Call number: LD2668 .T4 1986 W54 / Master of Science / Educational Leadership

Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a neurological disorder and the most frequent neurological cause of disability in young adults. 40-65% of MS patients experience cognitive difficulties (Bennedict et al., 2012), with problems in memory, attention and information processing speed being most frequently reported. However, visuoperceptual and language functions are much less studied in MS, but the few studies that looked into them (Vleugels, 2001; Grossman, 1995) have found prevalence of significant posterior deficits in MS. Up to today no study has investigated the domain-specificity of cognitive dysfunction in MS and its longitudinal progression. Aims: The primary aim of this project was to investigate the dimensionality of MS-related cognitive impairment longitudinally. The second aim was to determine the predictors of the observed longitudinal changes. The third aim was to investigate whether the participants themselves were aware of their cognitive changes, and what predicted the self-perception of change. Methods: To address these aims I followed a sample of MS patients and compared their performance on cognitive tests measuring five cognitive domains (verbal memory, visuospatial memory, processing speed, visuoperceptual and language) at baseline and at follow-up three years apart. Then I’ve composed separate models to explain the predictors first of the actual changes, and then of the perceived changes in performance. Moreover, as part of this project I have analysed pre-existing data to evaluate the instruments and optimized the baseline test battery for use in performing the followup assessments. Findings: I have managed to collect follow-up data on 82 MS patients and 23 matching healthy controls, acquiring high (76% and 79% respectively) recruitment rates. My MS sample (24% PPMS, 34% SPMS and 46% RRMS) was representable of the overall MS population. I found that deficits were seen in all cognitive domains (none were spared) and that new deficits were picked up sporadically, although with higher predisposition towards the information processing speed, visuoperceptual and memory domains. The new deficits showed the tendency to slowly accumulate, leading to development of major problems with longer disease duration. Interestingly it was found that even though the factors that influenced cognitive decline were specific for each of the cognitive domains, however, neurological disability, MS type and levels of depression were the most common predictors of change in cognitive functioning. I found that in general MS patients perceived longitudinal changes on the BRBN battery more accurately than on visuoperceptual and language tests, and the factors that played a role in the self-perception of change were executive dysfunction, neurological disability and MS impact. Implications: The results of this study add significant contribution to the field of longitudinal change in cognition in MS. Not only I explored the dimensionality of MS-related cognitive deficits, but also examined the factors that led to poorer performance, and the patients’ own perspective of their cognitive change. Moreover, with this project I have addressed common problems in the field of longitudinal research in MS – definition of normal variation in performance; the sensitivity of cognitive tests to pick up MS-related deficits; and heterogeneity of cognitive impairments in MS; - and I have used the performance of my own controls in attempts to account for all of that. I believe that this study will be of interest not only to those who specialize in cognitive functioning in MS, but also to those who question the methods employed in clinical research to define impairments and to account for individual differences.

