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Commentary on Friedman et al. (2024): A General Preference for Complexity?
No full textIt is typically assumed in the empirical aesthetics literature that generalizable abstract stimulus attributes like familiarity, fluency, and complexity drive preferences. This general nature means that they can, at least in principle, apply to any stimulus regardless of its characteristics and sensory modality. However, most studies in this tradition are restricted to group-level trends and particular stimulus properties. Therefore, they say nothing about amodal or general preferences for particular levels of such abstract attributes independently from their characterization at the individual level. Moreover, the hypothesis of a general, amodal preference for attributes like complexity was not empirically supported and only scarcely tested until we provided empirical evidence against it in our Clemente et al. (2021) study. In their quest for empirical evidence in favor of a preference for complexity across the auditory and visual modalities, Friedman et al. (2024) made two central claims: First, they found it surprising that aesthetic sensitivity for visual and musical complexity did not correlate in our study. Second, they expressed concerns about the comparability of the musical and visual stimuli we used. In this commentary, I show how these claims and the premises on which they rely are debatable and how the results of Friedman et al. (2024) support our conclusion that stimulus information rather than abstract attributes like complexity drive evaluative judgments such as liking
Commentary on De Souza, Dvorsky, and Oyon (2024): Texture and Sonata Form in Classical String Quartets
No full textThe corpus study reported by De Souza, Dvorsky, and Oyon (2024) investigates texture in sonata form movements of classical string quartets (by Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Ludwig van Beethoven) using onset synchrony. The following commentary provides some additional discussion on the behavior of various measures of onset synchrony when applied to this genre, and the potential of this research to be more widely generalizable
Mindfulness Matters: The Experience of Mindfulness Activity Facilitation by Faculty
No full textBackground: Faculty and students have experienced increased stress and challenges over the past years. Mindfulness is a strategy that has been used in classrooms to help manage those challenges; however, there is limited research on the faculty experience of leading mindfulness activities in the classroom.
Aim: This research aimed to explore how university faculty perceive the experience of using brief mindfulness activities in the classroom.
Methods: This pilot study examined use of brief instructor-led mindfulness activities in the classroom. A descriptive qualitative design was used to examine faculty perceptions associated with leading mindfulness activities. Eight faculty teaching undergraduate and graduate students at a private midwestern research-intensive university, from four different schools, participated.
Results: Faculty perceived the brief mindfulness activities they led as encouraging students’ well-being and mental health, helping students to transition into the classroom, fostering connection and community among faculty and students, demonstrating care and support of students, and helping faculty support their own self-development and well-being.
Conclusions: Leading brief mindfulness activities in the classroom provides benefits for faculty. Faculty perceive those practices to also be beneficial for students. More qualitative research is recommended to better understand the comprehensive effects and experiences associated with mindfulness practice in the classroom
The Buckeye Wellness Innovator Program: A Quality Improvement Evaluation
No full textBackground: Wellness champion networks are a best practice strategy to promote and sustain a culture of well-being in organizations and institutions of higher education.
Aim: The purpose of this quality improvement evaluation was to determine program effectiveness and areas of opportunity for a university wellness champion program.
Methods: An anonymous survey was sent to 700 wellness champions, the Buckeye Wellness Innovators (BWIs), to assess program components, identify areas of opportunity, and gather participant feedback.
Results: A total of 202 BWIs (28.8%) responded to the survey. Seventy-five percent reported at least moderate engagement in the role. There was a strong desire among respondents to contribute to the university’s wellness initiative. Areas of opportunity include further colleague engagement in wellness services and programs, enhanced communication from program facilitators, and continued and increased support for the wellness champion role.
Conclusions: Feedback on the program was positive overall. Several areas of opportunity for program improvement were identified. Wellness champions are an effective evidence-based strategy to support a culture of wellness in institutions of higher education and their feedback is important for program quality improvement
Long-Term Monitoring of Bat Activity and Species Richness Reveals Changes in Northwest Ohio Bat Communities
No full textBat populations are declining worldwide because of threats such as white-nose syndrome and habitat loss. Multiple-year studies are advantageous for looking at population trends over time and determining the extent of declines. While numerous multiple-year studies have been conducted for bats, they are limited in regional and local coverage. This study compiled the results of 282 walking surveys across 10 years of acoustic bat recording data collected in 3 northwest Ohio parks from 2011 to 2021 to examine temporal trends in bat activity. Overall bat activity (all species combined, average per night) decreased from 2011 to 2018 but showed a slight positive trend from 2019 to 2021. Average activity per night for big brown (Eptesicus fuscus), northern long-eared (Myotis septentrionalis), and little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus) decreased significantly (75%, 95%, and 33% decreases from 2011 to 2021, respectively). Average activity per night of hoary (Lasiurus cinereus) and silver-haired bats (Lasionycteris noctivagans) increased significantly in activity until 2016 (169% and 163% increase from 2011 to 2016, respectively) before decreasing in activity to be closer to initial levels, although their general trend in activity was positive overall (92% and 32% increase from 2011 to 2021, respectively). These data show the advantages of monitoring bat activity over more years to make inferences about population trends. Significant decreases in activity for big brown, little brown, and northern long-eared bats from 2011 to 2021 suggest alterations in bat community structure. These results illustrate a decline in overall bat activity over the last decade. This study also provides an example of volunteer-collected long-term bat monitoring data
MINDSTRONG Program Delivery Type for Undergraduate Nursing Students: A Program Evaluation
No full textBackground: Many nursing students struggled with mental health problems that may have been exacerbated by pandemic stressors when most educational programs shifted to remote learning. During that time, a Big Ten Conference university study urged institutions to provide effective, evidence-based resilience programs. In 2022, a large Big Ten University College of Nursing initiated MINDSTRONG for undergraduate students through in-person, online, or hybrid formats in the fall. A program evaluation was conducted to determine if the delivery method would influence outcomes.
