Longitudinal Development of Memory for Temporal Order in Early to Middle Childhood

Abstract

Existing studies examining the development of temporal order memory show that although young children perform above chance on some tasks assessing temporal order memory, there are significant age-related differences across childhood. Yet, the trajectory of children’s ability to retrieve temporal order remains unclear as existing conclusions are drawn from cross-sectional studies. The present study utilized an accelerated longitudinal design in order to characterize the developmental trajectory of temporal order memory in a sample of 200 healthy 4- to 8-year-old children. Specifically, two tasks commonly used in the literature were tested longitudinally: a primacy judgment task and an ordering task. Results revealed that, even after controlling for differences in IQ, linearly increasing trajectories characterized age-related change in performance for both tasks; however, change appeared greater for the temporal ordering task. Further, performance on the two tasks was positively related, suggesting shared underlying mechanisms. These findings provide a more thorough understanding of temporal order memory in early to middle childhood by characterizing the developmental trajectories of two commonly used tasks and have important implications for our understanding of children’s developing memory more broadly.     

Maltreated Adolescents

Abstract

The authors review literature on the developmental tasks of adolescence and the unique problems faced by adolescent victims of maltreatment. The developmental domains addressed include cognition, identity, behavior and affect regulation, family and peer relationships, and sexuality. Research on the co-occurrence of multiple types of victimization is discussed. The relationship between multiple victimization and violent crime, with a focus on parricide, is examined. The authors call for greater attention to the assessment and study of multiple forms of maltreatment and its outcomes in adolescence, since adolescence is one of the least researched developmental periods in terms of single or multiple victimization.     

The life tasks model: Enhancing psychological and spiritual growth in the aged

ABSTRACT

The life tasks model is an active, mutual, and potentially universal approach to the spiritual care of the aged. A life task is a responsibility, once undertaken, that lasts a lifetime. Three tasks are identified. Task 1 is the discovery of hidden learning. The process of discovery draws on implicit learning that comes into awareness. This leads to task 2, testing in which learning brought into awareness is tested by other life experiences. The final task is task 3, integration, in which a more aware and cohesive self is formed. Ideally, this leads to service or vocation. Progress on the life tasks is illustrated by responses in a qualitative study of older adults. Although this model can be applied to self-growth and ministry to all ages, it is well suited to the care of the aged.     

Training Therapists to Be Culturally Sensitive with Asian American Women Clients

SUMMARY

We describe here a developmental sequence of three key training experiences that contribute to developing cultural sensitivity for clinicians who are not of Asian heritage and are working with Asian American women. The sequence reflects and illustrates our guiding assumptions for developing multicultural sensitivity, including an emphasis on cultural self-awareness and a reflexive approach to knowledge acquisition and clinical practice. Effects of these training experiences are illustrated through three case examples of therapy with Asian American women written by an African American male and two European American female therapists at different stages in their training.     

Effects of acute aerobic exercise on multiple aspects of executive function in preadolescent children

ObjectiveThe current study assessed the effects of acute exercise on three core executive functions in preadolescents and controlled for the moderating role of age.DesignA true experimental design.MethodsThirty-four third-grade children and 53 fifth-grade preadolescents were randomly assigned into either an acute exercise group or a control group. The exercise protocol was designed for ecological validity and involved group jogging at moderate intensity for 30 min. Participants completed inhibition, working memory, and shifting-related executive function tasks prior to and following the treatment.ResultsAcute exercise facilitated performance in three executive function tasks in children in both grade groups; nevertheless, better performance was observed among the fifth graders in inhibition and working memory, but not in shifting, when compared with the third graders.ConclusionThese findings suggest that acute exercise benefited three primary aspects of executive function in general, regardless of the preadolescent age group, whereas the distinct components of executive function had different developmental trajectories.     

The influence of ongoing task absorption on preschoolers’ prospective memory with peripheral cues

ABSTRACT

Prospective memory (PM) represents the ability to perform a planned action after a certain delay. Substantial increases of PM have been shown across the ages of preschool children. However, previous studies have mostly focused on PM tasks, in which the PM cue was presented centrally (i.e. inside the centre of attention). The current study examined developmental differences between 3-, 4-, and 5-year old preschoolers using PM tasks, in which the PM cue was presented peripherally and investigated the influence of ongoing task absorption on children’s performance on such tasks. Results showed that PM performance increased over preschool age and that it was affected by ongoing task absorption, with significantly better PM performance on a low- versus a high-absorbing ongoing task. Importantly, age differences were only present in the low- but not in the high-absorbing condition, showing that preschoolers’ PM improves when less cognitive resources are absorbed by the ongoing task.     

