Article archive / July 1, 2012

Originally published: July 1, 2012. Volume 3, No. 11. Source pages: 1, 8.

Thirty years ago Walt Disney’s Tron brought the idea of experiencing life inside a virtual world to the public’s imagination. Tron would go on to become a cult sensation for science fiction and computer game enthusiasts, drawing on the psychological appeal of an exciting, malleable world waiting for us at our fingertips–at our computer keyboards to be exact.

Today the idea isn’t strange at all. Dr. Rick Stevens, associate professor of psychology at the U. of Louisiana of Monroe, has used the technology of the “virtual world” to help him with his research, to get his students involved, and just to “liven up classes a bit,” he told the Times.

“Virtual reality,” he said, “is a process in which the cues that we use to generate our mental model of the world are used to produce a shared visual environment.”

“It's a concept used to create games, but when people refer to virtual worlds they usually refer to environments set up with no game aspects,” Stevens explained. There are no rules, points, or competition like in computer games. The virtual world is used to simulate face-to-face interactions. “It's surprising how real the interaction seems after you become familiar with the interface,” he said.

Dr. Stevens has always been intrigued by the idea of virtual reality, he told the Times. The “virtual world” has grown in popularity in recent years. It provides a digital setting where people assume a character, called avatars, to interact with others, experiment, or learn a new task with the help of a creative, novel cyberspace setting, he said.

One of the most popular sites on the web is Second Life. People assume an avatar identity and interact with others in this digitally created environment, he explained.

“It’s also an interesting creative outlet,” said Stevens. “You can be creative in a Super Legos sort of way, building things. Some people are quite artistic in their creations. It’s interesting to just be a tourist in Second Life, the biggest, most developed virtual world.”

Some of the areas in Second Life are beautifully crafted and very appealing, worth touring as a visitor he explained. “The Mayan temple complex of Chicken Itza, the Cotton Club and the 1920's area of Harlem, a lunar landing site, and Foul Whisperings – a Macbeth site … these are very nice tourist areas that people have put a lot of time into.”

Dr. Stevens, whose research interests includes human cognition, has used the virtual setting to conduct some of his psychological experiments.

“I've been using virtual reality programs to conduct memory research.” He hopes that his work can uncover some ways to use this virtual technology to produce better online classes.

“It could possibly point to ways to produce better ebooks, too,” he noted. A recent study examined how ebooks lose contextual cues that are present in real books, Stevens explained. This makes it harder to learn material from ebooks. “Virtual reality gives you a lot of control over cues and there may be ways to make computer presentations easier to recall rather than harder.”

Dr. Stevens also has used the technology in his graduate classes, having students develop a class presentation in virtual space. “I have them do a presentation or two,” he explained. “It is partly to familiarize them with the process and some are less nervous to present that way.” His students become familiar with the virtual setting in the fall, and when he has the same group of students for research methods, he has them create virtual experiments.

"The cyber space idea, portraying web addresses and computing processes as physical objects arranged in and moving around in a physical space, is a way to generate a mental model of some fairly abstract and complex computing processes,” he said.

Dr. Stevens hopes that in some ways this work can help develop cost- effective technologies for education. “It’s handy, kind of fun, and because of years of budget cuts we have no lab equipment or rooms. It’s a relatively cheap replacement. There is a learning curve and it would be hard to work with large classes this way, but it works well for the smaller grad classes.”

Dr. Stevens pointed out that psychological applications in this technology are growing. Virtual worlds are now being developed to treat phobias and there are studies using virtual worlds to present stimuli in physiological measures such as MRIs and PETs. There are two journals, he noted, that address the topics: Cyberphsychology and Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking.

The University of New Orleans worked at creating six or seven “islands” or discrete teaching areas, to produce classes on virtual world interaction. “However, they had limited success at getting people to use them for teaching,” he noted.

Dr. Stevens is currently working on ideas with Dr. William Barnett, chair of Computer Information Systems at ULM. “He and I have been talking about doing a study to compare face to face, virtual world, and video setups like Google Plus’s video hangout or Go To Meeting in tasks requiring collaboration. We are just in the planning stages.”

"Virtual worlds have been slow to catch on," Stevens said. "I think it is partly the cartoonish aspect ….” And, “Non- gamers are sometimes put off at having to learn new skills to make use of virtual worlds as tools.”