Aim: To evaluate the MINDSTRONG program delivery method and determine if it impacted students’ reports of meeting program objectives, program participation encouragement, and peer program recommendation using retrospective data from an end-of-program survey.
Methods: Applied the CDC Framework for Program Evaluation to generate credible evidence retrospectively sourced from an anonymous end-of-program survey.
Results: In-person participants had the highest self-reported scores when compared to the online and hybrid groups: 89% reported objectives met, 98% reported encouraged interactions, and 72% reported peer program recommendations. Online participants reported the lowest scores in each category: 72%, 90%, and 45%, respectively.
Conclusions: Program delivery affected outcome responses. Feedback guided stakeholder decision-making for future iterations of this program
The Relationship of Physical Activity to Anxiety and Resilient Coping Among Higher Education Employees
No full textBackground: Physical activity (PA) can positively affect mental health, yet many aspects of this relationship (degree of effectiveness across populations and conditions, biological mechanisms, etc.) remain unexplored.
Aim: This study seeks to understand how PA is associated with anxiety, a common mental health condition, and resilient coping, the ability of an individual to overcome personal stress; and, how PA can be utilized to alleviate anxiety and strengthen resilient coping.
Methods: Data collected from Health Assessment surveys assessed how several types of PA (moderate, vigorous, moderate-to-vigorous, and strength training) are related to anxiety and resilient coping.
Results: Analysis revealed statistically significant relationships between PA and anxiety and PA and resilient coping. The findings from this study establish positive associations between PA and anxiety and resilient coping, emphasizing the powerful influence of PA as a mental health therapeutic. Such results suggest that PA could become a key component for attenuating mental health crises of workforces within higher education institutions.
Conclusion: These findings serve as convincing evidence that organizations should assess ways to incorporate PA into their policies and programs for the health and well-being of employees, namely those of higher education institutions
Serious and Persistent Mental Illness Treatment and Support Services in Ohio: Perceptions from Consumers, Family Members, and Service Providers
No full textBackground: Given the prevalence of unaddressed mental health conditions in the United States, and the unique challenges that mental health service providers face in their therapeutic work with people living with serious and persistent mental illness (SPMI), it is imperative to understand how and where current services are meeting or falling short according to consumers of SPMI services, their family members, and service providers.
Methods: Utilizing a mixed-methods approach, SPMI recovery-oriented practices were assessed throughout Ohio. Data were collected from 332 participants (consumers of SPMI services, their family members, and SPMI service providers) via focus groups and surveys from June through November 2020.
Results: Overall, consumers and family members were satisfied with current services but felt negative about the process of finding services. Family members discussed that the behavioral health system did not do a good job of explaining what services were available and how to access those services. While participants generally held a positive perception that the mental health treatment system embraced the core principles of recovery, they overwhelmingly reported that service expansion was needed, both in terms of additional services and a higher volume of existing services, and they discussed the need to combat stigma. Most participants reported that they had perceived negative attitudes toward persons living with SPMI. Two-thirds of service providers perceived negative attitudes in service delivery.
Conclusion: Findings illustrate aspects of SPMI treatment and support services as possible areas for improvements, such as heightening community outreach and education, employing navigators, expanding transportation and telehealth options, and expanding crisis services. To address stigma, there were many calls across participant types for increased community education on SPMI and what it means to live with SPMI, with an outreach focus on reframing and positive community messaging
Access Intimacy and Humanness in CART Captioning Relationships
No full textThis article engages with the nuanced experience of auditory disability and Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) captioning by exploring how access to the soundscape as provided by a human captioner creates a unique intimacy –and unique, often unintended benefits—for disability access. Bringing together the concepts of access intimacy, contact zones, and disability theory, this article focuses on personal experiences as a hard of hearing (HoH), disabled individual and investigates the formation of access intimacy within a formal accommodation structure. Through reflective autoethnography, this article (re)defines access intimacy as a learned skill that can result from formal academic partnerships. First, the article will define and explore CART captioning as a specific site where the human interactions necessitated by this specific accommodation create opportunities to expand out conversations of access and accommodation. Next, it will analyze the author's personal experiences with CART captioning through the lens of access intimacy, expanding on how this intimacy can be developed through institutional relationships. The article ends with a personal vignette with the goal of illustrating this access intimacy –and the additional access conferred through this intimacy