Remote Odor Memory in Alzheimer's Disease: Deficits as Measured by Familiarity

Deficit in olfaction and remote nonolfactory memory in Alzheimer's disease (AD) motivated the present study of remote memory for odors and faces, operationally defined as rated familiarity, in patients with AD and controls. Uncommon engineering symbols were rated for familiarity to ensure task comprehension. Results showed that patients with AD rate odors, but not faces, as significantly less familiar than do controls, which is indicative of deficit in remote odor memory. Follow-up testing 1 year later again showed this result. Poor odor-detection sensitivity in patients, with AD, but lack of significant correspondence between sensitivity and familiarity, suggests an existing but limited effect of sensitivity on familiarity. The findings provide further evidence that olfaction may be a useful modality for early identification of AD.     

Perceptions of Parents Whose Work and Parenting Behaviors Deviate from Role Expectations

Perceptions of married parents were investigatedas a function of their gender, and the employment statusof both the parent and her or his spouse following theirchild's birth. College students (91 percent White, 9 percent African American, AsianAmerican and Hispanic) evaluated a briefly describedmarried employed parent on 31 7-point bipolar scalesthat described nurturance behaviors, job performancecharacteristics and stress/overload variables. Each evaluatorrated 1 of 8 parents portrayed as either a mother or afather who, following their infant's birth, eitherworked full-time or reduced her/his work hours, and whose spouse either worked full time or reducedhis/her work hours. Full-time employment, compared topart time employment, (1) enhanced perceptions of theprofessional competence of fathers, but not mothers; and (2)lowered evaluations of nurturance forboth parents, but especially for mothers. Mothers wereperceived as under more stress than fathers.     

Rock Stars in Anti‐Drug‐Abuse Commercials: An Experimental Study of Adolescents' Reactions1

Two studies examined adolescents' perceptions and effectiveness of rock stars in antidrug‐abuse public‐service announcements (PSAs). In the pilot study (N= 24 teenagers), adolescents expected rock musicians, and in particular heavy metal musicians, to be drug users. In our experimental study (N= 78 high school students aged 15 to 16 years), one group was shown 4 PSAs produced by Rock Against Drugs, using rock stars Jon Bon Jovi, Aimee Mann, Gene Simmons, and Belinda Carlysle as spokespersons. The comparison group was shown 4 equivalent PSAs that were created using unknown actors selected for their similarity to the rock stars in terms of age, ethnicity, and gender, but without any reference to rock music. PSA ratings were taken on 4 scales: attractiveness, expertness, trustworthiness, and overall PSA rating. Pretest and posttest measures of drug attitudes supported our hypotheses that countermessages from rock stars denormalize the connection between rock music and drugs, and that adolescents respond more positively to PSAs with rock stars than to PSAs without rock stars.     

New Fathers’ Perceptions of Dyadic Adjustment: The Roles of Maternal Gatekeeping and Coparenting Closeness

Although the association between maternal gatekeeping and relationship functioning has been explored by a few studies, none of these have focused on fathers’ perceptions of these constructs. Given that today's new fathers are challenged by elevated expectations for active parenting and coparenting even as most new mothers remain primary caregivers of infant children, this is a critical omission. This study examined the associations between new fathers’ perceptions of maternal gatekeeping and change in dyadic adjustment as mediated through coparenting closeness. Maternal gatekeeping was reported by 182 fathers at 3 months postpartum, coparenting closeness was reported at 3 and 6 months postpartum, and dyadic adjustment was reported during the third trimester of pregnancy and at 9 months postpartum. Fathers’ perceptions of relative change in coparenting closeness from 3 to 6 months mediated associations between fathers’ perceptions of maternal gatekeeping at 3 months and relative change in dyadic adjustment from the third trimester to 9 months postpartum. In particular, findings indicate that greater perceived maternal gate opening was associated with higher levels of dyadic adjustment through higher levels of coparenting closeness, whereas greater perceived maternal gate closing was associated with lower levels of dyadic adjustment through lower levels of coparenting closeness. This study highlights the importance of studying fathers in the context of the family system and the role of the coparenting relationship at the transition to parenthood in couple relationship functioning.     

