Preferences of Individuals in Committed Relationships About Premarital Counseling

Premarital educational and counseling programs provide one way of addressing many of the risk factors associated with couple distress and divorce. Unfortunately, few couples who are offered premarital programming engage in the programs offered. This study examined preferences for premarital programming in a sample of individuals in committed relationships who intended to marry the current partner. Results suggested that premarital counseling conducted by a therapist and of short duration, following engagement, was most preferred. The most preferred topics/contents were related to communication and conflict resolution.     

For my eyes only: gaze control, enmeshment, and relationship quality

Perceived closeness that preserves the distinctness of each partner enhances intimate relationship quality, whereas pseudocloseness or enmeshment--reflecting an inability to distinguish one's own thoughts and emotions from a partner's--may have more negative outcomes (R. J. Green & P. D. Werner, 1996). Two studies investigated whether a dispositional inability to differentiate self from other is manifested at the attentional level as reduced capacity to inhibit following the gaze of another (A. Frischen, A. P. Bayliss, & S. P. Tipper, 2007). Among healthy elderly spouses in Study 1, superior gaze control predicted superior sociocognitive functioning, and those with poorer gaze control abilities were perceived by the partner as constricting the perceiving partner's autonomy, which in turn predicted lower relationship satisfaction among the latter. Moreover, these links were mediated by enmeshment, as indicated by the percentage of "we"-focused versus "I"- or partner-focused thoughts and emotions in the partners' independent accounts of the same relationship events. Extending these findings in a sample of Parkinson's disease patients and their spouses, Study 2 revealed a biphasic effect of self-other differentiation on relationship dynamics: In the early stages of the disease, increased couple focus promoted superior relationship quality, whereas lack of self-other differentiation predicted poorer relationship quality later. Thus, dispositional variations in fundamental social-perceptual processes predict both close relationship dynamics and long-term relationship quality.     

Depressive symptoms predict decline in perceptual speed in older adulthood

Depressive symptoms and cognitive decline are associated in older age, but research is inconsistent about whether one condition influences the development of the other. We examined the directionality of relations between depressive symptoms and perceptual speed using bivariate dual change score models. Assessments of depressive symptoms and perceptual speed were completed by 1,206 nondemented older adults at baseline, and after 2, 8, 11, and 15 years. After controlling for age, education, baseline general cognitive ability, and self-reported health, allowing depressive symptoms to predict subsequent change in perceptual speed provided the best fit. More depressive symptoms predicted subsequently stronger declines in perceptual speed over time lags of 1 year.     

Vision-fair neuropsychological assessment in normal aging, Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease

We examined performance of healthy older and younger adults and individuals with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD) on digit cancellation, a task putatively sensitive to cognitive impairment, but possibly affected by visual impairment, particularly in contrast sensitivity. Critical contrast thresholds were established to create custom stimulus arrays that were proximally matched across individuals. Age- and PD-related differences in search were fully accounted for by the sensory deficit. Increased contrast benefited AD patients, but could not override cognitive impairment. We conclude that visually fair neuropsychological testing can effectively compensate for normal age- and PD-related visual changes that affect cognitive performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Bingo! Externally supported performance intervention for deficient visual search in normal aging, Parkinson's disease, and Alzheimer's disease

External support may improve task performance regardless of an individual's ability to compensate for cognitive deficits through internally generated mechanisms. We investigated if performance of a complex, familiar visual search task (the game of bingo) could be enhanced in groups with suboptimal vision by providing external support through manipulation of task stimuli. Participants were 19 younger adults, 14 individuals with probable Alzheimer's disease (AD), 13 AD-matched healthy adults, 17 non-demented individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD), and 20 PD-matched healthy adults. We varied stimulus contrast, size, and visual complexity during game play. The externally supported performance interventions of increased stimulus size and decreased complexity resulted in improvements in performance by all groups. AD also obtained benefit from increasing contrast, presumably by compensating for their contrast sensitivity deficit. The general finding of improved performance across healthy and afflicted groups suggests the value of visual support as an easy-to-apply intervention to enhance cognitive performance.     

