The association between cognitive ability across the lifespan and health literacy in old age: The Lothian Birth Cohort 1936

Three hundred and four participants in the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936 study took a validated IQ-type test at age 11 years and a battery of cognitive tests at age 70 years. Three tests of health literacy were completed at age 72 years; the Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine (REALM), the Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults (S-TOFHLA), and the Newest Vital Sign (NVS). Participants who had a lower childhood IQ exhibited poorer performance on all three tests of health literacy taken in older adulthood. Relative cognitive change from age 11 to 70 and education were also important factors influencing performance on health literacy tasks, independent of childhood cognitive ability. It is important to understand the determinants of low health literacy in order to support individuals in managing their own health.     

Religious and Spiritual Values and Moral Commitment in Marriage: Untapped Resources in Couples Counseling?

The authors investigated the relationship between religious and spiritual values and moral commitment in marriage to further inform marriage and family counselors about the nature of committed relationships. Using a qualitative research design, they examined individuals' perceptions of moral commitment in their marriage and how their religious and spiritual values influence those perceptions. Narrative text was analyzed through an iterative process, involving constant comparison of emerging themes, and 6 categories materialized. Findings build on existing knowledge regarding the importance of moral commitment to marital health specifically as it relates to the counseling profession.     

Exploration of the links among fathers' unresolved states of mind with respect to attachment,atypical paternal behavior,and disorganized infant–father attachment

Atypical maternal behavior has consistently been identified as a precursor of disorganized infant–mother attachment, but to date, no research has examined the role of atypical paternal behavior in the development of disorganized infant–father attachment. This study aims to enhance our understanding and conceptualization of infant–father attachment by examining the role of fathers' unresolved states of mind and the display of atypical paternal behavior in the development of disorganized infant–father attachment. Thirty‐one middle‐class couples participated in this study. Maternal and paternal Adult Attachment Interviews (C. George, N. Kaplan, & M. Main, 1996 ) were completed prenatally and at infant age 6 months, respectively. Infant–mother and infant–father dyads participated in the Strange Situation paradigm (M. Ainsworth, M. Blehar, E. Waters, & S. Wall, 1978 ) when the infants were 12 and 18 months of age, respectively. The Atypical Maternal Behavior Instrument for Assessment and Classification (E. Bronfman, E. Parsons, & K. Lyons‐Ruth, 1999 ) was used to assess maternal and paternal behavior during the Strange Situation. Maternal states of mind regarding attachment predicted infant–mother attachment relationships, and paternal states of mind predicted infant–father attachment relationships. Atypical maternal behavior was associated with infant–mother disorganized attachment; however, atypical paternal behavior did not predict infant–father disorganized attachment. Thus, it is possible that other factors, yet to be uncovered, might contribute to the development of infant–father disorganized attachment.     

Distributed attentional deficits in chronic methamphetamine abusers: evidence from the Attentional Network Task (ANT)

Objective

The goal of the present study was to examine distributed attentional functions in long-term but currently abstinent methamphetamine (MA) abusers using a task that measures attentional alertness, orienting, and conflict resolution.

Methods

Thirty currently abstinent MA abusers (1 month-5 years) and 22 healthy non-substance using adults were administered a multimodal version of the Attentional Network Task (ANT-I). In this task subjects identified the direction of a centrally presented arrow using a key press. Analyses examined the interaction between alerting tones, location cueing and congruency between the target arrows and flanking distractor stimuli.

Results

All participants were faster when an auditory tone preceded the trial onset (p < 0.001), on trials in which a valid cue preceded the location of the target arrow (p < 0.001), and on congruent trials (i.e., when all display arrows faced in the same direction) (p < 0.001). Of primary interest was the finding that MA abusers were more influenced by the conflict between the peripheral arrows and the central target arrow (p = 0.009). There were also correlations between length of drug sobriety and executive function as well as between drug-induced psychiatric symptoms and alertness.

Conclusions

These results suggest that chronic MA abusers display cognitive deficits that may reflect a specific vulnerability to distraction on a task of executive function. These findings are consistent with other studies that have reported deficits in anterior attentional systems and top-down cognitive control.     

How emotional pictures influence visuospatial binding in short-term memory in ageing and Alzheimer’s disease?

The present study examines the prediction that emotion can facilitate short-term memory. Nevertheless, emotion also recruits attention to process information, thereby disrupting short-term memory when tasks involve high attentional resources. In this way, we aimed to determine whether there is a differential influence of emotional information on short-term memory in ageing and Alzheimer's disease (AD). Fourteen patients with mild AD, 14 healthy older participants (NC), and 14 younger adults (YA) performed two tasks. In the first task, involving visual short-term memory, participants were asked to remember a picture among four different pictures (negative or neutral) following a brief delay. The second task, a binding memory task, required the recognition by participants of a picture according to its spatial location. The attentional cost involved was higher than for the first task. The pattern of results showed that visual memory performance was better for negative stimuli than for neutral ones, irrespective of the group. In contrast, binding memory performance was essentially poorer for the location of negative pictures in the NC group, and for the location of both negative and neutral stimuli in the AD group, in comparison to the YA group. Taken together, these results show that emotion has beneficial effects on visual short-term memory in ageing and AD. In contrast, emotion does not improve their performances in the binding condition.     

Between Black and White: Examining Grey Literature in Meta-analyses of Psychological Research

The inclusion of grey literature in meta-analyses and reviews is controversial. We examine both the advantages and challenges of including grey literature in meta-analyses. An exemplar meta-analysis of behavioral parenting interventions on parent behavior, child behavior, and parent adjustment outcomes is used to demonstrate these issues. It also explores the influence of the inclusion of grey literature on outcomes, including whether effect sizes are affected by the inclusion of grey literature and describes the challenges of searching for grey literature using traditional search engines such as Google and Yahoo. Homogeneity and publication bias are also examined. Based on these results, recommendations are presented for meta-analysts and researchers.     

Beyond Numbers Versus Rights: Shifting the Parameters of Debate on Temporary Labour Migration

This paper seeks to move beyond what Martin and Ruhs described as the numbers versus rights equation in temporary labour migration programs. We do this by examining the ideology of temporary labour migration. This ideology has three key elements: temporariness, labour markets and rights. The paper describes how these concepts obscure key features of temporary labour migration programs. The argument is developed by examining points of contrast between current programs in place in the USA, Canada, Australia and the UK. The paper concludes by demonstrating how unmasking the power imbalances of this ideology will lead to new policy directions.     

ABA and ABC Renewal during Ongoing Omission Training

The Psychological Record - Renewal is one form of behavioral relapse in which a previously reduced response reemerges following a contextual change. Renewal is prevalent during clinical...