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.     

Children's Emotional Reactivity to Interadult Nonverbal Conflict Expressions

The authors investigated children's responses to nonverbal expressions of conflict. Reactions of 3 groups of children (ranging in age from 6 to 16 years) to multiple forms of nonverbal conflict behaviors expressed in videotaped simulations of interadult disputes were examined. Results indicated that children make few discriminations between different forms of nonverbal conflict behaviors and that their reactions to nonverbal conflict are similar to their reactions to verbal conflict. Adults' expressions of fear elicited the most negative emotional responses from children, suggesting that children react to the meaning of conflict expressions and that expressions of fear may represent the greatest emotional security risks to children. Implications of these results for a theoretical model of the effects of forms of marital conflict on children are discussed (P. T. Davies & E. M. Cummings, 1994).     

Faces are special,but facial expressions aren’t: Insights from an oculomotor capture paradigm

We compared the ability of angry and neutral faces to drive oculomotor behaviour as a test of the widespread claim that emotional information is automatically prioritized when competing for attention. Participants were required to make a saccade to a colour singleton; photos of angry or neutral faces appeared amongst other objects within the array, and were completely irrelevant for the task. Eye-tracking measures indicate that faces drive oculomotor behaviour in a bottom-up fashion; however, angry faces are no more likely to capture the eyes than neutral faces are. Saccade latencies suggest that capture occurrs via reflexive saccades and that the outcome of competition between salient items (colour singletons and faces) may be subject to fluctuations in attentional control. Indeed, although angry and neutral faces captured the eyes reflexively on a portion of trials, participants successfully maintained goal-relevant oculomotor behaviour on a majority of trials. We outline potential cognitive and brain mechanisms underlying oculomotor capture by faces.     

Enhanced inhibitory avoidance learning prevents the long-term memory-impairing effects of cycloheximide,a protein synthesis inhibitor

Interference with activity of numerous cerebral structures produces memory deficiencies; in many instances, however, when animals are over-trained such interference becomes innocuous. Systemic administration of protein synthesis inhibitors impairs long-term retention; this effect has been interpreted to mean that protein synthesis is required for memory consolidation, though little is known about the effect of protein synthesis inhibitors on memory of enhanced learning in the rat. To further analyze the protective effect of enhanced learning against amnesic treatments, groups of Wistar rats were trained in a one-trial step-through inhibitory avoidance task, using different intensities of foot-shock during training. Cycloheximide (CXM; 2.8 mg/kg), an inhibitor of protein synthesis, was injected either 30 min before training or immediately after training. Twenty-four hours after training retention latencies were recorded. Our data showed that both pre- and post-training administration of CXM produced amnesia in those groups that had been trained with relatively low foot-shock intensities, but no impairment in retention was observed when relatively high intensities of foot-shock were administered. These and similar results lead us to conclude that protein synthesis inhibitors may interfere with memory consolidation, but their effect disappears when animals are submitted to an enhanced learning experience, calling into question the idea that protein synthesis is required for memory consolidation.     

Glucocorticoids enhance taste aversion memory via actions in the insular cortex and basolateral amygdala

It is well established that glucocorticoid hormones strengthen the consolidation of hippocampus-dependent spatial and contextual memory. The present experiments investigated glucocorticoid effects on the long-term formation of conditioned taste aversion (CTA), an associative learning task that does not depend critically on hippocampal function. Corticosterone (1.0 or 3.0 mg/kg) administered subcutaneously to male Sprague–Dawley rats immediately after the pairing of saccharin consumption with the visceral malaise-inducing agent lithium chloride (LiCl) dose-dependently increased aversion to the saccharin taste on a 96-h retention test trial. In a second experiment, rats received corticosterone either immediately after saccharin consumption or after the LiCl injection, when both stimuli were separated by a 3-h time interval, to investigate whether corticosterone enhances memory of the gustatory or visceral stimulus presentation. Consistent with the finding that the LiCl injection, but not saccharin consumption, increases endogenous corticosterone levels, corticosterone selectively enhanced CTA memory when administered after the LiCl injection. Suppression of this training-induced release of corticosterone with the synthesis-inhibitor metyrapone (35 mg/kg) impaired CTA memory, and was dose-dependently reversed by post-training supplementation of corticosterone. Moreover, direct post-training infusions of corticosterone into the insular cortex or basolateral complex of the amygdala, two brain regions that are critically involved in the acquisition and consolidation of CTA, also enhanced CTA retention, whereas post-training infusions into the dorsal hippocampus were ineffective. These findings provide evidence that glucocorticoid effects on memory consolidation are not limited to hippocampus-dependent spatial/contextual information, but that these hormones also modulate memory consolidation of discrete-cue associative learning via actions in other brain regions.     

