(NAME)
• (xxx) xxx-xxxx  xxx@gmail.com • 

  Award-winning project manager and administrator with excellent technical and communication skills and a proven track record for managing projects and resources for on-time and  on-budget results.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT / ADMINISTRATION

• Employee Training • Logistics • Presentation Preparation • Process Improvement •

• Project Management • Research • RFP Preparation • Strategic Planning • Technical Writing • 

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Senior Consultant - Asset Management, U.S. Air Force, Morón Air Base, Morón, Spain, 2003-04

Project manager for asset management, community planning and energy management 

• Automated airfield waiver process with MS Access database, reducing workload by 30%.
• Conducted base capacity inventory for senior leadership.
•  Funded $5.3M 1.1 MW Photovoltaic Solar Farm to provide 30% of base energy needs.

 Deputy Director - Land Use Review, New York City Planning Department, New York, NY, 2002-03

Administrator of public review process for over 600 land use applications per year

• Approved new fee structure with 15% increase in revenue. 
• Oversaw public review of controversial projects, such as the 125^th Street, Harlem Rezoning.
• Prepared department-wide process manual referenced by over 250 staff members.

•  Supervised staff of ten and work from over 50 planners, resulting in 99% on-time record.  

Project Manager - STV, Incorporated, New York, NY, 2001-02

• Prepared environmental assessments within all five boroughs of New York City.
•  Supervised graphics for New Yankee Stadium. 

Community Planner - Saratoga Associates, New York, NY, 2000

• Facilitated strategic planning for Governors Island General Management Plan.
•  Prepared RFP for environmental analysis of Freedom Tower at Ground Zero. 

EDUCATION 

  B.A., Sociology, Columbia 

 M.C.P., City Planning, New York University  

AWARDS

Supervisor of the Quarter, Morón Air Base – March 2004

 Barney Rabinow Award for Creative Leadership, New York City Planning Department – 2002  

SOFTWARE

 Microsoft Office 2007 – Access, Excel, Outlook, Publisher, PowerPoint, Word

Adobe – Acrobat Writer, Illustrator and Photoshop

In females, there appears to be an increased risk of anxiety, depressive, and panic disorders during the premenstrual and postpartum (i.e., after giving birth) periods when estrogen levels are actually lower, as well as after the onset of puberty, when estrogen levels are actually higher, and in some cases even prior to giving birth, the so-called “antenatal” period.  Indeed, fluctuations in estrogen levels can have similar effects to higher or lower levels of estrogen in the body at different times in the female lifespan.

On the other hand, anxiety and depressive disorders tend to decrease after menopause but not necessarily disappear.  The average age of menopause in the US is approximately 51 years of age with a range somewhere between 40 and 61 years of age when there are often clear and present biological signs.  These biological “markers” might include, among other things, inconsistent menstrual periods, increase in psychosocial stress, changes in mood states and emotional lability, as well as cognitive and mneumonic adjustments such as decrements in reasoning ability and forgetfulness.  Complete cessation of menstruation for one full year or “amenorrhea,” is the defining characteristic of having reached menopause.  A history of smoking cigarettes or having had a hysterectomy typically brings on menopause sooner.

Hence, the inclination in psychiatry and medicine to stabilize or restore estrogen levels through hormone replacement therapy, use of birth control medications, and other biologic treatments during the postpartum, perimenopausal (during menopause), and postmenopausal periods to alleviate mood swings, depression, and anxiety.

In the mid-1990s, the VMI was “normed” on a larger population of approximately 2,600 children and adolescents.  Although gender, and to some extent ethnicity, was taken into account, these so-called “norms” are based on samples of students culled from school psychologists and other mental health personnel from 10 states.  This, in itself, is hardly a normative sample as the children were “self-selected” from a population of children with school-referred problems.  I suspect that socioeconomic class ("SES," using Hollingshead’s criteria), further division along ethnic lines (e.g., Caribbean, Afro-Cuban, divisions within Hispanic classes—Latino, Chicano, and so on), and a representative sample of normal children, were not sufficiently addressed, if at all.  So, the purported developmental norms in the VMI are a fiction: They represent a biased sample of school-referred children from 10 states with little attention to normal development, rural/urban distinctions, SES, ethnicity, and so on.  That’s the second problem.

