Tactile Bodily Gaze Mapping Could Regulate Human Attention

Increasing individuals' awareness of their own body signals can lead to improved interoception, enabling the brain to estimate current body states more accurately and in a timely manner. However, certain body signals, such as eye movements, often go unnoticed by individuals themselves. This study aimed to test the hypothesis that providing eye-movement-correlated tactile feedback on the body enhances individuals' awareness of their attentive states, subsequently improving attention. Our results demonstrate the effectiveness of such feedback in redirecting and enhancing attention, particularly in the presence of distractions during long-duration tasks. Additionally, we observed that people's gaze behaviors changed in response to the tactile feedback, suggesting an increased self-awareness of current eye movements and attentive states. Ultimately, these changes in gaze behaviors contribute to the modulation of attentive states. Our findings highlight the potential of eye-movement-correlated bodily tactile feedback to increase individuals' self-awareness of their eye movements and attentive states. By providing real-time feedback through tactile stimuli, we can actively engage individuals in regulating their attention and enhancing their overall performance.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure

Psychosocial adaptation of adolescent migrants in a Swiss community survey

Objective: The aim of this study was to compare psychosocial adaptation in adolescent (first generation) migrants, double-citizens (mainly second generation with one migrant parent), and native Swiss, and to compare migrants from various European regions. Method: Data from a community survey were based on 1,239 participants (mean age 13.8, SD=1.6years) with 996 natives, 55 double-citizens, and 188 migrants. The adolescents completed the youth self-report measuring emotional and behavioural problems, and various questionnaires addressing life events, personality variables, perceived parental behaviour (PPB), family functioning, school environment, and social network. Results: Adolescent migrants had significantly higher scores for internalizing and externalizing problems. There was a pattern of various unfavourable psychosocial features including life events, coping, self-related cognitions, and PPB that was more common among adolescent migrants than natives. Double-citizens were similar to natives in all domains. Young adolescents from South and South-East Europe differed from natives in terms of more unfavourable psychosocial features. Migrant status was best predicted by adverse psychosocial features rather than emotional and behavioural problems. Conclusion: There is some indication that certain migrant adolescents are at risk of psychosocial mal-adaptation. Obviously, ethnic origin is an important moderato

Content Validity of the Occupational Therapy Anticipatory Awareness Test: A Functional Cognitive Assessment for Adults with Neurological Conditions

Background: The development of assessments that measure functional skills is a priority in the profession. Anticipatory awareness (i.e., the ability to anticipate the difficulties that might be experienced in daily life situations) is a critical skill in occupational performance. There is a lack of assessments measuring anticipatory awareness. The Occupational Therapy Anticipatory Awareness Test (OTAAT) is a performance-based assessment tool developed for individuals with neurological conditions. This study aimed to determine the tool’s content validity. Methods: We recruited five experts to review whether the test items are essential for assessment and calculated the Content Validity Ratio (CVR). Open-ended questions allowed opportunity to provide feedback for tool revision. Results: Ten of the 14 items of the OTAAT were preserved. Eight out of the 14 items were rated as essential for measurement. Two of the 10 items were identified as useful but not essential. Following discussion, review of supporting literature, and analysis of qualitative feedback, the two emergent awareness items were kept. Four items were removed (strategy implementation and awareness of strategy use subdomains), as these were deemed not essential. Conclusion: This study determined preliminary content validity of the OTAAT. Future research should focus on establishing construct validity and test reliability

Levodopa-Induced Dyskinesias and Dyskinesias-Reduced-Self-Awareness in Parkinson’s Disease: A Neurocognitive Approach

Levodopa-induced dyskinesias are one of the most common disabling motor complications in advanced Parkinson’s disease. The subjective perception of motor impairment is a clinical phenomenon that needs to be adequately analyzed. Indeed, the determination of patient dyskinesias-reduced-self-awareness (DRSA) and of its relationship to daily dysfunction is an important aspect of the debate on the gold standard for treatment. As the association with executive dysfunction is a matter of debate and we hypothesize it plays an important role in DRSA, we analyzed metacognitive abilities related to action monitoring and other factors, such as response-inhibition and “Theory of Mind,” which represent a novel explanation of the phenomenon. Moreover, we investigated whether and how a dysfunction in action monitoring related to the cingulo-frontal-ventral striatal circuit would be associated with DRSA using an event-related Go-NoGo fMRI experiment. Our findings suggest the presence of executive dysfunctions in DRSA pathogenesis, with a key leading role played by the cingulo-frontal network as part of a functionally impaired response-inhibition network

Frequency, stability and differentiation of self-reported school fear and truancy in a community sample

BACKGROUND: Surprisingly little is known about the frequency, stability, and correlates of school fear and truancy based on self-reported data of adolescents. METHODS: Self-reported school fear and truancy were studied in a total of N = 834 subjects of the community-based Zurich Adolescent Psychology and Psychopathology Study (ZAPPS) at two times with an average age of thirteen and sixteen years. Group definitions were based on two behavioural items of the Youth Self-Report (YSR). Comparisons included a control group without indicators of school fear or truancy. The three groups were compared across questionnaires measuring emotional and behavioural problems, life-events, self-related cognitions, perceived parental behaviour, and perceived school environment. RESULTS: The frequency of self-reported school fear decreased over time (6.9 vs. 3.6%) whereas there was an increase in truancy (5.0 vs. 18.4%). Subjects with school fear displayed a pattern of associated internalizing problems and truants were characterized by associated delinquent behaviour. Among other associated psychosocial features, the distress coming from the perceived school environment in students with school fear is most noteworthy. CONCLUSION: These findings from a community study show that school fear and truancy are frequent and display different developmental trajectories. Furthermore, previous results are corroborated which are based on smaller and selected clinical samples indicating that the two groups display distinct types of school-related behaviour

