Young children's use of functional information to categorize artifacts: three factors that matter

Three experiments addressed factors that might influence whether or not young children take into account function, as opposed to overall appearance or shape, when they extend the names of novel artifacts. Experiment 1 showed that 4-year-olds more often extend a name on the basis of a demonstrated function when that function provides a plausible causal account of perceptible object structure. Experiment 2 showed that they more often extend a name by function when they respond slowly, and hence thoughtfully. Experiment 3 demonstrated that they are more likely to take function into account when they extend names than when they judge similarities. Comparisons of lexical and non-lexical conditions in younger children failed to show any differences. Overall, the findings suggest that by 4 years of age, children may learn names as labels for novel artifact kinds rather than perceptual classes, and that the processes by which they categorize may be mindful and reflective, as in adults.     

Factors associated with outcome of cognitive-behavioural treatment of chronic post-traumatic stress disorder

The study examined factors that were associated with outcome in the treatment of PTSD. A trial of cognitive therapy compared to imaginal exposure of chronic PTSD showed that although clinical improvements were obtained after treatment and at 6 month follow-up one type of treatment was not significantly superior to the other. Characteristics of the patient, the trauma and treatment and of pretreatment clinical measures were investigated as predictors of PTSD outcome. Eleven variables were significantly associated with the pre- to post-treatment change in CAPS severity scores. Of these, three (duration of therapy, gender and suicide risk) were selected into a step-wise multiple regression equation to explain 36.5% of the outcome. Similarly, nine variables were significant associated with the pretreatment to follow-up change with three variables (number of missed therapy sessions, residential status and co-morbid GAD) being selected into the equation and explaining 36.9% of the outcome. The best predictor of outcome was inconsistent attendance at therapy.     

Borderline personality disorder symptoms as predictors of 4-year romantic relationship dysfunction in young women: addressing issues of specificity

The relationships between romantic relationship dysfunction and symptoms of borderline personality disorder (BPD), other personality disorders, and depression were examined prospectively in a community sample of 142 late adolescent women. Although BPD symptoms predicted 4-year romantic dysfunction (romantic chronic stress, conflicts, partner satisfaction, abuse, and unwanted pregnancy), the associations were not unique to BPD. Instead, relationship dysfunction was better predicted by a cumulative index of non-BPD Axis II pathology. Depression did not predict outcomes uniquely when Axis II symptoms were included, except in the case of unplanned pregnancy. The results suggest that although BPD is associated with relationship dysfunction, the effect is a more general phenomenon applying rather broadly to Axis II pathology. The results also highlight the importance of subclinical psychopathology in the construction of early intimate relationships.     

Predictors of first onset and recurrence of major depression in young women during the 5 years following high school graduation

Although most depressive episodes in adulthood are recurrences of the disorder, lifetime history of major depression (MD) is often neglected in predictive models. On the basis of research and theory suggesting differential prediction of MD across the course of the disorder, the authors explored whether factors that predict a first MD onset would not predict MD recurrence. Predictors of MD were examined longitudinally in a sample of 128 young women followed for 5 years. Controlling for lifetime MD history, 5-year MD was predicted by the presence before study entry of 3 variables: having witnessed family violence before age 16, having a parent with a psychiatric disorder, and having a nonmood Axis I disorder. During the follow-up period, chronic and episodic stress predicted MD. Prior lifetime MD interacted with both chronic stress and parental psychopathology to predict MD, such that first onsets, but not recurrences, were predicted by these risk variables.     

Attention and joint attention in preschool children with autism

Three experiments examined the role of attention in explaining dyadic (child-adult) and triadic (child-adult-object) joint attention difficulties in autism. Experiments 1 and 2 investigated children's ability to orient to an adult's attention bid and to follow the direction of a human or nonhuman cue. Experiment 3 tested ability to disengage and shift attention to objects. Results showed autism-specific difficulties at both dyadic and triadic levels. Children with autism were less responsive than developmentally delayed controls in orienting to attention bids and in following a human head-turn cue yet had no difficulty in shifting attention and were faster overall in orienting to targets. Results suggest a specific developmental delay in which children with autism rely on the presence of objects in the visual field to guide action. The relation between this problem and autistic children's difficulties with human communicative signals is discussed.     