The third problem is that paper-and-pencil tests tend to moderately correlate with each other.  So, a child’s WISC-III-R (psychometric “IQ” test) will correlate with his score on the VMI.  This, in itself, is not surprising, but does it tell us anything meaningful about a child?  What it does suggest is that children with strong verbal abilities (or who have attended “good” schools or had a series of “good” teachers or where education and reading are strongly valued and rewarded at home) tend to do well on paper-and-pencil tests, because these kinds of abilities are the lingua franca (and are strongly rewarded) in the school (and/or home) contexts.  One exception to this is children with strong graphic abilities.

And, this is the fourth problem: Child’s drawing (graphic) abilities are never taken into account.  This presumes, of course, that skill domains are largely independent so that ability in drawing (or lack of it) is not (necessarily) strongly associated with math abilities, math abilities with reading skills, and so on, ad infinitum.

Normative studies of children’s drawings indicate that children pass through a regular sequence of developmental unfoldings and that there are extensive gender differences. Children proceed from simple scribbles (2 years) to lines that begin to resemble simple objects (2 – 2 1/2 years); draw common geometric shapes that evince customary visual patterns and drawing formulas (2 1/2 years); make explicit pictorial representations such that the form or contour drawn has a recognizable link to reality—people, animals, faces, and buildings (3 – 4 years); and seek to revise and explicitly achieve acceptable representational resemblance (6-7 years).  Indeed, by school age, children have acquired canonical ways of depicting people and objects.

But even younger children use canonical human figures as exemplars for depicting animate forms such as common pets and animals.  For instance, children normally adopt a top-to-bottom sequence in graphic depiction in which the organization of the pictorial surface is distorted—as in the exaggeration of the size of the head or the inclusion of excessive detail resulting in larger figures.  Infra-human primates, too, produce drawings that mimic human pictorial features including heavy dot patterns surrounded by circular strokes or a fan-shaped widening of lines suggesting common underlying regularities in pictorial abilities in primates.

With regard to gender, females are more likely to use more unrealistic colors in their drawings than males from 5 to 11 years-of-age, fill up more of the outer edges of the paper up to about the age of 10 years, and draw more backgrounds—including more sky and ground depictions—up to 14 years-of-age.  On the other hand, males demonstrate a greater tendency to leave the body of the figure empty of color up to about 12 years-of-age.  There is also the familiar U-shaped curve of development for both genders in use of color, areas filled, and addition of background material. That is, there is an initial preference for form and shape in the early childhood years (left part of “U”), an increase in color use and a decline in form use during the middle childhood years (trough of “U”), and a subsequent increase again for preference for form in the preadolescent years (right part of “U”).  Indeed, while both 5- and 14-year-olds use fewer color choices, 14-year-olds are highly selective in their use.

A related problem is the lack of attention to the child’s level of drawing abilities.  That is, drawing abilities are probably not well-indexed by looking at isolated characteristics of pictures (e.g., the ability to draw a certain line or geometric form).  Rather, as suggested above, drawing is a contextual activity in which many prior experiences and skills as well as aesthetic factors come into play as a whole.  It is not clear that an assessment of the child’s ability to produce isolated lines and geometric shapes (to imitation) is an adequate method to access visual-motor skills.  It probably says more about the child’s prior learning in relation to graphic productions.

The sixth problem is that children with vision-related problems will not be well served by a test such as the VMI (even the authors admit this much in the manual).  It is too gross a measure to pick up much more subtle visual problems best left to an ophthalmologist’s or optometrist’s office.  Indeed, in a recent clinical case, a child who had no problem recognizing and matching geometric forms (similar to the match-to-sample test of the visual perception test of the VMI), turned out to have had needed corrective lenses for reading as well as possessing an accommodative deficiency in eye muscle coordination.

So, what is the VMI good for?  The test is generally an easy test for most children and is a good way for the child to warm up and for the clinician to build up rapport through lavish praise.  I carefully watch the child looking for their ability to hold and use a pencil, focus attention (distractibility), and pay careful attention to their use of fine-motor (hand) skills, eye-hand coordination, graphic maturity (taking into account normal development attainments), attention to detail (e.g., counting and correctly representing the number of dots), their ability to name represented lines and shapes, and I also enter into a conversation with the child about what kinds of graphic achievements they have been already exposed to in the school and home contexts.  I find the overall score, however, quite useless.  Although, the same might be said for an IQ score for which the VMI is, no doubt, mimicking.