Maternal Identity Among Motherless Mothers and Psychological Symptoms in Their Firstborn Children

A variety of detrimental effects are associated with early parental loss. We examined the relationship between childhood maternal loss and maternal identity among 30 motherless mothers and their 26 matched controls, as well as the psychological health of their firstborns. Motherless mothers reported significantly lower maternal identity. However, firstborns of motherless mothers were no more likely to display psychological symptoms than firstborns of comparison mothers. The findings suggest that early maternal loss may not present risk for cross-generational effects.     

The impact of depressive symptomatology on risky sexual behavior and sexual communication among African American female adolescents

Adolescents, particularly African American adolescents, are at high risk for sexually transmitted infections (STIs). The association between psychosocial factors and risky sexual behavior has been well established. However, only a small number of studies have examined the relationship between depressive symptomatology among African American female adolescents, specifically over time. The present study examined depressive symptoms as a predictor of risky sexual behavior, sexual communication, and STIs longitudinally among African American female adolescents between the ages 15 and 21. Binary generalized estimating equation models were conducted assessing the impact of depressive symptoms at baseline on risky sexual behavior and STIs over six- and 12-months follow-up. Age, intervention group, and baseline outcome measures were entered as covariates. The results indicated that high levels of depressive symptoms predicted no condom use during last sexual encounter and multiple sexual partners over six-months follow-up. Depressive symptoms also predicted having a main partner with concurrent partners, high fear of communication about condoms, and sex while high on alcohol or drugs over six- and 12-months follow-up. These findings could be used to inform HIV/STI prevention intervention programs and clinicians providing regular health care maintenance to African American female adolescents engaging in risky sexual behavior.     

Age-neutrality of the NEO-PI-R: Potential Differential Item Functioning in Older Versus Younger Adults

Geriatric researchers and clinicians often have to deal with a lack of valid personality measures for older age groups (e.g., Mroczek, Hurt, & Berman, 1999; Zweig 2008), which hampers a reliable assessment of personality in later life. An age-neutral measurement system is one of the basic conditions for an accurate personality assessment across the lifespan, both longitudinally and cross-sectionally. In the present study, we empirically investigate the age-neutrality of one of the most widely used personality measures (i.e., the NEO PI-R (Costa & McCrae, 1992)), by examining potential Differential Item Functioning (DIF). Overall, results indicate that the vast majority (92.9?% at domain-level and 95?% at facet-level) of the NEO PI-R items was similarly endorsed by younger and older age groups with the same position on the personality trait of interest, corroborating the NEO PI-R??s age neutrality. However, Differential Test Functioning (DTF) analyses revealed large DTF for Extraversion, and facet A6 (Tender-Mindedness). Results are discussed in terms of their implications for using the current format of the NEO PI-R in older aged samples.     

Emotion and Pain: A Functional Cerebral Systems Integration

Emotion and pain are psychological constructs that have received extensive attention in neuropsychological research. However, neuropsychological models of emotional processing have made more progress in describing how brain regions interact to process emotion. Theories of emotional processing can describe inter-hemispheric and intra-hemispheric interactions during emotional processing. Due to similarities between emotion and pain, it is thought that emotional models can be applied to pain. The following review examines the neuropsychology of emotion and pain using a functional cerebral systems approach. Specific comparisons are made between pain and anger. Attention is given to differences in cerebral function and physiology that may contribute to the processing of emotion and pain. Suggestions for future research in emotion and pain are given.     

NORMAL PEER MODELS AND AUTISTIC CHILDREN'S LEARNING

Present research and legislation regarding mainstreaming autistic children into normal classrooms have raised the importance of studying whether autistic children can benefit from observing normal peer models. The present investigation systematically assessed whether autistic children's learning of discrimination tasks could be improved if they observed normal children perform the tasks correctly. In the context of a multiple baseline design, four autistic children worked on five discrimination tasks that their teachers reported were posing difficulty. Throughout the baseline condition the children evidenced very low levels of correct responding on all five tasks. In the subsequent treatment condition, when normal peers modeled correct responses, the autistic children's correct responding increased dramatically. In each case, the peer modeling procedure produced rapid achievement of the acquisition criterion which was maintained after the peer models were removed. These results are discussed in relation to issues concerning observational learning and in relation to the implications for mainstreaming autistic children into normal classrooms.