School-based mental health programming for children with inattentive and disruptive behavior problems: first-year treatment outcome

This article examines the effectiveness of an evidence-based behavioral treatment package for children with inattentive and disruptive behavior problems when delivered in the context of a school-based mental health program. Child symptomatology and functioning are assessed in a treatment group (n = 30) and a waitlist control group (n = 12) across multiple time points (fall, winter, and spring). Treatment includes a daily report card procedure, year-long teacher consultation, and parenting sessions. According to the parent report, treated children show marked reductions in hyperactive and impulsive, oppositional or defiant and aggressive behavior, and marked improvement in peer relationships. Teachers observe treatment-related group differences in inattention, academic functioning, and the student-teacher relationship. Feasibility and acceptability data have implications for transporting evidence-based treatments to community settings and for integrating mental health services into the culture of the school community.     

Can defendants with mental retardation successfully fake their performance on a test of competence to stand trial?

The purpose of this study was to determine whether criminal defendants with mental retardation can feign poor performance on a test of competence to stand trial. Four groups of adjudicated criminal defendants were given a test of competence to stand trial. In the experimental condition, defendants with mental retardation (MR) and mentally typical defendants (non-MR) were given instructions to fake their performance on the test. In the control, MR defendants and non-MR defendants took the test under standard conditions. The results indicated that both the MR and non-MR fakers scored significantly lower than the MR and non-MR controls. There was no significant difference in the scores of the MR and non-MR fakers. The results suggest that defendants with mental retardation may be able to successfully fake their performance in certain circumstances. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Dissimilarity is used as evidence of category membership in multidimensional perceptual categorization: a test of the similarity-dissimilarity generalized context model

In exemplar models of categorization, the similarity between an exemplar and category members constitutes evidence that the exemplar belongs to the category. We test the possibility that the dissimilarity to members of competing categories also contributes to this evidence. Data were collected from two 2-dimensional perceptual categorization experiments, one with lines varying in orientation and length and the other with coloured patches varying in saturation and brightness. Model fits of the similarity-dissimilarity generalized context model were used to compare a model where only similarity was used with a model where both similarity and dissimilarity were used. For the majority of participants the similarity-dissimilarity model provided both a significantly better fit and better generalization, suggesting that people do also use dissimilarity as evidence.     

The effect of aging in recollective experience: the processing speed and executive functioning hypothesis

This study was designed to investigate the effects of aging on consciousness in recognition memory, using the Remember/Know/Guess procedure (Gardiner, J. M., & Richarson-Klavehn, A. (2000). Remembering and Knowing. In E. Tulving & F. I. M. Craik (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Memory. Oxford University Press.). In recognition memory, older participants report fewer occasions on which recognition is accompanied by recollection of the original encoding context. Two main hypotheses were tested: the speed mediation hypothesis (Salthouse, T. A. (1996). The processing-speed theory of adult age differences in cognition. Psychological Review, 3, 403–428) and the executive-aging hypothesis (West, R. L. (1996). An application of prefrontal cortex function theory to cognitive aging. Psychological Bulletin, 120, 272–292). A group of young and a group of older adults took a recognition test in which they classified their responses according to Gardiner, J. M., & Richarson-Klavehn, A. (2000). Remembering and Knowing. In E. Tulving & F. I. M. Craik (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Memory. Oxford University Press. remember-know-guess paradigm. Subsequently, participants completed processing speed and executive function tests. The results showed that among the older participants, R responses decreased, but K responses did not. Moreover, a hierarchical regression analysis supported the view that the effect of age in recollection experience is determined by frontal lobe integrity and not by diminution of processing speed.     

Sequence and Structure in the Concept Development of Children with Emotional and Behavioral Difficulties

We investigated the order of acquisition of concepts and cognitive processes in children with emotional and behavioral difficulties and the extent to which these children show similarity to ordinary children in sequence and structure of development. Similarity in developmental sequence was strongly supported by scalogram analyses and has clear implications for organizing teaching, but similarity in structure was less clear. Cognitive processes, however, and the nature of the children's reasoning were clarified by the method of exploration used. This was particularly fruitful for providing insight into the difficulties children may have. The findings thus contribute to understanding with a view toward furthering concept development in children with emotional and behavioral difficulties.     

Children's expectations and episodic reports over 12 weeks: Influences on memory for a specially designed pediatric examination

This investigation extended work on the linkage between knowledge and remembering by exploring the relation between generic and episodic memory representations. Thirty 6-year-old children experienced a mock physical examination with some expected components omitted and other unexpected actions included. Immediately and again after 12 weeks, the children reported the event, answered questions about what usually happens in an examination, and rated their confidence in aspects of their reports. They remembered more typical than atypical present components, that is, those included in the examination, and, over time, falsely reported more typical than atypical actions. The children produced intrusions of expected-but-omitted medical features at the delay but with lower confidence ratings than they provided for correctly recalled items. Performance on a source monitoring task was associated with aspects of the children's confidence ratings for intrusions. The findings provide evidence that the relation between episodic and generic representations is dynamic and suggest that the capacity to differentiate between them contributes to the development of accurate eyewitness memory.     

Psychometric Synthesis of the Five Factor Wellness Inventory

This quantitative synthesis combines results of 59 studies that published psychometrics of the Five Factor Wellness Inventory (5F-Wel; Myers & Sweeney, 2005a, 2005b). Although few studies reported complete statistics, and demographically targeted research studies are needed, this synthesis reflects that the 5F-Wel (also known as the FFWEL; Mind Garden, n.d.) is sound psychometrically for adults: Internal consistency, subsample means, and intrascale correlations are promising, as are correlations with related constructs. Consequently, the 5F-Wel demonstrates utility for clinical use when working with clients on wellness goals.     

Convergent and discriminative validity of interview and questionnaire measures of personality disorder in mentally disordered offenders: a multitrait-multimethod analysis using confirmatory factor analysis

Measures of personality disorder from the International Personality Disorder Examination, Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire, and Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI-II) were obtained from detained male mentally disordered offenders (N = 156), and convergent and discriminant validity were examined by confirmatory factor analysis of the multitrait-multimethod matrix. Hierarchical comparisons of models varying in their specification of trait and method variance established the appropriateness of a model supporting both convergence and discrimination across methods, but these were variable across constructs and measures. Convergence was good for avoidant, schizoid, and antisocial disorders, but poor for histrionic, narcissistic, and obsessive-compulsive disorders. Avoidant, schizoid, and schizotypal disorders were not clearly distinguishable from each other. Measurement error attributable to method variance was substantial for all instruments and for most disorders. The commonly alleged superiority of interview over questionnaire methods was not supported, and the MCMI-II demonstrated proportionately more "true" variance. However, assessment methods may be differentially sensitive to different kinds of personality disorder problems.     

Subjective qualities of memories associated with the picture superiority effect in schizophrenia

Patients with schizophrenia (n = 24) matched with 24 normal subjects were presented with both words and pictures. On a recognition memory task, they were asked to give remember, know, or guess responses to items that were recognized on the basis of conscious recollection, familiarity, or guessing, respectively. Compared with normal subjects, patients exhibited a lower picture superiority effect selectively related to remember responses. Unlike normal subjects, they did not exhibit any word superiority effect in relation to guess responses; this explains why the overall picture superiority effect appeared to be intact. These results emphasize the need to take into account the subjective states of awareness when analyzing memory impairments in schizophrenia.