Redundancy: a similar principle in independent adaptation techniques

The present study examined the similarities between four auditory adaptation techniques to determine whether the effects were correlated. The four adaptation techniques compared were: Simultaneous Dichotic Loudness Balance technique (SDLB; Hood, 1950), Magnitude Estimated Binaural technique (MEB; Botté, Canévet, & Scharf, 1982), Magnitude Estimated Monaural technique, (MEM; Weiler, Sandman, & Pederson, 1981), and the Monaural Reaction Time technique (RT; Davis & Weiler, 1976). Results did not show significant correlations between the four techniques, except (r = 0.39) between MEB and MEM procedures. This correlation was much less than the reliability of the measures would allow (r = 0.98 and r = 0.99, respectively). Thus, it appears that the different methods either produced different adaptation effects or measured different aspects of auditory adaptation. The normal ear apparently shows several forms of adaptation, which reduces the perceptual strength of a continuing stimulus, in favor of an intermittent, less redundant one.     

Neighborhood Risk and Interpersonal Support as Predictors of Parents’ Sense of Community

Parents’ sense of community (SOC) may ease the impact of neighborhood risk on children’s outcomes, but not all parents feel part of a trusted community. In this study, we examined whether parents’ ratings of neighborhood risk and interpersonal support were related to their SOC, and whether interpersonal support moderated the relationship between neighborhood risk and parents’ SOC. Participants included 161 parents (M?=?40.25 years; 92.3% female) of minor children who were enrolled in youth mentoring programs. Results indicated that greater interpersonal support and less neighborhood risk was associated with parents’ SOC. Post-hoc analyses showed that living in a neighborhood with gangs and illegal drugs, but not residential instability or living in public housing, was a salient risk factor for lower SOC. Contrary to our prediction, interpersonal support did not moderate the link between neighborhood risk and parents’ SOC. These findings may inform interventions designed to bolster parents’ connectedness to community and ability to promote children’s positive development.

     

Ipsilateral loudness adaptation over multiple intensity levels

Could monaural loudness adaptation be a simple artifact of psychophysical contrast? From adaptation data based on the Ipsilateral Comparison Paradigm (ICP), A. J. Dange, J. S. Warm, E. M. Weiler, and W. N. Dember (1993) concluded that loudness adaptation was not an artifact of psychophysical contrast, but their conclusion was dependent on results from one intensity. This study, involving multiple intensities, re-examined the issue of contrast versus adaptation and generally supported the conclusions of Dange et al. The results also showed an unexpected asymmetry of adaptation based on the direction of the referent modulation used with the ICP technique. Some implications are discussed.     

Redundancy: A Similar Principle in Independent Adaptation Techniques

The present study examined the similarities between four auditory adaptation techniques to determine whether the effects were correlated. The four adaptation techniques compared were: Simultaneous Dichotic Loudness Balance technique (SDLB; Hood, 1950), Magnitude Estimated Binaural technique (MEB; Botté, Canévet, & Scharf, 1982), Magnitude Estimated Monaural technique, (MEM; Weiler, Sandman, & Pederson, 1981), and the Monaural Reaction Time technique (RT; Davis & Weiler, 1976). Results did not show significant correlations between the four techniques, except (r = 0.39) between MEB and MEM procedures. This correlation was much less than the reliability of the measures would allow (r = 0.98 and r = 0.99, respectively). Thus, it appears that the different methods either produced different adaptation effects or measured different aspects of auditory adaptation. The normal ear apparently shows several forms of adaptation, which reduces the perceptual strength of a continuing stimulus, in favor of an intermittent, less redundant one.     

Monaural Loudness Adaptation for Middle-Intensity Middle-Frequency Signals: The Importance of Measurement Technique

Using the Simple Adaptation technique (SA) and the Ipsilateral Comparison Paradigm (ICP), the authors studied monaural loudness adaptation to a middle-intensity [60 dB(A)] tone at signal frequencies of 250, 1000, and 4000 Hz in the left and right ears. Adaptation effects were absent when the SA procedure was used. However, they were observed uniformly across all frequency values with the ICP, a result that challenges the assertion in the literature, on the basis of SA measures, that loudness adaptation for middle-intensity signals occurs only at frequencies above 4000 Hz. The ICP features periodic intensity modulations (±10 dB relative to the base signal) to accommodate listeners' needs for referents by which they can gauge subtle changes in the loudness of the adapting tone, a key component that is missing in the SA method. Adaptation effects in this investigation were similar in both ears, supporting the equal susceptibility assumption common in loudness adaptation studies.     

Development of a Research Instrument for Evaluating the Visitor Outcomes of Face-to-Face Interpretation

ABSTRACT

This article details the development, testing, and refinement of a set of indicators and a data collection instrument designed to be used to evaluate the outcomes of face-to-face interpretation across a range of heritage-based visitor settings and experiences. One of a suite of data collection instruments, the self-completing visitor questionnaire incorporates a set of indicators that (a) reflects the types of visitor outcomes that managers actually want from their interpretive programs; (b) is theoretically valid based on what is known about the potential cognitive, affective, and behavioural outcomes of interpretation, and (c) requires minimal effort, expense, and little or no social research expertise to collect and analyse the data, yet produces results with acceptable validity and reliability. While management and industry-driven, the research is underpinned by some thirty years of evaluation theory and practice, and is thus grounded in theories of psychology and human behaviour and methods from the social sciences and from applied program evaluation. This makes the final set of indicators an important contribution to the literature, and the questionnaire itself a useful and practical tool for those whose expertise and responsibilities lie primarily with managing and delivering rather than researching and evaluating the outcomes of interpretation.     