Évaluer les processus de l’identité vocationnelle de l’adolescence à l’entrée dans l’âge adulte : validation française du « Vocational Identity Status Assessment » (VISA)

IntroductionVocational identity construction is a core developmental task from adolescence to emerging adulthood. It is based on six processes assessed by a self-report scale, the “Vocational Identity Status Assessment” (VISA) designed in English by Porfeli et al. (2011).ObjectiveThe aim of the current study was to validate a French version of the VISA both for research considerations and applications to help in adapting individual assistance and counseling to adolescent and emerging adult students.MethodParticipants were 1655 French adolescent and emerging adult students. The identity processes were assessed by three scales: the VISA, the DIDS and the U-MICS.ResultsThe statistical analyses we performed allowed to test the psychometric properties of the VISA and to identify six vocational identity statuses previously defined in the literature. Moreover, the presentation of two individual profiles illustrated the opportunities for application.ConclusionThe VISA is a self-report questionnaire with good psychometric properties, and useful for the identification of the processes involved in the vocational identity construction.     

The effect of extrinsic constraints on children's creativity while using a computer

Abstract:

Two studies were conducted to examine the impact of extrinsic constraints on children's performance while using a computer. Open‐ended tasks were presented and possible differential effects of rewards and evaluations imposed by human (experimenter) and non‐human (computer) sources were explored in relation to product creativity, motivation, and affective response. Both studies provide support for the hypothesis that reward and evaluation will undermine creativity and motivation, even when a computer serves as the source of these constraints. In addition, a developmental trend emerged with older children being far more adversely affected than their younger counterparts. The theoretical and applied significance of these results are discussed.     

Male Hysteria: Imagining a Case Through the Lens of Contextual and Clinical Change

ABSTRACT

Male hysteria in this article is viewed as a historical, developmental, theoretical, and clinical area of study. The article highlights the importance of contextualizing various views of male hysteria, and follows its ongoing struggle for recognition and legitimacy. Emphasis is placed on the importance of a contextually-nuanced clinical stance with the primary focus being the therapist’s listening perspective. The article describes shifts in my thinking and treatment of male hysteria over the past four decades. Conceptual shifts regarding treatment roughly parallel in time with the advances taking place in the broader field of psychoanalysis, and these shifts are illustrated in the case material provided.     

Metaphonological abilities of adult illiterates: New evidence of heterogeneity

Abstract

Adult illiterate and literate subjects with at most second-grade education, from the same poor settlement in Brazil, were tested on rhyme judgement, initial syllabic vowel deletion and initial consonant deletion. Corrective feedback was provided continuously throughout the tests. The literate subjects were proficient on all three tasks. Illiterates achieved non-negligible performance on vowel deletion and rhyme judgement, but performed poorly on consonant deletion. These results bring additional support to the notion that metaphonological competence involves separate components which obey different developmental mechanisms.     

Evaluating complex interventions: Perspectives and issues for health behaviour change interventions

Objective: Health behaviour change interventions (HBCIs), used in health education, health promotion, patient education and psychotherapy areas, are considered complex interventions. The objective of this article is to discuss the value and limitations of using randomised clinical trials (RCTs) to asses HBCIs.

Methods: A scoping review of the literature was conducted to identify the main challenges of using RCTs for evaluating HBCIs. The issues were illustrated by case studies selected from research conducted by our multidisciplinary team.

Results: In complex interventions, effects are produced not only by the intervention, but are strongly linked to context. Issues relating to transferability of results are therefore critical, and require adjustments to the RCT model. Sampling bias, biases related to the experimental conditions and biases due to the absence of double-blindness were examined and illustrated by case studies.

Conclusion: The results underline the importance of a multidisciplinary approach. They call for adapted or alternative evaluation models that overcome the limitations of RCTs.     

