Ann Buysse

Advancing advanced mind-reading tests: empathic accuracy in adults with a pervasive developmental disorder

Research using advanced but static mind-reading tests with high-functioning adults with a pervasive developmental disorder (PDD) provided evidence for subtle social cognitive deficits. In the present study, adults with PDD were unimpaired on such tasks, relative to individually matched normal controls. Significant differences between the two groups were, however, found on a more naturalistic empathic accuracy task developed for this study. Participants viewed two videotaped interactions that both depicted a male and female stranger having an initial conversation and were asked to infer the unexpressed thoughts and feelings of the four targets. Subjects with PDD performed significantly worse on the second video. These findings suggest that the mind-reading deficit of a subgroup of able adults with PDD may only be apparent when a sufficiently complex naturalistic assessment method is being used.

Metacognition and Mathematical Problem Solving in Grade 3

This article presents an overview of two studies that examined the relationship between metacognition and mathematical problem solving in 165 children with average intelligence in Grade 3 in order to help teachers and therapists gain a better understanding of contributors to successful mathematical performance. Principal components analysis on metacognition revealed that three metacognitive components (global metacognition, off-line metacognition, and attribution to effort) explained 66% to 67% of the common variance. The findings from these studies support the use of the assessment of off-line metacognition (essentially prediction and evaluation) to differentiate between average and above-average mathematical problem solvers and between students with a severe or moderate specific mathematics learning disability.

Support Provision in Marriage: The Role of Emotional Similarity and Empathic Accuracy

The goal of this investigation was to identify microlevel processes in the support provider that may foster or inhibit the provision of spousal support. Specifically, the authors focused on (a) how emotional similarity between the support provider and support seeker and (b) how empathic accuracy of the support provider relate to support provision in marriage. In a laboratory experiment, 30 couples were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 conditions (support provider: man vs. woman) of a factorial design. The couples provided questionnaire data and participated in a social support interaction designed to assess behaviors when offering and soliciting social support. A video-review task was used to assess emotional similarity and empathic accuracy during the support interaction. As expected, greater similarity between the support providers and support seekers emotional responses, as well as more accurate insights into the support-seeking spouses thoughts and feelings were found to be predictive of more skilful support (i.e., higher levels of emotional and instrumental support and lower levels of negative types of support).

A simple and sensitive method to measure timing accuracy

Timing accuracy in presenting experimental stimuli (visual information on a PC or on a TV) and responding (keyboard presses and mouse signals) is of importance in several experimental paradigms. In this article, a simple system for measuring timing accuracy is described. The system uses two PCs (at least Pentium II, 200 MHz), a photocell, and an amplifier. No additional boards and timing hardware are needed. The first PC, a SlavePC, monitors the keyboard presses or mouse signals from the PC under test and uses a photocell that is placed in front of the screen to detect the appearance of visual stimuli on the display. The software consists of a small program running on the SlavePC. The SlavePC is connected through a serial line with a second PC. This MasterPC controls the SlavePC through an ActiveX control, which is used in a Visual Basic program. The accuracy of our system was investigated by using a similar setup of a SlavePC and a MasterPC to generate pulses and by using a pulse generator card. These tests revealed that our system has a 0.01-msec accuracy. As an illustration, the reaction time accuracy of INQUISIT for a few applications was tested using our system. It was found that in those applications that we investigated, INQUISIT measures reaction times from keyboard presses with millisecond accuracy.

Advanced Mind-Reading in Adults with Asperger Syndrome

This study investigated the mind-reading abilities of 19 adults with Asperger syndrome and 19 typically developing adults. Two static mind-reading tests and a more naturalistic empathic accuracy task were used. In the empathic accuracy task, participants attempted to infer the thoughts and feelings of target persons, while viewing a videotape of the target persons in a naturally occurring conversation with another person. The results are consistent with earlier findings. The empathic accuracy task indicated significant between-group differences, whereas no such differences were found on the static mind-reading tasks. The most innovative finding of the present study is that the inference ability of adults with pervasive developmental disorder (PDD) and controls depends on the focus of the target’s thoughts and feelings, and that the empathic accuracy of adults with Asperger syndrome and control adults might be different in terms of quantity and quality.

