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Using virtual reality and psychophysics to test embodied cognitive flexibility in children with ADHD
No full textAttention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is often studied using seated, computer-based tasks that overlook the embodied aspects of cognition. To address this gap, we introduce a novel approach that harnesses virtual reality (VR) to systematically test cognitive flexibility measures during whole-body action. In our study, nineteen children (7- to 11- year-olds) diagnosed with ADHD played in a large VR room and intercepted virtual objects that fell from above onto the floor. On “Switch” trials, the task goal changed from one trial to the next (e.g., from focusing on an object’s shape to focusing on its color), while on “Non-Switch” trials, the same goal was maintained. We systematically varied the descent duration of the virtual objects, enabling us to fit psychometric curves that reveal the threshold at which children reliably succeeded in
catching the objects. Findings showed that children performed worse (lower success thresholds) on Switch trials, indicating cognitive costs in rapidly shifting attention between different target dimensions. Moreover, the magnitude of these performance decrements correlated with parent-reported measures of impulsivity and inattention, suggesting that these VR assessments capture individual differences in ADHD. Our findings highlight the potential of embodied VR paradigms in providing a more ecologically valid view of cognitive flexibility. By requiring children to physically move and dynamically adapt to changing task demands, our approach offers an embodied insight into the interplay of perception, action, and cognition, expanding the methodological toolkit available for developmental research on ADHD
Shakespeare's afterlife in the Royal Collection
No full textBook synopsis: This unique collection of essays and images explores a series of objects in the Royal Collection as a means of assessing the interrelated histories of the British royal family and the Shakespearean afterlife across four centuries. Between the beginning of the eighteenth century and the late twentieth, Shakespeare became entrenched as the English national poet. Over the same period, the monarchy sought repeatedly to demonstrate its centrality to British nationhood. By way of close analysis of a selection of objects from the Royal Collection, this volume argues that the royal family and the Shakespearean afterlife were far more closely interwoven than has previously been realized.
The chapters map the mutual development over time of the relationship between members of the British royal family and Shakespeare, demonstrating the extent to which each has gained sustained value from association with the other and showing how members of the royal family have individually and collectively constructed their identities and performed their roles by way of Shakespearean models. Each chapter is inspired by an object in (or formerly in) the Royal Collection and explores two interconnected questions: what has Shakespeare done for the royal family, and what has the royal family done for Shakespeare? The chapters range across the fields of art, theatre history, literary criticism, literary history, court studies and cultural history, showing how the shared history of Shakespeare and the royal family has been cultivated across media and across disciplines
Lotto lotteries – Decision making under uncertainty when payoffs are unknown
Get PDFThis paper analyses decision making under uncertainty when payoffs are unknown, similar to a Lotto lottery. In a Lotto lottery, the probability of winning a prize is known, but the size of the prize is unknown. This paper proposes a theoretical framework to model preferences over Lotto lotteries as compound lotteries. The first stage determines whether a prize is obtained, while the second stage determines the size of the prize. Then the paper empirically analyses human behaviour when uncertainty can be described as a Lotto lottery. There is considerable heterogeneity in the subjects’ aversion to lotteries with unknown payoffs. Further analysis shows that choices of decision makers can be best explained by a combination of risk and ambiguity preferences. These results suggest that subjects treat unknown payoffs similar to known payoffs with ambiguous probabilities
Federal Reserve Chairs and monetary regimes
Get PDFThis paper extends prior research by introducing a novel econometric framework---Regime-Dependent Granger Causality---to analyse the systematic elements of United States (US) monetary policy. Employing vector autoregressive models allowing for temporary Granger causality, we examine the association between monetary policy regimes---Taylor rules and Monetary Feedback rules---and the tenures of Federal Reserve Chairs. The analysis identifies the Global Financial Crisis period as a critical juncture. Taylor rule regimes predominated between 1965 and 2004, whereas Monetary Feedback regimes became more prominent from 1984 to 2019, with notable deviations during the Burns--Miller tenure and post-2004 under Bernanke. Monte Carlo simulations affirm the robustness of these findings. The study underscores the increasing relevance of Monetary Feedback rules in understanding the evolving nature of systematic US monetary policy, particularly in the aftermath of the crisis
The persistence of history: racism, anti-Blackness, and the causes of mental ill health, c.1800–2020
Get PDFThis article offers an overview, historicising how both ‘race’ and racism have been seen as an aetiological root for mental ill health in people racialised as black, and contextualising the rise of transcultural psychiatry. Heeding the calls of the few historians to study race, mental health, and transcultural psychiatry in the metropole and across the globe, this article includes a wider variety of voices in order to create a dialogue between these histories. Drawing extensively on the global historiography and embracing contemporary work that demonstrates the persistence of racism in psychiatry and research, we use medical publications and a prosopographical lens to explore the push from radical psychiatrists to uproot racism and anti-b/Blackness in psychiatry and to recognise the impact of racism on mental health. This article considers the practice and activism of three late 20th-century UK-trained clinicians: Jamaican Frederick Hickling (1944–2020), British Jamaican Aggrey Burke (b. 1943) and British Sri Lankan Suman Fernando (b. 1932). By shifting the gaze of the historiography, we argue that beyond the towering figures of Frantz Fanon and Thomas Adeoye Lambo, psychiatrists were engaged in anti-racism and decolonisation using history—and doing so long before decolonisation became a watchword for historians globally
Meaningful intergenerational contact to build social connections, enhance felt understanding and build confidence in future community social action
Get PDFDespite considerable research on the impact of intergenerational contact on attitudes and behaviours towards the other generation,
very few studies have qualitatively explored the psychological processes which occur, nor have they tested the effect of such
programmes on more generalised outcomes. In this paper, we examine the effect of an intergenerational contact intervention,
centred around discussions of social issues with intergenerational conversation partners. Firstly, we analyse focus group and
interview data with younger (n = 24) and older (n = 10) participants conducted following the programme. Thematic analysis is
used to explore the psychological processes that occur during intergenerational contact that could drive attitude and behaviour
change. This is complemented by a quantitative study in which we examine the impact of the intergenerational contact programme
on key intergroup outcomes (confidence in contact, perceived similarity) and more generalised outcomes (confidence in
community social action). Primary and secondary school aged children (N = 114) completed survey measures prior to and following
the intervention programme. Themes arising from the qualitative analysis showed a breakdown in stereotypes of older and
younger generations. Additionally, further themes arising included intergroup felt understanding, self-disclosure,
feeling heard and having voice, which we contend may drive intergenerational contact effects on intergenerational and more generalised outcomes. Analysis of survey responses revealed a significant boost in confidence in contact, perceived similarity, and confidence in social action (secondary school age pupils only) following the intergenerational contact programme. Methodological limitations are outlined and future directions for research discussed
Raising a claim for (animal) justice: the end(s) of socio-legal and critical legal studies
Get PDFThis short essay follows an invitation from this journal to reflect on the relation between socio-legal and critical legal studies over the past 50 years, a period during which the Journal of Law and Society has been one of the primary conduits for scholarship of both persuasions. After interrogating their commonalities and differences, hopes and anxieties, I go onto suggests that legal studies should be oriented by the objective of opening claims for justice; and I argue that this needs to be extended to animal justice
Do job resources buffer the harmful effects of job demands on burnout complaints? A 1-year cohort study of Swedish healthcare professionals.
