The Psychologist August 2012

the

psychologist vol 25 no 8

august 2012

About time A special feature on time and children, drugs, sleep and more

Incorporating Psychologist Appointments £5 or free to members of The British Psychological Society

letters 558 news 568 careers 626 big picture centre

when psychologists become builders 600 a look through the PRISM 604 new voices: South Asian mental health 634 looking back: Walter Miles’ grand tour 638

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Associate Editors Articles Paul Curran, Harriet Gross, Marc Jones, Rebecca Knibb, Charlie Lewis, Wendy Morgan, Paul Redford, Monica Whitty, Jill Wilkinson, Barry Winter Conferences Alana James History of Psychology Nathalie Chernoff Interviews Gail Kinman, Mark Sergeant Media Lucy Maddox Viewpoints Catherine Loveday International panel Vaughan Bell, Uta Frith, Alex Haslam, Elizabeth Loftus

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vol 25 no 8

august 2012

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psychologist vol 25 no 8

august 2012

letters 558 tackling the environmental crisis; voluntary work; learning disability; and more

THE ISSUE

news and digest fraud or scientific mistake?; Queen’s Birthday Honours; consciousness conference; nuggets from the Society’s Research Digest; and more

Bertrand Russell once said: ’To realise the unimportance of time is the gate to wisdom.’ Several authors in this issue would beg to differ. According to Dan Zakay, in the first contribution to our special feature (see p.578), ‘…time shapes human life and behaviour. Physical events proceed according to objective time and biological cycles are controlled by internal pacemakers, but psychological time – how humans experience it – differs in various important ways.’ This month we explore time and drugs, children, sleep and much more. For extra time, see our online-only articles at www.thepsychologist.org.uk. John Wearden, who was instrumental in gathering these contributions, says succinctly ‘time is all you’ve got’ (see p.582). Not in this issue it isn’t: there’s loads more, including (on p.600) my own piece on psychology and Lego, with a ‘love letter to Lego’ from Uta Frith (now a ‘DBE’ – congratulations to her!). Can you find an hour or two to spend with The Psychologist this summer? If you’re feeling pressed, remember it’s all in the mind. As Douglas Adams said, ‘Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.’ Dr Jon Sutton

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media 576 sex and zombie cannibals, with Mark Sergeant; science journalism; and more

CREDIT

Experiencing time in daily life Dan Zakay on the evidence behind beliefs ‘Time is all you’ve got’ We talk to John Wearden Children and time Sylvie Droit-Volet on what we can learn High time Ruth Ogden and Catharine Montgomery Time and the sleeping brain Penelope A. Lewis and Warren H. Meck

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BIG PICTURE

pull out

Untangling the web second series). She describes this as ‘a long-view about the true revolutionary nature of the web. For example, in the episode about “capture”, we look at the web's effects on memory, and how our historical attempts at capturing phenomena throughout the ages reflect social hierarchies and power dynamics.’ She tells us: ‘I’m also pursuing my own academic study based in the Media and Communications Department of the LSE where I am a Visiting Fellow, funded by the Nominet Trust and Google. I am investigating how the designers of the web services we use every day have fit the “messy”, holistic human into binary systems: what have they chosen to include and what have they chosen to ignore? The first outcome of this line of inquiry is the “Serendipity Engine”, a system that critiques the assumptions Google have made about end-user attributions of insight, relevance and value. See tinyurl.com/serendipityengine for more information.’

COPYRIGHT GUARDIAN NEWS & MEDIA LTD 2010

Image by Lynsey Irvine and Peter Storey, for a series written by Aleks Krotoski. E-mail ideas for ‘Big picture’ to [email protected]. How has the most revolutionary innovation of our time – the internet – transformed our world? What does it mean for the modern family? How has it changed our concepts of privacy? Of celebrity? Of love, sex and hate? Psychologist Dr Aleks Krotoski has been investigating, in a major series for The Guardian [see tinyurl.com/utwaleks). A book extending the series, Untangling the Web, is due out next month. Krotoski has a PhD in social psychology from the University of Surrey, for a thesis which examined how information spreads around the social networks of the web. In February 2010, she presented The Virtual Revolution, a TV documentary series described by the BBC as ‘charting two decades of profound change since the invention of the World Wide Web, weighing up the huge benefits and the unforeseen downsides’. Followed by 20,000 on Twitter, she also presents the BBC Radio 4 series The Digital Human (back in October for a

When psychologists become builders 600 Jon Sutton investigates where Lego and psychology interact, with help from Uta Frith A look through the PRISM 604 David J. Cooke and Lorraine Johnstone on preventing violence in institutions careers and psychologist appointments

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book reviews 608 time warped; evolutionary psychology; cyberbullying; British untouchables; and more

we talk to Jean Gross OBE and Tom Stafford; featured job; how to advertise; and all the latest vacancies

society 614 international profile and more in the President’s column; guidance on the use of social media; honorary status in the Society; socially inclusive parenting; member engagement in Northern Ireland; forthcoming events; and more

new voices suppressed voices, neglected lives, by Romana Farooq in the latest of our articles from first-time authors

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looking back

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the 1920 ‘grand tour’ of Great Britain by American psychologist Walter Miles, recounted by C. James Goodwin one on one

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…with Ruby Bell

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LETTERS

Engaging with the environmental crisis et al., 2007). Both perspectives offer much to market research, but little is said about those who don’t fit the profile or possess the correct ‘attitudes’. This issue has been addressed to some extent through the emergence of ‘conservation psychology’ (for example see www.conservationpsychology.org), focusing on understanding how people behave toward and value nature . However, much of the research in this field is located in the USA.

In the UK there are a handful of academics attempting to address these issues, such as Chris Spencer, Mark van Vugt, David Uzzell, and Birgitta Gatersleben. I too have recently conducted research for a doctoral thesis looking into the emotional, reflexive and reciprocal experiences of engaging with pro-environmental behaviours. Understanding this allows for a greater appreciation of the reciprocal and experiential elements of engaging with TIM SANDERS

In the current economic climate you would be forgiven for thinking that the economy is the most pressing issue facing UK and global governance. Yet despite the current overwhelming focus on our banks and the eurozone, the environment is also a pressing issue in contemporary society. For example, there is a general consensus within the scientific community that human actions are contributing to global climate change, ecosystem degradation and natural resource depletion. Yet despite being an issue of unprecedented importance, politicians, and more importantly for us, psychologists, have yet to adequately deal with it. Yes, ‘ecopsychology’ is making steady progress in theoretically and empirically understanding human–environment relationships, but its focus is not on understanding and engaging with proenvironmental and conservational behaviours. Pockets of research in marketing/consumer psychology have attempted to profile the proenvironmental individual in terms of demographics such as gender, age, ethnicity, occupation and income (see Dolnicar et al., 2008 for a review), and by measuring attitudes to identify the pro-environmental individual (e.g. Singh

Olympics and human behaviour challenges We read with interest the July issue of The Psychologist and the different perspectives that the psychologists presented on the Olympics. We wanted to express a further perspective, which has its origins in occupational psychology, but is perhaps more accurately described as an interdisciplinary approach. Here in the SocioTechnical Centre, at Leeds University Business School, the Olympics is vol 25

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letters 482 news 492 careers 542 looking back 554

the psycholo gy of competi neurosc tion 504 ience for the soul interview with Elizabet 520 new voices: h Loftus psycholo 526 gist suicide 550

These pages are central to The Psychologist’s role as a forum for discussion and debate, and we welcome your contributions.

proving to be a fascinating time for us too, as we are involved in a range of research activities that have application for this event. For example, our colleague Rose Challenger has been working with a range of organisations to better understand different crowd typologies, and the implications that these have on the way crowds behave at events like the Olympics, in order to facilitate better event preparation and crowd management. Other colleagues are working with architects to understand the effects that buildings and infrastructures have on people’s behaviour, and we have

Send e-mails marked ‘Letter for publication’ to [email protected]; or write to the Leicester office.

worked with computer scientists to develop simulations of human behaviours such as team working. Like many others in psychology, we believe that all of the challenges facing events like the Olympics are ultimately concerned with human behaviour. Yet when you present people from different disciplines with a practical problem – like ‘How should crowds be managed at the Olympics?’ – and ask for their ideas on how to solve it, you get a very different set of solutions, because people inevitably look at the problem from their own perspective. Sharing these solutions can

Letters over 500 words are less likely to be published. The editor reserves the right to edit or publish extracts from letters. Letters to the editor are not normally acknowledged, and space does

not permit the publication of every letter received. However, see www.thepsychologist.org.uk to contribute to our discussion forum (members only).

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such practices and the positive impact this can have on well-being. This alternative focus appears crucial in facilitating greater levels of engagement for everyone, something fundamental in the context of the current crisis. However, this type of research is scarce, and often does not filter through to the budding undergraduate or postgraduate student – the majority of institutions place more importance on traditional topics. So whilst psychology is constantly advancing knowledge in areas that are extremely relevant and important to contemporary societies (e.g. prejudice, development, health), what we have here is another contemporary issue of undeniable importance, yet one that remains largely unexplored by psychologists. Surely it is time for psychologists to ‘come out of the woods’, roll up our sleeves and fully engage with the environmental crisis facing all of humankind?

Dr Paul Hanna University of Brighton

References Dolnicar, S., Crouch, G. & Long, P. (2008). Environment-friendly tourists: What do we really know about them? Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 16, 197–210. Singh, T., Slotkin, M. & Vamosi, A. (2007). Attitude towards ecotourism and environmental advocacy: Profiling the dimensions of sustainability. Journal of Vacation Marketing, 13, 119–134.

be fascinating, because it can challenge everyone’s assumptions, and triggers new ideas and ways of thinking. For those like us in the Socio-Technical Centre who subscribe to a systems perspective, the challenges created by events such as the Olympics, require active collaboration between psychologists and other disciplines, most obviously including engineers, planners, architects, politicians and computing scientists, but there are many other groups too. We are convinced that occupational psychology as a discipline is sometimes underexplored in relation to these challenges, and yet it has such a great deal to offer – we are certainly enjoying our involvement in these projects.

Helen Hughes MSc Organizational Psychology Programme Director on behalf of the Socio-Technical Centre, University of Leeds

Schizophrenia – routes to help I was glad to see Dr Jerome Carson suggest a turn to organisations like the Hearing Voices Network in supporting the former patient of his who’s plagued by ‘voices’ (‘Learning about asylums from inmates’, Letters, June 2012). Researching my book on recovery from schizophrenia (D’Ombraine Hewitt, 2007) I gathered numerous firsthand accounts of the usefulness of sharing these experiences with fellow voice-hearers – ‘worth a hundred therapy sessions’, was one contributor’s description. Killilea (1976) first suggested that the effectiveness of self-help groups may be partly attributable to ‘the helped’ gaining the empowering experience of being a ‘helper’, a finding from my own research into the effect of non-CBT, humanistic-integrative therapy with women on the schizophrenia/schizoaffective disorder spectrum (D’Ombraine Hewitt, in press). None of the study’s participants sought therapy for their psychotic symptoms, though commonly reported an improvement in their mental health, evidenced by their ‘voices’ no longer being

troublesome/being much more manageable. So viciously dominating had been one participant’s ‘voices’ that she selfharmed and attempted suicide virtually on a daily basis. Eight years since the end of her two-year period

had hypnotherapy and counselling at the same time. However, most interviewees spoke of the enduring benefits of the individual non-CBT counselling/psychotherapy they’d received through independent practitioners or charitable organisations such as Mind.

Dr Rosalind D’Ombraine Hewitt London N6

of counselling the voices were ‘hardly noticeable’ and she has remained well. This finding is in line with those of Tarrier et al. (2000), who reported an equivalence on all measures for CBT and supportive counselling, with both groups doing significantly better compared to participants who received routine care only. Incidentally, I was surprised that of the 160plus individuals with a diagnosis of schizophrenia whom I interviewed for my book only one reported finding CBT useful, and he had also

References D’Ombraine Hewitt, R. (2007). Moving on: A guide to good health and recovery for people with a diagnosis of schizophrenia. London: Karnac. D’Ombraine Hewitt, R. (in press). Recovery and transformation – A humanistic-integrative approach to schizophrenia/schizo-affective disorder: The client’s perspective. Killilea, M. (1976). Mutual help organisations: Interpretations in the literature. In G. Caplan & M. Killilea (Eds.) Support systems and mutual help: Multidisciplinary explorations (pp.37–93). New York: Grune & Stratton. Tarrier, N., Kinnery, C., McCarthy, E. et al. (2000). Two-year follow-up of cognitivebehavioral therapy and supportive counseling in the treatment of persistent symptoms in chronic schizophrenia. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 68(5), 917–922.

Being useful The fundamental principles of effective applied psychology were refreshingly described in Paul Furey’s article ‘The brave psychologist’ (June 2012); be clear, be concise, be challenging and ultimately, be useful. For educational psychologists working in local authority services, these are essential to daily working practice. Without them, we lack credibility and our

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value for money is justifiably held in question. Survival of our profession depends on our skills in translating knowledge into useful and accessible advice to clients. Leisa Randall Principal Educational Psychologist Education & Children’s Services Haddington, East Lothian

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Unpaid psychology jobs – for and against After reading Megan Down’s letter ‘We can’t work for free’ (June 2012) I was both saddened and deeply concerned about the potential effects of the campaign against unpaid internships. Having graduated in 2010 with a first class honours degree I have been in paid psychology-related work for only eight months since graduating, and know firsthand about the difficulties encountered with finding work in the field. In the past couple of years I have shadowed psychologists in a forensic ward for three months unpaid, worked as an honorary assistant psychologist in the NHS for eight months, and I am currently embarking on my fourth month as a research assistant intern in a psychological research centre. I acknowledge that I am very fortunate to be living at home with my parents, yet I have funded myself through the years by working part-time in retail, at the weekend in nightclubs, in temporary work as a receptionist and a wedding suit promoter, and have even started my own side company doing cooking demonstrations on occasional Sundays to earn extra money! There are

definitely ways of self-funding internship positions, it just requires hard work. Having experienced interning in this currently harsh economic climate, I have witnessed cuts of fully qualified staff in both public and private sectors in mental health and I am aware of limited funding in the research field. I very much doubt that there would be scope to fund graduates, and I am therefore concerned that many internship positions will cease to exist if these unpaid positions are opposed. I think that the more prominent issue within this debate is that companies are not only looking for candidates with experience, they are looking for those with additional postgraduate degrees. I walked out from one of the top universities thinking that with my first class degree I would fall straight into a job, but the reality is that I am competing with those that have masters’ and PhDs; I rarely even get to an interview stage. After recently talking with professors I have further been advised to undertake a master’s, which will require, at the bare

Voluntary assistantships offered to the masses could put many of us ‘non trust fund kids’ at a disadvantage, and therefore I propose an idea. Perhaps psychologists and researchers should offer parttime voluntary posts. They could ‘employ’ two graduates per post (e.g. half the week one graduate, and the other half another graduate). This would double up our opportunities, give us the experience we so desperately need and allow us to work parttime in any job of our choice thus keeping us financially afloat. This may be hard on the researchers and psychologists, but with the right types of candidates it could work out as a great teamwork experience. After all three heads are better than two!

Name and address supplied Postgraduate student University of Huddersfield

In a healthcare system providing community services based on a recovery model, equipping services users with skills to better manage living with mental health problems, it would be a devastation for the psychology profession to not practise what it preaches by supporting and encouraging its younger counterparts who are so eager to be equipped with new skills, engage in the learning process and be recognised for the progress they make.

Helen Beckwith Tees, Esk & Wear Valleys NHS Trust

With reference to Megan Down’s letter, I agree that advertising so many unpaid jobs is creating a problem and will continue to grow. It creates a non-representative sample of students who can

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As a psy gradu chology stu ati time of on, I have dent neari The Psy late perus spent more ng www.p chologist aning the jobs than a litt increa le pages disapposychapp.co d pool tose the divers of advertis inted to no.uk. I have attem clinical psy ity of the ap pts volun ements for te a numb been very if they will fall chology cou plicant tary ass er un (e.g. Ap proble fail to realisfar short of rses, istant paid ‘honoof m is tha suc e ril psy rary’ or t in ordthat part of cess It is ha issue, p.323 chologist position er to get the rdly a ). are inc sur s to a as the reasingly off prise tha re is litt t NHS ering lot of intere le doubt thathese posit trusts to gain st in the ions, t the experi coveted ass m when re will be compe a believ ence is so higistant psy cho tition e the de that these h. However logist the BP velopment positions are , I strongly of of psy S, in repres psycholog bad for them chology gra enting many y, and that on pri du nciple ates, sho hundreds It’s uld op . has a no secret tha pose proble t cli stride s have m with div nical psycho or so ersity. been logy in ethnic increasin made in the Massive g starte minorities the repres last decad , and d to be en tat ion of e attem repres made pts such asentation of to increase have lower people wi other mino rit Howe socio-econo th disabiliti y groups, ver, no es mi matt c backgro or from

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minimum, £7500 and another year without a full-time psychology job. Unpaid internships aside, this is what will really prevent those from disadvantaged backgrounds gaining access into the field. Yes, it is terrible that I and others have been unpaid in psychological work, but these placements have been my lifeline. What is worse than an unpaid internship is working full-time in exactly the same job you did when you were 16, predegree, never knowing when you will get your big break into the field of psychology. Having been accepted into a fantastic research centre a few months ago (still unpaid), I am so grateful for the opportunity, and it has changed my life for the better. I would hate to think that this would be taken away from me and others that I work with, knowing that we are thankful for every day that we have somewhere to go to, and that we are finally on a step in a very long ladder towards our dream. Jodie Walman Bushey Heath, Herts

apply for clinical training; the financially fortunate students will be the only ones with a shot of getting onto a clinical course. However, it would be a shame if this debate discourages students from doing placement years as part of their degrees. I am a third-year psychology undergraduate finishing an unpaid placement year and have absolutely valued my experience. Placement years are different to unpaid jobs, not only does it feel part of your degree but not being paid means you have the flexibility to choose your experience (to a certain extent) at the same time as making a real contribution to the team. My days were negotiable, depending on what needed to be done and what I wanted to do. My supervisor encouraged me to go and seek out other opportunities. It has given me numerous learning prospects and experiences and I am very grateful for it. As a result, I haven’t felt frustrated for not being paid this year, but I have also been in a fortunate situation where I could live at home with my parents with the security of financial bailout if ever needed. Not everybody has this safety net. Although placement schemes are commendable, I don’t think universities should charge students half fees for the privilege. We write our letters, attend interviews and fight for each place. You have very little contact from them, there’s no teaching, and I haven’t used the university facilities all year. To be met with the seemingly impossible task of finding an assistant psychology post after university is degrading. Without a student loan, I won’t be able to spend another year of my life working for free whilst also supporting myself. This is all the free labour I’m able to give, not out of stubbornness or a lack of

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commitment to psychology but out of a sheer necessity to live. But unfortunately, despite the fact that I work hard and have spent a year in an NHS setting, my chances of being a psychologist are compromised by that fact that I can’t work for free. It is not good for the future of UK psychology to condone free labour. Psychology is all about representative samples of people, and yet, this will not be the case.

Laura Coote Placement student Beacon House Gloucestershire Royal Hospital

In response to Claire Thompson (Letters, July 2012) I think it is useful to highlight why it is not valid to compare the experience of today’s graduates to those of yesteryear as an argument as to why graduates should ‘put up’ with unpaid posts. My main issue with the above argument is in temporal validity. The economic climate is different and some unpaid experience from yesteryear may have been more likely to lead to paid employment. It would surely be naive not to consider that there are some employers who, in this climate, think it better to take advantage of the conveyer belt of desperate graduates who will work for free. To those who think graduates are entitled – I believe that most psychology graduates endeavour to get experience, however they simply cannot live on air. I have worked and volunteered for many years in as many positions that were even vaguely to do with psychology as possible. Believe me, I have grafted hard, and have finally secured a new job as a paid assistant psychologist. So you may say ‘Your volunteering paid off, the system works’ – let me inform you that I still live with my parents and have been receiving financial help ever since I left university, without which I have no idea how I would have afforded to volunteer. I know how lucky I am. My experience may be a case study, but I feel it underscores the difficulty graduates have in working for free without a comfortable background. Without this, graduates are

faced with obtaining paid employment alongside their honorary position. A weekend or evening job is difficult enough to get on its own when the employer takes one look at the degree written proudly on the CV and knows that the graduate will leave at the first chance. I was often advised to take it off! When recruitment is expensive, graduates are in no-man’s land. Even if a graduate manages to get additional work, I question how easy it would be to survive today’s living costs without further financial help, bearing in mind that honorary positions take up most of their time. That combined with new university fees and recent topup fees that are tied around fresh graduates’ necks, and the idea that you can compare like-for-like the experience of these graduates to the graduates of yesteryear is ludicrous. Lastly there is the amount of competition. As an applicant during Labour’s push for 50 per cent of schoolleavers to go into higher education, I was told that university would help you obtain the career you wanted – this was in 2004, and the idea was still promoted. Then I left and my generation was told that to believe this idea made us ‘entitled’ as there aren’t enough jobs. Excuse the young for believing what they were told. So I implore anyone reading this page who believes that graduates should ‘stop moaning’ – please stop to think rather than jump on the proverbial bandwagon.

Catherine Lilley Manchester

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FORUM HEALTH MATTERS When I moved to Guildford to take up the Chair in Health Psychology I noticed that the large, green and very beautiful park just outside my house would be a good place to go for a run. Seven years later the ‘drip-drip’ effect of that intention eventually turned into action and six weeks ago I set off to get fit for a 5km charity race. I see myself as a healthy woman and would give myself a decent 4 out of 5 on any Likert scale, ticking the boxes of ‘normal weight’, ‘eating five a day’ and ‘engage in frequent exercise’ with family walks each weekend. But running was a shock. I can walk forever. Why does adding the smallest upward bump into my stride leave me breathless and wanting to stop? Very soon I was unable to chat any more, and as I hit ‘the wall’ opposite the swimming pool only the fear of sheer humiliation made me persevere. Ah. So I’m not fit. My healthy status is no longer, I am an infrequent exerciser and a 2 out of 5 after all. I was a bit put out. But I had a choice. Give up running and return to being a ‘healthy woman’ who can manage all she does without feeling unfit. Or struggle, sweat and pant heavily and face up to my new found unhealthy status. And, as any good health psychologist would, I did a quick cost-benefit analysis. I disliked running, but I liked the runner’s smugness I got afterwards. It was hard work, but it didn’t take long to feel shattered and be back in my house. And I wanted to run the race with my students to raise money for cancer. How ridiculous that at 46 I can’t even run round my own park without stopping. Other people do it every day. I should be able to Chasing the runner’s manage it. So I raised my smugness? expectations of what I should be able to do, and how healthy I should be. And then I ran 5km in a pretty good time. I am ‘less fit’ than I used to be but now run twice a week. So this was my first thought. Life can be hard and after years of work, relationships and being a Mum I proudly announce to my friends that I have discovered the key to happiness: ‘Expect nothing and be happy when you get anything’. This is my motto and it works wonders. University managers seem surprisingly less unappreciative when you don’t expect to be appreciated, partners are easier to live with when roles are clear and expectations are low and children are (mostly) easier to manage when you expect them to behave like children. So on that day six weeks ago as I turned pink in the park I realised that expectations should be raised for health but lowered for happiness. But as an academic my second thought was this: How can we ever pretend to measure health and happiness if it is always framed by individual expectations, involves within self-comparisons, is idiosyncratic and ever changing? Ogden, J. & Lo, J. (2012). How meaningful are data from Likert scales? An evaluation of how ratings are made and the role of the response shift in the socially disadvantaged. International Journal of Health Psychology, 12, 350–361.

Jane Ogden is Professor in Health Psychology at the University of Guildford. Share your views on this and other health-related matters by e-mailing [email protected].

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Defining learning disability Jenny Webb and Simon Whitaker have provided a succinct and timely critique of the current definitions of intellectual disability as based upon IQ scores (‘Defining learning disability’, June 2012). In particular, they highlighted both the conceptual and practical limitations of defining intellectual disabilities in this manner, and their proposal to move towards a definition in part based on specific cognitive impairments and individual need is most welcome and one that should be supported by clinical psychologists working with this population. However, their reference to intellectual disability as being ‘bizarrely’ included under the rubric of neurodevelopmental disorders in DSM-5 struck a rather odd note within the article, as this is surely an accurate overarching description of intellectual disabilities. Similarly, whilst Webb and Whitaker go on to quite rightly re-emphasise that intellectual disability is in part a social construction, they make no reference to the now incontestable fact that upwards of 75 per cent of cases of intellectual disability have a biological basis that is largely, but not exclusively, genetic. That these biological causes of intellectual disability are, with but a few obvious exceptions such as Down’s syndrome, rarely considered when developing support and intervention for people with intellectual disabilities does not mean that aetiology is per se unimportant. On the contrary, it is now apparent that aetiology and the associated specific impairments in neurological functioning have, as Webb and Whitaker note, more prognostic value than IQ scores.

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Dr Dougal Julian Hare University of Manchester

in social services, in an integrated, multidisciplinary community team for people with learning disabilities. We also regularly receive referrals that request cognitive assessments, for parents in the same position as Sophie, the young lady described by Webb and Whitaker. We commend Webb and Whitaker for highlighting the issue of flawed eligibility criteria, for services for people with learning disabilities. We agree that learning disability is a social construct, in keeping with many of the presenting issues that clients who work with clinical psychologists present with, such as depression, schizophrenia and personality disorder. However, we feel that a viable alternative to the current system has not been presented, in that clinical judgement, and societal norms cannot provide a platform for evidence-based practice. The definition of learning disability suggested in the article seems JOHN BIRDSALL/PHOTOFUSION

I read with great interest Webb and Whitaker’s article, ‘Defining learning disability’. Particularly striking was the main thrust of the piece, that the arbitrary application of standards based on fixed levels of IQ may deny some people appropriate support. While taking on board much of their argument, and noting that the authors are primarily concerned with those at the upper levels of IQ, I would like to enter a caution regarding their statement, quoting Sternberg (2001) that ‘there is little evidence that it [IQ] can be used to predict performance in other areas of life’. In my own longitudinal study of a group of people with Down’s syndrome, selfhelp skills (feeding washing, dressing and toileting) were significantly associated, at p = 0.0001 at every age from 11 years to 40 years and p = 0.01 at 45 and 47 years. So in this important area of life and with people at this level of disability IQ played a major role. A rider to this must be that the test I used was neither the WISC nor WAIS, as discussed by Webb and Whitaker. I have not attempted either with my group, but did try using some part of the WPPSI when they were 21 years old and only five of the 44 were able to make a score on it. From age 21 onwards I have used the Leiter International Performance

Therefore, the definition of intellectual disability could be further considered as involving two questions, the first regarding aetiology and identification and the second regarding individual need and support. As Webb and Whitaker demonstrate, neither of these questions can be adequately answered by the use of IQ testing. Given what is known about the aetiology of intellectual disability, the issue of identification of whether a person has intellectual disability could be in many cases already answered through the use of appropriate biomarkers, including genetic testing, whilst the assessment of what support a person thus identified will require could be done through appropriate cognitive, psychosocial, educational and occupational assessments, including those for risk. A re-conceptualisation of intellectual disability along these lines would, I contend, be both clinically and scientifically meaningful, thus satisfying both the demands of Webb and Whitaker, as well as those of the god Janus whom they invoke. Given the evident limitations of the existing IQ-based concept of intellectual disability, this might be an appropriate moment for UK clinical psychologists working in this field to begin the admittedly difficult task of developing a more appropriate conceptualisation and definition of intellectual disability. Indeed, this might be issue on which the BPS could take a leading role.

Scale, which is non-verbal and whose range makes it feasible for use with all but those with the most profound intellectual disability. With that proviso IQ can be seen to give good prediction of these people’s ability to perform these essential self-care tasks.

Janet Carr PhD Bookham, Surrey

We are two clinical psychologists working

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over-inclusive, as any of us may reach a stage in our lives when we are in need of additional support due to ‘a failure to cope with the intellectual demands of our environment and are suffering significant distress’. Furthermore, the inability to take care of oneself/dependants, or to protect oneself/dependants from harm or exploitation may be a direct result of an individual’s social circumstances, rather than having any correlation with learning disability. Examples would include victims of domestic violence, self- neglect due to drug or alcohol abuse, or deliberate self-harm due to mental health problems. Webb and Whitaker provide an ‘either-or’ construction as an alternative to the current definition of learning disability, whereas we would argue that assessment of need, in order to allocate admittedly scarce resources, must be based on both intellectual capacity and social support. Webb and Whitaker appear to make the assumption that a diagnosis of learning disability brings benefits to an individual that outweigh the costs of this label. We would question this assumption, as societal norms still include negative attitudes towards people with various types of disability. Many of our clients experience abuse, neglect, hate crime, stigma and social exclusion. In addition, the example used by Webb and Whitaker of a young woman becoming pregnant and requiring specialist support, overlooks the fact that such parenting support could be provided by child and family services, regardless of whether or not the young woman had a learning disability. BPS (2000) guidance, cautions against sharing information in a way that could potentially ‘restrict or exclude people from the most appropriate services available’. Webb and Whitaker question the utility of intelligence testing in parenting cases. Good practice guidance in this area has been provided by the BPS (Baum et al., 2011) and notes that people with an IQ below 60 have generally been found to be more unlikely to be able to provide adequate and safe parenting. However, in our experience, most referrals of this nature result in an outcome that places people on the borderline of having and not having a learning disability (IQ between 65 and 80). The guidance further asserts: ‘Perhaps one of the most critical factors in supporting parents with learning disabilities in being “good enough” parents is what support is available to them on a long-term basis’ (p.24). This social support could come from an individual’s informal circle as

well as children’s services. Therefore to adhere to best practice and an ethical approach, learning disability services could potentially advise about how to make information accessible and memorable for Sophie. This guidance could be contained in the assessment report, in terms of recommendations by the clinical psychologist and/or speech and language therapist, for the referrer. The learning disability services could also potentially provide advice to other service providers in order to maximise the effectiveness of the help they provide. However to diagnose learning disability based on need only may result in the support provided not being the best type of support available to meet that individual’s needs.

We believe that although the IQ is not a perfect tool to measure intellectual abilities, used in conjunction with clinical judgement it does provide a useful set of boundaries to guide the appropriate direction of scarce resources.

Liz Marlow Vicky Lauté Merton Team for People with Learning Disabilities Morden

References Baum, S., Gray, G. & Stevens, S. (2011). Good practice guidance for clinical psychologists when assessing parents with learning disabilities.Leicester: British Psychological Society. British Psychological Society (2000). Learning disability: Definitions and contexts. Leicester: Author.

COPENHAGEN – NOT SO WONDERFUL Graham Rawlinson argues (‘Lessons from advanced physics’, Letters, June 2012) that psychology better catch up with quantum physics. Specifically he believes the socalled Copenhagen Interpretation, an outcome of discussions by physicists Bohr and Heisenberg in that city, means we should abandon the idea of a singularly experiencing self. However the Copenhagen Interpretation is just one way to explain the quantum data. The Everett–Wheeler ‘many-worlds’ theory works equally well. The latter claims that every observation of a quantum event splits the cosmos into parallel universes. That means multiple variants of me, and what are they up to? For sure, some of them are living in a Nazi Europe made possible by alternative Heisenbergs who helped Hitler build atomic bombs. Not much uncertainty there. The Copenhagen Interpretation is also rivalled by Cramer’s Transactional Theory. Buy into that, and maybe I can signal backwards in time to an earlier Mike Kelly and warn him not to have that extra drink at the office party, which so embarrassed the future me last Friday. Such revisionism would definitely increase my sense of myself as a moral agent, which looks quite opposite from Rawlinson’s claim that there is no discrete self that does deeds. If we want to get serious about time travel, we can embrace still another rival to the Copenhagen Interpretation: the Sum of All Histories. Stephen Hawking does this, extrapolating all the way back to the earliest quantum events of the Big Bang. Present-day intelligent observations retrospectively brought the entire universe

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into being. But for intelligent life to evolve in order to make those observations, it probably needed that big cometary impact. I am now racked with guilt and apologise to all dinosaurs for their extinction. We are to blame! Better comfort myself with one more alternative to the Copenhagen Interpretation: David Bohm’s theory of the Implicate Order. This present self that I experience may be but the most shadowy of reflections of a pan-dimensional being, creating or destroying worlds whilst I polish this humble letter. I could continue. Science author John Gribbin writes of listening to eight top quantum physicists being separately asked how to explain the mysteries of their field. Each solemnly claims that their interpretation is correct while the others are impossible. ‘The only problem is, the experts do not agree on which interpretation is correct. Utterly sure of themselves… they all plump for different versions of reality and dismiss the others’ (Gribbin, 1995). Mr Rawlinson’s letter offers no more than this same dogmatism, with physics envy thrown in. There is no ruling theory here that psychology must embrace: indeed, the Copenhagen Interpretation is a pretender on the wane. Mike Kelly Southminster Essex Reference Gribbin, J. (1995). Schrödinger’s kittens and the search for reality. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.

