Improving metacognition: A comparison of interventions

Accurate knowledge monitoring is critical to the learning process, as it allows one to regulate studying and test preparation. Thus, a number of investigations have attempted to improve metacognition in the classroom, with the ultimate goal of improving student exam performance. However, such interventions have had inconsistent success using varying paradigms. We compared the effectiveness of five interventions aimed at improving prediction accuracy in a laboratory environment: review, salient feedback, motivation warning lecture, incentives, and reflection. Only the salient feedback and the motivation warning lecture interventions significantly improved participants' prediction accuracy from test 1 to test 2. Review, incentives, and reflection did not improve predictive or postdictive calibration. Well‐timed salient feedback and a lecture warning students not to be biased by desired grades were effective methods of improving calibration accuracy. Results offer effective interventions to improve metacognition that could be used in a classroom setting.     

Comorbidity of Pediatric Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder and Anxiety Disorders: Impact on Symptom Severity and Impairment

This study explored the impact of comorbidity on symptom severity and treatment outcome in a sample of 75 pediatric Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder (OCD) patients. Forty received cognitive–behavioral therapy (CBT). Overall, 56% had a comorbid disorder. Results revealed that youth with comorbid disorders (anxiety or otherwise) endorsed significantly more anxiety symptoms than youth with OCD only. Youth with comorbidities instead of or in addition to anxiety exhibited more severe OCD symptoms than youth with OCD alone or an anxiety-only comorbidity. Youth in the comorbidities instead of or in addition to anxiety group had the poorest CBT response relative to the other groups. These results suggest that relative to those with OCD alone or with an anxiety disorder comorbidity, youth with comorbidities instead of or in addition to anxiety have a differing clinical presentation (e.g., more severe symptoms) and worse psychotherapy outcome.

Are sensation seeking and emotion processing related to or distinct from cognitive control in children with ADHD?

This study evaluated the relationship of (a) reactive inhibition and right-lateralized emotion processing to each other and (b) to executive control of response suppression, and (c) with regard to ADHD in 134 children ages 7-12 years. Reactive inhibition was indexed by child ratings of sensation seeking on the Sensation Seeking Scales, executive control by the Stop Signal Task, emotion processing by performance on the Chimeric Faces Test, and ADHD by parent- and teacher-reported symptoms. The results were consistent with a two-process model in which executive control, conceived as a right-hemisphere lateralized function, was distinct from sensation seeking and lateralized emotion processing. Supporting this distinction, ADHD was associated with executive control, but not with sensation seeking/reactive inhibition or lateralized emotion processing. The findings suggest that ADHD cannot be understood as a global right-lateralized neuropsychological weakness, but rather that it involves only particular functions that may be right lateralized. Findings further suggest that risk for comorbid disorders in ADHD (e.g., conduct disorder or mood disorders) may increase as a function of independent factors such as temperament. Mechanisms underlying executive inhibition and emotional processing could be functionally independent yet interact to multiply psychopathological risk in some children (leading, for example, to comorbid disorders).     

Retrospective Analysis of Gender Differences in Reaction to Media Coverage of Crisis Events: New Insights on the Justice and Care Orientations

We surveyed 2,125 men and 3,735 women (N = 5,860) across the USA to test hypothesized relationships regarding women’s and men’s use of justice and care orientations when they confront crisis events with moral implications. Consistent with previous research, we found that women were more likely than men to adopt a care orientation. Contrary to expectations, however, women also adopted a justice response to a greater degree than did men. We found that, in response to a crisis, women, unlike men, were more likely to believe they would connect with others and take action. Implications for explaining inconsistencies in prior research findings on the justice and care orientations, and for conceptualizing these important constructs in a new way, are discussed.     

A psychometric analysis of functional category production in English agrammatic narratives

