Atenção consiste em conjunto de processos que leva à seleção ou priorização no processamento de certas categorias de informação, em detrimento de outras, possibilitando um processamento mais eficiente do que seria possível caso o sistema nervoso processasse os estímulos presentes no ambiente simultaneamente. A atenção participa da maioria das funções cognitivas humanas. Depende, portanto, de região cerebral com privilégios anátomo-fisiológicos, como o lobo parietal, cujo padrão de conectividade (áreas unimodais, córtex pré-motor, colículo superior, giro cingulado, giro parahipocampal, insula, córtex orbitofrontal) possibilita a integração sensório-motora e cognitiva necessária à atenção. Desde o início da década de 80 estudos sobre o lobo parietal tem sugerido uma reavaliação de suas funções, modificando a percepção comum de que esteja relacionado exclusivamente a desempenhar funções espaciais, incluindo uma suposta especialização do lobo parietal direito na distribuição da atenção no espaço. No entanto, a base fisiológica para a especialização do lobo parietal na orientação atencional é mal compreendida pelas seguintes razões: 1- lesão unilateral do lobo parietal direito determina deficiência de processamento atencional em relação ao hemiespaço contralateral, e raramente ocorre após lesão do lobo parietal esquerdo; 2- o processamento das informações pelo sistema visual humano varia sensivelmente em relação aos campos visuais, e a metodologia dos testes atencionais tradicionais não considera que o desempenho dos voluntários pode ser limitado pela visibilidade dos estímulos; a localização dos estímulos tem sido avaliada independentemente da disposição dos alvos no campo visual. Nossa proposta é padronizar as condições de estimulação no teste de Posner para orientação da atenção, considerando os limiares específicos de cada voluntário e avaliar as deficiências de orientação da atenção endógena e exógena nos planos horizontal, vertical e diagonal, em pacientes portadores de dano nos lobos parietais direito e esquerdo, secundário a neoplasia, e compará-las entre si e com voluntários saudáveis. Desse modo poderíamos contribuir para o conhecimento sobre as bases neurais da atenção e para o desenvolvimento de estratégias eficazes e individualizadas de reabilitação / Attention consists of processes that lead to selection or prioritization in processing certain categories of information over others, allowing more efficient processing than would be possible if the nervous system had to process the stimuli in the environment simultaneously. Attention integrates most of human cognitive functions. Therefore it depends on specific brain regions with anatomical and physiological privileges, such as the parietal lobe, which pattern of connectivity (unimodal areas, premotor cortex, superior colliculus, cingulate gyrus, parahippocampal gyrus, insula, orbitofrontal cortex) enables sensorimotor and cognitive integration required for attention. Since early of 1980´s the common perception that parietal lobe is related solely to performance of spatial tasks, including a supposed specialization of the right parietal lobe for the distribution of attention in space is changing. The physiological basis for the specialization of the parietal lobe in orienting of attention is poorly understood for the following reasons: 1 - unilateral lesion of the right parietal lobe attentional determines disability in attention processing of information which comes from the contralateral space, and rarely occurs after injury of the left parietal lobe 2 - the processing of information by the human visual system varies considerably in relation to visual fields, and traditional attentional testing methodology does not consider that performance of the volunteers may be limited by the visibility of the stimuli; the location of the stimuli has been evaluated independently on the targets position in the visual field. Our proposal is to standardize the conditions of stimulation in the Posner test for orienting of attention, considering the specific visual thresholds of each subject and evaluate exogenous and endogenous orientation of attention deficiencies in horizontal, vertical and diagonal plans, in patients with damage to the right and left parietal lobes, secondary to brain tumor, and compare them among themselves and with healthy volunteers. Thereby this approach could contribute for the knowledge about the neural bases of attention and therefore help to develop effective strategies for rehabilitation