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NOTICEBOARD I Are you a health psychologist working in the NHS? I would like to hear from you. I would like to write a short article about the kinds of jobs health psychologists do in the NHS and how you managed to get your current post. If you would like to contribute please get in touch. Dr Brian McMillan Scarborough and North East Yorkshire Health Care NHS Trust [email protected] I Are you a practising clinical or counselling psychologist with a history of mental health problems? As part of my Doctorate in Clinical Psychology at Canterbury Christ Church University, I am exploring how this experience may influence psychologists’ practice and would greatly appreciate your input. This project has received full ethical approval from the university ethics panel. Choice of telephone or faceto-face interview (dependent upon where you live). Liz Davison [email protected] I As part of my doctoral studies (DCPsych), I am carrying out a qualitative study exploring the possible contextual factors at play in a ‘white’ therapeutic relationship comprising an Irish client (historically of Catholic background) and an English therapist. I am particularly interested in exploring the potential effect on the relationship of the presence of underlying transgenerational themes emerging from both participants’ intertwined cultural histories. To this end I would like to invite fellow ‘white’ Irish counsellors/ psychotherapists (1st and 2nd generation), who are resident and have undergone personal therapy in England, to join me in a cooperative inquiry group. The findings will be presented to a group of ‘white’ English counsellors/psychotherapists for their feed-back/reflections in an interactive workshop thereafter. Lucy O’Connor [email protected]

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Ignorant about religion? It is a pity that when The Psychologist gives us articles on spirituality, they are so bad, such as the big bash on religion, a few issues back. Now in July’s issue there is another example. Craig Aaen-Stockdale writes about ‘neuroscience for the soul’ in a way that exhibits considerable ignorance about the soul, and even some clearly prejudiced stuff. My favourite example of the latter is a discussion of the use of psilocybin in spiritual research. After describing a nice piece of research on its effects, where it gave participants an experience that they rated ‘as among the five most personally meaningful and spiritually significant experiences of their lives’, the author’s comment on this and the famous Good Friday experiment is: ‘…they don’t actually tell us anything about religion. The everyday religious experience is nothing like a psychedelic trip.’. Pardon me, but the average mystical experience can be very much like a psychedelic trip, and this was what the Good Friday Experiment was explicitly about. It is also noteworthy that the author does not mention that 25 years after the Good Friday Experiment the participants were followed up and re-interviewed. The results showed that the experience was not only remembered but had

resulted in substantial deepening effects upon the religious lives of these men, which were still continuing. Curiously, the reference that the author gives is a reference to a later paper that demonstrated this! Ignorance about religious mysticism is of course quite prevalent in our society, and in the BPS, but there is no excuse for articles to be published that cheerily demonstrate this. John Rowan London E4

Can anybody be a BME therapist? What makes one therapist more qualified to work with the Black Minority and Ethnic (BME) population than another? What if any are the appropriate criteria that facilitate understanding of BME clients? Do the knowledge, skills and background of the therapist matter? Is there a need to differentiate whether anyone can be a BME therapist or whether there are some specific criteria that have to be fulfilled before a therapist can claim working with the BME

population as their speciality. As a therapist for over 15 years, in my formative working period I used to try very hard to behave in the ways that I thought were expected of me, to adapt as much as possible to the local culture or norms which in my own work setting were predominately Eurocentric both in their theoretical and physical makeup. As a result, I often felt inauthentic, and worried obsessively about the mistakes I inevitably made when it came to working with

BME clients. Over time, I have learned that working across cultures is a matter of bringing out the genuine sides of my personality and background, likewise discovering the valid aspects of my clients and finding a deferential way for both of us to bring as much of our true selves to the interaction as possible. I used to try too hard to be polite with the client, at the cost of being reverent to myself. Now I aim for a way of being equally true to all parties who are engaged, including

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obituary

Daryl Madeleine Foot (1946–2012) Daryl Madeleine Foot, clinical psychologist, died of cancer on 6 April 2012 in Australia whilst visiting her children with her husband Hugh Foot. Daryl was a strong, forthright and committed woman who was passionate about the power of clinical psychology to improve the lives of patients. She was politically savvy, pragmatic and indefatigable. As Chair of the Division of Clinical Psychology in Scotland, Daryl pressed for more recognition of the profession in Scotland. In particular, the funding for postgraduate training had been uncertain for many years, but eventually the Scottish Council for Postgraduate Medical and Dental Education (later NHS Education, Scotland) took over the budget and responsibility for training and commissioned a Review of Psychology Services in the NHS in Scotland. As a result of this, two new bodies were set up at national level: SCPMDE Psychology Committee to advise on training needs and the Psychology Advisory Committee to the Chief Medical Officer to advise on matters relating to psychology in the NHS in Scotland. Serving also on the DCP-UK Daryl was known for her emphasis on the differences between Scotland and the rest of the UK. With the involvement of other senior applied psychologists, a group called Clinical Psychologists in Scottish Healthcare (CAPISH) under the aegis of the BPS was also established. It was partly due to Daryl’s efforts that the BPS eventually established an office in Scotland and directed resources north of the border. Daryl was brought up in Hertfordshire and then went to St Andrew’s University (Queen’s College, Dundee) where she met her husband, Hugh. She trained as a clinical psychologist in Cardiff, qualifying in 1972 and worked in South Wales for the next 20 years. Daryl worked in adult psychology services and quickly made progress through the promotion ladder. She was Secretary and then Chair of the Welsh Branch of the DCP before

Geraldine Bienkowski Kate Davidson Leonora Harding Edinburgh

myself. I will use feedback as an example of not being reverent because that is a topic that is sensitive to individuals in general and manifests itself quite differently in various cultures. I noticed as a qualified therapist that I worked extremely hard to be ‘therapeutically correct’ and find exactly the right approach and the right words. Over time I have turned therapy into an engagement with the other person or group on how we proceed and how we handle the therapeutic sessions that

I found a complex relationship exists between clients, their culture and the values that emerge from their culture. Arguably, the relationship between culture and values is a complex one that can perhaps best be understood as ‘dialectical’ in nature. While psychotherapists can learn the background and history of various minority groups it is not realistic to assume that they have more than just a superficial understanding of culture, perhaps even little that more than stereotypes and

will work for them. I offer my interpretation in my words, still chosen carefully and respectfully, and engage them in finding the words that have meaning for their ‘cultural ideology’, to make sure that the feedback comes across in a way that is as useful and meaningful to them as possible. It was not surprising on completion of my PhD that

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coming to Scotland. On moving to Scotland, she initially worked for forensic clinical psychology services and took up a post in Lomond, on the outskirts of Glasgow, eventually becoming Head of Service for Lomond and Argyll. She was an Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer on the Doctorate in Clinical Psychology course based in Glasgow and latterly Chair of its Programme Strategy Committee. She is well remembered by psychologists as someone who was supportive and who instilled confidence. Daryl made a difference to the lives of many patients. She helped them analyse their problems, she gave them hope and the confidence to make changes. Being very committed to evidencebased practice, Daryl was not afraid of being too senior to develop her own skills, so she furthered her training later in life by taking the South of Scotland CBT course so that she would have the skills at the level of competence required to deliver effective therapy. She set a good example to many senior psychologists. Daryl approached her cancer with great fortitude and extraordinary openness, keeping her friends and former colleagues informed and involved. A huge example to us all, she was stoical, calm and accepting and importantly, continued to be engaged with the world. She loved her family dearly and it is fitting that she died with them around her in a place that she loved. Those who knew her will remember her strength of character, her integrity and her contribution to clinical psychology. They will also remember her loyalty, friendship and support. She made a difference to the lives of many people and is greatly missed.

generalisations. As therapists in a changing world we have to take into account not only the multicultural and economic movements around us, but incorporate and understand the impact of different cultures in societies and the issues that may arise. My research gave rise to some interesting and concise results, but I would like to open up this debate with the question I started with, ‘can anyone be a BME therapist? Dr Uzma Durrani East London

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NEWS

Fraud or scientific mistake? Social psychology is reeling from its second research scandal in less than a year, after the Erasmus University of Rotterdam announced the withdrawal of two articles by one of its senior social psychologists. The problematic papers were identified by a ‘Committee for Inquiry into Scientific Integrity’ (chaired by Rolf Zwaan, a psychologist in the University’s Brain and Cognition lab), which was set up to investigate concerns raised about the work of Dirk Smeesters. Among the Inquiry’s recommendations was a call for greater regulation of the fields of marketing and ‘to a lesser extent’ social psychology. Smeesters, who was Professor of Consumer and Society in the Rotterdam School of Management, was found guilty by the Inquiry of ‘data selection’ and failing to keep suitable data records. Smeesters resigned his post after

admitting to using a ‘blue dot technique’ whereby, after achieving a null result, he omitted participants who failed to read the instructions properly (7 to 10 per study, he claims), thus lifting the findings into statistical significance – a procedure he failed to detail in his affected papers. However, Smeesters blamed the unavailability of his raw data on nothing more heinous than a computer crash and a lab move. The Inquiry said it ‘doubted the credibility’ of these reasons. The affected papers pertained to social priming and past selves and were published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (tinyurl.com/bq32j9r), published by the APA, and the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology (tinyurl.com/c2nmxlh), published by Elsevier. A third affected paper had only reached the submission

stage of publication. The Inquiry found no evidence of wrong-doing by Smeesters’ coauthors, although there’s no doubt they are suffering from the fallout (at least one of them has posted his feelings online: tinyurl.com/d53hndk). These latest revelations come in the wake of the case of Diederik Stapel, a senior social psychologist at Tilburg University, who last year admitted to fabricating the results behind several dozen published studies (see News, December 2011). Smeesters has kept a low profile since the scandal broke,

QUEEN’S BIRTHDAY HONOURS FOR PSYCHOLOGISTS Developmental psychologist and Society Fellow Professor Uta Frith of UCL and Aarhus University has been made an honorary Dame in the latest Foreign and Commonwealth Honours, for services to clinical science (the award is honorary because of Professor Frith’s German nationality). Also recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours were Chartered Psychologist Anne Douglas, a Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Head of Trauma Services for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, appointed OBE for services to the Health of Asylum Seekers and Refugees; Chartered Psychologist Melinda Edwards, a Consultant Clinical Paediatric Psychologist at St Thomas' Hospital, appointed MBE for services to children with chronic and life-threatening medical conditions; and Anne Moore, Chief Educational Psychologist at the London Borough of Croydon, who was appointed MBE for services to Special Needs Education. Uta Frith is an internationally respected authority on autism and dyslexia, among other topics,

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and during her career she has mentored a small army of eminent researchers, including Professor Simon Baron-Cohen (Director of the Autism Research Centre at the University of Cambridge), Professor Francesca Happé (the newly appointed Director of the MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre at the Institute of Psychiatry, KCL), and Professor Sarah-Jayne Blakemore (Leader of the Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Group at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, UCL), among many others. In comments to the Society, Professor Frith paid tribute to her husband, the psychologist and BPS Fellow Chris Frith: ‘I often talk about how culture changes the brain,’ she said, ‘but I should really say that it is significant others who change the brain. In my case the significant other did so with such a delicacy and sensitivity that I never cease to be grateful, and never cease to wonder at my good fortune.’ Anne Douglas told us she was ‘delighted’ with her honour, which ‘recognises the excellent

work of the Compass team’ she heads in Glasgow. She added that all applied psychologists should be encouraged to take trauma histories from all clients as a matter of routine, and include it in their formulation and therapy plan. Together with Honorary Society Fellow Professor Bill Yule, Douglas is keen to establish a BPS Trauma Psychology section. ‘We need 1 per cent of the membership to get this off the ground,’ she said, ‘so if you are interested please vote at: www.bps.org.uk/traumasec’. ‘Delighted and extraordinarily humbled’ was how Melinda Edwards told us she felt on hearing of her award, especially after she learned she’d been nominated by the parents of young children she’s worked with. ‘These young people are members of “Evelina’s Pride”, a supported youth group for young people with chronic and life-limiting medical conditions,’ Edwards said. The group was developed by Edwards nearly 15 years ago and aims to provide a ‘supportive peer network for young people, enabling fun and friendship through a range of

inclusive social activities’. ‘I feel very privileged that our psychological skills give us the ability to assess in a more holistic way the needs of our patients and to provide appropriate help creatively in the most accessible way to support their development, adjustment and quality of life,’ Edwards added. ‘I feel even more privileged to have been a member of the Evelina Pride Group and to have been part of the lives of such inspirational young people.’ Anne Moore, who has worked for the London Borough of Croydon for 25 years, told us she feels ‘privileged’ to have worked with so many dedicated individuals during that time, and fortunate to have been part of a ‘very special team’ of educational psychologists, and to work for a council that has shown ‘tremendous support’ for special educational needs. ‘I am overwhelmed by this honour,’ she said, ‘but thrilled to have the opportunity to promote educational psychology to a wider audience.’ We extend congratulations to them all. CJ

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NO EXTRA BENEFIT

but he surfaced late in June to tell the Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad that he was ‘no Stapel’ – his data was not fabricated; he had made a scientific mistake. Stapel and Smeesters reportedly never worked together. Concerns were first raised about Smeesters’ work by Uri Simonsohn, a social psychologist at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. Simonsohn has developed a statistical technique for detecting massaged data, details of which are contained in an as yet unpublished paper with the working title ‘Finding fake data: Four true stories, some stats, and a call for journals to post all data’ (criticisms of the technique have surfaced online: tinyurl.com/ccnymz6). Simonsohn contacted Smeesters requesting his raw data, and then he reported his findings to Smeesters’ head of school, which led ultimately to the Inquiry. According to the Inquiry’s report (full English translation in pdf form at tinyurl.com/csjpxfr), Simonsohn’s technique identifies dubious data by looking at the amount of variation in the group means derived from the same population. With the aid of two statistical experts, the Erasmus University Inquiry applied Simonsohn’s algorithm to 22 of 29 papers published or submitted by Smeesters’ since 2007, for which the necessary data were available, which led to the identification of the three suspect papers (the technique was also applied to a random selection of four comparable control papers by others in the field and no anomalies were found). Concerns were also raised about data anomalies in a fourth paper published by Smeesters and co-authors in the Journal

of Consumer Research (tinyurl.com/crs8ehn). In relation to this paper, the Inquiry stated that it had found a file on Smeesters’ network desk that shouldn’t have been there based on his description of how the data were collected. The Inquiry states it ‘cannot rule out that Smeesters used the…file to manipulate the raw data before sending these’ to his data-analyst. This isn’t the first time the whistleblower Simonsohn has taken an interest in research integrity. Last year he coauthored a paper ‘False-positive psychology’ in Psychological Science (tinyurl.com/canb33z; see News, January 2012), in which he and his colleagues demonstrated the ease with which falsepositive results can be obtained by indulging in research practices that occupy a grey area of acceptability, such as adding more participants to a subject pool in search of a significant finding. A paper published in May this year in Psychological Science (but detailed on our Research Digest blog last December: tinyurl.com/boynfxk) surveyed 6000 US psychologists about practices in this ‘grey zone’ and found that 58 per cent admitted excluding data post-hoc and 35 per cent had doubts about the integrity of their own research. Smeesters told the Inquiry that he doesn’t feel guilty because many authors in his field knowingly omit data to achieve significance. Early in July, Simonsohn gave an interview to Nature (see tinyurl.com/7mtgawa) in which he claimed to have identified a third case of scientific misconduct that’s yet to be made official, and a fourth that’s not been acted upon. He said he was motivated to act in these cases by the fact that ‘it is wrong to look the other way’, but he stressed he hadn’t taken justice into his own hands – he was careful to pass things over to the appropriate authorities. ‘If it becomes clear that fabrication is not an unusual event,’ he said, ‘it will be easier for journals to require authors to publish all their raw data. It’s extremely hard for fabrication to go undetected if people can look at your data.’ CJ

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Findings from a new randomised controlled trial suggest that adding facilitated exercise to standard care (including antidepressant medication) doesn’t bring any extra benefit to people with depression. ‘The main implication of our results is that advice and encouragement to increase physical activity is not an effective strategy for reducing symptoms of depression,’ the researchers said (British Medical Journal: tinyurl.com/brcey3a).

PSYCHOLOGISTS APP A team of psychologists, led by Professor Robin Walker in the psychology department at Royal Holloway University of London, is working on an iPad app called ‘MDReader’, which it’s hoped will help people with macular degeneration, an eye condition that affects central vision. The app scrolls text in large font across the screen at a chosen speed, so that a reader can use peripheral vision whilst holding their gaze steady.

WELLCOME IMAGE A close-up photograph, taken during neurosurgery, of the surface of a living human brain is the overall winner of this year’s Wellcome Image Awards (see www.wellcomeimageawards.org), judged on technical merit as well as aesthetics. Alice Roberts of the judging panel said ‘Through the skill of the photographer [Robert Ludlow of UCL], we have the privilege of seeing something that is normally hidden away inside our skulls.’

PAIN GUIDELINES With support and input from the British Psychological Society, the Royal College of Physicians has published new guidelines (tinyurl.com/cgl5jvm) for health professionals on complex regional pain syndrome – ‘a debilitating, painful condition in a limb associated with sensory, motor, autonomic, skin and bone abnormalities’. Chartered Health Psychologist Dr Helen Poole at Liverpool John Moores University was on the development panel.

LABIAPLASTY ANIMATION BPS Fellow, Chartered Psychologist Lih-Mei Liao, a consultant at the UCLH Women’s Health Division is part of a team behind a new animated documentary about labiaplasty – surgery to alter the appearance of female genitals. Drawn and directed by Ellie Land, the film was launched at the Wellcome Trust in July: www.thecentrefoldproject.org

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Feeling in the brain Christian Jarrett reports from a conference of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness What can neuroimaging tell us about human emotions that we don’t know already? The technology has come in for a lot of stick lately, with doubts raised about the field’s statistical methods and critics calling it the new phrenology. These doubters should have come to Tania Singer’s (Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Germany) enthralling keynote lecture, on viewing emotions through the lens of social neuroscience. Speaking at the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness, held in Brighton in July, Singer began by outlining a series of studies that looked at social factors affecting the way the brain responds to the sight of another person’s pain. For instance, using an economic game, Singer and her colleagues have

shown that men, much more so than women, show a reduced pattern of empathy-related brain activity when they see pain inflicted on an opponent whom they judge to have played unfairly. Group membership can also affect the brain’s empathic response. A study with fans of the football teams FC Zürich and FC Basel found that participants’ brains showed more empathy-related brain activity (in the insular cortex) to the sight of a member of their own football team being in pain, and in turn this was associated with a greater likelihood that they would agree to help that person by ‘sharing’ their pain. Singer has even uncovered the neural correlates of schadenfreude, finding evidence that reward-related activity in the nucleus accumbens is enhanced when a rival team

player, or an unfair opponent in an economic game, is seen to be in pain. Other studies have pinpointed a brain region that’s involved when we attempt to overcome what Singer calls our ‘egocentric bias’. These ingenious experiments involved contrasting the way a participant’s brain responded to the sight of another person being touched in an unpleasant way (for example, by a slimy slug), compared with when he or she (the participant) was touched simultaneously in a pleasant way by something fluffy. The latter scenario requires that the participant override their own tactile experience in order to empathise with the tactile experience of another. Overcoming egocentric bias in this way was associated with increased activity specifically in the right supramarginal gyrus (located on the

PSYCHOLOGY VS. LITERATURE Karen Goodall (Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh) listened to the debate ‘Who understands the human mind better: Psychologists or crime writers? This was the theme of a free public event organised by the Society’s Scottish branch, which took place on 21 June 2012 at the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh. Despite the summer downpour the venue was full, a testament to the popularity of the speakers: best-selling novelist Ian Rankin and psychologist Professor Richard Wiseman. Rankin, arguably Scotland’s best crime writer, is author of 33 titles, including the hugely popular Inspector Rebus series. He recently received the OBE for services to literature. Wiseman researches the psychology of luck, self-help, persuasion and illusion, and is the most followed UK psychologist on Twitter. His bestselling books have been translated into over 30 languages and he was named one of the top 100 people who make Britain a better place to live. Prior to the event, Dr Elizabeth Hannah, a Chartered Psychologist and Honorary Secretary of the Branch, commented: ‘Ian’s Rebus novels provide real insight into the human mind, so it will be interesting to see who the audience feels has the better understanding. As a psychologist, I have high hopes for Richard!’ The evening started on a lighthearted note, with Rankin, who is currently finishing

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his 18th Inspector Rebus novel, admitting that he might have finished his final draft, had he not committed to the event. For the audience, it was a worthwhile sacrifice as the unscripted conversation between Rankin and Wiseman provided a unique insight into the overlap between psychological understandings of the human mind and the writer’s craft. Topics that were explored included the function of novels in imposing order on an often chaotic and unfathomable world, for both writer and reader. Rankin illustrated this by recounting the feelings of helplessness and incomprehension he experienced when his younger son was diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder. He noted that writing alleviated his distress and allowed him to ‘play God’. He was told that his son would never walk; Rebus’ daughter was then subjected to an accident which left her in a wheelchair, although she later regained use of her legs as Rankin admitted that he ‘felt a bit mean’! Literature, as a way of ‘trying on other guises’ was explored. Rankin admitted to enjoying ‘acting as Rebus’, as the physical and confrontational character of Rebus is the antithesis of his own personality. Wiseman pondered whether literature is a way of

enabling readers to explore darker aspects of their personality in safety, which led to a discussion of the complexity of evil. Rankin recounted his conversations with prisoners on death row in America whilst researching his television series Ian Rankin’s Evil Thoughts. He noted the relative ease with which we can feel an empathic response towards an individual during face-to-face interaction, whilst the ‘cognitive part of the brain’ simultaneously baulks at the severity of the crimes they have committed. Empathy as a bridge between minds was proposed as a key element in literature, for both the reader and novelist with Rankin discussing how characters come alive only when both the reader and writer feel empathy towards that character. After an enlightening 90 minutes the audience was left with a strong impression of the interface between psychology and literature. Who won the debate? The jury is still out as Rankin and Wiseman’s skillful handling of the topic opened up further questions to be pondered as we filed back out into the rain. A rematch has been promised though, so watch this space!

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parietal lobe), a finding that was confirmed by using transcranial magnetic stimulation to disrupt function in this area temporarily, the consequence of which was a five-fold increase in egocentricity. Perhaps most fascinating of all were Singer’s forays into ways that the brain’s empathic response can be changed through training. For instance, when Singer scanned the brain of a monk looking at a person in pain, the pattern of neural activity he exhibited was unlike anything she’d ever seen, no doubt because he’s spent 30 years devoted to compassion-based meditation. Rather than feeling ‘as if’ he were experiencing their pain, he ‘felt for’ them, including seeing them as a meaningful other, and this was associated with activity in a distinct array of brain regions including the ventral striatum, medial orbito-frontal cortex and mid insula. Supporting this, studies with ordinary participants have shown that a day’s worth of empathybased or compassion-based training leads to differences in the way the brain responds to another person’s pain: the former being associated with enhanced activation of classic empathy-related networks; the latter with areas similar to those that were activated in the monk. ‘The Zurich Prosocial Game’ – a videogame designed by Singer and her colleagues – has shown that short-term compassion training has behavioural consequences too, in terms of increased helping behaviour. Next, Singer plans to look at the long-term consequences, on brain and behaviour, of a year-long compassion training programme of 20 minutes per day. She’s also looking at the contrasting subjective experiences of empathy and compassion. Her volunteer monks say the main difference is warmth – that is, compassion feels warmer. Writing from the perspective of a rainy British July, perhaps if we all worked to be more compassionate, we could finally get this summer started!

Playing with body ownership

The sense that our bodies belong to us seems so instinctive and immutable, but

psychologists using illusions are exposing this to be a fallacy. With toy-shop props and virtual-reality sets, participants have been led to believe they’ve had sensations in a rubber arm, shrunken bodies and even out-of-body experiences. In a gripping talk, Manos Tsakiris (Royal Holloway, University of London) described how he’s extended this line of work, including conducting fascinating experiments looking at how sense of body ownership is weaker in some people (e.g. those with anorexia) than others. A consistent finding in this research is that heart-rate sensitivity appears to be a useful proxy for strength of body ownership. Consider a task in which a participant looks at a strange face in a computer monitor, and whenever the participant is stroked on his or her face, the face on the monitor is stroked in synchrony, in exactly the same place, almost as if the participant is looking into a mirror, but it’s a stranger’s face looking back rather than their own. Tsakiris has morphed the face to look increasingly like the participant and asked him or her to indicate at which point the face in monitor feels like it is them. People who are poorer at detecting their own heart rate (i.e. they have low ‘interoceptive awareness’) tend to say that they feel ownership of the monitor face sooner. Moreover, these studies have shown that the effect of congruent touching (of their own and the monitor face) has a much more powerful effect on people with low interoceptive awareness. In a particularly dramatic demonstration of this effect, Tsakiris and his colleagues made it so that the face in the monitor appeared to be sliced down the cheek with a blade of glass. People with poor heart-rate sensitivity showed greater skinconductance response to this sight, providing further evidence that they find it easier to feel a sense of ownership over that face. Intriguingly, Tsakiris’ studies have also shown that interoceptive awareness can be manipulated. For example, a person who’s usually poor at feeling their own heart beat, improves when they look at themselves in the mirror, or even if they simply look at words that are self-relevant. There are social effects too – children with low interoceptive awareness become more aware of their hearts when in the company of their parents. Tsakiris is planning a range of exciting extensions to this work, including experiments to look at the effects of other relationships on interoceptive awareness, such as the presence of a partner, and also the part that attachment styles might play.

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FROM THE ASSC POSTERS Prejudices can influence our raw perceptions. Yaïr Pinto and his colleagues at the University of Amsterdam set up a binocular rivalry experiment in which a fading Mondrian pattern was presented to one eye and a racially black or white face, growing in visibility, was presented simultaneously to the other (rather than blending, this situation leads to the conscious perception of one or other of the images). Participants became consciously aware of black faces later than white faces. The finding was also replicated, with Moroccan faces reaching awareness later than Dutch faces. What’s it like to wear prism glasses that invert the visual scene from left to right? Jan Degenaar at the University of Antwerp has documented the subjective experience of adaptation, based on wearing the glasses for four hours per day for 31 days. It took him 57 hours to regain the ability to grasp objects and a full 123 hours for objects to appear to him to be located in their real locations. However, even after successful adaptation, his experience of the world still felt qualitatively different from normal vision. Evidence on the emotional content of dreams is a mixed bag, in terms of the amount and valence of what’s been found in different studies. According to Pilleriin Sikka and her colleagues at the University of Turku, this is because of methodological differences. Sikka’s team compared dream diaries, selfrating of dream content and observer-ratings of dream content (based on a woken participant freely recalling a dream and a researcher coding the content). Dreams were found to be more emotional and more positive when self-rated compared with observer-rated, casting doubt on the convergent validity of subjective and objective measures. Past research has pointed to synaesthesia – the mixing of sensory experiences – being associated with superior memory performance, but the precise forms of memory affected have not been clarified. Nicolas Rothen and his colleagues at the University of Sussex compared dozens of grapheme-colour synaethetes (for whom letters reliably evoke certain colours) with normal controls and found that the synaethetes showed superior performance on recognition memory and short-term memory (perhaps because of their richer sensory experiences), but not iconic memory.

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FUNDING NEWS The Society for the Study of Addictions has a travelling scholarship scheme to allow younger members of the Society to undertake travel to an international meeting or laboratory to further their training. The next application deadline is 1 September; applicants must be active members of the SSA to apply. I www.addiction-ssa.org/scholar.htm NIHR Public Health Research programme has commissioning briefs for: I 12/3090 Interventions to aid return to work after long-term sickness absence Funding for primary research to investigate which interventions are effective and cost-effective in helping people to return to work after experiencing long-term sickness absence. I 2/3060 Using peer support to prevent illicit drug uptake and use in young people The call is for research to evaluate the effectiveness of peer-led support to prevent illicit drug uptake by young people of secondary school age. The closing date for both opportunities is 5 September 2012 I tinyurl.com/38vv8h6 The Medical Research Foundation is seeking high-quality research proposals in puerperal psychosis. Puerperal psychosis covers a group of mental illnesses associated with the sudden onset of psychotic symptoms following childbirth. This is a challenging area for research, applications at any stage of the research pathway will be considered, from basic biology to mechanisms and interventions. The closing date for applications is 25 September 2012. I tinyurl.com/dybrpuj The Leverhulme Trust has Visiting Professorships to enable distinguished academics based overseas to spend time at a UK university to enhance the skills of academic staff or the student body within the host institution. Visits can be of between three and ten months. Priority is given to new or recent collaborative ventures. Applications should be made by the responsible academic in the UK host institution. The next closing date for applications is 11 October 2012. I tinyurl.com/3reot9j

info

The US National Institutes of Health have a call for research into Women’s Mental Health During Pregnancy and the Postpartum Period (R21). To build on research into postpartum depression and psychosis the focus of this call is the perinatal period – the time before, during and immediately following childbirth. The research focus is on the effects of maternal mental disorders, screening and interventions for these disorders upon pregnancy and child outcomes. Priority areas are basic and clinical neuroscience, studies of clinical course, risk factors, interventions and services research. The next closing date for application is 16 November; see the website for more details. I tinyurl.com/ct767cl For more, see www.bps.org.uk/funds Funding bodies should e-mail news to Elizabeth Beech on [email protected] for possible inclusion

Heroin role A new report from the NHS National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse has documented the systemic changes that need to be made to help heroin addicts in England overcome their dependence on ‘opioid substitution treatment’ (OST), such as methadone. At present about 150,000 heroin addicts in the country are on a substitute medication, and whilst effective as an initial treatment, there are concerns that many remain on these drugs indefinitely. ‘It is not acceptable,’ the report says, ‘to leave people on OST without actively supporting their recovery and regularly reviewing the benefits of their treatment (as well as checking, responding to, and stimulating their readiness for change)’. A key facet of the approach endorsed by the report is for psychosocial support to be adapted to each client’s individual needs: for example, making use of peer role models, self-help groups, employment support and couples or family therapy (where the family member is a non-user). Several psychologists were members of the Recovery Oriented Drug Treatment Expert Group that compiled the new recommendations, including: Chartered Clinical Psychologist and BPS Associate Fellow Professor Alex Copello, a consultant at Birmingham University; Chartered Clinical Psychologist Dr Luke Mitcheson, a consultant at the NHS National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse; and Chartered Clinical Psychologist Dr Stephen Pilling, Director of the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health. Dr Mitcheson told us that psychologists should have a central leadership role in helping to challenge the English commissioning and treatment system to ensure that psychological treatments are available and used by service users. ‘This report should lead to opportunities for psychologists to design programmes as well as provide training and supervision of staff,’ he said. ‘The goal is to recalibrate the system to one that is more psychologically informed and focused on client outcomes.’ CJ I Access the report: tinyurl.com/bla6737

Adult autism So much attention is given to diagnosing and treating autism in childhood, it’s easy to forget that the condition is lifelong and that many people reach adulthood without a diagnosis. In June the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) published new guidelines for professionals working with adults with autism and autism spectrum disorders. The new advice provides information on diagnosing autism in adulthood and makes recommendations for ways to support adults with autism in finding work. Richard Mills, Director of Research at the National Autistic Society and member of the Guideline Development Group, said: ‘While there are estimated to be around 332,600 people of working age in the UK with some form of autism, only 6 per cent have a full-time paid job.’ The new guideline was developed by the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health (NCCMH), of which the Society is a partner. The NCCMH established a Guideline Development Group, which was chaired by BPS Fellow Professor Simon Baron-Cohen and included BPS Fellow Professor Patricia Howlin. CJ

I www.nice.org.uk/guidance/CG142

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DIGEST

The alien awakened by a rubber hand

What happens if you administer a tactile illusion to a brain-damaged patient whose hand is out of their control? A team of researchers has done just that, figuring that illusions could offer new insights into complex neuropsychological disorders. The patient in question was a 69-year-old lady whose left-sided stroke had left her with alien hand syndrome. Most of the time her right hand was held in a clenched position that she couldn’t open. Occasionally, accompanied by a mild electric sensation, it moved involuntarily, jerking, or even slapping her in the face. Michael Schaefer and his colleagues at Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg tested the lady on two sensorimotor illusions – the traditional rubber hand illusion and the lesser-known somatic rubber hand illusion. The first involved the patient placing one of her arms on the tabletop, with the other underneath. A rubber arm was placed alongside her real arm on the table. The researcher then stroked the patient’s hidden arm and the rubber arm in synchrony. When the illusion works it creates the sensation of feeling in the rubber arm, as if it’s a part of the person’s body. In fact the patient experienced no feeling in the rubber arm at all, regardless of whether it was her healthy arm or alien arm that was being stroked under the table. The rubber hand illusion doesn’t work for everyone so this null finding is not particularly surprising. Things got more interesting when the researchers tested their patient with the somatic rubber hand illusion. This procedure involved the rubber arm being placed between the patient’s two real arms on a table-top. This time, the patient was blindfolded and the researcher (wearing plastic surgical gloves) picked up one of the patient’s hands and used it to tap the rubber hand. At the same time, and in synchrony, the researcher tapped the patient’s other hand. This procedure creates the strong illusion for the participant that they are touching their own hand rather than the rubber hand – a feeling that the patient said she experienced. But something surprising also happened when the researchers tried out this illusion. Within moments, the patient’s alien hand leapt up off the table and was grabbed by her healthy hand. She said she felt an electric sensation in her alien hand prior to it rousing. The illusory experience In Neurocase: The Neural Basis of seemed to have awakened her alien hand. This effect Cognition occurred every time the procedure was repeated. But crucially it only happened when it was the patient’s healthy hand that was used to tap the rubber hand, whilst the patient’s alien hand was simultaneously tapped by the researcher (and not when the illusion was done the other way around). The awakening effect also disappeared when the procedure was repeated with the patient’s blindfold removed, which is known to destroy the illusion. All this suggests that it wasn’t touching the alien hand per se that roused it, but rather it was the experience of the body illusion. Schaefer and his colleagues think that their patient has a disconnect between the anterior supplementary motor area (SMA) at the front of her brain (involved in inhibitory control) and other brain regions involved in movement. They reckon this impaired motor integration somehow interacted with the illusory feelings of body ownership triggered by the rubber hand trick. Perhaps, they said, the illusion further weakened the SMA’s already compromised control of the alien hand. ‘Although our results should be confirmed by further studies, we believe that the examination of experimental-induced illusions in patients with disorders of self-embodiment is promising and might help us to develop treatments for these diseases in the future.’ I Some experts prefer the term anarchic hand syndrome for this patient’s condition, reserving the term alien hand syndrome for a distinct but related condition in which the patient no longer believes the hand is theirs. For consistency we use the terminology adopted by the authors of this paper. For more, see tinyurl.com/anarchichand.

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How to reverse the bystander effect In the July issue of the Journal of Social and Experimental Psychology You see a shopper trip over in a busy street. Someone else can help. That’s what you tell your conscience. This is the bystander effect, and it’s been demonstrated in numerous studies over many years. But life is complicated and psychologists have begun looking at the circumstances that can nullify or even reverse the effect. For a new paper, Marco van Bommel and his team tested the idea that the presence of others could in fact increase our proclivity for helping if we’re nudged into a self-aware mindset and thereby reminded of our social reputation. Two experiments were conducted using an online chat room for people with extreme emotional problems. Eighty-six students were logged in and shown five messages posted by troubled forum users – for example, one was written by a person who wanted to commit suicide. The participants were told they could write a reply if they wanted, but it was entirely up to them. In the baseline condition, each participant could see his or her name in the top left-hand side of the screen alongside other users’ names. A counter also told them if the forum was quiet, with just one other person logged-in, or if it was busy, with 30 others online. This basic arrangement replicated the classic bystander effect – participants were less

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likely to post replies when there were more people logged into the forum. However, when the researchers cued selfawareness by highlighting the participant’s name in red on the screen, the bystander effect was reversed – they now posted more replies when the forum was busy compared with when it was quiet. A second study built on these findings, but this time self-awareness was cued by the presence, or not, of a webcam on the computer. For those in the webcam condition, their attention was drawn to the device by having them check that its LED indicator light was on, although they were told that the camera wouldn’t be used until a later task. In the absence of a webcam, the bystander effect was again replicated – participants on a busy forum, compared to a quiet forum, posted fewer replies to users in need. By contrast, participants cued to be self-aware by the presence of a webcam actually wrote more replies when the forum was busy, compared with when it was quiet. ‘The bystander effect can be reversed by means of cues that raise public self-awareness in social settings,’ the researchers said. Defending the study’s relevance in a world where our social activities are increasingly taking place online, they also pointed to implications for the debate around the proliferation of security cameras in public places. ‘While certain forms of self-awareness may not always be welcomed by people, the present findings do underscore their power to promote helping one another,’ the researchers said.

The new science of ‘Phew!’ In the May issue of Psychological Science There’s a childish prank I never tire of. As soon as we’ve left the house and the front-door has slammed shut, I pat down all my pockets and say nervously to my companion ‘Er, you’ve got the keys, right?’. Then, just when their dismay at the prospect of being locked out has peaked, I say ‘Only joking!’ and watch with pleasure as relief washes over them. I say ‘relief’, but what exactly is the emotion my companion experienced? As Kate Sweeny and Kathleen Vohs write in a new article, ‘Although relief is readily identified and frequently experienced, it is not understood well from the perspective of psychological science.’ Now Sweeny and Vohs have attempted to make a start at mapping out this uncharted emotional territory. They began with a pilot study asking 91 people to provide a personal example of relief. Roughly half the group described a ‘nearmiss’ kind of relief – rather like fearing that you’ve locked yourself out and then realising that you haven’t. The other half described a kind of ‘taskcompletion’ relief, in which a negative experience had come to an end. A second pilot study with dozens of American and Dutch participants established similarly that half their relief experiences in the preceding week were of the ‘near-miss’ category and half were of the ‘task completion’ kind. Next, in a study in which 114 more participants reflected on recent relief experiences, the researchers found that near-

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miss relief was associated with having more thoughts about how much worse things could have been and feeling more socially isolated (regardless of whether they were on their own or not). Sweeny and Vohs said this is consistent with past research showing how excessive rumination can be harmful to close relationships. Experience of task-completion relief, by contrast, was associated with more thoughts about how things could have been even better. Lastly the researchers had a go at inducing relief. They invited 79 participants to a lab and told them they’d have to sing a song into an audio recorder. Half the participants were then told the recorder was broken, thus prompting them to experience near-miss relief. The other half of the participants did the singing, which it was presumed would be followed by the experience of task-completion relief. Quizzed afterwards, it was again found

that near-miss relief, more than task-completion relief, was associated with feelings of social isolation and thoughts about how things could have been worse. The negative counterfactual thinking mediated the social isolation – that is, the more thoughts about how bad things could have been, the more socially isolated people felt. What does all this tell us about what relief is for? ‘Experiencing near-miss relief could increase the likelihood that people will act to avert an unfavourable fate in the future,’ Sweeny and Vohs said. ‘In contrast, task-completion relief allows people to focus on the positive emotional experience with minimal distraction from downward counterfactual thoughts. This process might reinforce satisfaction in the completion of a job well done… and therefore increase the likelihood that people will repeat the unpleasant experience.’

