Cognitive biases in the perception of discrimination: The importance of format

Previous work has shown that people seem less able to perceive sex discrimination on a personal level than on a societal level. The present experiment was performed to test the hypothesis that this phenomenon is in part an information-processing bias; that is, the perception of discrimination is more difficult when one makes case-by-case comparisons than when one encounters information in aggregate form. The experiment demonstrated the importance of formatting for the perception of discrimination. Among subjects with little or no emotional investment in the issue of sex discrimination, the format of the pertinent information has a large effect on information processing: subjects perceived less discrimination when they encountered the relevant information in little chunks than when they saw the total picture at a single shot.     

Client-therapist intimacy: responses of psychotherapy clients to a consumer-oriented brochure

Psychotherapy clients read two consumer-oriented brochures: a general brochure on psychology and a brochure on the topic of client-therapist intimacy. Half of the participants read the general brochure first and the brochure on client-therapist intimacy second, and half the participants did the reverse. Participants reported favorable reactions to the brochures, indicating they thought both should be made available to psychotherapy clients; that neither were too long, too sensitive, or too difficult to read; and that the brochures should be made available early during the therapeutic process. After reading the client-therapist intimacy brochure, participants also showed some changes in Likert-type scores measuring attitudes regarding intimate contact between clients and therapists. Although participants were more negative about issues of sexual misconduct after reading the client-therapist intimacy brochure, they did not indicate a decrease in trust of therapists, nor did they indicate a greater likelihood of filing a false complaint. We concluded that therapists' reservations about presenting clients with factual information regarding therapist sexual exploitation of clients are not empirically founded.     

Synelfin Regulation during the Critical Period for Song Learning in Normal and Isolated Juvenile Zebra Finches

Male zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) learn to sing during a critical period in adolescence. We previously described a presynaptic protein, synelfin, whose mRNA is increased early in this critical period in a brain nucleus specifically implicated in song learning, lateral MAN (lMAN). In the current study, in situ hybridization was used to map this change in gene expression to the subregion of lMAN that projects to the robust nucleus of the archistriatum (RA), the principal motor output of the telencephalic circuit that controls song production. Using confocal immunofluorescence microscopy, we detected numerous puncta of synelfin immunoreactivity that apparently represent presynaptic terminals from lMAN in the RA of young males. Synelfin immunoreactivity in RA declined abruptly between 40 and 45 days of age, a time of major synaptic reorganization in RA. This change did not occur until about 10 days after the decline in synelfin mRNA in cell bodies within lMAN, indicating a relatively slow turnover of the protein in presynaptic terminals and suggesting that some of the functional changes that occur during the critical period may arise from regulatory decisions that were initiated a week or more earlier. Depriving birds of tutoring did not halt or delay the decline of synelfin mRNA in lMAN. This change in gene expression must not be a consequence of early song learning, but may reflect an innate or programmed step in song circuit development.     

Perceptual learning in visual category acquisition

The attribute structure of a set of dot patterns was studied by having subjects segment (parse) the dots of each pattern into parts or subunits by drawing circles around groups of dots from each pattern. These parsing data were obtained for subjects who had no prior experience with the patterns and for subjects who had previously learned to identify the patterns as members of one of four categories. Analyses of the parsing data indicated that category learning increased the salience of large subunits that were similar in orientation for patterns that were members of the same category. This evidence for perceptual learning was obtained even when the category training procedure required learning to identify the patterns individually, suggesting that attribute abstraction and item learning are not incompatible. It was also obtained without an increase in overall intersubject agreement. The latter result led us to question the usefulness of intersubject agreement as an index of category knowledge.     