However, he explained, the power of virtual world technology will likely continue due to the financial benefit of distance learning and collaboration. A new project just began in Atlanta, he noted, where 3800 students in 35 schools will get a virtual world for each class. And, “Big, international tech companies run their own private setups to collaborate on projects,” he said.

“So, in general, it is still ‘early adopter’ territory, but I think that as the software matures it will catch on,” Dr. Stevens said to the Times.

The virtual world setting created by Dr. Rick Stevens. This setting exists in Second Life and resembles the U. of Louisiana Monroe Library. Dr. Stevens’ avatar is the small figure in front. Dr. Rick Stevens created this version of the Ames Room Illusion for his work with virtual settings. It exists in OSGrid. “It works and you can walk around in it,” he told the Times.

This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.

Article archive / July 1, 2012

Originally published: July 1, 2012. Volume 3, No. 11. Source pages: 7.

Dr. Marc Zimmermann, who has been serving on the psychology board since his appointment last July by Governor Jindal, was confirmed by the Senate in June, 2012.

Dr. Zimmermann is a resident of Baton Rouge and is owner of Zimmermann Psychology Clinic. He had said that one of his goals for his service would be to “help improve the board’s efficiency and also its effectiveness at staying clearly within its mandates.” He also expressed his concern with psychologists having to deal with bogus complaints.

During the 2010 election Dr. Zimmermann also noted, “The board is dealing with great turmoil in the profession. An even and temperate attitude will be needed to transverse this period.”

Dr. Zimmermann discusses issues at a psychology board meeting last fall. His appointment in 2011 was confirmed by the LA Senate in June.

This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.

Article archive / July 1, 2012

Originally published: July 1, 2012. Volume 3, No. 11. Source pages: 2.

I was sitting in the audience of the psychology board’s recent public meeting, waiting for my chance to ask brilliant, courageous questions when a group of applied behavioral analysts marched in, scowling, with storm clouds hanging over their heads. They sat down in one long row and glared. I immediately liked them.

Forgetting my plans to become a famous journalist I watched as the behavior analysts confronted the board members about the proposed legislation to place them under psychology.

As in almost any group conflict, it was difficult to get at the underlying issues. Right off the bat some of the board members became defensive and started talking down to the behavior analysts, causing the discussion to fly afoul, because we know this is an easy way to irritate people.

After a time, some of the audience began to interject questions and a little more listening occurred. Then one of the group, a parent client he told us, sat up straight and said to the room that the problem was not that the analysts didn’t want to be regulated, but that they didn’t want to be regulated by psychology. And that in short, they didn’t trust the psychology board.

Heads nodded and the rest of the audience could hear the hum of agreement in the analysts. Here it was, the harbinger of death, the writing on the wall, the bite of the vampire. Trust.

Without trust there is only one way to resolve a conflict: pure, unadulterated power. The power can be overt or secret, but it is win-lose power. This sort of conflict style absorbs tremendous resources and creates poor outcomes, because it causes greater errors in judgment and problem-solving.

If the LSBEP’s bill was to go forward, it was going to be a shotgun wedding. The bride was not having any of it. But somehow, the board’s effort continued, those in charge having missed Falstaff’s memo. So now there is a huge, 17 person commission, sans facilitator, similar to the working group in 2010, that is going to solve the problems in the psychology community for us.

Hundreds of laws are passed in a win-lose process every year. Thursday’s Supreme Court ruling was win-lose, a huge and complex issue falling on the vote of a single individual. No top manager, worth his salt, would ever allow his team to arrive at a major decision in such a way. He’d understand that a 5-4 split is full of error and cries out for more of a consensus where the facts are able to convince individuals of the truth, or as close to it as we human beings are able to come.

In their article “Solving Social Problems Like a Psychologist,” Stanford’s Walton and Dweck write that psychology has a “long history of informing important social problems,” but that “we’ve lost our way in recent years.”

Attention to psychological processes and a rigorous methodology are our strengths they say, and we can “identify the processes that underlie a social problem with greater precision and causal understanding than perhaps is possible in other disciplines.”

You wouldn’t know it by watching us. Does it embarrass anyone else that we keep being sent to the play therapy room to learn how to get along?

As far as laws, even sausage shouldn’t be made this way.

Psychologists have the knowledge to help ourselves and others do better. We know about premature decisions, insufficient information, fuzzy problem definitions, lack of creativity, distortions, and so on. We understand the impact of trust on group problem- solving. We know our research paints a dismal view of human social reasoning, but we understand this and have tools to help.

