Memory and goal setting: the response of older and younger adults to positive and objective feedback

Earlier research suggested that goal setting for memory does not have the same advantages for older adults as for younger adults. Using ideal goal-setting conditions with individualized goals, the authors compared goals plus positive feedback, goals plus objective feedback, and control. Performance increased over trials and was higher for both goal conditions than for control. The positive feedback condition showed the highest goal commitment and motivation. Older adults showed strong performance gains and more motivation and goal commitment than the young. The results showed that older adults can benefit from goal setting under optimal learning and feedback conditions.     

The role of embodied intention in early lexical acquisition

We examine the influence of inferring interlocutors' referential intentions from their body movements at the early stage of lexical acquisition. By testing human participants and comparing their performances in different learning conditions, we find that those embodied intentions facilitate both word discovery and word-meaning association. In light of empirical findings, the main part of this article presents a computational model that can identify the sound patterns of individual words from continuous speech, using nonlinguistic contextual information, and employ body movements as deictic references to discover word-meaning associations. To our knowledge, this work is the first model of word learning that not only learns lexical items from raw multisensory signals to closely resemble infant language development from natural environments, but also explores the computational role of social cognitive skills in lexical acquisition.     

An Assessment of Risk Understanding in Hispanic Genetic Counseling Patients

This study sought to identify if differences existed in risk comprehension and risk format understanding between genetic counseling patients of Hispanic and Caucasian ethnicity. A total of 107 questionnaires were collected, 56 from Hispanic patients, and 51 from Caucasian controls. Of the total population 41.1% (44/107) could not demonstrate sufficient risk understanding, which was 71.4% (40/56) of Hispanics and 7.8% (4/51) of Caucasians. Fractions were the best-understood format for all participants. However, both Hispanics and Caucasians had difficulties with the percentage risk format. Discrepancies were also noted in qualitative word format understanding. Awareness of differences in risk comprehension may affect the selection of counseling techniques and strategies utilized by genetic counselors when educating patients about risk related information.     

Racial-Ethnic Differences in Genetic Amniocentesis Uptake

The objective of this study was to determine the role of health beliefs in genetic amniocentesis acceptance in a diverse racial-ethnic population. Participants completed a previously-validated questionnaire consisting of three sections: (1) demographics, (2) amniocentesis knowledge, and (3) health beliefs, which assessed perceived susceptibility, seriousness of potential impact, benefits of testing, and barriers to testing. The results showed that Hispanic women were less likely to accept amniocentesis (51.5% vs. Caucasian 82.8%, African American 82.9%, Asian 82.8%). Education level was the only demographic factor higher among acceptors. Women who accepted amniocentesis had higher perceived seriousness, susceptibility, and benefits HBM scores and higher knowledge scores than women who declined. HBM scores and knowledge predicted the amniocentesis decision correctly 91.5% of the time. Individual health beliefs and knowledge play a greater role in genetic amniocentesis acceptance than do demographic factors such as race-ethnicity.     

Risk and Resiliency Factors Influencing Suicidality Among Urban African American and Latino Youth

For decades, suicide rates among minority African American and Latino young people have been stable and, when compared with Whites, relatively low. This is no longer the case, underscoring the need for documenting and understanding the problem of suicidality in this population. We report on the prevalence and predictors of suicidality among 879 urban adolescents in the Reach for Health study. All youth resided in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods; 69% were African American, 16% Latino, and 15% reported mixed or other ethnicity. In the past year, 15% had seriously considered suicide; 13% had made a suicide plan, 11% had attempted suicide at least once, and 4% reported multiple attempts. Risk factors significantly related to suicidal ideation are being female, having basic needs unmet, engaging in same-gender sex, and depression. Resiliency factors include family closeness and, marginally, religiosity. Risk factors related to reports of suicide attempts are being female, being Hispanic, and depression; family closeness is strong resiliency factor. Family composition, ethnic identity, coping style, peer support, and school attachment are not significant correlates of suicidal ideation or attempts.     

Attachment style and the regulation of negative affect: exploring individual differences in mood congruency effects on memory and judgment

Three studies examined the role that attachment style plays in moderating the effects of induced negative affect on memory and judgment. Israeli undergraduates completed an attachment style scale and were exposed to a negative or neutral affect induction. In Study 1, incidental recall of negative and positive information was assessed; in Study 2, the attribution of negative and positive relational events was studied; and in Study 3, findings of Study 1 were replicated using a different affect induction procedure. Whereas securely attached persons reacted to induced negative affect with an affect-incongruent pattern of cognitions (better recall of positive information, more unstable/specific attribution of negative event), anxiously attached persons reacted with an affect-congruent pattern (worse recall of positive information, more stable/global attribution of negative event). Persons scoring high on attachment avoidance showed no significant cognitive effect of negative affect. The discussion emphasizes the role that attachment strategies play in the affect-cognition link.     

Orthographic neighborhood and concreteness effects in the lexical decision task

The experiment reported here investigated the sensitivity of concreteness effects to orthographic neighborhood density and frequency in the visual lexical decision task. The concreteness effect was replicated with a sample of concrete and abstract words that were not matched for orthographic neighborhood features and in which concrete words turned out to have a higher neighborhood density than abstract words. No consistent effect of concreteness was found with a sample of concrete and abstract words matched for orthographic neighborhood density and frequency and having fewer neighbors and higher-frequency neighbors than the words of the first sample. Post hoc analyses of the results showed that orthographic neighborhood density was not a nuisance variable producing a spurious effect of concreteness but, instead, that the existence of higher-frequency neighbors constitutes a necessary condition for concreteness effects to appear in the lexical decision task. This finding is consistent with the hypothesis that semantic information is accessed and used to generate the responses in lexical decision when inhibition from orthographic forms delays the target word recognition.     

Incremental validity in the psychological assessment of children and adolescents

Incremental validity in the process of psychological assessment of children and adolescents is explored. The authors highlight the dependence of the incremental validity of assessment information on factors such as goal of assessment, other information available, base rate of the problem or outcome, age or gender of the child, and type of problem being assessed. The authors discuss the incremental validity of assessment information from alternate sources, methods, and constructs. In view of the limited number of studies directly relevant to incremental validity in child clinical assessments, the authors call for more clinically relevant research. To have the greatest impact on child and adolescent services, this research must be readily generalized and immediately relevant to actual clinical practice.     

Telephone-administered cognitive behavior therapy for obsessive-compulsive disorder

Exposure with response prevention and cognitive behavior therapy are widely recognized as effective treatments for obsessive-compulsive disorder. Unfortunately, many people with obsessive-compulsive disorder--particularly those living in rural areas--do not have access to therapists providing these treatments. Accordingly, we investigated the efficacy of telephone-administered cognitive behavior therapy for obsessive-compulsive disorder. Two open trials are reported, for a total of 33 people with obsessive-compulsive disorder (without major depression). The first trial consisted of 12 weeks on a waiting list followed by 12 weeks of treatment (delayed treatment). The second trial consisted of 12 weeks of immediate treatment. Obsessive-compulsive symptoms did not change during the waiting period. Symptoms declined from pre- to post-treatment, with gains maintained at 12-week follow-up. For the pooled sample our pre-to-post-treatment effect size was as large or larger than those obtained in other studies of reduced contact treatment, and similar to those of face-to-face exposure with response prevention. Our proportion of treatment dropouts tended to be lower than those of other reduced contact interventions. The results suggest that telephone-administered cognitive behavior therapy is effective and well-tolerated, at least for people with obsessive-compulsive disorder without major depression. It remains to be seen whether this treatment is safe and effective when comorbid major depression is present.