Flexible attention deployment in threatening contexts: An instructed fear conditioning study

Factors leading humans to shift attention away from danger cues remain poorly understood. Two laboratory experiments reported here show that context interacts with learning experiences to shape attention avoidance of mild danger cues. The first experiment exposed 18 participants to contextual threat of electric shock. Attention allocation to mild danger cues was then assessed with the dot-probe task. Results showed that contextual threat caused subjects to avert attention from danger cues. In the second experiment, 36 participants were conditioned to the same contextual threat used in Experiment 1. These subjects then were randomly assigned to either an experimental group, trained to shift attention toward danger cues, or a placebo group exposed to the same stimuli without the training component. As in Experiment 1, contextual threat again caused attention allocation away from danger in the control group. However, this did not occur in the experimental group. These experiments show that acute contextual threat and learning experiences interact to shape the deployment of attention away from danger cues. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

The role of animacy and thematic relationships in processing active English sentences: evidence from event-related potentials

Recent event-related potential studies report a P600 effect to incongruous verbs preceded by semantically associated inanimate noun-phrase (NP) arguments, e.g., "eat" in "At breakfast the eggs would eat...". This P600 effect may reflect the processing cost incurred when semantic-thematic relationships between critical verbs and their preceding NP argument(s) bias towards different interpretations to those dictated by their sentences' syntactic structures. We have termed such violations of alternative thematic roles, 'thematic role violations.' Semantic-thematic relationships are influenced both by semantic associations and by more basic semantic features, such as a noun's animacy. This study determined whether a P600 effect can be evoked by verbs whose thematic structures are violated by their preceding inanimate NP arguments, even in the absence of close semantic-associative relationships with these arguments or their preceding contexts. ERPs were measured to verbs under four conditions: (1) non-violated ("At breakfast the boys would eat..."); (2) preceded by introductory clauses and animate NPs that violated their pragmatic expectations but not their thematic structures ("At breakfast the boys would plant..."); (3) preceded by semantically related contexts but inanimate NPs that violated their thematic structures ("At breakfast the eggs would eat..."); (4) preceded by semantically unrelated contexts and inanimate NPs that also violated their thematic structures ("At breakfast the eggs would plant..."). Pragmatically non-thematic role violated verbs preceded by unrelated contexts and animate NPs evoked robust N400 effects and small P600 effects. Thematically violated verbs preceded by inanimate argument NPs evoked robust P600 effects but no N400 effects, regardless of whether these inanimate arguments or their preceding contexts were semantically related or unrelated to these verbs. These findings suggest that semantic-thematic relations, related to animacy constraints on verbs' arguments, are computed online and can immediately impact verb processing within active, English sentences.     

Within-person variability in response speed as an indicator of cognitive impairment in older adults

Within-person variability may be an important indicator of central nervous system compromise. In this study, within-person variability in response speed was examined in community-dwelling older adults, ages 64-92 years, using a new framework that takes into account both the extent (single versus multiple domains affected) and nature (amnestic versus non-amnestic) of the cognitive impairment. Those with multiple domains of impairment were more variable than those who showed an isolated area of impairment, regardless of whether memory was one of the domains affected. Further, for those with difficulties in two or more non-memory domains, increased variability was most evident in more cognitively demanding situations, when individuals had to manipulate information held briefly in mind, switch cognitive set or inhibit an automatic response. Finally, group differentiation was better achieved when within-person variability as opposed to mean speed of performance was considered.     

Discontented people: reactivity and locus of control as determinants of subjective well‐being

This study examines the effects of reactivity temperament and locus of control variables on subjective well‐being (SWB). SWB is operationalized as positive affect, the absence of somatic concerns, and heightened life satisfaction. The study hypotheses were that (1) reactivity and locus of control influenced SWB and that (2) affect either mediated or moderated the influence of these traits on SWB. As expected, high reactivity and external locus of control were associated with lower SWB, whereas low reactivity and internal locus of control were associated with higher SWB. However, the data indicate that reactivity and locus of control influenced different components of SWB and that locus of control predicted SWB more consistently than reactivity. Somatic health is influenced by reactivity, locus of control and negative affect, but not positive affect. Current life satisfaction is influenced by locus of control—but not reactivity—and by both positive and negative affect. Hope is related to reactivity but not to either locus of control or affect. The data corroborate the expectation that affect serves as a mediator in the trait—SWB relations, whereas the view that affect moderates the effect of stable dispositions on SWB finds scant support. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.