An experimental test of the effect of weight-loss dieting on bulimic pathology: tipping the scales in a different direction

Although it is widely accepted that dieting increases the risk for bulimic pathology, this hypothesis has not been tested in a randomized experiment. Accordingly, the authors conducted an experimental test of the dietary restraint model by randomly assigning nonobese women (N = 82) to either a 6-week, low-calorie diet or a waitlist control condition. The diet intervention resulted in significant weight loss, confirming that dieting was successfully manipulated. Contrary to the restraint model, dieting resulted in significant decreases in bulimic symptoms relative to the control condition. Results converge with past findings from randomized obesity prevention and treatment trials and provide evidence that dieting does not promote bulimic pathology; rather, effective decreases in caloric intake appear to reduce bulimic symptoms.     

Effects of daily events on mood states in major depressive disorder

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is characterized by high negative affect (NA) and low positive affect (PA), but little is known about emotional reactivity in daily life. The authors used experience sampling methodology to investigate changes in NA and PA following minor daily events in MDD compared with healthy participants. Contrary to expectation, MDD participants did not report more frequent negative events, although they did report fewer positive events. Multilevel regression showed that both NA and PA responses to negative events were blunted in the MDD group, whereas responses to positive events were enhanced. NA responses to negative events persisted longer in MDD participants. Depressed participants with a positive family history or longer current episodes showed relatively greater NA responses to negative events.     

A categorical and dimensional perspective on depression within a nonclinical sample of couples

The present study investigated the role of psychosocial variables that are indicators for depressive symptomatology within a couple. The variables chosen for this study were conflict communication, marital adjustment, attachment, attribution style, and personality traits--all potentially specific indicators. A global factor analysis on all our measures revealed that our individual and relational measures were stable findings. We wanted to compare a dimensional and categorical view of depression. First, we focused on the total nonclinical sample, considering depression on a continuum, and studying the selected characteristics along with the varying degree of depressive complaints. The results highlighted the importance of individual characteristics (neuroticism and life satisfaction) covarying with the level of depressive symptomatology in the nonclinical sample (n = 186 couples). Second, in addition to this correlational design, we compared the group of most depressed subjects and their partners with a control sample (n = 34). Both approaches pointed to the same conclusion: individual characteristics covaried with mild depression, whereas couple characteristics only came into the picture with a higher level of depressive complaints. The lowest levels of depressive complaints were associated with individual co-morbidity only, whereas increasing complaints went along with additional relational complaints. Implications for assessment and future research are discussed.     

An outcome evaluation of the implementation of the Triple P-Positive Parenting Program in Hong Kong

The present study evaluated the effectiveness of the Positive Parenting Program (Triple P) with a sample of Chinese parents of children with early onset conduct-related problems in Hong Kong. The participants consisted of 91 parents whose children attended maternal and child health centers and child assessment centers for service, and were between three to seven years old. Participants were randomly assigned to the intervention (TP) and a waitlist control group (WL). There was no significant difference in pre-intervention measures between the two groups. However, at post intervention, participants in the TP group reported significantly lower levels of child behavior problems, lower dysfunctional parenting styles, and higher parent sense of competence, compared to the WL group. Implications of these findings for the use of Triple P with families of Chinese descent are discussed.     

Motivating operations and terms to describe them: some further refinements

Over the past decade, behavior analysts have increasingly used the term establishing operation (EO) to refer to environmental events that influence the behavioral effects of operant consequences. Nonetheless, some elements of current terminology regarding EOs may interfere with applied behavior analysts' efforts to predict, control, describe, and understand behavior. The present paper (a) describes how the current conceptualization of the EO is in need of revision, (b) suggests alternative terms, including the generic term motivating operation (MO), and (c) provides examples of MOs and their behavioral effects using articles from the applied behavior analysis literature.     

Sequential evaluation of behavioral treatments and methylphenidate dosage for children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

We used a sequential approach to evaluate the relative and combined effects of different types of behavioral treatments, as well as dosage of methylphenidate (MPH), on the disruptive behavior of 3 students who had been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Results showed that individualized behavioral treatments produced decreases in disruptive behavior equivalent to MPH for all 3 participants and demonstrated the need to evaluate behavioral treatments and medication dosage on an individual basis.     

The validity of psychophysiological detection of information with the Guilty Knowledge Test: a meta-analytic review

The authors performed a meta-analysis based on 169 conditions, gathered from 80 laboratory studies, to estimate the validity of the Guilty Knowledge Test (GKT) with the electrodermal measure. The overall average effect size was 1.55, but there were considerable variations among studies. In particular, mock-crime studies produced the highest average effect size (2.09). Three additional moderators were identified: Motivational instructions, deceptive ("no") verbal responses, and the use of at least 5 questions were associated with enhanced validity. Finally, a set of 10 studies that best approximated applications of the GKT under optimal conditions produced an average effect size of 3.12. The authors discuss factors that might limit the generalizability of these results and recommend further research of the GKT in realistic setups.     

An evaluation of a three-component model of occupational commitment: dimensionality and consequences among United Kingdom human resource management specialists

This study evaluated the J. P. Meyer, N. J. Allen, and C. A. Smith (1993) model of occupational commitment using a sample of 678 United Kingdom human resource management specialists. Support was found for the 3-component model, and findings suggest that the consequences of the affective, normative, and continuance components differ. Affective and continuance commitment were negatively related to occupational withdrawal cognitions, whereas normative commitment was negatively related to withdrawal cognitions only when continuance commitment was low. Affective and, to a lesser extent. normative commitment were related to intention to participate in professional activities. Continuance commitment had no significant relationship with intention to participate in professional activities.     

An examination of the value of the generation effect for learning new material

The generation effect involves an improvement in memory when learners must complete or modify materials. Several researchers have suggested that this effect involves enhanced access to learners' existing memory representations; therefore, the effect should be less effective with meaningless, low meaningful, or unfamiliar material. In the present study, the authors conducted 4 experiments in which legal nonwords were used, and they found no generation effect. In another 2 experiments in which familiar clichés were contrasted with new sentences and with unfamiliar sentences from textbooks, the results showed a greatly reduced generation effect for the new, unfamiliar material. Those findings suggest that memory strategies that depend on the generation effect will have limited effectiveness when they are applied to new or unfamiliar material.     

Event-related potential and behavioral measures of attention in 5-, 7-, and 9-year-olds

In 2 experiments, the development of auditory selective attention in children was assessed. The participants, aged 5, 7, and 9 years, responded to target stimuli in the left ear for 1 series (ignoring the standard stimuli) and in the right ear for the other series. In Experiment 1, event-related potentials (ERPs) evoked by the auditory stimuli were recorded from frontal, central, and parietal sites. The 9-year-olds showed a greater processing negativity (Nd) to the attended channel compared with the 5-year-olds. Both 7- and 9-year-olds showed significantly larger amplitudes for the P3 component of ERPs in the attended vs. ignored condition. Behaviorally, the 5-year-olds made fewer hits and more false alarms than did older children, and the 9-year-olds made significantly more false alarms than did the 7-year-olds. The results of Experiment 2 showed that the detriment in the performance of the 9-year-olds was a result of task parameters. The inability of 5-year-olds to attend selectively appears to involve problems with the inhibition of the processing of irrelevant information and with selection of the correct response.