Some suggesting reading:

Seitz, J. A. (2001). A cognitive-perceptual analysis of projective tests in children.  Perceptual and Motor Skills, 2001, 93, 505-522.  See this article for a review of the research on the development of pictorial skills in children.  Available on this web site under "Publications."

Some observers have argued that there is no scientific support for the assertion that individuals project personality traits, characteristics or motivations onto others of which they themselves are unaware.  Rather, it may serve a conscious social function.  For instance, an individual may project a negative personality trait onto a more desirable person in order to make that trait more desirable (e.g., a greedy investor).  Or, project an undesirable trait onto an undesirable person to make that trait less desirable (e.g., a bedraggled man).

Indeed, I have suggested that projection may be a common outcome of a human propensity for empathy towards others, reading accurately emotions in others, and acting appropriately on those beliefs, that is, an aspect of emotional or social intelligence.  Furthermore, this human propensity may actually derive from a psychological process called “physiognomic perception” that has been well studied in humans and where there exists an extensive scientific literature.

We can take our cue from one of the originators of projective testing, Hermann Rorschach, a Swiss psychiatrist, who invented one of the earliest projective tests, the Rorschach inkblock test (1921).  He opined that the viewer adds his or her own kinesthetic reactions to an inkblock or a drawing when viewing visual material.  ”Kinesthesia” or awareness of the position and movement of the parts of our bodies by means of internal sensory receptors (“proprioceptors”), bolsters our perception of physiognomic qualities (i.e., the general form or appearance of things, including facial features and expression).  The latter may be more basic to our experience of people and objects than visual qualities such as color, shape, size or brightness.  That is, our bodies help us understand and make sense of the world.  We call this “kinesthetic intelligence” or understanding. (For the curious, see my article on The Bodily Basis of Thought under "Publications"). For instance, individuals perceive the “solidity” of a building because of the “spatial dimensions of lines, planes, and volumes” that are inherent in the visual and kinesthetic dynamics of the perceived form.  Similarly, people endow religious images, nature, printed texts, and social rituals with animate, empathic or projected qualities as part our common human biological heritage.

From an evolutionary perspective, anthropomorphic notions such as the belief that inanimate objects possessed human characteristics or early totemic beliefs that humans were descended from animals, are likely forerunners of physiognomic perception and still present to this day in contemporary cultures.  Not surprisingly, 4- and 5-year-olds perform at near adult levels in attributing animate and inanimate properties correctly to objects.

Therefore, the visual dynamics in a drawing or Rorschach inkblock are not only created by the conscious (i.e., interpretative) or unconscious processes of the viewer, but by kinesthetic resonance and pictorial cues in the drawing (i.e., shading, color or blurring) that connote visual tension.  Many of these pictorial cues require extensive learning and so would be unavailable or idiosyncratic to the uninitiated such as children or those with minimal exposure to art or complex visual material.  Indeed, artistic aptitude and drawing ability, as well as exposure to drawn art, is highly relevant to the production and interpretation of drawings, although it is rarely addressed in projective testing.

Lastly, perception of meaning in otherwise meaningless stimuli may be an earlier human preadaptation to configure the world into patterns.  In fact, such “pareidolia” is probably an evolutionary adaptation to selection pressures in our ancestral environments for organizing our perceptual worlds (i.e., understanding what we see and hear) in earlier hominids and other species.  That is, we are biologically predisposed by nature to continually look for patterns in the physical world.

As has been noted by both art historians and anthropologists, what we want to know is what are the basic categories of visual experience are, not that everything has meaning or that there is a single (or few) sign(s) that correspond with each and every psychiatric disease or disorder.  Clinical interpretations of projective tests, therefore, probably say more about the interpreter than about the psychological motivations and personality structure of the interpretant.  As a result, it appears that current clinical interpretations of projective tests fail to give us any valid or reliable account of the psychological makeup of any individual, whether child or adult.

Some suggested reading:

Seitz, J. A. (2001). A cognitive-perceptual analysis of projective tests in children. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 2001, 93, 505-522. Available on this web site under "Publications."

