Specificity of Reward Sensitivity and Parasympathetic-Based Regulation among Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity and Disruptive Behavior Disorders

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is associated with disruptionsin reward sensitivity and regulatory processes. However, it is unclear whether thesedisruptions are better explained by comorbid disruptive behavior disorder (DBD)symptomology. This study sought to examine this question using multiple levels ofanalysis (i.e., behavior, autonomic reactivity). One hundred seventeen children (aged 6 to 12 years; 72.6% male; 69 with ADHD) completed theBalloon-Analogue Risk Task (BART) to assess external reward sensitivity behaviorally.Sympathetic-based internal reward sensitivity and parasympathetic-based regulationwere indexed via cardiac pre-ejection period (PEP) and respiratory sinus arrhythmia(RSA), respectively. Children with ADHD exhibited reduced internal reward sensitivity (i.e.,lengthened PEP; F(1,112)=4.01, p=0.047) compared to healthy controls and werecharacterized by greater parasympathetic-based dysregulation (i.e., reduced RSAaugmentation F(1,112)=10.12, p=0.002). However, follow-up analyses indicated theADHD effect was better accounted for by comorbid DBD diagnoses; that is, childrenwith ADHD and comorbid ODD were characterized by reduced internal rewardsensitivity (i.e., lengthened PEP; t=2.47, p=0.046) and by parasympathetic-baseddysregulation (i.e., reduced RSA augmentation; t=3.51, p=0.002) in response to rewardwhen compared to typically developing youth. Furthermore, children with ADHD and comorbid CD exhibited greater behaviorally-based external reward sensitivity (i.e.,more total pops; F(3,110)= 5.96, p=0.001) compared to children with ADHD only (t=3.87, p=0.001) and children with ADHD and ODD (t=3.56, p=0.003). Results suggest that disruptions in sensitivity to reward may be betteraccounted for, in part, by comorbid DBD.Key Words: attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autonomic nervous system,disruptive behavior disorders, reward sensitivityPowered     

Words and possible words in early language acquisition

In order to acquire language, infants must extract its building blocks—words—and master the rules governing their legal combinations from speech. These two problems are not independent, however: words also have internal structure. Thus, infants must extract two kinds of information from the same speech input. They must find the actual words of their language. Furthermore, they must identify its possible words, that is, the sequences of sounds that, being morphologically well formed, could be words. Here, we show that infants’ sensitivity to possible words appears to be more primitive and fundamental than their ability to find actual words. We expose 12- and 18-month-old infants to an artificial language containing a conflict between statistically coherent and structurally coherent items. We show that 18-month-olds can extract possible words when the familiarization stream contains marks of segmentation, but cannot do so when the stream is continuous. Yet, they can find actual words from a continuous stream by computing statistical relationships among syllables. By contrast, 12-month-olds can find possible words when familiarized with a segmented stream, but seem unable to extract statistically coherent items from a continuous stream that contains minimal conflicts between statistical and structural information. These results suggest that sensitivity to word structure is in place earlier than the ability to analyze distributional information. The ability to compute nontrivial statistical relationships becomes fully effective relatively late in development, when infants have already acquired a considerable amount of linguistic knowledge. Thus, mechanisms for structure extraction that do not rely on extensive sampling of the input are likely to have a much larger role in language acquisition than general-purpose statistical abilities.     

The Planning of Change: Readings in the Applied Behavioral Sciences by Warren G. Bennis,Kenneth D. Benne,and Robert Chin

This paper explains the concept of di-egophrenia and contrasts the dynamics of and treatment approach for di-egophrenics with those advocated for borderlines. The essential difference between the two is that the former functions with an introjected parental pseudo-ego and a submerged ego, while the latter suffers from a split ego. Ambivalence is described as the central feature of the di-egophrenic. Treatment of the di-egopltrenic is then detailed, with psychoanalysis in groups recommended as a treatment adjunct of particular value along with the alternate session. An experimental group solely composed of di-egophrenics is described and outcomes for members of this group are discussed.     

