Assessment: What Role the Assessor?

The advent of automated assessment contains the seeds of both threat and promise for professional assessors. Placing the problem in the historical and sociological contexts, this article examines computer-based test interpretation (CBTI) and the frequently misunderstood role of actuarial data in relation to it. I argue that sound clinicianship is central not only to the development of adequate CBTI systems, but also to the systems' appropriate and skillful use in practice. When properly utilized by otherwise well-qualified clinicians, CBTI can substantially enhance practice.     

Individual differences in generalization and imitation: what is the role of brain development?

Jones and Herbert describe research on deferred imitation and how this research reflects on the development of explicit memory in infancy. The article raises several interesting questions about how the medial temporal lobe memory system develops. In this commentary, I discuss some of the additional theoretical and empirical questions that are raised by the target article, and propose ways that these questions could be addressed in future research. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Obsessive-compulsive disorder with comorbid major depression: what is the role of cognitive factors?

Individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) commonly experience comorbid mood disturbances such as major depressive disorder (MDD). Previous studies that have compared OCD patients with and without MDD have revealed differences in demographic characteristics, clinical severity, and symptom presentation between these two patient groups. Previous studies have not, however, examined whether there are differences with respect to cognitive processes. The present study therefore aimed to address this gap in the literature. Eighty patients with OCD and no unipolar mood disorders were compared with 34 OCD patients with comorbid major depression on measures of OCD symptoms, cognitions, and insight, as well as on measures of depression and functional impairment. Whereas depressed OCD patients evidenced higher scores than non-depressed OCD patients on semi-idiographic measures of OCD symptoms and cognitions, this was not the case for nomothetic measures. Functional impairment and the tendency to misinterpret innocuous intrusive thoughts as significant emerged as unique predictors of depression within the entire sample of OCD patients. Results are discussed in terms of (a) the importance of semi-idiographic assessment of OCD, (b) possible explanations for the relationship between OCD symptoms, depression, and cognitive processes, and (c) the psychological treatment of comorbid OCD and MDD.     

Neurocognitive anthropology: what are the options?

Investigation of the cerebral organization of cognition in modern humans may serve as a tool for a better understanding of the evolutionary origins of our unique cognitive abilities. This commentary suggests three approaches that may serve this purpose: (1) cross-task neural overlap, referred to by Vaesen; but also (2) co-lateralization of asymmetric cognitive functions and (3) cross-functional (effective) connectivity.     

The irrelevant sound phenomenon revisited: what role for working memory capacity?

High-span individuals (as measured by the operation span [OSPAN] technique) are less likely than low-span individuals to notice their own names in an unattended auditory stream (A. R. A. Conway, N. Cowan, & M. F. Bunting, 2001). The possibility that OSPAN accounts for individual differences in auditory distraction on an immediate recall test was examined. There was no evidence that high-OSPAN participants were more resistant to the disruption caused by irrelevant speech in serial or in free recall. Low-OSPAN participants did, however, make more semantically related intrusion errors from the irrelevant sound stream in a free recall test (Experiment 4). Results suggest that OSPAN mediates semantic components of auditory distraction dissociable from other aspects of the irrelevant sound effect.     

Early trauma and serious mental illness: what role does spirituality play?

For many who experience serious mental illness, spirituality and religion can be common vehicles that provide a sense of coherence and meaning to life. However, in the presence of early trauma, spiritual and religious beliefs may be enhanced or destroyed, or never develop. This paper explores the relationship between spirituality/religion, early trauma, and serious mental illness. Three case examples from a qualitative phenomenological study are presented to illustrate spiritual and religious struggles that can arise and how a person can work through these over time to use spirituality and religion as positive resources for recovery. Tentative implications for practice are offered.     

Substance-related disorders among juvenile offenders: what role do psychopathic traits play?

Substance use disorders are associated with psychopathy, a personality disorder that is heterogeneous in both adults and youth; secondary variants of psychopathy with comorbid psychopathology and primary variants without comorbidity show distinct correlates and outcomes. In adult criminal populations, secondary variants report greater substance abuse compared with primary variants. The primary aim of this study is to replicate and extend these findings to a juvenile offender population. Compared with primary variants of juvenile psychopathy, secondary variants (a) reported significantly more frequent substance use--particularly alcohol--within the 6 months prior to incarceration (d = .43), (b) were almost twice as likely to abuse substances while incarcerated, and (c) were more likely to be diagnosed with a current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed., text rev.; DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association, 2000) substance use disorder. Practical implications for working with justice-involved youth are discussed.     

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein: what made the Monster monstrous?

This paper discusses the genesis of the famous story of Frankenstein which arose from a dream experienced by Mary Shelley whilst on a holiday shared with her husband Percy Shelley, Lord Byron, Dr Polidori and her step sister Claire Clairmont. The novel relates how the creature created by Victor Frankenstein horrifies him, is rejected by him and called a monster. The monster's ensuing despair and subsequent murderousness is eloquently described. The whole book is clearly connected to Mary Shelley's experience as an infant whose mother died after giving birth to her and her subsequent loss, as a mother, of her own new born infant. It is suggested that the novel imaginatively describes what it is to have been primarily rejected as an infant and to feel regarded as a monster.     

The counselor: who? what?

The author examines the criticisms of counselors which center on such factors as age, sex, race, and elitism. Areas of confusion regarding the functions of the counselor are related to the teacher-counselor issue, the professional functions of the counselor, and the basic purpose of counseling. The counselor is seen primarily as doing psychological counseling with individuals and groups, rather than teaching or advising.     

Who or what is the preembryo?

...The moral status -- and specifically the controversial issue of personhood -- is related to attainment of developmental individuality...This contrasts with the view that holds that personhood occurs earlier, at the point of genetic uniqueness. I believe that an embryo that has developed to the point where it can be one individual and one individual only, differs in moral status from a preembryo that has not, even if in many cases we may choose to treat them similarly...In view of the conviction that the preembryo is not yet a person and that its statistical potential for becoming such is small, it is not clear that nontherapeutic experiments can be excluded in principle. However, because the preembryo does have intrinsic potential...the preembryo should be treated as a person...Any exceptions from the prima facie duty to treat the preembryo as a person should be based on criteria established at the national level....     

Lipreading in the prelingually deaf: what makes a skilled speechreader?

Lipreading proficiency was investigated in a group of hearing-impaired people, all of them knowing Spanish Sign Language (SSL). The aim of this study was to establish the relationships between lipreading and some other variables (gender, intelligence, audiological variables, participants' education, parents' education, communication practices, intelligibility, use of SSL). The 32 participants were between 14 and 47 years of age. They all had sensorineural hearing losses (from severe to profound). The lipreading procedures comprised identification of words in isolation. The words selected for presentation in isolation were spoken by the same talker. Identification of words required participants to select their responses from set of four pictures appropriately labelled. Lipreading was significantly correlated with intelligence and intelligibility. Multiple regression analyses were used to obtain a prediction equation for the lipreading measures. As a result of this procedure, it is concluded that proficient deaf lipreaders are more intelligent and their oral speech was more comprehensible for others.