Age-related declines in context maintenance and semantic short-term memory

This study reports age-related declines in context maintenance (Braver et al., 2001) and semantic short-term memory (STM) and evidence for a relation between the two. A group of younger and older adults completed a context maintenance task (AX-CPT), a semantically oriented STM task (conceptual span), a phonologically oriented STM task (digit span), and a meaning integration task (semantic anomaly judgement). In the AX-CPT task, a target response is required to the probe letter “X” but only when it is preceded by the letter “A” (the context). Either three (short interference) or six distractor letters (long interference) were presented between the cue and the probe. Results indicated an age-related deficit in context maintenance. Age-related declines were also observed for conceptual span and semantic anomaly judgement but not for digit span. Context maintenance was correlated with conceptual span and semantic anomaly judgement but not with digit span. These correlations were largely mediated by age differences, which also explained variance that was unique to (and not shared among) context maintenance, conceptual span, and semantic anomaly judgement.     

Trajectories of Depressive Symptoms and Externalizing Behaviors across Adolescence: Associations with Histories of Suicide Attempt and Ideation in Early Adulthood

We examined associations between adolescent problem trajectories and suicide risk outcomes in 361 community participants. Depressive symptoms (self‐report) and externalizing behaviors (parent report) were assessed six times from grades 5 to 10. Parallel process linear growth curves indicated that lifetime suicide attempt history assessed to age 25 was associated with higher intercept (grade 5) and slope (increases from grades 5 to 10) of depressive symptoms and higher slope of externalizing behaviors. Both problem intercepts predicted suicidal ideation at ages 18 to 25 years. Adolescent depressive and externalizing symptom trajectories showed independent associations with suicide risk. Preventive intervention that occurs prior to the developmental period in which suicidal thoughts and behaviors show peak prevalence is expected to prevent suicide.     

Deity practice in the FPMT: understanding the nature of the Tibetan Buddhist deity from the Western practitioner’s perspective

ABSTRACT

In contrast to forms of Buddhism popular in the West such as Vipassana meditation and Zen Buddhism which emphasize doctrinal study, meditation practice, and personal transformation above traditional rituals of deity yoga and merit-making, and Buddhist cosmology, Tibetan Buddhism retains its traditional framework of belief and practice. The worldwide Gelugpa Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT) teaches the traditional practice of deity visualization, during which the meditator generates the view of the visualized deity as that of emptiness, the understanding that all objects, including buddhas, bodhisattvas, and deities are ultimately empty of inherent existence. Data obtained from fieldwork conducted at two FPMT centres: Vajrayana Institute in Sydney, Australia, and Kopan Monastery in Nepal, suggests an interpretation of the manner in which practitioners come to an appreciation of deity practice in the broader context of the FPMT's teachings. In outlining how this occurs, I discuss the role of doctrine including the ontological status of the deity, and the role of personal experience and both personal and traditional religious authority in this interpretive process. Here, I aim to add to scholarly understanding of how Western practitioners come to accept the traditional elements of non-Western religions such as forms of Tibetan Buddhism.