Age differences in memory performance and memory ratings as measured in a sample survey

Age differences in memory performance were studied in a probability sample of a cross-section of 1,491 adults living in the Detroit metropolitan area, with an oversample of those age 60 and older. Both a recall and a recognition measure were adapted to the survey context by querying respondents about the nature of the questions asked in an immediately preceding interview. Subjective memory assessment was also measured, using global memory ratings performed by the respondent, his or her spouse, and the interviewer. A clear, age-related decline in memory performance was found in this population sample. Subjective memory assessment also declined across age groups, but the relation was weaker. On the basis of multiple regression analyses of the recognition measure and the respondent's self-rated memory, which were judged to have the best measurement qualities, a substantial part of these age differences can be accounted for by differences in sociodemographic composition between age groups, by cognitive functioning and physical health.     

The communication disorder in dialysis dementia: A case report

The communication disorder in dialysis dementia is an integral feature of the syndrome. This report describes the communication disorder in a 67-year-old man over a period of 4 months from his admission to the hospital to his death. In the early stage of the syndrome, the most prominent feature was a speech problem, the characteristics of which may vary among cases. In the middle stage, it was difficult to distinguish among aphemia, aphasia, or a combination of dysarthria and confusional state. The severity of the problems in these stages was temporally related to the dialysis treatments. The final stage was characterized by constant mutism and was unrelated to the dialysis treatments. Death occurred 10 months after the communication problems emerged. Communication studies of dialysis dementia patients may offer a systematic method to monitor the course of the syndrome, its response to therapeutic trials, and a clinical model for the study of communication disorders in general.     

Paid work,child care,and housework: A national survey of high school seniors' preferences for sharing responsibilities between husband and wife

A large national sample of high school seniors rated their preferences for the allocation of work and family duties within their own prospective marriages. The results indicate that many seniors favor half-time or full-time work for wives without children. On the other hand, the majority prefer that the mother of preschool children stay home, although half-time work is acceptable to many. Respondents who are male or White or did not have a working mother themselves are somewhat more conservative on these issues. Virtually all seniors view less than full-time employment by the husband as unacceptable. With regard to child care and housework, most seniors prefer equal sharing between the spouses. A comparison of four senior classes reveals a slight trend from 1976 to 1979 toward increased sharing of duties.     

The Factor Structure of MASC Youth Report in Norwegian School Children

Identifying children with symptoms of anxiety before they develop clinical disorders is important. The objective of our study was to examine the latent factor structure of the MASC (youth report version) in a large self-selected sample of school children in 4th to 6th grade, and examine if the measure had a comparable factor structure for gender and age. Gender and age differences in anxiety symptoms were also examined. Children (N?=?1686, 53.8% female) were recruited from schools during pretest of an ongoing randomized, controlled, indicative intervention. Latent variable modelling was used to determine the underlying concepts of the MASC. We found good model fit for the four-factor model, however some items on the Harm/Avoidance scale had low factor loadings. Invariance analysis indicated that the MASC had similar factor structure (comparable meaning) for boys and girls and for younger and older children in this sample. Girls scored significantly higher than boys on all subscales and on the Total Anxiety scale. Age differences were only found on the Separation Anxiety scale. Overall, the original four-factor structure of the MASC was confirmed within a large sample of school children and was invariant across gender and age. However, the Harm/avoidance scale warrants some attention. The MASC is a potentially useful measure to be used for screening purposes in a school setting.     

The Relationship Between Parenting Style and Children's Adjustment: The Parents' Perspective

We examined the relationship between authoritative and authoritarian parenting styles and socio-emotional adjustment in elementary school children as reported from the parents' perspective. Mothers of first through fifth graders provided information about parenting style as well as children's competencies and problem behaviors. Teachers provided ratings of children's adjustment for a subset of the participants. Results indicated that authoritative parenting was associated negatively with parent- and teacher-rated maladaptive behavior, and positively with indicators of healthy adjustment. Correlations between authoritarian parenting and adjustment were either small or non-significant. Regression analyses indicated that authoritative parenting was more predictive of children's competence than maladaptation (22% versus 10% of variance). The effects of parenting style on adjustment were not moderated by demographic variables, such as the child's gender, grade level, ethnicity, and family income.     

DRG-Vergütung und Kosten stationärer integrierter psychosomatischer Behandlung

Ohne ZusammenfassungDie Autoren M. Rose und R. Lohmann zeichnen für den Beitrag als gleichberechtigte Erstautoren.     

Strength of hindsight bias as a consequence of meta-cognitions

Hindsight bias is the tendency of people to falsely believe that they would have correctly predicted the outcome of an event once it is known. The present paper addresses the ongoing debate as to whether the hindsight bias is due to memory impairment or biased reconstruction. The memory impairment approach maintains that outcome information alters the memory trace of the initial judgement, whereas the biased reconstruction approach assumes that people who have forgotten their initial judgements are forced to guess and, in the presence of outcome information, are likely to use this information as an anchor. Whereas the latter approach emphasises the role of meta-cognitive considerations, meta-cognitions are not included in the memory impairment explanation. Two experiments show that the biased reconstruction approach provides a better explanation for empirical findings in hindsight bias research than does the memory impairment explanation.     

Sit-and-wait strategies in dynamic visual search

The role of memory in visual search has lately become a controversial issue. Horowitz and Wolfe (1998) observed that performance in a visual search task was little affected by whether the stimuli were static or randomly relocated every 111 ms. Because a memory-based mechanism, such as inhibition of return, would be of no use in the dynamic condition, Horowitz and Wolfe concluded that memory is likewise not involved in the static condition. However, Horowitz and Wolfe could not effectively rule out the possibility that observers adopted a different strategy in the dynamic condition than in the static condition. That is, in the dynamic condition observers may have attended to a subregion of the display and waited for the target to appear there (sit-and-wait strategy). This hypothesis is supported by experimental data showing that performance in their dynamic condition does not differ from performance in another dynamic condition in which observers are forced to adopt a sit-and-wait strategy by being presented with a limited region of the display only.     

Case Report: Object Relations Family Therapy as a Model for Genetic Counseling

Object relations family therapy (ORFT) is a psychoanalytically based approach for the treatment of couples and families which stresses the importance of past relationships. The therapist assumes a parentlike role and provides a holding environment in which clients can explore unconscious motivations. This paper will discuss the applicability of this method to genetic counseling. The case of a couple seen for recurrent trisomies will be presented and used as an example to discuss how ORFT might serve as a framework in a genetic counseling session.