Get PDFBackground: The job demands-resources model posits that job resources buffer the effects of job demands on subsequent strain. However, empirical support for this is inconclusive, with some studies suggesting this may be context- or even profession-specific.
Objective
To investigate the buffering effect in the job demands-resources model within the Swedish healthcare sector and the impact of professional differences on this effect
Method: Data were drawn from a 1-year cohort called the Longitudinal occupational health survey for healthcare in Sweden, utilising the 2022 and 2023 waves. The study sample consisted of Swedish healthcare professionals who at baseline were 69 years or younger, who participated in both survey waves. In total, the study included 4132 healthcare professionals (1649 physicians, 1631 registered nurses, and 852 nurse assistants). Descriptive statistics and ordinary least squares regression moderation analysis were carried out.
Results: The experience of control at work buffered the impact of several job demands, including quantitative demands (Beta coefficients [B] =−0.034, 95 % confidence interval [CI] [−0.05; −0.01]), illegitimate work tasks (B=−0.018, 95 % CI [−0.04;−0.01]), effort-reward imbalance (B = −0.050, 95 % CI [−0.08; −0.01]), and work-life Interference (B = −0.023, 95 % CI [−0.04; −0.004]) on subsequent burnout complaints. Collegial support buffered the effect of emotional demands (B = −0.025, 95 % CI [−0.04; −0.01]). Physicians reported a greater buffering effect from control compared with nurse assistants on the effect of illegitimate work tasks (B = 0.084, 95 % CI [0.01;0.16]) and effort reward imbalance (B = 0.120, 95 % CI [0.02;0.22]) towards subsequent burnout complaints.
Conclusions: We have contributed to the application of the job demands-resources model by emphasising the critical role of the type of profession in the buffering effect of resources. We have underlined the importance of profession-specific job demands and resources in understanding burnout among Swedish healthcare professionals and in other settings
Three-dimensional fossils of a Cretaceous Collared Carpet Shark (Parascylliidae, Orectolobiformes) shed light on skeletal evolution in galeomorphs
No full textA rich fossil record of teeth shows that many living shark families’ origins lie deep in the Mesozoic. Skeletal fossils of the sharks to whom these teeth belonged are far rarer and when they are preserved are often flattened, hindering understanding of the evolutionary radiation of living shark groups. Here we use computed tomography to describe two articulated Upper Cretaceous shark skeletons from the Chalk of the UK preserving three-dimensional neurocrania, visceral cartilages, pectoral skeletons and vertebrae. These fossils display skeletal anatomies characteristic of the Parascylliidae, a family of Orectolobiformes now endemic to Australia and the Indo Pacific. However, they differ in having a more heavily mineralized braincase and a tri-basal pectoral fin endoskeleton, while their teeth can be attributed to a new species of the problematic taxon Pararhincodon. Phylogenetic analysis of these new fossils confirms that Pararhincodon is a stem-group parascylliid, providing insight into the evolution of parascylliids’ distinctive anatomy during the late Mesozoic–Cenozoic shift in orectolobiform biodiversity from the Northern Atlantic to the Indo Pacific. Meanwhile both Pararhincodon and extant parascylliids have a distinctive vertebral morphology previously described only in Carcharhiniformes, contributing a skeletal perspective to the picture emerging from macroevolutionary analyses of coastal, small-bodied origins for galeomorphs
The humanising imperative for effective participation: Humean virtues and the limits of procedural justice
Get PDFProcedural justice considerations have long justified both the
instrumental and intrinsic value of effective participation amongst court users, where ideals of impartiality, dignity, and fairness remain preeminent. However, recent developments in socio-legal research as well as legal policy and practice point to an inchoate normative reframing of the law beyond procedural justice grounds, based on what we call the humanising imperative for effective participation. We utilise the philosophy of Hume to elucidate its distinctive features, namely the significance of partiality and the virtues of humanity. The paper further explores the putative enactment of the humanising imperative in three court settings in England and Wales – the Court of Protection, criminal courts, and inquests –which indicates the precarity of this orientation in relation to procedural justice principles
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