Rethinking the concepts of ‘local or global processors’: evidence from Williams syndrome,Down syndrome,and Autism Spectrum Disorders

Both Williams syndrome (WS) and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have been characterized as preferentially processing local information, whereas in Down syndrome (DS) the reported tendency is to process stimuli globally. We designed a cross‐syndrome, cross‐task comparison to reveal similarities and differences in local/global processing in these disorders. Our in‐depth study compared local/global processing across modalities (auditory‐verbal/visuo‐spatial) and levels of processing (high/low) in the three syndromes. Despite claims in the literature, participants with ASD or WS failed to show a consistent local processing bias, while those with DS failed to show a reliable global processing bias. Depending on the nature of the stimuli and the task, both local and global processing biases were evident in all three neurodevelopmental disorders. These findings indicate that individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders cannot simply be characterized as local or global processors.     

Talent Development as a Multidimensional, Multiplicative, and Dynamic Process

Recent empirical research has challenged the common belief in the existence of talent, suggesting that exceptional performance is entirely the product of nurture rather than nature. However, this research has been based on a simple conception of what talent entails. Rather than involving a unidimensional, additive, and static genetic process, talent may instead emerge from a multidimensional, multiplicative, and dynamic process. This latter possibility is described in a two-part model that combines multidimensional and multiplicative inheritance with dynamic development. The first part of the model handles domain specificity, profile heterogeneity, the distribution of individual differences, familial heritability, and domain complexity. The second part explicates early- versus late-bloomers, early signs of talent, talent loss, and shifts in the domain of talent. The resulting model has crucial implications for how best to gauge the impact of nature in the development of talent.     

A Community Psychology View of Environmental Organization Processes

Environmental organizations have a key role in addressing environmental degradation and promoting ecologically and socially sustainable societies. Psychosocial processes underpin their work, however, empirical studies of these processes remain underdeveloped. This paper presents the first stage of a community psychology study involving in-depth interviews with leaders in environmental organizations. Qualitative analysis revealed a framework of five types of psychosocial processes that assist environmental organizations to achieve a range of outcomes, namely: problem analysis; influencing decision-making; inter-organizational relationships; community participation and knowledge transfer. These psychosocial processes were used in substantially different ways depending on the organizations' orientation. Three key orientations towards outcomes were evident: on-ground conservation, developing innovation in specialist areas and transforming wider social institutions. The findings provide a model of the psychosocial processes involved in fostering sustainable futures and exemplify the contribution of community psychology to this critical global issue.     

Establishing and Evaluating the Substantive Adequacy of Positive Behavioral Support Plans

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (2004) renewed the commitment to provide positive behavioral support (PBS) for students that engage in persistent problem behavior. Behavior intervention plans (also known as PBS plans) serve as legal documents that help guide the implementation of intervention strategies to encourage more positive forms of behavior. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the substantive adequacy of PBS plans developed for special education students. This was accomplished by documenting the content of plans developed by two different groups of educators using a rating instrument based on the key concepts of PBS planning. Results revealed that the majority of plans developed by teams without identified training and expertise in PBS were rated as substantively inadequate, lacking critical information related to effective behavioral support planning. The implications of the results for everyday practice in the schools and directions for future research are discussed.     

Varieties of (Scientific) Creativity: A Hierarchical Model of Domain-Specific Disposition, Development, and Achievement

ABSTRACT— Prior research supports the inference that scientific disciplines can be ordered into a hierarchy ranging from the "hard" natural sciences to the "soft" social sciences. This ordering corresponds with such objective criteria as disciplinary consensus, knowledge obsolescence rate, anticipation frequency, theories-to-laws ratio, lecture disfluency, and age at recognition. It is then argued that this hierarchy can be extrapolated to encompass the humanities and arts and interpolated within specific domains to accommodate contrasts in subdomains (e.g., revolutionary versus normal science). This expanded and more finely differentiated hierarchy is then shown to have a partial psychological basis in terms of dispositional traits (e.g., psychopathology) and developmental experiences (e.g., family background). This demonstration then leads to three hypotheses about how a creator's domain-specific impact depends on his or her disposition and development: the domain-progressive, domain-typical, and domain-regressive creator hypotheses. Studies published thus far lend the most support to the domain-regressive creator hypothesis. In particular, major contributors to a domain are more likely to have dispositional traits and developmental experiences most similar to those that prevail in a domain lower in the disciplinary hierarchy. However, some complications to this generalization suggest the need for more research on the proposed hierarchical model.     

Handwriting movement analyses for monitoring drug-induced motor side effects in schizophrenia patients treated with risperidone

Epidemiologic studies indicate that nearly 60% of schizophrenia (SZ) patients treated with conventional antipsychotic drugs develop extrapyramidal side effects (EPS) such as parkinsonism and tardive dyskinesia. Although the prevalence of EPS has decreased due to the newer antipsychotics, EPS continue to limit the effectiveness of these medicines. Ongoing monitoring of EPS is likely to improve treatment outcome or compliance and reduce the frequency of re-hospitalization. A quantitative analysis of handwriting kinematics was used to evaluate effects of antipsychotic medication type and dose in schizophrenia patients. Twenty-seven schizophrenia patients treated with risperidone, six schizophrenia patients who received no antipsychotic medication and 47 healthy comparison participants were enrolled. Participants performed a 20-min handwriting task consisting of loops of various sizes and a sentence. Data were captured and analyzed using MovAlyzeR software. Results indicated that risperidone-treated participants exhibited significantly more dysfluent handwriting movements than either healthy or untreated SZ participants. Risperidone-treated participants exhibited lower movement velocities during production of simple loops compared to unmedicated patients. Handwriting dysfluency during sentence writing increased with dose. A 3-factor model consisting of kinematic variables derived from sentence writing accounted for 83% (r = .91) of the variability in medication dose. In contrast, we found no association between observer-based EPS severity ratings and medication dose. These findings support the importance of handwriting-based measures to monitor EPS in medicated schizophrenia patients.     

Characteristics, Services, and Outcomes of Treatment for Women

This paper analyzes the demographic and pretreatment characteristics of maleand female participants in the National Treatment Improvement Evaluation Study,including the women's treatment experiences and the outcomes of various types of substance abuse treatment. Follow-up of a multisite sample of 1,374 women and 3,037 men indicates minimal differences exist between menand women in the outcomes of five modalities of substance abuse treatment. Treatment appears to reduce women's drug and alcohol use and illegal activities and increase their levels of employment. Demographic and pretreatment characteristics are only modestly associated with differences in treatment outcomes, and differential service receipt has inconsistent effects on outcomes.