Influence of virtual reality training on the roadside crossing judgments of child pedestrians

The roadside crossing judgments of children aged 7, 9, and 11 years were assessed relative to controls before and after training with a computer-simulated traffic environment. Trained children crossed more quickly, and their estimated crossing times became better aligned with actual crossing times. They crossed more promptly, missed fewer safe opportunities to cross, accepted smaller traffic gaps without increasing the number of risky crossings, and showed better conceptual understanding of the factors to be considered when making crossing judgments. All age groups improved to the same extent, and there was no deterioration when children were retested 8 months later. The results are discussed in relation to theoretical arguments concerning the extent to which children's pedestrian judgments are amenable to training.     

Conceptualizing and Measuring Historical Trauma Among American Indian People

This article reports on the development of two measures relating to historical trauma among American Indian people: The Historical Loss Scale and The Historical Loss Associated Symptoms Scale. Measurement characteristics including frequencies, internal reliability, and confirmatory factor analyses were calculated based on 143 American Indian adult parents of children aged 10 through 12 years who are part of an ongoing longitudinal study of American Indian families in the upper Midwest. Results indicate both scales have high internal reliability. Frequencies indicate that the current generation of American Indian adults have frequent thoughts pertaining to historical losses and that they associate these losses with negative feelings. Two factors of the Historical Loss Associated Symptoms Scale indicate one anxiety/depression component and one anger/avoidance component. The results are discussed in terms of future research and theory pertaining to historical trauma among American Indian people.     

Self-harmful behaviors in a population-based sample of young adults

A birth cohort of 472 women and 494 men aged 26 years was interviewed about a range of self-harmful behaviors first and then asked about suicidal intent. Lifetime prevalence of self-harm using traditional methods of suicide (ICD [International Classification of Diseases] self-harm) was 13%, with 9% of the sample describing at least one such episode as "attempted suicide." Other self-harmful behaviors were common; 14% of women and 33% of men reported self-battery. ICD self-harm over the past year was reported by 3%, mostly without suicidal intent. ICD self-harm and even lesser behaviors were associated with high odds of reporting suicidal ideation. The findings suggest that studies of self-harm should include behaviors not necessarily associated with suicidal intent.     

The use of imagery in cognitive therapy for psychosis: a case example

There has been a long tradition of studying imagery in relation to psychotic symptoms. Recent studies have suggested that imagery may be involved in the development and maintenance of psychotic symptoms (hallucinations and delusions in particular). Following a review of this literature, including work conducted by the author and colleagues, a case study is used to illustrate the clinical applications of this work. Working with images that were associated with persecutory delusions appeared to contribute to a reduction in distress, preoccupation, and conviction in relation to these beliefs, which were assessed using a standardised measure (PSYRATS). The implications for theory, practice, and future research are considered.     

The redux of cognitive consistency theories: evidence judgments by constraint satisfaction

The authors suggest that decisions made from multiple pieces of evidence are performed hy mechanisms of parallel constraint satisfaction, which are related to cognitive consistency theories. Such reasoning processes are bidirectional--decisions follow from evidence, and evaluations of the evidence shift toward coherence with the emerging decision. Using a factually complex legal case, the authors observed patterns of coherence shifts that persisted even when the distribution of decisions was manipulated (Study 1) and influenced by the participants' attitudes (Study 2). The evaluations of the evidence cohered with the preferred decision even when participants changed their preference (Study 3). Supporting the bidirectionality of reasoning. Study 4 showed that assigning participants to a verdict affected their evaluation of the evidence. Coherence shifts were observed also in related background knowledge. This research suggests that cognitive consistency theories should play a greater role in the understanding of human reasoning and decision making.     

Relational integration, inhibition, and analogical reasoning in older adults

The difficulty of reasoning tasks depends on their relational complexity, which increases with the number of relations that must be considered simultaneously to make an inference, and on the number of irrelevant items that must be inhibited. The authors examined the ability of younger and older adults to integrate multiple relations and inhibit irrelevant stimuli. Young adults performed well at all but the highest level of relational complexity, whereas older adults performed poorly even at a medium level of relational complexity, especially when irrelevant information was presented. Simulations based on a neurocomputational model of analogical reasoning, Learning and Inference with Schemas and Analogies (LISA), suggest that the observed decline in reasoning performance may be explained by a decline in attention and inhibitory functions in older adults.     

When stereotypes get in the way: stereotypes obstruct stereotype-inconsistent trait inferences

There is a growing body of evidence indicating that people spontaneously make trait inferences while observing the behavior of others. The present article reports a series of 5 experiments that examined the influence of stereotypes on the spontaneous inference of traits. Results consistently showed weaker spontaneous trait inferences for stereotype-inconsistent behavioral information than for stereotype-consistent and stereotype-neutral information. Taken together, the current results suggest that specific spontaneous trait inferences become obstructed by inhibitory processes when behavior is inconsistent with an already activated stereotype. These findings are discussed in relation to stereotype maintenance processes and recent models of attribution in social judgment.     

Beziehungsmuster und Beziehungskonflikte

Zusammenfassung  Die Veränderung pathogenetisch bedeutsamer Beziehungsmuster gilt als wesentliches psychotherapeutisches Behandlungsziel. Um zielgerichtete Veränderungen von Beziehungsstrukturen zu erreichen, bedarf es sowohl einer Diagnostik und Beschreibung solcher Beziehungsmuster, einer darauf zielenden Behandlungstechnik als auch einer Verlaufskontrolle und Evaluation der angestrebten Veränderungen. Nach einem Überblick über verschiedene Methoden zur Erfassung von Beziehungsmustern wird die Methode des Zentralen-Beziehungskonflikt-Themas (ZBKT) von Luborsky näher beschrieben; ausgewählte Ergebnisse der ZBKT-Forschung werden dargestellt und die Methode kritisch bewertet.

Timed picture naming: Extended norms and validation against previous studies

Factors affecting word retrieval were compared in a timed picture-naming paradigm for 520 drawings of objects. In prior timed and untimed studies by Snodgrass and Vanderwart (1980) and Snodgrass and Yuditsky (1996), concerns were raised that participants could not reliably name large numbers of items in a single session. We show that reliable results are obtained in a single session for 520 items and validate our method against previous findings by Snodgrass and colleagues for overlapping items. For these items, comparable levels of name agreement and latency are obtained, and we replicate effects of length, frequency, both objective and subjective age of acquisition, and visual complexity on reaction time (RT) and name agreement measures. Name agreement is unaffected by order of presentation, although there is a gradual increase in RTs across the session, requiring use of multiple random orders. Current extensions of our method include cross-linguistic, bilingual, developmental, and neuropsychological studies and comparisons of action naming and object naming.