Mental Readiness for Frontline Workers in Homelessness Services in Ottawa, Canada

This study investigated factors related to competency by assessing the mental readiness among highly recognized frontline workers in homelessness services (FWHSs) by means of self-completed questionnaires. A total of 35 highly respected FWHSs in Ottawa, Canada were identified by their peers and supervisors as “exceptional” for various specialty areas: addictions, mental health, hoarding, trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). An Operational Readiness Framework was used to examine how FWHSs perform at their best in challenging situations. A series of questionnaires were completed at a Think Tank to determine their mental readiness before, during and after challenging situations. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of mental readiness were performed to prioritize identified challenges. The study findings were then compared to the “Wheel of Excellence” based on results from elite athletes and other high performers such as surgeons, police, and air traffic controllers. The analysis revealed that mental readiness is required to achieve peak performance in addressing the challenges of homelessness. The balance between readiness (physical, technical and mental) and performance contributed to their competency and resiliency. Common elements of success were found: commitment, self-belief, positive imagery, mental preparation, full focus, distraction control and constructive evaluation. This investigation confirmed many similarities in mental readiness practices engaged by excellent FWHSs and other top professionals. This study offered, for the first time, a comprehensive understanding of specific high-performance readiness practices through a streetwise, frontline-worker perspective. Practical recommendations for training and assessment were provided relevant to excellence in homelessness services.

Attentional control in middle childhood is highly dynamic - Strong initial distraction is followed by advanced attention control

The ability to shield against distraction while focusing on a task requires the operation of executive functions and is essential for successful learning. We investigated the short-term dynamics of distraction control in a data set of 269 children aged 4–10 years and 51 adults pooled from three studies using multilevel models. Participants performed a visual categorization task while a task-irrelevant sequence of sounds was presented which consisted of frequently repeated standard sounds and rarely interspersed novel sounds. On average, participants responded slower in the categorization task after novel sounds. This distraction effect was more pronounced in children. Throughout the experiment, the initially strong distraction effects declined to level of adults in the groups of 6- to 10-year-olds. Such a decline was neither observed in the groups of the 4- and 5-year-olds, who consistently show a high level of distraction, nor in adults, who showed a constantly low level of distraction throughout the experimental session. Results indicate that distraction control is a highly dynamic process that qualitatively and quantitatively differs between age groups.We conclude that the analysis of short-term dynamics provides valuable insights into the development of attention control and might explain inconsistent findings regarding distraction control in middle childhood. In addition, models of attention control need to be refined to account for age-dependent rapid learning mechanisms. Our findings have implications for the design of learning situations and provide an additional source of information for diagnosis and treatment of attention deficit disorders.

Exploration of Mental Readiness for Enhancing Dentistry in an Inter-Professional Climate

Competencies required for dentistry go far beyond the academic or scientific spheres. They incorporate important mental readiness concepts at its core with an appropriate balance of operational readiness (i.e., technical, physical, mental readiness). The aim of this exploratory study was to investigate the importance of mental readiness for optimal performance in the daily challenges faced by dentists using an Operational Readiness Framework. One-on-one interviews were conducted with a select group of seasoned dentists to determine their mental readiness before, during and after successfully performing in challenging situations. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of mental readiness were applied. Study findings were compared with a Wheel of Excellence based on results from other high-performance domains such as surgery, policing, social services and Olympic athletics. The analysis revealed that specific mental practices are required to achieve peak performance, and the balance between physical, technical and mental readiness underpins these dentists’ competency. Common elements of success were found—commitment, confidence, visualization, mental preparation, focus, distraction control, and evaluation and coping. This exploration confirmed many similarities in mental readiness practices engaged across high-risk professions. Universities, clinics and hospitals are looking for innovative ways to build teamwork and capacity through inter-professional collaboration. Results from these case studies warrant further investigation and may be significant enough to stimulate innovative curriculum design. Based on these preliminary dentistry findings, three training/evaluation tools from other professions in population health were adapted to demonstrate future application.