The material in this section is taken from the Society’s Research Digest blog at www.researchdigest.org.uk/blog, and is written by its editor Dr Christian Jarrett. Visit the blog for full coverage including references and links, additional current reports, an archive, comment and more. Subscribe by RSS or e-mail at www.researchdigest.org.uk/blog Become a fan at www.facebook.com/researchdigest Follow the Digest editor at www.twitter.com/researchdigest

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Sex and zombie cannibals Mark Sergeant with some potential lessons from recent media reports n the May 2011 issue I reported on Iduring the fallout of a ‘practical demonstration’ a human sexuality course led by Professor Mike Bailey at Northwestern University (tinyurl.com/0511media). It appears that another human sexuality class has recently been receiving press attention. Tom Kubistant runs a human sexuality course at Western Nevada College in the US. In a federal complaint filed on 25 June, Kubistant is alleged to have created a ‘sexually hostile class environment’ for a student (tinyurl.com/bv99lb2). One of Kubistant’s students alleges that he asked class members to divulge information on topics such as any sexual abuse they had been the victim of, sexual behaviour with members of the same sex and also their current sexual preferences. Specific items that students were, allegedly, asked to report on included what stimuli sexually aroused them, the different types of orgasm they could experience and details of how they

MEDIA PRIME CUTS

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Toxoplasma’s dark side: The link between parasite and suicide http://t.co/yy1mk4sx The rise of the Cyberhero League http://t.co/w1Egxeis Need to get to safety in a riot? There’s an app for that http://t.co/J9UfxPR0 Charisma class: how to win fans and influence people http://t.co/5lfw8nmO Choke therapy: the sports stars who blew their big chance http://t.co/Wiy2RE4c Banking, testosterone and emotional intelligence http://t.co/uEBpkk9Q The psychology of procrastination, maybe read it later etc http://t.co/Sy9U3eHn

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The Media page is coordinated by the Society’s Media and Press Committee, with the aim of

stimulated themselves sexually. According to the complainant, Kubistant stated on the handout used to collect this data that he would not be reading this information because it was extremely personal. Instead, submissions by students on these topics would simply be skimmed to make sure that students had provided a response. The student bringing the federal complaint reports that they were the victim of abuse as a child and were distressed about having to reveal information about this as part of their studies. Allegedly the student’s concerns were dismissed by Kubistant, who stated that detailing her history of abuse as part of the class would be cathartic. Ken McKenna, the lawyer representing this student, indicated that Kubistant was violating professional standards by requiring students to reveal this information, stating: ‘You can’t just demand somebody reveal their sexual abuse when it could be psychologically harming, and it needs to be dealt with in a clinical setting instead of a classroom setting’. At the start of this human sexuality course, Kubistant allegedly told students about the sensitive nature of the material to be discussed and asked students to sign an acknowledgement before taking the class. According to the complainant, Kubistant at no point indicated that students would be required to disclose information about their own sexual history and preferences. A statement from Western Nevada College indicated they had initiated an

promoting and discussing psychology in the media. If you would like to contribute, please contact the ‘Media’

page coordinating editor, Ceri Parsons (Chair, Media and Press Committee), on [email protected]

investigation and reviewed the course information, assessments and the acknowledgement signed by the students. Evaluations taken from students during the past six years were also being reviewed. In the few days since the story broke it has generated media attention both in the US (tinyurl.com/dytaao7 and tinyurl.com/6lj8k6e) and the UK (tinyurl.com/bwgktnr and tinyurl.com/cbncze4). This case, regardless of its outcome, does raise some interesting issues concerning the teaching of sexualityrelated topics in academia. Lecturers need to be sensitive to the individual needs and experiences of their students, be ethically aware when asking for sensitive information and always provide students with the option of declining to respond. Developing alternative assignments is also a wise strategy. Teaching sexualityrelated topics in academia can be a difficult task. It’s an area that I personally have been lecturing on for almost 10 years and it has taken a long time for me to develop the format of these lectures. I also have to give at least six separate disclaimers in my first lecture so students know exactly what to expect.

Media buzz around drugs

On 26 May this year, press around the world reported on the case of the ‘Miami cannibal’ also know as the ‘Miami zombie attack’. Responding to 911 calls, police found a naked man, Rudy Eugene, biting the facial skin off an unconscious homeless man called Ronald Poppo. When challenged by police, Eugene apparently just growled in response and continued to attack his victim. Eugene was then shot dead by police at the scene. The extreme nature of the injuries received by the victim, and the highly unusual nature of the incident, caused the story to receive worldwide press attention. Reports which compared the incident to a zombie attack only served to further the media interest in the story (tinyurl.com/7ccmuha). At the time, the alleged cause of the extreme behaviour by Eugene was attributed to a type of designer drug called ‘bath salts’, which results in similar reactions to those on cocaine or amphetamines. The drugs had also been

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linked to several other aggressive attacks in the Miami area. Moves to ban ‘bath salts’ were announced soon after the attack (tinyurl.com/7o88auv). However, more recent toxicology reports showed that the only drug present in Eugene’s blood was actually marijuana (tinyurl.com/bqbcgvj). The precise motivation and cause of the attack is still being investigated but may never be clearly documented. In the aftermath of the attack, some are questioning the rush to ban bath salts. David Nutt, the former chairman of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, wrote an article questioning this form of ‘knee-jerk’ reaction by legislators (tinyurl.com/bvkbrce). Nutt argues that ‘Bans are often a neat trick for placating voters, but have nothing to do with making society safer and happier’, suggesting that policies should instead be based on the production of hard evidence about the effects of drugs rather than just media reports on their effects. Nutt also drew parallels with the rush to ban mephedrone in the UK following its link to the death of two teenagers. Toxicological reports, which showed that the drug was not involved in the death of the two teenagers, only emerged after the ban. This story does give us insight into public attitudes towards extreme and troubling behaviours. Stories reported in the media with buzz words like ‘cannibalism’ or ‘zombies’ will always grab public attention. It is not uncommon for politicians to react quickly to these issues, sometimes resulting in premature legislation. It is interesting, given toxicology reports of Eugene having tested positive only for marijuana, that this drug was also associated with highly politicised reports on its effects in the 1930s such as the, now discredited,’Reefer Madness’ (tinyurl.com/brs49pm).

MEDIA PRIME CUTS End the macho culture that turns women off science, says @AtheneDonald http://t.co/Ei1iNO1z Why you probably won’t experience your own traumatic death http://t.co/VXe8TKz4 Who puts the science in MPs’ in-trays? http://t.co/aLEwcBis Should minimally conscious patients be asked if they wish to die? http://t.co/81AFYolH

‘IT’S NOT YOU, IT’S US’ At 31, Jonah Lehrer appeared to be having the time of his life. Since graduating from Colombia University in 2003 with a major in neuroscience and work in Eric Kandel’s lab under his belt, Lehrer had carved out a successful niche as one of the early bloggers in the field of mind and behaviour. He then wrote three successful books and landed a plum role as staff writer at The New Yorker. Admirers spoke of him as an ‘ideas man’ in the mould of Malcolm Gladwell. Then, in June, media commentator Jim Romenesko accused Lehrer of selfplagiarism, and suddenly it was open season. Others unearthed articles where Lehrer had apparently recycled chunks of his earlier writing (links at tinyurl.com/ lehrerslate), and Twitter was awash with comment about the rights and wrongs of this practice. Many fellow authors didn’t think it was a big issue: journalist Jon Ronson tweeted that ‘Victor Lewis-Smith once defended his own [self-plagiarism] by saying nobody attacks Sinatra for constantly doing My Way’. Most comments I read from psychologists were similarly forgiving. But the kerfuffle continued for another few weeks, even taking in accusations of plagiarism proper (see tinyurl.com/ lehrermore). Ultimately though, this seemed to be an issue for Lehrer and his editor to discuss. Indeed Lehrer’s New Yorker work quickly had explanatory footnotes added and the author himself apologised: ‘It was a stupid thing to do and incredibly lazy and absolutely wrong.’ Perhaps more interesting, for our audience at least, was a blog post a week before the storm broke, from neuroscientist Bradley Votek (see tinyurl.com/lehrerdefend). Votek opened his post, ‘Defending Jonah Lehrer’, by saying: ‘This is a strange post for me to write because I admit I’ve ridden the anti-Jonah bandwagon before, advocating throwing Jonah overboard to quell the pop neuroscience storms.’ Perhaps showing more honesty and self-analytical skill than many commentators, Votek admitted ‘that some of my anti-Lehrerism probably stems from righteous brain-nerd ego-driven indignation. Why does this dude get all the attention when he’s not even a neuroscientist?! He’s just a neuroscience roadie!’ That’s not fair, said Votek, and ‘neither is all the shit he’s getting’. In fact: ‘It’s not you, it’s us.’ So why is the neuroscientific community at fault for Lehrer’s ‘occasionally inaccurate scientific reporting’? ‘Because our own

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house is in such disarray’, Votek wrote, citing ‘voodoo correlations’, ‘double dipping’ statistics in neuroimaging, and the strange case of the dead salmon in the fMRI scanner. But there are also more subtle issues, according to Votek. ‘One of the main offenders living in our attic seems to be conflating the idea that because a brain region is active in one state – such as addiction – and in another task – such as mothers looking at pictures of their own babies – that babies are ‘addicting’… This makes about as much sense as saying that because I kiss with the same mouth-hole that I burp from, kissing and burping are essentially the same.’ In fact, Votek argues that dopaminergic neurons don’t get any sensory inputs early enough to make a ‘decision’ about the reward value of visual stimuli, and they are probably encoding salience (relevance). Votek writes that ‘It turns out some of our strongest neuroscientific results could very well be wrong. Or, at the very least, they’re not nearly as cut and dry as they’re often made out to be. So how can we blame people like Mr Lehrer for linking dopamine with reward when that idea has been one of the major results…of the last 30 years?’ These errors are, according to Votek, running amok in our own scientific house. Cognitive neuroscience grew out of experimental psychology, he says, ‘but with this legacy comes a lot of baggage... With the advent of neuroimaging techniques, psychologists put people in brain scanners to see where in the brain behaviours “were”. But this is the wrong way of thinking about these concepts. As cognitive neuroscientists, instead of asking, “where in the brain does this fuzzy concept occur?” we should be asking, “how can neurons give rise to behavioral phenomena that look like what we call creativity?”…we need to build upon what we’ve learned from decades of psychological research within a neuronal framework. Not just stick people into an fMRI, press some buttons on a computer that say “analyze”, and copy-and-paste the figures into a paper.’ Votek concludes that Lehrer needs to keep up the interesting writing. ‘Just… please be more skeptical of us. We don’t know nearly as much as you give us credit for.’ Perhaps, there, Votek has hit upon why we shouldn’t be so quick to judge and criticise authors like Lehrer, and how authors like him can play an important role in questioning and sharpening our own scientific thinking. JS

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Experiencing time in daily life Why does a watched pot never boil, or time fly when you’re having fun? Dan Zakay has some answers

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The population is becoming older and older due to the increase in life expectancy. There are some indications of a phenomenon called ‘slowing down’ of the pace of time in the elderly, whereby time is perceived to be going slower than for young people. How might this phenomenon influence the daily life of elderly people?

Grondin, S. (Ed.) (2008). Psychology of time. Bingley: Emerald.

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Time shapes human life and behaviour. Physical events proceed according to objective time and biological cycles are controlled by internal pacemakers, but psychological time – how humans experience it – differs in various important ways. Psychological time is discrete and non-continuous, non-linear, highly contextdependent and, as in a dream, does not necessarily flow from the past to the future. Psychological time is crucial in shaping a plethora of human behaviours, and this article examines the part it plays in many everyday activities.

Block, R.A. & Reed, M.A. (1978). Remembered duration: Evidence for a contextual-change hypothesis. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory, 4(6), 656–665. Block, R.A. & Zakay, D. (1997). Prospective and retrospective duration judgments: A meta-analytic review. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 4(2), 184–197.

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sychological time is a complex notion reflected in many types of experiences. Consider the last time you made a cup of coffee. Perhaps you wondered whether you had enough time to do it before your meeting; you recalled a particularly good recent cup of coffee you had, and how long ago that was; you recalled the order of events in time necessary to make the coffee; you perceived a rising tempo in the sound of the boiling kettle, almost like music; you planned (automatically and without awareness) the exact time to reach out and catch the falling spoon as it fell off the kitchen top; you estimated the duration of that process, and therefore whether it was time to go into the meeting. These examples reflect a range of dimensions of time, to which humans must attend. Here we will focus only on the perception of duration, which is one of the most important aspects of psychological time.

How humans perceive duration

The dimension of time is of clear importance for adaptation and orientation in the physical and social environment. So it’s something of an evolutionary enigma that we are not equipped with a direct time perception mechanism. Researchers assume that time perception is derived indirectly via certain physiological and cognitive processes, and as a result our sense of time is inaccurate and easily biased. You can demonstrate this by asking a group of people to clap

Brown, S.W. (1994). Attentional resources in timing: Interference effects in concurrent temporal and nontemporal working memory tasks. Attention, Perception & Psychophysics, 50(7), 1118–1140. Droit-Volet, S., Brunot, S. & Niedenthal, P.M. (2004). Perception of the duration of emotional events. Cognition & Emotion, 18(6), 849–858. Loftus, E.F., Schooler, J.E., Boone, S.M. &

17 seconds after you do. You may be surprised to find that there will be a wave of hand clapping, and the diversity of accuracy in estimating the duration of time will be high. Before going on to describe and explain the phenomena in time-duration judgements, I would like to draw a general picture of time perception and the processes underlining it.

Retrospective timing

Imagine you try to recall how long a film was, or how much time it took you to type a report. In such cases the interval itself doesn’t exist any more; what is left of it are only memory traces. The outcome is ‘retrospective duration’. The main model that explains retrospective timing is called the ‘contextual change model’. The idea is that our cognitive system is trying to retrieve from memory all the data we stored there during the target-interval whose duration we are trying to estimate. Retrospective estimation of a past event’s duration is based on the naive assumption that the more data that was stored in memory during an interval, the longer that interval should be. Thus, retrospective estimation of duration assigns longer durations for intervals when the amount of retrieved information is high, than for intervals for whom the amount of respectively retrieved information is low. The problem is that in reality, during identical clock-time intervals, more or less information can be stored in memory depending on factors other than actual duration itself. One factor is the intensity of information processing in which one is engaged. For example, when one is asked to solve difficult arithmetic problems such as complex multiplication, more data will be stored in memory as compared with a same clock-time interval during which one is asked to perform simple addition problems. The result will be that the retrospective ‘multiplication interval’ will be estimated to be longer than the ‘addition interval’. In a classic study,

Klein, D. (1987). Time went by so slowly: Overestimation of events' durations by males and females. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 1, 3–13. Ornstein, R.E. (1975). On the experience of time. New York: Penguin. Poynter, W.D. (1983). Duration judgment and the segmentation of experience. Memory & Cognition, 11(1), 77–82. Roy, M.M. (2011). The return trip effect: Why the return trip often seems to

take less time. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 18(5), 827–832. Wearden, J.H., Norton, R., Martin, S. & Montford-Bebb, O. ( 2007). Internal clock processes and the filledduration illusion. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, 33(3), 716–729. Zakay, D. (1998). Attention allocation policy influence prospective timing.

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Suppose that one person is asked to perform arithmetic exercises for a given duration; another is asked to do nothing for the same interval. Who will give the greatest estimate?

Ornstein (1975), presented participants with either a simple or a very complex figure (a circle or an irregular polygon, respectively) and asked them to memorise them. Later on the participants were asked to retrospectively estimate the exposure duration of each figure. Though exposure

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 5(1), 114–118. Zakay, D. (2000). Gating or switching? Gating is a better model of prospective timing. Behavioural Processes, 50, 1–7. Zakay, D., Tsal, Y., Moses, M. & Shahar, I. (1994). The role of segmentation in prospective and retrospective time estimation processes. Memory & Cognition, 22(3), 344–351.

was identical in terms of clock-time, those participants who were exposed to the simple figure estimated exposure duration to be significantly shorter when compared to participants exposed to complex figures: much less information needed to be stored in memory. A second factor is the amount of contextual changes occurring during the interval. The reason is that contextual changes (e.g. changes in background noise or level of lighting in room) are encoded and stored in memory alongside any other task-related information. While trying to make a retrospective estimation of duration, contextual changes are retrieved together with other information types, thus compounding the overall amount of retrieved information. Block and Read’s (1978) experiment involved participants engaging in identical information-

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processing tasks for a fixed interval. Some participants were exposed to changes in room lighting, the other participants were not exposed to any contextual changes. Consequently, the group exposed to change estimated the duration of the target interval as significantly longer than those not exposed. A third factor refers to the level of segmentation into meaningful subintervals. The more an interval is segmented, the longer its retrospective duration estimation will be (Poynter, 1983). Intervals are segmented by highpriority events (HPEs), which attract attention, are stored in memory and are easily retrieved later on. Such HPEs act as cues, facilitating the retrieval of information from memory, thus enabling the retrieval of a larger amount of information leading to longer retrospective duration estimations. Contextual changes are most probably acting as HPEs. Indeed, Block and Read (1978) suggested that changes in the type of information that should be processed, the context or the mood one experiences during an interval have a high probability of being retrieved, and they concluded that retrospective duration judgement is actually based on the amount of changes of any sort that occurred during the target interval. This is an interesting conclusion because it suggests that the notion of retrospective time is very similar to the notion of physical time: they both reflect change, which might be mental or physical, respectively. The ‘Filled-Time Illusion’ (Wearden et al., 2007), which refers to the common experience that in retrospect intervals filled with intensive mental activity are recalled as longer than same clock-time intervals that were ‘empty’ of mental activity, is well explained by the contextual change model.

Prospective timing

Suppose that one person is asked to perform difficult arithmetic exercises for a given duration; another is asked to perform a simple arithmetic exercise; and a third is asked to do nothing during the same interval. Before beginning, all three are told that upon the completion of the interval they will have to estimate its duration as accurately as possible. What will the outcome be? Many similar studies using different types of mental activities have been performed (Brown, 1994; Zakay, 1998). Results indicate that the identical intervals will be estimated as longest by the person who was doing nothing during the time, the second longest estimation will be given by the person engaged in simple arithmetic

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and the shortest will be provided by the relaxing during a long vacation). In these one who was occupied by the difficult cases only few attentional resources are arithmetic. This is a powerful finding: allocated for time and the gate becomes remember, if the duration estimation was narrow, allowing for a low number of done retrospectively – if the three signals to be accumulated by the participants were not told in advance that accumulator during a given interval. they would have to estimate the duration – Assuming that the feeling of an interval the inverse effect would be obtained (Block duration is a function of the count in the & Zakay, 1997). accumulator, the same objective interval These findings indicate that (say, 30 seconds) will be perceived as retrospective and prospective timing are longer while waiting than while relaxing. based on different cognitive processes. There are two major factors that Whereas retrospective timing is based on determine the amount of attentional memory processes as explained earlier, resources allocated for prospective time. prospective timing is based The first is ‘temporal on attentional processes. relevance’, which This conclusion was further indicates how important “in many situations it is supported by Zakay et al. it is in a specific situation advantageous to cause (1994), who showed that to be aware of the people to experience level of segmentation of an passage of time. The durations as short” interval only has an impact higher the temporal on retrospective duration relevance, the more estimation, not on attentional resources will be prospective ones. allocated, the wider the opening of the gate The attentional gate model (Zakay, and therefore the longer the estimate of 2000) provides an explanation for duration. The second factor is the amount prospective timing. It is based on the scalar of attentional resources required for expectancy theory (SET) model, which is performing a concurrent nontemporal an internal clock model that successfully activity. Attentional resources are limited predicts and explains time-based and have to be divided between all the behaviours (e.g. time conditioning) in activities taking place simultaneously. animals. In this model, the internal clock Therefore when facing a demanding consists of some sort of a pacemaker nontemporal task, more attention is that emits signals continuously and with consumed by the task and less attention a constant, steady tempo. The signals is allocated for timing. emitted in a given interval are read and Now we can explain why prospective counted by a component called an duration judgement produces a mirror accumulator. The count of signals during a effect to retrospective judgement. Take, target interval is stored in memory and can for example, the Ornstein study (1975). be used to represent the duration of that In retrospect, the exposure duration of a interval. An organism can repeat certain complex geometrical figure is longer than durations by counting the signals until the exposure duration of a simple figure there is a match between the new count because in the complex figure more and a former one. This does not require information was processed, sorted and any awareness of the passage of time. later on retrieved from memory than in the Humans, on the other hand, are aware simple figure case. However, if exposure of the passage of time and are highly duration estimation is done prospectively, influenced by attentional demands during then memorising the complex figure a target interval. Thus, another component demanded more attentional resources than should be added to the SET model in order memorising a simple figure. The result is to fit the human prospective duration that in the first case fewer attentional estimation. This component is called the resources are left for timing than in the ‘attentional gate’, which regulates the second case. This will lead to a narrow amount of signals emitted by a pacemaker gate and low count of signals in the first and subsequently counted by an case and a wider gate, leading to a high accumulator during a given interval. The count of signals in the second case. gate can become ‘wide’ or ‘narrow’ depending on the amount of attentional Explaining daily time-dependent resources allocated for timing. The more experiences attentional resources allocated for timing So let’s summarise the principles that (like in cases in which the passage of time determine the perception of durations: is very important, such as waiting for an I If awareness to time is not important, important meeting) the wider the opening duration estimation will be of the gate, the higher the count in the retrospective. As such, it will be longer accumulator in comparison to a case in for intervals in which high informationwhich time is not important (such as

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processing load was required, when compared to intervals for which the information-processing load was low. Whenever the relevance and importance of time is high, timing automatically becomes prospective. In such situations the more attention that is allocated directly for time, the longer the duration will be experienced. When duration judgement is prospective and is accompanying a concurrent nontemporal task, the more demanding the concurrent task is the shorter the duration estimation of the interval during which the task was performed will be.

So how can we apply these principles to some common situations? A ‘watched pot’ never boils, and earthquakes feel longer than they are When one is watching a pot waiting for the water to boil, time is of the utmost relevance – the person is occupied with the question ‘When will the water boil?’. This means that timing will be prospective, the gate will be widely open and the count of signals in the accumulator will be high. This will cause the ongoing experience of the passage of time to become very long. Similarly, when waiting for a friend to join us, for a traffic light to turn green or a call centre to answer us, we focus our attention on when it will happen: there’s high temporal relevance. Similarly, some studies indicate that people experience the duration of earthquakes in the range of minutes, as compared with its actual range of 30–40 seconds (Loftus et al., 1987). The passage of time during an earthquake is highly relevant: it is a threatening event and people want it to terminate as soon as possible. They focus on ‘When will it be over?’, the attentional gate is wide open and the duration estimation becomes longer. The ‘return trip’ feels shorter When we have to be somewhere at a certain time for an important event, on the way there time relevance is high. That is why prospectively we experience the duration as being longer. Returning to the starting point, although it is exactly the same distance, feels in many cases shorter than going there because time is not that important and so our attention is diverted or distracted by events occurring around us (Roy, 2011). Time flies when we are having fun, but a boring lecture never ends When we focus our attention on a good

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book, a movie or that special someone, and we don’t have any obligations, the time relevance is low. The gate will be narrow and the signal count low. We may feel that time is not passing, but if we look at our watch we will be amazed to see how much clock time has elapse without our noticing. Attending a boring lecture is like being in ‘empty’ time, because the information seems to be not useful for us so we are not processing it. Most of our attentional resources will be allocated to prospective timing, and again the gate model provides an explanation for the experience of duration in such cases. Time slows when we are in pain When we are in pain, temporal relevance becomes high, leading to the feeling that the pain is going on and on. Emotions in general are known to influence and sometimes distort time perception. For example, Droit-Volet et al. (2004) found that exposure duration of pictures of emotional faces were overestimated compared to neutral ones. The attentional gate model might explain why we are relatively inaccurate in making timing judgements during emotional

experiences. In some cases emotions demand attentional resources for coping with them, and then duration estimations will be underestimated. In other cases, especially when emotions have a threatening meaning like in the case of fear or pain, time relevance will be high. In such cases the duration estimation will be overestimated.

Conclusions

What are the implications of all this? Well, in many situations it is advantageous to cause people to experience durations as short. Think of shops, call centres or in amusement parks. If people experience boring, long waits they might leave, taking their money with them. So such venues might attempt to shorten duration experiences by, for example, diverting attention from time to nontemporal, interesting attractive events. In amusement parks there are usually activities such as TV screens showing cartoons distributed along the queue, or clowns going around; in a call centre, background music will be used. Such activities divert people’s attention away from time.

The nature of the cognitive processes involved in duration estimation causes the experience of time to be relativistic: in psychological time, the same clock interval may be over- or underestimated depending on the factors we have explored. Retrospective time-duration estimations are based on the amount of information about changes retrieved from memory, while prospective time-duration estimations are based on the ‘reading’ of the internal clock. As a result, our sense of time is not accurate, though in most cases it is sufficient for our needs. The contextual change model and the attentional gate model provide explanations for most of our daily experiences of duration, but there are so many important dimensions of time that further research will continue to deepen our understanding of the field for many years to come. Dan Zakay is Professor of Cognitive Psychology at the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzeliya, and Tel-Aviv University, Israel [email protected]

Extra time In addition to four more pieces in this issue, we also have two online-only articles. For Clare Allely (University of Glasgow) on how emotions cloud our sense of time and Luke Jones (University of Manchester) on time and information processing, see www.thepsychologist.org.uk

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‘Time is all you’ve got’ Catherine Loveday and Jon Sutton talk to John Wearden

eople can make surprisingly P accurate judgements of time, albeit in a relative sense. Why is that so

important? Well, in order to make movements, to predict when thing are going to happen, it’s quite important to have a timemeasuring system. If it’s too distorted, I would reach out for these glasses and not be able to pick them up. So the system must adjust itself somehow to be accurate, and this may explain the fact that there are no people as bad at timing as amnesiacs are at memory. There are certain groups who, in some experiments, have got timing deficits, but these are very small, so it’s incredibly robust. But then, if you’ve got fundamental timing systems keeping you alive, can you have very a distorted timing system and still perceive, move… Thinking of it as an evolved sense, imagine walking through a forest and you hear a rustling in the bushes, and the sound coming to different ears is a few milliseconds different, but the triangulation allows you to pinpoint it. There are apparently deep connections between time perception and information processing more generally, but we’re only dipping our toe into that really. It would suggest that if your timing was very distorted then you wouldn’t be able to do memory experiments, you probably wouldn’t be able to perceive things correctly. So it’s not terribly surprising that you never get a group who are normal but they can’t time timing at all. How could they speak if their time sense is faulty? It seems almost impossible, like in Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius, he is in a world without time and it’s impossible to imagine what that would be like. So in searching for an actual neural substrate, you’re hampered by two things: one, this lack of a patient group, and two you haven’t got an organ – in vision, audition, gustation, you can trace the connections – it goes somewhere, this surely must be involved to some degree.

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It’s a bit like consciousness in that way. Yes, you do an fMRI on a timing task and 27 areas light up. Sure, there’s lots of work going on, and there are usual suspects, but control and the use of different timing tasks are real problems. And then when you get real-life timing it’s possible the mechanisms are quite different.

flash of a lightbulb or the persistence of a scent. Certainly, you seem to automatically measure the duration, at least to some degree, of events that occur, or you can reconstruct some kind of measure of duration. If you were given two tones that differed in intensity and nobody mentioned how long they lasted, then they asked you if they differed in duration as well, if they differed fairly markedly in duration you’d be able to detect this, even though you didn’t know this was the focus of the task. It’s almost as if it comes in addition, it’s almost impossible to switch off. And it’s very linked to memory, I suppose. This is possibly true for other things as well: if you had an experiment that was presented as a shape discrimination, but you were suddenly asked ‘Did the green one come first or the red one?’, I’d be very surprised if people couldn’t tell you. It may not be that peculiar to time, maybe you analyse the stimulus and its temporal aspects are just one of the things that you store, whether you store it for very long.

In terms of real-life timing, it’s interesting that in the early days of television the engineers went to great lengths to synchronise the sound and the images, then they realised that as long as the delay was less than a hundred milliseconds, no one noticed Is memory behind many of our realit. How come the brain is so good at life time experiences, and the sayings distinguishing that, but it can override surrounding them, like ‘Time flies it? when you’re having fun’? Well, this is a real issue. One of the With colleagues at John Moore’s findings, again, something which has University, we did a questionnaire study. been known since the 19th century and ‘Fast time’ anecdotes, time when you were something I have worked on, is the enjoying yourself, were all of the difference between visual and auditory following sort: ‘I went to a club with stimuli. If you present tones or squares my mates and then when we went out, of colour on a screen, the I looked at my watch and it tones appear to last about was four o’clock’, therefore, 20 per cent longer than time must have passed “I thought it was like the visual stimuli. When quickly. There are two things: a message from a you tell people this, (1) they got an external time they’re always terribly marker, and (2) the idea that distant star” surprised and they say, it had passed quickly was ‘Why haven’t we noticed clearly an inference. They didn’t this in real life?’ Well, feel it passing quickly when they there’s the possibility that for meaningful were having fun, they didn’t feel it at all! stimuli, this effect doesn’t actually occur. I used to think you could measure the We’ve got a couple of unpublished temporal phenomenology somehow, experiments where we’ve looked at film during the event, if you were clever clips. They watch the vision without the enough, but of course you can’t. The sound or they just listen to the sound, idea that time has passed quickly is an and then you get them to retrospectively inference based on clock time. It’s like my estimate the duration. No effect at all. mother, who lives on her own, says the So it’s only in the lab, in slightly artificial days seem to last for ever, but the months situations, that people show this effect. flash past. When the time marker comes I thought it was like a message from at the end of the day – the six o’clock a distant star, it’s telling you something news, or time to make dinner – that’s important but you don’t know what. the time marker and nothing’s happened, therefore it must have flashed by. But I’m interested in the way time seems when they’re in it, it doesn’t flash by. to ride over the other senses, so it’s a meta-sense – time is involved in the I know you’ve tried to get funding to

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research time experiences in the elderly and several other real-life projects, including waiting time at airports. Inside me there is an epic, apocalyptic moan about failing to get grant funding, but I don’t really want to dwell on that. The problem of funding is very acute and always has been for time perception in Britain. As far as I know, hardly anyone’s ever received money for it, for reasons which are not at all clear. And this has hampered research in a more general way – if you can’t get money, you can’t have post-docs, who then become lecturers, who then become professors, and so on. Science journalists quite often ask ‘Why don’t you study that?’. If someone would give me some money, I would! What you tend to find is that people’s careers might start out with time perception and then they fizzle out, particularly these days where that academic is partly a fund-raiser for the university, so to work in something where you can’t get money is frowned upon. So mainly people have to work on their own, or in small groups, and there’s a limit to what you can do – you can do a psychophysical experiment, but you can’t do an experience sampling methodology study lasting months without having research assistants and big infrastructure.

Alfred Bester, where you can get an augmentation to yourself, like a kind of martial art where temporarily you’re just speeded up, so you know the mugger approaches you, and you just accelerate… But of course does it really do so or do you just think it does, and how can you replicate those situations? David Eagleman tried, didn’t he… getting people to jump off towers. Eagleman wanted to find a situation that provoked this sensation of being in a lifethreatening situation, and of course ethically it’s very difficult to do! What he found was that people remembered the duration of the fall as longer than it was, but he was looking at another thing as

But you’ve got to be careful here. If you precede tones and lights with a series of clicks, they seem to last longer. But do they only speed up your time perception or do they really speed you up? Do your psychological processes take place in subjective time or real time? Can you get more in if your psychological time is speeded up? Well, the answer tentatively is yes. Our work in the Quarterly Journal of Psychology in 2011 has shown that reaction times are actually faster if your reaction time is preceded by a train of clicks: you can go faster than you could possibly go. Things like the Sperling memory task, you can actually get more off the eye card, as if you actually had more time to do it. The effects are quite small, but it looks as if there is some deep connection between psychological time and information processing. But maybe they’re the same thing, or both reflections of some internal time system! Does the internal physiology change – for example, does heart-rate go up? No, it doesn’t, there’s no physiological effect – the click trains are boring as hell! There may be changes in brain activity, but…

…no funding! So if you did have the bottomless You’ve mentioned external purse, that would be the one? time markers, and the effect Yes, I’d maybe try and look at the that they have on your perception of time and the passage subsequent memory of of time in the elderly. The scientific events. You wear a watch, I literature is a bit confused, but if you notice. I don’t (JS), and I try to John Wearden is a Professor of Psychology at Keele get old people into the lab, they’re not avoid external time markers University (for more information see much different from anyone else. as much as possible. Would They’re more variable and possibly less tinyurl.com/weardenj) you predict that would have Catherine Loveday is a Principal Lecturer at the accurate sometimes… they’re worse any effect on our real-life University of Westminster than students, but they’re worse than experience of time? Jon Sutton is Managing Editor of The Psychologist Well, one of Dan Zakay’s ideas students at everything… they don’t is that your time experience is have particular timing deficits. So this affected by two variables: thing about time getting faster as you temporal relevance and temporal well. He had a digital display, with a grow older, and people feeling that uncertainty. So is time important in the number that was going faster than you time drags terribly in their daily lives, is situation, and how uncertain is it? He could see. If your psychological processes related to things you can’t easily duplicate said that people have a heightened were speeded up, you would be able to in the lab. experience of time passing in situations see it, but they couldn’t see it. So he I guess interest, arousal and emotion of high temporal relevance and high concluded that it was a memory effect. would also be important in these realtemporal uncertainty. The obvious one is In any case, you can easily give people life studies. if you’re going to the airport and there’s the phenomenal sense of time dragging. There’s obviously been this idea that in a traffic jam, and you don’t know whether All you need to do is put them in a very high states of emotional arousal, you will miss your plane. In underground supermarket queue, where you think the time appears to stand still. If you think systems now they give you a countdown person in front of you has only got two about it that would be very evolutionarily to the next train arriving, and that seems jars of jam, and then they want to pay by sensible, as you’re really speeded up in to remove at least part of the aversiveness Uzbekistan credit card! But would you comparison with the outside world. of the waiting experience. And that Zakay necessarily mis-estimate the interval? There’s this 1950s science fiction book stuff makes sense… whether you could That’s almost a purely phenomenological was called The Stars My Destination by actually apply ideas of time relevance and effect.

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certainty just by asking people, nobody has ever done it. If you want to work on real-life timing, the real challenge is to design situations which are enough like real life to capture the essence of it, but not so much that it’s impossible to understand what’s really going on. Film clips seem to be complicated: people have talked about the importance of segmentation, the number of different things which happen, but it’s very difficult to judge. That’s presumably one of the main things that a film director is doing, it’s about getting that timing, that pace right. There’s work on the use of time in films, to create suspense. Boring events, like someone getting out of their car and walking to a door, are often collapsed, whereas something like James Bond cuffed to the atomic bomb in Goldfinger has to be slowed down to get more and more things in. They’ve known all about these things for years, just as Bach and Telemann knew about auditory stream segmentation before Bregman’s book on it, and in fact he now illustrates it with them. Similarly, the operas of Wagner gain their power from their enormous length and repetition. You used to play double bass in the National Youth Orchestra, so that link between time perception and music, particularly I suppose with rhythmic parts like bass and drums… Well the odd thing is that time and rhythm perception have proceeded on largely different lines for years, with very little interaction between them. There’s been work on time in music, by Marie Rhys-Jones and Marianne Boltz who was her pupil, but it’s more about tonal expectancies and how you can manipulate how long things seem to last. There are common ideas though, such as the use of the pacemaker… I think there’s the difference between rhythmic perception and rhythmic production as well. Well, John Gibbon said that was the most profound problem in the whole of time psychology: when does a rhythm become a rhythm? I give you two clicks – click click – and you have to make some judgement about the duration between them. Then I give you three clicks, or four. I bet the precision of judgement of the interval increases markedly when you

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have a whole series, but how many do you need?

rarely in real music required to produce an exact 500ms beat, it only has to be relatively correct. It’s interesting as well that I’m interested in music… when I was rhythmically we tend to quantise those 49-years old I decided I should learn beats, so something has the feeling of something about 20th-century music – a beat but we notice those serial Schoenbergian-type stuff. That has imprecisions. been an interesting adventure, and they Of course in real life it’s generally relative have all kinds of interesting things that rather than absolute. For example, when they do with time. You do find yourself I was in the National in a minority of one Youth Orchestra, before though, I have to the conductor came in for listen to it on “the real challenge is to the rehearsal we used to headphones because design situations which are tune up. We were doing my wife can’t possibly enough like real life” Berlioz’ overture Le listen to it! Corsaire, which has I find it quite difficult, different sections to it, I have to say (CL). there’s a slow bit in the middle. And one You have to listen to it about 50 times, of the violinists started playing the start of that’s the thing. Schoenberg’s alright, he Le Corsaire, and somebody else joined in, sounds like Brahms after a while! and very soon the whole orchestra was Ferneyhough, he’s the guy! Listen to his playing Le Corsaire. While we were doing Second and Third String Quartets if you all this the conductor walked in, but just want to hear something totally amazing. gestured for us to carry on, and we did There just seems to be no temporal structure at all, although of course it’s all very carefully calculated. Perhaps more important in real life isn’t time perception, it’s your own personal view of time, how you see time progressing in your life. I’m not so susceptible to this thing of time getting faster as you get older. I’m a bit sceptical about it and in fact I’m right to be. An actual study by Wittmann and Lehnhoff found that most people didn’t actually agree with that! But my children are grown up, I’m coming to the end of my career… …‘the rapidly darkening twilight of my career’, you said to me! Absolutely! Obviously I had a heart attack a couple of years ago, even though I’m a low-risk subject, which didn’t have much of an effect but it makes you think about things a bit. the whole 15 minutes. Now there’s no conductor, no external time. Is that some impossible, miraculous feat of timing done by virtuoso players? Not at all, it’s dead easy. It’s football terraces. Yes, they’re not very good at it though! They always sing the National Anthem too fast or slow. But it’s not at all difficult to do, and musicians do that kind of thing all the time. Everything was relatively timed correctly, but it wasn’t necessarily absolutely timed correctly. It may be that it lasted longer when we played it on our own. But you’re very

It makes you think about and appreciate time more, take each day as it comes, those old maxims? Doesn’t seem to, I waste just as much time as ever! It makes you think that you should do things you want to do: good and bad things! But you do look at different periods… does it only seem a short period of time since my children were young? In some ways it does, but then if you try to fill in in memory all the things you have done, obviously it seems like an enormous amount of time. It certainly makes you more selfindulgent though. Time is all you’ve got: if you want to see a place, you should go.

