The effect of practice on recall of emotional information in individuals with generalized social phobia

Understanding memory processes in social anxiety is important because these individuals often report negative memories of anxiety-provoking situations and because of the recent emphasis on learning and memory in models of anxiety. The authors examined the effect of learning on memory for negative social, positive social, and nonsocial information using the retrieval-induced forgetting paradigm in individuals with generalized social phobia (GSPs) and in nonanxious controls (NACs). Words were presented in 1 of 3 practice conditions: practiced words from a practiced category, unpracticed words from a practiced category, and unpracticed words from an unpracticed category. GSPs and NACs showed the same patterns of memory for practice categories for positive social and nonsocial words. However, for negative social words, GSPs benefited less from practice and were hurt less from the effect of practicing competing negative social information than were NACs. This pattern of processing may hamper GSPs' learning of, and habituation to, negative social information.     

"What else could he have done?" Creating false answers in child witnesses by inviting speculation.

In 2 experiments (N = 111 children), a suggestive technique for interviewing child witnesses called "inviting speculation" was examined. Children were presented with atypical actions for common objects in a clown show. One week later, the children were asked to speculate (e.g., "What else could he have done with the knife?") in a between-subjects design on all or none of the items (Experiment 1) and in a within-subjects design on part of the items (Experiment 2), thereby getting highly probable speculations (e.g., "to cut"). After a 3-week delay, the experimenters found more highly probable but not more other false answers for the experimental items (Experiment 2). After a 5-6-month delay, the rate of (unspecified) false answers increased compared with the baseline (Experiments 1 and 2). The short-term effect is explained by a speculation-as-misinformation assumption, whereas the long-term effect is explained by the use of a metastrategy.     

The midstream order deficit

The relative order of an auditory sequence can be more difficult to apprehend when it is presented repeatedly without pause (i.e., cycling) than when it is presented only once (Warren, Obusek, Farmer, & Warren, 1969). We find that this phenomenon, referred to as the midstream order deficit (MOD), can also occur with visual stimuli. The stimuli need not form separate perceptual "streams," and the effect can occur with presentation rates as slow as five items per second, even though the identification of individual letters is very accurate at this rate. However, if the first item of the sequence is visually very distinct from the preceding items, relative order reports can be as accurate in the cycling condition as in the single-presentation condition. Our results suggest that the MOD is not due to masking, attentional blink, repetition blindness, Reeves and Sperling's (1986) order illusion, memory limitations, or decision criteria. The MOD may reflect an attentional cost to the initiation of order encoding, which is distinct from the allocation of attention is required in order to detect and identify individual items. To initiate order encoding successfully, one's attention must be set for, or captured by, an initial salient event.     

Reaction to Compton and Metheny (2000): "assessment of grade inflation in higher education"

Comparison of grades awarded to all students in all courses at SUNY Geneseo in Spring 1990 and Spring 2000 shows a significant overall increase and a fairly stable pattern of grading practices across departments that resembles the pattern reported by Compton and Metheny in 2000 and other investigators.     

Effects of increasing expenditure of energy during exercise on psychological well-being in older adults

The purpose of present study was to examine the effects on psychological well-being of energy expended as a result of the exercise intervention. 33 older adults (M age=68.6 yr., SD=4.7) participated in three supervised water-based exercise sessions per week for 12 wk. Based on the relative changes in daily energy expenditure as measured by questionnaire between pre- and posttraining, the subjects were split into three groups. This classified each subject as either having experienced a relatively low change (n=11), moderate change (n= 11), or high change (n= 11) in daily energy expenditure. Our data showed that the group with the greater increase in energy expenditure as a result of exercise, when compared pre- and posttraining, improved only on Depression-Dejection on the Profile of Mood States more than did the group with low change. Consequently, we concluded that the amount of energy expended was partially related to improvement in psychological well-being.     

