Prism adaptation in schizophrenia

The prism adaptation test examines procedural learning (PL) in which performance facilitation occurs with practice on tasks without the need for conscious awareness. Dynamic interactions between frontostriatal cortices, basal ganglia, and the cerebellum have been shown to play key roles in PL. Disruptions within these neural networks have also been implicated in schizophrenia, and such disruptions may manifest as impairment in prism adaptation test performance in schizophrenia patients. This study examined prism adaptation in a sample of patients diagnosed with schizophrenia (N=91) and healthy normal controls (N=58). Quantitative indices of performance during prism adaptation conditions with and without visual feedback were studied. Schizophrenia patients were significantly more impaired in adapting to prism distortion and demonstrated poorer quality of PL. Patients did not differ from healthy controls on aftereffects when the prisms were removed, but they had significantly greater difficulties in reorientation. Deficits in prism adaptation among schizophrenia patients may be due to abnormalities in motor programming arising from the disruptions within the neural networks that subserve PL.     

Traumatic Brain Injury in School-Age Children Academic and Social Outcome

School-aged children with a traumatic brain injury (TBI) require extraordinary effort and energy from individuals in their school, home, and community. The purpose of this study was to examine the academic, behavioral, and social outcomes of a cohort of children and adolescents following TBI. A comprehensive assessment of cognitive functioning, achievement, and adaptive behavior was administered to 43 school-aged children 2 years after their TBI. Premorbid functioning for each participant was obtained from state-mandated test scores assessed prior to the TBI. The predictive utility of premorbid functioning, TBI severity, and age at injury were examined. Findings revealed that premorbid functions were significant predictors of reading and spelling achievement and adaptive functioning. Severity of injury was predictive of adaptive functioning. Implications of findings include program development, reintegration into school, and educating parents and teachers.     

Center-based care for young children: examining predictors of quality

The authors collected information from caregivers, trained observers, and parents to investigate quality elements in child-care programs designed for young children in center-based settings. Participants were 75 parents of children aged 15 to 36 months and their caregivers from 13 child-care centers in a southeastern state. Observers collected indicators of program quality and process and structural quality indicators, including adult-child ratio, group size, use of planned activities, use of child-designated space, housekeeping activities, and caregiver-child interactions. Participants responded to questions regarding their child-rearing beliefs, social support networks, perceived stress levels, and demographic characteristics. The best predictors of higher quality care and sensitive caregiver-child interaction in centers were specialized caregiver training, higher adult-child ratios, use of planned activities, and less perceived stress by caregivers. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Famous talker effects in spoken word recognition

Previous work has demonstrated that talker-specific representations affect spoken word recognition relatively late during processing. However, participants in these studies were listening to unfamiliar talkers. In the present research, we used a long-term repetition-priming paradigm and a speeded-shadowing task and presented listeners with famous talkers. In Experiment 1, half the words were spoken by Barack Obama, and half by Hillary Clinton. Reaction times (RTs) to repeated words were shorter than those to unprimed words only when repeated by the same talker. However, in Experiment 2, using nonfamous talkers, RTs to repeated words were shorter than those to unprimed words both when repeated by the same talker and when repeated by a different talker. Taken together, the results demonstrate that talker-specific details can affect the perception of spoken words relatively early during processing when words are spoken by famous talkers.     

Validation of the Measure of Delinquent Social Identity Among Youth Offenders in the UK

ABSTRACT

The current study aimed to develop and validate the Measure of Delinquent Social Identity (MDSI). Dimensionality and construct validity of the MDSI was investigated in a sample of youth offenders (N = 536). Four alternative models of the MDSI were estimated using Mplus. The model identified as being the best fit for the data was a bifactor model with three dimensions (cognitive centrality, in-group affect, in-group ties) while controlling for the general factor. The three subscales differentially correlated with criminal friend index, self-esteem, parental attachment, and peer rejection. Limitations and advantages, including practical implications, of the current research are discussed.     

Passive Students in Junior High School: The Associations with Shyness, Perceived Competence and Social Support

Relationships between passivity in school and shyness, perceived competencies and social support were assessed in a sample of 501 pupils (241 girls and 240 boys) in grades 8, 9 and 10 from two secondary schools in a city in the southern part of Norway. The analyses revealed a positive significant association between passivity in school and shyness. Findings also showed significant negative associations between passivity in school and scores of perceived social competence. Support from school peers, teachers and parents were also negatively associated with passivity. In addition the interaction between gender and perceived social competence yielded a significant association with school passivity.     

The Eye of the Beholder: Romantic Goals and Impression Biases

Four experiments investigated the effects of romantic goals on task and social impression formation. The clouded judgment hypothesis holds that romantic goals encourage positive biases on less relationship-relevant dimensions (e.g., task competence). The default positivity hypothesis holds that romantic goals encourage positivity biases on relationship-relevant dimensions in the absence of relevant information. The selective accuracy hypothesis posits that romantic goals encourage accuracy regarding relationship-relevant attributes (e.g., social competence) when relevant information is available. In four studies, male and female perceivers evaluated opposite-sex targets whom they expected to date (romantic goals) or to meet for nonromantic interaction (baseline). Videotaped targets displayed competence or incompetence on task (Experiments 1 and 2) or social (Experiments 3 and 4) dimensions. All three hypotheses were supported.     

Perceptual Learning in the Rat: Stimulus Differentiation or Latent Inhibition of Common Elements?

Preexposure to an unreinforced stimulus facilitates learning (perceptual learning) under some conditions, but it can have the opposite effect (latent inhibition) under other conditions. Researchers have suggested that perceptual learning depends on a change of context, whereas latent inhibition is usually context specific. The associative theory explains both phenomena within a single framework. The authors report 4 experiments that show that perceptual learning does not depend on a context change. The experiments suggest that latent inhibition, unlike perceptual learning, depends on passive exposure. Thus the results do not support the associative theory. They are more consistent with Gibson's stimulus-differentiation theory.     

The Expanded Skills Confidence Inventory: Measuring basic dimensions of vocational activity

This series of studies describes the development and psychometric evaluation of 17 scales measuring confidence or self-efficacy with respect to basic domains of vocational activity. The confidence scales assessed previously measured interest dimensions such as Writing, Mechanical Activities, and Public Speaking, but also included dimensions reflective of recent changes in the nature of work or the culture of the workplace, for example, Using Technology, Creative Production, and Cultural Sensitivity. The scales were internally consistent, showed predictable patterns of gender differences and similarities, and were in generally most highly related to the predicted Holland confidence theme. Discriminant analyses of scores across the eight largest occupational groups represented indicated large improvements over chance, or a priori probabilities, in the prediction of occupational group membership. Further research on and use of these 17 new scales in joint interpretations of parallel measures of interest and confidence are discussed.