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ARTICLE

Children and time Sylvie Droit-Volet on what we can learn about the biological and cognitive basis of time from the way children judge duration

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Are children able to estimate time? Is the internal clock operational at an early age?

resources

Dehaene, S. & Brannon, E. (2011). Space, Time and number in the brain. Elsevier. McGrath, J. & Tchan, F. (2003). Temporal matters in social psychology. American Psychological Association. Droit-Volet, S. & Meck, W.H. (2007). How emotions colour our time perception. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 1, 12, 504–513.

Arlin, M. (1989). The effect of physical work, mental work and quantity on children’s time perception? Perception & Psychophysics, 45(3) 209–214. Bergson, H. (1968). Durée et simultanéité. Presses Universitaires de France. Brackbill, Y. & Fitzgerald, H.E. (1972). Stereotype temporal conditioning in infants. Psychophysiology 9, 569–577. Brannon, E.M., Suanda, S. & Libertus, K.

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he most brilliant minds of philosophy and physics have long pondered the question ‘What is time?’. Famous disputes, such as that between Newton and Leibnitz on the absolute or relative nature of time, continue to echo across the centuries. What is the true nature of time, and does it have any genuine existence? Psychologists have largely left such debate to one side, and focused on trying to study the psychological reality of time through the feelings and behaviours of humans faced with the passage of time. As Bergson (1968) says, ‘time is purely and simply an item of data relating to our experience… and we want to hold onto that experience’. What psychologists have discovered is that there is no simple, undifferentiated type of time knowledge. Instead, multiple forms of time emerge at different stages along the ontogenetic scale as a function of the development of underlying cognitive processes. We will focus here on the development of the ability to judge event durations or intervals between events.

Pioneering studies

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During the decades following Piaget’s work, it was believed that correct judgements of durations require sophisticated reasoning abilities that emerge at about eight years of age. However, recent studies have shown that infants and young children are able to discriminate different durations, despite their limited conceptual capacities. This suggests that a basic internal clock system is functional at an early age. The main distortions in time judgements in children are shown to be due to attention/executive functions that are not sufficiently developed to allow the correct processing of time whatever the context.

At the beginning of the last century, Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget greatly influenced research on time in children. In his theory of intellectual development, he described how young children explore their environment through their senses and actions. The primitive understanding of the physical world, therefore, appears to be grounded in sensorimotor knowledge. It is only at the transitional

(2007). Temporal discrimination increases in precision over development and parallels the development of numerosity discrimination. Developmental Science 10, 6, 770–777. Coull, J.T., Vidal, F., Nazarian, B. & Macar, F. (2004). Functional anatomy of the attentional modulation of time estimation. Science, 303, 1506–1508. Droit, S., Pouthas, V. & Jacquet, A.Y.

period of seven to eight years of age, when children reach the concrete operational stage, that they think logically and manipulate the symbolic representations that enable them to solve complex problems. According to Piaget, young children are thus unable to evaluate time accurately before they acquire the capability to reason logically about it. For example, children estimate durations as a function of the quantity of work accomplished or effort produced. Piaget found that children who were asked to place lead disks or wooden disks in a box for a given period thought that the task involving the lead weights took longer than the one in which wood was used, because it required greater effort. This finding has been replicated in numerous studies showing that young children evaluate durations on the basis of their non-temporal content: for example, the presentation duration of a light or a moving car is judged longer when the brightness of the light or speed of the car increases (Arlin, 1989). Young children’s time judgements are therefore contextdependent and closely bound up with the situation within which time is experienced. The fact that children distort time in certain conditions does not mean that they do not possess a basic time discrimination ability. The task is to determine the conditions in which children’s time judgements are or are not accurate, and why. However, children’s ability to estimate time accurately emerges earlier than the pioneering psychologists thought. As we will discover, infants with only limited conceptual capacities are able to discriminate different durations.

Explicit time processing

The problem is that young children are able to estimate time correctly only if they are forced to pay attention to it, to experience it on the basis of duration required to perform their actions, or through frustration when their needs are not immediately satisfied. When these

(1990). Temporal learning in 4½- and 6-year-old children. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 50, 305–321. Droit-Volet, S. (2003). Alerting attention and time perception in children. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 85, 4, 372–394. Droit-Volet, S. (2008) A further investigation of the filled duration illusion with the comparison between

children and adults. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 34(3), 400–414. Droit-Volet, S. (2011). Child and time. In A. Vatakis, A. Esposito, M. Giagkou, et al. (Eds.) Multidisciplinary aspects of time and time perception (pp.151–173). Berlin: SpringerVerlag. Droit-Volet, S., Fayolle, S.L. & Gil, S. (2011). Emotional state and time

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conditions do not apply, time does not appear to be relevant to them in the majority of everyday situations. This explains why the verbal instructions given by adults (e.g. ‘please wait’, ‘not yet’, ‘in a few minutes’) play such an important role in establishing temporal behaviour in young children. However, in cases where timing is based on verbal rules and children’s awareness, we talk about a specific type of time processing – the explicit processing of time. Explicit time judgements are primarily involved in the processing of longer durations when we focus on the continuous flow of time, in judgements of new and unpredictable events, and when there is no opportunity to repeatedly experience the duration associated with a particular event. Humans frequently make explicit judgements of time in real-life

situations, and the inaccuracy and variance observed in their temporal judgements may be the rule rather that the exception. Given this and the typical use of verbal instructions and small numbers of trials in most laboratory experiments examining time-related issues in children, it is little wonder that young children perform poorly when required to make explicit time judgements. However, at the age of seven years, their time judgements improve because they acquire a symbolic representation of time. They represent time as something absolute that flows uniformly, and this enables them to measure the duration of events independently of their specific characteristics. This representation of time, which is close to Newton’s conceptualisation, allows children to think about time per se, and resist their tendency

to distort it. Recently, in our laboratory, we showed that the increase in the accuracy in time judgements goes hand in hand with a growing conscious awareness of subjective time distortions (Lamotte et al., 2012). At the age of 10 years, children also begin to use verbal counting strategies, in the same way as adults, in order to ensure the accuracy of their time judgements. At eight years, although they are also capable of counting time, they do not spontaneously think of doing so unless instructed to by an adult. At five years of age, in contrast, they are unable to correctly count time, whatever the circumstances.

A primitive time sense

WWW.JAMESGROVER.COM

Unlike explicit time processing, the implicit processing of time relates mainly to the processing of short durations (< 1s) associated with motor timing, temporal conditioning or implicit temporal learning involving multiple trials, as has been used in experiments conducted in animals. In these conditions, both infants and children as young as three years appear to be able to perform accurate timing. There is now ample evidence that infants’ reactions can be conditioned to temporal intervals that do not correspond to any biological rhythm. For example, Brackbill and Fitzgerald (1972) showed that the pupillary reflex can be conditioned to time in infants aged one month. After being conditioned to light changes occurring at a constant interval of 20 seconds, the infants’ pupils continued to contract every 20 seconds even in probe trials in which there were no changes of light. This clearly demonstrates that infants can perceive the passage of time during a temporal interval. Using an operant conditioning procedure, researchers have also shown that two- to five-year-old children are able to space their

Children’s ability to estimate time accurately emerges earlier than previously thought

perception. Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience, 5, 33. Droit-Volet, S. & Gil, S. (2009). The timeemotion paradox. Journal of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, B- Biological Sciences, 364, 1943–1953. Droit-Volet, S., Tourret, S. & Wearden, J.H. (2004). Perception of the duration of auditory and visual stimuli in children and adults.

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 57A(5), 797–818. Droit-Volet, S. & Wearden, J.H. (2001). Temporal bisection in children. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 80, 142–159. Droit-Volet, S. & Wearden, J.H. (2002). Speeding up an internal clock in children? Effects of visual flicker on subjective duration. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 55B,

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193–211. Eagleman, D.M. (2005). Distortions of time during rapid eye movements. Nature Neuroscience, 87, 850–851. Gautier, T. & Droit-Volet, S. (2002a). Attention and time estimation in 5and 8-year-old children: A dual-task procedure. Behavioural Processes, 58, 57–66. Gautier, T. & Droit-Volet, S. (2002b). The impact of attentional distraction on

temporal bisection in children. International Journal of Psychology, 37, 27–34. Gibbon, J. (1977). Scalar expectancy theory and Weber's law in animal timing. Psychological Review 84, 279–325. Gibbon, J., Church, R.M. & Meck, W.H. (1984). Scalar timing in memory. In J. Gibbon & L. Allan (Eds.) Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 423:

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responses by a given temporal interval in time discrimination behaviours at different order to make some slides appear on a levels of the ontogenetic scale. Overall, screen (Droit et al., 1990; Pouthas, 1985). these results suggest that there is a Erratic patterns of responses in this set-up primitive sense of time that is shared by are due to the fact that young children most species of animal. find it difficult to prevent themselves from responding, rather than a specific The basic mechanism of time timing deficit. Indeed, their performances The exact type of mechanism involved in such tasks improve considerably when in time discrimination is a current topic they perform motor activities during the of debate. According to the best-known waiting period. theory of psychological time, referred Recently, Provasi et al. (2010) also to as scalar expectancy theory (Gibbon, succeeded in adapting a temporal 1977; Gibbon et al., 1984), the raw discrimination task, the temporal bisection material for the representation of time task currently employed in animals, for use comes from an internal clock composed in four-month-old infants. During a of a pacemaker-accumulator system. training phase, the infants were presented The pacemaker continuously emits with two sounds, one ‘short’ (0.5s) and pulses. At the onset of the stimulus to be one ‘long’ (1.5s). They were then trained timed, an attentional switch connecting to look to the left after the ‘short’ and to the pacemaker to the accumulator closes the right after the ‘long’ duration (the and allows the pulses emitted by the order was counterbalanced), with a correct pacemaker to flow into the accumulator. response causing a picture to be displayed At stimulus offset, the switch reopens on the side toward which the infant had and stops the flow of pulses. The time looked. During the test phase, the infants estimate therefore depends on the were presented with the ‘short’ and ‘long’ number of pulses accumulated during sounds, but also sounds of intermediate the elapsed period: The more pulses that duration (750, 1000, 1250ms). In these are accumulated, the conditions, the proportion longer the duration of ‘long’ responses from is judged to be. the infants increased with “The reduced sensitivity to Many researchers the length of the stimulus time in children is explained in the neuroscientific duration. This in terms of their more field have tried to demonstrates that infants limited cognitive resources” identify the neural are able to discriminate substrates of this type changes in stimulus of internal clock system. duration. However, they have so far been unable In addition, the fundamental scalar to identify a simple neural mechanism properties of timing, observed in both dedicated to the processing of time. animals and human adults, have been Brain activations during temporal tasks found in the temporal bisection task with are always dependent on the type and children of different ages ranging from complexity of the task used. This has led three to eight years (Droit-Volet & Eagleman (2005) to conclude that ‘the Wearden, 2001). The first scalar property neural basis of time perception remains is mean accuracy, the requirement that shrouded in mystery’. time estimates are on average equal to real However, current hypotheses consider time. The second property is the scalar that two main brain structures play a property of variance, the requirement that critical role in time perception: (1) the the standard deviation of time estimates prefontral cortex and (2) the striatum, or varies linearly with the mean, a form of more precisely the caudate and putamen Weber’s law (Wearden & Lejeune, 2008). of the dorsal striatum via dopaminergic Weber’s law therefore holds in children’s

Timing and time perception (pp.52–77). New York, New York Academy of Sciences. Lamotte, M., Izaute, M. & Droit-Volet, S. (2012). The conscious awareness of time distortions and its relation with on time judgment. Manuscript submitted for publication. Matell, M.S. & Meck, W.H. (2000). Neuropsychological mechanisms of interval timing behavior. Bioessays 22,

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94–103. Pouthas, V. (1985). Timing behavior in young children. In J. Michon & J. Jackson (Eds.) Time mind and behavior (pp.100–109). Berlin: Springer-Verlag. Provasi, J., Rattat, A.C. & Droit-Volet, S. (2010). Temporal bisection in 4month-old infants. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 37(1), 108–113.

modulations. In the striatal beat frequency model, Matell and Meck (2000) suggested that the neural inputs that constitute the time code arise from the oscillatory activity of large areas of the cortex. At the onset and the offset of the stimulus to be timed, the oscillatory activity of a subset of these cortical neurons is synchronised. The striatal spiny neurons that receive inputs from the cortex detect patterns of oscillatory firing (or beats) that match other patterns stored in memory. They then fire to indicate the offset of the stimulus. In other words, the striatum of the basal ganglia plays a central role in timing by reading the temporal code provided by oscillating neurons in the cortex. How does this relate to children? Well, the prefrontal cortex and striatum mature at totally different rates. Subcortical structures that are phylogenetically older mature earlier. The structures that constitute the basal ganglia (e.g. caudate, putamen, substantia nigra) are effectively the first of the telencephalic structures to begin to myelinate. In contrast, the prefrontal cortex matures slowly, until the end of adolescence. Such underlying processes may partly explain similarities and differences in temporal performance as children develop. The basal ganglia influence time perception via the dopaminergic (DA) system. Many pharmacological studies have shown that the administration of a drug that increases the level of DA in the brain (metamphetamine, cocaine) speeds up subjective time (see Ogden and Montgomery’s article in this issue), thus producing a lengthening of the stimulus duration to be encoded. In response to negative emotions such as fear, the detection of a danger by the organism also results in a release of DA in the brain. Numerous studies (e.g. Droit-Volet et al., 2011) on the perception of time have shown that time is overestimated in response to threatening (e.g. angry faces, threatening events) compared to neutral stimuli. More interestingly here, the lengthening effect produced by highly

Wearden, J.H. & Lejeune, H. (2008). Scalar properties in human timing: Conformity and violations. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 61, 569–587. Zélanti, P. & Droit-Volet, S. (2011). Cognitive abilities explaining agerelated changes in time perception of short and long durations. Journal of. Experimental Child Psychology, 109(2), 143–157.

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arousing emotional stimuli (angry faces) has been observed in children of different ages (from three to eight years) with no developmental effect (Droit-Volet & Gil, 2009). Children have also been shown to overestimate time in the presence of periodic events (repetitive clicks, flickers) that have been shown to speed up the internal clock, just as adults do (e.g. Droit-Volet & Wearden, 2002). In sum, these results suggest that the time mechanism involving the striatum, and the way it is modulated by the DA system, is functional at an early age.

A noisier perception

Despite phylogenetic and ontogenetic similarities in the perception of time, there are also developmental changes. Using a habituation paradigm, Brannon and her collaborators (2007) showed that six-month-old infants were able to discriminate two durations that differed by a ratio of 1:2 (1.5s vs. 3s) but not of 2:3 (1s vs. 1.5s, 2s vs. 3s). Our studies conducted in older children using a temporal bisection task with a wide variety of durations (both shorter and longer than one second) have also described an age-related improvement in temporal discrimination between five and eight years (Droit-Volet, 2011). Indeed, the five-year-olds succeeded in discriminating durations that differed by a ratio of 1:2 or 1:4, but not by a smaller ratio (3:3.6), while the older children performed better in the latter condition. In fact, all the bisection studies conducted so far have revealed that children’s sensitivity to time improves with age to become similar to those observed in adults by eight years of age, although some age differences persist in particular conditions, such as with very long durations. The reduced sensitivity to time in children is explained first and foremost in terms of the more limited cognitive resources available to young children, due to the development of attention and executive functions related to the slow maturation of the prefrontal cortex. This leads to a ‘noisier perception’ of time, partly due to the difficulties experienced by children in keeping their attention focused on the passage of time. Using a series of neuropsychological tests designed to assess cognitive abilities in children, Zélanti and Droit-Volet (2011) revealed a significant correlation between temporal sensitivity (Weber ratio) and the attention/concentration score on the Children’s Memory Scale (CMS). The

higher the children’s attention/ concentration score, the better their sensitivity to time. This explains why time estimation is often impaired in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The accurate processing of time does indeed involve all the dimensions of attention: oriented attention, divided attention, selective attention and sustained attention. Attention must be prepared in order to capture the beginning of the forthcoming stimulus at the right time, even though this involves the risk of losing some temporal units. Droit-Volet (2003) showed that a signal warning children of the onset of visual stimuli to be timed reduced the variability in their time discrimination. Furthermore, if individuals are to be able to process time correctly, they must possess a high level of attentional resources. A number of studies (e.g. Coull et al., 2004) have demonstrated that time is judged shorter in a dual task, when attention is divided between a temporal and a non-temporal task, than in a single temporal task. Using dual-task paradigms, it has been shown that fiveyear-olds, who possess a limited pool of attentional resources, underestimate time more than older children (Gautier & Droit-Volet, 2002a). The development of selective attention capacities also allows children to resist attentional distractors and focus their attention on the processing of time. Consequently, the use of

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attentional distractors in a temporal bisection task has been found to impair the time discrimination of five-year-old children more than that of eightyear-old children (Gautier & Droit-Volet, 2002b). In sum, children’s distractibility and their deficit in inhibitory control prevent them from correctly apprehending the continuous flow of time. The attentional control deficit exhibited by young children also explains why they are more subject than adults to temporal illusions. Two temporal illusions have been widely investigated in time psychology: (1) the visualauditory illusion, where the duration of an auditory signal is judged longer than that of a visual signal presented for the same period of time, and (2) the emptyfilled illusion, where an empty duration (temporal interval between two short signals) is judged to be shorter than a filled duration (duration of a signal). Developmental studies (e.g. Droit-Volet et al., 2004) have shown that the visualauditory illusion is greater in five-year-olds than in eight-year-olds or adults. It is an established fact that more attention is required for the temporal processing of visual than of auditory signals, the former requiring young children to continuously keep their attention focused on the computer screen. Similarly, the emptyfilled illusion has also been shown to be greater in young children (Droit-Volet, 2008). When confronted with empty durations, children must not become distracted during the interval between the two signals; that is, they must wait without doing anything. In conclusion, young children, in the same way as animals, possess a basic mechanism that allows them to process time, but the development of the abilities to judge time in different contexts is dependent on the development of attention and executive functions. What is time? The answer is ‘a quantity of information that has to be captured in time’.

Sylvie Droit-Volet is at Université Blaise Pascal, Laboratoire de Psychologie Sociale & Cognitive, Clermont-Ferrand, France [email protected]

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High time Ruth Ogden and Catharine Montgomery on the effect of drugs on the perception of time

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How do different drugs affect the perceived duration of events?

resources

Ogden R.S., Wearden. J.H., Gallagher, D.T. & Montgomery, C. (2011). The effect of alcohol administration on human timing. Acta Psychologica, 138, 254–262. Wittmann, M., Leland, D., Churan, J. & Paulus, M.P. (2007). Impaired time perception and motor timing in stimulant-dependent subjects. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 90, 183–192.

references

Time rarely feels like it is passing at a constant rate; instead it expands and contracts from one activity to the next. Never is this more true than when under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Drugs such as cocaine, methamphetamine and alcohol appear to make time speed up, whereas haloperidol and marijuana appear to slow time down. Drugs alter perceived time by affecting the speed of our internal clock and the amount of attention that we pay to time. Whilst such time-altering effects are generally perceived as pleasant and harmless, there is some evidence to suggest that the effects may be long-lasting.

Bossong, M.G., van Berckel, B.N.M., Boellaard, R. et al. (2009). ∆9tetrahydrocannabinol induces dopamine release in the human striatum. Neuropsychopharmacology, 34, 759–766. Cheng, R-K., Ali, Y.M. & Meck, W.H. (2007). Ketamine ‘unlocks’ the reduced clock-speed effects of cocaine following extended training. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory,

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Do the effects of drugs and alcohol on timing change depending on the tasks that we perform?

o you ever feel like time is flashing past you, or perhaps that it is crawling by so slowly that it may have stopped? Perhaps you find yourself amazed that it’s already last orders in the pub, or disappointed when you realise there are still 40 minutes to go in a lecture. If so, fear not, you are not alone: experiences of distortions to the passage of time are a common occurrence. Although real ‘clock measured’ time is passing at a constant rate, experience tells us that our subjective sense of the amount of time that has occurred, or the speed at which time is passing, can vary, leading to distortions in the passage of time. When we feel like less time has occurred than actually has, time feels like it has speeded up. When we feel like more has occurred than actually has, time feels like it has slowed down. Despite being commonly experienced, the mechanisms behind distortions of the passage of time are underresearched and, as a result, poorly understood. Anecdotal accounts imply that our experience of time is influenced by our emotions and the activities we engage in: ‘time flies when you’re having fun’, but not when an car is hurtling towards you. It is not only enjoyment and fear that affect how quickly time appears to be passing: other alterations in subjective consciousness have similar effects. The consumption of drugs and alcohol has long been known to warp time experiences. In his much-quoted book Confessions of an English Opium Eater, Thomas De Quincey (1821/1971) noted that opium intoxication resulted in

88, 149–159. Cheng, R-K., MacDonald, C.J. & Meck, W.H. (2006). Differential effects of cocaine and ketamine on time estimation. Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior, 85, 114–122. Chait, L.D. & Pierri, J. (1992). Effects of smoked marijuana on human performance. In L.L. Murphy & A. Bartke (Eds.) Marijuana/

distortions to the passage of time to the extent that he ‘Sometimes seemed to have lived for 70 or 100 years in one night; nay, sometimes had feelings representative of a millennium passed in that time’. Similar experiences were also reported by Aldous Huxley (1954) in Doors of Perception after consuming mescaline and LSD. Druginduced distortions to time are not only experienced by renowned literary figures: a quick search of an internet drug forum will reveal that many drug users report similar experiences to De Quincey and Huxley following marijuana, cocaine and alcohol use. The frequency of such reports has led to a recent revival of interest in the way in which recreational drug and alcohol use affect time perception. A recent study at Liverpool John Moores University explored the prevalence of drug- and alcohol-induced distortions of the passage of time in a student population (Wearden et al., in press). Students reported occasions in which time seemed to have been distorted during everyday life, and they were encouraged to discuss an occasion in which drugs or alcohol had been consumed. They then rated how frequently they experienced time distortions and the extent to which the distortions were troublesome. The results confirmed that distortions are commonly experienced during, but also in the absence of, drug and alcohol use. Distortions were more common amongst people who took drugs than those who did not, and, of those who took drugs, 66 per cent agreed that distortions occurred more frequently when they were under the influence of drugs than when they were not. There were no reports of distortions to time causing distress; indeed, many people said they were pleasurable. However, it seemed that the nature of distortions varied greatly under the influence of different drugs and during different social situations. The most widely reported sensation was that of time passing more quickly than normal after the consumption of alcohol: ‘when drinking on a night out… enjoying myself, time passed a lot quicker’. The

cannabinoids (pp 1–42). Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. De Quincey, T. (1971). Confessions of an English Opium Eater. Harmondsworth: Penguin. (Original work published 1821) Fisk, J.E. & Montgomery, C. (2009). Evidence for selective executive function deficits in ecstasy/polydrug users. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 23, 40–50.

Harper, C. (2009). The neuropathology of alcohol-related brain damage. Alcohol & Alcoholism, 44, 136–140. Heishman, S.J., Aresteh, K. & Stitzer, M.L. (1997). Comparative effects of alcohol and marijuana on mood, memory and performance. Pharmacology Biochemistry Behavior, 58, 93–101 Huxley, A. (1954). The doors of perception. Harper & Row.

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same was also true of cocaine use: ‘When taking cocaine time always goes very very quickly. It seems you start taking the drug and then all of a sudden several hours have passed and it is about 7am’. Cannabis, on the other hand, appeared to have different effects on people’s perceptions of time depending on the circumstances in which it was consumed. When consumed in stimulating environments or with other drugs or alcohol, cannabis consumption led to the feeling that time was passing more quickly than normal: ‘…after a night out and alcohol consumption coming back to my flat sitting down watching TV with my friends and drinking more alcohol, smoking cigarettes and cannabis, when this happens times seems to pass much quicker.’ On the other hand, when consumed alone, cannabis was associated with a slowing of the passage of time: ‘On cannabis, time goes slow, you think that an hour has passed when it was only 10 minutes.’ So, how do drugs and alcohol affect our perception of time? One possibility is that the drugs themselves affect the way in which the brain monitors time, possibly by altering the speed of some ‘internal clock’

(Meck, 1983). Another possibility is that the activities that we perform whilst intoxicated influence how we perceive time, perhaps by distracting our attention away from time. One way to tease apart these influences is to examine whether drugs still affect temporal perception when they are consumed outside of their normal social surroundings in the laboratory. Early studies into the effects of drugs on timing were conducted on animals. In the 1980s, Warren Meck published a seminal study in which he explored the effects of methamphetamine and haloperidol on animal timing (Meck, 1983). Meck trained rats to respond to a signal after a set duration of 12 seconds, by pressing on a lever that released a pellet of food. Instances in which the lever was pressed too early or too late were not rewarded. When the rats received methamphetamine (which increased dopamine levels) after training, they pressed the lever too soon, suggesting that they thought that more time had occurred than actually had. The opposite happened when haloperidol (which decreases dopamine levels) was administered: the rats responded too late indicating that they

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thought less time had occurred than actually had. Meck suggested the rats’ perception of time was altered because the administration of methamphetamine and haloperidol led to dopamine-modulated increases and decreases in internal clock speed. Similar effects to those induced by methamphetamine have been reported following cocaine administration, but not ketamine (Cheng, Ali et al., 2007; Cheng, MacDonald et al., 2006). It seems then that, in some animals at least, some drugs that affect dopamine levels influence temporal perception. The effect of recreational drug use on human timing is less well understood, in part because of ethical constraints on giving people illegal drugs. A number of studies have, however, looked at the effects of alcohol and marijuana on timing. These studies have typically employed prospective timing tasks in which people are asked to estimate the duration of auditory and visual stimuli. Because prospective timing is thought to be accomplished by means of an internal clock, these studies may provide information about the way in which drugs affect our timing system. Alcohol and marijuana are two of the most commonly consumed recreational drugs in the UK (Smith & Flatley 2011) and their pharmacological and cognitive effects are well documented (see Stahl, 2008). Both alcohol (Schweizer & VogelSprott, 2008) and cannabis (Solowij & Battisti, 2008) are known to impair memory function and attentional processing. In addition, consumption both of alcohol and of marijuana leads to indirect increases in dopamine levels (Bossong et al., 2009; Stahl, 2008). It seems likely, then, that both substances may affect the way in which we perceive time. Marijuana consumption has been shown to affect timing when people estimate the duration of events (Chait & Pierri, 1992),

Do drugs alter the speed of some ‘internal clock’?

Lapp, W.M., Collins, R.L., Zywiak, W.H. & Izzo, C.V. (1994). Psychopharmacological effects of alcohol on time perception. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 55, 96–112. Lieving, L.M., Lane, S.D., Cherek, D.R. & Tcheremissine, O.V. (2006). Effects of marijuana on temporal discriminations in humans. Behavioural Pharmacology, 17, 173–183.

Meck, W.H. (1983). Selective adjustment of the speed of internal clock and memory processes. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 9, 171–201. Ogden R.S., Wearden. J.H., Gallagher, D.T. & Montgomery, C. (2011). The effect of alcohol administration on human timing. Acta Psychologica. doi:10.1016/j.actpsy.2011.07.002 Schweizer, T.A. & Vogel-Sprott, M. (2008).

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Alcohol-impaired speed and accuracy of cognitive functions. Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology, 16, 240–250. Smith, K. & Flatley, J. (2011). Drug misuse declared: Findings from the 2010/11 British Crime Survey. London: Home Office. Solowij, N. & Battisti, R. (2008). The chronic effects of cannabis on memory in humans: A review.

Current Drug Abuse Reviews, 1, 81–98. Stahl, S.M. (2008). Stahl’s essential psychopharmacology (3rd edn). New York: Cambridge University Press. Tinklenberg, J.R., Roth, W.T. & Kopell, B.S. (1976). Marijuana and ethanol. Psychopharmacology, 49, 275–279. Volkow, N.D., Chang, L., Wang, G.J. et al. (2001). Low level of brain dopamine D2 receptors in methamphetamine abusers. American Journal of

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produce durations (Tinklenberg et al., 1976) and compare durations with one another (Lieving et al., 2006). Generally speaking, taking marijuana makes people overestimate the amount of time that has passed. This pattern of behaviour is consistent with an increase in internal clock speed. Laboratory studies exploring the effect of alcohol on timing have produced more mixed results. When participants have been asked to produce durations after the consumption of alcohol (e.g. hold down this button for 30 seconds) some studies have reported that durations were overproduced (Tinklenberg et al., 1976), whereas others find that durations were underproduced (Lapp et al., 1994), and some find no effect of alcohol on timing at all (Heishman et al., 1997). The disparity in findings is, perhaps, due to the differing doses of alcohol and the differing duration ranges employed in the different experiments. To try to clarify the effect of alcohol on human temporal perception and to bridge the gap between the distortions that people report in the real world and the findings from the laboratory, we recently explored how alcohol consumption affected a range of timing judgements (Ogden et al., 2011). In particular, we wanted to see whether we could replicate the alcohol induced sensation of time ‘flying,’ that people reported in Wearden et al. (in press), even when the social interactions usually surrounding alcohol consumption were removed. We wanted to create a laboratory-based task that reflected the way in which people make judgements about time in the real world. In the laboratory, we usually tell people that their ability to judge time is being tested and this, presumably, motivates them to concentrate on time: ‘prospective’ timing. In the real world, however, people often make judgements about the duration of previous events, even when they are not concentrating on their duration. We replicated this type of judgement by asking people to complete a short wordclassification task, without telling them that they would later be asked how long

Psychiatry, 158, 2015–2021. Wearden, J.H., O’Donoghue, A., Ogden, R.S. & Montgomery, C. (in press). Subjective duration in the laboratory and the world outside. In V. Arstila & D. Lloyd (Eds.) Subjective time. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Wittmann, M., Leland, D., Churan, J. & Paulus, M.P. (2007). Impaired time perception and motor timing in stimulant-dependent subjects. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 90, 183–192.

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the task lasted. Because participants were unaware that timing was the focus of interest, they would be unlikely to consciously monitor time. Once the word-classification task was complete the participants estimated how long they thought it lasted (a ‘retrospective timing’ judgement) and also indicated whether they thought that time was passing at the same speed as normal, or faster or slower than normal during the task (a ‘passage of

time’ judgement). They then performed a series of prospective timing tasks in which they made judgements about the duration of short tones. People’s ability to estimate the duration of the word-classification task in minutes and seconds was unaffected by alcohol consumption, but a high dose of alcohol did result in the sensation of time passing more quickly than normal. The fact that people said that time sped up after alcohol consumption even in the laboratory suggests that the psychopharmacological effects of alcohol consumption alone are sufficient to affect our perception of time. It is of course likely, however, that when these effects are coupled with pleasurable activities that distract our attention away from time, any speeding effect would be more pronounced. Alcohol also made people overestimate the duration of short tones in one of the prospective timing tasks used, and this overestimation is consistent with a dopamine-induced increase in internal clock speed. Having experienced distortions in the passage of time whilst under the influence of drugs and alcohol, there is some concern amongst users about whether any effects could be permanent. Heavy drug and alcohol use can result in long-term neurological damage (Harper, 2009) and impaired cognitive function (Fisk &

Montgomery, 2009), both of which may alter timing ability even when drug use has ceased. Chronic cocaine and amphetamine use reduces dopamine D2 receptor availability (Volkow et al., 2001), and, because animal studies have demonstrated that dopamine levels influence duration perception, it is possible that chronic users of cocaine or methamphetamine may show impaired timing even after drug use has stopped. Wittmann et al. (2007) compared the timing abilities of currently abstinent cocaine and/or methamphetamine users with control participants, and found that timing was impaired in the abstinent drug user group relative to the controls on most measures. Typically, the abstinent users were less able to discriminate between different durations and appeared to overestimate the duration of longer events. Wittmann et al. (2007) also suggested that the tendency to overestimate the duration of long delays may lead to increased drug taking amongst users as the time elapsed since the last drug administration appears longer. In the real world and the laboratory alike, it would seem that drug and alcohol use has the ability to affect our perception of duration. Reassuringly for those of us who may be affected by such distortions, research tells us that they are commonly experienced and that most people find them to be harmless. Having said this, there is some preliminary evidence that some negative effects appear to be long-lasting in chronic drug users. Further research in this area is clearly warranted; not only to enable better understanding of how drugs and alcohol may affect our ability to time, but also to explore whether impairments to timing may influence our ability to perform timedependent tasks such as driving, and affect drug-seeking and drug-taking behaviours.

Ruth Ogden is a lecturer in psychology at Liverpool John Moores University [email protected]

Catharine Montgomery is a senior lecturer in psychology at Liverpool John Moores University [email protected]

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2013

The 2nd International Conference of

Metacognitive Therapy Manchester

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: Speakers: •

Prof. Adrian Wells (UK)

•

Prof. Steven Hollon (USA)

•

Prof. Robert Zettle (USA)

•

Prof. Hans M. Nordahl (Norway)

•

Dr. Peter Fisher (UK)

•

Prof. Robert Leahy (USA)

•

Dr. Costas Papageorgiou (UK)

•

Prof. M. Spada (UK)

•

Prof. Graham Davey (UK)

YOU ARE INVITED TO SUBMIT PAPERS, POSTERS, SYMPOSIA. EMAIL STRUCTURED ABSTRACTS (BACKGROUND/RESEARCH QUESTION; METHOD; RESULTS; CONCLUSION; 200 WORDS MAX) TO: [email protected] DEADLINE: 31 December 2012

Pre-congress workshops (24 April 2013) Conference (25 - 26 April 2013) Venue: Manchester Town Hall, City Centre Presenting the latest developments and research in Metacognitive Therapy and related approaches. The conference blends skill-building presentations with academic sessions in areas of assessment, mental processes research and treatment techniques across a wide range of problems. There will be workshops, keynotes, master-clinician demonstrations, round table discussion, posters and symposia.

Symposia and Clinical Presentations • • • • • • • • • •

Secretariat, MCT Conference Din konferanse AS Schultzgt, 2-4 N-7013 Trondheim, Norway E-mail: [email protected] Phone: (+47) 73 80 20 80

Detached Mindfulness Individual & Group Approaches MCT/ACT/CBT distinctive features Trauma and PTSD Generalized Anxiety Disorder Major depressive disorder Obsessive compulsive disorder Eating disorders Schizophrenia Borderline Personality disorder

• • •

Addictions Medical Conditions Social Anxiety

Processes: • • • • • •

Worry Rumination Attention Mental Regulation Beliefs Control Processes

Pre-Congress Half-Day Workshops (24 April, 2013): Learn the latest treatment techniques with professional skills-based workshops Wells: GAD and worry; | Nordahl: Borderline PD; | Fisher: OCD; | Papageorgiou: Depression; | Wells: PTSD

Information & registration:

http://www.registration.no/mct2013/

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Time and the sleeping brain Penelope A. Lewis and Warren H. Meck argue that the importance of timing leads the brain to protect against damage to the system – while we sleep

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Our ability to measure time persists in the face of a wide variety of neural insults. In combination with the large array of neural structures that have been shown to activate during timing tasks, this resilience suggests that multiple brain networks are capable of measuring time. This article explores this apparent ‘degeneracy’ (a concept explained in the article) in neural systems for timing in the context of recent evidence that such degeneracy may be promoted and enhanced by consolidation across a night of sleep. We also raise the possibility that offline consolidation may promote degeneracy in other spheres (not just in timing). Could degeneracy allow timing to be spared following brain damage to either ‘cognitively controlled’ or ‘automatic’ temporal processing?

resources

Diekelmann, S. & Born, J. (2010). The memory function of sleep. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 11, 114–126. Grondin, S. (2010). Timing and time perception. Attention, Perception & Psychophysics, 72, 561–582. Price, C.J. & Friston, K.J. (2002). Degeneracy and cognitive anatomy. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 6, 416–421.

references

How does sleep-dependent memory consolidation contribute to degeneracy in timing systems?