PhD / This thesis describes an interview study of forty five professionally accomplished male and female designers and architects. The study considers how each respondent designs and makes discoveries throughout conceptual design. How they start designing, what they attempt to achieve, the means they employ, how they cope with getting stuck, their breakthroughs and discoveries and the circumstances of these experiences, are the main ingredients of the study. The aim of the research is to estimate the extent to which designing may be regarded as an insightful activity, by investigating experiences of discoveries as reported by the respondents. Throughout the thesis, discoveries or ideas occurring to respondents when they are not actively designing, an apparent outcome of a latent designing or preparation activity, are referred to as cold discoveries. This label is used to distinguish these discoveries from discoveries that emerge in the run of play, when individuals are actively designing. The latter are referred to as hot discoveries. The relative insightfulness of hot and cold discoveries is also investigated. In general, the evidence from the research suggests that designing is significantly insightful. Most respondents (39:45) reported experiences of insights that have contributed to their designing. In addition there is strong evidence that cold discoveries are considerably more important, both quantitatively and qualitatively, than is currently recognized. More than half of the respondents (25:45) reported the experience of cold discoveries, many after disengaging from designing, when they had been stuck. Being stuck means they were experiencing frustration, or had recognised they were not making satisfactory progress in attempts to resolve some aspect of conceptual design. Typically these respondents reported experiencing discoveries while doing other work, performing some physical activity, resting, or very soon after resuming work. They had elected to let ideas come to them, rather than persist in searching and this strategy was successful. Moreover, many respondents (10:45) described positive attributes of cold discoveries using terms such as stronger, more potent, or pushes boundaries, which suggest their cold discoveries are more insightful than their hot discoveries. Many respondents associated their cold discoveries with mental activities such as incubation, a concept identified by Gestalt theorists nearly a century ago. They used a range of informal terms, such as ideas ticking over, or percolating away. These apparently uncontrolled mental experiences, which I refer to generically as latent preparation, varied from one respondent to another in when, where and how they occurred. Latent preparation or its outcomes, in the form of interruptive thoughts, apparently takes place at any time and during different states of consciousness and attentiveness. It appears to be, at different times, unplanned, unintentional, undirected, unnoticed, or unconscious, in combinations, not necessarily all at once. It is clearly not only an unconscious process. This suggests one, or more of the following; 1) that incubation is only a component of latent preparation, or 2) that the conventional view of incubation, as an unconscious process, does not adequately account for the range of insightful experiences of mentally productive people, such as designers, or 3) that the old issue of whether incubation is a conscious, or an unconscious process, is not vital to a systematic investigation of insightful discovery. The thesis concludes by considering prospects for further research and how the research outcomes could influence education. Apart from the findings already described, statements by the respondents about personal attributes, designing, coping with being stuck and discoveries, were wide ranging, resourceful and down-to-earth, suggesting there are many ways for individuals to become proficient, creative designers at the high end of their profession. A major implication for future research is that latent preparation may be found as readily among highly motivated and skilled individuals in other occupations unrelated to architecture or designing. The evidence of the research so far suggests there is much to be learned about latent preparation that can be usefully applied, for the benefit of individuals aiming to be designers, or simply wanting to become more adept at intervening, transforming and managing unexpected and novel situations of any kind.

In this study, theoretical and computational approaches have been utilized to investigate the mechanisms of natural and artificial metalloproteases. The active sites of most natural metalloproteases contain a tetrahedral zinc center, coordinated by three amino acid residues combinated from His(N), Cys(S), Glu(O), and Asp(O) with a water molecule as the fourth ligand. However, the roles played by the ligands environment in the catalytic functions of enzyme are not clear. In this study, the effects of different ligand combinations (NS2, N2S, N2O, N3, S3, NO2 and NSO) in the mechanism were investigated energy barriers were compared. The machanism and energetics of the substrate bound artificial metalloproteases Ni(II)cyclen (cyclen: 1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane) and Cd(II)cyclen have been investigated. In addition, the mechanism of hydrolysis of Phe-Phe peptide bond catalyzed by another artificial metalloprotease [Pd(H2O)4]2+ has also been studied.

