducing personal control over health outcomes. Illness intrusiveness was defined as the result of disruptions of valued activities and interests due to constraints imposed by the illness. An excellent fit of this model to the data was found using structural equation modeling. The model explained 65% of the variance in depressive symptomatology. Assessment of an alternative model excluding personal control suggested that the extent to which diabetes intrudes in life, rather than diabetic complications per se or personal control, is a key factor in relation to depressive symptomatology in individuals with diabetes.     

Independent appearance of an innovative feeding behaviour in Antillean bullfinches

Behavioural innovations have been largely documented in birds and are thought to provide advantages in changing environments. However, the mechanisms by which behavioural innovations spread remain poorly known. Two major mechanisms are supposed to play a fundamental role: innovation diffusion by social learning and independent appearance of the same innovation in different individuals. Direct evidence for the independent emergence of the same innovation in different individuals is, however, lacking. Here, we show that a highly localized behavioural innovation previously observed in 2000 in Barbados, the opening of sugar packets by Loxigilla barbadensis bullfinches, persisted more than a decade later and had spread to a limited area around the initial site. More importantly, we found that the same innovation appeared independently in other, more distant, locations on the same island. On the island of St-Lucia, 145 km from Barbados, we also found that the sister species of the Barbados bullfinch, the Lesser Antillean bullfinch Loxigilla noctis developed the same innovation independently. Finally, we found that a third species, the Bananaquit Coereba flaveola, exploited the bullfinches’ technical innovation to benefit from this new food source. Overall, our observations provide the first direct evidence of the independent emergence of the same behavioural innovation in different individuals of the same species, but also in different species subjected to similar anthropogenic food availability.     

Pragmatic inference, not semantic competence, guides 3-year-olds' interpretation of unknown number words

Before children learn the specific meanings of numerals like six, do they know that they represent precise quantities? Previous studies have reported conflicting evidence and have found that children expect numerals to label precise quantities in some tasks but not in others (Condry & Spelke, 2008; Sarnecka & Gelman, 2004). In this article, we present evidence that some of children's apparent successes are best explained not by domain-specific semantic understanding of number but instead by language-general pragmatic abilities. In Experiment 1, we replicated the findings of the previous studies in a within-subject design. When 3-year-olds saw a set labeled with a number (e.g., five) and an item was added, they preferred a new label (six) over the old one, as though they believed that number words have precise meanings. However, when 1 of 2 sets was labeled (e.g., as five) and children were asked to find the same quantity (five) or a new quantity (six), they performed identically whether the original set was changed in quantity or merely rearranged. Thus, when 2 numerals were offered as alternative labels for 1 set, children behaved as though they had precise meanings, whereas when they were asked to determine which of 2 sets a single numeral referred to, they did not. In Experiment 2, children were tested using similar methods but with novel nouns and objects that were transformed, instead of sets. Children showed the identical pattern of results despite lacking meanings for these words, suggesting that their judgments for numerals may not have relied on semantic knowledge that numerals have precise meanings. We propose that children's behavior can be explained by the use of domain-general pragmatic inference and does not require positing domain-specific numerical knowledge. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved).     

Attention deficits: is there a right hemisphere specialization for simple reaction time, sustained attention, and phasic alertness?

Impairments of attentional focus often are claimed to be associated with lesions of the right hemisphere. Although some studies comparing right- and left-brain-damaged patients have supported this idea, others have not found differences between these patients in various attention tasks. The present study was carried out in order to further investigate the putative role of the right hemisphere in a simple reaction time task, a sustained attention task, and a phasic alertness task. Subjects were 46 patients with right-hemisphere lesions and 37 patients with left-hemisphere lesions. Results showed no difference between right- and left-brain-damaged patients in simple reaction time, in speed of response over time (sustained attention), and in the capacity to prepare to an uncoming stimulus (phasic alertness). Future studies will have to use a more precise categorization of lesions than only right-versus left-brain damage.