Such “creative cognition” might involve a number of things including (a) creating novel or hypothetical categories (e.g., a new kind of movie such as the 3D flic, “Avatar”), (b) conceptual blending (e.g., writing a TV script that takes a contemporary look at the advertisement business but set in the 1950s and involving social intrigue both inside and outside the office, as in the television show, “Mad Men”), (c) using “mental models” of what one wants to create (e.g., using a “Photoshopped” image of a candidate to create a political campaign), (d) coming up with new linguistic combinations such as the term, “metrosexual,” to sell an image or create a new cultural category, (e) employing novel symbolic visual patterns as in a new kind of textile design for a bathroom wall or visual rendering of a parquet floor, as well as (f) other kinds of conceptual combinations.

Creativity is thus a thinking process; after all, it’s called “creative thought.” It’s a “process” because it leads to creative ideas that are going to be “implemented” in fashioning a creative “product” or result.  Otherwise, it’s just stays in your mind and is inert.  But, it relies heavily on the external world--reality--for it’s impetus.  So, some observers have suggested that getting out of one’s usual daily or weekly ritual can stimulate the creative process, the “flow” of ideas.  Try changing up your daily routine or the usual way you go about things.

Another approach is to capitalize on your “intuition” whether in the arts, sciences, business or whatever.  The technical definition of ‘intuition’ is reaching conclusions based on nonconscious processes of reasoning.  Nobody knows exactly what these unconscious processes are but letting your mind wander or putting yourself in an environment or setting that your mind is able to roam widely can be highly productive.  The next step is to then generate hunches or “hypotheses” that you can test out in whatever area your creative juices are flowing: A television, play or movie script idea, compositional hunches for a new tune on the piano or guitar, the germ of a business concept for an exciting business plan, a visual idea for a newfangled gadget, and the like.  Using a computer to write down or visualize these ideas can be helpful as can an ordinary sheet of paper if....you’re creative with a pen or pencil.

I have written about the role of of metaphorical processes involved in creative thought including improvising music and creating a ballet or modern dance.  See my publications on this topic if you’re interested.  Click on “Publications” on the left “Navigation” bar.

There are many other ways to enhance creativity but this is a good place to start.

Some suggested reading:

Cohen, S. (1992). Escape attempts: The struggle of resistance in everday life.  NY: Taylor & Francis.

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1996). Creativity: Flow and the psychology of discovery and invention.  NY: HarperCollins.

Ward, T.B., Finke, R. A., & Smith, S.M. (2002). Creativity and the mind: Discovering the genius within.  NY: Basic Books.

Here’s an interesting quote to consider:

“What he intended was not what she understood, which was what she would have meant if she had said what he said in the way he said it.”   

Individuals often speak indirectly when they speak to others in which what they actually mean is not captured in their speech, a limitation of spoken language.  For instance, they communicate meaning not directly but through vocal prosody (intonation), the pragmatics of speech (the way we say things, like ask a question or make a statement), in what is not said, as well as not explaining background assumptions in their communications with others.  These indirect ways of speaking are referred to as “metamessages” or the what and how one says things.  These differences between individuals in conversational style can wreak havoc at work or in intimate relationships because they may communicate bad intentions or fuel negative impressions.

These miscommunications are normal, however, not instances of psychological character gone awry because these kinds of misunderstandings are part of the ordinary linguistic fallout associated with trying to convey one’s thoughts and feelings to others.

How does one correct these misunderstandings without demonizing one’s partner or co-worker?  One effective technique is to change the frame of the conversation, that is, by changing how you communicate with a person rather than talking about the communication itself or other aggravating maneuvers.  This often has the effect of causing a new set of responses with the person you are trying to communicate and can be quite effective.  Another method is to train oneself to become an observer of a frustrating conversation rather than simply reacting to the miscommunication.

So, conversational style may often be more relevant than psychological character when the differences between what we say and what we meant become the unfortunate victims of conversational style.

