Smell, Taste and Covid-19: Testing is Essential

During the Covid-19 pandemic is became clear that smell and taste (chemosensory) disturbance is very common in the early stages of disease. This article addresses: 1) why Covid-19 specifically targets the modalities of smell and possibly taste and what is the mechanism 2) what is the frequency of smell and taste loss and, 3) what is the overall prognosis. It is suggested that mouth breathers may be at particular risk of Covid-19. Symptom-based questionnaires are likely to under-estimate the prevalence of chemosensory impairment by as much as 50%. The prevalence of smell loss is so high that a person who has normal olfaction on formal testing is unlikely to be infected significantly with Cov-2. Furthermore, someone without symptoms who has an abnormal smell test could still be infected and liable to spread the disease. Brief, low cost, olfactory tests are available that would permit a high throughput in field stations and airports. A normal result might obviate the need for a nasopharyngeal swab for the Cov-2 virus

Morphology does not covary with predicted behavioural correlations of the domestication syndrome in dogs

Domesticated animals display suites of altered morphological, behavioural and physiological traits compared to their wild ancestors, a phenomenon known as the domestication syndrome (DS). Because these alterations are observed to co-occur across a wide range of present day domesticates, the traits within the DS are assumed to covary within species and a single developmental mechanism has been hypothesized to cause the observed co-occurrence. However, due to the lack of formal testing it is currently not well-resolved if the traits within DS actually covary. Here we test the hypothesis that the presence of the classic morphological domestication traits white pigmentation, floppy ears and curly tails predict the strength of behavioural correlations in support of the DS in 78 dog breeds. Contrary to the expectations of covariation among DS traits, we found that morphological traits did not covary among themselves, nor did they predict the strength of behavioural correlations among dog breeds. Further, the number of morphological traits in a breed did not predict the strength of behavioural correlations. Our results thus contrast with the hypothesis that the DS arises due to a shared underlying mechanism, but more importantly, questions if the morphological traits embedded in the DS are actual domestication traits or post-domestication improvement traits. For dogs, it seems highly likely that strong selection for breed specific morphological traits only happened recently in relation to breed formation. Present day dogs therefore have limited bearing of the initial selection pressures applied during domestication and we should reevaluate our expectations of the DS accordingly.

SELF-ASSESSMENT OF LANGUAGE SKILLS AND EVALUATION OF PERFORMANCE IN ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES CLASSROOMS

Although evaluation has been increasingly used in education for a long time, attention to evaluation and its uses in English language teaching is relatively recent. Essentially, evaluation may be carried out to determine if the students achieved a certain level of language proficiency. Recently self-evaluation of language skills has been used to find out how students assess their accomplishments in language learning. On the other hand, formal testing is the most common way to measure achievement and proficiency in language learning that teachers conduct during an academic year. Formal testing is considered to be an effective tool that can help teachers identify students’ strengths and weaknesses and evaluate the effectiveness of teaching. This article focuses on student’s perceptions of success in learning English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and formal evaluation of their performance in class activities. The methods of the research include the administration of the designed questionnaire, analysis of students’ responses and their statistical treatment by a means of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS 19). The self-evaluation data are compared with the results of formal testing. The conclusions are drawn on the merits of self-evaluation in learning ESP.

Robust associations between the 20-item prosopagnosia index and the Cambridge Face Memory Test in the general population

Developmental prosopagnosia (DP) is a neurodevelopmental condition, characterized by lifelong face recognition deficits. Leading research groups diagnose the condition using complementary computer-based tasks and self-report measures. In an attempt to standardize the reporting of self-report evidence, we recently developed the 20-item prosopagnosia index (PI20), a short questionnaire measure of prosopagnosic traits suitable for screening adult samples for DP. Strong correlations between scores on the PI20 and performance on the Cambridge Face Memory Test (CFMT) appeared to confirm that individuals possess sufficient insight into their face recognition ability to complete a self-report measure of prosopagnosic traits. However, the extent to which people have insight into their face recognition abilities remains contentious. A lingering concern is that feedback from formal testing, received prior to administration of the PI20, may have augmented the self-insight of some respondents in the original validation study. To determine whether the significant correlation with the CFMT was an artefact of previously delivered feedback, we sought to replicate the validation study in individuals with no history of formal testing. We report highly significant correlations in two independent samples drawn from the general population, confirming: (i) that a significant relationship exists between PI20 scores and performance on the CFMT, and (ii) that this is not dependent on the inclusion of individuals who have previously received feedback. These findings support the view that people have sufficient insight into their face recognition abilities to complete a self-report measure of prosopagnosic traits.

A New Scale for the Assessment of Competences in Cognitive and Behavioural Therapy

Background: Scales for assessing competence in CBT make an important contribution to research and practice. Aims: To develop a novel scale. Method: A new structured assessment tool is described, which draws on a widely-used CBT competence framework to identify relevant areas of clinical practice. Results: Scale content was clarified through piloting and review by a range of stakeholders. Conclusion: Pending formal testing of the psychometric properties, the scale is ready for use to assess competences in cognitive and behavioural therapy.