Development of a parent training program for children with pervasive developmental disorders

Parent delivered interventions based on applied behavior analysis (ABA) for children with Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDDs) have been evaluated using primarily single‐subject design methodology or small case series. While the results of these evaluations are encouraging, an important next step is to standardize the interventions to allow for replication across sites, in studies with large samples and measures of long‐term, clinically meaningful outcomes such as improvements in children's functioning and their relationships with parents. Accordingly, the Research Units on Pediatric Psychopharmacology and Psychosocial Interventions (RUPP Autism Network) assembled a detailed manual for a structured behavioral parent training (PT) program, developed treatment fidelity and training procedures, and conducted a pilot, feasibility study. The PT program is part of a large scale, multisite study intended to determine the efficacy of combined pharmacological treatment and behavioral intervention to improve behavior and adaptive functioning in children with PDD. This paper discusses the rationale for this project. A companion paper provides the results of our feasibility study on the PT program. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Changes in mechanical control of movement during the first 5 months of independent walking: a longitudinal study

Insight into neuromuscular control of movement is gained through an understanding of the mechanical causes of movement. Data on new walkers' net joint moments is scarce, however, although those moments can be considered the direct cause of movement. The authors' goal in this research project was to characterize net joint moments in toddlers (N = 10) during the first 5 months of independent walking and to discuss their role in mechanical control of walking. The authors modeled leg segments as oscillating pendulums fixed at the proximal joint and investigated the relationship between force and movement. Their investigation revealed that at the onset of independent gait, walking was primarily hip driven. Furthermore, the toddlers seemed to experience problems in uncoupling active and passive control around the joints. Changes in mechanical control of walking were observed after 3 to 4 months of independent walking. The changes were more obvious at the hip and the knee joint than at the ankle.     

Adding up the effects of cultural experience on the brain

How does the brain represent number and perform mathematical calculations? According to a recent and provocative study by Tang and colleagues, it depends on which language you learn. They found that the divergent linguistic and cultural experiences of native Chinese and native English speakers are associated with distinct patterns of brain activity during mathematical processing. Their results raise important questions about the cognitive and neural specificity of cultural influences on mathematical processes and the core nature of mathematical cognition.     

How to Tell If a Particular Memory Is True or False

ABSTRACT— How can you tell if a particular memory belonging to you or someone else is true or false? Cognitive scientists use a variety of techniques to measure groups of memories, whereas police, lawyers, and other researchers use procedures to determine whether an individual can be believed or not. We discuss evidence from behavioral and neuroimaging studies and research on lying that have attempted to distinguish true from false memories.     

The development of depth perception from motion parallax in infancy

North Dakota State University, Fargo, North Dakota Little is known about infants' perception of depth from motion parallax, even though it is known that infants are sensitive both to motion and to depth-from-motion cues at an early age. The present experiment assesses whether infants are sensitive to the unambiguous depth specified by motion parallax and, if so, when this sensitivity first develops. Eleven infants were followed longitudinally from 8 to 29 weeks. Infants monocularly viewed a translating Rogers and Graham (1979) random-dot stimulus, which appears as a corrugated surface to adult observers. Using the infant-control habituation paradigm, looking time was recorded for each 10-sec trial until habituation, followed by two test trials: one using a depth-reversed and one using a flat stimulus. Dishabituation results indicate that infants may be sensitive to unambiguous depth from motion parallax by 16 weeks of age. Implications for the developmental sequence of depth from motion, stereopsis, and eye movements are discussed.     

Age differences in learning from text: Evidence for functionally distinct text processing systems

We investigated the influence of sentence elaboration on self‐regulated learning in order to examine age differences in resource allocation to the construction of textbase‐ and discourse‐level representations. Older and younger adults learned about a topic by reading a series of sentences varying in elaboration (from simple factoids to highly elaborated text) and manner of presentation (progressive change in elaboration vs. random change in elaboration). Younger readers were more likely to recall information from factoids; older adults, from highly elaborated text. Relative to young, older readers showed an advantage in the progressive presentation condition, which minimised frequent changes between textbase‐ and discourse‐level processing. Older adults showed poorer memory monitoring for factoids and less elaborated discourse relative to young, but when passages were highly elaborated or presented progressively, age differences were eliminated. Results support the idea that textbase‐ and discourse‐level encoding arise from functionally distinct systems whose regulation depends on text properties and reader age. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Semantic and self-referential processing of positive and negative trait adjectives in older adults

The beneficial effects of self-referential processing on memory have been demonstrated in numerous experiments with younger adults but have rarely been studied in older individuals. In the present study we tested young people, younger-older adults, and older-older adults in a self-reference paradigm, and compared self-referential processing to general semantic processing. Findings indicated that older adults over the age of 75 and those with below average episodic memory function showed a decreased benefit from both semantic and self-referential processing relative to a structural baseline condition. However, these effects appeared to be confined to the shared semantic processes for the two conditions, leaving the added advantage for self-referential processing unaffected These results suggest that reference to the self engages qualitatively different processes compared to general semantic processing. These processes seem relatively impervious to age and to declining memory and executive function, suggesting that they might provide a particularly useful way for older adults to improve their memories.     

Preparing for Year 12 examinations: Predictors of psychological distress and sleep

This study examined the influence of protective factors on psychological distress and sleep among Year 12 students 1 month prior to their externally assessed examinations. The sample included 195 Year 12 students who were to sit for at least one examination. Students completed the Adolescent Resilience Questionnaire, a measure of subjective stress, the Depression Anxiety and Stress Scales – 21, and measures of sleep. A sizeable minority of students reported high levels of subjective stress, severe symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress, and very inadequate sleep. Freedom from negative cognitions was the factor most strongly associated with protection from psychological distress. None of the factors protected against inadequate sleep. Results showed few gender differences. The findings validate popular concern about the wellbeing of Year 12 students. They also confirm that protective factors do not provide equal protection for all individuals against all adverse outcomes.