The Significance of Romantic Love for Marriage

In this study, 605 subjects were asked about romantic love and marriage. Married people differentiated themselves from single people with stable partners and divorced people with new partners by more frequently living together with their great love, more reciprocity in that love, and less disappointments in love relationships prior to the current relationship; but they also described themselves as less happy and satisfied than the single and divorced respondents, particularly with regard to tenderness, sex, and conversation with their partners. Independent of marital status, those who were greatly in love with their partners describe themselves as happier. Love at first sight, relative to a gradually developing love, nevertheless, did not have a worse prognosis for happiness in marriage. Being in love seems to be of greater importance for the prognosis of the marriage than marital happiness and satisfaction.     

The effects of binge MDMA on acquisition and reversal learning in a radial-arm maze task

The current study used the partially-baited radial-arm maze paradigm to study the effects of a single-treatment high-dose exposure ('binge') to MDMA (± 3,4-methylenedioxymethaphemtamine or 'Ecstasy') on memory task acquisition. Sprague-Dawley rats were administered a binge dose (4 × 10 mg/kg) of MDMA and their ability to subsequently acquire the radial-arm maze task was compared against saline controls. The MDMA-treated rats were significantly slower to learn the task and made more reference memory errors than the controls. Working memory function was found to be relatively unimpaired. Following a reversal of task rules the MDMA-treated rats were again significantly slower to acquire the appropriate rule despite having eventually achieved a similar level of overall performance as control rats. However evidence of drug tolerance was found when all rats were challenged with an acute low dose of MDMA (1 × 4.0 mg/kg) because the binge MDMA rats were relatively less impaired. Therefore, although binge treated MDMA rats were able to achieve very accurate performance equivalent to the controls they took significantly longer to do this and were less able to adapt their behavior to a change in task rules. In addition the binge treated MDMA rats displayed tolerance to acute MDMA exposure. These findings are consistent with the possibility that human Ecstasy users may show deficits in acquiring information and may experience deficits in cognitive flexibility as well as developing tolerance to the drug with repeated exposure.     

Effects of preference on performing a self-care skill among children with autism spectrum disorder

In this study, four children with autism were assessed to determine their preference choices for toothbrushes and toothpastes included during self-care skills teaching sessions. For two of the children, the presence of high-preference (HP) materials was associated with improved independent tooth brushing when compared to the presence of low-preference (LP) materials. There was no difference in independent tooth brushing between HP/LP conditions for the other two children. These findings suggest that preference and choice of materials alone can be a helpful instructional strategy for care providers serving children who have neurodevelopmental disorders and skill deficits.     

The hybrid split ad technique and onsite rewards

With a ‘split ad’, information is presented as two distinct parts, such as when two short commercials for a given brand are separated by other television content. Two studies are presented in this paper which demonstrate the advantages of an emerging form of the split ad strategy, which is termed the ‘hybrid split ad’ technique. Using this approach, a message typically begins in a traditional medium and then concludes at a website. In Experiment 1, the hybrid split ad technique is shown to enhance attitudes towards an advertised product by increasing the perceived importance of favourable attributes provided at the website. Experiment 2 replicates this finding and also addresses an issue of managerial importance, namely, how to motivate consumers to pursue the second (web‐based) portion of the ad. Offering consumers an incentive at the website is useful in this regard, provided that the incentive is small enough not to undermine the positive effects of the hybrid split ad.     

Evidence‐Based Effective Practices With Older Adults

Older persons constitute an increasingly large population with significant mental health challenges. The authors review outcome research for both diagnosable conditions and late‐life transitions as a basis for evidence‐based practice with this population. Implications for clinical practice in professional counseling, counselor education and supervision, and research are considered.     

Further analysis of picture interference when teaching word recognition to children with autism

Previous research indicates that pairing pictures with associated words when teaching sight-word reading may hinder acquisition (e.g., Didden, Prinsen, & Sigafoos, 2000; Singh & Solman, 1990; Solman & Singh, 1992). The purpose of the current study was to determine whether this phenomenon was due to a previously learned association between the spoken word and picture (i.e., blocking) or due to the mere presence of a picture as an extrastimulus prompt (i.e., overshadowing). Three participants were taught to recognize words that were presented alone or paired with pictures that the participants either could or could not identify prior to training. All participants learned the words more quickly when they were presented alone rather than with pictures, regardless of their prior learning history with respect to pictures representing the words. This finding is consistent with the phenomenon of overshadowing. Nonetheless, consistent with blocking, all participants also acquired the words presented alone more quickly if they could not identify the associated pictures prior to training. Together, these findings have important implications for using prompts when teaching skills to individuals with developmental disabilities.     

Psychosocial Factors in Noncompliance During Liver Transplant Selection

This exploratory study attempted to identify characteristics of patients selected for transplant compared to those who had not demonstrated 6 months alcohol, drug and tobacco abstinence at the time of candidacy assessment. In a consecutive sample of 112 patients referred for liver transplant, almost half failed this criteria. Comparisons on psychometric measures of coping, social support, and health status revealed noncompliant patients to be significantly less authority abiding, less concerned about their illness, and less spiritually-oriented. Persisting alcohol use was paradoxically associated with greater psychosocial support whereas depression was related to smoking. Prior drug use was associated with more cognitive symptom complaints, emotional constriction, a vulnerability to feel dejection and a proneness to abuse medications These findings were discussed as a possible opportunity to identify and address characteristics of transplant candidates to reduce their risk of perpetuating noncompliance while competing for a life saving intervention.     

The Effect of Thin Ideal Media Images on Women’s Self-Objectification, Mood, and Body Image

Objectification theory (Fredrickson and Roberts, Psychology of Women Quarterly, 21, 173–206, 1997) contends that experiences of sexual objectification socialize women to engage in self-objectification. The present study used an experimental design to examine the effects of media images on self-objectification. A total of 90 Australian undergraduate women aged 18 to 35 were randomly allocated to view magazine advertisements featuring a thin woman, advertisements featuring a thin woman with at least one attractive man, or advertisements in which no people were featured. Participants who viewed advertisements featuring a thin-idealized woman reported greater state self-objectification, weight-related appearance anxiety, negative mood, and body dissatisfaction than participants who viewed product control advertisements. The results demonstrate that self-objectification can be stimulated in women without explicitly focusing attention on their own bodies.     

Stripes within words affect reading

In a series of eight studies it is shown that the first peak in the horizontal autocorrelation of the image of a word (which captures the similarity in shape between the neighbouring strokes of letters) determines (i) the appearance of the words as striped; (ii) the speed with which the words are read, both aloud and silently; and (iii) the speed with which a paragraph of text can be searched. By subtly distorting the horizontal dimension of text, and thereby reducing the first peak in the horizontal autocorrelation, it is shown that the speed of word recognition can be increased. The increase in speed is greater in poor readers.