Access to multiliteracies: A critical ethnography

This paper reports the key findings of a critical ethnography, which documented the enactment of the multiliteracies pedagogy in an Australian elementary school classroom. The multiliteracies pedagogy of the New London Group is a response to the emergence of multimodal literacies in contemporary contexts of increased cultural and linguistic diversity. Giddens' structuration theory was applied to the analysis of systems relations. The key finding was that students, who were culturally and linguistically diverse, had differential access to multiliteracies. Existing degrees of access were reproduced among the student cohort, based on the learners' relation to the dominant culture. Specifically, students from Anglo-Australian, middle-class backgrounds had greater access to transformed designing than those who were culturally or socio-economically marginalized. These experiences were influenced by the agency of individuals who were both enabled and constrained by structures of power within the school and the wider educational and social systems

Vers une architecture cognitive du maintien du biais attentionnel envers la menace dans l'anxiété : Une approche par comparaison de modèles

Récemment, des chercheurs ont examiné la nature causale des biais attentionnels envers la menace (BA) dans le maintien des troubles anxieux, et ce en manipulant expérimentalement BA. Ils ont observé qu’entrainer des personnes souffrant d’anxiété à porter leur attention vers des stimuli non menaçants réduisait BA qui, en retour, réduisait le niveau de symptomatologie anxieuse. Cette observation soutient l’hypothèse que BA aurait un impact causal dans le maintien de l’anxiété. Cela étant, à un niveau fondamental, des incertitudes demeurent quant à la nature des processus sous-tendant le maintien de BA et, par conséquent, la plasticité de BA. Selon une première approche, le maintien de BA dans l’anxiété serait le résultat d’un système déficitaire d’évaluation de la valence. Selon une deuxième approche, BA résulterait d’un processus déficitaire de contrôle exécutif. L’objectif principal de cet article est de mettre en concurrence ces deux approches. Plus particulièrement, le présent article est structuré autour de trois questions principales. Premièrement, nous discutons l’hypothèse selon laquelle BA pourrait être la conséquence d’un système déficitaire d’évaluation de la valence. Ensuite, nous discutons de la possibilité que BA soit le résultat de perturbations au niveau des processus de contrôle exécutif. Finalement, nous discutons des interactions potentielles qui pourraient unir ces deux approches dans l’avènement de BA. L’implication potentielle de ces deux approches dans l’apparition de biais situés à d’autres niveaux de traitement et dans d’autres modalités sensorielles est également envisagée

Attention Training Toward and Away from Threat in Social Phobia: Effects on Subjective, Behavioral, and Physiological Measures of Anxiety

Social Phobics exhibit an attentional bias for threat in probe detection and probe discrimination paradigms. Attention training programs, whereby probes always replace nonthreat cues, reduce attentional bias for threat and self-reported anxiety. However, it remains unclear whether the therapeutic benefits of attention training result from people learning to disengage attention from threat cues or acquiring greater control over their attention by learning to deploy it flexibly. Moreover, researchers have seldom taken behavioral measures, and have never taken physiological measures of fear reduction. Investigating these questions, we found that training to disengage attention from threat is more effective than training to deploy it flexibly in social phobia. Indeed, the former condition reduced self-report, behavioral and physiological measures of anxiety.Psycholog

Too good to be cautious: High implicit self-esteem predicts self-reported dangerous mobile phone use

Mobile phone use and misuse have become a pressing challenge in today’s society. Dangerous mobile phone use, such as the use of a mobile phone while driving, is widely practiced, though banned in several jurisdictions. Research aiming at unfolding the psychological predictors of dangerous mobile phone use have so far been scarce. Especially, researchers have never taken the role of self-esteem into account, which is unfortunate given prior research linking self-esteem to addictive mobile phone use. In the present study, we evaluated the associations between both explicit and implicit self-esteem and dangerous mobile phone use, with a particular focus on phoning while driving. To do so, we assessed implicit self-esteem among 95 participants (89 females) via the Implicit Association Test and explicit self-esteem via a self-reported measure. Problematic mobile phone use and demographic data were assessed with self-reported measures. Implicit self-esteem predicted dangerous mobile phone use, even after we controlled for demographic data and mobile phone dependence. Explicit self-esteem, however, was related to neither dependence nor dangerous use of the mobile phone, thereby supporting the importance of distinguishing between explicit and implicit self-esteem. Our results set the scene for new research avenues regarding mobile phone use while driving

Probing smoking craving with a multidimensional approach: validation of the 12-item French-language version of the Questionnaire on Smoking Urges.