Hierarchical models of agrammatism propose that sentence production deficits can be accounted for in terms of clausal syntactic structure [Friedmann, N., & Grodzinsky, Y. (1997). Tense and agreement in agrammatic production: Pruning the syntactic tree. Brain and Language, 56, 397-425; Hagiwara, H. (1995). The breakdown of functional categories and the economy of derivation. Brain and Language, 50, 92-116]. Such theories predict that morpho-syntactic elements associated with higher nodes in the syntactic tree (complementizers and verb inflections) will be more impaired than elements associated with lower structural positions (negation markers and aspectual verb forms). While this hypothesis has been supported by the results of several studies [Benedet, M. J., Christiansen, J. A., & Goodglass, H. (1998). A cross-linguistic study of grammatical morphology in Spanish- and English-speaking agrammatic patients. Cortex, 34, 309-336; Friedmann, N. (2001). Agrammatism and the psychological reality of the syntactic tree. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 30, 71-88; Friedmann, N. (2002). Question production in agrammatism: The tree pruning hypothesis. Brain and Language, 80, 160-187], it has also been challenged on several grounds [Burchert, F., Swoboda-Moll, M., & De Bleser, R. (2005a). Tense and agreement dissociations in German agrammatic speakers: Underspecification vs. hierarchy. Brain and Language, 94, 188-199; Lee, M. (2003). Dissociations among functional categories in Korean agrammatism. Brain and Language, 84, 170-188; Lee, J., Milman, L. H., & Thompson, C. K. (2005). Functional category production in agrammatic speech. Brain and Language, 95, 123-124]. In this paper the question of hierarchical structure was re-examined within the framework of Item Response Theory [IRT, Rasch, G. (1980). Probabilistic models for some intelligence and attainment tests (Expanded ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press]. IRT is a probabilistic model widely used in the field of psychometrics to model behavioral constructs as numeric variables. In this study we examined production of functional categories (complementizers, verb inflections, negation markers, and aspectual verb forms) in narrative samples elicited from 18 individuals diagnosed with nonfluent aphasia and 18 matched controls. Data from the aphasic participants were entered into an IRT analysis to test (1) whether production of clausal functional categories can be represented as a variable on a numeric scale; and (2) whether production patterns were consistent with hierarchical syntactic structure. Pearson r correlation coefficients were also computed to determine whether there was a relation between functional category production and other indices of language performance. Results indicate that functional category production can be modeled as a numeric variable using IRT. Furthermore, although variability was observed across individuals, consistent patterns were evident when the data were interpreted within a probabilistic framework. Although functional category production was moderately correlated with a second measure of clausal structure (clause length), it was not correlated with more distant language constructs (noun/verb ratio and WAB A.Q.). These results suggest that functional category production is related to some, but not all, measures of agrammatic language performance.     

The Retrospective Family Unpredictability Scale: Reliability and Validity

Family unpredictability or inconsistency may be responsible, in part, for the detrimental outcomes associated with parental divorce, parental alcoholism, and family poverty. We assessed behavior patterns and regulatory systems in one’s family of origin for the purposes of developing the Retrospective Family Unpredictability Scale (Retro-FUS). In the first study (N = 416, 89% Caucasian, 59% female), confirmatory factor analysis indicated a six-factor solution was appropriate and the six subscales (meals, money, mother nurturance, father nurturance, mother discipline, and father discipline) were reliable. A second study (N = 305, 82% Caucasian, 77% female) demonstrated that Retro-FUS scores related to other conceptually similar factors. Specifically, Retro-FUS scores were higher among participants reporting these factors while growing up: parental divorce, family economic adversity, more neighborhood crime, and a greater likelihood of parental alcoholism. Thus, the Retro-FUS appears to be a multi-dimensional, retrospective measure of family unpredictability that demonstrates internal consistency and preliminary construct validity. We discuss implications for research and clinical applications as well as ideas for further research using the Retrospective Family Unpredictability Scale.     

Impaired discrimination learning in mice lacking the NMDA receptor NR2A subunit

N-Methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDARs) mediate certain forms of synaptic plasticity and learning. We used a touchscreen system to assess NR2A subunit knockout mice (KO) for (1) pairwise visual discrimination and reversal learning and (2) acquisition and extinction of an instrumental response requiring no pairwise discrimination. NR2A KO mice exhibited significantly retarded discrimination learning. Performance on reversal was impaired in NR2A KO mice during the learning phase of the task; with no evidence of heightened perseverative responses. Acquisition and extinction of an instrumental behavior requiring no pairwise discrimination was normal in NR2A KO mice. The present findings demonstrate a significant and selective deficit in discrimination learning following loss of NR2A.     

Moving From Efficacy to Effectiveness in Eating Disorders Prevention: The Sorority Body Image Program

Although eating disorders prevention research has begun to produce programs with demonstrated efficacy, many such programs simply target individuals as opposed to engaging broader social systems (e.g., schools, sororities, athletic teams) as participant collaborators in eating disorders prevention. Yet, social systems ultimately will be responsible for the real-world delivery of eating disorder prevention programs, suggesting that an important issue has yet to be addressed. Namely, it is unclear to what degree efficacious individual-focused eating disorder prevention programs remain effective when incorporated into critical social systems under real-world conditions. Over the past 5 years, we have collaborated with the campus sororities in the development of a sustainable eating disorders prevention program that is based on the prevention efficacy literature. This paper describes both challenges and helpful strategies that we encountered in tailoring an evidence-based eating disorders prevention program to the needs of a relevant social system.