The relationship between visual attention and expertise in sports

ObjectivesGiven the prevalence of misperception and failed perception, particularly in attention-demanding team sports, surprisingly few studies have explored whether experts in team sports differ from other athletes and from non-athletes in their basic attention abilities.MethodIn this study, we examined group differences between experts in team handball (n = 40), athletes from non-team sports (n = 40), and novice athletes (n = 40) using a battery of three attention tasks: a functional field of view task, a multiple-object tracking task, and an inattentional blindness task.ResultsPerformance on the three attention tasks was largely independent, with no significant correlations among the tasks. Team sports experts showed no better performance on the basic attention tasks than did athletes from non-teams sports or novice athletes.ConclusionsThe finding that all basic attention tasks are largely independent provides preliminary support for the idea that attentional breadth, tracking performance, and inattentional blindness are distinct attentional processes. Our results demonstrate that sports expertise effects are unrelated to basic differences in attention—expertise does not appear to produce differences in basic attention and basic differences in attention do not appear to predict eventual expertise. Further experiments could focus on the ways in which more specific attentional strategies and processes contribute to sports performance.     

An experiment on measuring awareness of stuttering in individuals with Down syndrome

BackgroundAwareness of stuttering is likely to depend upon the development of the metalinguistic skill to discriminate between fluent speech and stuttering and the ability to identify one’s own speech as fluent or stuttered. Presently, little is known about these abilities in individuals with Down syndrome (DS).PurposeThis study investigates whether individuals with DS and typically developing (TD) children who stutter and who do not stutter differ in their ability to discriminate between fluent speech and stuttering. The second purpose of this study is to discover if this ability is correlated with their self-identification ability.MethodAn experiment to investigate awareness with tasks for discrimination of stuttering and self-identification was developed. It was administered to 28 individuals (7–19 years) with DS, 17 of them stutter and 11 do not, and 20 TD children (3–10 years), 8 of them stutter and 12 do not. Skills to discriminate stuttering were compared between these groups and correlated with self-identification within these groups. The influence of stuttering severity and developmental/chronological age on their ability to discriminate was also investigated.ResultsThe ability to discriminate does not differ significantly between the DS and TD group, but is highly influenced by developmental age. This ability correlates with self-identification but only for the TD individuals who speak fluently.ConclusionThe ability to discriminate matures around the age of 7 and conscious awareness may rely on this ability. Differences between the present findings and earlier studies suggest that differentiation in levels and types of awareness is warranted.     

Parental educational level influence on memory and executive performance in children

IntroductionThe influence of Parental Educational Status (PES) on cognitive performance has been confirmed in several studies.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to explore the relationship between PES and several domains of cognitive functioning and examine, through mediation analyses, the relationship between PES, language, and cognitive tasks.MethodWe first administered tasks measuring memory, executive and attentional abilities to 64 European native French speakers, divided into two groups of children according to parents’ educational status.ResultsThe results suggest that, on most tasks, the effect of socio-educational status is mediated by language abilities. However, because the results were less clear for executive functions, we carried out a second experiment in which we administered more specific executive measures (i.e. inhibition, cognitive flexibility, updating and reasoning) to 80 children.ConclusionThe results confirmed the influence of the parents’ educational status on the executive functioning and also that, contrary to other cognitive functions, this influence on executive tasks is not completely explained by language differences.     

Effect of developmental care for very premature infants on neurodevelopmental outcome at 2 years of age

BackgroundTo determine the effect of developmental care on neurodevelopmental outcome in formerly preterm infants at a corrected age of 2 years.MethodsA prospective phase-lag study was performed at an Austrian neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). From January 2003 to December 2005 (study period of conventional care) and January 2007 to December 2009 (study period of developmental care), we enrolled all infants born in Tyrol at less than 32 weeks of gestation. During this period a total of 261 of 359 preterm infants (participation rate 72.7%) completed the follow-up visit at 2 years of age; there were 124 children in the conventional and 137 in the developmental care group. The association between developmental care and delayed motor or mental development (Bayley Scales of Infant Development II; psychomotor or mental developmental index <85) was analyzed by means of logistic regression analysis at a corrected age of 24 months.ResultsChildren in the developmental care group showed less psychomotor delay than did those in the control group (developmental care group: 16.1%, conventional care group 27.4%; adjusted odds ratio 0.37 [95% confidence interval: 0.19–0.74], P = 0.005). Not smoking in pregnancy and higher gestational age were also significant predictors for a better psychomotor outcome at 2 years of age. Regarding cognitive outcome, no significant difference was observed between these two groups.ConclusionOur data implicate that developmental care may result in an improved 2-year psychomotor outcome in formerly preterm infants.     