Resolving disease management problems in European-American and Latino couples with type 2 diabetes: the effects of ethnicity and patient gender

The management of type 2 diabetes requires major life style changes. How patients and family members resolve disagreements about disease management affects how well the disease is managed over time. Our goal was to identify differences in how couples resolved disagreements about diabetes management based on ethnicity and patient gender. We recruited 65 Latino and 110 European-American (EA) couples in which one spouse had type 2 diabetes. Couples participated in a 10-minute videotaped, revealed differences interaction task that was evaluated with 7 reliable observer ratings: warm-engagement, hostility, avoidance, amount of conflict resolution, off-task behavior, patient dominance, and dialogue. A series of 2 x 2, Ethnicity x Sex ANOVAs indicated significant effects for Ethnicity and for the Ethnicity x Sex interaction, but not for Sex. Latino couples were rated as significantly more emotionally close, less avoidant, less hostile toward each other, and had less dominant patients than EA couples; however, Latino couples achieved significantly less problem resolution and were more frequently off-task than EA couples. These findings were qualified by patient gender. The findings highlight important differences     

Chronicity, severity, and timing of maternal depressive symptoms: relationships with child outcomes at age 5

The relationships between severity, chronicity, and timing of maternal depressive symptoms and child outcomes were examined in a cohort of 4,953 children. Mothers provided self-reports of depressive symptoms during pregnancy, immediately postpartum, and when the child was 6 months old and 5 years old. At the age 5 follow-up, mothers reported on children's behavior and children completed a receptive vocabulary test. Results suggest that both the severity and the chronicity of maternal depressive symptoms are related to more behavior problems and lower vocabulary scores in children. The interaction of severity and chronicity of maternal depressive symptoms was significantly related to higher levels of child behavior problems. Timing of maternal symptoms was not significantly related to child vocabulary scores, but more recent reports of maternal depressive symptoms were associated with higher rates of child behavior problems.     

Specification of movement amplitudes for the left and right hands: evidence for transient parametric coupling from overlapping-task performance

Bimanual coordination tasks suggest transient cross-talk between concurrent specification processes for movements of the left and right hand that vanishes as the time for specification increases. In 2 experiments with overlapping and successive unimanual tasks, the hypothesis of transient coupling was examined for a psychological-refractory-period paradigm. Time for specification was manipulated by varying the delay between first and second signal (Experiment 1) and by precuing the first response (Experiment 2). Participants performed rapid reversal movements of same or different amplitudes with the left and right hands. With different amplitudes, reaction times (RTs) of the second responses were longer than with same amplitudes at short delays, and this disappeared at longer delays in Experiment 1. In Experiment 2, precuing also reduced the difference between RTs of second responses in same-amplitude and different-amplitude trials. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis of transient coupling during amplitude specification obtained with bimanual tasks.     

Minimal information to determine affine shape equivalence

Participants judged the affine equivalence of 2 simultaneously presented 4-point patterns. Performance level (d') varied between 1.5 and 2.7, depending on the information available for solving the correspondence problem (insufficient in Experiment 1a, superfluous in Experiment 1b, and minimal in Experiments 1c, 2a, 2b) and on the exposure time (unlimited in Experiments 1 and 2a and 500 ms in Experiment 2b), but it did not vary much with the complexity of the affine transformation (rotation and slant in Experiment 1 and same plus tilt in Experiment 2). Performance in Experiment 3 was lower with 3-point patterns than with 4-point patterns, whereas blocking the trials according to the affine transformation parameters had little effect. Determining affine shape equivalence with minimal-information displays is based on a fast assessment of qualitatively or quasi-invariant properties such as convexity/ concavity, parallelism, and collinearity.     

Identification of the eye-brain-hand system with point processes: a new approach to simple reaction time

By presenting a Poisson process of flashes to observers who hit a button as quickly as possible after each, the authors identified the system involved in simple reaction time (RT). The nonlinear kernels up to 2nd order were measured from the stimulus and response point processes. The 1st-order kernel is analogous to a histogram of simple RTs. The 2nd-order kernel shows complex patterns of nonlinear suppression and facilitation between pairs of flashes. Simple RT measured as the lag of the 1st-order kernel's peak agrees with RT from conventional discrete trial experiments. RTs are shorter and less variable when the flashes are separated by uniform rather than exponential delays, which shows that observers use the stimulus hazard function to become prepared to detect and respond to the flash.