Poor Insight is a common symptom of schizophrenia and it is conceptualised as having at least three principal components, namely unawareness of symptoms, unawareness of the need for treatment, and unawareness of the consequences of the disorder. These deficits have long been of clinical interest and have been shown to predict poorer treatment compliance, clinical outcome, social function, and response to vocational rehabilitation (Amador & David, 2004). Additionally, difficulties to establish and maintain social relationships are core features of schizophrenia, and there is evidence that these may to some extent stem from an alteration of the neural circuits that regulate social behaviour, and in particular deficits in Theory of Mind (ToM) (Lee et al., 2004). While deficits in insight in schizophrenia have been widely and consistently reported in the literature, evidence on the nature of the ToM dysfunction in this disorder is still controversial. This is mainly due to methodological differences across studies as well as limitations regarding the instruments used for ToM assessment. The first aim of this research consisted of clarifying some of these issues -whether a specific ToM dysfunction existed in schizophrenia and whether this most suitably fitted in the state or trait deficit views- trying to overcome previous methodological drawbacks. We did so by the use of a well matched control group, by controlling for important confounds and by the inclusion of ToM instruments of different nature (verbal and pictorial tasks). Results of this project were included in a first paper (Pousa et al., 2008a) and also led to the publication of a letter discussing part of the conclusions of a recent meta-analysis on ToM in schizophrenia (Pousa, Ruiz & David, 2008). Following this preliminary work and on the basis of a number of phenomenological parallelisms between insight and ToM dysfunctions that could be appreciated both clinically and in the literature, we decided to explore the relationship between insight and ToM. Given the scarcity of previous studies specifically focused on this issue, the nature of the study was mainly exploratory. The most relevant results of this investigation led to a second paper (Pousa et al., 2008b).Besides the mentioned publications, two complementary published works are added in the present thesis for their relevance to the project. The first is the manuscript of the Spanish adaptation of the SUMD (Ruiz et al., 2007). The second is a chapter of a book on mental disorders from an evolutionary perspective, titled "Theory of Mind as an evolutionary brain module". This chapter describes the concept of ToM, its measurement, as well as its neurobiological basis and philogenetic development, and was part of the literature review carried out while working on the design of the project (Obiols & Pousa, 2005). References:- Amador X & David A. Insight and Psychosis. Awareness of illness in schizophrenia and Related Disorders. (2nd Edition) (2004). Oxford University Press. - Lee KH; Farrow TFD; Spence SA & Woodruff PWR. (2004) Social cognition, brain networks and schizophrenia. Psychological Medicine 34: 391-400.- Obiols, JE; Pousa, E. (2005) La Teoría de la Mente como módulo cerebral evolutivo. En J Sanjuan y CJ Cela Conde (Eds) 2005, cap 6, pp105-119. La Profecia de Darwin. Ars Médica. ISBN: 84-9751-090-9- Pousa, E; Duñó, R; Brébion, G; David, AS; Ruiz, AI; Obiols, JE. (2008a) Theory of mind deficits in chronic schizophrenia: evidence for state dependence. Psychiatry Research, 158: 1-10.- Pousa, E; Duñó, R; Navarro, B; Ruiz, AI, Obiols, JE; David, AS. (2008b) Exploratory study of the association between insight and Theory of Mind (ToM) in stable schizophrenia patients. Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, 13, 210-232.- Pousa, E; Ruiz, AI; David, AS. (2008). Mentalising impairment as a trait marker of schizophrenia? Correspondence. British Journal of Psychiatry, 192, 312-315.- Ruiz, AI; Pousa, E; Duñó, R; Crosas, JM; Cuppa, S; Garcia-Ribera, C. (2008). Adaptación al español de la Escala de Valoración de la No Conciencia de Trastorno Mental SUMD. Actas Españolas de Psiquiatria, 36, 111-118.

In the past decade the healing potential of mindfulness and its practice has gained widespread recognition across various health disciplines and institutions, especially mental health. Past and current research on mindfulness interventions have focused almost exclusively on the beneficial effects for clients. However, there is a serious shortage of research on how mindfulness practice influences therapists and their work. The current study looked specifically at how the influence of mindfulness meditation (MM) was experienced by therapists in the context of their work. An interpretive description methodology was used to guide the research process. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with six therapists who practiced MM regularly. A thematic analysis of interview transcripts highlighted commonalities and differences among participants’ perceptions of the influence of MM on their work. Eleven themes emerged from the data analysis. Thematic findings were considered in relation to key issues in psychotherapy, master therapist traits and other contemporary qualitative research addressing the influence of MM on practitioners. The results are discussed with an emphasis on the practical implications for future research, therapist training and clinical practice.

In the past decade the healing potential of mindfulness and its practice has gained widespread recognition across various health disciplines and institutions, especially mental health. Past and current research on mindfulness interventions have focused almost exclusively on the beneficial effects for clients. However, there is a serious shortage of research on how mindfulness practice influences therapists and their work. The current study looked specifically at how the influence of mindfulness meditation (MM) was experienced by therapists in the context of their work. An interpretive description methodology was used to guide the research process. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with six therapists who practiced MM regularly. A thematic analysis of interview transcripts highlighted commonalities and differences among participants’ perceptions of the influence of MM on their work. Eleven themes emerged from the data analysis. Thematic findings were considered in relation to key issues in psychotherapy, master therapist traits and other contemporary qualitative research addressing the influence of MM on practitioners. The results are discussed with an emphasis on the practical implications for future research, therapist training and clinical practice.

