Measuring improvement or decline on the WAIS-R in inpatient psychiatry.

Psychologists in inpatient psychiatric settings sometimes are asked to assess whether patients improve or decline in intellectual functioning. The impetus for this referral question may be a perceived change in psychiatric status, an acute neuropathological event, e.g., a head injury, or a suspicion of an early dementing process. For this study, data from 100 inpatients who completed the WAIS-R on two separate admissions were used to calculate confidence bands for measurement error surrounding test-retest difference scores. The analysis indicated that, if the retest interval is three months or less, significant practice effects must be factored into the interpretation of difference scores. A table for the interpretation of difference scores at different testing intervals is provided     

Development of children's understanding of connections between thinking and feeling

Two studies assessed the development of children's understanding that thoughts and feelings are closely interlinked. These studies showed that, unlike 8-year-olds and adults, 5-year-olds seldom explained a sudden change in emotion that had no apparent external cause by appeal to the occurrence of a thought. They also tended not to recognize that a person who is feeling sad is probably also thinking sad thoughts, or that people may be able to make themselves feel happy just by thinking of something happy. These results are consistent with evidence that young children tend to be unaware of the stream of consciousness and have poor introspective skills. A possible developmental sequence leading to an understanding of these thought-feeling links is proposed.     

Naive beliefs in “sophisticated” subjects: misconceptions about trajectories of objects

University students were asked to solve simple problems about the trajectories of falling objects. A majority of the students revealed a variety of misconceptions about motion. However, the few basic patterns of responses produced by the subjects suggest considerable commonality in the types of naive physical “laws” people develop on the basis of everyday experience with the world.     

Responsiveness in Interactions of Mothers and Sons with ADHD: Relations to Maternal and Child Characteristics

We observed mother–child interactions, at baseline, in 136 families of 7–10-year-old boys with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) who were part of a large clinical trial, the Multimodal Treatment Study of Children with ADHD. Independent coders rated stylistic aspects of maternal behavior and factor analyses revealed a responsiveness factor that included overall responsiveness and sensitivity to the child, warmth and acceptance, and appropriate control. We examined relations between maternal responsiveness and (a) maternal depressive symptoms and maternal childhood ADHD symptoms, and (b) boys' ADHD and conduct problem symptoms. Controlling for all other variables, maternal responsiveness displayed a unique negative association with mother-reported child conduct problems, but not with child ADHD symptoms, and also was negatively related to maternal depressive symptoms. We discuss the unique association between mother-reported child conduct problems and parenting, and note the utility of studying parenting style in families of children with ADHD. We describe the results within the framework of a transactional model.     

Decisions About Testing and Termination of Pregnancy for Different Fetal Conditions: A Qualitative Study of European White and Pakistani Mothers of Affected Children

The aim of this study is to explore reasons for and against prenatal testing and termination for a range of conditions in women from two different ethnic backgrounds. A total of 19 Pakistani and European women in West Yorkshire, UK, who either had a child with a genetic condition or had terminated a pregnancy for one, completed a questionnaire about their attitudes regarding prenatal testing and termination for 30 different fetal conditions and were interviewed about their reasons for their responses. There were more similarities than differences between the Pakistani and European white women. The most important factor in most women’s decisions about termination of pregnancy was their perception of the quality of the life of a child with the genetic condition, in particular, whether the child would be “suffering.” This was described as either physical suffering, as a result of medical treatment, or as emotional suffering, as a result of psychological and/or social factors. These findings highlight the need for detailed information about the potential quality of life for the child and the child’s family to enable parents to make informed choices, particularly the extent to which the child is likely to suffer, the nature of such potential “suffering” and the extent to which the child could lead a “normal” life. The findings also challenge stereotypes about cultural differences in attitudes about termination of pregnancy.     

Individual Differences in Gender Development: Associations with Parental Sexual Orientation, Attitudes, and Division of Labor

Research on children of lesbian parents has suggested that such children are developing well, but questions have been raised about their gender development. In this study, we explored associations among parental sexual orientation, parental gender-related attitudes, parental division of labor, and children’s gender development. Participants were 66 preschool children and their 132 parents from the East Coast of the United States. Thirty-three families were headed by lesbian and 33 by heterosexual couples. Parents who divided paid and unpaid labor more unequally had children whose occupational aspirations were also more traditional. Measures of children’s gender development were generally unrelated to parental sexual orientation. Parents’ attitudes and behaviors were more strongly associated with children’s gender development than was parental sexual orientation.     

Predictive Genetic Testing and Alternatives to Face to Face Results Disclosure: A Retrospective Review of Patients Preference for Alternative Modes of BRCA 1 and 2 Results Disclosure in the Republic of Ireland

The traditional model of providing cancer predictive testing services is changing. Many genetic centres are now offering a choice to patients in how they receive their results instead of the typical face-to-face disclosure. In view of this shift in practice and the increasing demand on the ROI cancer predictive testing service, a 2 year retrospective study on patient preference in how to receive a Breast Cancer (BRCA) predictive result was carried out. Results showed that 71.7 % of respondents would have liked to have the option of obtaining their results by telephone or by letter. However, when asked about their actual experience of BRCA predictive results disclosure 40.6 % did still value the face-to-face contact, while 44.9 % would still have preferred to receive results by either post or telephone. No significant difference was found between males and females (p?>?0.05) and those who tested negative or positive for the BRCA mutation (p?>?0.05) in wanting a choice in how their results were disclosed. While the majority expressed a wish to have a choice in how to receive their results, it is important not to underestimate the value of a face-to-face encounter in these circumstances.     

Temporal discounting when the choice is between two delayed rewards

The present experiments extend the temporal discounting paradigm from choice between an immediate and a delayed reward to choice between 2 delayed rewards: a smaller amount of money available sooner and a larger amount available later. Across different amounts and delays, the data were consistently well described by a hyperbola-like discounting function, and the degree of discounting decreased systematically as the delay to the sooner reward increased. Three theoretical models (the elimination-by-aspects, present-value comparison, and common-aspect attenuation hypotheses) were evaluated. The best account of the data was provided by the common-aspect attenuation hypothesis, according to which the common aspect of the choice alternatives (i.e., the time until the sooner reward is available) receives less weight in the decision-making process.     

Practice effects, workload, and reaction time in deception

Cognitive theorists argue that deception may involve attentional capture, working memory load, or perceived incongruity with memory, whereas psychophysiologists argue for stimulus salience, arousal, and emotion. This article presents a comprehensive model of deception and assesses the effect of practice on deceptive responding. A three-session longitudinal study examined the effect of practice on reaction time (RT) in relation to deception and response congruity. Participants evaluated self-referent sentences and responded truthfully or deceptively. Findings indicate that deceptive responding generates longer RTs than does truthful responding and that this relationship remains constant with practice. We use these findings to support a cognitive model of deception.