Switching between environmental representations in memory

In everyday life we accomplish tasks that require the storage and access of mental representations of different environments that we are not currently perceiving. Past research has suggested that environments are encoded by a series of independent representations that are organized in memory. Three experiments tested this idea further by asking whether multiple representations of environments can be accessed simultaneously. Using a cued task-set switching paradigm, subjects judged spatial relationships between target locations in two familiar environments. Response times were longer when successive trials probed different environments, an effect not due to switching between semantic categories or semantic priming, suggesting that representations of environments are accessed sequentially. Implications for various hypotheses concerning the properties of environmental representations are discussed.     

The efficacy of conjoint behavioral consultation on parents and children in the home setting: Results of a randomized controlled trial

The present study is a large-scale randomized trial testing the effects of a family–school partnership model (i.e., Conjoint Behavioral Consultation, CBC) for promoting behavioral competence and decreasing problem behaviors of children identified by their teachers as disruptive. CBC is a structured approach to problem-solving that involves consultants, parents, and teachers. The effects of CBC on family variables that are commonly associated with important outcomes among school-aged children (i.e., family involvement and parent competence in problem solving), as well as child outcomes at home, were evaluated. Participants were 207 children with disruptive behaviors from 91 classrooms in 21 schools in kindergarten through grade 3 and their parents and teachers. Results indicated that there were significantly different increases in home–school communication and parent competence in problem solving for participants in the CBC relative to control group. Likewise, compared to children in the control group, children in the CBC group showed significantly greater decreases in arguing, defiance, noncompliance, and tantrums. The degree of family risk moderated parents' competence in problem solving and children's total problem behaviors, teasing, and tantrums.     

Developments in child psychotherapy in Australia: an introduction

This article describes a type of intervention with parents that attempts to stimulate and encourage empathic imagination in relation to their child's difficult behaviour. Some barriers to this process are explored in the context of wider cultural influences, particularly as they pertain to the USA. Basic cultural assumptions about children, their emotional life and development, are contrasted to basic assumptions in British Object Relations Theory. Examples of parent consultations are offered and theoretical reference points are suggested.     

Pictorial superiority effects in oldest-old people

We examined memory for pictures and words in middle-age (45–59 years), young-old (60–74 years), old-old (75–89 years), and the oldest-old adults (90–97 years) in the Louisiana Healthy Aging Study. Stimulus items were presented and retention was tested in a blocked order where half of the participants studied 16 simple line drawings and the other half studied matching words during acquisition. Free recall and recognition followed. In the next acquisition/test block a new set of items was used where the stimulus format was changed relative to the first block. Results yielded pictorial superiority effects in both retention measures for all age groups. Follow-up analyses of clustering in free recall revealed that a greater number of categories were accessed (which reflects participants’ retrieval plan) and more items were recalled per category (which reflects participants’ encoding strategy) when pictures served as stimuli compared to words. Cognitive status and working memory span were correlated with picture and word recall. Regression analyses confirmed that these individual difference variables accounted for significant age-related variance in recall. These data strongly suggest that the oldest-old can utilise nonverbal memory codes to support long-term retention as effectively as do younger adults.     

Military police investigator perspectives of a new self-reflective approach to strengthening resilience: A qualitative study

In this study, we explored participants’ experiences of a unique form of resilience training. The aims of this study were to obtain rich information about the participants’ experience of the resilience intervention based on adaptive self-reflection, their ability to report the private stress experience and coping efforts when faced with a stressor, their perceptions of training applicability to other contexts, and whether the training was able to encourage the reappraisal of stressors as growth opportunities. A qualitative design was employed with a sample of 21 investigator trainees from the Australian Defence Force School of Policing. Following implementation of the program, trainees provided written responses to seven open ended questions and participated in one focus group designed to embellish understanding of the survey answers. The analysis identified both strengths and limitations in the way respondents were able to recall and report on their private stress experience and coping efforts and several domains where the resilience training seemed to have its effects. Moreover, the respondents reported increased confidence in their ability to manage stressors in the future, recognition of stress in others and the potential to assist them, and a changed view of stress as an opportunity for personal development. Based on these findings, potential improvements in the training materials are recommended. Moreover, the findings suggest coping and emotion regulatory self-reflection may encourage the application of useful strategies and reinforce personal resilient capacities and coping self-efficacy.     

A Dose-Ranging Study of Behavioral and Pharmacological Treatment in Social Settings for Children with ADHD

Placebo and three doses of methylphenidate (MPH) were crossed with 3 levels of behavioral modification (no behavioral modification, NBM; low-intensity behavioral modification, LBM; and high-intensity behavior modification, HBM) in the context of a summer treatment program (STP). Participants were 48 children with ADHD, aged 5–12. Behavior was examined in a variety of social settings (sports activities, art class, lunch) that are typical of elementary school, neighborhood, and after-school settings. Children received each behavioral condition for 3 weeks, order counterbalanced across groups. Children concurrently received in random order placebo, 0.15 mg/kg/dose, 0.3 mg/kg/dose, or 0.6 mg/kg/dose MPH, 3 times daily with dose manipulated on a daily basis in random order for each child. Both behavioral and medication treatments produced highly significant and positive effects on children’s behavior. The treatment modalities also interacted significantly. Whereas there was a linear dose–response curve for medication in NBM, the dose–response curves flattened considerably in LBM and HBM. Behavior modification produced effects as large as moderate doses, and on some measures, high doses of medication. These results replicate and extend to social-recreational settings previously reported results in a classroom setting from the same sample (Fabiano et al., School Psychology Review, 36, 195–216, 2007). Results illustrate the importance of taking dosage/intensity into account when evaluating combined treatments; there were no benefits of combined treatments when the dosage of either treatment was high but combination of the low-dose treatments produced substantial incremental improvement over unimodal treatment.