Group Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia in a VA Mental Health Clinic

Effective cognitive-behavioral therapies for insomnia have been developed over the past 2 decades, but they have not been systematically evaluated in some clinical settings. While insomnia is common among veterans with mental health problems, the availability of effective treatments is limited. We report on the group application of a cognitive-behavioral therapy for chronic insomnia in a veteran population with significant comorbidity for both psychiatric problems and chronic medical conditions. Outcome measures were obtained for both sleep (via sleep diaries) and daytime functioning. Substantial posttreatment improvements were evident for measures of sleep consolidation, total sleep time, depression, anxiety, and fatigue. The unique suitability of the group therapy approach with this population is discussed. Controlled evaluations of the group cognitive-behavioral treatment for comorbid insomnia in this and other ambulatory settings are warranted.     

Implicit learning, thought-focused attention and obsessive-compulsive disorder: a replication and extension

Although significant empirical support exists for both cognitive and neurobiological models of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), there have been few efforts to integrate findings. In this investigation, we attempted to link models by examining relationships between performance on information processing tasks posited to be markers of OCD-related neuropathology and a self-report measure of excessive thought-focused attention (cognitive self-consciousness; CSC). Congruent with predictions and prior research, OCD patients' performance was impaired in comparison to an anxious control group on the Serial Reaction Time (SRT) Task, a measure of implicit procedural learning. Following completion of the SRT, participants' awareness of the embedded stimulus pattern was assessed. As predicted, participants with OCD demonstrated superior performance on this task. Scoring on a measure of CSC correlated with performance on both tasks, although the amount of variance accounted for was modest. Evaluation of OCD symptom subgroups revealed greater procedural learning impairment in a hoarding subgroup. Implications for theory and treatment are discussed.     

Behavioral reactivity and approach-withdrawal bias in infancy

Seven hundred seventy-nine infants were screened at 4 months of age for motor and emotional reactivity. At age 9 months, infants who showed extreme patterns of motor and negative (n = 75) or motor and positive (n = 73) reactivity and an unselected control group (n = 86) were administered the Laboratory Temperament Assessment Battery, and baseline electroencephalogram data were collected. Negatively reactive infants showed significantly more avoidance than positively reactive infants and displayed a pattern of right frontal electroencephalogram asymmetry. Positively reactive infants exhibited significantly more approach behavior than controls and exhibited a pattern of left frontal asymmetry. Results support the notion that approach-withdrawal bias underlies reactivity in infancy.     

The association between ethnic congruence in the supervisor‐subordinate dyad and subordinate organizational position and salary

We used a large field sample (N=32,854) to test popular press claims and propositions from relational demography theory that the ethnic congruence of the supervisor‐subordinate dyad is associated with positive employee outcomes. Results indicate that ethnic congruence was positively associated with subordinates' level in the organization and salary. These relationships were moderated by type of compensation system, such that the effects were stronger in merit‐based than in tenure‐based systems. In addition, the extent of the relationship between supervisor‐subordinate congruence differed by ethnic group, supporting previous research that suggests examining unique outcomes by ethnicity. However, although statistically significant, effect sizes were generally smaller than anticipated and implied in the popular press. Practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Does the presence of priming hinder subsequent recognition or recall performance?

Declarative and non-declarative memories are thought be supported by two distinct memory systems that are often posited not to interact. However, Wagner, Maril, and Schacter (2000a) reported that at the time priming was assessed, greater behavioural and neural priming was associated with lower levels of subsequent recognition memory, demonstrating an interaction between declarative and non-declarative memory. We examined this finding using a similar paradigm, in which participants made the same or different semantic word judgements following a short or long lag and subsequent memory test. We found a similar overall pattern of results, with greater behavioural priming associated with a decrease in recognition and recall performance. However, neither various within-participant nor various between-participant analyses revealed significant correlations between priming and subsequent memory performance. These data suggest that both lag and task have effects on priming and declarative memory performance, but that they are largely independent and occur in parallel.     