Exploring the Factor Structure of the RTI Readiness and Implementation Survey

Response to intervention (RtI) models have increasingly been adopted to improve outcomes for all students through the delivery of a continuum of supports and making timely responsive instructional decisions based on data. With this increasing popularity, researchers and practitioners have developed several RtI-related assessments, many of which have no known psychometric properties. As a result, there is an urgent need to develop psychometrically sound RtI readiness and implementation assessments that possess technical adequacy and practical utility. This study surveyed 377 participants to examine the factor structure of the author-developed RtI survey. An exploratory factor analysis identified seven relevant factors (system support, belief, conceptual knowledge, practical knowledge, resource, time, and system barrier) from the initial pool of 49 items. Results of reliability estimates supported the internal consistency of each subscale. Collectively, this validated RtI survey can be used to help district and school leaders efficiently screen a system's current RtI readiness and implementation status. The data may also inform successful RtI initiation and sustainment of the reform. Limitations and future directions for research are discussed.     

Examining the Cross-National Measurement Invariance of the Extended Satisfaction with Life Scale in the United States and Hungary

The measurement invariance properties of four domains from the Extended Satisfaction with Life Scale (ESWLS) were examined in samples of young adults from the United States and Hungary. The four domains (scales) were general life satisfaction, social life satisfaction, family life satisfaction, and satisfaction with one’s self. For both countries, confirmatory factor analyses supported a correlated four-factor model, with each ESWLS domain constituting a single independent factor. Multigroup invariance testing provided support for both configural invariance and metric invariance, suggesting that across the U.S. and Hungarian samples the four ESWLS scales evidenced the same pattern of factor loadings as well as largely equivalent regression weights. These results suggest that respondents in both countries attributed the same meaning to the ESWLS constructs and that associations between the four ESWLS scales and other variables can be meaningfully compared across the two nations. Latent factor analyses indicated that with the exception of the correlation between general- and self-satisfaction, which was higher for the U.S., the magnitudes of the correlations between ESWLS domains were similar for the U.S. and Hungary. Possible explanations for the lack of measurement invariance across all of the nested models (i.e., item intercepts through residuals) are discussed.     

Feasibility of telephone-based cognitive behavioral therapy targeting major depression among urban dwelling African-American people with co-occurring HIV

Given the burden of depression among those with HIV, and the impact of HIV on urban minority communities there is an urgent need to assess innovative treatment interventions that not only treat depression but do so in a way that allows for increased access to mental health care. This single site, uncontrolled, pilot study sought to determine the feasibility and depression outcomes of an 11-session telephone-based cognitive behavioral therapy intervention delivered over 14 weeks targeting low-income, urban-dwelling, HIV-infected African-American people with major depression. The diagnosis of major depression was made using the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview. The primary outcome was the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D) and the secondary outcome was the Quick Inventory of Depression Symptomatology-Self Report (QIDS-SR). Feasibility and satisfaction were also assessed. Assessments occurred at baseline, midpoint and at study conclusion (14 weeks). Fifteen people were screened for the study. Six HIV-infected, low-income, African-American people individuals (five females and one male) were eligible and participated in the study. All patients finished the study. On average, participants completed nine sessions. The sessions lasted for an average of 48 min (SD = 11.5). Compared to mean HAM-D score at baseline (HAM-D = 22.8 (SD = 3.1), the mean HAM-D score was significantly reduced at study conclusion (HAM-D = 9.8 (SD = 7.4); (t (5) = 4.6, p = 0.006); (Cohen d = 1.9)). Compared to the mean QIDS-SR score at baseline (QIDS-SR = 15.5 (SD = 4.2) the mean QIDS score was significantly reduced at study conclusion (QIDS = 7.0 (SD = 5.4);(t (5) = 3.2, p = 0.02); (Cohen d = 1.3)).The mean satisfaction scores across all participants at post-treatment was 5.7 (SD = 0.3) with of a maximum score of 6. Telephone-based CBT can be delivered to low-income, urban-dwelling ethnic minority HIV-infected people resulting in significant reductions in depression symptoms with high satisfaction. The efficacy of this intervention will be assessed in a planned randomized control trial.