Continuity, psychosocial correlates, and outcome of problematic substance use from adolescence to young adulthood in a community sample

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: The study of the continuity, psychosocial correlates, and prediction of problematic substance use (PSU) across time from adolescence to young adulthood. METHODS: Substance use was studied in a cohort of N = 593 subjects who had been assessed at three times between adolescence and young adulthood within the Zurich Psychology and Psychopathology Study (ZAPPS). Based on the frequency of tobacco, alcohol, and cannabis consumption, groups with PSU were defined at each of the three measurement points in time and compared to the rest of the sample. Comparisons included questionnaire data regarding emotional and behavioural problems, life events, coping style, self-related cognitions, perceived parenting style, perceived school environment, and size and efficiency of the social network. RESULTS: The size of the groups with PSU increased continuously across time. The cross-sectional correlates of PSU were characterized by a similar pattern that included higher scores for externalizing behaviour, and both number and negative impact of life events across all three times. At time 1 and 2 subjects with PSU also experienced less favourable parenting styles and school environments. Longitudinally, PSU in young adulthood was predicted most strongly and persistently by previous risk status, externalizing problems and male gender. CONCLUSION: Problematic substance use is a major problem in youth. Its contributing pattern of associated and predictive psychosocial variables can be identified in the community

The Practices and Problems of Employee Appraisal Systems: A Psychological Perspectives

The objective of the study was to assess the practices and problems of employee performance appraisal system in Ethiopian Telecommunication Agency. The intention of the study was that majority of the employees are de motivated in their work, do not satisfied regarding their performance evaluation, complaining heard among departments for rewards and frequent turnover of employees. The study employed descriptive research methodology. The researcher used stratified random sampling technique in selecting respondents, while interview informants selected purposively. In addition, data collected through questionnaires, interview and documents analysis. The collected data analyzed through quantitatively and qualitatively. Quantitative data described by using frequency, percentages and mean scores. The findings revealed that purpose of appraisal is not connected with varieties of its function, which is facilitating both developmental and administrative issues of employees.  In the study, both evaluator and evaluates lack awareness of evaluation method (BSC), evaluation is not undertaken in a planned time schedule, bias (subjectivity of evaluator), difficulty of customizing evaluation criteria, and defining activities and targets, misunderstanding of the evaluation system (BSC), misperception and attitude of employees are identified as a major problems faced in the employee performance evaluation. To overcome the challenges and bottle necks of employees performance appraisal system; the importance of improving evaluation system, continuous training for awareness creation concerning method of evaluation (BSC), commitment of both evaluator and evaluates, being trustworthy and loyalty through the process of evaluation were recommended. Keywords: Employees, Performance, Appraisal System, Practices and Problem

Frequency, course and correlates of alcohol use from adolescence to young adulthood in a Swiss community survey

BACKGROUND: Few studies have analyzed the frequency of alcohol use across time from adolescence to young adulthood and its outcome in young adulthood. A Swiss longitudinal multilevel assessment project using various measures of psychopathology and psychosocial variables allowed for the study of the frequency and correlates of alcohol use so that this developmental trajectory may be better understood. METHOD: Alcohol use was studied by a questionnaire in a cohort of N = 593 subjects who had been assessed at three times between adolescence and young adulthood within the Zurich Psychology and Psychopathology Study (ZAPPS). Other assessment included questionnaire data measuring emotional and behavioural problems, life events, coping style, self-related cognitions, perceived parenting style and school environment, and size and efficiency of the social network. RESULTS: The increase of alcohol use from early adolescence to young adulthood showed only a few sex-specific differences in terms of the amount of alcohol consumption and the motives to drink. In late adolescence and young adulthood, males had a higher amount of alcohol consumption and were more frequently looking for drunkenness and feeling high. Males also experienced more negative consequences of alcohol use. A subgroup of heavy or problem drinkers showed a large range of emotional and behavioural problems and further indicators of impaired psychosocial functioning both in late adolescence and young adulthood. CONCLUSION: This Swiss community survey documents that alcohol use is problematic in a sizeable proportion of youth and goes hand in hand with a large number of psychosocial problems

Entrepreneurship Education and Training in a Small Business Context: Insights from the Competence-based Approach

The concept of competence, as it is brought into play in current research, is a potentially powerful construct for entrepreneurship education research and practice. Although the concept has been the subject of strong debate in educational research in general, critical analysis of how it has been used, applied and experienced in entrepreneurship education practice is scarce. This article contributes specifically to the discussion of entrepreneurial competence by theoretically unfolding and discussing the concept. Subsequently, the implications of applying a competence-based approach in entrepreneurship education are illustrated and discussed based on analysis of two cases t