Seniors Seeking Housing, Health, and Climate Justice, An Oral History of Hurricane Recovery in the Gulf Coast

On the Gulf Coast of Texas, a large disparity exists between the number of homes still in need of repair after Hurricane Harvey and the number of homes actually repaired by the City of Houston, Housing and Community Development, 6 years after the storm. This research was conducted through the lens of environmental justice, with attention to climate change impacts and the vulnerability of previously segregated neighborhoods over extended periods of time. The most vulnerable, seniors, were interviewed to collect their personal experiences post Hurricane Harvey to determine the true extent of home damage, how they recovered from the storm, and what impact that recovery period post-storm had on their health and displacement from the home. In the context of a just planning model and through the lens of environmental justice, their ecological knowledge and participation should be used to improve housing recovery. Oral histories allow others an alternative perspective to their own and offer policy makers insight into complex nuances, actors, and events that have transpired post-disaster

He Repercussions of Childhood Trauma on Posttraumatic Stress: the Mediating Effects of Dissociation and Emotion Dysregulation

The present study explored the mediating effects of dissociation and emotion dysregulation on the relationship between different types of childhood trauma and symptoms of posttraumatic stress. Participants were 181 undergraduate students at Cleveland State University, who competed measures of childhood trauma (emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, and general trauma), posttraumatic stress symptoms, dissociation, and emotion dysregulation. Multiple mediation analyses were conducted to examine the model proposed in this study. The results of this study revealed that all trauma types significantly predicted adulthood posttraumatic stress. The relationship between emotional abuse and posttraumatic stress was mediated through both dissociation and emotion dysregulation. Specific indirect effects emerged through dissociation on physical abuse and emotional abuse, and through emotion dysregulation on general trauma, and posttraumatic stress. These findings support prior research that associates posttraumatic stress symptoms to traumatic childhood experiences. Furthermore, the results indicate differential psychopathological outcomes related to type of traumatic experience in early life

Evaluating Patterns of Spared and Enhanced Processing within the Music Domain in Autism Spectrum Disorders

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disorder characterized by deficits in communication and social functioning, and restricted and repetitive behaviours. Apart from these deficits, individuals with ASD demonstrate an uneven cognitive profile which includes sparing and enhancements. Research on musical savants, many of whom have ASD or autistic-like traits, as well as past research examining pitch and tonality in individuals with ASD has shown that music is likely to be at least spared in individuals with ASD. The purpose of this thesis is to demonstrate that music is one of these cognitive strengths for individuals with ASD. The first study presented here addresses the question of timbre cognition, and demonstrates that individuals with ASD have enhanced discrimination of timbres relative to controls. The second and third studies address rhythm reproduction and cognition, showing an enhancement and a sparing, respectively, relative to controls once levels of motor dysfunction are controlled for. The fourth study replicates earlier findings about the ability of individuals with ASD to process tonality, and using a temporal manipulation demonstrates that individuals with autism are as good at processing tonality as their matched controls when the tempo is slow, medium and fast, although both groups show a decrease in accuracy at slower tempi. The fifth study examines implicit learning for both pseudo- linguistic stimuli and musical stimuli. In this experiment the control group was unable to succeed on the task, while the ASD group surprisingly succeeded both with pseudo-linguistic and musical stimuli. These results are discussed within the context of modern theories of cognition in ASD. The results of every experiment in this study encourage the conclusion that there is a pattern of spared and enhanced cognition for musical materials apparent in this sample of individuals with ASD. There were no deficits found on any task relative to a control sample. This is a burgeoning field with exciting prospects for future work into the abilities of those with ASD

Exploring the long-term influence of the family nurse partnership on the lives of young mothers

Background The Family Nurse Partnership (FNP) is an intensive nurse led home-visiting programme for first-time mothers under 19 years old and their babies, run by the English Government. This small qualitative study is part of a larger study which examined the key outcomes of the programme in one UK location. Few studies have explored the experiences of young mothers after graduating from the FNP. The aim of this study was to explore mother’s own experiences of the programme and particularly how the FNP programme has had an impact upon parents and their children post-graduation from the programme. Methods Data was collected using face to face, semi-structured interviews with a purposeful sample of 12 mothers who had graduated from the FNP programme. Mothers were asked about their experience of the programme and their subsequent life-course. The interviews were recorded and then transcribed verbatim. Analysis of the data was conducted using a constant comparative approach. Results The mothers who had participated in the FNP program were very positive about their experiences and talked about the continued impact the programme has had on their lives. Themes emerging from the data included the importance of the supportive nature of the relationship with the family nurse and how participating in the FNP had increased their self-confidence and has empowered them to make positive changes in their lives. Conclusions The interviews found that mothers valued the intervention and it had a long-term impact on the mothers. In addition ways in which the FNP intervention has influenced the lives of clients and their families, that are not routinely measured by the programme were identified. Researchers are now working with the programme providers to support its development of a more flexible intervention model of parenting support so that the beneficial effects of the programme can reach more vulnerable parents. Key messages: •Mothers value the FNP intervention and continue to benefit from the programme after it has finished •Further development and evolution of the model is being undertaken which aims to reach more parents and should be researched.Ripple

Why do participants initiate free recall of short lists of words with the first list item? Toward a general episodic memory explanation.

