Background: In recent years, there has been a growing use of technological advancements to enhance the rehabilitation of individuals who have suffered from cerebrovascular accidents. Virtual reality rehabilitation programs enable patients to engage in a customized therapy program while interacting with a computer-generated environment. Therefore, our goal was to investigate the effectiveness of virtual reality in occupational therapy for people’s rehabilitation after a cerebrovascular accident. Methods: We systematically searched databases (Pubmed/Medline, Scopus, Web of Science, and Science Direct) for randomized controlled trials published within the last 10 years. Studies involving adult stroke survivors undergoing virtual reality-based interventions aimed at improving upper-extremity motor function were included. The quality assessment followed PRISMA guidelines, with the risk of bias assessed using the Cochrane tool (version 6.4) and methodological quality evaluated using GRADEpro. Results: We selected sixteen studies that met the main criteria for the implementation of virtual reality technology. The interventions described in the articles focused mainly on the upper extremities and their fine motor skills. Conclusions: When used in conventional treatments to improve people’s motor and cognitive functions after a cerebrovascular accident, virtual reality emerges as a beneficial tool. Additionally, virtual reality encourages adherence to the interventional process of rehabilitation through occupational therapy.

Camouflaging, a phenomenon observed in autistic individuals, refers to the conscious or unconscious strategies that individuals employ to mask, assimilate, or compensate for their autistic characteristics in social settings, in order to blend in or avoid stigmatization. These strategies may include suppression of behaviors considered atypical, imitation of neurotypical behaviors, and use of social scripts to navigate social interactions. While these behaviors have an adaptive goal, they have been linked with mental health issues. Our study examines the two assessment: Methods the Camouflaging Autistic Traits Questionnaire and the discrepancy method. Also examining differences based on sex and diagnosis. We conducted 17 independent meta-analyses, revealing significant differences between autistic individuals, with females displaying consistently higher scores. Autistic individuals showed higher scores when compared to their neurotypical counterparts. Meta-regression analysis suggests age as a relevant moderating factor, impacting comparisons between neurotypical groups. We discuss the differences in the assessment of camouflaging behaviors and the current strengths and limitations of both methods.

The goal of this study was to characterize the degree of structuring of verbal and motor behaviours, unfolded during the application of an procedure called the Strange Situation. This procedure is used for assessing children’s attachment quality during early stages of their development. Many studies have demonstrated that communicative interactions share features with complex dynamic systems. In such studies, estimations of degree of structure have been used to characterize the system’s synchronization. Thus, assuming that processes of communicative interaction occur in the Strange Situation procedure, it was expected to find traces of synchronization. The metrics were estimated through a Categorical Cross‐Recurrence Quantification Analysis applied to the behaviours of individuals and dyads. Two applications of the Strange Situation were implemented and recorded. Verbal and motor interactions among children, caregivers, and strangers were transcribed, categorized, and organized as time series. From each time series of original behaviours, randomized time series were created. Measures of recurrence extracted from Recurrent Plots, such as determinism, entropy, maximum line, laminarity, and trapping time, were calculated. Original and randomized time series were compared in terms of these measures. Results indicated that communicative interaction during the Strange Situation had a structure that mimics properties observed in social interactions where synchronization emerges. In our case, verbal behaviours were more prone to synchronization than motor behaviours, in both individuals and dyads, even though this pattern was more salient among caregivers and strangers than children. The relevance of having measures that can capture synchronization during the administration of the Strange Situation is discussed. Our preliminary findings allow us to point out that the application of RQA and C‐RQA to the Strange Situation could not only contribute to methodology, but also contribute to emphasizing the role of coupling in communicative interaction generated by the application of this procedure to measure attachment patterns.

In line with theories of embodied cognition, hands-on experience is typically assumed to support learning. In the current paper, we explored this issue within the science domain of sinking objects. Adults had to make a guess about which of two objects in a pair would sink faster. The crucial manipulation was whether participants were handed real-life objects (real-objects condition) or were shown static images of objects (static-images condition). Results of Experiment 1 revealed more systematic mistakes in the real-objects than the static-images condition. Experiment 2 investigated this result further, namely by having adults make predictions about sinking objects after an initial training. Again, we found that adults made more mistakes in the real-objects than the static-images condition. Experiment 3 showed that the negative effect of hands-on experiences did not influence later performance. Thus, the negative effects of hands-on experiences were short-lived. Even so, our results call into question an undifferentiated use of manipulatives to convey science concepts. Based on our findings, we suggest that a nuanced theory of embodied cognition is needed, especially as it applies to science learning.

Multiple factors simultaneously interact during the writing process. The effect of these interacting factors must be considered if writing is studied as a dynamic and complex process that constantly changes. Based on that premise, the study aims to determine how the interaction between the reading medium and the communicative purpose of a writing task affects the pauses during different stages of the writing process. At the same time, it seeks to determine how this interaction is related to the writer's competence. Using a 2-by-2 experimental design, undergraduate students (n = 66) read documents (print or digital format) and completed a computer-embedded writing task with different communicative purposes (to persuade or to inform). While writing, pauses-related keystrokes were recorded. The results show that neither the reading medium nor the task purpose or the interaction of these two variables affect pauses. However, communicative purpose interacts with the stages of the writing process, so regardless of participants' writing competence, they took longer at the end of the writing process when the purpose was to persuade. Other interactions indicated that the type of pause interacts differentially with the stage and communicative purpose. These interactions and main effects were systematically related to the writer's competence; because once it was statistically controlled, these interactions and main effects were no longer significant. The results are analysed in terms of the cognitive processes underlying pauses, considering evidence from studies on hybrid reading-writing and integrated writing studies.

The five-to-fifteen (FTF) questionnaire is a screening tool completed by parents that is able to distinguish developmental disorders in children aged 5 to 15 years old. The current study aimed to characterize the developmental difficulties by gender and school age (kindergarten and first grade) of children in their transition to primary school, using the Spanish-language version of the FTF questionnaire. The participants were 541 parents of typically developed children from kindergarten and first grade in public schools in Chile. Developmental difficulties were revealed, showing that boys displayed significantly more difficulties in their social skills when compared to girls, and that kindergartners displayed significantly more developmental difficulties than first graders. The children’s developmental difficulties in executive functions, social skills, and emotional/behavioral problems exhibited interactions between gender and school age. The findings were discussed in terms of current conceptualizations of both executive functions and self-regulatory processes. These processes and functions are configured early in development, are gradually consolidated over the course of school age, and can be strengthened or weakened by conditions experienced in childhood. Early screening of developmental difficulties from the parents’ perspective would facilitate early detection of problems, as early as in kindergarten, and considering the normal adaptable development of children.