Review of Community Psychology: In Pursuit of Liberation and Well-being.

Reviews the book Community Psychology: In Pursuit of Liberation and Well-being, edited by Geoffrey Nelson and Isaac Prilleltensky (2005). As their subtitle suggests, the authors are concerned with many matters beyond a mental health focus. Although they modestly describe themselves as "editors," Nelson and Prilleltensky actually wrote most of the book, with only Parts 5 and 6 devoted to the work of others. In Part I, the authors introduce their project for community psychology, offering "issues, values, and tools for liberation and well-being." In Part II, "Values, Principles, and Conceptual Tools," the authors talk about sources of values and the way values are chosen to inform research and action. Part III, "Tools for Action," is devoted to interventions at various levels: social, organizational, small group, and individual. In Part IV, the authors present "Tools for Research." Part V presents diverse topics that include marginalization; globalization, poverty, and social justice; colonization and racism; immigration, adaptation, and the challenges of cultural diversity. Part VI, a final "look toward the future," talks about the new aims and definitions of community psychology presented by this text. This books is one of those rare texts that fully meets the twin purposes of providing ideas for the mature community psychologist as well as working as a text for advanced students. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

News & notes.

This article gives the latest information about the Society for the History of Psychology. It announces that David B. Baker will become News & Notes Editor for History of Psychology in 2006. It covers statements from the candidates for the presidential elections in Division 26, the candidate for secretary-treasurer, and the candidates for representative to council. It also discusses the 2005 meeting of the council of representatives and provides the Society for the History of Psychology's 2005 Convention Program. There is also personal news, as well as a notice of death. The article concludes by summarizing the History of Psychology Around the World: Philemon Foundation Lectures, C. G. Jung Center, Houston, Texas. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

基于神经元网络的言语的计算结构研究初探

Language acquisition,understanding and production are three core problems in the field of cognitive linguistics and computational linguistics.After the investigation of information processing mechanism from the physiological psychology view,we get that the procedures of language porocessing are executed by some structure,that is to say all mental activities concerned with acquisition,understanding and production are the appearances of this structure, and it is developmental with the growing of cognition development including language.Thus three detail problems are pivotal, they are representation problem,learning problem and computation problem.     

Cognitive engineering of a new telephone operator workstation using COGNET

Many cognitive engineering methodologies for user-centered design involve modeling procedural knowledge; others deal with domain semantics or conceptual models. COGnitive NEwork of Tasks (COGNET) is a framework for modeling human cognition and decision-making which provides an integrated representation of the knowledge, behavioral actions, strategies and problem solving skills used in a domain or task situation, yielding a powerful cognitive engineering tool. A case study of the design of the user interface for a new telephone operator workstation is presented to illustrate the derivation of the design from the components of the COGNET model. The model does not directly convey any specific feature of the interface design, but rather a formal representation of what the user must do with the resulting interface. This information is then evolved through a set of transformations which systematically move toward design features, in a fully traceable manner.

Relevance to industry

With the increasing prevalence of technical systems in complex work domains, cognitive engineering is necessary in designing the user interface for those systems to promote efficient integration of person and machine. The cognitive engineering methodology presented here addresses that need.     

News & notes.

This column contains information of interest to members of APA's Division 26. Included are information about the Society for the History of Psychology's web site; Division 26 news items (call for officer nominations and the past president's letter); minutes of the 2004 business meeting; a report from the 36th annual meeting of Cheiron, along with a call for papers for the 37th annual meeting; a report from the Wellcome Trust; and information about APA Federal Policy Fellowship deadlines. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Prediction of Cognitive Abilities 1 Year Following Traumatic Brain Injury From Inpatient Rehabilitation Cognitive Screening.