Tracing Leadership in Gifted Children

The aim of this study was to determine whether characteristics of leadership identified among adults also exist among young gifted children. The study was conducted in Israel among 63 gifted children aged 10 to 14 who completed the Leadership Questionnaire, constructed especially for this study. The characteristics found to distinguish between high and low scorers on leadership were responsibility, desire to dominate, consistency, physical energy, achievement orientation, expressive and persuasive powers, cooperation, adaptability, daring, self-confidence, and emotional equilibrium. The results confirmed our hypothesis that the characteristics of leadership identified in adults do exist among gifted children.     

Gender and Deviance: A Comparison of College Students in Japan and the United States

Although evidence abounds in American criminology that young males are more prone to deviance than females, relatively little is known about the magnitude of the gender gap in deviance across cultures. Drawing on the literature concerning “risk taking” in power-control theory and on theory and research concerning cultural variability in “uncertainty avoidance,” we offer a rationale for predicting that the gender differences in levels of deviance are less among Japanese youth than Americans. Among Japanese, the level of male deviance should be closer to that of females because “uncertainty avoidance” is a strong component of Japanese culture that affects socialization of both males and females. Analysis of identical survey data from college students in Japan and the United States provides strong support for our argument.     

Disappointment for others

Two studies examined when and why people experience disappointment for others. Study 1 demonstrated that participants reported disappointment for another's outcome only when the outcome had strong personal implications. Study 2 demonstrated that self-image concerns rather than empathy or resource concerns mediated the experience of disappointment for others. Collectively, these findings suggest that people experience disappointment for others when those outcomes implicate the self-image.     

Learning from Conflicting Texts: The Role of Intertextual Conflict Resolution in Between-Text Integration

The present study examined the effect of intertextual conflict resolution on learning from conflicting texts. In two experiments, participants read sets of two texts under the condition of being encouraged either to resolve a conflict between the texts' arguments (the resolution condition) or to comprehend the arguments (the comprehension condition). Experiment 1 found that participants in the resolution condition surpassed participants in the comprehension condition at the understanding of the controversial subjects and succeeded in the understanding of the intertextual relationships. Experiment 2 found that participants in the resolution condition recalled compatible and incompatible information from the texts more than did participants in the comprehension condition. The recalled information from one text was also positively correlated with that from the opposite text. These results suggest that intertextual conflict resolution facilitates successful integration of conflicting arguments in texts in terms of the documents model framework (e.g., Britt & Rouet, 2012).     

Analysis of Recruitment Strategies: Enrolling Veterans With PTSD Into a Clinical Trial

This analysis evaluated the efficacy of a variety of recruitment methods employed in a medication trial in a veteran population. Recruitment and demographic data were collected over the course of a randomized controlled trial (RCT) assessing the efficacy of an experimental medication for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Multivariate logistic regression was used to identify demographic and recruitment variables predictive of consenting to participation in the trial. Data were collected for 1,050 potential study participants. As compared with individuals contacted by mail based on chart review, potential participants who were referred by a clinician were 3 times more likely to consent to participate, and individuals who responded to an advertisement were 5 times more likely to consent to participate. Females were more likely to respond to advertisements, whereas males were more likely to be referred. Those who were referred were significantly older than potential participants identified via the directed mailing. Clinician referral was the method most likely to lead to identifying an eligible and willing participant. When designing a recruitment plan for a clinical trial, factors such as the target sample and available staff should be carefully considered.     

Motion-induced blindness is influenced by global properties of the moving mask

Perceptual fluctuations experienced during motion-induced blindness (MIB) have been characterized as the result of a competition between representations of the moving mask and stationary (or slowly moving) targets (Bonneh, Cooperman, & Sagi, 2001). While there is evidence to support a local influence of the mask on target disappearance, what is not yet clear is whether the global properties of the mask can likewise impact disappearance. In the present study, we investigated the presence of a global effect of the mask on MIB by manipulating global motion properties of the mask while controlling its local motion properties surrounding the target. Results showed a significant impact of the global mask properties on the observed degree of disappearance. We also tested for a complementary local effect by comparing conditions in which we manipulated local mask properties while controlling global properties. This analysis did not yield evidence for a local effect, although this may have been due to our weaker manipulation of local mask properties compared to previous studies. Overall, the present results highlight a key role of global stimulus representations in producing the perceptual disappearances observed in MIB.