Gottman’s work is important because it is backed up by extensive scientific research and he is has also pioneered ways to get relationships back on track.  His observations do not apply just to married couples but any two-person partnership, whether straight or gay, dating or living together.  Here’s a brief summary of some of his suggestions: 

1.  Accept your partner’s influence

     Why?  Increases intimacy

2.  Explore and accept your partner’s sexual fantasies

     Why?  Increases intimacy

3.  Go to where your partner is

     Why?  Expands sense of “we-ness” (i.e., togetherness)

4.  Help each other realize each other’s dreams

     Why?  A major goal of marriage

5.  Keep working on your unresolvable conflicts

     Why?  More satisfying unions

6.  End gridlock

     Why?  Remove the hurt so that the problem stops being a source of pain

7.  High expectations yield high-quality relationships

     Why?  Mitigates negativity

8.  Work on accepting yourself with all your flaws

     Why?  Forgive yourself and become a better partner

What undermines relationships?  These are the things to avoid, according to Gottman, particularly defensiveness:

1. Defensiveness: Being overly sensitive to comments or criticism from our partner.  By doing this, we essentially wall ourselves off from any effective communication because we typically do not want to face up to feelings within ourselves that are stressful and make us anxious.
2. Stonewalling:  Giving our partner the silent treatment, thereby preventing communication.
3. Criticism:  Being overly harsh with regard to your partner’s flaws.
4. Contempt:  Seeing your partner as inferior or not worthy.

Some suggested reading:

Gottman, J. (2000).  The seven principle for making marriage work: A practical guide from the country’s foremost relationship expert.  NY: Random House.

“Relieving the states that make life miserable [i.e., mental illness] has made building the states that make life worth living less of a priority.  But people want more than just to correct their weaknesses.  They want lives imbued with meaning, and not just to fidget until they die…. [Indeed], there is not a shred of evidence that strength and virtue are derived from negative motivation” (M. E. P. Seligman, 2002).

So, instead of emphasizing what’s wrong with people as has been the thrust of the traditional fields of psychiatry as well as clinical and abnormal psychology, positive psychology highlights positive emotions, one’s core strengths and virtues, and positive institutions.

The positive emotions involve feelings about the past, present, and future.  For instance, optimism and hope represent positive emotions about the future.  Satisfaction and pride embody positive emotions about the past and various pleasures and gratifications with regard to the present.  With regard to the latter two, these include bodily pleasures (e.g., enjoying the visual sights of nature), intellective and other kinds of cognitive satisfactions, and “gratifications” or activities that individuals find engaging.

The strengths and virtues involve 24 core qualities that are universally valued, in and of themselves, as well as the fact that you can improve on your abilities in each of these core areas: 

• Wisdom and knowledge: Curiosity, love of learning, judgment, originality, social intelligence, and perspective
• Courage: Valor, perseverance, integrity
• Love and humanity: Kindness, and loving and being loved
• Justice: Duty, fairness, and leadership
• Temperance (self-restraint): Self-control, discretion, and humility
• Spirituality and transcendence: Appreciation of beauty and excellence, gratitude, hope, sense of purpose, forgiveness, humor, and passion

Positive institutions demarcate settings and institutions in which individuals live and work that promote democratic participation, free inquiry, and a strong family-orientation.

What affects one’s satisfaction with life?  As it turns out, not wealth, income or physical beauty.  But, according to research studies, these factors do:

• Marriage has very positive effects on human happiness.
• Living in a wealthy democracy has a very positive effect on human happiness.
• A rich social network has a very positive effect on human happiness.
• Religion has a moderately positive effect on human happiness.
• The avoidance of negative events and negative emotions has a mild effect on human happiness.
• Subjective health, not objective health, matters more to human happiness.
• Excessive materialism tends to make people less happy.

What other things affect one’s dissatisfaction with life?  As it turns out, seeing the events in one’s life as arising out of uncontrollable forces that are permanent, pervasive, and personal can make you pessimistic and can lead to depression.

Some suggested reading:

Seligman, M. E. P. (2002).  Authentic happiness: Using the new positive psychology to realize your potential for lasting fulfillment.  NY: Simon & Schuster.

What kinds of substances enhance cognitive (intellective) functions and memory?

