Clinical Geropsychology: Implications for Practice in Medical Settings

Older adults are a rapidly growing segment of the population, who have high rates of chronic illness and who utilize health care resources heavily. Psychologists must become better prepared to work with older patients in geriatric settings, including geriatric assessment units, memory disorders clinics, and nursing homes. In addition, all psychologists will increasingly encounter older patients in environments such as primary care clinics, rehabilitation settings, and disease management programs focusing on problems that are prevalent in older patients (e.g., cancer, diabetes). Suggestions are offered for adaptation of usual clinical practice to address the special needs of older patients and their families, and recommendations made for advancing and expanding the practice of clinical geropsychology.     

Relationship between binocular disparity and motion parallax in surface detection

The ability to detect surfaces was studied in a multiple-cue condition in which binocular disparity and motion parallax could specify independent depth configurations. On trials on which binocular disparity and motion parallax were presented together, either binocular disparity or motion parallax could indicate a surface in one of two intervals; in the other interval, both sources indicated a volume of random points. Surface detection when the two sources of information were present and compatible was not better than detection in baseline conditions, in which only one source of information was present. When binocular disparity and motion specified incompatible depths, observers’ ability to detect a surface was severely impaired if motion indicated a surface but binocular disparity did not. Performance was not as severely degraded when binocular disparity indicated a surface and motion did not. This dominance of binocular disparity persisted in the presence of foreknowledge about which source of information would be relevant.     

Religious Practice and Spirituality in the Psychological Adjustment of Survivors of Breast Cancer

Religion and spirituality are resources regularly used by patients with cancer coping with diagnosis and treatment, yet there is little research that examines these factors separately. This study investigated the relationships between religious practice and spirituality and quality of life (QoL) and stress in survivors of breast cancer. The sample included 130 women assessed 2 years following diagnosis. Using hierarchical multiple regression analysis, the authors found that spiritual well‐being was significantly associated with QoL and traumatic stress, whereas religious practice was not significantly associated with these variables. The results suggest that it may be helpful for clinicians to address spirituality, in particular with survivors of breast cancer.     

Assessing PTSD in the military: Validation of a scale distributed to Danish soldiers after deployment since 1998

Since 1998, soldiers deployed to war zones with the Danish Defense (≈31,000) have been invited to fill out a questionnaire on post‐mission reactions. This provides a unique data source for studying the psychological toll of war. Here, we validate a measure of PTSD‐symptoms from the questionnaire. Soldiers from two cohorts deployed to Afghanistan with the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in 2009 (ISAF7, N = 334) and 2013 (ISAF15, N = 278) filled out a standard questionnaire (Psychological Reactions following International Missions, PRIM) concerning a range of post‐deployment reactions including symptoms of PTSD (PRIM‐PTSD). They also filled out a validated measure of PTSD‐symptoms in DSM‐IV, the PTSD‐checklist (PCL). We tested reliability of PRIM‐PTSD by estimating Cronbach's alpha, and tested validity by correlating items, clusters, and overall scale with corresponding items in the PCL. Furthermore, we conducted two confirmatory factor analytic models to test the factor structure of PRIM‐PTSD, and tested measurement invariance of the selected model. Finally, we established a screening and a clinical cutoff score by application of ROC analysis. We found high internal consistency of the PRIM‐PTSD (Cronbach's alpha = 0.88; both cohorts), strong item‐item (0.48–0.83), item‐cluster (0.43–0.72), cluster‐cluster (0.71–0.82) and full‐scale (0.86–0.88) correlations between PRIM‐PTSD and PCL. The factor analyses showed adequate fit of a one‐factor model, which was also found to display strong measurement invariance across cohorts. ROC curve analysis established cutoff scores for screening (sensitivity = 1, specificity = 0.93) and clinical use (sensitivity = 0.71, specificity = 0.98). In conclusion, we find that PRIM‐PTSD is a valid measure for assessing PTSD‐symptoms in Danish soldiers following deployment.     

Deconstructing the Time-Out: What Do Mothers Understand About a Common Disciplinary Procedure?

Time-out (TO) is one of the most common and effective disciplinary tactics used to address problem behavior; however, parents rate TO as one of the least useful behavior modification techniques. This may be due to a discrepancy between empirically supported TO procedures and how mothers are actually conducting TO. Fifty-five mothers were asked to define TO, provide information on how they conduct TO, and identify errors in TO procedures. Results indicate that maternal knowledge and implementation of TO differs considerably from the empirical ideal, potentially impacting the utility and frequency of TO usage in the home to address child problem behaviors.     

Perception of scene layout from optical contact, shadows, and motion

Kersten et al (1997 Perception 26 171-192) found that the perceived motion of an object in a 3-D scene was determined by the motion of a shadow. In the present study, we compared the effect of a shadow to that of a second object on the ground in determining the perceived position in depth of a floating object in both dynamic and stationary scenes. Changing the second (lower) object from textured to dark increased the influence of the second object on the judged position of the first object. Giving the second object zero thickness had this effect only if it was also dark. Variations in the height of the floating object were important with a second object but not with a shadow, in motion scenes. With alternative shadows present, the position of the floating object was determined primarily by matching speeds, with matching sizes as a secondary factor. These results show some similarities but important differences between the effect of a second object and that of a shadow.     

Aging and the detection of observer and moving object collisions

The authors examined age-related differences in the detection of collision events. Older and younger observers were presented with displays simulating approaching objects that would either collide or pass by the observer. In 4 experiments, the authors found that older observers, as compared with younger observers, had less sensitivity in detecting collisions with an increase in speed, at shorter display durations, and with longer time-to-contact conditions. Older observers also had greater difficulty when the scenario simulated observer motion, suggesting that older observers have difficulty discriminating object motion expansion from background expansion from observer motion. The results of these studies support the expansion sensitivity hypothesis-that age-related decrements in detecting collision events involving moving objects are the result of a decreased sensitivity to recover expansion information.     

Possible barnum effect in the five factor model: do respondents accept random neo personality inventory-revised scores as their actual trait profile?

This study investigated a possible Barnum effect in personality traits, i.e., that persons accept a false trait profile as correct. Having answered the Norwegian translation of the NEO Personality Inventory-Revised, a group of 75 students, 56 (five women military aviation cadets and 19 (10 women) graduate students, received a random T-score profile and were asked to rate their agreement on a 7-point scale. For all personality traits, i.e., facets and domains measured by the NEO Personality Inventory-Revised, positive correlations ranging from .08 to .64 were found between the agreement ratings and the similarity between the random false scores and the actual scores. The respondents identified and rejected random T scores that deviated far from their actual scores, which works against the Barnum effect. Correct identification correlated negatively with Neuroticism r = -.41) and positively (r = .53) with Conscientiousness.     

Necessity of spatial pooling for the perception of heading in nonrigid environments

This study examined whether the perception of heading is determined by spatially pooling velocity information. Observers were presented displays simulating observer motion through a volume of 3-D objects. To test the importance of spatial pooling, the authors systematically varied the nonrigidity of the flow field using two types of object motion: adding a unique rotation or translation to each object. Calculations of the signal-to-noise (observer velocity-to-object motion) ratio indicated no decrements in performance when the ratio was .39 for object rotation and .45 for object translation. Performance also increased with the number of objects in the scene. These results suggest that heading is determined by mechanisms that use spatial pooling over large regions.