Psychometric properties of the Impact of Event Scale - Revised

This study investigated the psychometric properties of the Impact of Event Scale—Revised (IES-R) in two samples of male Vietnam veterans: a treatment-seeking sample with a confirmed posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) diagnosis (N=120) and a community sample with varying levels of traumatic stress symptomatology (N=154). The scale showed high internal consistency (alpha=0.96). Confirmatory factor analysis did not provide support for a three-factor solution corresponding to the three subscales of intrusion, avoidance, and hyperarousal. Exploratory factor analysis suggested that either a single, or a two-factor solution (intrusion/hyperarousal and avoidance), provided the best account of the data. However, correlations among the subscales were higher in the community sample than in the treatment sample, suggesting that the IES-R may be sensitive to a more general construct of traumatic stress in those with lower symptom levels. The correlation between the IES-R and the PTSD Checklist was high (0.84) and a cutoff of 1.5 (equivalent to a total score of 33) was found to provide the best diagnostic accuracy.     

Bell object relations inventory for adolescents and children: reliability,validity, and factorial invariance

The Bell Object Relations Inventory (BORI; Bell,1995) is a self-report instrument that measures deficits in object relations ego functioning. It has demonstrated clinical and research utility in adult populations. This article reports the development of a version of the BORI for children ages 11 to 17, including studies of reliability, validity, and factorial invariance. Data of 705 children from public schools and 110 children from clinics and residential treatments were used. Of the 45 original BORI true/false items, 3 were dropped as inappropriate and most others were rewritten for easier reading. An additional 16 items were created to capture unique features of adolescent experiences in relationships. Items were tested in focus groups and revised accordingly. Eight items were dropped because of low communalities, so that 50 items were included in the final factor analysis. Assessments using self-report items from Behavioral Assessment Scale for Children (BASC; Reynolds & Camphaus, 1992) and the Personality Inventory for Youth (PIY) were also obtained to test concurrent validity. Oblique rotation yielded 5 factors. Four were very similar to the 4 from the adult version and were named accordingly: Alienation, Insecure Attachment, Egocentricity, and Social Incompetence. The fifth scale was comprised mostly of new items and was called Positive Attachment. Scales showed excellent factorial invariance and good internal consistency. Scales generally had very low intercorrelations reflecting their relative independence. Although differences were found for gender and race, the effect sizes were small. Support for construct validity came from moderate correlations with concurrent BASC and PIA scores, analyses of variance showing greater deficits in object relations in pathological subgroups compared with normals, and a trend analysis showed that Alienation scores followed a lawful relationship with increasing severity of psychopathology. These initial findings support the psychometric integrity of the instrument and its construct validity. Results indicate continuity of constructs between the adult and adolescent versions. The Positive Attachment subscale may prove a valuable addition for clinical and research applications.     

Change in perceptual form attenuates the use of the fluency heuristic in recognition

Four experiments (total N=295) were conducted to determine whether within-modality changes in perceptual form between the study and the test phases of an experiment would moderate the role of the fluency heuristic in recognition memory. Experiment 1 showed that a change from pictures to words reduced the role of fluency in recognition memory. In Experiment 2, the same result was found using counterfeit study lists that supposedly consisted of pictures or words. Experiments 3 and 4 showed that changes in the font used to present the study and test words also attenuated the contribution of fluency to the recognition decision when font change was manipulated between subjects, but not within subjects. Results suggest that the fluency heuristic is subject to metacognitive control, since participants' attributions of perceptual fluency depend on the perceived usefulness of fluency as a cue to recognition.     

The currency of procurement cost

As the number of instrtumental responses required to procure access to food is increased, animals decrease the frequency of initiating meals and increase meal size, conserving total intake while limiting the increase in the overall cost of feeding. In two studies, one using wheel turns and one using bar presses as the instrumental response, we asked whether freely feeding laboratory rats measure cost according to the energy or the time they expend. In each study we varied both the price (i.e., number of wheel turns or bar presses) and the force required to make a response (i.e., torque on the wheel or weight of the bar). Price affected both procurement time (from the first to the last procurement response) and procurement work, whereas torque and bar weight affected work without altering time in most cases. Meal patterns were altered by all manipulations of price, but changes in torque and bar weight had little effect on meal patterns, except in the conditions in which they altered procurement time. These results suggest that time is a critical currency of procurement cost in rats.     