The drugs used to boost cognitive functioning in Alzheimer’s disease do so by one of two methods:

• Acetylcholinesterase inhibitors impede the degradation of acetylcholine, a major neurotransmitter in the central nervous system (CNS) that is involved in the formation, storage, and recall of memories--or, at least, that’s the theory behind it.  These drugs are not very effective in attenuating the inexorable effects of Alzheimer’s disease, but they may work as cognitive enhancers in normal individuals.  These four drugs include:
  • Cholinesterase Inhibitors   
    • Aricept (Donepezil hydrochloride)
    • Cognex (Tacrine hydrochloride)
    • Exelon (Rivastigimine tartrate)
    • Reminyl (Galantamine hydrochloride) and also available at your local health food store without a prescription (sold as Galantamine hydrochloride)
  • NMDA Receptor Antagonists
    • N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonists operate in the CNS by preventing glutamate, an excitatory neurotransmitter, from activating NMDA receptors and impeding new memory formation and include the following drug:  Namenda (Memantine hydrochloride)

Other drugs that putatively boost attention and sustain it:

They include caffeine, the alpha 2 agonists such as clonidine and guanfacine (Tenex), the dopaminergic and pro-noradrenergic antiderpressant, buproprion (“Wellbutrin”), and the noradrenergic selective reuptake inhibitor, reboxetine (“Edronaz”).  With regard to the last one, prefrontal noradrenergic pathways, which subserve the neurotransmitter, norepinephrine, appear to play a role in focusing and sustaining attention as well as boosting interest and motivation.  Low levels may induce depression.

On the other hand, hyperactivity and impulsivity are mediated by the nigrostriatal dopamine pathway and may be reduced by drugs that antagonize or decrease the availability of dopamine in the CNS. 

Nootropic drugs

Nootropic drugs purportedly enhance cognition and learning and may even reverse learning impairments.  Piracetam is now available in the US through health food stores as well as online.  Vinpocetine, another nootropic drug, is also worth checking out at your local health food store or online.  You might also consider Bacopa monnieri.

1. Piracetam
2. Vinpocetine
3. Bacopa monnieri

• Iron and copper play a destructive role in brain aging in such degenerative disorders as dementia, Parkinson’s disease, and Huntington’s disease.  Iron accumulates in the striatum and substantia nigra in the subcortex of the brain with age and impacts on cognitive and motor abilities.  Iron accumulation leads to problems in cellular metabolism due to oxidation of the mitochondria (key structures inside the cell that facilitate cell metabolism) and appears to produce degenerative brain conditions.  More than 90% of oxidation that occurs in the body is in the mitochondria and the major free radical in the mitochondria is the superoxide radical that releases iron from binding proteins.  Indeed, the accumulation of iron and calcium in the mitochondria are age-related.

• Physical exercise is beneficial to health for many reasons but it also leeches iron, a mineral, from the brain and body.

• Green tea extracts and quercetin remove or “chelate” iron from the body.

• Polyphenols (bioflavenoids) including rinds of citrus fruits; the skin and seeds of grapes, berries and cherries; and the phytonutrients in wine chelate iron and copper from the body.

• Resveratrols are a group of phytonutrients found in red wine that have a number of important benefits and are now being investigated by scientists.  Resveratrols chelate copper and reduce oxidation of cholesterol induced by unbound copper in the body.  They inhibit the shortening of cell telomeres, which are linked to aging and stress as well as the formation of the superoxide radical. Most importantly, they activate the Sirtuin 1 DNA repair gene that appears to be one of the central genes that impacts on the aging process.

• Phytic acid IP-6 (“phytate IP6”) (derived from rice and wheat bran, whole grains, seeds, and soy protein) impacts on iron oxidation.  Soy protein chelates iron and calcium.  The health benefits of soy protein (which contains IP-6) is its iron control effect which produces the cardiovascular health benefits NOT the weak phytoestrogens in soy.

• Phytic acid IP-6 inhibits the shorting of the end caps or telomeres of cells and telomeres shorten each time the cell divides.  Cell shortening is correlated with increasing age as well as the effects of psychosocial stress (work, family, friendships) on the body.  IP-6 is also critical for cellular (DNA) repair and cell longevity.  It regulates the influx of calcium into the mitochondria thus reducing oxidative damage.

• Under normal conditions, iron and copper are bound to transport proteins (i.e., ferritin and ceruloplasmin) and do not cause tissue damage because the majority of iron is bound to red hemoglobin pigment in the bloodstream.  In the skin, brown melanin pigment binds to iron.  But when set free iron and copper can damage bodily tissues and DNA and raise cholesterol.  Thus, some observers believe that copper and iron chelation therapy may be helpful in diminishing the effects of Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia. About 50% of adults will show some symptoms of dementia over 80 years-of-age.