Bakgrund: Antalet barn som far illa ökar samtidigt befaras det finnas ett mörkertal av barn som far illa men som aldrig upptäcks eller uppmärksammas. Detta tros bero på att inte tillräckligt många upprättar orosanmälningar till Socialtjänsten. Att upprätta en orosanmälan kräver stöd och en yrkesgrupp som särskilt berörs av detta är de sköterskor som arbetar inom BHV. Syfte: Att belysa BHV-sköterskors uppfattningar av stöd i arbetet med barn som far illa. Metod: Sju BHV-sköterskor intervjuades. Datamaterial analyserades med fenomenografisk ansats. Resultat: Tre beskrivningskategorier och nio underkategorier utformades. Resultatet visar att stöd är ett begrepp med flera innebörder. Det belyser också betydelsen av stöd samt vilka konsekvenser uteblivet stöd kan få. Organisatoriska faktorer påverkar BHV-sköterskans stöd och kan utgöra ett hinder i BHV-sköterskans arbete och uppfattning av stöd. Konklusion: Stöd kan vara avgörande för BHV-sköterskans arbete och omvårdnadsansvar. Uteblivet stöd skulle kunna få förödande konsekvenser. Utvecklad samverkan genom ett multiprofessionellt team ger stöd åt BHV-sköterskan och förbättrar samtidigt vårdkedjan för de barn som far illa. Organisatoriska faktorer påverkar BHV- sköterskan vilket bör tas i beaktning vid utformning och utveckling av vården. / Background: The number of maltreated children are increasing and a great number of cases are estimated to never be detected or noted. This is believed to be caused by not enough reports to the Social Services which requires courage and support. A professional group that is affected by this are child health care nurses. Aim: To enlighten child health care nurses’ perceptions of support in working with maltreated children. Method: Seven child health care nurses were interviewed. The data were analysed through a phenomenographic approach.Results: Three description-categories and nine subcategories were formed. The results enlighten that support is a concept of several meanings, the meaning of support and what consequences lack of support can lead to. The results also show that organizational factors impact the support of the child health care nurse. Conclusion: Support can be a deciding factor in the child health care nurse’s work and responsibilities. Lack of support could have devastating consequences. A developed multi-professional team offers support to the child health care nurse and simultaneously improves the chain of care for the maltreated children. Organizational factors affect the child health care nurse, which should be taken into consideration in designing and developing health care.

Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 47-06, page: 3556. Adviser: Irwin B. Horwitz. Includes bibliographical references.

The aim of this study was to describe and understand how individuals in adulthood experienced a childhood with neglect, and how they handled neglect. In order to reach the perspective of the individuals who grew up with neglect, we chose to use autobiographical books as our empirical material. The criteria the autobiographies had to meet in order to fall within the scope of this study was that the biographies had to display the experience of neglect during childhood, and thereto the books had to be written by individuals who themselves experienced neglect. Based on the aim of this study we sought answers to three questions: How do the individuals describe their upbringing with a mentally or socially disabled parent? How have the individuals coped with the neglect they’ve been exposed to? What consequences have the neglect supposedly led to? The findings of this study show that the extent to which the individuals experienced neglect were profound and comprising. Most prominent in the material was physical and mental abuse. For survival the individuals used different strategies to master the different situations they were subjected to. The strategies the individuals described were most often used to provide food, confirmation and to keep emotions in check. Furthermore the individuals described that the neglect and abuse led to various consequences, some that were prominent during childhood others not until the individuals reached adulthood.

The aim of this study is to describe and analyze how adults who grew up in an exposed habitat experienced their upbringing and society's efforts and how it affected them in adult life. The method that we used was qualitative interviews. This method has given us a rich material, we believe. The results were analyzed by means of the theory we used and past research in the field. All of our respondents have in common that they were insecure in childhood.  And everyone has had negative consequences of their childhood into adulthood. All respondents noted that what has been significant in touch with society´s effords has been to feel seen and listen to. The results of our study and past research in this area shows that it is important to pay attention to children in distress early to avoid negative outcomes in adulthood and that preventative measures are important. Other result from our study was that children and their experiences need to be taken seriously and to strive for continuity in the work.

Parents with intellectual disabilities (ID) are disproportionately represented in child maltreatment (CM) statistics due to a confluence of factors. Prevention efforts should address this population by developing curricula that support various modes of learning. Technology offers a potentially effective tool because it is visual, free from extraneous factors, engaging, and self-instructional. SafeCare is an evidence-based parenting program with flexibility to adapt curricula while maintaining fidelity. The study aimed to determine the effectiveness of an adaptation to the SafeCare parent-infant (PII) module for parents with ID by using digital picture frames with pictures of their own PII to effect performance. A multiple-probe design across behaviors was used with one mother with ID and her infant. Results showed a significant increase in PII behaviors through two month follow-up. These data suggest the digital picture frame enhancement to the SafeCare PII module is a promising instructional tool for parents with ID.

