Empathy and risk status for child physical abuse: the effects of an adult victim's pain cues and an adult victim's intent on aggression

It has been proposed that abusive parents and parents at high risk for child physical abuse could be more likely to view children's behavior as being motivated by hostile intent [e.g., Milner, 1993], as compared to nonabusive and low‐risk parents. This kind of misattribution of other's behavior may inhibit empathic emotion, and therefore, could block the inhibiting effect of a victim's pain cues on aggression [Baron, 1979]. An experiment was designed to analyze the moderating effect of an adult victim's intent on aggression in high‐ and low‐risk participants for child physical abuse. A 2 × 2 factorial design based upon two levels of the participant's risk status (high, low) and two levels of victim's intent (positive, ambiguous) was employed. All participants observed an adult victim's pain cues. Ninety‐five (48 high and 47 low risk for child physical abuse) undergraduate females enrolled in courses at the University of the Basque Country participated in the experiment. The main effects of victims' intent and of participants' risk status were statistically significant. Participants in the ambiguous victim's intent condition aggressed significantly more than participants in the positive victim's intent condition. Moreover, high‐risk participants aggressed more than low‐risk participants regardless of the victim's intent. A significant interaction between risk status and victim's intent was expected. High‐risk subjects for child physical abuse were expected to aggress more than low‐risk subjects only in the ambiguous victim's intent condition. However, results did not support this hypothesis. Aggr. Behav. 32:1–12, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Community Implementation Successes and Challenges of a Cognitive-Behavior Therapy Group for Individuals with a First Episode of Psychosis

CBT for psychosis has recently been called a best practice, suggesting that studies have demonstrated its efficacy with many populations. Community settings are encouraged to implement best practices such as CBT yet many factors can make the implementation of CBT challenging. Issues such as clinician resistance, setting, as well as client variables (refusal, denial of symptoms, etc.) come into play. Examples of successes and challenges of a community based study of CBT groups for first episodes will be described. The strategies used to overcome these challenges and the successes of the program will be presented.     

The Development and Evaluation of a Statewide Training Center for Home Visitors and Supervisors

This paper informs practice in community‐based home visiting workforce development by describing the development and evaluation of a university‐based training certificate program for home visitors and supervisors. The Interactive Systems Framework for Dissemination and Implementation (ISF; Wandersman et al., 2008) guides our conceptualization and paper organization. The ISF describes the components involved in translating research findings into effective implementation of prevention programs. We describe implementation and lessons learned from seven development activities: (a) review of the literature, (b) survey of other training initiatives across the country, (c) focus groups with home visitors and supervisors, (d) consultation with individual home visitors, (e) creation of a state advisory board of home visiting providers and stakeholders, (f) evaluation of two pilot trainings, and (g) video development. We then present evaluation data from 49 home visitors and 23 supervisors who completed the training certificate program after the pilot trainings. Both home visitors and supervisors rated training satisfaction highly, reported significant increases in self‐efficacy related to the training topics, and reported extensive use of motivational communication techniques, which are the foundational skills of the training content. These and other favorable results reflect the benefits of building on advances in theory and science‐based practice and of involving providers and stakeholders repeatedly throughout the development process.     

The impact of contextual information and a secondary task on anticipation performance: An interpretation using cognitive load theory

When performing under severe time constraints, sports performers use kinematic and contextual information to facilitate anticipation. We examined the relative importance of these two information sources and their impact on cognitive load and anticipation performance. Cognitive load theory predicts that adding more information sources to a task will increase cognitive load in less‐skilled but not skilled performers. Skilled and less‐skilled cricket batters anticipated deliveries from bowlers on a life‐size screen under 4 conditions that manipulated access to contextual information and included a secondary task. The presence of context enhanced anticipation accuracy for both skilled and less‐skilled groups, without affecting cognitive load. Skilled performers used sequencing and game‐related contextual information in addition to kinematic information to facilitate anticipation, whereas both groups reported using information pertaining to opponent positioning. Findings highlight the importance of context in anticipation and suggest that the addition of context may not necessarily negatively impact cognitive load.     

Contagious yawning, social cognition, and arousal: an investigation of the processes underlying shelter dogs’ responses to human yawns

Studies of contagious yawning have reported inconsistent findings regarding whether dogs exhibit this behavior and whether it is mediated by social-cognitive processes or the result of physiological arousal. We investigated why some dogs yawn in response to human yawns; particularly, whether these dogs are exceptional in their ability to understand human social cues or whether they were more physiologically aroused. Sixty shelter dogs were exposed to yawning and nonyawning control stimuli demonstrated by an unfamiliar human. We took salivary cortisol samples before and after testing to determine the role of arousal in yawn contagion. Dogs were tested on the object-choice task to assess their sensitivity for interpreting human social cues. We found that 12 dogs yawned only in response to human yawns (i.e., appeared to exhibit yawn contagion), though contagious yawning at the population level was not observed. Dogs that exhibited yawn contagion did not perform better on the object-choice task than other dogs, but their cortisol levels remained elevated after exposure to human yawning, whereas other dogs had reduced cortisol levels following yawning stimuli relative to their baseline levels. We interpret these findings as showing that human yawning, when presented in a stressful context, can further influence arousal in dogs, which then causes some to yawn. Although the precise social-cognitive mechanisms that underlie contagious yawning in dogs are still unclear, yawning between humans and dogs may involve some communicative function that is modulated by context and arousal.     