Albouy, G., Sterpenich, V., Balteau, E. et al. (2008). Both the hippocampus and striatum are involved in consolidation of motor sequence memory. Neuron, 58, 261–272. Aparicio, P., Diedrichsen, J. & Ivry, R.B. (2005). Effects of focal basal ganglia lesions on timing and force control. Brain and Cognition, 58, 62–74. Bueti, D. & Walsh, V. (2010). Memory for

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hy are so many different parts of the brain involved in time perception? This simple function appears to draw on a vast array of different neural substrates, and these vary greatly depending on the precise timing task at hand. This is a major obstacle to the study of temporal processing: research is continually constrained by the observation that duration range, signal modality, response type, hemispheric lateralisation, level of awareness, and type of timing task all impact upon the neural structures involved in time measurement in complex ways (e.g. Harrington et al., 2011; Jahanshahi et al., 2010; Jones et al., 2008). An early meta-analysis of the brain areas that activate when participants are asked to time specific stimuli or responses implicated 33 different structures across the 35 studies examined (Lewis & Miall, 2003b, 2003c). The timing tasks in question encompassed everything from paced finger tapping to passive viewing of a visually presented interval. Early models suggested that the same neural timing mechanism might be involved in all timing tasks, but this type of evidence argues strongly against the concept of a single neural clock. Instead, the diversity of brain regions recruited for timing suggests that time can be measured by multiple degenerate systems. In this article, we will explain the concept of degeneracy and point out a parallel between the apparent degeneracy of neural timing systems and the wellcharacterised degeneracy in many other aspects of biological function (Edelman &

time distinguishes between perception and action. Perception, 39, 81–90. Buhusi, C.V. & Meck, W.H. (2005). What makes us tick? Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 6, 755–765. Buonomano, D.V. & Laje, R. (2010). Population clocks. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 14, 520–527. Cheng, R.K., Williams, C.L. & Meck, W.H. (2008). Oscillatory bands, neuronal

Gally, 2001; Tononi et al., 1999). We will also suggest that sleep plays a novel role in emphasising differences between the various neural representations of time, and perhaps even in creating degeneracy.

Degeneracy of neural systems for timing

Confronted with the vast diversity of brain areas recruited by timing tasks, Lewis and Miall (2003a) proposed that time can be measured by at least two distinct systems. One, the ‘automatic’ system involves structures associated with motor control (e.g. cerebellum, striatum and supplementary motor cortex). The other, the ‘cognitively controlled’ system, draws flexibly upon the pluripotent prefrontal and parietal cortices. These systems are not mutually exclusive but form a continuum, with some timing tasks recruiting elements from both, while other timing tasks draw much more clearly on one or the other. To investigate the importance of the job at hand for determining which parts of the brain are used, Lewis and Miall analysed three specific task characteristics. These were the duration of the interval to be timed, whether or not timing involved movement by the participant, and the continuousness of the timing (e.g. whether the start time of each sequential interval was predictable as in the case of rhythmic events). Interestingly, this analysis revealed that sub-second intervals, automatic tasks, and motor involvement all biased neural recruitment towards the automatic system, while the opposing characteristics – durations of more than a second, nonmotor timing and a discrete, nonrhythmical response – biased recruitment towards the cognitively-controlled system. Most tasks, however, contained a combination of these characteristics and thus recruited elements of each system (Lewis & Miall, 2003a, 2003b, 2003c). Although no subsequent study has examined the impact of all three of these task factors within the same dataset, a recent meta-analysis did categorise the

synchrony and hippocampal function. Brain Research, 1237, 176–194. Cheng, R.K., Williams, C.L. & Meck, W.H. (2009). Neurophysiological mechanisms of sleep-dependent memory consolidation and its facilitation by prenatal choline supplementation. Chinese Journal of Physiology, 52, 223–235. Coull, J.T., Cheng, R.K. & Meck, W.H. (2011). Neuroanatomical and

neurochemical substrates of timing. Neuropsychopharmacology, 36, 3–25. Coslett, H.B., Shenton, J., Dyer, T. & Wiener, M. (2009). Cognitive timing. Brain Research, 1254, 38–48. Coslett, H.B., Wiener, M. & Chatterjee, A. (2010). Dissociable neural systems for timing. PLoS ONE 5(4), e10324. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0010324

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neuroimaging literature based on both interval duration and motor demands (Wiener et al., 2010). This again showed that different task characteristics are associated with distinct patterns of neural activity – although the brain regions implicated were not identical to those found by Lewis and Miall (2003a, 2003b).

Dehaene, S. & Cohen, L. (2007). Cultural recycling of cortical maps. Neuron, 56, 384–398. Diekelmann, S. & Born, J. (2010). The memory function of sleep. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 11, 114–126. Edelman, G.M. & Gally, J.A. (2001). Degeneracy and complexity in biological systems. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA,

Other work has further supported the recruitment of distinct timing mechanisms for sub- and supra-second intervals (e.g. Gooch et. al., 2010, Sysoeva et al., 2010; Wiener et. al. 2011), as well as for motor and non-motor tasks (e.g. Coslett et. al. 2010, Bueti & Walsh, 2010). The overall finding – that many

98, 13763–13768 Gais, S., Rasch, B., Wagner, U. & Born, J. (2008). Visual–procedural memory consolidation during sleep blocked by glutamatergic receptor antagonists. Journal of Neuroscience, 28, 5513–5518. Gooch, C.M., Wiener, M., Wencil, E.B. & Coslett, H.B. (2010). Interval timing disruptions in subjects with cerebellar lesions. Neuropsychologia,

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different patterns of brain activity can be elicited by time measurement, and that this is partially dependent upon the nature of the task as well as the participant’s neurological status – is now well established. As we will argue below, such seemingly complex results can potentially be explained by the relatively simple concept of degeneracy in neural timing systems. In the simplest sense, degeneracy can be thought of as a strategy by which an organism protects itself against loss of vital abilities via distribution of function, across structurally different mechanisms. When it comes to purely neural systems, however, degeneracy can be more complex and subtle. It is unlikely that any two separate neural systems will perform a given function in exactly the same way. Instead, the brain frequently provides several alternative routes to any given goal, with each of these drawing upon quite separate machinery. Evidence for this comes from the remarkable resilience shown by patients with brain damage, who frequently perform well on tasks such as semantic judgement even when the brain regions that are most strongly associated with these functions have been completely removed. Other evidence comes from neuroimaging studies of healthy participants, showing that different people consistently use completely different neural systems to perform the same task (e.g. Noppeney et al., 2006). The time-perception data discussed above are a good example of this latter multiplicity of function (Coslett et al., 2009). Furthermore, these types of taskrelated differences in time perception are consistent with the selective recruitment and context dependency of degenerate systems (e.g. Lewis & Miall, 2003b; Whitacre & Bender, 2010). Those who study degeneracy in biological systems argue that it is highly adaptive because it facilitates learning via

48, 1022–1031. Harrington, D.L., Castillo, G.N., Fong, C.H. & Reed, J.D. (2011). Neural underpinnings of distortions in the experience of time across senses. Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience 5, 32. doi: 10.3389/fnint.2011.00032 Jahanshahi, M., Jones, C.R.G., Zijlmans, J. et al. (2010). Dopaminergic modulation of striato-frontal

connectivity during motor timing in Parkinson’s disease. Brain, 133, 727–745. Jones, C.R.G., Malone, T.J.L., Dirnberger, G. et al. (2008). Basal ganglia, dopamine and temporal processing. Brain and Cognition, 68, 30–41. Lewis, P.A., Couch, T.J. & Walker, M.P. (2011). Keeping time in your sleep. Neuropsychologia, 49, 115–123. Lewis, P.A. & Miall, R.C. (2003a). Brain

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prevention of interference among new memories and pre-existing representations. Degeneracy also allows flexibility at an evolutionary level. The relevance of this line of reasoning to time perception should be obvious. The fundamental importance of timing to all perception and action demands degeneracy, while the ease with which it can be performed by a range of neural architectures facilitates such a design (Buhusi & Meck, 2005; Buonomano & Laje, 2010). It is very difficult to completely abolish the ability to measure time, especially as a result of focal brain lesions, where redundancy from the opposite hemisphere is likely to contribute to recovery (e.g. Aparicio et al., 2005; Coslett et al., 2009 – but see Coslett et al., 2010 and Meck, 2006 for examples of bilateral lesions of the basal ganglia that can lead to timing deficits).

Sleep and degeneracy – a potential synergism

It is now well established that sleep plays a role in memory consolidation (Diekelmann & Born, 2010; Walker, 2009). Subconscious processing that occurs while we slumber is believed to allow the re-coding of new memories in different brain structures, as well as the integration of these memories into existing knowledge. Both the mechanisms by which such consolidation occurs, and how it differs for different types of memory, remain controversial. Several theories have proposed that sleep facilitates the transfer of episodic information from hippocampal representations to the neocortex (Cheng et al., 2008, 2009; Takashima et al., 2009). Sleep has also been shown to facilitate the transfer of procedural representations from hippocampus into structures that are more associated with motor control (Albouy et al., 2008; Coull et al., 2011). Recently, an examination of how overnight sleep impacts on the pattern of brain activity associated with rhythmic timing (Lewis et al., 2011) has built on

activation patterns during measurement of sub- and suprasecond intervals. Neuropsychologia, 41, 1583–1592. Lewis, P.A. & Miall, R.C. (2003b). Distinct systems for automatic and cognitively controlled time measurement. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 13, 250–255. Lewis, P.A. & Miall, R.C. (2003c). Overview: An image of human neural

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such findings in an interesting way. This study examined both passive monitoring of an auditory rhythm for sounds that were misplaced in time (a task that draws more strongly on the ‘cognitively controlled’ system for timing), and active tapping of that rhythm with a forefinger (a task that draws more strongly on the ‘automatic’ system for timing). This showed that consolidation of memory for the rhythm across sleep led to both enhanced activation of the hippocampus (associated with cognitively controlled timing) during subsequent monitoring, and enhanced activation in parts of the motor system (associated with automatic timing) during subsequent rhythmic tapping. Importantly, the same participants performed both tasks, so these distinct activation patterns do not reflect a difference in consolidation, but instead a difference in the way brain areas were recruited after consolidation, depending upon the task that was performed. This not only supports the idea that the temporal representation that had been learned and consolidated was accessed differently depending upon the nature of the task at hand, but also suggests that sleep led to a greater dissociation in the brain areas recruited (e.g. that motor timing was more ‘automatic’, and nonmotor timing was more ‘cognitively controlled’ after consolidation during sleep).

predispositions could explain the marked cross-cultural consistency observed in the brain regions used for tasks such as language processing and arithmetic. Dehaene and Cohen (2007) suggest that these regions are not only predisposed to perform such functions, but have also evolved to facilitate these kinds of tasks, becoming more and more specialised as specific, related, demands are incrementally placed upon them. Combining this idea with the neuroplasticity observed in brain structures recruited for rhythmic timing after sleep (Lewis et. al., 2011), it is tempting to speculate that sleep may facilitate the evolution of temporal memories along similar lines. That is, sleep may facilitate a gradual shift in the neural representation of temporal memories away from flexible brain

A tempting speculation

The brain can be thought of as a compartmentalised structure, with different types of hardware available in different areas. Some types of hardware are more suited to some types of processing than others. For instance the cerebellum is well suited to the fine-tuning of motor control, and the primary visual cortex is well suited to the detection of line orientations. Such structural

timing. In W.H. Meck (Ed.), Functional and neural mechanisms of interval timing. (pp.515–532). Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. Meck, W.H. (2006). Neuroanatomical localization of an internal clock. Brain Research, 1109, 93–107. Meck, W.H., Penney, T.B. & Pouthas, V. (2008). Cortico-striatal representation of time in animals and humans. Current Opinion in

Neurobiology, 18, 145–152. Noppeney, U., Penny, W.D., Price, C.J. et al. (2006). Identification of degenerate neuronal systems based on intersubject variability. NeuroImage, 30, 885–890. Sysoeva, O.V., Tonevitsky, A.G. & Wackermann, J. (2010). Genetic determinants of time perception mediated by the serotonergic system. PLoS ONE, 5(9), e12650.

Takashima, A., Nieuwenhuis, I.L.C., Jensen, O. et al. (2009). Shift from hippocampal to neocortical centered retrieval network with consolidation. Journal of Neuroscience, 29, 10087–10093. Tononi, G., Sporns, O. & Edelman, G.M. (1999). Measures of degeneracy and redundancy in biological networks. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 96,

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structures that can perform many types of timing and deeper and deeper into structures that are more specialised for a particular type of processing (e.g. motor timing). If we follow this idea up, the selective increases in the involvement of the motor system and hippocampus observed by Lewis et al. (2011) after sleep could suggest that the copy of the temporal memory stored within each structure is gradually re-coded in the way that is most compatible with the specific neural hardware in question (Yin & Troger, 2011). To take a simplistic example, if a neural network is good at representing vertical, but not horizontal lines, then a consolidating pictorial representation may gradually lose its horizontal component while retaining all vertical components as it becomes increasingly dependent upon

3257–3262. Walker, M.P. (2009). The role of sleep in cognition and emotion. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1156, 168–197. Whitacre, J. & Bender, A. (2010). Degeneracy. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 263, 143–153. Wiener, M., Lohoff, F.W. & Coslett, H.B. (2011). Double dissociation of dopamine genes and timing in

of degeneracy at the evolutionary level. this property of the network. If a separate Recent work on how sleep influences representation exists in a different network the degenerate representations of time specialising in horizontal lines, then suggests that offline a holistic memory for the consolidation may picture might draw upon emphasise the both networks, providing “it is tempting to differences between a more complete visual speculate that sleep may timing systems, and representation. If one of facilitate the evolution of that there is a parallel the networks is damaged, temporal memories” between this the partial existing magnification effect and memory might still be the impact of sleep in other sufficient to allow success domains such as visual procedural on a range of memory tests, but deficits memory consolidation (Gais et al., 2008). would be apparent if the tests specifically We draw on this information to suggest targeted the damaged line orientation that, in the process of more firmly (horizontal or vertical). ingraining new memories into the brain’s With regard to the impact of sleep neural structures, consolidation may also upon temporal memory mechanisms, subtly tailor them to fit the circuitry in we speculate that the automatic and which they are coded. Distinct cognitively controlled systems could fill representations of the same memory may similar roles to the horizontal and vertical therefore gradually evolve along quite networks outlined above (Lewis et al., separate trajectories such that the brain 2011). The observation of increased must draw on different representations activation in the striatum, cerebellum in order to respond to specific task and supplementary motor area (all demands. In some cases more than one associated with the automatic system) complementary representation may be during motor timing, and in the needed. This proposal is especially hippocampus (more associated with relevant for temporal memories, as these the cognitive system) after sleep would can be used in many different ways (e.g. then be in line with the idea that the for movement or for cognitive decisions), mnemonic representations in both but the possibility that this general neural systems may have been altered principle applies to all consolidation in as they gradually settled into the the brain should also be considered. hardware available, producing two Inevitably, unresolved issues remain. separate specialised representations Under what conditions does degeneracy instead of the original more flexible occur in timing? How is it influenced by single representation. In other words, selective lesions? How does one evaluate we are suggesting that temporal the degree of degeneracy, and are there memories may become more and more individual differences? Is there a specific specialised to fit the neural structures order in which alternative timing systems by which they are coded when they are engaged, or is this dependent upon the consolidate across sleep. circumstances? How does memory consolidation, especially across sleep, Conclusions impact upon degeneracy in timing? In this article we have considered the This is sure to remain a fascinating area multiplicity of brain regions for timing of research for many years to come. and time perception in the context of established ideas about neural degeneracy. We have discussed Penelope A. Lewis evidence for the degeneracy of neural is at the School of timing systems, as well as the benefits Psychological Sciences, University of Manchester [email protected]

humans. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 23, 2811–2821. Wiener, M., Turkeltaub, P.E. & Coslett, H.B. (2010). The image of time. NeuroImage, 49, 1728–1740. Yin, B. & Troger, A.B. (2011). Exploring the 4th dimension. Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience, 5, 36. doi: 10.3389/fnint.2011.00036

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Warren H. Meck is at the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina

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FEATURE

play, learning and creativity (see learninginstitute.lego.com). ‘I don’t think there is one thing which makes Lego so special,’ he says, ‘but they have clearly got quite a few things right. One feature which I think is significant is that the entry level of physical skill required to build with Lego is quite low. I have played with other construction kits where just the physical Jon Sutton investigates where Lego and psychology intersect demands of fixing it together rather got in the way of the creativity and problemsolving opportunities. With Lego even quite young children can quickly start to put together models; it’s easy to build, easy I have managed to use Lego in Highfield (author and executive at to change your ideas and undo and a professional capacity – mostly in the National Museum of Science and rebuild.’ assessment exercises, but also as Industry) has said, ‘a surprising number Others see Lego as a strong tool for the basis for a spatial reasoning test. of people care about the aesthetic appeal mental self-development. Writer Curtis These isolated moments represent of these little colourful blocks’. Silver says that working with Lego taught the high points of my practice. But why? And how have these us two things about directions: ‘First, it Everything else is dull and enthusiasts used Lego in their practice, taught us to follow them. The bag being monochrome by comparison. research and teaching? dumped out onto the ground – that was Alan Redman (Current Chair of the chaos. The instructions guiding you British Psychological Society’s Division through putting the pieces together – that of Occupational Psychology) What makes Lego different? was order. Second, it taught us to discard David Whitebread is Senior Lecturer the directions, add the new bag to the here are 62 pieces of Lego for every in Psychology and Education at the current pieces and make whatever the person in the world, and I certainly University of Cambridge, and a member hell you wanted. This drove our minds have more than my fair share. What of the LEGO Learning Institute – a group crazy with sick organisational delight as was little more than a passing interest in of experts advising the LEGO Group on children – the possibilities of what we childhood built into something of an could build!’ obsession when I had my own children, Psychologist and I should probably abandon the Charles Fernyhough pretence I am buying it for them. (University of One purchase last Christmas was a Durham) reinforces book titled The Cult of LEGO (Baichtal & this point. ‘What Meno, 2011), and in this I read about strikes me as Lego-based social development therapy at particularly New Jersey’s Center for Neurological and interesting about Neurodevelopmental Health. Personal Lego is that it is and professional interest came together, non-representational and the foundations were laid for this material that can be article. made to be The cement, though, was the feedback representational – from other psychologists when I started although of course sharing the intersect of psychology and that has changed in Lego on Twitter. Uta Frith (University recent years with College London) encouraged me to write more and more an article, saying ‘the idea of a Lego cult pieces being is in no way exaggerated’. She even specifically ‘Non-representational material that can be made to be penned her own contribution, a ‘fan letter representational, representational’ to Lego’ (see ‘Dear Lego…’). As Roger depicting specific

When psychologists become builders

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Ariely, D., Kamenica, E. & Preleca, D. (2008). Man’s search for meaning: The case of Legos. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 67, 671–677. Baichtal, J. & Meno, J. (2011). The cult of LEGO. San Francisco: No Starch Press. Choi, J.-S. & Kim, J.J. (2010). Amygdala regulates risk of predation in rats foraging in a dynamic fear

environment. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1010079108 Clayton, N.S. & Dickinson, A. (1998). Episodic-like memory during cache recovery by scrub jays. Nature, 395, 272–278. Farr, W., Yuill, N. & Raffle, H. (2010). Social benefits of a tangible user interface for children with Autistic Spectrum Conditions. Autism, 14,

237–252. Farr, W., Yuill, N. & Hinkse, S. (2012). An augmented toy and social interaction in children with autism. International Journal of Arts and Technology, 5, 104–125. Hinds, P.J. (1999). The curse of expertise: The effects of expertise and debiasing methods on predictions of novice performance. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 5, 205–221.

Kuba, M.J., Byrne, R.A., Meisel, D.V. & Mather, J.A. (2006). When do octopuses play? Effects of repeated testing, object type, age, and food deprivation on object play in Octopus vulgaris. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 120, 184–190. Miller, S.L. & Maner, J.K. (2010). Evolution and relationship maintenance. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46, 1081–1084.

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characters, tools, features.’ Others have bemoaned this trend. Evolutionary neurobiologist Mark Changizi investigated biological networks and human-built ones, and found that unlike a biological network such as a brain, Lego required a rapidly increasing number of special piece types in order to build complex structures. ‘I suspect that the number of piece types would rise much more slowly than this were we to look at the Lego sets of the 1970s and 80s. My data support what users of old-school Legos intuitively feel: that Lego is no longer the freeformed “clay” it once was, and more like a model set with pre-formed uses – hello, Geonosian Starfighter! – and also pre-formed limits.’ However, to some the mix of basic bricks and more complex pieces and figures in Lego is a valuable feature. David Whitebread says: ‘When you watch children playing with Lego they are often problemsolving with the constructional aspects and involving themselves in a world of pretence at the same time. I don’t recall that from my own childhood endeavours with, say, Meccano, where the process of building was very valuable but more demanding, and so effectively closed out the imaginative aspects.’ Encouraging this combination of rule-based and imaginative, themed play has made Lego attractive for use in psychological practice.

Lego and autism

Built as it is on a rule-based, mechanical system, Lego lends itself to therapy with children on the autistic spectrum. More than 15 years ago, clinical psychologist Daniel LeGoff (nominative determinism alert!) saw that children with autism and other neurobehavioural disorders were naturally attracted to Lego when presented with a room full of toys (see www.thecnnh.org/lego.html). LeGoff began

Norton, M.I., Mochon, D. & Ariely, D. (2011). The IKEA effect: When labor leads to love. Journal of Consumer Psychology. doi:10.1016/j.jcps.2011.08 Owens, G., Granader, Y., Humphrey, A. & Baron-Cohen, S. (2008). LEGO therapy and the Social Use of Language Programme: An evaluation of two social skills interventions for children with high functioning autism and Asperger syndrome. Journal of Autism

Dear Lego… yours, Uta Frith What is it about you, Lego? I feel the pull of two opposites: my incurably romantic side that is longing for anything miniature, childlike and playful, and my totally nerdy side that craves collecting, dissecting, and exploring. Lego, you make the perfect marriage between these worlds. This is why I am your natural born fan. From the first encounter I could not resist your Mondrian-like hard edge, primary colour, and at the same time sweet and lovable pieces. I love the sensory pleasure of the feel and sound of the bricks, so clean and exact. What could be more satisfying than the sound of little bricks clicking together and the characteristic sound of burrowing in a full box. You feel reassuringly firm yet light. There is the thrill of the sheer abundance of combinatorial possibilities you provide. Then there is the joy of a new start every time

I break up some previous construction, and it is allowed to be both sense and nonsense. Here is one of my secret joys when rummaging in seemingly inexhaustible quantities of colourful elements: I am making lovely little modules that can be inserted in ambitiously complex structures, and it feels just like building models of the mind. I become dimly aware of replicating structures as I watch my grandchildren getting absorbed in Lego play. They’re only toddlers now, but soon they will show their own children how to click the bricks together and pull them apart again. Will they be using the same bricks? I hope so. Recycle and recombine. For me you are one of those legends that transcend change in fashion and leaps in technology. Just like your abstract cousin, language, you continuously re-use and reinvent your elements. You

using Lego in a therapeutic and structured way in order to naturally reinforce appropriate social behaviour. Then a PhD project at Cambridge University – Gina Owens under the supervision of Simon Baron-Cohen (Owens et al., 2008) – gave 6- to 11-year-olds with high functioning autism either Lego therapy, the Social Use of Language Programme, or no intervention. After one hour a week building in pairs or small groups, for 18 weeks, the Lego therapy group had improved more than the other groups on

and Developmental Disorders, 38, 1944–1957. Pike, C. (2002). Exploring the conceptual space of LEGO: Teaching and learning the psychology of creativity. Psychology Learning & Teaching, 2(2), 87–94. Shelton, A.L., Clements-Stephens, A.M., Lam, W.Y., et al. (2011). Should social savvy equal good spatial skills? Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. doi: 10.1037/a0024617

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REASONABLYCLEVER.COM

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have long started to import more and more semantics by offering me little people and little symbols as pre-prepared play elements. At first I was afraid this would destroy the purely abstract qualities of the game, but soon it became irresistible to connect a tiny Darth Vader incongruously with a flower. I also admit to being amused by the idea of ‘Serious Play’. Pinstriped kits for the board room and the executive office? Permission to be creative when no longer a child? I have never needed an excuse for play. After all, according to Einstein, play is the highest form of research. I don’t even need my own special box of elements – as in research it is best to share and to re-use. With tender thoughts of never-ending combinations, your devoted fan, Professor Uta Frith University College London

autism-specific social interaction scores, and interacted with others in the playground for longer. Gina Owens, now Gina Gomez and a Research Psychologist at the University of Cambridge and Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Foundation Trust, picks up the story. ‘The groups were a success – the children enjoyed it, benefited in terms of their social skills – though there were lots of individual differences – and parents were very satisfied that children could attend a social group that they didn’t find anxiety provoking or stressful.’ But were the benefits specific to Lego? ‘I think you could in theory use any building block, stickle brick, etc to the same ends,’ Gomez replies. ‘You can even use the same approach to bake a cake – splitting up the roles, joint focus, etc. But having said that, Lego is extremely versatile. You can be creative but within certain boundaries. There are themes to suit different interests, and then there’s the behind the scenes stuff – online clubs to join, video games, stop motion films to be made in groups. It gives children with

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autism a topic to discuss with peers that is socially acceptable and of interest to others – at least some others!’ She continues: Lego therapy is now worldwide, with organisations such as ASD Aid (http://asdaid.org), run by adult fans of Lego, organising events in Australia at which thousands attend to learn how ‘to help children with autism spectrum disorders communicate and grow’. Not everyone is convinced though. Jean Ruttenberg, of the Autism Center in Philadelphia, says Lego therapy won’t help children with more complex cases of autism. She says that LeGoff won’t include children with behaviour problems. ‘Those make up the majority of children with autism, and the ones we struggle with every day,’ Ruttenberg says. She would like to see more extensive studies before adding it to treatments at her centre.

Lego in the workplace

Back in 1995 the Lego company observed that children were starting to play differently. ‘Growing older younger’ was the term often used, and Lego felt a new strategy was needed. Finding the results of their internal sessions decidedly unimaginative, the group called in business consultants to research how building with Lego could be used to ‘tap unconscious knowledge’ and create strategy as ‘something you live as opposed to something stored away in a document’. However, it was not until psychology graduate Robert Rasmussen was involved in 1999 that ‘the work moved into developing the process itself… to make the results reproducible and the methodology robust’. The first ‘Lego Serious Play’ facilitators were trained in 2001, and the product was made open source in 2010. On its website, Lego Serious Play is described as ‘building landscape models with LEGO bricks, giving them meaning through storymaking, and playing-out various possible scenarios, which deepens understanding, sharpens insight, and socially “bonds” together the group who “plays” together’. In his introductory manual, Rasmussen draws on the ideas of Jean Piaget, Seymour Papert, Mike Csikszentmihalyi and more in explaining the science behind Serious Play. ‘A business or company is so much more than a building and the people in it’, Rasmussen writes. ‘The LEGO Serious Play method is a bold attempt to take the power of constructionism and apply it to the complexity of the business world… people see things they couldn’t see before. They can manipulate it, play with it, and ask all sorts of “what if” questions by

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physically manipulating their business model.’

Lego in research

The Lego Serious Play method has also found its way into psychological research. In 2011 a two-day experiment conducted by the LEGO Learning Institute, MINDLab and Aarhus University (including UK psychologists Chris and Uta Frith) investigated the impact of collaborative behaviour on the heart and brain. Summer-school students from 15 countries used Lego bricks to build, discuss and align their understanding of key concepts associated with leadership and social capital. The research team hypothesise that collective building processes will lead to stronger heart rate synchronisation among participants, and greater activity in the social areas of the brain. Also getting under the skin with Serious Play is David Gauntlett (University of Westminster). ‘Making things and then reflecting on them and telling a story about them is a great way of getting people to assemble their knowledge, thoughts and feelings about something,’ Gauntlett says. ‘I’m looking at how we can use the process to explore identities. So people are asked to build a model which represents their personal identity – who they are and what they bring to the world. Then we also build influences on their identities, and explore those connections.’ Find out more at www.artlab.org.uk/lego.htm. Again, I ask whether there is anything intrinsic about Lego in this. ‘Lego is very easy for people to put together,’ Gauntlett says, ‘and to create something which they are typically satisfied with, and which communicates numerous meanings. This is unlike drawing, or making things with modelling clay – both of which I have also asked people to do – because these activities often make people feel selfconscious, and they become overly concerned with what the thing looks like, and spend time trying to make it look acceptable, and becoming frustrated, and so on. With Lego, people can put materials together quite quickly to communicate meanings, in metaphors, so it works very well.’ Lego also lends itself to a more incidental role in psychological research, particularly with children. David Whitebread’s lab is running a number of studies related to private speech and selfregulation. ‘While the children are building something, they are constantly talking about what they are making, planning the adventures they are going to have with it, and creating imaginary

worlds of which it is part.’ And in as yet unpublished research, Miles Richardson at the University of Derby is using Lego building skill as a predictor of mathematical and spatial abilities. But it’s not just for kids. Lego has been used in an adaptation of Piaget’s famous ‘mountains task’ for adults, finding a strong correlation between overall social acumen and the study participants’ accuracy in taking another spatial perspective, but only when the viewpoint was that of a figure, rather than a toy camera or triangle (Shelton et al., 2011). It has revealed the ‘curse of expertise’, in a study which showed that experts at building Lego Star Wars models underestimate the time needed for a novice to do the same thing (Hinds, 1999). A study of the influence of perceived meaning on our willingness to work made use of Lego (Ariely et al., 2008). Lego even found a place in a study which found that ‘fertility cues lead committed men to devalue relationship alternatives’ (Miller & Maner, 2010). Even the animal world doesn’t escape. Need to uncover risk behaviour in foraging rats? Bring in the Lego (Choi & Kim, 2010). Nicky Clayton’s group always use Lego to study episodic-like memory in scrub jays: ‘I use the Lego bricks to make each ice cube tray visuospatially distinct and thus allow my birds to bury their food in different trays at district times. This allows me to assess how good they are at remembering which caches they have hidden where and when’ (see, for example, Clayton & Dickinson, 1998). And why not have octopuses get to grips with Lego (Kuba et al., 2006), to tackle the phylogenetic origins and function of play? Perhaps most interesting, though, is research using Lego that could reveal why people value their Lego creations. In a paper ‘The IKEA effect – when labor leads to love’, a team led by psychologist Michael Norton (2011) investigated the counter-intuitive notion that having to put effort into producing something yourself can actually increase your

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A partnership

Although Lego has been around since the 1940s, it is still relatively early days for the relationship between Lego and psychology. Those I contacted often spoke of great potential for Lego in psychology. Gina Gomez says: ‘In terms of the Lego therapy approach, I think this can help children with other psychological difficulties – social anxiety, low self-esteem, bullying, etc. It could also be used within families to help parents – perhaps fathers in particular – interact with their children in a positive way.’ Gomez reports a conversation with Anna Trolle-Terklesen from LEGO

Whether it’s Richard Wiseman (University of Hertfordshire) and his Lego visual illusions, Niall Canavan explaining sampling in psychology via Lego (see tinyurl.com/7nd6pck) or Chris Moulin (University of Leeds) and his Lego brain (see tinyurl.com/7f8ozyy), there’s no shortage of psychologists out there making use of Lego in their teaching. Others have used Lego to explore concepts of civic participation, linked to the theories of Solomon Asch and Stanley Milgram (see tinyurl.com/78al4yn), or as a medium for teaching, learning and research in the psychology of creativity (Pike, 2002). Beyond the brick, the Lego Mindstorms kits, containing software and hardware to create small, customizable and programmable robots, seem to lend themselves to psychology. Perhaps this is not surprising given that they grew in part from research by developmental psychologist Edith Ackermann (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). ‘I have worked with the Lego groups on a regular basis since 1986,’ she tells me. When I moved from the Piaget Institute in Geneva to work with Papert at the Epistemology and Learning Group, MIT Media Lab, I was interested in “children as cyberneticians” – the genesis of their views on control and communication in humans, animals and machines – and their views on agency and intelligence in humans, animals, and machines. Bringing Lego and the LOGO programming language together was a good marriage, offering an excellent entry point to learn about how the kids themselves think about AI, smart machines, and what not.’ Psychologists now use Ackermann’s developments to teach about the scientific method (see Tom Stafford’s account of work at the University of Sheffield, at tinyurl.com/6quqrtq), and galvanic skin response (www.extremenxt.com/gsr.htm).

Education (see www.legoeducation.com) about using Lego to help vulnerable adults make decisions about their lives – building what their perfect room/house would be like, and using that as a starting point for discussing life changes. ‘I can also see Lego being used to express or discuss emotions, in a similar way to art therapy. Lego is such a creative toy that I think the opportunities to use it in psychology, education and the workplace are very large.’ Other toys do find their way into psychology. For example, William Farr and Nicola Yuill of the University of Sussex are doing fascinating work with Steve Hinske at the Institute for Pervasive Computing in Zurich, using an augmented Playmobil Knight’s Castle. They have added a wireless networking system and radio frequency identification tags, allowing the Playmobil characters to speak or make different sounds when they are placed in different locations. The adaptations can improve understanding of and interest in the play set, and boost the level of social interaction and play with other children (Farr et al., 2012). Farr and Yuill even teamed up with Hayes Raffle, the developer of Topobo, a construction system embedded with programmable memory. In a small sample of children with autism, they found more social forms of play with the Topobo than with traditional Lego (Farr et al., 2010). Yet such examples are few and far between, and the sense that there is

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‘something different’ about Lego persists. Perhaps it’s simply that what is largely a personal preference for Lego based on aesthetics, simplicity and versatility became more of a cult amongst scientists (e.g. see tinyurl.com/scitweeps), which has then led to interesting partnerships. As we have seen, there are several examples of psychologists influencing the development of Lego (see also ‘Lego in teaching’). ‘What I find attractive about Lego as a company to work with,’ says David Whitebread, ‘is that they seem genuinely interested in supporting highlevel research into play and learning, and have a strong philosophy of developing products based on rigorous research to support children’s play. They provide funding for research through quite an impressive array of projects which they either run themselves or support financially.’ There’s even a ‘senior builder’, Dave Specha, making use of his psychology degree at a Legoland Discovery Centre (see tinyurl.com/79nwprf). There’s hope for me yet!

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HTTP://WWW.ANDREWLIPSON.COM/LEGO.HTM

willingness to pay for it. Participants valued their Lego helicopters, ducks, dogs or birds more when they had built them compared to when they received prebuilt sets, or when they built and unbuilt them. The authors suggest that ‘building products increases both thoughts about the positive attributes of that product… and positive affect and emotional attachment to that product’. In addition, the authors argue, self-assembly of products may allow people to both feel competent and display evidence of that competence – their creation – thereby ‘signalling desired attributes’ to themselves and others. Personally, I suspect that displaying my ‘creation’ would only signal to my other half that I was entering midlife crisis, but Norton’s point has solid foundations.