Participants who are presented with a short list of words for immediate free recall (IFR) show a strong tendency to initiate their recall with the 1st list item and then proceed in forward serial order. We report 2 experiments that examined whether this tendency was underpinned by a short-term memory store, of the type that is argued by some to underpin recency effects in IFR. In Experiment 1, we presented 3 groups of participants with lists of between 2 and 12 words for IFR, delayed free recall, and continuous-distractor free recall. The to-be-remembered words were simultaneously spoken and presented visually, and the distractor task involved silently solving a series of self-paced, visually presented mathematical equations (e.g., 3 + 2 + 4 = ?). The tendency to initiate recall at the start of short lists was greatest in IFR but was also present in the 2 other recall conditions. This finding was replicated in Experiment 2, where the to-be-remembered items were presented visually in silence and the participants spoke aloud their answers to computer-paced mathematical equations. Our results necessitate that a short-term buffer cannot be fully responsible for the tendency to initiate recall from the beginning of a short list; rather, they suggest that the tendency represents a general property of episodic memory that occurs across a range of time scales.This is the accepted manuscript. This article may not exactly replicate the final version published in the APA journal. It is not the copy of record. That's available from APA at http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/xlm/40/6/1551/

Can the effects of temporal grouping explain the similarities and differences between free recall and serial recall?

Temporal grouping can provide a principled explanation for changes in the serial position curves and output orders that occur with increasing list length in immediate free recall (IFR) and immediate serial recall (ISR). To test these claims, we examined the effects of temporal grouping on the order of recall in IFR and ISR of lists of between one and 12 words. Consistent with prior research, there were significant effects of temporal grouping in the ISR task with mid-length lists using serial recall scoring, and no overall grouping advantage in the IFR task with longer list lengths using free recall scoring. In all conditions, there was a general tendency to initiate recall with either the first list item or with one of the last four items, and then to recall in a forward serial order. In the grouped IFR conditions, when participants started with one of the last four words, there were particularly heightened tendencies to initiate recall with the first item of the most recent group. Moreover, there was an increased degree of forward-ordered transitions within groups than across groups in IFR. These findings are broadly consistent with Farrell's model, in which lists of items in immediate memory are parsed into distinct groups and participants initiate recall with the first item of a chosen cluster, but also highlight shortcomings of that model. The data support the claim that grouping may offer an important element in the theoretical integration of IFR and ISR.This is the author's accepted manuscript and will be under embargo until the 21st of October 2015. The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/s13421-014-0471-5

Fit’n Bits: Evaluation of the FitBit’s User Friendliness and Motivation

poster abstractWearable computing devices create new opportunities for people to collect data about themselves and interact unobtrusively with a wide variety of information sources. However, these devices also compete for a wearer’s limited attention and have the potential for worsening the problem of information overload. Our study focuses on people’s day-to-day experiences using wearable activity tracking devices, both solo and in motivational groups of 3–4 persons. We are currently collecting a variety of data to understand how differences in the information displayed on the device (and the associated, web-based “dashboard”) affect users’ behavior and attainment/motivation of physical activity goals, influence users’ perception of the usefulness and intrusiveness of the device, and encourage/discourage device use. In addition, we hope to further explore whether or not participation in a group provided additional motivation or simply introduced another type of information overload. A total of 36 participants will be recruited from the IUPUI campus and nearby areas of downtown Indianapolis and will be divided into one of two conditions, working solo or in a squad (group of three of more people). ANOVAs will be conducted to analyze and interpret the data. In particular, we will look for any significant differences in the number of steps taken and in the subjective preference ratings across all conditions. All qualitative responses will be collaboratively coded by a team of investigators. This research effort is currently ongoing, and we are aiming to present initial data analyses based on a large subset of our total participant population at this year’s IUPUI Research Day

A Safe and Fast Deworming Procedure for Horses

Most horse owners administer oral deworming medication to their horses on a set schedule, often six times per year. The deworming process involves using a plastic syringe to inject a thick paste into the horse's mouth. Most horse owners do not specifically train their horses to accept this procedure. Consequently, many horses resist the procedure and some horses engage in behaviors, such as head shaking, pulling away, or even rearing, that may be dangerous to humans or to themselves. This study used a negative reinforcement shaping procedure to train six horses to accept dewormer medication. The procedure consisted of a food sampling phase followed by three shaping phases that simulated the deworming task, first using only the experimenter's hand, then a small syringe, and finally a large syringe. Once the horse was acclimated to the syringe, the horse's preferred liquid food was delivered through the syringe at the end of each trial. By the end of the study, all participants successfully completed the procedure and were able to stand still with no or minimal head movements while being dewormed