False memories in Lewy‐body disease

Recently, de Boysson, Belleville, Phillips et al. (2011) found that patients with Lewy‐body disease (LBD) showed significantly lower rates of false memories than healthy controls, using the Deese–Roediger–McDermott (DRM) experimental procedure. Given that this result could be explained by the practically null rate of true recognition in the LBD group (0.09), we decided to replicate the study by de Boysson et al. (2011), but including a new condition that would maximize the true recognition rate (and analyze its effect on the rate of false memories). Specifically, in a DRM experiment, we manipulated (within subjects) two study and recognition conditions: in the “immediate” condition, both the LBD patients and the control group of healthy older people received a different recognition test after each study list (containing twelve words associated with a non‐presented critical word), while in the “delayed” condition (similar to the one in de Boysson et al., 2011), the participants received the entire series of study lists and then took only one recognition test. The results showed that, in both samples, the “immediate” condition produced higher corrected rates of both true and false recognition than the “delayed” condition, although they were both lower in the LBD patients, which shows that these patients are capable of encoding and recognizing the general similitude underlying information (gist memory) in the right conditions.     

Profiles of Naturalistic Attentional Trajectories Associated with Internalizing Behaviors in School-Age Children: A Mobile Eye Tracking Study

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - The temperament profile Behavioral Inhibition (BI) is a strong predictor of internalizing behaviors in childhood. Patterns of attention towards or...     

The Effects of a Couples‐Based Health Behavior Intervention During Pregnancy on Latino Couples’ Dyadic Satisfaction Postpartum

Many couples tend to report steadily decreasing relationship quality following the birth of a child. However, little is known about the postpartum period for Latino couples, a rapidly growing ethnic group who are notably underserved by mental and physical health caregivers in the United States. Thus, this study investigated whether a brief couples’ intervention focused on helping couples support each other while increasing healthy behaviors might improve dyadic functioning postpartum. This study presents secondary analyses of data regarding couple functioning from a larger randomized controlled trial with 348 Latino couples to promote smoking cessation. Portions of the intervention taught the couple communication and problem‐solving skills to increase healthy behavior. Couples participated in four face‐to‐face assessments across 1 year starting at the end of the first trimester. Latent growth curve analyses revealed that the treatment group reported an increase in relationship satisfaction and constructive communication after the intervention, which diminished by 1‐year follow‐up, returning couples to their baseline levels of satisfaction. Results suggest that incorporating a brief couple intervention as part of a larger health intervention for Latinos may prevent postpartum decreases in relationship satisfaction.     

Bilingual Cancer Genetic Education Modules for the Deaf Community: Development and Evaluation of the Online Video Material

Health information about inherited forms of cancer and the role of family history in cancer risk for the American Sign Language (ASL) Deaf community, a linguistic and cultural community, needs improvement. Cancer genetic education materials available in English print format are not accessible for many sign language users because English is not their native or primary language. Per Center for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations, the level of literacy for printed health education materials should not be higher than 6th grade level (~?11 to 12 years old), and even with this recommendation, printed materials are still not accessible to sign language users or other nonnative English speakers. Genetic counseling is becoming an integral part of healthcare, but often ASL users are not considered when health education materials are developed. As a result, there are few genetic counseling materials available in ASL. Online tools such as video and closed captioning offer opportunities for educators and genetic counselors to provide digital access to genetic information in ASL to the Deaf community. The Deaf Genetics Project team used a bilingual approach to develop a 37-min interactive Cancer Genetics Education Module (CGEM) video in ASL with closed captions and quizzes, and demonstrated that this approach resulted in greater cancer genetic knowledge and increased intentions to obtain counseling or testing, compared to standard English text information (Palmer et al., Disability and Health Journal, 10(1):23–32, 2017). Though visually enhanced educational materials have been developed for sign language users with multimodal/lingual approach, little is known about design features that can accommodate a diverse audience of sign language users so the material is engaging to a wide audience. The main objectives of this paper are to describe the development of the CGEM and to determine if viewer demographic characteristics are associated with two measurable aspects of CGEM viewing behavior: (1) length of time spent viewing and (2) number of pause, play, and seek events. These objectives are important to address, especially for Deaf individuals because the amount of simultaneous content (video, print) requires cross-modal cognitive processing of visual and textual materials. The use of technology and presentational strategies is needed that enhance and not interfere with health learning in this population.     

Frontal theta activation associated with error detection in toddlers: influence of familial socioeconomic status

Error detection is one of the functions of the executive attention network, a brain system involved in executive control that includes the anterior cingulate cortex and other prefrontal regions. Despite the key role of this function in a wide range of life outcomes, very limited research has examined the early development of the network and whether its functional efficacy is related to environmental factors. Electrophysiological studies with adults have shown oscillatory activity in theta (4–7 Hz) range arising from medial frontal cortex that follows the detection of self‐committed or observed errors. In the current study, we designed a novel experimental procedure that involved a familiarization phase with simple three‐pieces puzzles followed by an experimental phase in which toddlers observed the puzzles being formed either correctly or incorrectly. Observation of incorrect configurations produced increased potentials in midline channels and greater power theta activity for both toddlers (n = 56) and adults (n = 14). In addition, socioeconomic status of the family in general, and parental education in particular, contributed to individual differences in the amplitude of the error‐related signal and associated theta power in toddlers, indicating that children raised in lower SES families show poorer activation of the executive attention network. These data demonstrate the influence of environmental factors at the earliest stages of development of the executive attention network. Importantly, the results show that error‐detection EEG signals can be used as neural markers of the initial development of executive attention, which can be of great help for the early detection of risk for developmental disorders involving deficits in this function.