Chronometric comparison of actual and imaged complex movement patterns

The authors' aim in this study was to consider the functional equivalence of internal imagery, external imagery, and action execution. Sixteen elite gymnasts imaged and performed a complex gymnastic vault. Ten performers imaged from an internal perspective, and 6 used an external perspective. Although the results revealed that the time to image the entire motor task did not significantly differ from the time required to physically perform it, irrespective of the imagery perspective used, the temporal organization of the action was different within the imagery conditions than it was in the physical condition. The results do not provide support for the principle of temporal functional equivalence. The authors discuss the results in light of recent findings from the cognitive neuroscience and psychology literatures.     

Women in child development: themes from the SRCD Oral History Project

Research in child development has emerged as a major intellectual discipline and a topic of great interest and importance to society. The Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) has been the leading scholarly society concerned with the advancement of this research. As part of its focus on a history of the field, the SRCD has undertaken an oral history project in which prominent members are interviewed. Of the 102 completed interviews, 47 are women's accounts, which document important contributions women have made to child development. The experiences reported by individual participants reflect themes in the general history of women in psychology and child development during the early and mid-1900s. Women encountered obstacles to their efforts, even as they were supported by others and struggled to achieve prominence amid the sometimes ambiguous or conflicting circumstances that characterized women's entry into child development.     

Indications for the Use of Atypical Antipsychotics in the Elderly

There has been an expanding role for the new generation atypical antipsychotic agents (clozapine, risperidone, olanzapine, and quetiapine) in elderly patients. Their efficacy in the treatment of psychoses associated with schizophrenia is now well established. But psychoses occur in other conditions. This paper will review the current research examining the use of the atypical agents in the treatment of psychoses in the elderly in three somewhat overlapping conditions: schizophrenia, dementia, and Parkinson's disease, as well as in the amelioration of a variety of movement disorders. In the elderly, any of the atypicals can be used to treat schizophrenia, although clozapine may be a second line agent because of its side effect profile. Risperidone may be the drug of choice for the treatment of psychoses and behavioral disturbances in dementia. Clozapine is a primary choice and quetiapine an alternative for the treatment of psychoses in Parkinson's disease; while clozapine and possibly risperidone may be preferred for the initial treatment of some movement disorders. The differential effectiveness of these agents across treatment indications may, in part, be related to their differing affinities at several neurotransmitter receptors. Examination of these relationships in large scale longitudinal studies may help in the development of effective tailored treatments for the elderly.     

DEVELOPING FLUENCY AND ENDURANCE IN A CHILD DIAGNOSED WITH ATTENTION DEFICIT HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER

We examined the effect of a teaching method on skill fluency and on‐task endurance of a 9‐year‐old boy who had been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. An academic task that occurred at low fluency during 10‐min baseline sessions was taught to fluency. When responding was not yet fluent, brief reversals to baseline showed that the learner's rate of responding decreased and that he did not spend entire sessions on task. However, once a fluency goal had been reached, responding remained fluent and he remained on task in the third reversal condition.     

Individual differences and the use of nonspecifying variables in learning to perceive distance and size: Comments on McConnell, Muchisky, and Bingham (1998)

McConnell, Muchisky, and Bingham (1998) showed that observers are able to judge the distance and size of falling, rolling, and swinging balls and that performance improves after practice with feedback. They concluded that observers use information that specifies the spatial scales of the different event types—namely, event duration in combination with event-specific constants. The improvement was interpreted as the calibration of the event-specific constants. We argue that their analyses should have considered the use of optical variables that do not specify the to-be-perceived metrics and individual differences in variable use. Furthermore, we propose convergence on the more useful variables as an alternative explanation for the observed improvement. The viability of these arguments is demonstrated with an experiment in which participants are trained with feedback to judge the distance and size of freely falling balls.