Attentional effects on orientation judgements are dependent on memory consolidation processes

Are the effects of memory and attention on perception synergistic, antagonistic, or independent? Tested separately, memory and attention have been shown to affect the accuracy of orientation judgements. When multiple stimuli are presented sequentially versus simultaneously, error variance is reduced. When a target is validly cued, precision is increased. What if they are manipulated together? We combined memory and attention manipulations in an orientation judgement task to answer this question. Two circular gratings were presented sequentially or simultaneously. On some trials a brief luminance cue preceded the stimuli. Participants were cued to report the orientation of one of the two gratings by rotating a response grating. We replicated the finding that error variance is reduced on sequential trials. Critically, we found interacting effects of memory and attention. Valid cueing reduced the median, absolute error only when two stimuli appeared together and improved it to the level of performance on uncued sequential trials, whereas invalid cueing always increased error. This effect was not mediated by cue predictiveness; however, predictive cues reduced the standard deviation of the error distribution, whereas nonpredictive cues reduced “guessing”. Our results suggest that, when the demand on memory is greater than a single stimulus, attention is a bottom-up process that prioritizes stimuli for consolidation. Thus attention and memory are synergistic.     

Development of a Screening Instrument for Exposure to Violence in Children: The KID-SAVE

The present study provided psychometric data on the KID-SAVE, an empirically based measure of children's exposure to community violence. The KID-SAVE was administered to 470 inner-city children in the third through seventh grades and demonstrated excellent reliability. Factor analysis yielded three subscales: Traumatic Violence, Indirect Violence, and Physical/Verbal Abuse. Initial investigation of construct validity suggested that the KID-SAVE successfully discriminated between groups of children reporting high and low levels of traumatic symptoms. The KID-SAVE appears to be a promising assessment tool and allows for quantification of the severity of violence exposure.     

Comparing the mental health needs of female and male incarcerated juvenile delinquents

The present study was undertaken to survey the prevalence of mental disorder in juvenile justice facilities and to compare the mental health needs for females and males. Girls displayed significantly more mental health needs than boys. The estimated prevalence of mental disorder for boys was 27%, compared with 84% for girls. The difference is highly significant and is discussed in terms of service system issues in juvenile justice that affect males and females differently. ©1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Renewed behavior produced by context change and its implications for treatment maintenance: A review

Behavioral treatment gains established in one setting do not always maintain in other settings. The present review examines the relevance of basic and translational research to understanding failures to maintain treatment gains across settings. Specifically, studies of the renewal effect examine how transitioning away from a treatment setting could evoke a return of undesirable behavior, rather than newly trained appropriate behavior. Studies of renewal typically arrange three phases, with a response trained and reinforced under a particular set of contextual stimuli in the first phase. Next, that response is extinguished, often under a different set of contextual stimuli. Finally, that response returns despite extinction remaining in effect upon returning to the original training context or transitioning to a novel context. Thus, removing the extinction context is sufficient to produce a recurrence of the response. The findings suggest treatment effects can become specific to the context in which the treatment was delivered. This literature offers promising methods for systematically assessing the factors contributing to treatment maintenance and improving generalization of treatment gains across contexts. Therefore, the present review suggests basic and translational research on renewal provides an empirical literature to bring greater conceptual systematization to understanding generalization and maintenance of behavioral treatment.     

Parents’ Reports of Children’s Internalizing Symptoms: Associations with Parents’ Mental Health Symptoms and Substance Use Disorder