Identifying high-risk areas for child maltreatment to ultimately aid public health agencies for interventions is necessary for protecting children at high risk. Rates of substantiated neglect and physical/emotional abuse in 2000-2002 are computed for the census tracts in the urban area of five counties in Metro Atlanta, Georgia, and analyzed using spatial regression to determine their relationships with twelve risk variables computed from the Vital Records births and the 2000 Census data. After accounting for multicollinearity among risk variables and spatial autocorrelation among observations for neighboring locations, it is found that high percentages of (1) births to non-married mothers, (2) births to mothers who smoked or drank alcohol during pregnancy, (3) unemployed males and females, and (4) single-parent families with children under age six best predict the rates of substantiated neglect, and that high percentage of births to mothers who smoked or drank alcohol during pregnancy best predicts the rates of substantiated physical/emotional abuse.

In the present study, the role of locus of control and critical thinking in handling dissatisfactions in the romantic relationships of university students was examined. Five hundred and eighty university students (373 females, 207 males) from different faculties of five universities located in Ankara voluntarily participated in the study. Convenient sampling procedure was used in all phases of the study. A pilot study was conducted to adapt My Responses to Relationship Problems Scale (MRRPS) into Turkish. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) were utilized to assess factorial and dimensional structure of MRRPS. Results revealed MRRPS to be psychometrically satisfactory. In the main study, four separate, moderated regression analyses were conducted to assess the predictive role of locus of control, critical thinking, and their interaction on exit, voice, loyalty and neglect responses. Results revealed that locus of control significantly predicted exit, voice and neglect responses. Participants with external locus of control had significantly higher exit and neglect scores whereas participants with internal locus of control had significantly higher voice scores. In addition, critical thinking significantly predicted exit and voice scores. Participants with lower levels of critical thinking disposition had higher exit scores whereas participants with higher levels of critical thinking had significantly higher voice scores. Findings of the present study were discussed in the framework of locus of control, critical thinking and close relationships.

