Social Cohesion and Self-Rated Health: The Moderating Effect of Neighborhood Physical Disorder

Using data from the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey and its companion datasets, we examined how neighborhood disorder, perceived danger and both individually perceived and contextually measured neighborhood social cohesion are associated with self-rated health. Results indicate that neighborhood disorder is negatively associated with health and the relationship is explained by perceived cohesion and danger, which are both also significant predictors of health. Further, individually perceived cohesion emerges as a more important explanation of self-rated health than neighborhood-level social cohesion. Finally, neighborhood disorder and perceived cohesion interact to influence health, such that cohesion is especially beneficial when residents live in neighborhoods characterized by low to moderate disorder; once disorder is at high levels, cohesion no longer offers protection against poor health. We interpret our findings as they relate to prior research on neighborhoods, psychosocial processes, and health, and discuss their implications for intervention efforts that address disorder in urban communities.     

The influence of adaptation and inhibition on the effects of onset asynchrony on auditory grouping

Onset asynchrony is an important cue for auditory scene analysis. For example, a harmonic of a vowel that begins before the other components contributes less to the perceived phonetic quality. This effect was thought primarily to involve high-level grouping processes, because the contribution can be partly restored by accompanying the leading portion of the harmonic (precursor) with a synchronous captor tone an octave higher, and hence too remote to influence adaptation of the auditory-nerve response to that harmonic. However, recent work suggests that this restoration effect arises instead from inhibitory interactions relatively early in central auditory processing. The experiments reported here have reevaluated the role of adaptation in grouping by onset asynchrony and explored further the inhibitory account of the restoration effect. Varying the frequency of the precursor in the range ± 10% relative to the vowel harmonic (Experiment 1), or introducing a silent interval from 0 to 320 ms between the precursor and the vowel (Experiment 2), both produce effects on vowel quality consistent with those predicted from peripheral adaptation or recovery from it. However, there were some listeners for whom even the smallest gap largely eliminated the effect of the precursor. Consistent with the inhibitory account of the restoration effect, a contralateral pure tone whose frequency is close to that of the precursor is highly effective at restoring the contribution of the asynchronous harmonic (Experiment 3). When the frequencies match, lateralization cues arising from binaural fusion of the precursor and contralateral tone may also contribute to this restoration.     

SenseCam, imagery and bias in memory for wellbeing

Identifying and modifying the negative interpretation bias that characterises depression is central to successful treatment. While accumulating evidence indicates that mental imagery is particularly effective in the modification of emotional bias, this research typically incorporates static and unrelated ambiguous stimuli. SenseCam technology, and the resulting video-like footage, offers an opportunity to produce training stimuli that are dynamic and self-relevant. Here participants experienced several ambiguous tasks and subsequently viewed SenseCam footage of the same tasks, paired with negative or positive captions. Participants were trained to use mental imagery to inter-relate SenseCam footage and captions. Participants reported increased levels of happy mood, reduced levels of sad mood, and increased task enjoyment following SenseCam review with positive versus negative captions. This shift in emotional bias was also evident at 24-hour follow-up, as participants recollected greater task enjoyment for those tasks previously paired with positive captions. Mental imagery appears to play an important role in this process. These preliminary results indicate that in healthy volunteers, SenseCam can be used within a bias modification paradigm to shift mood and memory for wellbeing associated with performing everyday activities. Further refinements are necessary before similar methods can be applied to individuals suffering from subclinical and clinical depression.     

Evaluation of the William S. Hall Psychiatric Institute Clinical Psychology Internship: a replication and extension

This study extends three earlier investigations involving participants who completed their predoctoral clinical psychology internship at the William S. Hall Psychiatric Institute. Intern graduates (N = 37) evaluated how effectively their internship training prepared them for seven aspects of their current work as practicing psychologists. Participants also rated the relevancy of 24 different internship training experiences to their current work and how much these experiences contributed to their development as clinical psychologists. The present study, in conjunction with the three previous studies, covers most of the 40-year period since the inception of the internship program. Analysis of the current data indicates the internship has improved over time and was deemed an exceptional training experience by its graduates. Findings may be of particular interest to internship directors and faculty interested in improving their training program and those who plan to conduct a self-study to maintain their accreditation for clinical psychology internship.