Aging preserves the ability to perceive 3D object shape from static but not deforming boundary contours

A single experiment investigated how younger (aged 18-32 years) and older (aged 62-82 years) observers perceive 3D object shape from deforming and static boundary contours. On any given trial, observers were shown two smoothly-curved objects, similar to water-smoothed granite rocks, and were required to judge whether they possessed the "same" or "different" shape. The objects presented during the "different" trials produced differently-shaped boundary contours. The objects presented during the "same" trials also produced different boundary contours, because one of the objects was always rotated in depth relative to the other by 5, 25, or 45 degrees. Each observer participated in 12 experimental conditions formed by the combination of 2 motion types (deforming vs. static boundary contours), 2 surface types (objects depicted as silhouettes or with texture and Lambertian shading), and 3 angular offsets (5, 25, and 45 degrees). When there was no motion (static silhouettes or stationary objects presented with shading and texture), the older observers performed as well as the younger observers. In the moving object conditions with shading and texture, the older observers' performance was facilitated by the motion, but the amount of this facilitation was reduced relative to that exhibited by the younger observers. In contrast, the older observers obtained no benefit in performance at all from the deforming (i.e., moving) silhouettes. The reduced ability of older observers to perceive 3D shape from motion is probably due to a low-level deterioration in the ability to detect and discriminate motion itself.     

Preference for reinforcers under progressive- and fixed-ratio schedules: a comparison of single and concurrent arrangements

Progressive-ratio (PR) schedules were used to identify the break point (i.e., the last schedule value completed) for 2 reinforcers under single and concurrent schedules. After the respective break points were established, the same reinforcers were presented under concurrent fixed-ratio (FR) schedules that were yoked to the break points obtained with the PR schedules. Results suggested that the participants responded more for the high-preference item than for the low-preference item, regardless of the presentation arrangement (single or concurrent presentations). This pattern of responding was maintained when the reinforcers were presented under dissimilar FR schedules. The results suggest that responding for differentially preferred stimuli may vary as a function of differences in schedule requirements.     

Effects of music on memory for text

Previous research has suggested that the use of song can facilitate recall of text. This study examined the effect of repetition of a melody across verses, familiarity with the melody, rhythm, and other structural processing hypotheses to explain this phenomenon. Two experiments were conducted, each with 100 participants recruited from undergraduate Psychology programs (44 men, 156 women, M age = 28.5 yr., SD = 9.4). In Exp. 1, participants learned a four-verse ballad in one of five encoding conditions (familiar melody, unfamiliar melody, unknown rhythm, known rhythm, and spoken). Exp. 2 assessed the effect of familiarity in rhythm-only conditions and of pre-exposure with a previously unfamiliar melody. Measures taken were number of verbatim words recalled and number of lines produced with correct syllabic structure. Analysis indicated that rhythm, with or without musical accompaniment, can facilitate recall of text, suggesting that rhythm may provide a schematic frame to which text can be attached. Similarly, familiarity with the rhythm or melody facilitated recall. Findings are discussed in terms of integration and dual-processing theories.     

Children with Comorbid Speech Sound Disorder and Specific Language Impairment are at Increased Risk for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

This study focuses on the comorbidity between attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms and speech sound disorder (SSD). SSD is a developmental disorder characterized by speech production errors that impact intelligibility. Previous research addressing this comorbidity has typically used heterogeneous groups of speech-language disordered children. This study employed more precise speech-language diagnostic criteria and examined ADHD symptomatology in 108 SSD children between the ages of 4 and 7 years old with specific language impairment (SLI) (n = 23, 14 males, 9 females) and without SLI (n = 85, 49 males, 36 females). We also examined whether a subcategory of SSD, persistent (n = 39, 25 males, 14 females) versus normalized SSD (n = 67, 38 males, 29 females), was associated with ADHD and/or interacted with SLI to predict ADHD symptomatology. Results indicated that participants in the SSD + SLI group had higher rates of inattentive ADHD symptoms than those in the SSD-only and control groups. In addition, an unexpected interaction emerged such that children with SLI and normalized-SSD had significantly higher ADHD inattentive ratings than the other subgroups. A proposed explanation for this interaction is discussed.