Αντικείμενο μελέτης της παρούσας εργασίας αποτελεί ο βαθμός επιρροής της κεφαλής κατά την ανάγνωση παρατακτικών συνθέτων από ασθενείς με neglect dyslexia (ND). Ενώ η πλειοψηφία των συνθέτων της ελληνικής, τα επονομαζόμενα ‘υποτακτικά’ (subordinative compounds), υπακούουν στον νόμο της δεξιόστροφης κεφαλής (Williams, 1981) (π.χ. ελαφο-κυνηγός), τα παρατακτικά σύνθετα (coordinative compounds) δεν εμφανίζουν αυτή την κανονικότητα στη θέση της κεφαλής τους (π.χ αλατο-πίπερο). Κάποιοι θεωρητικοί μορφολόγοι θεωρούν ότι κανένα από τα δύο συστατικά δεν αποτελεί τη βάση του συνθέτου, ούτε μορφολογικά ούτε σημασιολογικά (Ralli, 2005: 174), άλλοι υποστηρίζουν ότι τα παρατακτικά εμφανίζουν δύο κεφαλές, τόσο στο α’ όσο και στο β’ συνθετικό (Kageyama, 2009), ενώ δεν λείπουν και αυτοί που επιχειρηματολογούν για την υπεροχή του δεύτερου συστατικού, λόγω του ότι αυτό καθορίζει το γένος, τον αριθμό και την πτώση των συνθέτων (Guevara & Scalise, 2008). Στο πλαίσιο αυτό, θα προσπαθήσουμε να απαντήσουμε στο ερώτημα της θεωρητικής μορφολογίας σχετικά με τη θέση της κεφαλής στα παρατακτικά [ΟΟ] και [ΕΕ] σύνθετα της Νέας Ελληνικής, καθώς και στο ερώτημα της κλινικής γλωσσολογίας σχετικά με το ρόλο της κεφαλής στην ανάκληση και επεξεργασία των συνθέτων από ασθενείς με neglect dyslexia. Ένα ιδιαίτερα σημαντικό χαρακτηριστικό των ασθενών με ND είναι η ικανότητά τους να αναγνωρίζουν και να σέβονται τα όρια των δύο συστατικών κατά την ανάγνωση των συνθέτων (Behrmann et al., 1990). Επιπλέον, οι Semenza et al. (2011) αναφέρουν για τα Ιταλικά ότι τα λάθη στο α’ συνθετικό είναι πολύ πιο συχνά στα σύνθετα των οποίων η κεφαλή συμπίπτει με το β’ συνθετικό, παρά όταν συμπίπτει με το πρώτο. Ο εξισορροπητικός ρόλος της κεφαλής ως προς την εμφάνιση λαθών πάνω στο συστατικό της, αναμένουμε να έχει αντίκτυπο και στη δική μας περίπτωση: τα υποτακτικά σύνθετα με την κεφαλή στα δεξιά θα πρέπει να εμφανίζουν περισσότερα λάθη στο α’ συνθετικό από τα παρατακτικά, εφόσον τα τελευταία έχουν δύο κεφαλές. Στο πείραμα ανάγνωσης που σχεδιάσαμε, συμπεριλάβαμε 31 παρατακτικά σύνθετα, ονοματικά και επιθετικά (π.χ. ψωμοτύρι ‘bread-cheese’ και κοντόχοντρος αντιστοίχως) και 32 υποτακτικά σύνθετα, επίσης ονοματικά και επιθετικά (π.χ. ερημονήσι και χοντροαλεσμένος αντιστοίχως), τα οποία είχαμε ελένξει ως προς όλες τις σημαντικές ψυχογλωσσολογικές και μορφολογικές παραμέτρους ανά γραμματική κατηγορία. Το πείραμα αυτό το διεξάγαμε σε μία ασθενή 79 ετών, η οποία έχει υποστεί ΔΕ αγγειακό εγκεφαλικό επεισόδιο (ΑΕΕ) και με βάση την επίδοσή της στο BELLS test έχει διαγνωσθεί με left-sided neglect dyslexia. Ενώ στα παρατακτικά σύνθετα της ονοματικής κατηγορίας, η ασθενής τείνει να παραλείπει ή να υποκαθιστά το α΄συστατικό των συνθέτων αυτών εξίσου συχνά με αυτό των υποτακτικών, δεν ισχύει το ίδιο και για τα επιθετικά παρατακτικά, κατά την ανάγνωση των οποίων ο ασθενής κάνει στατιστικά σημαντικά λιγότερα λάθη στο α’ συστατικό απ’ ότι στην ανάγνωση των αντίστοιχων υποτακτικών ( x²= 3.970, p < 0.05). Η συμβολή της παρούσας μελέτης μπορεί να συνοψιστεί στα ακόλουθα σημεία: Πρώτον, αποδεικνύεται ότι οι λεξικοί παράγοντες μπορούν να επηρεάσουν την επιλεκτική προσοχή σε μεγάλο βαθμό. Δεύτερον, παρέχονται τεκμήρια ότι η θεωρητική έννοια της κεφαλής έχει επίδραση στην επεξεργασία των συνθέτων, καθώς η εστίαση της προσοχής επηρεάζεται από και επικεντρώνεται στο συστατικό που λειτουργεί ως κεφαλή, έπειτα από την σιωπηρή ανάγνωση ολόκληρης της λέξης. Τρίτον, ως προς την επίδραση της κεφαλής στα παρατακτικά σύνθετα της ΚΝΕ, από την έρευνά μας προκύπτει ότι ένας διαχωρισμός ανάμεσα στα ονοματικά και τα επιθετικά παρατακτικά σύνθετα, με τα πρώτα να συμπεριφέρονται όπως τα υποτακτικά, ενώ τα δεύτερα να εμφανίζουν μια διευκόλυνση στην ανάγνωση ως απόρροια της ύπαρξης δύο κεφαλών. Στην τελευταία αυτή περίπτωση, ίσως η ανάγνωση επηρεάζεται από την δυνατότητα εναλλαγής της σειράς των όρων ορισμένων επιθετικών παρατακτικών συνθέτων (π.χ. μακρόστενος ~ στενόμακρος), αλλά αυτό είναι κάτι που απαιτεί περαιτέρω μελέτη. / Reading coordinative compound words is investigated in neglect dyslexia in order to assess the influence of ‘headedness’. While the majority of Modern Greek compounds, the so called ‘subordinative compounds’, comply with Williams’ (1981) ‘Righthand Head Rule’ (e.g. elafo-kinigos ‘deer-hunter’), coordinative compounds do not demonstrate clear headedness (e.g. alato-pipero ‘salt-pepper’). Some theoretical morphologists argue that none of the two constituents serves as the basis of the formation, neither morphologically nor semantically (Ralli, 2005: 174), others attest that the formations’ head coincides with their second constituent, because of the second’s constituent inflectional suffix which determine the gender, number and case of the compound (Guevara & Scalise, 2008), while others argue that coordinative compounds are double-headed (Kageyama, 2009). In this context, the theoretical morphology’s question regarding the position of the head in coordinative [NN] and [AA] Greek compounds will be addressed, as well as the question about the function of headedness in compounds’ retrieval and processing by patients suffering from neglect dyslexia. When reading compounds in neglect dyslexia, a common finding is that patients seem to respect the boundaries between the first and the second component (Behrmann et al., 1990). Moreover, Semenza et al. (2011) ascertained that left-headed Italian compounds are read better than right-headed compounds, indicating that the appearance of head on the first constituent, counterbalance the deficit at the processing of this first constituent. According to these findings, it seems reasonable to hypothesize that, if coordinative compounds are indeed headless or double-headed, patients with neglect dyslexia will make fewer mistakes in reading their left constituents compared to subordinative compounds, which have a clear head. A female 79-year old patient, who suffered RH damage and was affected by left-sided neglect dyslexia as diagnosed based on BELLS test, had to read 32 subordinative [NN] and [AA] compounds (e.g. domatosalata ‘tomato-salad’ and piknokatikimenos ‘densely populated’ respectively) and 32 coordinative [NN] and [AA] compounds (e.g. psomotiri ‘bread-cheese’ and glikopikros ‘sweet-bitter’ respectively). Compounds and their constituents were matched for frequency, familiarity, imageability, age of acquisition and orthographic neighbors. Patient performed significantly fewer substitution and omission errors on the left constituent of coordinative compounds when reading compound adjectives (x²= 3.970, p < 0.05), but the same amount of errors in subordinative and coordinative compounds when reading compound nouns. The contribution of the study can be summarized in the following points: First, it showed that lexical factors can influence selective attention to a great extent. Second, it showed that the theoretical concept of headedness does have a processing effect, with the head capturing more attention after implicit reading of the whole word. Third, as for headedness in Greek coordinative compounds, the study revealed a dissociation depending on grammatical class (adjectival vs. nominal compounds) with adjectival coordinative compounds behaving as double-headed while nominal coordinative compounds patterning with subordinative ones. A key factor here might be the interchangeable word order that characterizes adjectival coordinative compounds (e.g makrostenos ‘long-narrow’ ~ stenomakros ‘narrow-long’), but this is something that requires further research.