Lego in teaching

Jon Sutton is Managing Editor of The Psychologist. If you have used Lego or other play systems in your professional life, do get in touch. [email protected]

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Perhaps, in retrospect, this should not have been a surprise, over four decades ago Mischel (1968) told us that the situations in which individuals find themselves have as much, if not more, influence on their behaviour as individual risk factors. But as psychologists – by inclination and training – our focus is on the individual and not the situation. David J. Cooke and Lorraine Johnstone on preventing violence in institutions Reflecting on the Special Unit suggested that a mosaic of situational factors probably underpinned this change in Violence prevention is a key role for t was all a bit of a mystery – Scotland’s behaviour; these factors range from psychologists working in forensic ‘most violent men’ were not being improved staff selection, training and settings. The last decade has violent. As a young clinical morale, through a focus on relational witnessed dramatic improvements psychologist, your first author was rather than structural security, to access to in approaches to risk management. confronted by this mystery while working a rich variety of activities (Cooke, 1989). Psychologists, by training and in the Barlinnie Special Unit (Boyle, 1977; To some the Barlinnie unit was a brave predilection focus on individual Cooke, 1989). The unit was a small penal experiment; to others it was factors that serve to increase risk – experimental facility that contained ‘Porridge with Cream’. Whatever personality pathology, relationship violent prisoners who had proved perspective is taken, the radical and rapid instability and addictions, for themselves unmanageable in other change in the violence of these high-risk example. This misses half of the prisons. The majority had killed, at least prisoners demonstrated the putative power equation; individuals are violent not once: however, murder was only part of of situational factors. merely because who they are but the pattern of The saliency also because of where they are. persistent and of situations was An alternative approach to serious violent driven home by violence risk management can be acts they two other vivid predicated on a systematic perpetrated. and formative understanding of the ways in which They had been experiences. In the functioning of the institutions – brought up in the late 1980s the prisons and secure forensic a subculture in Scottish prison settings – affects the level of which violence system was wracked violence in that institution. Such was by rooftop incidents; an approach is outlined here, using normalised; prison officers were case studies to illustrate its utility. starting at an taken hostage and early age they threatened with had progressed death; control was HMP Barlinnie – over the Special Unit’s through lost. Directly What contributions can psychology 21-year history only two assaults took place diverse and observing four of make to effective change management prolific criminal these incidents as in poorly functioning institutions? careers. They part of the incident Could situational approaches be applied suffered from many forms of dysfunction; management team, it became apparent that to target different problems and personality pathology, substance misuse there was something rotten in the state of different populations? and, in some cases, episodes of major Scottish prisons. Other commentators mental illness. Despite this concentration pointed up the role that ill treatment by of risk, over the Unit’s 21-year history staff, limited privileges, impoverished www.gcu.ac.uk/prism/index.html only two assaults took place. The regimes, and inadequate visit facilities Special section on PRISM in the prisoners as a whole remained dominant, played in fomenting unrest (Coyle, 1987; International Journal of Forensic forceful, challenging, impulsive and prone Scratton et al., 1991). Perhaps more Mental Health, 2010, vol 9 no 3. to anger, yet their violence was curbed. startling, at least in retrospect, is the fact

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Boyle, J. (1977). A sense of freedom. London: Handbooks. Cooke, D.J. (1989). Containing violent prisoners: An analysis of the Barlinnie Special Unit. British Journal of Criminology, 29, 129–143. Cooke, D.J. & Wozniak, E. (2010). PRISM applied to a critical incident review. International Journal of Forensic Mental Health Services, 9(3), 159–172. Cooke, D.J., Wozniak, E. & Johnstone, L.

(2008). Casting light on prison violence. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 35(8), 1065–1078. Coyle, A.G. (1987). The Scottish experience of small units. In A.E. Bottoms & R. Light (Eds.) Problems of long-term imprisonment. Aldershot: Gower. Cregg, M. & Payne, E. (2010). PRISM with incarcerated young people. International Journal of Forensic Mental Health Services, 9, 173–179.

Gadon, L., Johnstone, L. & Cooke, D.J. (2006). Situational variables and institutional violence. Clinical Psychology Review, 26(5), 513–534. Hart, S.D., Sturmey, P., Logan, C. & McMurran, M. (2011). Forensic case formulation. International Journal of Forensic Mental Health Services, 10, 118–126. Johnstone, L. & Cooke, D.J. (2008). PRISM: Promoting Risk Intervention by

Situational Management: Structured professional guidelines for assessing situational risk factors for violence in institutions. Glasgow: Northern Networking. Johnstone, L. & Cooke, D.J. (2010). PRISM: A promising paradigm for assessing and managing institutional violence. International Journal of Forensic Mental Health Services, 9(3), 180–191. Mischel, W. (1968). Personality and

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that six months after the Special Air Service rescued a prison officer from the roof of Peterhead prison a conference was held there in camera. It was attended by senior civil servants, outside experts, and most critically of all, 10 prisoners who had participated in the riots. This three-day meeting resulted in a dramatic volte-face in the prevailing view concerning the roots of the violence in Scottish prisons; a switch from a focus on personal pathology to a focus on situational factors (Cooke et al., 2008). With the realisation that risk factors could be located in the functioning of prisons – for example, the absence of sophisticated frontline staff, shifts in parole policy, shoddy physical conditions, overcrowding, geographical remoteness, impoverished regimes and deterrent sentences – came a paradigm shift which can be characterised as a shift from doing things to prisoners to doing things with prisoners. How could these lessons be harnessed?

The rise and rise of risk assessment

Violence risk assessment is not a new or novel phenomenon and the last two decades have witnessed dramatic developments in the techniques and technology employed. Pioneers such as Stephan Hart, Randall Kropp and Chris Webster have blazed the trail in developing evidenced-based approaches to risk assessment and management. Using what they term structured professional judgement (SPJ) approaches they have developed a paradigm that is scientifically robust yet applicable – and ethical – and which allows the formulation of an understanding both of why an individual might be violent and, critically, of how identified risk might be managed. Various guides have been developed for the whole gamut of violent acts – sexual, spousal, child abuse, elder abuse, stalking, etc. Understandably, the focus of these guides is primarily on individual risk factors – drug abuse, mental disorder,

assessment. New York: Wiley. Mandela, N. (2002). Foreword. In E.G. Krug, J.A. Dahlberg, J.A. Mercy et al. (Eds.) World report on violence and health. Geneva: WHO. Scratton, P., Sim, J. & Skidmore, P. (1991). Prisons under protest. Milton Keynes: Open University Press. Simon, H.A. (1990). Invariants of human behaviour. Annual Review of Psychology, 41, 1–19.

relationship problems, employment difficulties, and so on. The SPJ procedures require the assessor to consider a number of risk factors known to be associated with violence risk. Information about risk factors is gathered through interview, document review and formal testing. If risk factors are present the assessor has to determine whether they are relevant to future violent offending; relevant either because they are in some sense causally linked to future violence, or because they may adversely affect the risk management plan. The assessor is required to formulate an account of why the individual may be at risk of violence, consider what form that violence might take and, finally, describe risk-management strategies designed to counter the risk. While the SPJ approach continues to evolve and flourish (Hart et al., 2011), we realised that focusing primarily on individual risk factors missed half of the equation; as Simon (1990) remarked, behaviour is shaped by a scissors, one blade being the characteristics of the actor, the other blade being the characteristics of their environment. Furthermore, whilst risk assessment has predominantly been the task of forensic practitioners, there is increasing recognition that broader clinical risks – suicide, self-harm, self-neglect, and other forms of challenging behaviour – require similarly robust methods of assessment (Webster et al., 2004). But how can we understand and measure the impact of the environment?

Mapping the terrain of situational risk factors

The statement that institutional factors affect violence is rather opaque. It is clear that you cannot measure what you cannot describe; you cannot intervene effectively with that which you cannot measure. We saw a clear need to complement the SPJ guides developed to consider individuals; we could see that the SPJ paradigm could apply to institutions as well as individuals. Our overarching aim was to develop evidence-based practice

Webster, C.D., Martin, M., Brink, J. et al. (2004) Short-term assessment of risk and treatability (START). Hamilton: St Joseph’s Healthcare. Wilson, N.J. & Tamatea, A. (2010). Beyond punishment. International Journal of Forensic Mental Health Services, 9, 192–204. Wortley, R. (2002). Situational prison control. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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guidelines that could be implemented in forensic settings and help to reduce the incidence of violence. We called these guidelines PRISM (Promoting Risk Interventions by Situational Management; Johnstone & Cooke, 2008). We developed PRISM in four steps guided by the principles of evidence-based practice. First, we performed a systematic review of the literature on situational risk factors for violence that occurs in prisons and forensic hospitals. We were struck by the paucity of systematic consideration of these risk factors (Gadon et al., 2006). Thus, in the second step we obtained evidence from prisoners and from hospital and prison staff through semistructured interviews. This was revealing. Not only did we gather evidence about what aspects of the institution should be considered, but also we struck a rich seam of explanations about why such factors might serve to promote violent incidents; factors that engender a sense of injustice (e.g. lack of facilities to meet basic needs such as hygiene and privacy; illegitimate or misuse of authority; inconsistency and inequities in access to resources), that entailed disrespectful treatment (verbal or physical abuse from staff), that promoted a sense of uncertainty or a sense of frustration (e.g. having tribunals or hearings cancelled, having transfers without warning) or fear (e.g. being in an environment that lacked basic safety and security procedures or had a high tolerance for violence), or conditions that could be regarded as deprivation (e.g. lack of sensory stimulation). All these processes serve to promote violence risk in some individuals. On the third step we took the evidence derived from both research and practice and used rational criteria to formulate the PRISM guidelines. Finally, we field-tested the approach in a pilot study of five Scottish prisons (Johnstone & Cooke, 2010). We identified 22 risk factors and decided that they could be usefully grouped into five distinct domains; History of Institutional Violence; Physical and Security Factors; Organisational Factors; Staff Features; and Case Management. The History of Institutional Violence domain focuses on the nature, frequency and pattern of violence in the last two years; this allows us to set a benchmark against which to compare this institution with itself over time, but also, with other comparable institutions. Evidence from this domain provides invaluable information for the scenario planning process used to project what form future violence might take in that institution. The Physical and Security Factors domain focuses on both the quality of the

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built environment (e.g. structural quality, cleanliness, noise, temperature, space) and security: Is the built environment fit for purpose and does it conform to health and safety and human rights concerns? What is the quality of supervision and control imposed; does it match the level of risk imposed or not? Either too rigorous or too lax security can serve to promote violence, the first through a need to save face, the second because of the anxiety generated. The Organisational Factors domain is a broad domain as it is concerned with the strengths and weaknesses of the institution being considered, but also it is concerned with the organisation in which the institution is embedded e.g. health authority or prison system. The focus is on the management of violence: Is there someone in charge of relevant policies, practices and procedures? Is the management focused on zero-tolerance of violent behaviour? Is conflict and change managed systematically and effectively? The Staff Features domain is perhaps the most salient domain when it comes to violence management, it focuses on the strengths and weaknesses of the staff compliment: Are appropriate staff recruited and retained? Are appropriate numbers available? Is the skills/experience mix correct? Do staff receive appropriate training for the management of potentially violent individuals? Do staff engage and communicate appropriately with those in their care? Do they receive required levels of support to do their jobs? The final domain, the Case Management domain, is focused on the services available to potentially violent inmates: Does the institution have a systematic approach to the evaluation of individual risks and needs? Are appropriate intervention programmes available? And more broadly, to what extent do inmates have access to positive experiences including education, recreation, contact with family?

PRISM in practice

Dreaming up an evaluation process is one thing, getting it into practice is another challenge. We designed PRISM to be action-orientated and collaborative; we strove to avoid the evaluation being viewed as ‘an inspection’. The first stage in the process is to recruit and train a multidisciplinary team to acquire the relevant information, to evaluate that information, to assess its relevance for future violence, to speculate systematically about what might happen in the institution in the future and, most

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critically, to propose and implement changes designed to obviate perceived risks. This approach increases ‘buy-in’ across the institution, perhaps the most rewarding comments are of the form ‘you haven’t told us anything we don’t know about the institution but you have allowed us to think about it systematically, and do something proactive’. Buy-in increases the likelihood of change. It is critical that risk interventions should be both realistic and achievable. It is essential that proposed changes fit with the capacities and capabilities of the institution and are implemented within an appropriate time frame. Some changes can be implemented immediately within current resources; others require long-term planning and the acquisition of suitable resources. But does it work? Case studies can be informative. The PRISM process has now been applied in secure hospitals and prisons in Scotland, England, New Zealand, Norway and Barbados (e.g. Cooke & Wozniak, 2010; Cregg & Payne, 2010; Johnstone & Cooke, 2010; Wilson & Tamatea, 2010). Two brief illustrations might demonstrate PRISM’s utility.

Hell in paradise – prisons in transitions

In March 2005 a fight broke out amongst a small group of prisoners in Her Majesty’s Prison Glendairy, Barbados. This prison was a remnant of empire, a large Victorian prison built in 1855 that by 2005 was in a dilapidated state. For three days this incident escalated, the

authorities lost control, prisoners rioted, they set fires and engaged in so much destructive behaviour that the prison was no longer habitable. The only prison on the island was lost; a major crisis ensued. Glendairy had contained almost a thousand prisoners, adults and young offenders, males and females, those who had been convicted and those still on remand; a group of adult males were on death row. They all had to be housed. The authorities acted swiftly; all metal fabrication on the island ceased and temporary accommodation of ‘cages’ made from reinforcing rods were created in a former naval base at Harrison’s Point. Containment was the key priority. We were invited by the government and prison service in Barbados to examine their system; we applied the PRISM process to provide a critical incident review of the riot at Glendairy and to provide an analysis of the problems inherent in the regime at Harrison’s Point (Cooke & Wozniak, 2010), but more importantly, our aim was forward-focused. A new prison was being constructed and our primary concern was not about attributing blame for past problems, but rather, our task was ensuring that the dysfunctional penal culture that had evolved in Glendairy – and which had been hardened in the fire and its aftermath – would not be transported to the new prison. We carried out staff and prison surveys, interviews and focus groups and implemented the PRISM process with a team from the Barbados prison service. The team made a large number of

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recommendations regarding more inclusive approaches to prison management, a programme for improving staff skill, staff morale and leadership, procedures for enhancing staff–prisoner relationships, methods for evaluating risk and needs of individual prisoners and the provision of offender-behaviour programmes. These recommendations, while drawing on best practice from an international perspective, were tailored to fit both the resources and cultures of Barbados: recommendations have to be implementable to be effective (Cooke & Wozniak, 2010). Recommendations included the implementation of a coherent and comprehensive communication strategy designed to enhance communication within the staff group and facilitate decision making as far down the hierarchy as possible. Staff training was improved with a greater emphasis being given, for example, to effective interpersonal skills and human rights training. Frontline staff felt alienated and disempowered, leadership training designed to reduce the overly hierarchical and constrained management style was recommended. The implementation of appropriate information systems was recommended to counter the identified problem that little systematic information was held about prisoners and that this lack led to capricious decision making. The implementation of offendingbehaviour programmes for selected prisoners was suggested. It is heartening to note that recently a group of international prison experts, led by Dr Frank Porporino, have engaged with the Barbados prison service to deliver these, and other, changes.

Eschewing the blame culture

The correctional service in New Zealand has the substantial challenge of managing members of organised criminal groups including members of Black Power and the Mongrel Mob. Nick Wilson and Armon Tamatea carried out a sophisticated study of three maximumsecurity units in Auckland prison. These units had witnessed serious, high-profile assaults. The problems of these units had a system-wide impact: prisoners in other prisons would be instructed by their gangs to perpetrate assaults in order to be transferred to the maximum-security units and thus maintain their gang’s position of power in those units. In common with many penal systems under stress the approach was to lock down – to impose extreme levels of control. This type of approach may have short-term benefits but the long-term consequences are invariably negative. Two observations were particularly

heartening. First, it was clear that the process of carrying out the PRISM was an intervention in and of itself: unit staff having had initial training spontaneously injected greater flexibility and variety into the quality-of-life experiences of the prisoners, they improved staff mix and implemented an active management approach to challenging prisoners. PRISM provided evidence to support the development of training in de-escalation techniques so that staff gained the skills – and confidence – to deal with problems without resorting to force. Second, Wilson and Tamatea observed that staff bought into the PRISM process; they saw it as relevant to their needs, but perhaps more importantly, they regard the application of scenario planning as emblematic of a shift from a blame culture focused on past problems to a focus on proactive interventions. PRISM is being applied in other settings and for a variety of purposes. Johnstone and Cooke (2010) carried out a multiple-case study comparing the violence risk of five Scottish prisons and Cregg and Payne (2010) used PRISM to evaluate the functioning of an institution for young people. The functioning of three prisons and two secure units in Norway is ongoing. As a whole, this work suggests that a situational approach to the management of violence in closed institutions is viable. The approach has a number of advantages. First, frequently there are cost benefits in intervening at the level of the institution rather than focusing all resources at the level of the individual; current assets being reorganised to provide more effective interventions (Wortley, 2002). Second, almost by definition many of the troublesome patients or prisoners are the least likely to engage in individualised interventions; however, they are not immune to situational interventions. Third, in our experience, situational interventions frequently generate positive changes in the quality of life of the institution.

Looking towards the future

We have come a long way from the blunt observation that an individual’s violent

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David J. Cooke is at Glasgow Caledonian University and the University of Bergen [email protected]. co.uk

behaviour is shaped by not only who they are, but critically, where they are. Over the last 20 years SPJ guides have comprehensively mapped out the terrain of individual risk factors; PRISM provides a first step towards mapping the terra incognita of situational risk factors. Yet there is still lots to do. There are a number of key applied questions and a number of theoretical questions. For example, will the situational approach work with other risks and with other populations? Violence to others is not the only risk posed by those in secure settings; does this approach assist in the understanding and management of other risks: self-harm, suicide, self-neglect, victimisation or absconding? We, and others, have applied the PRISM process in low-, medium- and high-security prisons and forensic hospitals, but would the broad approach assist in other settings where violence is prevalent: challenging behaviour units, residential childcare environments, accident and emergency units, care homes for older adults, wards for dementia sufferers? These are key applied questions. While the development of PRISM goes some way toward answering the ‘what?’ question – What risk factors operate to increase the likelihood of violence? A more interesting question is ‘Why?’. Our examination of the experiences in Barbados suggested multifarious processes ranging from disrespectful treatment, fear and uncertainty, through loss of agency, to frustration and deprivation play a role. An enhanced understanding of the mechanisms of risk should assist in the formulation of more targeted and effective situational interventions. The cost of violence at the individual and societal level can be substantial: violence remains a major obstacle to the safe and effective running of any institution. Perhaps we should close by considering the views of the most famous prisoner of the last century – Nelson Mandela – they should give us hope. He remarked, ‘Many who live with violence day in and day out assume that it is an intrinsic part of the human condition. But this is not so. Violence can be prevented.’ (Mandela, 2002).

Lorraine Johnstone is at NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde & Glasgow Caledonian University [email protected]

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BOOK REVIEWS

A timely contribution

A reviewer should properly start by telling the reader what a book is about, and not what it isn’t. Having said that, it’s worth emphasising that this isn’t a textbook about time perception, nor is it a general survey of contemporary research. Of course, it wasn’t intended to be either of these things. Rather, it’s a popular account of some phenomena in time perception that have attracted the author’s interest and, to be fair, the interest of others as well. A thread running through most chapters is the malleability of time experiences, how what people feel about time, and sometimes their time judgements as well, can be altered by many factors. This is illustrated by results from a wide range of eye-catching studies, including those with experimental participants being heated up or cooled down, people rolling blindfolded on trollies towards a drop down a staircase (the drop never happens, you’ll be happy to hear), people (volunteers, I hasten to add) falling from towers into nets, and anecdotes from an individual in a falling glider without a parachute (not a volunteer), and those who suffer isolation after terrifying abduction, or spend many days in caves without any external indication of the passage of time. There are six main sections. The first, ‘The Time Illusion’, introduces some of the situations in which distortions of time perception can occur. Then ‘Mind Clocks’ discusses some psychological and neuroscience-based approaches to time perception. Here there’s a surprising omission in that internal clock theory, the dominant approach to human time perception since the 1960s, barely gets a mention, a kind of Diplodocus in the room. This is all the more surprising as the essentials of clock theory are highly intuitive, and easily graspable by a ‘popular science’ audience, or at least that’s been my experience. Next, ‘Monday is Red’, discusses a wide range of material relating to how people conceive of the relation of Time Warped: Unlocking the Mysteries of months (linear? circular?) or longer periods of time, Time Perception how they relate time and space, how the language they Claudia Hammond speak may influence how they imagine past, present, and future, and how it changes behaviour. French and English speakers use length metaphors for time (‘a long meeting’) whereas for Spanish speakers, and particularly for Greeks (as a Greek I know verified), volume/size metaphors dominate (‘a big meeting’). In experiments, members of the entente cordiale, if this still exists, find it difficult to dissociate the length of lines from their duration, whereas our Hellenic colleagues manage this easily, but struggle to separate volume and time. The fourth section, ‘Why Time Speeds Up As You Get Older’, has a self-explanatory title, and reviews various approaches to this question, in my view one of the most complex and subtle in the field. The fifth section, ‘Remembering the Future’, mainly discusses relations between time and memory, but also whether animals can imagine the future (if they’re scrub jays they can!). Finally, in ‘Changing Your Relationship with Time’, the author offers practical advice about common time problems (‘too much to do, too little time’, for example). The book is engagingly written and discusses many interesting questions. Whether the quirky experiments mentioned produce replicable results, or have a single interpretation, is perhaps questionable, though. The book is refreshingly neuroscience-light, although the best-developed neural model of timing, the striatal beat-frequency model of Matell and Meck, is not mentioned. From a time-perception researcher’s viewpoint, the book inhabits a Fringe-style parallel universe, where Michel Treisman and John Gibbon never existed, but it’s important to remember that it was written not for me but for the general reader, who will find much to think about in it. I Canongate; 2012; Hb £14.99 Reviewed by John Wearden who is Professor of Psychology at Keele University (see interview in this month’s special feature on time, p.582)

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Evolutionary psychology and the real world Applied Evolutionary Psychology S. Craig Roberts (Ed.) Finally a textbook that brings evolutionary psychology to real life! The book is a collection of individually authored chapters, all robustly researched, that can be of interest to the student, researcher, lecturer or applied professional. The chapters are arranged in six broad sections: Business, Family, Society, Health, Marketing and Communication, and Technology. The issues covered are vast and varied, ranging from increasing drivers’ safety to fostering family law; or from mass politics to designing a sexually attractive eau de toilette. Throughout, considerable consideration is given to sex differences in the domains discussed and the different authors stress the need to provide ecologically sensible advice in this respect. This book is a testimony to how findings from evolutionary psychology can be translated into practical applications and solutions for the social, economic, ecological and political challenges facing our species. Understanding the origins of our behaviour and its underlying psychological mechanisms could result in targeted behavioural modifications, with the goal of eventually achieving optimal prosocial behaviour, individual health and well-being. I OUP; 2011; Hb £49.99 Reviewed by Lara Eschler who holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge

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book reviews

Words that hurt

Potential to bounce!

Caste in Britain today

Cyberbullying in the Global Playground: Research from International Perspectives Qing Li, Donna Cross & Peter K Smith

Oxford Handbook of Reciprocal Adult Development and Learning (2nd edn) Carol Hoare (Ed.)

British Untouchables: A Study of Dalit Identity and Education Paul Ghuman

I Wiley-Blackwell; 2012; Hb £75.00 Reviewed by Ellen Goudsmit who is a health psychologist and Fellow of the BPS

I OUP; 2011; Hb £95.00 Reviewed by Wendy Cousins who is a Chartered Psychologist at the University of Ulster School of Nursing

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Caste in Britain has received little academic or policy attention but can have a profound impact on the lives of some South Asian people. ‘Caste’ has various meanings. As a religious concept, it labels some people as innately impure (untouchable), with consequent implications for self-perception and self-value. As a social system, caste divides people according to their ancestors’ occupations, defining suitable marriage partners and creating exclusive support structures, with consequent impacts on individuals’ lives. Paul Ghuman’s book provides an excellent introduction to caste, describing the different concepts of caste, its historical and political development and its continuing, intimate relationship with religious movements, including those promising an escape from the stigma of ‘untouchability’. For this alone the book is worth reading. However, the book also

I Ashgate; 2011; Hb £45.00 Reviewed by Hilary Metcalf who is Director of Employment and Social Policy Research, National Institute of Economic and Social Research

MORE REVIEWS ONLINE See www.thepsychologist.org.uk for this month’s web-only reviews

just in

This book consists of 14 chapters, 12 of which discuss surveys of cyberbullying conducted in various countries during the past few years. However, that was largely before Facebook and trolling, and the number of children affected has almost certainly grown. What we learn is that cyberbullying is a poorly defined, cross-cultural phenomenon, that it can cause significant emotional distress and that there is an urgent need for more school-based initiatives aimed at prevention and improving management. Of particular interest is the role of the bystander. Various authors suggest that doing nothing maintains and perpetuates bullying as it creates an ‘audience’ and provide the perpetrators with the status and power they seek. This is not just about venting anger or taking revenge, this is also a way to attract attention in a world that allows one to remain anonymous and escape retaliation. It’s about the bully’s lack of empathy, the different moral standards and social codes for online behaviour and an inadequate legal system. A useful introduction but only covers the tip of a fast growing iceberg.

Scholarship on adult development and learning is a fairly recent phenomenon. Early theorists like Freud and Piaget assumed that personality and cognitive development were psychological tasks completed in the early years. Hoare argues that this led to a misconception that developmental continuity stretches like a giant rubber band between infancy and old age with developmental traits and abilities fixed at the band’s beginning and always snapping back to those childhood origins. In a series of specially commissioned review papers this book challenges the ‘rubber band’ idea to present new understandings of a dynamic and complex adult developmental pathway. Contributors outline the link between development and learning to explore how learning leads to development of intelligence, self-efficacy, creativity, spirituality, wisdom (and others) and how positive changes in development result in greater learning. As life spans increase and populations age, this reconception of our lives – not as rubber bands waiting to snap, but more as a rubber balls with potential to bounce – will be an attractive one for all academics and practitioners who promote optimal ageing.

provides insight into the operation and impact of caste on people’s lives in the UK today. It focuses on pupils in two secondary schools and reports interviews with them, their teachers and parents. It also reports on a three-year study of five families. Religion, identity, caste awareness, gender, attitudes towards education and aculturalisation are all examined. Attitudes towards caste and its prominence vary. It is clear that, for some, caste is not an issue. However, even amongst some who downplay the importance of caste, some ‘untouchables’ report suffering caste-based bullying at school, whilst other, higher-caste pupils place great importance on marriage within caste. Overall, the book helps the reader to understand this important influence on the psychological and social experience of some South Asians in Britain.

Sample titles just in: Effective Writing in Psychology Barbara Beins & Agatha Beins The Psychology of Ageing (5th edn) Ian Stuart-Hamilton The Winner Effect: How Power Affects Your Brain Ian Robertson For a full list of books available for review and information on reviewing for The Psychologist, see www.bps.org.uk/books Send books for potential review to The Psychologist, 48 Princess Road East, Leicester LE1 7DR

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BPS T Textbooks extbooks in P Psychology sy ychology c No other series bears the BPS seal of appr approval oval Refreshingly written to consider more than Northern American research, this series is the first to give a truly international perspective. Every title fully complies with the BPS syllabus in the topic. Each book is supported by a companion website, fe eaturing additional resource materialss fo or both instructors and students.

Special discounts disc ounts available a vailable ffor or BPS members*

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Psychology courses starting in October 2012 Birkbeck’s Department of Psychological Sciences combines world-leading research with outstanding teaching. We offer a range of part-time courses, taught in the evenings from Certificate of Higher Education level to Master’s, all starting in October 2012. Cert HE Applied Psychology/Psychoanalytic Psychology/Interpersonal Communication These all study the application of appropriate theories to themes, issues and settings.

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The workshop will cover case conceptualisation; depression and anxiety; working with mandated or coerced clients; ‘selling ACT’ to your clients; getting to values when your client says ‘I don’t know’; overcoming resistance and motivating the unmotivated; trauma; anger and addiction; compassion and forgiveness. This workshop is both didactic and experiential. It is at an advanced level and assumes that you are familiar with the ACT model and ‘hexaflex’. Ideally you will have attended at least one ACT introductory workshop before attending this one.

The Psychologist is influential both through its reach and through its quality. There are no other regular publications for professional psychologists which go to anywhere near as many readers. With an average issue readership of over 69,000, The Psychologist has a readership of more than four times its closest rival.

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About the trainer: Russ Harris a medical practitioner, psychotherapist and one of the foremost ACT trainers in the world. His workshops are highly acclaimed and he is renowned for his ability to make complex ideas simple, clear and accessible. He is also the author of very popular self help book, ‘The Happiness Trap’, and also ‘ACT Made Simple’. Venue: London Irish Centre, 50-52 Camden Square, London, Greater London,NW1 9XB Times: Tues 2nd October: 9.00am-4.30pm Weds 3rd of October: 9.00am-4.00pm Tea/coffee and lunch will be provided Prices:

Early bird (until August 31) £199 Non-early bird (after August 31) £239 Student (evidence required) £129

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City Colleges, Dublin presents:

Mindfulness-integrated CBT (MiCBT) Workshop With Dr. Bruno Cayoun (MiCBT InsƟtute, Australia)

Sat 15th & Sun 16th September 2012, Red Cow Moran Hotel, Dublin 2-day workshop: €270 (includes book & 2 CDs) / Online course: €770 (includes workshop) The aim of this 2-day introductory workshop in MiCBT is to introduce the integraƟon of mindfulness training with core principles of CogniƟve Behaviour Therapy to improve our way of addressing crisis and prevent relapse in a wide range of psychological disorders. It will describe the important theoreƟcal framework underlying MiCBT and introduce parƟcipants to the use of these skills across a wide range of chronic and acute condiƟons. With the opportunity to lead on to the… MiCBT Online FoundaƟon Course for Mental Health Professionals (7 weeks): 22 September – 3 November, 2012 Course materials include: “Mindfulness-integrated CBT: Principles and PracƟce” by Dr Cayoun (Wiley-Blackwell, 2011) and 2 CDs for the full implementaƟon of mindfulness training (for beginners and advanced). Contact details: visit the City Colleges website at: hƩp://www.citycolleges.ie/wp/faculƟes/school-of-psychology/ for further informaƟon. For booking, call us on (Ireland) 1850 25 27 40 or email us on [email protected]

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Piaget, Rawlings, Spearman, and Myers all left something to Psychology …

What will you leave?

A lasting contribution The British Psychological Society is the representative body for psychology and psychologists in the UK. Formed in 1901, it now has approximately 45,000 members. By its Royal Charter, the Society is charged with national responsibility for the development, promotion and application of pure and applied psychology for the public good, and with promoting the efficiency and usefulness of Society members by maintaining a high standard of professional education and knowledge. With your help the Society works to: ■ To encourage the development of psychology as a scientific discipline and an applied profession; ■ To raise standards of training and practice in the application of psychology; ■ To raise public awareness of psychology and increase the influence of psychological practice in society. By including us in your will you can help ensure the future of your discipline in the years to come by continuing to support the Society. For more information on how to leave a legacy please contact Russell Hobbs, Finance Director at [email protected] or call him on 0116 252 9540.

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SOCIETY

President’s column Peter Banister

President Dr Peter Banister

Contact Peter Banister via the Society’s Leicester office, or e-mail: [email protected]

President Elect Dr Richard Mallows Vice President Dr Carole Allan Honorary General Secretary Professor Pam Maras Honorary Treasurer Dr Richard Mallows Chair, Membership Standards Board Dr Mark Forshaw Chair, Psychology Education Board Professor Dorothy Miell Chair, Research Board Professor Judi Ellis Chair, Publications and Communications Board Dr Graham Powell Chair, Professional Practice Board David Murphy The Society has offices in Belfast, Cardiff, Glasgow and London, as well as the main office in Leicester. All enquiries should be addressed to the Leicester office (see inside front cover for address). The British Psychological Society was founded in 1901, and incorporated by Royal Charter in 1965. Its object is ‘to promote the advancement and diffusion of a knowledge of psychology pure and applied and especially to promote the efficiency and usefulness of Members of the Society by setting up a high standard of professional education and knowledge’. Extract from The Charter

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iven the focus in this issue on time, 1948 Edinburgh Congress to form an I would like to start this column off by International Union of Psychological Science congratulating counselling psychology on (IUPsyS), and this was formalised at the reaching its 30th anniversary; this Division of Stockholm Congress in 1951. Since then IUPsyS the Society is now the third largest (grown from has organised the Congresses, and in 2012 it 225 to over 3000 members), and is one of the will be held for the first time in Africa in Cape core professions within psychology. For me Town, with some 4000 participants. 1982 seems very close, but when I remind IUPsyS is ‘dedicated to the development, myself that the majority of this year’s university representation and advancement of psychology entrants were born in 1994 (1995 in Scotland) as a basic and applied science’, and sees itself as it seems further away. I am also reminded that enhancing and promoting the development of in 1982 the BPS had 8721 members, the average the science and profession of psychology, income was £9350, a house cost £23,644, petrol exchanging ideas and scientific information 35p litre, a cinema or a between psychologists Manchester United ticket cost internationally, £1.60, the Commodore 64 and providing opportunities CDs arrived, the first commercial for international use of genetic engineering (human exchange, fostering insulin) occurred, and I realise we excellence in standards all have come a long way. for education training This summer has been one research and the of many international sporting applications of endeavours, including the Euro psychology. Fostering 2012 football and Wimbledon these connections tennis, the ongoing Olympics and hopefully will be of the yet to start Paralympics. In benefit to all of us. August, I will be away trying to There are many other The first International Congress help to develop the international international psychological of Psychology had its closing profile of the Society. associations, but one that banquet in the then brand-new Psychology has an we now have very regular international history that pre-dates Eiffel Tower dealings with is the the founding of the BPS. The first European Federation of International Congress of Psychologists’ Associations Psychology was held in Paris in 1889, with (EFPA), which encompasses 35 member 204 attendees, mainly European. This was associations representing about 300,000 an initiative of a Polish psychologist Julian psychologists (it claims that 48 per cent of Ochorowicz, and took place during the the world’s psychologists live in Europe). EFPA Exposition Universelle of 1889, the conference was founded in Germany in 1981, and holds having its closing banquet in the then branda General Assembly every two years, with the new Eiffel Tower. We would recognise some of next one scheduled to be in Stockholm next the topics, such as heredity and cognition, but year. It is particularly interested in promoting others such as hypnotism and psychical research and improving psychology as a profession and have now somewhat fallen out of favour. There as a discipline, especially in applied settings were in fact many debates in the early years as with an emphasis on training and research. to what psychology encompassed, and We in fact have so many BPS members working experimental psychology eventually won out with EFPA that we have set up a virtual over psychical research. community to try to coordinate our work here. Sponsors of the first Congress included wellAs was highlighted in The Psychologist in known people such as Charcot, Galton, James, November 2011 (p.843) the Society has been Janet, Lombroso and Wundt. Since then there approved to award the EuroPsy Certificate, and have been 30 conferences, mainly held in now the National Awarding Committee for the Europe, every four years since 1972. These were UK has met and started to issue certificates. initially organised by an International Congress EFPA is intending to supplement the basic Committee; a proposal was put forward at the certificate with specialist certificates, and is

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Supplementary guidance on the use of social media From the Society’s Ethics Committee The Society recognises its obligation to set and uphold the highest standards of professionalism, and to promote ethical behaviour, attitudes and judgement on the part of psychologists. This is principally addressed in the Code of Ethics and Conduct, but the Ethics Committee acknowledges that more and more of our members are using social networking sites or blogs to communicate with friends, family, professional networks and clients. This specific guidance therefore addresses the use of social media by members of the Society, sets out how the Code of Ethics and Conduct can be applied in this context and provides practical advice for using them responsibly. As set out in the Code of Ethics and Conduct, psychologists are likely to need to make decisions in difficult, changing and unclear situations. The Society expects that the Code will be used to form a basis for consideration of ethical questions, with the principles of the Code being taken into account in the process of making decisions. However, no Code can replace the need for psychologists to use their professional and ethical judgement. Thinking about ethics should pervade all professional activity. As clearly stated in Section 3.1(ii) of the Code of Ethics and Conduct and the Society’s Member Conduct Rules: ‘Members must not act in a way that damages, or is likely to damage, the reputation of the British Psychological Society’ (Rule 1). To this end, the principles set out in the Code of Ethics and Conduct apply at all times including when the member is online; it will be judged in the same way and should be at a similar high standard. You should: I Remember that social networking sites are public and permanent. Once you have posted something online, it remains traceable even if you later delete it. I Keep your professional and personal life as separate as possible. This may be best achieved by having separate accounts, for example Facebook could be used for personal use and LinkedIn or Twitter (for example) used for professional purposes). I If ‘friends’ requests are received from clients and service users, decline the request via more formal means of communication. I Be minded that whether you identify yourself as a psychologist or not on your profile, you should act responsibly at all times and uphold the reputation of the profession. I Protect your privacy. Consider the kinds of information that you want to be available about yourself and to whom. Ensure that you regularly check your privacy settings. Be aware that social

currently working on these specifically in the areas of Psychotherapy and Work and Organisational Psychology. The Association has an ultimate aim of providing a Professional Card that is intended to facilitate European professional mobility, and this is an ongoing development that we will need to be aware of. As mentioned by Carole Allan last year EFPA is beginning to lobby the European Parliament, showcasing psychology. There are many other international links such as EuroPlat, which is an

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networking sites may update their services and privacy settings can be reset to a default that deletes your personalised settings. Remember that images posted online by family (for example your children) or friends, may be accessible as they may not set privacy settings as tightly as you do. Be minded that social networking sites can make it easier to engage (intentionally or unintentionally) in professional misconduct. Report the misconduct of other members on such social networking sites to any relevant parties (such as the employer, the Health Professions Council and the Society).