Factors Facilitating and Inhibiting the Use of Research to Inform Interpretation Practice: A Case Study of Australian Protected Area Management Agencies

ABSTRACT

Interpretation research can be and is used to inform and improve interpretation policymaking and planning undertaken by practitioners such as those who work for Australian protected area management (PAM) agencies. This study explores perceptions of the extent to which interpretation research is undertaken and used by these agencies, and the facilitators and constraints to doing so. In-depth telephone interviews were conducted with senior interpretation planners and managers in all Australian PAM agencies. The findings indicate that interpretation research is usually prompted by a crisis or a short-term need such as a specific project and that most research is site-specific and content-focused, while respondents see a need for more longitudinal and evaluation-focused research. Two-thirds of the respondents reported that their agency made poor or no use of research findings for improving interpretation practice. Stated barriers to undertaking and using research included lack of funding, lack of time and that research was not considered an agency priority. Underpinning these were perceptions consistent with diffusion of innovation theory (e.g., that doing or using research is perceived as being too complex, not compatible with agency goals or not offering relative advantage). Strategies for removing these perceptual barriers to undertaking and using interpretation research and research findings are presented.     

Maltreated Children in Out-of-Home Care: The Relation between Attachment Quality and Internalizing Symptoms

Maltreated children in out-of-home care are at high risk for poor relationships with caregivers (i.e., biological parents and substitute caregivers) and high levels of internalizing symptoms. It is unclear if these poor relationships are related to, and account for a large portion of the variance in maltreated children’s internalizing symptoms, above and beyond maltreatment type and out-of-home care factors. This study examined the relation between attachment quality with both biological parents and substitute caregivers and children’s internalizing symptoms within a sample of 493 maltreated children (aged 9–11; 51.0?% male) recently placed in out-of-home care. A series of hierarchical regression models indicated that greater child-reported attachment quality with both biological parents and substitute caregivers was associated with fewer child-reported anxiety (β?=??.15, p?<?.01; β?=??.29, p?<?.001, respectively) and depression symptoms (β?=??.14, p?<?.01; β?=??.28, p?<?.001, respectively) as well as fewer child internalizing symptoms (β?=??.12, p?<?.05; β?=??.14, p?<?.01, respectively). Attachment quality with the biological parent and substitute caregiver each explained a significant proportion of the variance in children’s internalizing symptoms, above and beyond child demographics, maltreatment type, and out-of-home care variables. The study also examined whether children’s attachment with substitute caregivers moderated the relationship between children’s attachment with biological parents and children’s internalizing symptoms. No statistically significant moderation effects were found. Future clinical work should focus on enhancing attachment quality between children and both biological parents and substitute caregivers, as these relationships appear to individually relate to the children’s internalizing symptomology.     

Fragile X mental retardation protein levels increase following complex environment exposure in rat brain regions undergoing active synaptogenesis

Fragile X mental retardation protein (FMRP), which is absent in fragile X syndrome, is synthesized in vitro in response to neurotransmitter activation. Humans and mice lacking FMRP exhibit abnormal dendritic spine development, suggesting that this protein plays an important role in synaptic plasticity. Previously, our laboratory demonstrated increased FMRP immunoreactivity in visual cortex of rats exposed to complex environments (EC) and in motor cortex of rats trained on motor-skill tasks compared with animals reared individually in standard laboratory housing (IC). Here, we use immunohistochemistry to extend those findings by investigating FMRP levels in visual cortex and hippocampal dentate gyrus of animals exposed to EC or IC. Rats exposed to EC for 20 days exhibited increased FMRP immunoreactivity in visual cortex compared with animals housed in standard laboratory caging. In the dentate gyrus, animals exposed to EC for 20 days had higher FMRP levels than animals exposed to EC for 5 or 10 days. In light of possible antibody crossreactivity with closely related proteins FXR1P and FXR2P, FMRP immunoreactivity in the posterior-dorsal one-third of cerebral cortex was also examined by Western blotting following 20 days of EC exposure. FMRP levels were greater in EC animals, whereas levels of FXR1P and FXR2P were unaffected by experience. These results provide further evidence for behaviorally induced alteration of FMRP expression in contrast to its homologues, extend previous findings suggesting regulation of its expression by synaptic activity, and support the theories associating FMRP expression with alteration of synaptic structure both in development and later in the life-cycle.     

The developmental course of processing speed in children with and without learning disabilities

This study contrasted the development of processing speed in children with and without learning disabilities. We examined whether the same global mechanism presumed to be responsible for the normal developmental improvement in processing speed might also be associated with the processing speed deficiencies observed in children with learning impairments. One hundred and twenty-two children with learning disabilities in reading and/or math and 206 non-disabled community controls participated. There were no differences in relation of age to the development of processing speed for children with and without learning disabilities. We interpreted these results as suggesting that the underlying etiologies for the normal developmental change in processing speed and for the relative deficiencies in processing speed seen among children with learning disabilities were different.