Walking While Memorizing: Age-Related Differences in Compensatory Behavior

This study investigated predictions of the life-span theory of selection, optimization, and compensation, focusing on different patterns of task priority during dual-task performance in younger and older adults. Cognitive (memorizing) and sensorimotor (walking a narrow track) performance were measured singly, concurrently, and when task difficulty was manipulated. Use of external aids was measured to provide another index of task priority. Before dual-task testing, participants received extensive training with each component task and external aid. Age differences in dual-task costs were greater in memory performance than in walking, suggesting that older adults prioritized walking over memory. Further, when given a choice of compensatory external aids to use, older adults optimized walking, whereas younger adults optimized memory performance. The results have broad implications for systemic theories of cognitive and sensorimotor aging, and the costs and benefits of assistive devices and environmental support for older populations.     

Gender differences in presentation and conceptualization of adolescent self-injurious behaviour: Implications for therapeutic practice

The UK is reported to have the highest rate of self-injurious behaviour (SIB) in Europe. It is no longer underrepresented in adolescent male populations, and further appears to correlate significantly with the increase in young male completed suicides. Early research suggested mental health professionals view males as being psychologically healthier than females. Gender differences in behavioural presentation and conceptual understanding of SIB may account for such disparity. The fields of counselling psychology and psychotherapy are in the advantageous position of embracing broader perspectives in which to challenge methodological and conceptual biases within existing medical frameworks. Differential gender biases in the nosology of comorbid conditions, psychodiagnosis, and treatment decisions are identified. Mental health workers across disciplines continue to find the management of SIB a challenge despite the wealth of theoretical models available to inform practice. Some techniques and promising therapies (dialectical behaviour therapy and problem-solving therapy) are highlighted as practicable approaches for counselling psychologists. Conclusions reveal future research may benefit from incorporating broader definitions of SIB expressed across the sexes. Further investigation into treatment efficacy with particular emphasis on the impact of gender role socialization is also indicated.     

Nonshared environmental processes in social‐emotional development: an observational study of identical twin differences in the preschool period

Differences in mothers’ parenting behaviors toward their identical twin preschoolers were examined to identify nonshared environmental processes in social‐emotional development. The study included 62 pairs of 3½‐year‐old same‐sex identical twins. Indicators of each child’s social‐emotional development (temperament, prosocial behavior, behavior problems and noncompliance) and parenting environment (warmth and negativity, positive and negative control, responsiveness) were assessed using observers’, interviewers’, and parents’ ratings. Mothers treated their identical twins differently, and this differential treatment covaried in expected ways with identical twin differences in social‐emotional adjustment. The twin who received more supportive and less punitive forms of parenting was also higher in positive mood and prosocial behaviors and lower in negative mood and behavior problems when compared to her or his twin.     

Evidence for the abstractive encoding of superficial position information in visual patterns

When presented a series of patterns inside a frame, subjects unintentionally retained information concerning the frame-relative location of the elements composing the patterns; they could use this superficial information to estimate the frequency with which the elements occurred at various locations within the frame. There were two aspects of the results that supported the hypothesis that this superficial element-location information was abstractively encoded and, therefore, retrievable independent of the patterns comprising the elements: (1) Correlations between actual and estimated frequency remained significant after the effects of pattern recall were partialled out, and (2) correlations were enhanced by assuming that the frequency estimate for each location was affected by the imprecise coding of position for elements falling in surrounding locations. Additional experiments indicated that an orienting task emphasizing pattern recall resulted in very inaccurate estimation of element-location frequency, and intentional instructions improved the precision of position coding for individual elements.     

The influence of lexical and conceptual constraints on reading mixed-language sentences: Evidence from eye fixations and naming times

In two experiments, we explored the degree to which sentence context effects operate at a lexical or conceptual level by examining the processing of mixed-language sentences by fluent Spanish-English bilinguals. In Experiment 1, subjects’ eye movements were monitored while they read English sentences in which sentence constraint, word frequency, and language of target word were manipulated. A frequency × constraint interaction was found when target words appeared in Spanish, but not in English. First fixation durations were longer for high-frequency Spanish words when these were embedded in high-constraint sentences than in low-constraint sentences. This result suggests that the conceptual restrictions produced by the sentence context were met, but that the lexical restrictions were not. The same result did not occur for low-frequency Spanish words, presumably because the slower access of low-frequency words provided more processing time for the resolution of this conflict. Similar results were found in Experiment 2 using rapid serial visual presentation when subjects named the target words aloud. It appears that sentence context effects are influenced by both semantic/conceptual and lexical information.     

THE IMPACT OF AUDITION ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF VISUAL ATTENTION

Interactions between audition and vision were investigated in two experiments In the first experiment, school-age hearing children, deaf children with cochlear implants, and deaf children without implants participated in a task in which they were to respond to some visual signals and not others This task did not involve sound at all Deaf children without implants performed much more poorly than hearing children Deaf children with cochlear implants performed considerably better than deaf children without implants The second experiment employed a longitudinal design and showed that the rate of development in visual selective attention was faster for deaf children with cochlear implants than deaf children without implants Moreover, the gams were rapid–occurring within 2 years post-implant surgery The results suggest that a history of experience with sounds matters in the development of visual attention The results are discussed in terms of multimodal developmental processes     

Haitian and Haitian American experiences of racism and socioethnic discrimination in Miami-Dade county: At-risk and court-involved youth

We examine how juvenile justice-involved youth of Haitian descent in Miami-Dade County cope with structural racism and its impact on their mental health. Drawing on longitudinal ethnography, psychosocial assessment data, and a family-based clinical intervention funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, this article explores youth narratives of discrimination prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic. We use critical race theory and theory of practice to understand youths’ perceptions as racialized bodies and stigmatized selves, highlighting the experiences and perspectives of a particular black immigrant group, ethnic beings caught up in the everyday practices of racialization, sociocultural marginalization, and racism. We frame these experiences as a variation of the complex continuum of structural racism and racial domination in the US. These experiences have caused anger, fear, anxiety, chronic anticipatory distress, and hopelessness among youth of Haitian descent. We conclude with some recommendations for therapeutic support that encourages youth to process their experiences, promotes their development of a positive self-concept, and provides them with mind-body techniques to attenuate the physical impacts of discriminatory events. The clinical trial registration number for this study intervention is NCT03876171.     

Mapping the political language of the 1998 good friday agreement

The political statements of 12 prominent politicians involved in the 1998 Good Friday Agreement were examined using Diction (Hart, 1984a & 1995), a text analysis program that yields five measures of language variability: Optimism, Activity, Realism, Commonality, and Certainty. It was predicted that multi-dimensional scaling (MDS) would indicate that three of these variables could be used to group the politicians on the basis of their published policy positions. MDS indicated that the language of the politicians could be plotted on two dimensions. Activity, with an angle of 31.8°, and Optimism, with an angle of 35.9°, represent the first dimension. Realism loaded significantly on Dimension 2 which has an angle of 42.2°. Limitations of text analysis programs are considered together with suggestions for future developments.