You should not: Establish inappropriate relationships with clients and service users online. I Discuss work-related issues online in any non-secure medium. I Publish pictures of clients or service users online, where they are classified as clinical records. I Use social networking sites for whistle-blowing or raising concerns. I Post defamatory comments about individuals or institutions. Defamation law can apply to any comments posted on the web, irrespective of whether they are made in a personal or professional capacity

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Advice to educators, researchers and employers: If in place, abide by, or if not, develop clear guidance and policies on social media usage and what constitutes misuse. Additional guidance on conducting research on the internet is also available from the Society. I Ensure that those responsible for enforcing such guidance and policy are consistent in their application and fully understand the requirements set out. I Ensure that any complaints regarding the use of social media are dealt with in the same manner as any other form of complaint. In some cases, online misconduct can be damaging and have longer-term consequences, due to the permanency and traceability of material published online.

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In recognition of the rapid developments in social media and its uses, this Guidance will be regularly reviewed by the Ethics Committee and members will be alerted to any updated version. For any queries, contact [email protected].

European academic network to support the learning and teaching of psychology by sharing good practice and developing the related scholarship through research, conferences, discussion fora, websites and newsletters. There are associations of European teachers of psychology, professional psychology networks and also student networks. Many of our university staff hold international qualifications, we provide psychology education overseas, and there are opportunities for student and staff exchange throughout the world. All these international contacts are

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very important for the development of psychology and psychologists both academically and professionally. The BPS needs to work internationally to ensure we have an effective voice, and such activities are now a key part of all our Boards. We need to be involved in capacity building, joint research, reciprocal arrangements, helping the development of psychological services and education in psychology, promoting the discipline. There are many diverse aspirations and possibilities, and I would welcome your comments on these developments.

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Honorary status in the Society The Society welcomed five new Honorary Fellows and one Honorary Life Member at its June Annual General Meeting. Here we present edited extracts from the eulogies read on the day.

Professor Annette KarmiloffSmith, Honorary Fellow

Annette Karmiloff-Smith is known internationally for her seminal contributions to our understanding of normal human cognitive development and of atypical cognitive development in infants and children with genetic disorders. What makes Professor Karmiloff-Smith stand apart from other scientists in all these fields, and which represents the hallmark of her career, is that she has contributed to Professor Karmiloffmajor theoretical and Smith experimental paradigm shifts in many different cognitive domains, different age groups and different neurodevelopmental disorders, using a wide array of different behavioural, brain-imaging, eye-tracking and computational methodologies. Her first focus was children’s problem solving. Annette’s first highly influential article, published in Cognition, ‘If you want to get ahead, get a theory’, continues to be cited. Both the theoretical framework and the experimental designs influence research in developmental science and science education today. The second paradigm shift to which Professor Karmiloff-Smith contributed was in language acquisition. Shifting the emphasis from nativist theories and descriptive lists of children’s linguistic outputs, to the cognitive level, KarmiloffSmith revealed that phonology, semantics,

SOCIETY NOTICES BPS Annual Conference 2013, Harrogate See p.566 BPS conferences and events See p.621 Learning Centre CPD Workshops See p.622

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syntax and pragmatics are not separate modules at the outset but interact dynamically during the period of acquisition in children, prior to becoming relatively modularised in the adult brain. Thirdly, she was one of the first researchers in the world to move away from behavioural scores to focus on representational change over time. Her 1992 MIT Press book Beyond Modularity: A Developmental Perspective on Cognitive Science, which won the British Psychological Society’s Book Award in 1995, laid out the tenets of her Representational Redescription Hypothesis (RRH) which had enormous impact, demonstrating that linguistic representations play a critical role in establishing internal cross-domain relations. The fourth paradigm shift to which Karmiloff-Smith contributed concerned the study of genetic disorders in children. Her work strongly challenged the accepted view that neurodevelopmental disorders could be explained in terms of patterns of intact and impaired modules, based on approaches from adult neuropsychology. Karmiloff-Smith’s work has consistently aimed to demonstrate that if domain-specific modules exist in the adult brain, these are the result of a gradual process of modularisation over developmental time. This has influenced researchers to delve far more deeply into areas of relative proficiency in developmental disorders, rather than concentrating only on areas of deficiency. Author of 12 books and some 250 book chapters and peer-reviewed articles in the highest-impact journals, KarmiloffSmith is a Fellow of numerous other professional bodies. In 2002, she was the first woman to win the European Science Foundation’s Latsis Prize for Cognitive Sciences, and two years later she received a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list. In 2010, she received the joint Llifetime Achievement Award from the Research Board of the British Psychological Society. As a regular consultant to radio and television, as well as to industry, Karmiloff-Smith has made a concerted effort to bring developmental science to the general public. She is also involved in a programme for lecturing about typical and atypical cognitive development to paediatricians in developing countries in Africa and Asia. In sum, Annette Karmiloff-Smith is a world-leading figure in developmental

science for her seminal theoretical and experimental contributions to our understanding of normal human cognitive development and of atypical cognitive and neural development in infants, children and adults with genetic disorders. Annette Karmiloff-Smith’s significant contribution to psychological science, many achievements and wideranging impact make her a worthy nominee for honorary fellowship of the British Psychological Society.

Professor David Farrington, Honorary Fellow

Professor Farrington OBE is Professor of Psychological Criminology at the Institute of Criminology, Cambridge University. His work has spanned over five decades in understanding the processes that contribute to criminal behaviour and how both individual and societal factors influence life outcomes. His work is a standard reference point for much work in forensic psychology and more broadly has contributed to government policy. His work has no doubt both highlighted the contribution of psychology to wider society and been a platform from which psychology has been advanced. Professor Farrington remains involved in Society activity and last year presented a keynote at the BPS Annual Professor Farrington Conference titled ‘Risk, promotive and protective factors against violence’. Not only has his work directly influenced both psychology and society, his enthusiasm and commitment remains an inspiration to many others in the field. He is a Chartered Forensic Psychologist, co-chair of the US National Institute of Justice Study Group on Transitions from Juvenile Delinquency to Adult Crime, co-chair of the Centre for Disease Control’s Expert Panel on Protective Factors against Youth Violence, a member of the Board of Directors of the International Observatory on Violence in Schools, a member of the Campbell Collaboration Crime and Justice Group

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Steering Committee, joint editor of the journal Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health, and a member of the editorial boards of 17 other journals. His major research interest is in developmental criminology, and he is Director of the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development, which is a prospective longitudinal survey of over 400 London males from age 8 to age 48. He is also co-Investigator of the Pittsburgh Youth Study, which is a prospective longitudinal study of over 1500 Pittsburgh males from age 7 to age 35. In addition to 540 published journal articles and book chapters on criminological and psychological topics, he has published over 80 books, monographs and government publications, one of which (Understanding and Controlling Crime, 1986) won the prize for distinguished scholarship of the American Sociological Association Criminology Section.

Professor Dianne Berry, Honorary Fellow

Professor Dianne Berry was elected to the Chair of the British Psychological Society’s Research Board for two consecutive terms, from 1995 to 2001 and served as the Deputy President of the Society over the same period. During this time she played a leading role in strengthening recognition of the importance of nurturing young researchers and of their role in the health of the discipline and in providing support for their activities. She led initiatives that have made a great impact on the support for young researchers, including Postgraduate Conference Bursaries, the Postgraduate Study Visit scheme and the Award for Outstanding Doctoral Research Contributions. One of Professor Berry’s key initiatives as Chair of the Research Board – setting up annual liaison meetings between the Society and the main Research Councils – has had a lasting impact on the strength and quality of the research base in the discipline. Professor Berry also played a key role in the instigation of the Academy for Social Sciences, which has developed into a strong voice for social Professor Berry science

disciplines and an increasingly effective vehicle for fostering interdisciplinary understanding and research. Professor Berry has been an influential and effective ambassador for the discipline of psychology, including as a member of the HEFCE Advisory Group, Chair of the Joint Committee for Psychology in Higher Education, a member of the Research Assessment Exercise Psychology Panel in 2001 and as Chair of the 2008 Panel. All of the excellent and outstanding contributions that Professor Berry has made for and on behalf of the discipline have been achieved while holding and carrying out to an exceptionally high standard several very responsible positions: Head of a leading Psychology Department, Dean of a Faculty of Social Sciences, and Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research, at the University of Reading. Her dedication, leadership and effectiveness have made a major difference to the support of young researchers and to the strength, standing and outward-looking perspective of the discipline. Through this her contribution to higher education has been exceptional, culminating in her being awarded an OBE in the New Year’s Honours List 2012.

Professor Glyn Humphreys, Honorary Fellow

Glyn Humphreys is Watts Professor of Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford. He has interests across many areas in visual cognition, spanning both cognitive and social neuroscience. Recent work has examined the ability to select stimuli by perceptual saliency, the role of learning Professor Humphreys in binding, the interaction between working memory, action and attention. It covers a wide range of neuropsychological disorders including agnosia, apraxia, action disorganisation syndrome, alexia and amnesia, and includes the development of new clinical screening instruments for detecting cognitive problems after brain injury. Glyn has been awarded the Spearman Medal and Presidents’ Award from the British Psychological Society. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine,

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the Humboldt Foundation and the British Academy. He has been Special Professor at the Universities of Leipzig and Peking and at the National Academy of Sciences, China. He is a former President of the Experimental Psychology Society and is President-elect of the British Neuropsychology Society. He is a member of the Academy of Sciences, the New York Academy of Sciences and has been award the Royal Society’s Wolfson Merit award. His outstanding achievements in research have been progressed while taking on senior roles in university departments and university life more broadly. He has also taken on significant roles representing the discipline, most recently as Chair of the REF 2014 UoA: Psychology, Psychiatry & Neuroscience. Professor Humphrey’s enthusiasm, dedication, leadership and mentoring has raised the profile and standing of the discipline in the UK and internationally, and provided excellent advice and support for early-career researchers in his and his colleagues’ research teams.

Professor Peter Saville, Honorary Fellow

Peter Saville is one of the most prominent and creative occupational psychologists in the UK and he has an impeccable global reputation. As the early instigator of modern UK workplace psychometric testing, Peter has developed more than 100 work-related tests, probably best known for creating the original Occupational Personality Questionnaire (OPQ), published in 1984. In the same year he developed the first commercially available measure of the Big Five (the OPQ Pentagon). His measures of ability, personality, motivation and talent are now extensively used across the globe and have had a major impact on HR and on the practice and professionalism of a generation of psychologists. Peter has enhanced the impact of psychology from both a practical and academic perspective, and his innovative approach continuously drives forward the research and application of psychology into the internet age. Peter’s PhD, examined by Hans Eysenck, looked at the factor structure of Cattell’s 16PF. From 1990 to 1998 he was Professor of Occupational Psychology at Queen’s University and is currently Professor of Leadership, HRM and Organisation at Kingston Business School, a position he has held since 1999. In 1970 Peter Saville joined the National Foundation for Educational Research as an Assistant Psychologist. By the age of 27 he was Chief Psychologist at

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the Test Division where he was responsible for the standardisation and adaptation of psychological and educational tests for clinical, educational, and industrial use. He was actively involved with the BPS Test Standards Committee, enhancing and developing best test practice. Peter also acted as Specialist Advisor to the United Nations and as International Consultant to Mensa. Peter has twice built up highly successfully companies which have become leaders in the field of workplace assessments. As Executive Chairman of SHL with some 300 psychologists, and now Saville Consulting, he has flown the flag for Britain and objective assessment around the Professor Saville world and has been referred to as an ‘assessment guru’. In 2012 he was awarded the Academic Fellowship of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development for Leadership and Research Innovation, the highest accolade within the CIPD. Professor Saville’s services to the field of psychology in terms of applying the science to the workplace and creating the global gold standard for psychometric tests are exemplary and, we believe, worthy of recognition. He is held in the highest esteem by academics worldwide and acknowledged as a major leader in the field of occupational psychology.

Sylvia Downs, Honorary Lifetime Member

Sylvia Downs is a past chair of the Division of Occupational Psychology, and an exemplar of someone who has given outstanding service to psychology through both her ground-breaking work on older adult learning and through her services to the DOP. Now 85 years old, she still communicates the value of psychology to others and she inspires them. Her focus is on the development of other people. She continues to be active in the psychology profession and contributes her wisdom and expertise to her fellow psychologists whenever possible. From her days in the Wrens (see tinyurl.com/sylviadowns) to her pioneering research in psychology through to her active retirement, Sylvia continues to seize the moment and to challenge expectations. In November 2009, she received a Lifetime

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Achievement Award from the Division of Occupational Psychology, recognising her outstanding contribution to our profession. She was an early member and founder of the section of Occupational Psychology, bringing both leadership skills and a practical and realistic perspective to her three years as the Division’s Chair. Sylvia has worked to ensure high professional standards coupled with a strong emphasis on learning and development, and she was instrumental in supporting the training and development of many psychologists. Over the years, she retained her academic and industrial links including Visiting Professor at City University Business School, Visiting Professor at Queen’s University Belfast and at the Open College of New Zealand Wellington and as a Visiting Fellow at the University of Exeter. Sylvia is active in the community and continues to give her time and skills to others. She currently works with the Exeter Aged Macular Society where has introduced a buddy system and made meetings more friendly and productive for participants. She is working with Age Concern, looking at older people’s interests and how to engage them. She continues to love travel and has Sylvia Downs visited many countries around the globe. She recognises the signs of ageing but is still full of energy and vitality. She continues to write and she is starting a publishing firm with her husband and grandson. She has republished her Learning at Work book as Making Learning Happen and has written a new book, Passing 70 Plus. Like many of the early ‘pioneers’ in our field, Sylvia has persistently challenged existing practice and ensured that professionalism and ‘good science’ prevailed. In 1950 she gained her BSc Honours Psychology, University College London with a pure Mathematics subsidiary. In those days, men easily got a job in defence as a psychologist, but women did not. So, she took a job as a secretary in a new research unit at the Child Study Centre. This was administered by the Institutes of Child Health and Education, where they were conducting the first longitudinal study on normal babies in England. She conducted

research and applied statistics. She expanded her work on training with the London Postal School. They were having a problem with the training of people 35 years and older, in that they often had difficulty memorising addresses so therefore failed final tests. She designed a programme to overcome these issues. Sylvia’s work expanded to the training of London bus and underground train drivers; also to the relationship of age to training and labour turnover. Her work in twelve Government Skills Centres with carpenters and welders demonstrated the link between the learning of specific tasks and performance in training, not only for older workers but in general. This work later expanded to how people were enabled to self-assess their own ability, and the implications for training programmes such as following the redundancies in the South Wales coal mines, and in Strangeways Prison. Her many researches on trainability led to her being made a Fellow of the BPS. For 21 years Sylvia worked at the Industrial Training Research Unit in Cambridge. In 1981 she was headhunted by the Manpower Services Commission, and set up her own research unit, The Occupational Research Unit, at the University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology, researching and designing youth training and courses for long-term unemployed older workers. The focus of these ‘learning to learn’ courses was on methods related to M.U.D. facts to memorise, concepts to understand, and physical activities which are learned by practising. At age 60, Sylvia retired from the university and joined Pearn Kandola, and the firm became known as Pearn Kandola Downs. Her main clients were ICI, who sent her to South Africa regularly for eight years to help with selection and learning in the context of fairness and equality. In 2009 Sylvia won the DOP’s coveted Lifetime Achievement Award. She continues to hold an active interest in the DOP, and attends its annual conference when able thus sharing her expertise and knowledge with a new generation. The Division holds her up high as a model applied psychologist and leader of our profession.

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Socially inclusive parenting Dr Fabian Davis recently returned from the biennial Mental Health Europe Conference in Split, Croatia, where he presented a paper on behalf of the Society’s Social Inclusion Group. The paper, ‘Technique Is Not Enough (TINE): A Framework for Ensuring that Parenting Programmes Are Socially Inclusive’, is to be published shortly by the Society’s Professional Practice Board. The authors are Dr Fabian Davis, Consultant Clinical Psychologist, Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust and Chair of the Social Inclusion Group in the Society; Dr Lynn McDonald, Professor of Social Work Research at Middlesex University; and Dr Nick Axford, Senior Researcher at the Social Research Unit, Dartington. The paper has a foreword by Naomi Eisenstadt CB, former Director of the Social Exclusion Task Force in the UK Cabinet Office. Dr Davis reports that ‘the paper was well received, and policy implementation professionals and clinicians from several European countries showed interest in its innovative approach, which explores how to make parenting and family skills training programmes inclusive of parents who are from a background of social and economic disadvantage’. The paper argues that we must go beyond showing simple effectiveness in randomised controlled trials when developing our approaches to parenting and family skills training programmes. The next challenge is to move towards adapting such programmes so they are attractive and accessible to parents from diverse cultures and by making them acceptable to a wide range of socioeconomic groups, in order to achieve higher retention rates in poor communities. Programmes should also contribute to the development of a local culture of positive parenting by working across the domains of home, school and health to build social capital and local ownership. The authors argue that in combination these approaches will enhance the likelihood that such programmes are sustained in the longterm, thus enabling evidence-based parenting training to be integrated into ‘services as usual’.

The paper represents the outcome of three years work on social inclusion and family well-being sponsored by the Society. The thinking around the paper was shaped through the involvement of practitioners from social work, educational, clinical and community psychology, family and art psychotherapy, and general practice, and academics from Bedford University and the Inclusion Institute at the University of Central Lancashire, as well as teachers, parenting practitioners and families who have taken part in implementing parenting programmes in the UK. The work also involved children’s rights organisations World of Inclusion and Save the Children UK. The authors surveyed the United Nations’ top 23 evidence-based parenting/family skills training programmes during 2011 and received 11 responses. The paper uses examples from the survey to illustrate a heuristic framework for enhancing social inclusion. The TINE Framework comprises the four principles of maximising accessibility and retention, culturally adapting programmes with parents via co-production, building social capital in local communities and developing sustainability from the outset. For each principle the paper cites a wide range of emerging good practice from established evidencebased programmes. Whilst fully endorsing the need for programmes to show evidence of simple effectiveness, the paper also recommends that programme developers (most of whom are psychologists), commissioners and recommending bodies such as the United Nations should adopt two further dimensions of overall effectiveness. First, measures of the social inclusion of disadvantaged groups in parenting programmes should be required as an integral part of evaluative research and ongoing programme development, and should be monitored in local implementations. Second, programmes

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should be able demonstrate their capacity to be socially inclusive in their planning and implementation whilst evidencing high retention rates in other similar communities. The paper is particularly timely, given the ongoing CANparent UK outcomes trial announced by the Children and Families Minister, Sarah Teather MP (see p.492, July). Dr Davis told us: ‘The paper will be widely disseminated as a landmark in thinking about how to offer culturally valued knowledge about universally applicable parenting approaches in forms that are both accessible and culturally respectful of the needs of those people who need this support most – parents who are often socially excluded and living in economically disadvantaged communities because of structural social and economic inequality.’ The TINE Framework will also be presented at an international conference on Evidence-based Parenting Programmes and Strategies for Social Inclusion at Middlesex University on 20 September (details from [email protected]) and at the BPS Faculty of Children and Young People’s annual conference on 26 September in Manchester. Further dissemination is anticipated.

BA/BPS LECTURE This year’s British Academy/British Psychological Society Annual Public Lecture takes place at the British Academy, Carlton House Terrace, London, on 17 October. The speaker is Professor Ian Deary, Director of the Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology at the University of Edinburgh. He will present his lecture on Professor Sir Godfrey Thomson and the Scottish Mental Health Surveys of 1932 and 1947. More details to follow via www.bps.org.uk.

WORK WITH ANIMALS Updated Guidelines for Psychologists Working with Animals are now available on our website. The guidelines have been prepared with the Experimental Psychology Society and outline the legal responsibilities of our members whose research involves animals. Access the guidelines via tinyurl.com/bpsanimal

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CONSULTATIONS NEWS Twenty-five members representing 19 member network groups were involved in preparing the seven consultation responses that were submitted during June: a great example of cross-network activity, and the Society would like to thank all those who took part. Some key points of the responses are provided below. For full details of the Society’s consultation-related activities, both current and completed, please visit our website: www.bps.org.uk/consult. DSM-5 (2012) (American Psychiatric Association) The Society made comments about specific amendments to the revised DSM in relation to particular diagnoses, both positive and negative. In terms of the overall revision, reservations were expressed in relation to the underlying assumptions and methodology within the revision process, and the extension of ‘catch all’ categories such as ‘atypical’ or ‘subclinical’ that risk pathologising normal experiences. This was considered a particular concern in relation to children and young people where behaviour that may be merely ‘young for age’ may lead to a diagnosis that risks life-long psychological and physical impacts resulting from stigma and inappropriate use of medication. New Tribunal System for Scotland (Scottish Government) This response made recommendations in relation to safeguarding the rights and concerns of people with mental health problems; in particular, that legal members have appropriate expertise in mental health law, mental health presentations, and how to communicate with those with mental health problems or learning disabilities. Public Health Workforce Strategy (Department of Health) The Society welcomed this important consultation at a time of significant change. It was suggested, however, that the Department had underestimated the significant challenges of transferring the public health role back to local authorities. A specific suggestion was made for a joint working group to be established to explore GP education in respect of public health. Social and Emotional Wellbeing: Early Years Public Health Guideline (NICE) The response recommended an increased emphasis on the centrality of the family and primary carers in terms of meeting the needs of pre-school children, and highlighted the need for frontline professionals to have regular access to specialist psychological support through consultation and co-working to enhance their skills at both identifying and addressing difficulties preventively. Drug Use Disorders Quality Standard (NICE) As part of this response, the Society highlighted the need for the possibility of cognitive impairment arising from drug use to be considered when assessing the needs of individual users. Bipolar Disorder Clinical Guideline Scope (NICE) Further discussion was recommended of the question of to whom the guidelines will apply, in particular in relation to the broadening of diagnostic criteria with DSM-5. Psoriasis Clinical Guideline (NICE) The Society was pleased that considerable recognition has been given to the very high degree of psychological distress and social interference associated with psoriasis. Research was strongly recommended into theory-based, self-management support interventions that take account of and address psychological factors that are known to influence selfmanagement and have been used as a basis for intervention development for other long-term conditions. The preparation and submission of the Society’s responses to consultations on public policy is co-ordinated by the Consultation Response Team (CRT).

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Member engagement in Northern Ireland The Northern Ireland Branch of the Society was founded in 1956 and now has a membership of over 2200. In 2006 the Branch took the strategic decision to encourage local Divisional members to join the Branch committee and to engage with their membership to form local Divisional Branches. Northern Ireland Branches of the Divisions of Health, Forensic, Educational and Child, Occupational and Counselling Psychology were formed during the years 2008–2010. These Divisional Branches joined the Northern Ireland Branch of the Division of Clinical Psychology, which has now been in existence for over 30 years. There is also a working group in Sport and Exercise Psychology. At the 2009 Northern Ireland Branch Annual Conference the inaugural meeting of the Northern Ireland Cross Divisional Forum took place. This meeting was attended by the then President of the Society Ms Sue Gardner who at the time commented that ‘integration and co-working in applied psychology seemed much farther ahead in the island of Ireland, maybe because previous divisions in society at large had encouraged the Society’s Divisions to work more closely together’. The Divisional Branches all hold their AGMs at the Northern Ireland Branch Annual Conference and propose keynote speakers for the conference. They are also our conduit for responding to local government

consultations. The Cross Divisional Forum contributed to the 2011 Branch Conference by organising a half-day workshop ‘Psychologists and the Courts’, which was followed in 2012 with ‘Psychologists and the Media’. The Northern Ireland Branch and its Divisional Network is growing annually. Forthcoming events can be viewed on the Branch website www.nibps.org.uk. The Divisional Network in Northern Ireland engages with the Branch, local government, local universities, other professional bodies and the general public. Our members and Divisional members have gone on to take up key positions on the Board of Trustees, national committees and our most recent appointment is that of our Chair Professor Carol McGuinness, recently elected to the Psychology Education Board. NIBPS encourages all of its members to keep in touch and to get involved with its activities. By the end of 2013 these will be accessible to all, with a roadshow of events travelling throughout Ireland in association with the Psychological Society of Ireland. The next step for the Branch is engagement with Sections of the Society, which will bring us full circle in engaging as widely as we possibly can to promote excellence in psychology in Ireland. For more on Divisional activity in Northern Ireland, see www.nibps.org.uk. Anne Kerr, Advisor for Northern Ireland [email protected]

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Forensic awards Professor Graham M. Davies has been awarded the 2012 Award for Distinguished Contributions to Academic Knowledge in Forensic Psychology, at this year’s 21st Annual Division of Forensic Psychology Conference. The award, sponsored by Pearson Assessment, was presented during a banquet at Cardiff Castle. Graham Davies is Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of Leicester and an Honorary Professor of Forensic Psychology at the Universities of Birmingham and Coventry. His research interests focus on the testimony of children and adults and the support of vulnerable witnesses in court, on which topics he has published some 10 books and over 150 articles in journals. On receiving the award, Professor Davies commented: ‘I am delighted to receive this award as it signals final approval from my fellow professionals for contributions to research and practice in forensic psychology over the

last 40 years. Little could have been achieved without the contribution of my many colleagues who worked and collaborated with me over those years.’ A second Senior Award for Distinguished Contributions to Professional Practice in Forensic Psychology went to Lawrence Jones, Lead Psychologist and Consultant Clinical and Forensic Psychologist working on the Peaks Unit, Rampton Hospital. After starting his career working with hard-to-place exoffenders in the community, he went on to train as a psychologist and worked in the prison service, running a pioneering therapeutic community using a CBT model in Wormwood Scrubs. Giles McCathie, Vice-Chair of the Division, said: ‘The Division takes great pride in celebrating excellence in psychology across both research and practice. Both winners continue to offer inspiration and guidance to colleagues and many others on whom their work has made an impact.’

STORIES OF PSYCHOLOGY The History of Psychology Centre has arranged a half-day symposium ‘Stories of Psychology: Archives, Histories and What They Tell Us’, on Tuesday 16 October at the Wellcome Collection Conference Centre, London. This is the second symposium following a very successful and well-attended event last October. The day is convened by Dr Alan Collins (Lancaster University) and Dr Rhodri Hayward (Queen Mary, University of London). Speakers include Dr Geoff Bunn (Manchester Metropolitan University) on ‘The secret history of the love detector’; Professor Elizabeth Valentine (Royal Holloway, University of London) on ‘A brilliant and many-sided personality: Jessie Murray, founder of the Medico-Psychological Clinic’; Dr Thomas Dixon (Queen Mary, University of London) on ‘The logic of the moist eye: Tears and psychology in the twentieth century’, and Dr Peter Lamont (University of Edinburgh) on ‘Extraordinary phenomena, and what we have made of them’. Registration is free. You can register online and find details at www.bps.org.uk/stories.

Organised by BPS Conferences 2012

CONFERENCE Social Psychology Section Cognitive Psychology Section Division of Health Psychology Developmental Section DCP Faculty for Children and Young People North East & North West of England Branches Psychology 4 Students, Nottingham Division of Clinical Psychology Psychology 4 Students, London Special Group in Coaching Psychology

DATE 21–23 August 29–31 August 5–7 September 5–7 September 26–27 September 16 November 21 November 5–7 December 6 December 6–7 December

VENUE St Andrews University, Scotland Menzies Hotel, Glasgow Holiday Inn, Liverpool City Centre University of Strathclyde Palace Hotel, Manchester Etihad Stadium, Manchester Nottingham Trent University University of Oxford Kensington Town Hall, London Lakeside Centre, Aston, Birmingham

WEBSITE www.bps.org.uk/social2012 www.bps.org.uk/cogsec2012 www.bps.org.uk/dhp2012 www.bps.org.uk/dev2012 www.bps.org.uk/cyp2012 www.bps.org.uk/nenw2012 www.p4snottingham2012 www.bps.org.uk/dcp2012 www.p4slondon2012 www.bps.org.uk/sgcp2012

2013

BPS conferences are committed to ensuring value for money, careful budgeting and sustainability

CONFERENCE Trainee Educational Psychologist Event Division of Occupational Psychology Division of Educational and Child Psychology Annual Conference

DATE 8 January 9–11 January 9–11 January 9–11 April

VENUE Thistle Hotel, Bristol Crown Plaza Chester Thistle Hotel, Bristol Harrogate International Centre

WEBSITE www.bps.org.uk/decptep2013 www.bps.org.uk/dop2013 www.bps.org.uk/decp2013 www.bps.org.uk/ac2013

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CPD Workshops Professional development opportunities from your learned Society EVENT

DATE

Formulation: An integrative approach (DCP Pre-qualification Group)

31 August

Masterclass in career coaching: Challenging clients (DOP)

11 September

Preventing sexual violence (DFP)

13 September

Supervision skills: Enhancing supervision skills (Workshop 2)

22 September

Becoming an effective supervisor (Part 1)

24 September

Becoming an effective supervisor (Part 2)

25 September

An experiential introduction to Mindfulness: Compassion, choice and gratitude (DCP & DCoP)

2 October

Understanding and preventing sexual violence (DFP Scotland)

3 October

Understanding social bias and its relevance to business psychology – How to measure it and how to manage it (DOP)

4 October

Supervision in coaching psychology: Professional practice day (SGCP)

5 October

Updates in CBT to work with OCD (DCP & DCoP)

8 October

Sport and exercise psychology in action (Wessex Branch)

10 October

Supervision skills: Models of supervision (Workshop 3)

12 October

Mental health at work: Improving well-being in the workplace (DOP)

17 October

Supervision skills: Workshop 4 – Ongoing development supervison of supervision (DCoP Scotland)

19 October

Uses and abuses of evidence: A conference to promote evidence-based psychological interventions (DCP Scotland)

23 October

Introduction to compassion focused therapy (Psychotherapy Section)

24 October

Perpetrators of intimate partner abuse: Risk implications from research to practice (DFP)

25 October

How to develop style flexibility in leaders (DOP)

1 November

Developing and evaluating internet-delivered behaviour change interventions using the LifeGuide (DHP)

1 November

Learning to lead: An event for recently qualified psychologists (DCP Scotland)

2 November

Applying psychology to education and learning for post 16 to 25 year olds with complex needs (DECP)

6 November

Supervision Masterclass: Developing and maintaining effective supervisory relationships (DCoP)

7 November

Leadership skills – Breaking the glass ceiling (DCoP)

9 November

Best practice in expert witness work and independent psychological services (DCP)

15 November

Supervision skills: Ongoing development – Supervision of supervision (Workshop 4)

16 November

Integrating psychological skills into sport and exercise injury rehabilitation: Applying theory to practice (DSEP)

21 November

Maximising interpersonal relationships: FIRO Element B (European English Edition, 2003) (DOP)

22 November

Expert witness: Family court proceedings (Level 4)

26 November

For more information on these CPD events and many more visit www.bps.org.uk/findcpd.

www.bps.org.uk/learningcentre

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august 2012

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CAREERS

Championing psychology Ian Florance talks to Jean Gross CBE

J

ean Gross received a CBE in the latest New Years Honours List. In 2008 she was appointed England’s Communication Champion for Children and has helped to improve services for children and young people who have speech, language and communication needs. We asked her how her training in psychology has influenced her fascinating career. What sparked your interest in psychology? I was brought up in a good socialist

household and wanted to ‘help’ people. Nursing appealed, but I was told I was too academic! Then I wanted to be a doctor, but my girls’ grammar school did not offer the necessary A-levels. It’s hard to believe that now. So psychology seemed like an alternative: an interesting, scientific route. What was your first step into the professional world of psychology? I followed one traditional route of psychology degree, teaching then a postgraduate qualification in educational psychology. My first educational psychology job was in north London. I couldn’t drive so I rode a moped with my test kit strapped to the front, and wore vintage fur coats. When it rained I would turn up at a school looking like a drowned rabbit wearing a crash helmet.

jobs online

Why did you move on from that? I eventually got promoted to be Principal Educational Psychologist (PEP) in Bristol but, like so many PEPs, also managed a range of other children’s services. From there I joined the then National Literacy and Numeracy Strategies as their special educational needs expert, and later had a wider brief for ‘overcoming barriers to achievement’ with the Primary National Strategy. That was a fascinating time, giving me the opportunity to work with government as well as local authorities across the country. I was able to try to enact on a larger scale some of the things we had tried to do when I was working in Bristol, such as work in schools to develop

www.psychapp.co.uk is now open to all. Advertisers can now reach beyond the prime audience of Society members that they reach in print, to include the many other suitably qualified individuals online. Society members have the added benefit of being able to sign up for suitable e-mail and RSS alerts, and we are looking to add more

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children’s emotional intelligence, efforts to improve the way children with special needs get taught, and the introduction of evidence-based programmes to tackle early literacy and numeracy difficulties. I was then approached by the KPMG Foundation to develop and head up the Every Child a Reader programme, which brought business and eventually government funding to allow 20,000 sixyear-old children a year (at the peak of the programme) to have one-to-one specialist help from a Reading Recovery teacher. I wouldn’t have guessed at the start of my career that I would end up working for a firm of accountants! In fact, they were great to work with, though the experience did bring home to me the vast disparity between their flower-filled marble offices and the public sector offices I was used to. We then set up a new charity to continue to take an interest in Every Child a Reader and develop a parallel programme for numeracy, Every Child Counts. In that period I started to work with other charities to develop programmes for oral language, so when the role of Communication Champion for Children came up it was natural step to apply. What have been the highs and lows of your career? Being the government’s Communication Champion was a strange role. I once looked up ‘champion’ on Google Images to explain it in a presentation, and it came up with images of Ann Widdecombe in full ballroom splendour on Strictly, and a prize cow. I’m not sure which one applies to me. The focus of the Communication Champion role was to promote the importance of developing all children’s communication skills and getting better help for those who need it, by talking to everyone I could: from ministers to local authority and health service commissioners to schools to parents. The highs were the fantastic practice I saw

member-only benefits as the site develops over the coming years. Please let the Managing Editor know what features you would appreciate, on [email protected]. Please help us to spread the word. Recruiters can post online from just £750, and at no extra cost when placing an ad in print. For more information, see p.630.

vol 25 no 8

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careers

across the country, and the chance to influence policy in this area. We succeeded in placing communication and language at the heart of the new earlyyears curriculum. Ofsted now include it in their school inspection framework, and I am hopeful that the revised National Curriculum for school-age children will include oracy as a key element. Other highs were having my final report featured in Private Eye (in a good way), and the chance to appear on the Radio 4 Today programme to talk about the growing problem of language delay in children brought up in disadvantaged communities. The lows were experiencing the lack of joined-up planning across local authorities and the NHS for children with speech, language and communication needs, and witnessing the savage cuts to advisory teachers and speech and language therapists that has followed the change of government.