BACKGROUND: The current study examined the psychometric properties of the 12-item French-language version of the Questionnaire on Smoking Urges (QSU-12), a widely used multidimensional measure of cigarette craving. METHODS: Daily smokers (n=230) completed the QSU-12, the Fagerstrom Test for Nicotine Dependence, and items about addiction-related symptoms. Additional participants (n=40) completed the QSU-12 and the Fagerstrom Test for Nicotine Dependence and were assessed for expired carbon monoxide. RESULTS: Consistent with studies validating the English version of the scale, confirmatory factor analyses supported a two-factor solution in the French version of the scale. Good scale and subscales reliabilities were observed, and convergent validity was evidenced through relationships with dependence and addiction-related symptoms. CONCLUSION: The French-language version of the QSU-12 is an adequate instrument to assess the multidimensional construct of craving in both research and clinical practice

Attentional biases to positive and negative information in depression: Are there really related to rumination and interpersonal problems?

Introduction. Research has shown that depression is associated with attentional biases towards negatively and positively-valenced stimuli. Yet, symptoms of depression as well as cognitive mechanisms of depression are characterized by a huge heterogeneity in their expression. As a consequence, this study investigates the association of attentional biases to positive and negative information with rumination and interpersonal problems. Method. Attentional biases for sad and happy materials were examined in three different modified version of the exogenous cueing paradigm (i.e. facial expression, pictures, and words). Sixty-five participants were assigned in three groups based on a semi-structured diagnostic interview and a completion of depressive symptoms scale (i.e. BDI-II), resulting in 17 individuals with major depressive disorder, 17 with dysphoric mood, and 31 with nondysphoric mood. Interpersonal problems, rumination, and anxiety were also assessed. Result. There was no significant Group x Emotion effect. Irrespective of the task, relation between attentional biases and other variables were globally inconsistent in each group. Further data will be collected to enhance the statistical power. Discussion. Given the absence of association between depression and attentional bias for negative and positive materials, our findings are at odds with the extant literature and cognitive models of depression. Implications for further research on the heterogeneous nature of depression will be discussed

Correlates of social exclusion in social anxiety Disorder: An fMRI study

Cognitive models posit that social anxiety disorder (SAD) is maintained by biased informationprocessing vis-à-vis threat of social exclusion. However, uncertainty still abounds regarding the very nature of this sensitivity to social exclusion in SAD. Especially, brain alterations related to social exclusion have not been explored in SAD. Our primary purpose was thus to determine both the selfreport and neural correlates of social exclusion in this population. 23 patients with SAD and 23 matched nonanxious controls played a virtual game (“Cyberball”) during fMRI recording. Participants were frst included by other players, then excluded, and fnally re-included. At the behavioral level, patients with SAD exhibited signifcantly higher levels of social exclusion feelings than nonanxious controls. At the brain level, patients with SAD exhibited signifcantly higher activation within the left inferior frontal gyrus relative to nonanxious controls during the re-inclusion phase. Moreover, self-report of social exclusion correlates with the activity of this cluster among individuals qualifying for SAD diagnosis. Our pattern of fndings lends strong support to the notion that SAD may be better portrayed by a poor ability to recover following social exclusion than during social exclusion per se. These fndings value social neuroscience as an innovative procedure to gain new insight into the underlying mechanisms of SAD

Behavioural Addiction Open Definition 2.0 – Using the open science framework for collaborative and transparent theoretical development

Commentary to: How can we conceptualize behavioural addiction without pathologizing common behaviours?</p

Positive and Negative Urgency as a single coherent construct: Evidence from a large‐scale network analysis in clinical and non‐clinical samples

Aims: Negative and positive urgency are emotion-related impulsivity traits that are thought to be transdiagnostic factors in psychopathology. However, it has recently been claimed that these two traits are closely related to each other and that considering them separately might have limited conceptual and methodological value. The present study aimed to examine whether positive and negative urgency constructs constitute separate impulsivity traits. Methods: In contrast to previous studies that have used latent variable approaches, this study employed an item-based network analysis conducted in two different samples: a large sample of non-clinical participants (N = 18,568) and a sample of clinical participants with psychiatric disorders (N = 385). Results: The network analysis demonstrated that items denoting both positive and negative urgency cohere as a single cluster of items termed “general urgency” in both clinical and non-clinical samples, thereby suggesting that differentiating positive and negative urgency as separate constructs is not necessary. Conclusion: These findings have important implications for the conceptualization and assessment of urgency and, more broadly, for future research on impulsivity, personality, and psychopathology