Driver Safety System Implementation in Europe

In mining industry safety is top priority. There is a request for safety management, risk prevention and operator training. Operator fatigue and distraction leads to dangerous situations. The paper is aimed at reviewing the issues of fatigued or distracted driver operation. This is achieved through creating models in occupational safety strategies. Hereafter the implementation of fatigue and distraction control system within a pilot project is discussed. The pilot project was aimed at collecting realistic operation data from mining industry in Europe. Caterpillar Inc. offers a solution called Driver Safety System (DSS). When driver’s micro-sleep is detected, the system alerts operator through different alarms directly. Dangerous events are also recorded and classified individually in 24/7 monitoring centre. The DSS was tested at European limestone open pit mine with typical working regime. This paper discusses theories, results and transferable insights of the study.

“Don’t Be Stupid, Stupid!” Cognitive-Behavioral Techniques to Reduce Irrational Beliefs and Enhance Focus in a Youth Tennis Player

This case reports the intervention approach the first author adopted while working with a youth tennis player. The athlete held irrational beliefs and was struggling to maintain emotional control. The neophyte sport psychology practitioner adopted a cognitive-behavioral approach to practice. The intervention focused on (a) using rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT) to replace unhelpful beliefs about unforced errors with a new rational philosophy and (b) using a distraction-control plan to restructure the player’s thoughts and beliefs in relation to opponents’ perceived gamesmanship. Intervention effectiveness was evaluated through qualitative data from the athlete and his parents and the reflections of the practitioner. Feedback suggests that REBT and distraction-control plans can be effective in helping youth athletes manage their thought patterns and improve emotional control during competition. This case also demonstrates the importance of practitioners’ having a flexible and adaptable approach to practice—one that meets individual client needs.

The Subsystem Mechanism of Default Mode Network Underlying Rumination: a Reproducible Neuroimaging Study

Rumination is a repetitive self-referential thinking style and posited to be an expression of abnormalities in the default mode network (DMN) in major depressive disorder (MDD). Recent evidences indicate DMN is not a unitary network but can be further divided into 3 functionally heterogenous subsystems. However, the subsystem mechanism through which DMN underlie rumination remain unclear. Here, with a modified continuous state-like paradigm, we induced healthy participants to ruminate or imagine objective scenarios (as a distraction control condition) on 3 different MRI scanners. We compared functional connectivities (FC) and inter-subject correlations (ISC) of the DMN and its 3 subsystems between rumination and distraction states. Results yielded a highly reproducible and dissociated pattern. During rumination, within-DMN FC was generally decreased compared to the distraction state. At the subsystem level, we found increased FC between the core and medial temporal lobe (MTL) subsystem and decreased FC between the core and dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC) subsystem and within the MTL subsystem. Furthermore, we found decreased ISC within the MTL subsystem. These results suggest a specific and less synchronous activity pattern of DMN during rumination and shed new light on the association between rumination and DMN substrates regarding MDD.

Don't pay attention! Paradoxical effects of monetary incentive on attentional performance in older adults

Adult aging is associated with reductions in attentional control, but performance may be influenced by factors including types of attention assessed (e.g. sustaining, resistance distraction) and participants’ motivation. In Experiment 1, we used the Continuous Temporal Expectancy Task with Video Distractor (Berry, Li, Lin, and Lustig), a timing task to assess young and older adults’ ability to sustain attention, and manipulated whether a nearby laptop was silent or playing videos to access distractor vulnerability. Older adults outperformed young adults overall. Self-report measures suggested that lack of engagement by young adults drove this paradoxical age difference. Experiment 2 directly tested the effect of motivation via monetary incentives. The monetary incentive tended to improve the performance of young adults, but significantly reduced the performance of older adults. Incentive had its primary effects on focused attention and overall performance rather than specific effects on either sustained attention or distraction control.