Effects of fatigue induced by repetitive movements and isometric tasks on reaction time

PurposeThe understanding of fatigue of the human motor system is important in the fields of ergonomics, sport, rehabilitation and neurology. In order to understand the interactions between fatigue and reaction time, we evaluated the effects of two different fatiguing tasks on reaction time.Methods83 healthy subjects were included in a case-control study with three arms where single and double choice reaction time tasks were performed before and after 2 min fatiguing task (an isometric task, a finger tapping task and at rest).ResultsAfter an isometric task, the right-fatigued hand was slower in the choice component of a double choice reaction time task (calculated as the individual difference between single and double choice reaction times); also, the subjects that felt more fatigued had slower choice reaction time respect to the baseline assessment. Moreover, in relationship to the performance decay after two minutes, finger tapping task produces more intense fatigability perception.ConclusionsWe confirmed that two minutes of isometric or repetitive tasks are enough to produce fatigue. The fatigue perception is more intense for finger tapping tasks in relation to the performance decay. We therefore confirmed that the two fatiguing tasks produced two different kind of fatigue demonstrating that with a very simple protocol it is possible to test subjects or patients to quantify different form of fatigue.     

Motivational climate,psychological needs,and personal and social responsibility in youth soccer: Comparisons by age group and competitive level

ObjectivesWe used a developmental lens to examine age group and competitive level differences on motivational climate dimensions, psychological needs satisfaction, and personal and social responsibility as well as relationships among variables, in line with basic psychological needs theory.DesignWe used a cross-sectional, correlational design.MethodGirls and boys age 8–13 on recreational and select soccer teams completed a survey.ResultsA 2 × 2 MANOVA showed main effects for age group and competitive level: early adolescents reported greater punishment for mistakes and autonomy compared to children; select players reported greater mastery climate dimensions and personal responsibility compared to recreational players. For all groups, path analyses revealed perceptions of cooperative learning were indirectly associated with personal and social responsibility, through coach and/or teammate relatedness.ConclusionsPatterns of relationships by age group and competitive level are discussed in reference to developmental literature. Results highlight the value of using a developmental approach to understand how coaches can promote youth soccer players’ psychological and social well-being.     

Saccadic peak velocity as an alternative index of operator attention: A short review

IntroductionAutomation research has identified the need to monitor operator attentional states in real time as a basis for determining the most appropriate type and level of automated assistance for operators doing complex tasks.ObjectiveThe development of a methodology that is able to detect on-line operator attentional state variations could represent a good starting point to solve this critical issue.ResultsWe present a short review of the literature on different indices of attentional state and discuss a series of experiments that demonstrates the validity and sensitivity of a specific eye movement index: saccadic peak velocity (PV). PV was able to detect variations in mental state while doing complex and ecological tasks, ranging from air traffic control simulated tasks to driving simulator sessions.ConclusionThis research could provide several guidelines for designing adaptive systems (able to allocate tasks between operators and machine in a dynamic way) and early fatigue-and-distraction warning systems to reduce accident risk.     

Bisexual Issues in Same-Sex Couple Therapy

SUMMARY

The bisexual identity of a partner in a same-sex couple may not be an issue in the relationship, or it may introduce fear, mistrust, and divisiveness. Mixed-orientation couples face problems stemming from the dichotomizing of sexuality, negative myths and stereotypes, and lack of awareness of models and resources. It can be particularly problematic when a partner's bisexuality is first addressed within a committed relationship. Case examples illuminate some of the issues. Therapeutic tasks include addressing the context of oppression, assessing developmental stages of sexual identity and the relationship, clarifying personal meanings of bisexuality, providing education and resources, and, possibly, facilitating negotiations regarding safer sex and polyamory. Optimal couple therapy provides affirmation of bisexuality, validation of same-sex relationships, and reflection of the partner's and relationship's strengths.