Retention of relative force in the scaling of a serial force pattern with an attenuated-force tap

The present study was designed to examine the retention of relative force in the scaling of a serial force pattern in a finger-tapping sequence using an attenuated tap. On practice trials, 12 undergraduate students tapped a force plate connected to strain gauges that gave them feedback about the force. On test trials, participants recalled the force pattern (200 gm-200 gm-200 gm-100 gm) and the intertap interval (400 msec.) practiced during the practice period without the feedback (recalled task). Then, they adaptively produced a halved (halved task) or doubled force profile (doubled task) at the fixed intertap interval. Analyses showed that mean peak forces at the first three tap positions of the tapping sequence undershot the expected forces across all tasks. Hence, the ratios of the forces in Serial Positions 1:4, 2:4, and 3:4 were considerably lower than 2.0. This is a contextual effect suggesting that the last attenuated tap affected the first three taps of the tapping sequence. Thus, because the relative force of movements appears to be a weaker invariant feature than sequencing and relative timing for generalized motor program theory of Schmidt and Lee, this finding does not support the relative force for a generalized motor program.     

Body image and self-esteem in adolescent ballet dancers.

Body-image disturbances and low self-esteem have been implicated in the pathogenesis of eating disorders. This study investigated self-perception of body and personality among adolescent ballet dancers in a cross-sectional survey. Two questionnaires assessing "my body right now" and "my personality right now," using semantic differentials were completed by 90 ballet school students and 156 controls. Adolescent female dancers (ages 13 to 17 years) scored higher than age-matched controls and 11- to 12-yr. old peers on Undesirability and Sensitivity for personality and Unattractiveness for body. For both subscales of personality, differences were also found between male and female dancers; female ballet students scored higher. Within the control group a difference could be found only for Sensitivity on which girls scored higher than boys. Male dancers did not differ from controls except for a lower score on the Body mass measure. Adolescent female dancers showed a distinct answering profile for 7 of 16 semantic differentials in each questionnaire implicating less favorable body image and self-esteem. Interventions focused particularly on enhancing self-esteem may be useful in the prevention of psychopathology in adolescent ballet dancers.     

Adult attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: neuropsychological correlates and clinical presentation

We compared the neuropsychological test performance of adult ADHD patients to the neurocognitive profiles of control subjects recruited from the general population. We administered a neuropsychological test battery consisting of measures considered sensitive to either orbitofrontal or dorsolateral-prefrontal (DLPF) dysfunction. Orbitofrontal hypoarousal is associated with behavioral disinhibition and a relative indifference to punishment. The DLPF region may function as a central executive system. Indeed, DLPF dysfunction may underlie many of the cardinal symptoms associated with ADHD. We tested the following hypotheses: (1) adult subjects meeting DSM-IV criteria for ADHD, predominantly hyperactive-impulsive type, would display neuropsychological deficits on tasks sensitive to orbitofrontal dysfunction; (2) adult subjects meeting DSM-IV criteria for ADHD, predominantly inattentive type, would perform poorly on measures sensitive to DLPF dysfunction; and (3) adult subjects meeting DSM-IV criteria for ADHD, combined type, would exhibit performance deficits on orbitofrontal measures and on DLPF tasks. Results partially confirmed our hypotheses. Subtyping ADHD patients revealed important group differences. Distinct neurocognitive and clinical profiles were observed.     

A review and update on the practice of evaluating Miranda comprehension

This article summarizes recent developments in constitutional law relevant to the Miranda warning. We describe the origins of the warning, concerns about the use of the Miranda warning, perspectives on the utility of the warning, and the relevance of the warning. We describe how the warning has changed over time, requirements for administering the warning, and procedures that police use in delivering the warning and obtaining confessions. We review case law relevant to "coerced" Miranda waivers and confessions, changes over time in the court's interpretation of what constitutes "coercion," use of the warning with special populations, and the recent focus in case law on individual factors that might impair Miranda comprehension. We review empirical research on factors associated with deficits in Miranda comprehension. We integrate case law rulings and empirical research into suggested approaches to forensic assessment of Miranda comprehension.