Consumers often fail to consider the alternative ways to spend money when making decisions to buy consumer goods, this is called opportunity cost neglect. In this experimental study, our objective was to replicate the previous research of Frederick et al. (2009) showing that reminding individuals about the opportunity cost affects their decisions. Furthermore, we also wanted to extend the knowledge about this behavior by investigating whether individuals neglect the opportunity cost when making financial decisions or decisions about time allocation. In addition, we hypothesized that individuals who conduct mental budgeting (i.e., they categorize-, budget-, and track expenditures to mental accounts), are more likely to neglect the opportunity cost since they do not treat money as fungible. In an online experiment, we measured how being reminded about the opportunity cost would affect the probability of an individual buying a cheap and an expensive consumer goods, of investing money, and of watching a movie. Furthermore, we measured how being reminded about the opportunity cost affects the decision of those who conduct mental budgeting and those who do not. Our results showed that individuals neglect opportunity cost of the expensive consumer good and time (p=0.1). We found a positive relation between conducting mental budgeting and opportunity cost neglect for the expensive consumer good (p=0.1) and the deposit account (p=0.05), but no such effect in the other three scenarios. Our results imply that, due to opportunity cost neglect of time, people might be even further from optimal decision making than previously suggested since it extends to decisions about time allocation, and perhaps to investments; and people who conduct mental budgeting sometimes spend less/save more when reminded about the opportunity cost.