http://hdl.handle.net/10453/285 Sun, 19 May 2013 01:02:20 GMT 2013-05-19T01:02:20Z http://hdl.handle.net/10453/10429 Psychosocial treatments of behavior symptoms in dementia: A systematic review of reports meeting quality standards O'Connor Dw; Ames D; Gardner Betina; King Madeleine Objective: To provide a systematic review of selected experimental studies of psychosocial treatments of behavioral disturbances in dementia. Psychosocial treatments are defined here as strategies derived from one of three psychologically oriented paradigms (learning theory, unmet needs and altered stress thresholds). Method: English language reports published or in press by December 2006 were identified by means of database searches, checks of previous reviews and contact with recognized experts. Papers were appraised with respect to study design, participants' characteristics and reporting details. Because people with dementia often respond positively to personal contact, studies were included only if control conditions entailed similar levels of social attention or if one treatment was compared with another. Results: Only 25 of 118 relevant studies met every specification. Treatment proved more effective than an attention control condition in reducing behavioral symptoms in only 11 of the 25 studies. Effect sizes were mostly small or moderate. Treatments with moderate or large effect sizes included aromatherapy, ability-focused carer education, bed baths, preferred music and muscle relaxation training. Conclusions: Some psychosocial interventions appear to have specific therapeutic properties, over and above those due to the benefits of participating in a clinical trial. Their effects were mostly small to moderate with a short duration of action. This limited action means that treatments will work best in specific, time-limited situations. In the few studies that addressed within-group differences, there were marked variations in response. Some participants benefited greatly from a treatment, while others did not. Interventions proved more effective when tailored to individuals' preferences. Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10453/10429 2009-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10453/10428 Concurrent Auditory Stream Discrimination in Auditory Graphing Song H.J.; Beilharz Kirsty Th is paper is conce rned with enhancing huma n computer interaction and communication in concurrent streams of auditory display. Auditory display or auditory graphing is the sonic representation of numerical data (the auditory equivalent of visualization). It provides an additional channel for infor mation reprcscntation, in which a partici pant 's response may be more intu itive and immediate than (visual) graphical display. but auditory graph design requires understanding and multi-disci plinary investigatio n of listening due to instantaneous characteristics of sound. OUf aims a re to explore (I ) the impact of spatial separation for a divided atLention task and (2) the efficiency of timbre (tone color) to assist pitch contour identification. Ou r findings abo ut timbral and spatial dis crimination a re scalable and useful for auditory display in a wide variety of contexts . The results provide empirica l evidence for a furthe r investigat ion of spatiali zation and timbre and contribute to applications within an auditory display context for real-world scenarios (e.g. socia l, statistical and other datasets likely to be encountered in the wor kplace ) . Mon, 01 Jan 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10453/10428 2007-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10453/6031 Reading in one's ethnic language: a study of Greek-Australian high school students Athanasou James; Lamprianou Iasonas This paper examines reading achievement when the maternal/paternal language has become a de facto second language. The performance of a cohort of Greek- Australian high school students (N=270) on a diagnostic Greek reading test was significantly below that of pupils in second to fourth grades in Greece. The mean item difficulty for Greek-Australian high school students was 0.35 compared with 0.51 for second grade, 0.69 for third grade and 0.80 for fourth grade pupils in Greece. The pattern of responding indicated that the Rasch model fitted the data. The effects of background factors were also examined. Students whose mother or father spoke Greek had statistically significant higher levels of ability than those who spoke Greek and English or English alone. It was also found that the length of the key words (correct responses) had a large effect on the difficulty of the questions; the longer the key word, the more difficult the question was. The implications of the results for assessment of reading in and the acquisition of an ethnic or second language are discussed. Thu, 01 Jan 2004 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10453/6031 2004-01-01T00:00:00Z