Objective: To evaluate the ability of the Cognitive Log (Cog-Log) to predict neuropsychological outcome at 1 year after traumatic brain injury (TBI). Study Design: The Orientation Log (O-Log) and Cog-Log were administered during morning rounds, and a battery of neuropsychological tests was administered at 1 year postinjury. Setting: Acute rehabilitation hospital. Participants: Fifty rehabilitation inpatients. Main Outcome Measures: Composite scores for processing speed, attention, language, memory, executive functioning, and visuospatial abilities. Results: The Cog-Log was found to significantly predict 1-year outcome in attention, executive functioning, and visuospatial abilities. The O-Log contributed significantly to memory outcome. The Disability Rating Scale was not a significant predictor. Conclusions: The Cog-Log has utility as a predictor of neuropsychological outcome, particularly when used with its companion instrument, the O-Log. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Janet E. Helms: Award for Distinguished Contributions to Education and Training in Psychology.

Presents a citation for Janet E. Helms, who received the Award for Distinguished Contributions to Education and Training in Psychology "for her remarkable contribution to a conceptual and reiterative empirical base that has transformed the study of racism in our time." Accompanying the citation are a brief profile and a selected bibliography, as well as Helms' award address, entitled Fairness Is Not Validity or Cultural Bias in Racial-Group Assessment: A Quantitative Perspective (see record 2006-21079-024). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relationship between cognitive ability,insight and self-regulatory behaviors: Findings from the older driver population

Self-regulation is often promoted as a coping strategy that may allow older drivers to drive safely for longer. Self-regulation depends upon drivers making an accurate assessment of their own ability and having a willingness to practice self-regulatory behaviors to compensate for changes in ability. The current study explored the relationship between older drivers’ cognitive ability, their driving confidence and their use of self-regulation. An additional study aim was to explore the relationship between these factors and older drivers’ interest in driving programs. Seventy Australian drivers aged 65 years and over completed a questionnaire about their driving and a brief screening measure of cognitive ability (an untimed Clock Drawing Test). While all participants reported high levels of confidence regarding their driving ability, and agreed that they would continue driving in the foreseeable future, a notable proportion performed poorly on the Clock Drawing Test. Compared to older drivers who successfully completed the Clock Drawing Test, those who failed the cognitive test were significantly less likely to report driving self-regulation, and showed significantly less interest in being involved in driving programs. Older drivers with declining cognitive abilities may not be self-regulating their driving. This group also appears to be unlikely to self-refer to driving programs.     

An analysis on decentralized adaptive MAC protocols for cognitive radio networks

The scarcity of bandwidth in the radio spectrum has become more vital since the demand for more and more wireless applications has increased. Most of the spectrum bands have been allocated although many studies have shown that these bands are significantly underutilized most of the time. The problem of unavailability of spectrum and inefficiency in its utilization has been smartly addressed by the cognitive radio (CR) technology which is an opportunistic network that senses the environment, observes the network changes, and then uses knowledge gained from the prior interaction with the network to make intelligent decisions by dynamically adapting their transmission characteristics. In this paper, some of the decentralized adaptive medium access control (MAC) protocols for CR networks have been critically analyzed, and a novel adaptive MAC protocol for CR networks, decentralized non-global MAC (DNG-MAC), has been proposed. The results show the DNG-MAC outperforms other CR-MAC protocols in terms of time and energy efficiency.     

一种基于全相位FFT的频谱感知算法

为提高能量检测算法的性能,提出一种基于全相位快速傅里叶变换( FFT )的频谱感知算法。全相位FFT中的数据预处理过程,考虑了数据段中心样本点所有可能组合的情况,从而减少因信号截断所导致的频谱泄露,提高谱分析精确度。以能量检测法为例,通过Matlab对基于传统FFT和全相位FFT的频谱感知算法进行理论分析和仿真,结果表明,在信噪比相同的条件下,后者的谱间干扰较小,信号的误检率较低;在相同虚警率的条件下,后者可使频谱泄露得到有效抑制,获得的频谱更接近于真实的频谱信息,检测概率相应提高。因此,全相位FFT能量检测法的检测性能明显优于传统能量检测法。