A room with a view and a polarizing cue: individual differences in the stimulus control of place navigation and passive latent learning in the water maze

We investigated individual differences in the stimulus control of navigational behavior in the water maze by comparing measures of place learning in one environment to measures of latent learning (via passive placement on the goal platform) in a novel environment. In the first experiment, 12 rats were trained to find a slightly submerged hidden platform at a fixed location in room A for 10 days (4 trials/day). Fast and slow place learners were identified by their mean escape latency and cumulative distance to the goal during acquisition. The same animals were then given a 2-min passive placement on the submerged platform in room B. Latent learning was assessed by the animal's escape latency on a single swim trial immediately following the placement in room B. The results showed that the good latent learners in room B were not necessarily the fast place learners in room A. This weak correlation may be related to the fact that some rats swam near the area in room B that corresponded to the former goal location in room A relative to a common polarizing cue (i.e., the door/entrance to both rooms). When the view of the door was blocked in a second experiment a significant positive correlation between place acquisition and the latent learning test was obtained, although escape performance following passive placement was not improved. These findings suggest that while place navigation and latent learning via passive placement may involve some common cognitive-spatial function, other associative (S-S and/or S-R) processes that occur during place navigation/active movement may be required for animals to exhibit truly accurate navigational behavior characteristic of asymptotic escape performance in the water maze. Additional implications for neurobiological studies using a procedural pretraining design are discussed.     

The validity of the Comprehensive Test of Nonverbal Intelligence as a measure of fluid intelligence

The current investigation examined the validity of the Comprehensive Test of Nonverbal Intelligence (CTONI), an intelligence test that is purported to measure fluid intelligence. The CTONI was evaluated in comparison with the Kaufman Adolescent and Adult Intelligence Test (KAIT), an established measure of fluid and crystallized intelligence. Ninety-seven adults were administered these instruments in counterbalanced order. Results indicated that the sample's mean CTONI Nonverbal IQ (NIQ) deviated significantly from the mean KAIT Crystallized, Fluid, and Composite IQs. The CTONI mean NIQ underestimated KAIT Fluid and Composite IQs when individual participants were subdivided into existing KAIT ability categories and mean score comparisons were made. Results also indicated that the CTONI NIQ correlated strongly and positively with the KAIT Composite and Fluid IQs. Furthermore, the CTONI Geometric NIQ scale clearly demonstrated discriminant and convergent validity, whereas, the CTONI Pictorial NIQ (PNIQ) did not.     

The Protective Role of the Family and Social Support Network in a Sample of HIV-Positive African American Women: Results of a Pilot Study

This study examined the role of family functioning and social support in protecting HIV-positive African American women from the adverse psychological consequences associated with deterioration in their CD4 cell count. Participants were 38 African American HIV-positive women who had recently given birth. Results demonstrated that changes in CD4 cell counts were inversely predictive of psychological distress and were moderated by family functioning and social support satisfaction. Women with good family functioning were less affected by changes in their CD4 cell counts, and women with poor family functioning were more emotionally responsive to changes in CD4 cell count. Unexpectedly, women from families where conflicts tended to be clearly laid out and discussed were also more responsive to both changes in CD4 cell counts. Interventions are recommended that increase a client's social support satisfaction, foster an adaptive level of connectedness to family, and enhance the family's range of conflict resolution styles.     

Negative transfer errors in sequential cognitive skills: strong-but-wrong sequence application

Three experiments investigated the role of processing sequence knowledge in negative transfer within multistep cognitive skills. In Experiments 1 and 2, more training resulted in higher error rates when new processing sequences that resembled familiar ones were introduced in transfer. Transfer error responses were executed with the same speed as correct responses to familiar sequence trials, and the errors appeared to be undetected by the performers. Experiment 3 tested whether the effects of sequence learning were attributable to explicit or implicit knowledge of processing sequences. Evidence favored the implicit learning interpretation. Findings are discussed in relationship to earlier demonstrations of the einstellung effect and to current taxonomic theories of human error.