Nudging Resisters Toward Change: Self-Persuasion Interventions for Reducing Attitude Certainty

Purpose: To identify effective self-persuasion protocols that could easily be adapted to face-to-face clinical sessions or health-related computer applications as a first step in breaking patient resistance. Design: Two self-persuasion interventions were tested against 2 controls in a between-subject randomized control experiment. Setting: GuidedTrack—a web-based platform for social science experiments. Participants: Six hundred seventeen adult participants recruited via Mechanical Turk. Intervention: The experimental interventions prompted participants for self-referenced pro- and counterattitudinal arguments to elicit attitude-related thought (ART) and subsequent doubt about the attitude. The hypothesis was that the self-persuasion interventions would elicit larger and more frequent attitude certainty decreases than the controls. In the experimental groups, we also predicted a correlation between the amount of ART and attitude certainty decreases. Measures: Changes in attitude certainty were measured by participants’ pre- and post-ratio scale ratings; ART was measured by the number of words participants used to respond to the interventions. Analysis: Analysis of variance (ANOVA), χ2, and correlation. Results: A goodness-of-fit χ2 showed that the number of participants who decreased their attitude certainty was not equally distributed between the combined experimental groups (n = 104) and the combined control groups (n = 39), χ2(1, n = 143) = 28.64, P < .001. Within each intervention, goodness-of-fit χ2 with a Bonferroni correction ( P = .01 or .05/4) indicated there were significantly more “decreasers” than “increasers” in intervention 1, χ2(1, n = 86) = 6.16, P = .01, but not intervention 2, χ2(1, n = 84) = 2.02, P = .16, the nonsense control, χ2(1, n = 42) = .22, P = .64), or the distraction control, χ2(1, n = 34) = .02, P = .89. A 1-way ANOVA revealed a significant main effect for intervention on mean certainty change ( F3,613 = 4.62, P = .003). Five post hoc comparisons using Tukey’s honest significant difference (HSD) test indicated that the mean decrease in attitude certainty resulting from intervention 1 (M = −3.29) was significantly larger than the mean decrease in attitude certainty resulting from the nonsense control (M = −0.62, t = −2.72, P = .03), the distraction control (M = 0.11, t = 3.48, P = .003), but not intervention 2 (M = −0.87, t = −2.54, P = .06). Attitude-related thought was significantly correlated with attitude certainty change in intervention 1, r(158) = −.17, t = −4.28, P = .02, but not intervention 2, r(161) = −.002, t = −.03, P = .98. Conclusion: The implication for clinical practitioners and designers of health applications is that it may be worthwhile to let patients elaborate on their personal reasons for initially forming an unhealthy attitude to increase doubt about the strongly held attitude.

Ultra-brief non-expert-delivered defusion and acceptance exercises for food cravings: A partial replication study

Food cravings are a common barrier to losing weight. This article presents a randomised comparison of non-expert group-delivered ultra-brief defusion and acceptance interventions against a distraction control. A total of 63 participants were asked to carry a bag of chocolates for a week while trying to resist the temptation to eat them. A behavioural rebound measure was administered. Each intervention out-performed control in respect of consumption, but not cravings. These techniques may have a place in the clinical management of food cravings. We provide tentative evidence that the mechanism of action is through decreased reactivity to cravings, not through reduced frequency of cravings.

A Comparison of the Device-Related Complications of Intramedullary Lengthening Nails Using a New Classification System

The purpose of this study was to understand the pros and cons of the lengthening nails which have their own mechanical mechanism; we propose a classification for “device-related complications” arising from mechanical properties of the nail itself. From March 2010 to March 2014, 115 segments of lower limb lengthening were performed using intramedullary lengthening nails (35 ISKD, 34 PRECICE1, and 46 PRECICE2). Device-related complications were sorted into three categories according to a new classification: distraction control-related (type I), stability related (type II), and other device-related (type III); these were subdivided using Paley’s concept of problems (a), obstacles (b), and sequel (c). Most common complications were distraction mechanism issues (type I) in ISKD and mechanical strength related ones (type II) in PRECICE1 and PRECICE2. Sixty percent (21/35) of ISKD had device-related problems. In PRECICE1 group, 8.8% (3/34) had device-related problems, and 8.8% (3/34) showed device-related obstacle. In PRECICE2, forty-four percent (20/46) had device-related problems. In conclusion, a new classification showed more clearly the differences of mechanical characteristics of different nails. The most essential thing of future lengthening nail development is minimizing the types I and II complications. Further study is necessary to compare the mechanical strength and stability of lengthening nails.