Children's catastrophic thinking about their pain predicts pain and disability 6 months later

Catastrophic thinking about pain has been identified as an important determinant of adjustment to pain, in both adults and children. No study has investigated the prospective and unique role of catastrophizing in explaining later pain and disability in children. The aim of the present study was to investigate the prospective roles of catastrophic thinking about pain, pain intensity, and trait anxiety and their putative relationship with pain and disability tested 6 months later. Participants were 323 schoolchildren. Analyses revealed that the childs pain catastrophizing at baseline had a small but unique contribution to the prediction of pain and disability 6 months later, even when controlling for the initial pain and disability levels. In line with expectations, moderation analyses revealed that the effects of catastrophizing upon pain and disability at follow‐up were only true for those children reporting low levels intensity of pain at baseline. The variability in disability and pain complaint could not be explained by trait anxiety. Instead anxious disposition might be best conceived of as a precursor of catastrophizing in children; i.e. children with higher levels of trait anxiety at baseline were more inclined to report higher levels of catastrophizing at follow‐up. The findings are discussed in terms of potential mechanisms through which catastrophizing might exert its negative impact upon pain and disability outcomes in children.

Expressive dimensions of pain catastrophizing: a comparative analysis of school children and children with clinical pain

&NA; We investigated the role of the child’s pain catastrophizing in explaining (1) children’s self‐reported tendency to verbally share their pain experience with others and (2) different dimensions of pain expression, as described by the mother and the father, including non‐verbal and verbal communicative pain behaviour and protective pain behaviour. Participants were school children, children with chronic or recurrent pain, and their parents. The results showed that: (1) Pain catastrophizing was associated with children’s greater self‐acknowledged tendency to verbally share their pain experience with others. (2) Mothers and fathers perceived highly catastrophizing children to be more communicative about their pain. (3) The role of pain catastrophizing in the child’s verbal sharing of pain experiences and in explaining expressive behaviour as rated by parents did not differ between the school children and children with recurrent and chronic pain. (4) Nevertheless, findings indicated marked differences between school children and the clinical sample. Children of the clinical sample experienced more severe pain, more pain catastrophizing, more protective pain behaviour, but less verbal communications about their pain. These results further corroborate the position that catastrophic thoughts about pain have interpersonal consequences. Findings are discussed in terms of the possible functions and effects upon others of pain catastrophizing and associated categories of pain behaviour.

The effects of parental presence upon the facial expression of pain: The moderating role of child pain catastrophizing

&NA; This experiment investigated the effects of child catastrophic thinking and parental presence on the facial expressions of children when experiencing pain. School children experienced pressure pain in either one of two conditions: (1) when observed by a parent (n = 53 children and their parent), or (2) when observed by an adult stranger (n = 31 children). Analyses revealed that children showed more facial pain expression in the presence of their parent than in the presence of the stranger. This effect was, however, only found for children with infrequent catastrophic thoughts about pain. Children who have frequent catastrophic thoughts expressed high pain regardless of who they believed was observing them. Results are discussed in terms of the social consequences of pain catastrophizing, and the variables contributing to the expression or suppression of pain display in children and its impact upon others.

Awareness among community-dwelling elderly of assistive devices for mobility and self-care and attitudes towards their use

The researchers conducted a survey by personal interview of elderly people (75 +years) receiving home nursing (N= 117) in Belgium to investigate the extent of their awareness and perceptions of the existing supply of assistive devices for mobility and selfcare (ADs). A new scale has been developed to measure the possession and the awareness of ADs, the Assistive Devices Awareness Scale. The researchers identified important gaps regarding the awareness of ADs, despite their widespread usefulness and their commercial availability. Even persons with specific disabilities were not necessarily aware of the ADs available to assist with their particular problems. Nevertheless, the elderly persons presented positive attitudes regarding the possibility of using devices as a partial substitute for care and advocated participation in financing the purchase of ADs. Opinions regarding the effect of using ADs on feelings of loneliness differed quite extensively. Most people who were receiving home nursing already possessed ADs. These elderly people perceived mainly positive consequences from using the ADs they already possessed. Linear forward regression analysis revealed that for the elderly clients of home nursing services, the possession of devices is correlated with the extent to which there is a growing need for care, people are aware of the existing devices and people perceive the consequences of using ADs as positive. Implications for future research are discussed.

Empathy and Social Support Provision in Couples: Social Support and the Need to Study the Underlying Processes

ABSTRACT Social support researchers and clinicians have repeatedly expressed the need to identify the antecedents of social support provision within close relationships. The aim of the present study is to investigate the extent to which individual differences in cognitive empathy (perspective taking) and affective empathy (empathic concern and personal distress) are predictive of social support provision in couples. Study 1 involved 83 female participants in a relatively young relationship; Study 2 involved 128 married couples. The authors used self-report measures in both studies to assess individual differences in empathy and participants’ support provision behaviors. The main findings suggest a significant contribution of the different components of empathy with rather different pictures for each of these components. The authors discuss the present findings in light of existing theory and research on social support in relationships.