Cognitive Science

Acute mental health inpatient wards have been criticised for being non-therapeutic. The study aimed to test the feasibility of delivering a psychologically-informed intervention in these settings. This single-arm study evaluated the feasibility of clinical psychologists delivering a ward-based psychological service model over a 6-month period on two acute mental health wards. Data were gathered to assess trial design parameters and the feasibility of gathering patient/staff outcome data. Psychologists were able to deliver key elements of the intervention. Baseline staff and patient participant recruitment targets were met. However, there was significant patient attrition at follow-up, with incorrect contact details on discharge being the primary reason. Implementation of a ward-based psychological intervention appears feasible when implemented flexibly. It is feasible to recruit staff and patient participants and to collect staff outcome measures over a six-month period. However, gr...

ABSTRACT Spiking neural P systems (in short, SNP systems) are parallel, distributed, and nondeterministic computing devices inspired by biological spiking neurons. Recently, a class of SNP systems known as SNP systems with structural plasticity (in short, SNPSP systems) was introduced. SNPSP systems represent a class of SNP systems that have dynamism applied to the synapses, i.e. neurons can use plasticity rules to create or remove synapses. In this work, we impose the restriction of sequentiality on SNPSP systems, using four modes: max, min, max-pseudo-, and min-pseudo-sequentiality. We also impose a normal form for SNPSP systems as number acceptors and generators. Conditions for (non)universality are then provided. Specifically, acceptors are universal in all modes, while generators need a nondeterminism source in two modes, which in this work is provided by the plasticity rules.

It is a common perception that in languages having multiple past tenses with different remoteness specifications, the past tenses cover the entire past without a gap or overlap. This paper demonstrates that this way of looking at multiple-past tense systems is not appropriate for the system in South Baffin Inuktitut (a variety of the Inuit language). The dialect has at least four past tenses: recent, hodiernal, pre-hodiernal, and distant. We argue that the relation between the four tenses cannot be represented by a simple linear scheme for two reasons. First, the pre-hodiernal past has a special status as the “conventionally designated alternative”, which is chosen in cases of remoteness indeterminacy, analogous to, for example, the Russian masculine gender being used in cases of gender indeterminacy. Second, there is overlap in their coverage. The pre-hodiernal and hodiernal past tenses collectively cover the entire past and thus any past situation can be described with one of them...

There are still important gaps in our knowledge regarding the intergenerational transmission of attachment from mother to child, especially in mothers with childhood histories of abuse and neglect (CA&N). This study examined the contributions of reflective function concerning general attachment relationships, and specifically concerning trauma, as well as those of maternal attachment states of mind to the prediction of infant attachment disorganization in a sample of mothers with CA&N and their infants, using a 20-month follow-up design. Attachment and reflective functioning were assessed during pregnancy with the Adult Attachment Interview. Infant attachment was evaluated with the Strange Situation Procedure. The majority (83%) of infants of abused and neglected mothers were classified as insecure, and a significant proportion (44%) manifested attachment disorganization. There was a strong concordance between mother and child attachment, indicative of intergenerational transmission...

This study examined the validity of the Child Reflective Functioning Scale (CRFS: Ensink, Target, & Oandason, 2013, Child reflective functioning scale scoring manual: for application to the Child Attachment Interview. London, UK: Anna Freud Centre - University College London), a measure designed to assess reflective functioning (RF) or mentalization during middle childhood. Participants were 94 mother-child dyads divided into two subgroups; 46 dyads where children had histories of intrafamilial (n = 22 dyads) or extrafamilial (n = 24 dyads) sexual abuse, and a community control group composed of 48 mother-child dyads. RF of children and their mothers was assessed using videotaped and transcribed data gathered using the Child Attachment Interview and the Parent Development Interview (PDI: Slade, Aber, Bresi, Berger, & Kaplan, 2004, The parent development interview-Revised. New York, NY: The City University of New York). The findings indicate that the CRFS proved reliable, with excell...

This study investigates the construct validity of a revised version of the Countertransference Rating System (CRS) by means of convergence with Referential Activity (RA). The CRS operationalizes three mental activity dimensions (rational-objective, reactive, and reflective) as processes of transformation of countertransferential contents elicited in a therapist by a patient's object-relations units. The participants were 36 novice psychotherapists who shared their spontaneous reactions toward parental descriptions provided by conduct-disordered male adolescent patients. Globally, the reflective dimension was positively correlated with RA, whereas the other two dimensions--rational-objective and reactive--showed no association. Dominant categories within each dimension displayed patterns of correlation with RA that are consistent with the constructs. These results are discussed with reference to potential impact on intervention and training.

Murray Sidman's (1960) Tactics of Scientific Research: Evaluating Experimental Data in Psychology just celebrated its sixtieth anniversary. It is without doubt one of the most influential books in the history of Behavior Analysis. This review outlines the rationales for, and details of, methods for the investigation of the behavior of individual subjects that Sidman presented. Many of his observations and recommendations are as timely as ever, maybe even more so, given the "reproducibility crisis" and one of its major origins.

Six decades-worth of published information has shown irrefutably that null-hypothesis significance tests (NHSTs) provide no information about the reliability of research outcomes. Nevertheless, they are still the core of editorial decision-making in Psychology. Two reasons appear to contribute to the continuing practice. One, survey information suggests that a majority of psychological researchers incorrectly believe that p values provide information about reliability of results. Two, a position sometimes taken is that using them to make decisions has been essentially benign. The mistaken belief has been pointed out many times, so it is briefly covered because of the apparent persistence of the misunderstanding. The idea that NHSTs have been benign is challenged by seven “side-effects” that continue to retard effective development of psychological science. The article concludes with both a few suggestions about possible alternatives and a challenge to psychological researchers to de...