PhD / This thesis describes an interview study of forty five professionally accomplished male and female designers and architects. The study considers how each respondent designs and makes discoveries throughout conceptual design. How they start designing, what they attempt to achieve, the means they employ, how they cope with getting stuck, their breakthroughs and discoveries and the circumstances of these experiences, are the main ingredients of the study. The aim of the research is to estimate the extent to which designing may be regarded as an insightful activity, by investigating experiences of discoveries as reported by the respondents. Throughout the thesis, discoveries or ideas occurring to respondents when they are not actively designing, an apparent outcome of a latent designing or preparation activity, are referred to as cold discoveries. This label is used to distinguish these discoveries from discoveries that emerge in the run of play, when individuals are actively designing. The latter are referred to as hot discoveries. The relative insightfulness of hot and cold discoveries is also investigated. In general, the evidence from the research suggests that designing is significantly insightful. Most respondents (39:45) reported experiences of insights that have contributed to their designing. In addition there is strong evidence that cold discoveries are considerably more important, both quantitatively and qualitatively, than is currently recognized. More than half of the respondents (25:45) reported the experience of cold discoveries, many after disengaging from designing, when they had been stuck. Being stuck means they were experiencing frustration, or had recognised they were not making satisfactory progress in attempts to resolve some aspect of conceptual design. Typically these respondents reported experiencing discoveries while doing other work, performing some physical activity, resting, or very soon after resuming work. They had elected to let ideas come to them, rather than persist in searching and this strategy was successful. Moreover, many respondents (10:45) described positive attributes of cold discoveries using terms such as stronger, more potent, or pushes boundaries, which suggest their cold discoveries are more insightful than their hot discoveries. Many respondents associated their cold discoveries with mental activities such as incubation, a concept identified by Gestalt theorists nearly a century ago. They used a range of informal terms, such as ideas ticking over, or percolating away. These apparently uncontrolled mental experiences, which I refer to generically as latent preparation, varied from one respondent to another in when, where and how they occurred. Latent preparation or its outcomes, in the form of interruptive thoughts, apparently takes place at any time and during different states of consciousness and attentiveness. It appears to be, at different times, unplanned, unintentional, undirected, unnoticed, or unconscious, in combinations, not necessarily all at once. It is clearly not only an unconscious process. This suggests one, or more of the following; 1) that incubation is only a component of latent preparation, or 2) that the conventional view of incubation, as an unconscious process, does not adequately account for the range of insightful experiences of mentally productive people, such as designers, or 3) that the old issue of whether incubation is a conscious, or an unconscious process, is not vital to a systematic investigation of insightful discovery. The thesis concludes by considering prospects for further research and how the research outcomes could influence education. Apart from the findings already described, statements by the respondents about personal attributes, designing, coping with being stuck and discoveries, were wide ranging, resourceful and down-to-earth, suggesting there are many ways for individuals to become proficient, creative designers at the high end of their profession. A major implication for future research is that latent preparation may be found as readily among highly motivated and skilled individuals in other occupations unrelated to architecture or designing. The evidence of the research so far suggests there is much to be learned about latent preparation that can be usefully applied, for the benefit of individuals aiming to be designers, or simply wanting to become more adept at intervening, transforming and managing unexpected and novel situations of any kind.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Canterbury, 2008. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 356-415). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Previous research has focused on measuring awareness in dementia with few attempts to define or clarify this concept, nor explore its meaning to the individual. The present study is preceded by a review of the concepts of insight and awareness, and the different approaches to understanding these drawn from the psychological, neurological and psychiatric literatures. The strengths and limitations of the different and models are discussed and the case for further research in this area is presented. This is followed by a research study that explores the experiences of seven people in the early to moderate stages of dementia. Interpretative phenomenological analysis illuminates some of the psychological factors that contribute to awareness and how these factors impact upon selfconcept. It is suggested that clinicians and services need to pay greater attention to the phenomenological experiences of individuals with dementia. Four superordinate themes emerged which were labelled 1. Relationship with memory 2. Relationship with professionals 3. Emotional experience of memory loss 4. Coping and maximising resources. Each category compares and contrasts individual experiences and suggests that insight may be a complex concept that would be better understood by taking into account the psychological processes that contribute to individual awareness, and their subsequent impact on self-concept. The research paper is followed by a critical review that outlines the strengths and weaknesses of this study, as well as the process issues that arose during the course of the research and the clinical implications.