Experimental evidence for serial models of lexical access: a judgment task

The hypothesis that the lemma and lexeme levels of lexical access are in a feed-forward serial relation is supported. Subjects judge the degree of semantic relatedness of pairs of words. Stimuli are all functionally synonymous; they are pairs of words implicated in natural word blends. Half the stimuli are phonologically related and the other half are not. In one experiment the pairs are presented in a sentential context and in the other no context is provided. In both the experiments the phonologically unrelated pairs are judged closer in meaning than the phonologically related pairs. This is interpreted as support for serial models of lexical access.     

The Assessment of Hyperactivity and Attention (AHA): development and preliminary validation of a brief self-assessment of adult ADHD

A brief self-rating scale, the Assessment of Hyperactivity and Attention (AHA), was developed and validated using a "gold standard" DSM-based semi-structured interview. The sample consisted of 101 smokers (74% male, 73% Caucasian)-38.6% with no DSM-IV ADHD diagnosis, 10.9% with a childhood diagnosis only, and 50.5% with an adult diagnosis (requiring childhood diagnosis as well). The mean age SD was 33.7 9.7; participants smoked a mean of 19.0 5.6 cigarettes/day. Results indicate that the AHA has utility as a screening tool and as a self-report assessment of ADHD with sensitivity of .80, specificity of .60, positive predictive power of .67, negative predictive power of .75, kappa of .40, odds ratio of 6.15, and an area under the curve (receiver operating characteristic analysis) of .79. Given the high rate of ADHD among smokers, the AHA may be useful in identifying smokers who may need more in-depth clinical evaluation for attentional problems.     

Conflict resolution and peer mediation in middle schools: extending the process and outcome knowledge base

Many professional educators are implementing school-based prevention focused on conflict resolution (CR) and peer mediation (PM). The authors conducted research on CR-PM in 3 middle schools. Specifically, they surveyed teachers and students, tracked disciplinary incidents across school years, collected mediation data, and compared mediators with a matched sample to determine attitudinal change as a result of PM training and experience. The authors also surveyed peer mediators and disputants about program satisfaction, as well as peer mediators and their parents about the generalization of PM skills. The authors conclude with implications for developing future CR programs, including a focus on mediation-process evaluation as well as schoolwide outcome measures and the use of peer mediation training as an intervention for students at risk.     

The role of collaborative planning in children's source-monitoring errors and learning.

The aim of this research was to provide empirical evidence for a cognitive process that may contribute to children's learning from another person. A cornerstone of Vygotsky's sociocultural theory is that knowledge is internalized from others; however, the cognitive processes that support this transformation are underspecified. In a series of three studies, kindergarten children (mean age 5 years 8 months) participated in a categorization task with an adult in several collaborative and noncollaborative conditions and then were tested on their memory of who had performed which actions in the task. After the memory task, children were asked to recategorize the items on their own. Source-monitoring patterns and children's learning varied across conditions according to predictions. A measure of recoding was related to children's planning language that, in turn, predicted learning among the children. The results suggest that one process that contributes to children's internalization of knowledge may involve recoding of agent information and that recoding can be indexed by source-monitoring performance.     

Reducing child witnesses' false reports of misinformation from parents.

This study explored whether a source-monitoring training (SMT) procedure, in which children distinguished between events they recently witnessed versus events they only heard described, would help 3- to 8-year-olds to report only experienced events during a target interview. Children (N = 132) who witnessed science demonstrations and subsequently heard their parents describe nonexperienced events received SMT before or after a forensic-style interview. SMT reduced the number of false reports that 7- and 8-year-old children reported in response to direct questions but had no impact on the performance of younger children. Combined with earlier results, these data suggest a transition between 3 and 8 years of age in the strategic use of source-monitoring information to support verbal reports, such that only 7- and 8-year-olds generalize training to a difficult memory task that does not include mention of specific alternative sources.     

Can the Edinburgh Risk of Repetition Scale Predict Repetition of Deliberate Self‐poisoning in an Australian Clinical Setting?

This study tested the ability of the Edinburgh Risk of Repetition Scale (ERRS) to identify patients at high risk for repeat deliberate self-poisoning (DSP). Consecutive DSP patients (N= 1,317) over a 3-year period were followed-up for 12 months. A statistically significant relationship between ERRS scores and repetition was observed; however, sensitivity and specificity were low. Logistic regression analysis revealed only "previous parasuicide" contributed significantly to repetition. The ERRS had limited value in identifying patients at high risk of repeat DSP in this clinical population.     

Towards an understanding of unique and shared pathways in the psychopathophysiology of ADHD

Most attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) research has compared cases with unaffected controls. This has led to many associations, but uncertainties about their specificity to ADHD in contrast with other disorders. We present a selective review of research, comparing ADHD with other disorders in neuropsychological, neurobiological and genetic correlates. So far, a specific pathophysiological pathway has not been identified. ADHD is probably not specifically associated with executive function deficits. It is possible, but not yet established, that ADHD symptoms may be more specifically associated with motivational abnormalities, motor organization and time perception. Recent findings indicating common genetic liabilities of ADHD and other conditions raise questions about diagnostic boundaries. In future research, the delineation of the pathophysiological mechanisms of ADHD needs to match cognitive, imaging and genetic techniques to the challenge of defining more homogenous clinical groups; multi-site collaborative projects are needed.     

Potentials and limitations of cognitive treatments for obsessive-compulsive disorder

Exposure and response prevention (ERP) is a well-established treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). However, it is not completely effective for many patients, and some do not benefit from or tolerate this treatment. Over the past 3 decades there has been growing interest in using cognitive interventions, either as adjuncts or alternatives to exposure-based treatments such as ERP, to address these shortcomings. Cognitive therapy and cognitive behavior therapy for OCD have both demonstrated greater efficacy than no treatment at all, and appear to have a lower incidence of dropout than ERP. Unfortunately, however, for the average OCD patient, cognitive interventions have not improved treatment efficacy; that is, cognitive interventions, either alone or combined with ERP, are no more effective than ERP alone. Reasons for this disappointing result are considered, and indications for the use of cognitive interventions are discussed. Future research directions are suggested in order to evaluate more fully the merits of, and indications for, cognitive methods for treating OCD.     

Work attitudes, employment barriers, and mental health symptoms in a sample of rural welfare recipients

Most of the extant research on welfare reform has neglected to consider the experiences of families in rural settings. Fifty women receiving welfare for their dependent children in a rural community were interviewed about their work experiences and aspirations, barriers to employment and service use, as well as mental health and social support. The findings indicate that the majority of participants were connected to the labor force and expressed positive attitudes about work. Barriers to employment (lack of available jobs, child care) and service use (transportation, inconvenient office hours) were endorsed. Perceived social support was negatively related to depression symptoms and positively related to self-efficacy and self-esteem. The importance of understanding the life experiences of welfare recipients in different contexts is discussed.     

Do logistic regression and signal detection identify different subgroups at risk? Implications for the design of tailored interventions

Identifying subgroups of high-risk individuals can lead to the development of tailored interventions for those subgroups. This study compared two multivariate statistical methods (logistic regression and signal detection) and evaluated their ability to identify subgroups at risk. The methods identified similar risk predictors and had similar predictive accuracy in exploratory and validation samples. However, the 2 methods did not classify individuals into the same subgroups. Within subgroups, logistic regression identified individuals that were homogeneous in outcome but heterogeneous in risk predictors. In contrast, signal detection identified individuals that were homogeneous in both outcome and risk predictors. Because of the ability to identify homogeneous subgroups, signal detection may be more useful than logistic regression for designing distinct tailored interventions for subgroups of high-risk individuals.