• The cellular cleaning process or what is called “autophagy” can increase longevity.  That is, lysosomes continually cleanse cells of cellular debris.  Caloric restriction (eating about two-thirds or less of your normal caloric intake), iron chelation, and the use of resveratrols and IP-6 appear to facilitate autophagy.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), according to Dr Judith Beck, is a collaborative endeavor between patient and therapist that involves active participation from the patient.  It is goal-oriented, focused on current problems that the patient is facing, and empowers the patient to take charge of his or her problems.  It is typically limited to 6 to 16 sessions.   

It works by helping the patient “identify, evaluate, and respond to dysfunctional thoughts and beliefs.”  Typically patients with psychiatric and psychological disorders have a negative bias because they tend to discount positive information about themselves and others.  Their beliefs are absolute, global, and they tend to overgeneralize their beliefs to similar instances. 

Patients with a negative bias have a core belief structure that revolves around two major convictions: The belief that they are unloveable and/or the belief that they are unworthy or helpless.  These core beliefs are funneled through intermediate beliefs involving rules and attitudes to follow.  For example, “I am unloveable so therefore I should avoid asking for things for myself.”  These intermediate beliefs give rise to automatic thoughts that consist of emotions and physiological and behavioral responses.  For instance, “I feel bad when someone gives me something and I get sick to my stomach.  I behave likes it’s no big deal.”  

In cognitive therapy, the patient and therapist examine and test the validity of these thoughts and and their function in the patient’s life.  Together, they construct more adaptive responses for the patient to rehearse through therapy “homework” and through reading or “bibliotherapy.”  The goal is to replace less adaptive responses and behavior with more adaptive responses and behavior so that the patient may live a more fulfilling life.

There are two major schools of cognitive-behavioral therapy: CBT, which originated with Aaron Beck, MD at the University of Pennsylvania and Rational-Emotive Therapy or RET (or REBT), which originated with Albert Ellis, PhD in New York.

Some suggested reading:

Beck, J. S. (1995).  Cognitive therapy: Basics and beyond.  NY: Guilford.

Neenan, M., & Dryden, W. (2005). Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy in a Nutshell.  NY: Sage.

The nature of the social deficits has increasingly taken front stage in studies of autism.  Moreover, newer theories of intellective processes indicate that social "intelligence" consists of two essential components.  Intrapersonal abilities include (a) one's affective range and intensity, (b) the ability to discriminate among the emotions, (c) the ability to label them appropriately, and (d) the ability to use them to guide one's behavior.  Interpersonal abilities include (a) the ability to decode feelings, intentions, and motivations in others, (b) recognize characteristics among people (e.g., age, gender, and ethnicity) and (c) influence others to behave in desired ways.  Autistic children's social impairment appears to involve deficits in both intrapersonal and interpersonal abilities.

Autistic spectrum disorders include autism, Asperger’s disorder, Rett’s syndrome, and childhood disintegrative disorder.  Asperger’s is a milder form of autism that does not include significant deficits in cognitive and language development.  Rett’s syndrome is typically found in very young females who despite a brief period of normal development in the first year or two of life begin to regress by avoiding social contact with others, refusing to speak, as well as evincing an inability to control their actions and behaviors.  On the other hand, childhood disintegrative disorder generally only affects males who demonstrate normal development in the first 2-3 years of life but then begin to deteriorate in social, language, and motor development in the ensuring years.

There are many treatment options for autistic spectrum disorders including intensive behavioral therapy, psychoactive medications, as well as some dietary and nutritional approaches.

The National Institute of Health has a extensive discussion of autistic spectrum disorders on their web pages at click here.

Yet, the ability to learn from subsequent experience (e.g., putting your math skills to work in a financial firm or you knowledge of literature in a publishing house) doesn’t simply depend on latent skills learned at some earlier point but on mastering, applying, and reapplying those skills in actual performance situations in “real-life” circumstances as Robert J. Sternberg and Elena Grigorenko of Yale argue.  Conventional or “static” tests focus not on actual performances in real-world situations but on whatever “products” have been taught and tested for.  

