Middle school student perceptions of school climate: Examining protective functions on subsequent adjustment problems

The present study examined the roles of student perceptions of four aspects of school climate (friction, cohesion, competition among students, and satisfaction with classes) as moderators of the relations between effortful control and subsequent conduct problems and depressive symptoms. Participants were 488 10-to-14-year old students involved in two waves, with one year between each wave, of a study. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that high levels of perceived friction predicted more subsequent conduct problems and depressive symptoms, even after baseline levels of these problems were partialled out. Low levels of effortful control also elevated risk for subsequent conduct problems. However, perceptions of the school as high in cohesion offset the risk associated with low levels of effortful control. Perceived satisfaction with classes also offset this risk, but only for females. Contrary to expectations, student perceptions of school climate did not interact with effortful control to predict subsequent depressive symptoms.     

Semantic interference on a phonological task in illiterate subjects

Previous research suggests that learning an alphabetic written language influences aspects of the auditory-verbal language system. In this study, we examined whether literacy influences the notion of words as phonological units independent of lexical semantics in literate and illiterate subjects. Subjects had to decide which item in a word- or pseudoword pair was phonologically longest. By manipulating the relationship between referent size and phonological length in three word conditions (congruent, neutral, and incongruent) we could examine to what extent subjects focused on form rather than meaning of the stimulus material. Moreover, the pseudoword condition allowed us to examine global phonological awareness independent of lexical semantics. The results showed that literate performed significantly better than illiterate subjects in the neutral and incongruent word conditions as well as in the pseudoword condition. The illiterate group performed least well in the incongruent condition and significantly better in the pseudoword condition compared to the neutral and incongruent word conditions and suggest that performance on phonological word length comparisons is dependent on literacy. In addition, the results show that the illiterate participants are able to perceive and process phonological length, albeit less well than the literate subjects, when no semantic interference is present. In conclusion, the present results confirm and extend the finding that illiterate subjects are biased towards semantic-conceptual-pragmatic types of cognitive processing.     

The behavioral effects of enriched housing are not altered by serotonin depletion but enrichment alters hippocampal neurochemistry

To assess a possible role for serotonin in the mediation of the behavioral changes induced by enriched housing conditions (EC), adult female Long-Evans rats sustaining a serotonin depletion (150 microg of 5,7-dihydroxytryptamine, icv) and sham-operated rats were housed postoperatively for 30 days in enriched (12 rats/large cage containing various objects) or standard housing conditions (2 rats/standard laboratory cage). Thereafter, anxiety responses (elevated plus-maze), locomotor activity (in the home-cage), sensori-motor capabilities (beam-walking task), and spatial memory (eight-arm radial maze) were assessed. Monoamine levels were subsequently measured in the frontoparietal cortex and the hippocampus. Overall, EC reduced anxiety-related responses, enhanced sensori-motor performance and improved the memory span in the initial stage of the spatial memory task. Despite a substantial reduction of serotonergic markers in the hippocampus (82%) and the cortex (74%), these positive effects of EC were not altered by the lesion. EC reduced the serotonin levels in the ventral hippocampus (particularly in unlesioned rats: -23%), increased serotonin turnover in the entire hippocampus (particularly in lesioned rats: +36%) and augmented the norepinephrine levels in the dorsal hippocampus (+68% in unlesioned and +49% in lesioned rats); no such alterations were found in the frontoparietal cortex. Our data suggest that an intact serotonergic system is not a prerequisite for the induction of positive behavioral effects by EC. The neurochemical changes found in the hippocampus of EC rats, however, show that the monoaminergic innervation of the hippocampus is a target of EC.     

Explorations of anticipatory behavioral control (ABC): a report from the cognitive psychology unit of the University of Würzburg

The report comprises recent theoretical considerations, experimental research, and simulations which all aim at a clarification of anticipatory mechanisms of behavioral control.     

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.     

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.     

Set-Congruent Priming Stimuli Normalize the Information Processing of Psychopathic Offenders

Psychopathic individuals display characteristic deficits in processing emotion cues, the abstract meaning of words, and peripheral inhibitory cues, that have been linked to deficits in self-regulation and antisocial behavior. One view, supported by recent research, is that psychopathic individuals have difficulty processing set-incongruent information and that their difficulty may be ameliorated using task manipulations that establish a set-relevant focus of attention. We evaluated this characterization of the psychopathic deficit using a lexical decision (i.e., word recognition) task and priming manipulation that caused target stimuli to be set-congruent or set-incongruent. As predicted, low-anxious (i.e., primary) psychopathic participants displayed a significantly greater priming effect than low anxious non-psychopathic participants. The results highlight the potential value of priming relevant cognitive sets to overcome the costly information processing deficits associated with psychopathy. Treatment efforts emphasizing a balance of attention between primary and peripheral information may prove especially effective for reducing maladaptive behavior in psychopathic individuals.     

Implicit health associations across the adult lifespan

Objective: Explicit reports of one’s health self-concept (e.g. rate your overall health) are commonly used in research and clinical practice. These measures predict important health outcomes, but rely on conscious introspection so may not fully capture the different components of the health self-concept (e.g. more automatic components) that relate to actual health. This study examined the health-implicit association test (health-IAT), and how it may add to our prediction of health from self-reports.

Design: 1004 participants (ages 18–85) completed this web-based study with the health-IAT (assessing self-healthy implicit associations) and explicit assessments of health.

Main outcome measures: Self-reported measures of physical functioning.

Results: The health-IAT was valid and reliable. Older age was correlated with stronger self-healthy implicit associations. Although the health-IAT did not incrementally predict self-reported markers of physical functioning when only controlling for explicit health self-concept, it was an incremental predictor once age was entered for all four models tested.

Conclusions: The health-IAT appears to be a valid and reliable new measure that assesses implicit self-concept relating to physical health. Results reveal the potential value of assessing implicit health self-concept in both research and practice, especially when taking into account age.