When John Adams wrote the Massachusetts’ state constitution he put in a warning. “Wisdom and knowledge, as well as virtue, diffused generally among the body of the people being necessary for the preservation of their rights and liberties; …”

He knew that freedom was a necessary but not sufficient condition. We must also have and apply knowledge, wisdom and virtue, if we are to support the principles of liberty and help to ensure the positive outcomes of our free society.

Freedom without wisdom, knowledge, and virtue … simply isn’t enough.

We can do better.

This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.

Article archive / July 1, 2012

Originally published: July 1, 2012. Volume 3, No. 11. Source pages: 7.

Act 431 places medical psychologists in the allied practitioner health program, assessing fees for the program’s operation.

“In addition to all other assessments attendant to the issuance, renewal, or reinstatement of a license, permit, certificate, or registration issued by the board pursuant to this Part,” and lists the following:

“The board shall charge and collect an annual assessment of twenty-five dollars from each medical psychologist, physician assistant, and podiatrist to be utilized for the identification, monitoring, assistance, and procurement of treatment of medical psychologists, physician assistants, and podiatrists suffering from substance abuse, chemical dependency, psychiatric conditions, or physical deficiencies which may interfere with their ability to practice their profession with reasonable skill and safety.”

This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.

Article archive / July 1, 2012

Originally published: July 1, 2012. Volume 3, No. 11. Source pages: 3.

House Bill 771 was authored by over 60 representatives. Signed by the governor to become Act 208 it mandates coverage of the diagnosis and treatment of autism spectrum disorders, and raises the age for coverage. It also eliminates the limitations on lifetime benefits. According to the legislative digest, the new law raised the age of mandated coverage so that it applies now to individuals less that 21, compared to the old law that applied to individuals less that 17. And the new law removes the lifetime maximum benefit which was $144,000. The new law also deletes an exclusion for companies with 50 or fewer employees. The new law retains the other aspects of the law but changes the implementation date to January 1, 2014.

This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.

Article archive / July 1, 2012

Originally published: July 1, 2012. Volume 3, No. 11. Source pages: 9.

According to the legislative digest this new law “creates the Central La. Technical Community College as a multi-campus, public institution of postsecondary education under the supervision and management of the Board of Supervisors of Community and Technical Colleges (LCTCS Bd. of Supervisors), subject to the appropriate approval of and oversight by the Bd. of Regents. Specifies that the creation is effective July 1, 2012, or at the appropriate time thereafter as determined by formal action taken by the LCTCS board.”

The law “Provides that the Central La. Technical Community College:

(1) Shall provide a comprehensive educational program which may include career and technical education and training, workforce development training, adult basic education, continuing education, general education, associate degree programs, college transfer degree programs, and other educational programs and opportunities.

(2) May grant certificates, diplomas, associate degrees, and associate transfer degrees as authorized by the LCTCS Bd. of Supervisors and the appropriate regional accrediting body as recognized by the U.S. Dept. of Education.

(3) Shall provide educational programs and services through the Alexandria, Avoyelles, Huey P. Long, Lamar Salter, Oakdale, and Shelby M. Jackson campuses of the La. Technical College, and any other postsecondary campus or institution which may become a part of the Central La. Technical Community College or its primary service delivery area.

This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.

Article archive / July 1, 2012

Originally published: July 1, 2012. Volume 3, No. 11. Source pages: 3.

Act 321 provides the mechanism so that citizens can donate any portion of any refund “due them to the Odyssey Foundation for the Arts, LLC for purposes of the Center of Excellence for Autism Spectrum Disorder.” This is effective for the tax year 2012.

This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.

Article archive / July 1, 2012

Originally published: July 1, 2012. Volume 3, No. 11. Source pages: 9.

Act 288 instructs the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education to establish a targeted school health program for the purpose of reducing childhood obesity. “The program shall be established for the purpose of reducing childhood obesity and shall bring together school administrators, teachers, other school employees, students, families, and community members to assess health needs, set priorities, and plan, implement, and evaluate school health activities directed toward this purpose.”

The program elements include counseling, psychological, and social services, health, nutrition, family and community involvement, according to the Act.

This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.

Article archive / July 1, 2012

Originally published: July 1, 2012. Volume 3, No. 11. Source pages: 3.