On the other hand, learning and acquisition of new skills and new abilities are best demonstrated in developing abilities rather than abilities that have been already acquired.

Why?  Well, for one thing the capacity to learn and learn different kinds of things changes with age and experience.  Moreover, self-esteem, personality, social intelligence, cultural and work experiences, spoken language skills, and reading abilities are constantly changing and affect one’s “learning potential.”  And, people learn and acquire different kinds of skills (e.g., learning how to ski, trade bonds, paint or sculpt, play the flute, become a better partner) in different ways and at different rates of acquisition.

For instance, some people learn slowly at first, speed up in the middle stages of an acquisition of a particular skill (e.g., learning a spreadsheet program), and slow down at higher stages of learning.  This is called an “S-shaped learning curve.”  Other people have a long initial period with little consolidation of a new skill (e.g., learning to snow ski) and then suddenly and rapidly increase their skill use (“Salutatory learning curve”).  Others show sharp fluctuations in learning something new (e.g., starting a new job as a financial analyst) in which they may show rapid increase in some skills at the same time that they appear to be making little progress or regressing in other areas (“Stepwise learning curve”).

Abilities, then, might be better tested and evaluated not as static products that have reached their final maturity but as developing forms of expertise.  Which suggests a different approach to learning and education whether in the doctor’s office, clinic, classroom or the workplace.

Some suggested reading:

Sternberg, R. J., & Grigorenko, E. (2001).  Dynamic testing: The nature and measurement of learning potential.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Federal funds were appropriated for research and curricula, graduate programs were started, scholarly articles and books began appearing, tests were devised, parents’ groups formed, children were classified and labeled, and prescription drugs were developed.  Learning disabilities became a cottage industry.

This history and the mystification of “learning disabilities” is addressed in an under appreciated critique by Gerald S. Coles in his book, The Learning Mystique.   Yet, as Coles points out, research on LD is biased by excluding non-neurological causes such as poor schooling and pedagogy, mismatches between the teaching style of the instructor and the learning style of the student, gender differences in reading development, and the lack of appreciation of books and reading in the home early in many children’s lives, among other things.

Those other things include diverse sociocultural factors:  The inability to concentrate due to a chaotic family environment, lack of motivational incentives by teachers and parents, stress on families, parents' educational level, spousal and social support for the mother, quality of parent-child interactions, degree of social and intellectual stimulation in the home, parent's effectiveness in teaching children at home, financial status of the family, child’s health, gender roles at home, social support from relatives, family dynamics, and life satisfaction and opportunities available to parents and family members, to name just a few.

Unlike speaking, which is universally acquired by almost all children early in life without formal instruction, reading is a cultural acquisition.   For the great majority of children, it requires extensive learning and instruction and to become a fluid reader of college-level reading material, years of concentrated instruction and practice.

And, reading instruction itself is not always up to snuff.   Classroom teachers, reading specialists, and special education teachers may not adequately trained in teaching the basic, underlying component skills (e.g., basic vowel and consonant patterns, that is, phonemic awareness and letter-sound correspondences) that underlie reading abilities in the early years. Indeed, the research does not support Orton’s theory of “mixed dominance,” problems in following text with the eyes (except in very special cases) or other kinds of visual-perceptual deficits. Nor does the research support the concept of a general sequencing problem or attention-span dysfunctions in children with learning problems.

What the research does indicate is that some subset of children with reading problems (including performing written arithmetic) may have deficits in parsing the basis sounds of language known as “phonemes” as well as decrements in verbal memory.  Pre-reading skills, too, such as phonemic awareness and the ability to decompose written words (“graphemes”) into their basic sounds (“phonemes”) are particularly significant for latter success in the school context.  Current research tends to support Coles’ view.

Some suggested reading:

Coles, G. S. (1989). The learning mystique: A critical look at “learning disabilities.” NY: Random House.

Snowling, M. J., & Hulme, C. (2005) (Eds.). The science of reading: A handbook. Oxford: Blackwell.

General considerations

Meditation is a very effective technique for relieving psychosocial stress and has significant scientific support. Herbert Benson, M.D., at Harvard Medical School, has been promoting meditation for stress reduction since the mid-1970s in his well-known book, The Relaxation Response. Here are some essential components of Dr. Benson’s relaxation response: