Effects of Age on Dual-Task Walking While Listening

This study examined the effects of age on single- and dual-task listening and walking during virtual street crossing. Seventeen younger and 12 older adults participated. In each listening trial, three sentences were presented simultaneously from separate locations. Participants were instructed to report the target sentence. Predictability of the target sentence location was varied. Treadmill walking was measured using motion analysis. Measures included word recognition accuracy, head and trunk angles, and spatiotemporal gait parameters. Older adults exhibited a more upright head alignment and less variability in stride time during dual-tasking, particularly under less certain target sentence location conditions. Younger adults’ walking was unaffected by dual-task demands. Together, the results indicate greater postural prioritization in older adults than young.     

Openness to Experience Enhances Creativity: The Mediating Role of Intrinsic Motivation and the Creative Process Engagement

Studies indicate that there is a positive relationship between openness to experience and creativity. However, relatively little attention has been given to the mechanism of this relationship. On the basis of previous findings, we hypothesized a conceptual model and tested the mediating role of intrinsic motivation and the creative process engagement in the relationship between openness to experience and creativity. One hundred and ninety‐eight undergraduates in Malaysia participated in the study and completed an online measure of openness to new experience, creativity, intrinsic motivation, and the creative process engagement. Consistent with the hypothesis, people who scored high on openness reported high intrinsic motivation. The high motivation enhanced engagement in creativity‐related activities, which in turn, improved self‐rated creativity. The findings not only shed light on mechanisms that underlie in the openness‐creativity linkage but they also highlight the importance of intrinsic motivation and creative process engagement in the linkage. Together, the study extends the effect of personality trait on creativity and offers a new direction for future studies.     

The Mediating Role of Creative Process Engagement in the Relationship between Shyness and Self‐Rated Creativity

Shyness has been found to have a negative impact on creativity. However, little attention has been given to the underlying process of the relationship between shyness and creativity. On the basis of literature, we hypothesize that shyness has an indirect impact on creativity through creative process engagement. Two studies were conducted on undergraduate students (Study 1) and working adults (Study 2) to test the hypothetical relationship. Analysis on participants self‐report showed that shyness was negatively associated with self‐reported creativity as well as creative process engagement. There was a positive relationship between creative process engagement and creativity. More importantly, mediation analysis supported that shyness was indirectly linked to creativity via creative process engagement. Specifically, shy people are found to be less involved in creativity‐relevant processes such as information searching and idea generation. The low level of creative process engagement, in turn, hinders their creativity. The findings not only lend support to the detrimental effect of shyness on creativity but also shed light on the underlying mechanism of the relationship.     

The interplay between relationship effectiveness,life stress,and sleep: A prospective study

Research has shown that greater stress responses predict worse sleep and that the quality of one's current romantic relationship predicts one's sleep. Despite these established links, research has not examined connections between ongoing patterns of interpersonal experiences and competencies (relationship effectiveness) and stress exposure on sleep. Participants in the Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Risk and Adaptation (MLSRA) completed measures assessing relationship effectiveness and stress exposure at ages 23 and 32 years, as well as sleep quality/duration at age 37 years. Analyses demonstrate that relationship effectiveness at age 23 years positively predicts sleep quality—but not sleep duration—at age 37 years via reduced stress exposure at age 32 years. These findings highlight the effects of relationship effectiveness and stress exposure across early to middle adulthood on sleep.     

Subliminal stimuli in the near absence of attention influence top-down cognitive control

Recent research has shown that visual stimuli can influence cognitive control functions, even if subjects are unaware of the identity of the stimuli. However, in those previous studies, subjects actively attended to the location of the subliminal stimuli. Here we assessed the role of endogenous spatial attention in such paradigms. We required subjects to quickly prepare for one of two numerical judgment tasks on the basis of the direction of motion in patches of moving dots presented in cued spatial locations. We found that irrelevant motion patches presented in the uncued spatial locations also influenced task performance. Motion in the uncued patches was weak and did not affect the perception of the cued patches. Further analyses suggested that the effect of priming by the uncued stimuli was present even for subjects who could only discriminate such stimuli at chance level. Three additional experiments confirmed that subjects paid minimal attention to the uncued locations, in that the subjects could not perform simple discriminations of conjunctions of features in those locations.     

Assessing the forms and functions of aggression using self-report: factor structure and invariance of the Peer Conflict Scale in youths

This study examined the structure of a self-report measure of the forms and functions of aggression in 855 adolescents (582 boys, 266 girls) aged 12 to 19 years recruited from high school, detained, and residential settings. The Peer Conflict Scale (PCS) is a 40-item measure that was developed to improve upon existing measures and provide an efficient, reliable, and valid assessment of four dimensions of aggression (i.e., reactive overt, reactive relational, proactive overt, and proactive relational) in youths. Confirmatory factor analyses showed that a 4-factor model represented a satisfactory solution for the data. The factor structure fit well for both boys and girls and across high school, detained, and residential samples. Internal consistency estimates were good for the 4 factors, and they showed expected associations with externalizing variables (i.e., arrest history, callous-unemotional traits, and delinquency). Reactive and proactive subtypes showed unique associations consistent with previous literature. Implications for the use of the PCS to assess aggression and inform intervention decisions in diverse samples of youths are discussed.     

Parent training with high-risk immigrant chinese families: a pilot group randomized trial yielding practice-based evidence

We studied the efficacy and implementation outcomes of a culturally responsive parent training (PT) program. Fifty-four Chinese American parents participated in a wait-list controlled group randomized trial (32 immediate treatment, 22 delayed treatment) of a 14-week intervention designed to address the needs of high-risk immigrant families. Parents were eligible for intervention if they were Chinese-speaking immigrants referred from schools, community clinics, or child protective services with concerns about parenting or child behavior problems. Retention and engagement were high with 83% of families attending 10 or more sessions. Results revealed that the treatment was efficacious in reducing negative discipline, increasing positive parenting, and decreasing child externalizing and internalizing problems. Treatment effects were larger among families with higher levels of baseline behavior problems and lower levels of parenting stress. Further augmentation of PT to address immigrant parent stress may be warranted. Qualitative impressions from group leaders suggested that slower pacing and increased rehearsal of skills may improve efficacy for immigrant parents unfamiliar with skills introduced in PT.     

A preliminary study of medial temporal lobe function in youths with a history of caregiver deprivation and emotional neglect

Previous research findings have linked caregiver deprivation and emotional neglect with sensitivity to threatening cues. The present preliminary study investigated whether dysfunctions of the medial temporal lobe could underlie these associations. Using fMRI, we measured medial temporal lobe responses to emotional faces (angry, fearful, happy, neutral) among 30 youths. Eleven of the youths had a history of caregiver deprivation and emotional neglect. Attention states (i.e., attention to anger, fear, or physical attributes, or passive viewing) were systematically manipulated. Relative to comparison youths, youths with a history of caregiver deprivation and emotional neglect showed significantly greater left amygdala and left anterior hippocampus activation during the processing of threatening information. To our knowledge, these findings are the first to demonstrate altered medial temporal lobe function during the processing of threat cues in youths with a history of caregiver deprivation and emotional neglect.     

Begutachtung der Kriminalprognose

A variety of standardized instruments allows risk assessment based upon empirical data. This paper calls attention to the pitfalls immanent to the application of popular prognostic instruments (Violence Risk Appraisal Guide, Static-99, Historical Clinical Risk Management-20, Psychopathy Checklist-Revised). Psychopathological assessment, however, has not been superseded by standardized instruments but serves as a valuable addition in terms of an integrative approach.