The legislative digest for Act 756 notes, “Prior law provided procedures for obtaining medical records. Provided a graduated cost scale per page of medical records requested and a separate cost for digital format. New law requires written notice of a violation of prior law to be provided to the provider of medical records via the contact information provided by the health care provider or its agent, or if no contact information is provided, to the custodian of medical records of the health care provider. Further assesses a civil penalty of $500 per violation plus attorney fees and costs at the court's discretion if the provider fails to comply within 15 days. Effective August 1, 2012.”

This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.

Article archive / July 1, 2012

Originally published: July 1, 2012. Volume 3, No. 11. Source pages: 12.

Dr. Michele Larzelere, of the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, Department of Family Medicine, explained the evolving role of the primary care psychologist to participants at a Feb- ruary 2012, online conference for LPA.

Dr. Larzelere pointed to terms used across the country for this role, and some level of confusion that accompanies in this changing perspective. Names to describe this role include “integrated primary care,” “behavioral medicine,” “mental health integration,” “medical psychology,” and “collaborative primary care.”

She explained that the typical job duties of the primary care psychologist would often include interventions for mental health conditions but also behavioral medicine. A primary care psychologist would also often teach brief interventions to primary care staff as well as be an advocate for prevention and wellness in both mental and physical areas. When used effectively, the psychologist will help with “high-utilizing” patients, work with those patients with chronic illnesses, identify those requiring more specialized mental health services, and screen for medical services such as surgical or pain medicine use.

She also spoke to the group about the psychologist need to draw on organizational skills in team-building, communication methods, psychosocial education for staff and physicians, and keeping colleagues focused on evidence-base, among others.

In a review of the important reasons to integrate psychologists into primary care, Dr. Larzelere pointed to research that 60 percent of medical visits “have a strong psychological or psychosocial component,” “that behavioral and mental health impact physical health and vice versa,” and that “people are dying of behaviorally influenced diseases.” She said the research suggests that a “… 30 to 60 percent decrease in medical utilization can be achieved with integrated behavioral health,” and also this “one-stop shopping for patients prevents the 50 to 90 percent drop-off at point of referral…”

She said that if the mental health/behavioral health component in medical/surgical costs were successfully treated nationwide, the amount saved would exceed the entire current budget for mental health.

Dr. Michele Larzelere is a licensed clinical psychologist who along with her duties is Assistant Professor at the Departments of Family Medicine and Psychiatry at the LSU School of Medicine.

This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.

Article archive / July 1, 2012

Originally published: July 1, 2012. Volume 3, No. 11. Source pages: 3.

The legislative digest notes “Prior law provided that a person who has been charged with a crime of violence shall be prohibited from communicating with a victim of the offense for which the person has been convicted or for which the disposition of the case is pending.

“New law amends prior law to provide that the offender charged with a crime of violence shall be prohibited from communicating with a victim of the offense for which he is charged.

“New law amends prior law and provides that a victim and offender who has been charged with a crime of violence may only communicate if the victim consents to the communication through the local prosecuting agency, and the communication is made through the counsel of the offender, counsel's staff or representative, or the offender if he is representing himself at trial.

New law provides that a person who has been sentenced for a crime of violence shall be prohibited from communicating with a victim of the offense unless the victim initiates the communication through DPS&C, and it is agreed that the victim and the offender participate in a formally defined restorative justice program administered through the department.

Effective August 1, 2012.”

This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.

Article archive / July 1, 2012

Originally published: July 1, 2012. Volume 3, No. 11. Source pages: 12.

Kendall J. Eskine, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychology at Loyola University New Orleans, recently had his manuscript, “Wholesome Foods and Wholesome Morals? Organic Foods Reduce Pro-social Behavior and Harshen Moral Judgments,” accepted for publication by Social Psychological and Personality Science, a peer-reviewed journal in social and personality psychology.

Eskine’s research is the first to demonstrate that exposure to organic foods can influence moral thinking and doing. “Food is a central component of daily life. Going beyond nutrition, food connects people to their heritage and environment; people celebrate with food, plan their days around it and even organize romantic encounters along various confectionery delights,” Eskine said.

After viewing a few organic foods, comfort foods or control foods, participants who were exposed to organic foods volunteered significantly less time to help a needy stranger, and they judged moral transgressions significantly harsher than those who viewed non- organic foods. These results suggest that exposure to organic foods may lead people to affirm their moral identities, which reduces their desire to be altruistic.

This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.

Article archive / July 1, 2012

Originally published: July 1, 2012. Volume 3, No. 11. Source pages: 4.