FEATURED JOB Job Title: Clinical Psychologist Employer: Zero Three Care

‘T

he first of our services opened in early 2005,’ says Dr Katy Arscott, a Chartered Clinical Psychologist who is one of the three partners who set up Zero Three Care Homes LLP. ‘We offer high-quality care services to adults with a learning disability and complex needs.’ Zero Three’s website is unusually focused on people and personal issues, saying one of the keys to the organisation is ‘to employ compassionate, caring, trustworthy individuals, who see their role as much more than a job’. According to Katy, ‘That’s the joy of running your own organisation – you can reflect your own ideas and beliefs.’ The organisation is small, with 50 beds across seven sites in Essex. ‘Most of our clients are 18–25 years old and extremely active. All have communication issues and challenging behaviour, and many have autism. Our original aim was to bring clients who had been moved out of borough closer to their families and friends. There weren’t the specialist facilities to achieve this in the county.’ Katy runs the psychology team. ’It is important that psychology breathes through the organisation. I and one other psychologist, supported by a behavioural support worker – with one more to join in October – specialise in collecting data on behaviours then working closely with staff teams to develop and implement plans. We focus on ensuring clients improve their quality of life and achieve their potential – we do this by managing challenging behaviours and ensuring the safety of all.’ What sort of person are you looking for? ‘Someone who doesn’t believe “I’m the expert”, but works with staff teams, communicates well and respects the skills of others. It’s an ideal role for a newly qualified clinical psychologist, maybe applying for a first role, who would be open to our person-centred approach and who will react well to a structured environment, but is also full of new ideas as to how we can engage our clients and move them forward. There’s some individual client work, but a lot of the role will be working with staff to design programmes and support the implementation of these. It’s not a crisis-based role, but a proactive one in which there’s continuity of psychology input. Each psychologist takes responsibility for a number of homes, so they get to know the staff and service well. Are there any other points about what would make an ideal candidate? ‘This is an applied role, focused on how we can make a difference to clients’ lives, so passion, enthusiasm, energy and personal commitment are essential.’

What drove your career choices? Being an educational psychologist meant I spent a lot of time with children who experience disadvantage of one kind or another. Since then I have always wanted to make a difference to children who don’t have much going for them in their lives. To make that difference, we need to support parenting, develop oral language skills, make sure these children do learn to read and become numerate by seven, and build children and young people’s social and emotional skills including the crucial dimension of self-efficacy. I’m motivated by evidence on ‘what works’ in all these areas, and my career choices have been driven by trying to embed what works in local and national policy and spending. How has your work been informed by psychological knowledge? All my work has psychology at its heart. I still remember dissecting brains in my undergraduate degree, for example, so I’m comfortable with frontal lobes and amygdalas and their role in executive function and emotional regulation. I know enough to rubbish the fashion in education for ‘brain-based learning’ (what else do people think we learn with – our big toes?). I like reading chunky research and I know one end of an RCT from another. I have always tried to build in robust evaluation of all the initiatives I have been involved in. The SEAL programme (Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning) is the piece of work that has interested me perhaps more than anything else. It’s rooted in psychology and basically aims

You can find this job on p.632, and with many others on www.psychapp.co.uk.

to teach children a simple psychology course – everything from how emotional arousal and anger work to the stages in grief and loss. I recruited brilliant psychologists, like Deb Michel and Julie Casey, to write the materials. I try to keep up with research on how children learn to read. I’m fascinated by the research on how children’s secure attachment and communication skills develop in the earliest years through warm reciprocal interaction with caregivers. All this has informed my work and is motivating me to focus on what we need to do to support parents in how they interact with babies, so that every child will get the best start in life. What’s next? Being Communication Champion was my last ‘proper job’ I think. I’m now part of

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the ranks of the quasi-retired, working more or less full-time on whole range of things that interest me, from MP Graham Allen’s Early Intervention work to an excellent SEN programme called Achievement for All, and continued government advisory work on SEN and on early years. What or who inspires you? I have always had professional heroes and heroines, many of them psychologists or in related fields – people like John Bowlby, Michael Rutter, Stephen Scott, Kathy Sylva, Geoff Lindsay, Maggie Snowling, and my much-missed friend Barbara Maines. They are all people who provide or process solid research evidence so that it make a difference to children. They also seem to me people with a moral purpose, and that is important to me.

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careers

‘I’m inspired by my own ignorance’ Ian Florance talks to Tom Stafford (University of Sheffield) – academic, author, blogger and more

‘I

’m not sure I’ve got a life story to tell,’ said Tom Stafford when I first approached him for an interview but, having convinced him to give it a try, it became clear there was plenty to cover in his route to becoming an author, a prolific online presence and a lecturer in psychology and cognitive science at Sheffield University. ‘I went to a small village school: there were four people in my year. We moved to Winchester, and after a secondary school in Southampton I started studying history at the University of Sheffield. It became clear that I didn’t have the talent to write historically. I’d done some psychology in my first year so I moved courses and did a psychology degree. ‘There I was really switched on to the excitement of research into cognitive science. Most notably, Andrew Mayes did a neuropsychology course in my second year, and always used to turn up from the hospital slightly out of breath, wearing a doublebreasted blazer. He would talk with as much passion about what wasn’t known as about what was known. I was hooked. In the summer of my second year I applied to do research on temporallobe amnesia with his group. That was my first research job and so really the place where my psychology career started. I've always wanted to thank Andrew for giving me that chance. ‘At the end of my degree I didn’t have a plan. I rarely make a plan! I didn’t want to do a PhD since I wasn’t excited about the topics on offer. I went into the department to check my e-mails for the last time, one of my lecturers saw me and this led to a part-time research post with Professor Kevin Gurney on a neural network project. I started doing a master’s degree and in the end wrote it up as a PhD.’

‘Psychology has spent years trying to be physics’

Tom’s books and his online writing (www.idiolect.org.uk and www.mindhacks.com) are marked by two qualities: the ability to make complex topics as clear to as wide an audience as possible, and a sense that he’s not just explaining ideas but attempting to challenge thinking and get a reaction. Tom answers questions like that: pausing to get his answers clear and precise but not shying away from challenging opinions or admitting ignorance. It seems you can trace this approach back to his school days. ‘I suppose I was quite academic but I always thought I understood things less well than others at school. I had to try to simplify things to understand them. So, when I write now I do the same thing. A typical model of popular scientific communication is “Let me tell you something amazing which will blow your mind”. Black holes and dark matter are examples. A typical model of much psychological writing is “Let me show you something mundane and reveal how complex it is”. You could say I got fascinated with cognitive science because one of its guiding principles is “You don’t need a complex plan to explain something that seems complex. Interactions between simple things will generate it.” Neurons are an obvious example. I try to understand complexity through simplicity.’ On his idiolect blog you’ll find reports on Tom’s academic work but you’ll also read quotations from Aldous Huxley, Shakespeare and Orwell and, as I write this, a post headed ‘What if an evil corporation knew all about you’ (not to mention an announcement of a psychology in the pub session!). I suggest that some of the ways he talks about psychology are overtly political and ethical. ‘Most undergraduates start psychology wanting to either

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understand themselves or understand other people. At its best this can lead to the idea that psychologists help other people and themselves, at its worst that they fix people. Of course I still have some of these desires to help, but I see psychology as helping us to understand what it means to live. Study of mind and brain are linked to our physical experience in the world and our culture. We tend to be taught quite a narrow version of psychology and it can be a struggle to remember that big picture.’ This seems to link in with what I’ve read about Tom’s 2010 e-book The Narrative Escape. ‘The narrative of the world is pretty compelling and it’s easy to let it carry you along. I’m as prone to that as anyone. So I’m fascinated by people who resist it and step outside it into their own story.’ In another interview Tom has nominated Peter Tatchell as an example of someone who does this. ‘The world is a painful place and if you are politically or ethically motivated then right action requires a right understanding of the world.’ I suggest that sounds almost Buddhist. ‘Well, perhaps that’s because I’ve been reading some Buddhist writings. The topic of narratives might seem a long way from traditional psychology but, at base, it’s not. It’s addressing philosophy of mind – how far are our decisions instinctual, how far deliberate? How does our brain work? Decision making is a core research interest of mine. But you can’t just leave these concerns in the lab nor can you just apply them ad hoc because they’re “science”. Science is a modern idol. We practise savantism, making celebrities of people because they know something technical. There’s an important domain of life which is not amenable to technical explanation. If I had to express a hope for psychology in the future it would be that it re-established itself as a human science. Psychology has spent years trying to be physics without any great success.’

‘Science is inherently open access’

After his PhD, Tom had no plans to return to university. ‘I wanted to write. I moved to London in 2003, worked on a magazine and got involved in blogging about psychology and science, something that wasn’t very common at that time. I got reacquainted with an old school friend, Matt Webb, who one day made a joke about cortex

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hacking. Basically you can’t improve a product, an object or a system without understanding how it works.’ I suggested, showing my age, that in my youth everyone knew you could make vinyl record players sound better by taping a halfpenny on the playing arm. ‘Exactly. You improved it but you had to understand something about how a vinyl disc and its needle works to make that improvement. So why not do the same with the brain? Matt and I both got excited by this and sent a proposal to publishers. I think Matt's original plan was that I’d write the book, but we ended up writing Mind Hacks together. It helps people test neuroscience theories on their own brains.’ Writing the book, Tom updated himself on research and talked to lots of people ‘including technocrats in the IT industry. It sold very well and we set up the Mind Hacks website.’ Some of Tom’s more recent material is published under creative commons arrangements rather than protected by traditional copyright. ‘It’s open access because a science like psychology is inherently open access. That’s what blogging is.’

Psych olog Ayrsh ists ir Sco

e,

tland Comp etitiv e Sala ry

Professor in Sport, Health and Exercise Scienc ce es e s Wales s £55,908 8 p.a. p..a.

The intelligence of movement

‘I had a job at the BBC. Working as a journalist can be fun, but i found the experience of writing Mind Hacks had made me want to go deeper. I was drawn back to academic life. In addition I was pretty poor and worn out. So in 2005 I moved back to Sheffield and got my present role in the university.’ Tom says the research he’s doing is inspired by the fact that the brain evolved to move us around. ‘If you can understand the intelligence of movement then you can perhaps begin to understand intelligence more widely. For instance, we look at how people learn skills and how this translates into movement, but we also look at how decisions are made, which links this back to my interest in life narratives. How much is instinctual or habit or training, how much is deliberative? I also work with a neuroscience group on areas such as robotics. And I’m concentrating more on my research work over the next few years while planning longer-term writing projects.’ Tom is also involved in outreach and media activities for his department. ‘I like to help. I understand journalists, having worked in the media for a while, and know what they want. When they try to reach out, I think psychologists often underestimate the intelligence, but overestimate the precise knowledge of people. Hence a lot of attempts to write more popular books lurch between condescension and sections of very long, technical vocabulary.’ Since Tom had to head off for his regular football, we didn’t have time to discuss Tom’s impressive list of papers and articles or his two new books – Control Your Dreams and Explore Your Blind Spot – one a travel guide to lucid dreaming, the other an examination of the construction of consciousness despite missing information. I suggested to him that he didn’t sound like a neuroscientist . With an audible smile, if that’s possible, he answered, ‘Maybe I’m not one.’ And maybe no one fits the growing media cliché of the cognitive or neuro scientist. Tom approaches his subject from unusual angles and then communicates his ideas in a uniquely engaging way, one that spills over the traditional confines of what psychology is and the material it takes into account. I asked him to sum up what motivates him. He thought for a while and replied: ‘I’m inspired by my own ignorance.’

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NEW VOICES

Suppressed voices, neglected lives Romana Farooq with the latest in our series for budding writers (see www.bps.org.uk/newvoices for more information)

Zara is a 25-year-old Indian Muslim woman with a daughter aged four. She has suffered from intimate partner violence for the past five years and is currently going through a divorce. She has started isolating herself in her home, avoiding contact with family and friends. She has become overly protective of her daughter, going into a state of panic if she is not with her. She has reported paranoid thoughts about her ex-partner and has become distrustful of everyone. Her family say she locks herself in her bedroom and cries for hours on end.

T

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he above vignette is a clear description of a South Asian woman suffering from early onset of depression, which may seem familiar to many British South Asians. There is growing evidence to suggest that ethnic minorities in the UK are suffering from increasing mental health problems and that they are overrepresented in secondary services (Sproston & Nazroo, 2002). Furthermore, rates of recovery are low and drop-out rates exceedingly high (Bhui & Bhugra, 2002). Asian and Asian British people constitute more than 50 per cent of the ethnic minority population in the UK (Nadirshaw, 2009), and the term ‘South Asian’ is mainly used to refer to people whose cultural or familial backgrounds originate from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and East Africa (Anand & Cochrane, 2005).

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Anand, A.S. & Cochrane, R. (2005). The mental health status of South Asian women in Britain. Psychology & Developing Societies, 17, 195–214. Bhui, K. & Bhugra, D. (2002). Mental illness in Black and Asian ethnic minorities. Advances in Psychiatric Treatment, 8, 26–33. Bhui, K. & Sashidharan, S.P. (2003). Should there be separate psychiatric services for ethnic minority groups?

With increasing evidence to suggest deteriorating mental health and a lack of possible solutions, South Asians are therefore a real concern for mental health service providers and professionals.

The problem

Early epidemiological studies suggested lower rates of psychopathology for British South Asians, but the opposite is now considered to be true, most specifically in the case of depression and suicidality (Husain et al., 2006). Many studies have reported higher rates of suicide in South Asian women, sometimes more than double the national rate (Burr, 2002). Furthermore, several large-scale community studies have found higher rates of depression and anxiety in Pakistani/Muslim women in comparison to Indian/Hindu and their white counterparts (Anand & Cochrane, 2005). This clearly suggests the importance of distinguishing between South Asian subgroups in order to fully understand the mental health of the population under study. In addition, high rates of self-harm and eating disorders have also been reported (Anand & Cochrane, 2005) and are a real cause for concern for mental health professionals, especially if left untreated. From my own experiences of having worked extensively with South Asians in the community, culture-specific symptoms of distress are highly prevalent and are yet to be adequately researched and

British Journal of Psychiatry, 182, 10–12. Bradby, H. (2010). Institutional racism in mental health services: The consequences of compromised conceptualisation. Sociological Research Online, 15, 8–19. Burr, J. (2002). Cultural stereotypes of women from South Asian communities: Mental healthcare professionals explanations for

understood by clinicians. Without this valuable information mental health professionals are at a disadvantage, and are very likely to make a misdiagnosis without having the cultural knowledge to inform their decision. Reducing rates of mental illness and suicide is a key national mental health target in the UK, and particular emphasis has been placed on South Asians (Husain et al., 2006). However, there is increasing evidence suggesting South Asians tend to under-utilise services and report negative service experiences. We need to identify the barriers and implement necessary changes.

The barriers

Most importantly the presentation and reporting of psychological symptoms are culturally grounded: evidence suggests that mental illness in one culture may not be viewed as such in another (Fernando, 1991). Therefore mental health practitioners need to impose a model of mental illness and treatment that does not conflict with cultural and religious norms, and move away from the current eurocentric model of treatment and diagnosis (Nadirshaw, 2009). Consider culture-specific communications of distress. For example, to date there is only one published paper looking at the ‘sinking heart syndrome’ (Krause, 1989), an illness that manifests itself as physical sensations in the heart or in the chest as experienced by Punjabis in the UK. From my experience, reports of a sinking heart are most often related to distress and anxiety and are common amongst not only Punjabis but South Asians in general. Many South Asians, whether Pakistani, Indian or Punjabi, commonly report feeling that their heart is sinking, but this is rarely picked up as a symptom of distress. Furthermore, psychological tests should be used with caution. Many lack cross-cultural validity and can lead to misdiagnoses (Leong & Lau, 2001). For example, many South Asians struggle

patterns of suicide and depression. Social Science & Medicine, 55, 835–845. Commission for Healthcare Audit & Inspection. (2007). Count Me In: Results of the 2006 census of inpatients in mental health & learning disability services in England & Wales. London: Author. Fernando, S. (1991). Mental health, race and culture. London: Macmillan MIND.

Hussain, F. & Cochrane, R. (2004). Depression in South Asian women living in the UK. Transcultural Psychiatry, 41(2), 253–270. Husain, M.I., Waheed, W. & Husain, N. (2006). Self harm in British South Asian women. Annals of General Psychiatry, 5, 7–13. Krause, I. (1989). Sinking heart: A Punjabi communication of distress. Social Science & Medicine, 29(4), 563–575.

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with intelligence scales based on Western frameworks. It can be difficult to translate the verbal comprehension subtests for use with ethnic minorities (Okazaki & Sue, 1995). Language and cultural barriers are a recurrent theme; many South Asians do not feel ‘heard’ by mental health professionals (Husain et al., 2006). Research suggests in the first instance that South Asian referrals from GPs to secondary care services are scarce, mainly because GPs fail to recognise culturespecific symptoms of distress (Bhui & Bhugra, 2002). Once referred to secondary mental health services, South Asians face linguistic barriers and are

and poorer pathways to care (Commission for Healthcare Audit & Inspection, 2007) have been attributed by many to institutional racism (Bradby, 2010; McKenzie & Bhui, 2007). Attitudes and stereotypes such as ‘Asians take care of their own’ or ‘South Asian women are depressed due to their repressive culture’ do nothing to assist recovery in clients and result in distrust of service providers (Burr, 2002). Many South Asians report dropping out of services due to service providers having fixed views about Asian communities and offering simplistic yet unrealistic solutions with no regard to their culture and values (Husain et al., 2006). Services need to adopt antidiscriminatory approaches in order to eradicate both overt and covert institutional racism; this would usually involve teaching and training on culturally sensitive practice.

What next?

There is increasing evidence suggesting South Asians tend to under-utilise services

often offered interpreters. Unfortunately, having an interpreter does not necessarily improve communication between a client and a clinician (Neal et al., 2006). Research also suggests that sharing a language as well as a cultural background with a client is an important factor in the uptake of services (Hussain & Cochrane, 2004), so it is worth having mental health professionals from a similar background. The consistent picture of poor mental health services for ethnic minorities, which are characterised by increasing rates of psychological distress, detention

Leong, F.T.L. & Lau, A.S.L. (2001). Barriers to providing effective mental health services to Asian Americans. Mental Health Services Research, 3, 201–214. McKenzie, K. & Bhui, K. (2007). Better mental healthcare for minority ethnic groups – Moving away from the blame game and putting patients first: Commentary on institutional racism in psychiatry. Psychiatric

Some suggestions from specialists have been to provide separate mental health services for minority ethnic groups (Bhui & Sashidharan, 2003). This begs the question of whether we still live in a society that thrives on segregation i.e. ‘us’ and ‘them’. If service providers feel strained and somewhat challenged when faced with a minority group that requires alternative interventions, is the answer to that separation? Could the rigidity of services and a general fear of change be behind a drive to segregation? Perhaps a preferable answer would be to offer clients alternative interventions or adapt current interventions to suit the needs of ethnic minorities, e.g. culturally sensitive cognitive behavioural therapy (Rathod et al., 2010). Also, service providers need to either train current practitioners in cultural sensitivity or increase recruitment of practitioners specialising in BME groups. Clinicians and healthcare professionals should even open themselves up to working

Bulletin, 31, 368–369. Nadirshaw, Z. (2009). Race, culture and ethnicity in mental health care. In R. Newell & K. Gournay (Eds.) Mental health nursing: An evidence-based approach (pp.39–55). London: Churchill Livingstone. Neal, R.D., Ali, N., Atkin, K., Allgar, V.L., Ali, S. & Coleman, T. (2006). Communication between South Asian patients and GPs: Comparative study

read discuss contribute at www.thepsychologist.org.uk

holistically with South Asians; this would usually mean working from a spiritual model as well as a medical model. We also need to make an effort to familiarise ourselves with the client’s degree of acculturation and religiosity, in order to determine how to best manage the case. Gaining an understanding of the client’s values and traditions is a good way to further develop a positive therapeutic relationship, as well as challenge Westernised stereotypes of what ‘normal’ values are. For example, South Asian families place a lot of emphasis on ‘multiple parenting’, i.e. grandparents, uncles and aunties all contribute to parenting a child. If we were to remove a South Asian woman suffering from postnatal depression from her home we would also be isolating her from the supportive buffer provided through ‘multiple parenting’. This could therefore deteriorate her health further and may cause implications for therapy. Indeed, due to the value placed on extended families and ‘multiple parenting’, we should look to work in partnership with families in order to support recovery. Clearly the current failings of mental health services to adequately treat British South Asians doesn’t just lie with the service providers and individual clinicians: it is also due to the lack of evidence-based research providing potential ways of working. Surely there is an increasing need to conduct research with South Asians in order to understand their needs and requirements? Only then can the necessary changes be implemented. Until then British South Asians will no doubt feel that there problems are falling on deaf ears.

using the Roter Interactional Analysis System. British Journal of General Practice, 56, 869–875. Okazaki, S. & Sue, S. (1995). Methodological issues in assessment research with ethnic minorities. Psychological Assessment, 7, 367–375. Rathod, S., Kingdon, D., Phiri, P. & Gobbi, M. (2010). Developing culturally sensitive cognitive behaviour therapy

Romana Farooq is a Researcher with the South West Yorkshire Partnership Foundation Trust [email protected]

for psychosis for ethnic minority patients by exploration and incorporation of service users’ and health professionals’ views and opinions. Behavioural & Cognitive Psychotherapy, 38, 511–533. Sproston, K. & Nazroo, J. (Eds.) (2002). Ethnic minority psychiatric illness rates in the community (EMPIRIC) – Quantitative report. London: The Stationery Office.

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The Northern Centre for Mindfulness and Compassion VETERANS’ MENTAL HEALTH CONFERENCE 9am to 5pm on Friday 28th September 2012, York University The eīects of military service can be profound and long lasƟng with some veterans finding it diĸcult to re-adjust to civilian life. The long term impact of untreated mental health problems can be far reaching with mental health issues aīecƟng not only the veteran, but also their families and communiƟes as a whole. This one day conference will be a rare opportunity to consider the latest developments and best pracƟce in psychological treatments for this community of over 10 million people. The Speakers include: • • • • • • •

Simon Weston OBE, Falklands Veteran & InternaƟonal Speaker Professor Jamie Hacker Hughes, Clinical Lead for IAPT service and visiƟng professor of Military Psychological Therapies at Anglia Ruskin University Surgeon Captain John Sharpley, Consultant Advisor in Psychiatry Professor Neil Greenberg, Surgeon Captain, Defence Professor of Mental Health, Kings College London Dr Walter Busuƫl, Medical Director of Combat Stress Nick Wood, NHS Yorkshire and Humber Veterans Champion Robert Broughton, Professional meditaƟon, well-being and emoƟonal intelligence coach, specialising in stress and neurobiology

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637

LOOKING BACK

Walter Miles and his grand tour C. James Goodwin recounts the 1920 visit of an American psychologist to Great Britain

‘I

references

was impressed that there are many things, both great and small, that the Americans can learn with profit from the Europeans.’ This is not a sentiment that most Europeans expect to hear from most Americans these days, but it was the final sentence of a long report (nearly 300 pages) written by an American experimental psychologist, Walter Miles, in 1920. The report detailed the events of a frenetic tour of no fewer than 57 laboratories and institutes of physiology and psychology in Great Britain and continental Europe, completed by Miles in the spring and summer of that year. So who was Walter Miles, why did he undertake this anything but leisurely trip, and what did he learn on his grand tour? Walter Miles (1885–1978) had a long and distinguished career. He made important contributions in a number of different research areas – his interests ranged from maze learning in rats, to cognitive ageing in humans, to the psychological and physiological effects of alcohol. He was especially adept as the inventor of research apparatus (Goodwin, 2003). His career included 10 years at Stanford (1922–1932) and a 20-year stay at Yale (1932–1952). In 1920, the year of his European trip, he was nearing the end of an eight-year stint as a researcher at the Carnegie Nutrition Laboratory in Boston. Miles was a prototypical psychological scientist, happiest when fully immersed in the day-to-day life of the laboratory. A colleague wrote that he was ‘one of the few psychologists who started out as an

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Bartlett, F.C. (1932). Remembering: A study in experimental and social psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Goodwin, C.J. (2003). An insider’s look at experimental psychology in America: The diaries of Walter Miles. In D. B. Baker (Ed.) Thick description and fine texture: Archival research in the history of psychology (pp.57–75). Akron, OH: University of Akron Press.

experimentalist and continued his interest in scientific problems all during his career, stopping neither to become a philosopher or a stamp collector or a huckster of psychological wares’ (Helson, 1953). After finishing his doctorate at Iowa in 1913 (directed by Carl Seashore), Miles spent a year as a visiting professor at Wesleyan College in Connecticut before being lured to Boston by Francis Benedict, director of the Carnegie Nutrition Laboratory. It had been founded in 1908, to conduct basic research into the physiology of nutrition. Benedict quickly came to value the skills he saw in Miles, and Miles soon became Benedict’s chief researcher among the 25 scientists and support staff working there by 1915. One of Benedict’s firm beliefs was that the experimental study of physiology was an international endeavour and, in that spirit, he and others at Carnegie made regular visits to Europe, visiting colleagues and their laboratories. Benedict believed that it was not sufficient just to read about research occurring elsewhere – it was necessary to examine the operation firsthand. As Miles said in his report: ‘Only such occasions allow for the extended discussion of problems of mutual interest with apparatus and results at hand for observation and demonstration [and] one discovers a good many useful details of laboratory equipment and management never shown in any way in publications’ (this, and all quotes henceforth, from Goodwin & Royer, 2010). These Carnegie visits to foreign

Goodwin, C.J. & Royer, L. (Eds.) (2010). Walter Miles and his 1920 grand tour of European physiology and psychology laboratories. Akron, OH: University of Akron Press. Helson, H. (1953, 3 March). Letter to Neal Miller. Walter R. Miles papers, Box 1199.3, Folders 2 & 3, H (‘General Correspondence 1929–37’). Archives of the History of American Psychology, University of Akron, Akron, OH.

laboratories ended abruptly in 1914 with the outbreak of World War I. By the spring of 1920, the war had been over for about 18 months; for Benedict, it was time to return to Europe, reconnect with colleagues, and determine the state of physiological science in the immediate post-war era. Benedict asked his best scientist, Miles, to make the trip. Although the pre-war tours dealt exclusively with physiology laboratories (even three trips by Benedict to Pavlov’s laboratory were considered visits to physiology labs), the Miles schedule was different. As an experimental psychologist, Miles wished to include psychology laboratories on his itinerary, in addition to the stops at physiology labs. So, while most of his report concerns the state of experimental physiology in Europe during the immediate post-war era, Miles also included fascinating accounts of his visits to psychologists. In continental Europe, he toured psychology laboratories in Groningen, Copenhagen and Leipzig. In Great Britain, he dropped in on psychologists in London, Cambridge, Oxford, Edinburgh, and Glasgow, and he gave a paper on his latest apparatus creations at a meeting of the British Psychological Society. So what did Miles learn on his grand tour? First, it was clear that the war had a profound effect on the scientists he encountered. In Britain, for instance, researchers at several universities reported that their lab space was being converted to teaching space because large numbers of former students, whose education had been interrupted by the war, were now returning. In continental Europe, Miles quickly learned that animosity remained strong among former colleagues. French physiologists, for instance, refused to have anything to do with German physiologists, and the feeling was mutual. Miles attended an ‘international’ conference of physiology in Paris in July, but German and Austrian scientists were not invited. Knowing they were to be left out, German physiologists had held their own conference in June. When Miles asked two German physiologists how they felt about the future of truly international cooperation, this was the reply: ‘With the Americans, of course, we can meet and (there was a little hesitation) also with the English, but with the French, never!’ (p.164). In Belgium, which had been overrun and occupied early in the war, Miles reported that laboratories were just beginning to resume operations and that bitterness toward German scientists remained high – one Belgian physiologist ‘seemed

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been trying to get a permit for G.V. Anrep, a former student and assistant to Pavlov, then at University College. Upon meeting Anrep, Miles learned of the difficult post-war conditions Pavlov was facing – at one point in early 1918, Pavlov was not well (slowly healing broken leg), research was ‘practically at a standstill’ (p.13), and the dogs were dying ‘for lack of food’ (p.13). Miles formed distinctly Scientists were determined to return to some semblance different impressions of of normalcy following the catastrophic events of the just Spearman and Pearson. concluded war Despite his busy schedule, Spearman (‘a very charming to feel that the German scientific men fellow’ – p.16) welcomed Miles into his during the war carried on such… lab on three occasions, where they had propaganda of absolute misrepresentation long discussions about research and, with the objective of breaking the moral especially, apparatus (e.g. for investigating [sic] of the Belgian people that he never the psycho-galvanic reflex). The again could really believe statements experience for Miles was quite different made by these scientists’ (p.170). with Pearson. Miles thought he had made The war also shaped the nature of the arrangements to visit Pearson at the research conducted during the war years. Galton Eugenics Lab, but Pearson had In both physiology and psychology labs, unyielding rules about visits; when Miles Miles learned of a number of research showed up, he was not allowed in! Later, efforts designed to aid the war effort. Pearson wrote a detailed explanation – no For example, at University College in visitors allowed unless Pearson received London, Charles Spearman studied depth a written letter beforehand that included perception as it would affect pilot a convincing argument ‘that the object of training, and he developed an apparatus the visit will repay the loss of time to measure ‘gun pointing ability’ (p.19); involved’ (p.23), and a written visual perception and camouflage was a introduction from someone known by topic at the meeting of the British Pearson. Ever the diplomat, Miles wrote Psychological Society; at Guy’s Hospital in his report that he was sure ‘professor Medical School in London, Marcus Pearson’s rule saved him much time and Pembrey examined soldiers’ stamina is partly accountable for the great volume under varying conditions; at Oxford, H.C. of his publications’ (p.22). Bazett studied ‘the cardio-vascular At the University of Edinburgh’s reactions of pilots’ (p.111) and Georges psychology laboratory, Miles met the Dreyer developed an apparatus to deliver eminent Scottish psychologist James measured amounts of oxygen to pilots Drever. Miles was impressed with the flying at different altitudes; in Paris, laboratory, ‘the best equipped of any that Lucien Bull (Marey Institute) used I saw in England [sic], I mean so far as reaction time and auditory localisation quantity of nice equipment is concerned. procedures to identify artillery positions, It seemed to have everything that and Louis Lapique (Sorbonne) conducted Spindler and Hoyer have made’ (p.80). war-related nutrition research. The laboratory had been funded Miles was impressed by the strength generously by the famous Scottish of the anti-vivisection movement in phrenologist George Combe. England. During a visit to the physiology At the University of Glasgow, Miles laboratory of W.M. Bayliss at University met with H.J. Watt, a Scottish College London, he met Sir George psychologist who had studied briefly with Thane, who was the general supervisor Wundt at Leipzig and then earned his and inspector for the Anti-vivisection Act. doctorate with Külpe at Würzburg. Watt Thane described the strict procedures had fond memories of Külpe, but the required to gain approval for animal Leipzig experience had not been good – research and reported to Miles that it was he thought it ‘absolutely suicidal for an ‘particularly difficult to get a permit to outside student to debate the point of use dogs in such an arrangement as view of the man in charge…[but he found employed by Pavlov’ (p.12). Bayliss had that] Professor Külpe was of a very

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different kind and gave his students much freedom’ (p.85). At Cambridge, Miles met Sir Frederick Bartlett and was impressed with the laboratory, although ‘they have not as large an amount of stock pieces as I found in…Edinburgh’ (p.96). Bartlett, Miles reported, was working on an ‘anthropological problem involving the accuracy of report and quotations. He…was tracing the history of certain legends and stories as handed from tribe and people to another noting the changes which were made as the story was passed on’ (p.97). Perhaps because this research was qualitative in nature and did not involve apparatus, Miles gave it little mention. But this, of course, was the constructive memory research (e.g. ‘War of the Ghosts’) that would make Bartlett famous when he published it 12 years later (Bartlett, 1932). At Oxford, Miles toured Charles Sherrington’s physiology lab and met briefly with William McDougall. Sherrington at the time shared a research interest with Miles – the effects of alcohol. Miles seemed awestruck by the legendary scientist, flattered that he knew about Miles’s research – ‘One cannot help but be impressed with the genuineness and kind eagerness of Sherrington. He is the very antithesis of self-assertion and so ready to point out things of interest in your own work than discussing the importance of his own’ (p.109). The bulk of a brief meeting with McDougall concerned (a) questions posed to Miles about living in the United States – McDougall was just a few months away from the start of his new life as professor of psychology at Harvard; and (b) McDougall extolling the virtues of imbibing moderate amounts of alcohol, which ‘relieved tension and enabled the individual to proceed with his work with much greater comfort’ (p.125). Miles didn’t report whether McDougall knew that Prohibition had just begun in the United States. This is just a small sampling of the observations made by Miles during his grand tour of Great Britain and Europe. Although the Miles report has a great deal of technical detail, especially concerning apparatus, it is mainly a story about scientists passionately dedicated to their work, focused on restarting their professional lives, and determined to return to some semblance of normalcy following the catastrophic events of the just concluded war. I C. James Goodwin is Professor Emeritus at Western Carolina University [email protected]

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ONE ON ONE

…with Ruby Bell Head of Forensic Psychology at Roseberry Park Hospital, Middlesbrough

relationship on treatment outcome. Research clearly demonstrates that the qualities, experience, knowledge and expertise

One book that you think all psychologists should read James McGuire’s 1995 book What Works: Reducing Re-offending: Guidelines from Research and Practice. This collection, and all that has followed, is at the heart of all that we do, and McGuire has been instrumental in bringing together and getting us to consider and carry out evidence-based practice.

coming soon

One cultural Ruby Bell [email protected] recommendation We are not always good at looking after ourselves – always take time to get of the therapist are important away from psychology and the in therapy adherence and reality of the job and switch positive outcome. Yet we tend off completely. My way is to to neglect this, and when the go to Barbados, read a Maeve treatment appears not to work Binchy novel and speak to we blame the client or the very few people! It’s so content. We may need to look revitalising. closer to home! One problem that One challenge you think psychology should deal with The impact of the therapeutic psychology faces

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In these economic climes, there is increased pressure to deliver more for less – the challenge is to maintain quality and integrity. One alternative career path you may have chosen I am a thwarted artist – I would have loved to illustrate children’s books. One nugget of advice for aspiring psychologists Always question what you do and why, and change if need be. Sometimes creativity and our own expertise can be stifled by prescribed or traditional working practices. One proud moment Developing the Forensic Psychology Service in what is now Tees, Esk & Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust. At one point we were the first and only team in the NHS to be entirely staffed by forensic psychologists. Currently we have clinical and forensic psychologists who bring with them a wealth of expertise and experience. One hero from psychology past or present Professor Arnold Goldstein –

Articles on becoming immortal in psychology; a special on psychology on the road; and much more... I Send your comments about The Psychologist to the editor, Dr Jon Sutton, on [email protected], +44 116 252 9573 or to the Leicester office address I To advertise Display: [email protected], +44 (0)20 7880 6244 Jobs and www.psychapp.co.uk: [email protected], +44 (0)20 7880 7556

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One moment that changed the course of your career A visit to C Wing Special Unit at HMP Parkhurst in 1987 – changed my desire to work in clinical psychology to a career in forensic.

known mainly for his aggression replacement training and work with gangs. He was a proponent of the scientist-practitioner model, and devoted his career to the study and practice of reducing aggression and violence. I had the privilege of meeting him at a conference and was so impressed by his warmth and desire to help people change. Sadly he died in 2002. He had been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for his work – how fantastic for psychology that would have been. One thing that ‘organised psychology’ could do better Promote the utility of psychology in all areas – not just with offenders or people with problems. Have a voice and actively promote psychology. We are slowly improving. One great thing that psychology has achieved Greater understanding of how and why we are as we are – and how we can affect change when things have gone wrong. One psychological superpower To fully understand what is happening in people’s heads when they choose to behave in a way that does not enhance their well-being. One final thought There is a quote by the American author Carson McCullers which speaks volumes: ‘But the hearts of small children are delicate organs. A cruel beginning in this world can twist them into curious shapes.’ More answers online at www.thepsychologist.org.uk

Think you can do better? Want to see your area of psychology represented more? See the inside front cover for how you can contribute and reach 48,000 colleagues into the bargain, or just e-mail your suggestions to [email protected]

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BIG PICTURE

Untangling the web How has the most revolutionary innovation of our time – the internet – transformed our world? What does it mean for the modern family? How has it changed our concepts of privacy? Of celebrity? Of love, sex and hate? Psychologist Dr Aleks Krotoski has been investigating, in a major series for The Guardian [see tinyurl.com/utwaleks). A book extending the series, Untangling the Web, is due out next month. Krotoski has a PhD in social psychology from the University of Surrey, for a thesis which examined how information spreads around the social networks of the web. In February 2010, she presented The Virtual Revolution, a TV documentary series described by the BBC as ‘charting two decades of profound change since the invention of the World Wide Web, weighing up the huge benefits and the unforeseen downsides’. Followed by 20,000 on Twitter, she also presents the BBC Radio 4 series The Digital Human (back in October for a

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Image by Lynsey Irvine and Peter Storey, for a series written by Aleks Krotoski. E-mail ideas for ‘Big picture’ to [email protected].

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august 2012