A Child Trauma Treatment Pilot Study

We examined outcomes of a promising 21-session trauma treatment model for children aged 3 to 17 and their caregivers. All children in treatment had experienced at least one traumatic event. The treatment intervention was rooted in theories of trauma and attachment and combines parent training with cognitive behavioral therapy to form a comprehensive trauma treatment program. We report on 27 families who completed the program. Results reflect significant reductions in conduct disorder, problems in social relations, and caregiver depression at an average of a one-year post-treatment follow-up. Results from our preliminary study offer support for further evaluation of the model.     

Surface perception in pictures

Subjects adjusted a local gauge figure such as to perceptually “fit” the apparent surfaces of objects depicted in photographs. We obtained a few hundred data points per session, covering the picture according to a uniform lattice. Settings were repeated 3 times for each of 3 subjects. Almost all of the variability resided in the slant; the relative spread in the slant was about 25% (Weber fraction). The tilt was reproduced with a typical spread of about 10?. The rank correlation of the slant settings of different observers was high, thus the slant settings of different subjects were monotonically related. The variability could be predicted from the scatter in repeated settings by the individual observers. Although repeated settings by a single observer agreed within 5%, observers did not agree on the value of the slant, even on the average. Scaling factors of a doubling in the depth dimension were encountered between different subjects. The data conformed quite well to some hypothetical fiducial global surface, the orientation of which was “probed” by the subject’s local settings. The variability was completely accounted for by singleobserver scatter. These conclusions are based upon an analysis of the internal structure of the local settings. We did not address the problem of veridicality, that is, conformity to some “real object.”     

Detection of the sign of expansion as a function of field size and eccentricity

Small optical flow fields are involved in object and shape recognition. These tasks depend on high resolution and low speed of the flow-field elements. Large optical flow fields are involved in tasks such as orientation and navigation, which require flow-field elements to move at high speed. From the above, we would expect to find different behavior of subjects for different parameter ranges of field size and speed of the elements. In this paper, we address the question of whether such different behavior exists for a task that is associated neither with object recognition nor with navigation. We obtained detection thresholds for expansion in the presence of translation for a wide range of field sizes. The same paradigm was used to investigate whether subjects made efficient use of peripheral information. We found viewing-distance invariance, meaning that subjects’ performance scaled with stimulus size. Subjects performed very similarly with and without foveal information.     

PROCESSING SPEED, WORKING MEMORY, AND FLUID INTELLIGENCE:

Abstract— Processing speed, working memory capacity, and fluid intelligence were assessed in a large sample ( N = 214) of children, adolescents, and young adults (ages 7 to 19 years) Results of path analyses revealed that almost half of the age-related increase in fluid intelligence was mediated by developmental changes in processing speed and marking memory and nearly three fourths of the improvement in working memory was mediated by developmental changes in processing speed Moreover, even when age-related differences in speed, working memory and fluid intelligence were statistically controlled, individual differences in speed had a direct effect on working memory capacity which, in turn was a direct determinant of individual differences in fluid intelligence     

Pictorial surface attitude and local depth comparisons

We measured local surface attitude for monocular pictorial relief and performed pairwise depthcomparison judgments on the same picture. Both measurements were subject to internal consistency checks. We found that both measurements were consistent with a relief (continuous pictorial surface) interpretation within the session-to-session scatter. We reconstructed the pictorial relief from both measurements separately, and found results that differed in detail but were quite similar in their basic structures. Formally, one expects certain geometrical identities that relate range and attitude data. Because we have independent measurements of both, we can attempt an empirical verification of such geometrical identities. Moreover, we can check whether the statistical scatter in the data indicates that, for example, the surface attitudes are derivable from a depth map or vice versa. We estimate that pairwise depth comparisons are an order of magnitude less precise than might be expected from the attitude data. Thus, the surface attitudes cannot be derived from a depth map as operationally defined by our methods, although the reverse is a possibility.     

Verb frequency and enactment in implicit and explicit memory

In this article we report on two experiments concerning the effects of verb frequency and enactment on explicit- and implicit-memory tests. The results showed that verb frequency and enactment had additive effects on (explicit) recognition. Moreover, an (implicit) verb-identification test showed that prior enactment had absolutely no influence on this test, while verb frequency had a clear-cut effect. These results speak in favor of the assumption that verb-frequency and enactment effects are based on different types of information. It is further assumed that the verb-frequency effect is a lexical effect, whereas the enactment effect is not.     

Problems in evaluating the real-world usability of digital voice communication systems

Digital voice communication systems are being used in a wide variety of applications. Human observers are used to measure the performance of computer voice systems. We also need to determine how losses in speech quality and intelligibility affect the performance of the communicator. This paper considers several situational variables that can affect the usability and acceptance of digital voice communication systems: task constraints, user experience, and communication environment. User experience and communication environment influence the acceptability of degraded voice systems; greater experience and field environments lead to higher acceptability ratings. However, performance measures, such as task completion time, are still adversely affected by lower voice quality.     

Foster Parents’ Knowledge of Child Trauma: An Exploratory Study

To promote trauma-informed professional supports and services to maltreated youth, it is imperative that researchers explore foster parents’ knowledge of child trauma. However, there is a dearth in the literature related to this topic. This exploratory study utilizes a convenience sample (N = 219) of foster parents in one southeastern state. Variables of interest include actual and perceived knowledge about child trauma. After a terse review of background literature, this paper will explicate key results, discuss these findings, and identify salient practice and policy implications derived from this study. The paper will conclude by delineating apposite areas for future research.