Act 268 Strengthens Child Abuse Reporting (HB 577) Act No. 268

According to the legislative digest, this new law provides for the following:

“(1) Amends prior law to provide that a mandatory reporter shall be fined not more than $500, imprisoned for not more than six months, or both, for the knowing and willful failure to report the abuse or neglect of a child.

(2) Provides that a mandatory reporter who knowingly and willfully fails to report the sexual abuse of a child, or the abuse or neglect of a child which results in serious bodily injury, neurological impairment, or death of a child, shall be fined not more than $3,000, imprisoned for not more than three years, or both. New law defines "serious bodily injury".

(3) Provides that any person who is 18 years of age or older and who witnesses the sexual abuse of a child and knowingly or willfully fails to report the abuse to law enforcement or DCFS shall be fined not more than $10,000, imprisoned for not more than five years, or both. New law defines "sexual abuse".

(4) Removes the provision which requires an individual in the list of "mandatory reporters" to be "performing their occupational duties" in order to be considered a "mandatory reporter".

(5) Expands the definition of "teaching or child care provider" to include any person who assists in the teaching, training, and supervision of a child, bus drivers, coaches, professors, technical or vocational instructors, technical or vocational school staff members, college or university administrators, college or university staff members, or any person who provides teaching or child care services in a voluntary capacity.

(6) Adds "organizational or youth activity provider" to the list of "mandatory reporters".

Prior law required reports of child abuse or neglect to be made to the local child protection unit of DCFS.

New law amends prior law and requires the reporting of child abuse or neglect to be made to DCFS through the designated state child protection reporting hotline telephone number.

(15) "Mandatory reporter" is any of the following individuals performing their occupational duties:

*** (d) "Teaching or child care provider" is any person who provides or assists in the teaching, training, and supervision of a child, including any public or private teacher, teacher's aide, instructional aide, school principal, school staff member, bus driver, coach, professor, technical or vocational instructor, technical or vocational school staff member, college or university administrator, college or university staff member, social worker, probation officer, foster home parent, group home or other child care institutional staff member, personnel of residential home facilities, a licensed or unlicensed day care provider, or any individual who provides such services to a child in a voluntary or professional capacity.”

This Act became effective when the governor signed it.

This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.

Article archive / July 1, 2012

Originally published: July 1, 2012. Volume 3, No. 11. Source pages: 12.

Dr. Tramontana presented a CEU workshop at the annual meeting of the American Society for Clinical Hypnosis (ASCH) in Charlotte, NC, in March, 2012.

The workshop was titled "Hypnosis and Self-hypnosis Training to Enhance Peak Performance in Sports and in Life." Mitch Smith, LCSW, a long time ASCH faculty member in the area of sports hypnosis was co-presenter.

The goal of that Advanced Workshop was to train a small group of therapists already using sports hypnosis to employ new scripts and strategies, and a much larger group of therapists using hypnosis for clinical issues, important for interested in expanding their practice to working with athletes.

Dr. Tramontana is currently the Vice President of the New Orleans Society of Clinical Hypnosis and secures presenters for the quarterly dinner meetings. Tramontana explained to the Times that Dr. Joel Marcus from Oschner Hospital will be presenting in the next few months to the group on the topic of his use of hypnosis for easing the pain and decreasing eating problems with cancer patients.

The group will also be hosting a presentation by Thay Dao Quang, a Buddhist Monk from the Tam Boa Temple in Baton Rouge, Dr. Tramontana told the Times.

Dr. Tramontana currently serves as Director in the state psychological association.

This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.

Article archive / July 1, 2012

Originally published: July 1, 2012. Volume 3, No. 11. Source pages: 4.

Act 861 “Provides relative to the discipline of students in public elementary and secondary schools regarding bullying. Extends applicability of discipline responsibility to school buses and school- sponsored activities and functions.”

“Provides for the student code of conduct to specifically address the behavior constituting bullying, the effect the behavior has on others, including bystanders, and the disciplinary and criminal consequences, and the definition of bullying.

Provides for a program through which each school governing authority shall provide at least four hours of training for all school employees, including bus drivers, with respect to bullying each year which specifically addresses:

(1) How to recognize the behaviors defined as bullying. (2) How to identify students at each grade level in the employee's school who are most likely to become victims of bullying, while not excluding any student from protection from bullying. (3) How to use appropriate intervention and remediation techniques and procedures. (4) The procedures by which incidents of bullying are to be reported to school officials. (5) Information on suicide prevention.

Also defines bullying and addresses reporting.

This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.