This brief report examined the unique associations between parents’ ratings of child internalizing symptoms and their own depression and anxiety in families with parental substance use disorder (SUD). Further, we examined whether parental SUD (father only, mother only, both parents) was related to discrepancy in mothers’ and fathers’ reports of children’s internalizing symptoms. Participants were 97 triads (fathers, mothers) in which one or both parents met criteria for SUD. Polynomial regression analyses were conducted to examine whether father-mother reports of child internalizing symptoms had unique associations with parents’ own symptoms of depression and anxiety while controlling for child gender, child age, and SUD diagnoses. Controlling for fathers’ symptoms and other covariates, mothers experiencing more depression and anxiety symptoms reported more symptoms of child internalizing symptoms than did fathers. Mothers’ and fathers’ SUD was associated with higher anxiety symptoms among mothers after controlling for other variables. A second set of polynomial regressions examined whether father-mother reports of child internalizing symptoms had unique associations with parents’ SUD diagnoses while controlling for child gender and child age. After controlling for mothers’ symptoms and other covariates, parents’ reports of children’s internalizing symptoms were not significantly associated with either parent’s SUD or parental SUD interactions (i.e., both parents have SUD diagnoses). Taken together, mothers’ ratings of children’s internalizing symptoms may be accounted for, in part, by her reports of depression and anxiety symptoms.     

Sample size planning for longitudinal models: accuracy in parameter estimation for polynomial change parameters

Longitudinal studies are necessary to examine individual change over time, with group status often being an important variable in explaining some individual differences in change. Although sample size planning for longitudinal studies has focused on statistical power, recent calls for effect sizes and their corresponding confidence intervals underscore the importance of obtaining sufficiently accurate estimates of group differences in change. We derived expressions that allow researchers to plan sample size to achieve the desired confidence interval width for group differences in change for orthogonal polynomial change parameters. The approaches developed provide the expected confidence interval width to be sufficiently narrow, with an extension that allows some specified degree of assurance (e.g., 99%) that the confidence interval will be sufficiently narrow. We make computer routines freely available, so that the methods developed can be used by researchers immediately.     

Thought recognition and psychological well‐being: An empirical test of principle based correctional counselling

Aims: To determine the relationship between thought recognition, a major construct of principle‐based correctional counselling, and psychological wellbeing. Method: Following several weekly group sessions of Principle‐Based Correctional Counselling, 54 adult prisoners on probation completed two measures of thought recognition and the Well‐Being Inventory. In a follow‐up study, 30 participants completed the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale. Results: Significant positive relationships were found between both measures of thought recognition and psychological wellbeing and, in the follow‐up study, both measures of thought recognition and mindfulness. Discussion: Possible explanations for the relationship between thought recognition and psychological wellbeing, and thought recognition and mindfulness are discussed. Implications for practice: Teaching correctional clients the principles behind generic human psychological functioning, and the innate design behind human thinking, appears to improve their thinking and draw out their innate healthy functioning.     

Cultural Differences in the Subjective Experience of Emotion: When and Why They Occur

Cross‐cultural comparisons of subjective emotional experience are common, and virtually any comparison of nations or different ethnic groups is bound to yield some differences and some similarities. While nobody doubts the considerable intercultural variability in subjective or self‐reports of emotion, more attention needs to be given to when and why and these differences occur. In this article, we explore factors that accentuate or attenuate cultural differences in the subjective experience of emotion. We propose that cultural norms shape emotional experiences to different degrees depending on the time frame of the emotional experience, the valence of the emotion, and even the specific emotion being compared. We review the research that supports this view and we highlight new avenues of research that are likely to shed light on cultural differences in the subjective experience of emotions.     

A Clash of Civilizations? Preferences for Religious Political Leaders in 86 Nations

Huntington claimed that today's major conflicts are most likely to erupt between religiously defined “civilizations,” in particular between Christianity and Islam. Using World Values Surveys from 86 nations, we examine differences between Christians and Muslims in preferences for religious political leaders. The results suggest a marked difference between Muslims and Christians in their attitudes toward religious politicians, with Muslims more favorable by 20 points out of 100. Devoutness, education, degree of government corruption, and status as a formerly Communist state account for the difference. Little support is found for the clash‐of‐civilizations hypothesis. Instead, we find that a clash of individual beliefs—between the devout and the secular—along with enduring differences between the more developed and less developed world explains the difference between Islam and Christianity with regards to preferences for religious political leaders.