Factors associated with juvenile detention truancy

Factors influencing truancy from a juvenile court treatment facility were investigated. Youth born in 1962 (N = 124) who were placed in the facility were compared for number of truancies, background, and personality variables. Results showed that males with prior adjudication for home or school truancy had a 65% probability of eloping from the court facility as compared to a 34% probability for youth adjudicated for other offenses. Most females were adjudicated for truancy offenses and showed a 62% probability of truancy while in the court facility. Further, for females who eloped and were returned, the probability of a subsequent truancy was above 80%. Personality characteristics of truants varied with sex: male truants were more likely to be conduct disordered youth for which impulsivity and disregard for social norms is prevalent; female truants appear more likely to be in conflict over autonomy issues.     

Neurocognitive Function and Suicide in U.S. Army Soldiers

This prospective cohort study used administrative data from the Army Study to Assess Risk and Resilience in Servicemembers to examine associations between neurocognitive functioning and subsequent suicidal events among Regular Army enlisted soldiers during the years 2004–2009. Cases were all soldiers who completed the Army's Automated Neuropsychological Assessment Metrics (ANAM) computerized testing battery prior to documented suicide attempt (n = 607), ideation (n = 955), or death (n = 57). Controls were an equal‐probability sample of 9,893 person‐months from other soldiers. Exploratory factor analysis of five ANAM tests identified a general neurocognitive factor that excluded the mathematic processing test (MTH). When examined separately in logistic regression analyses that controlled for sociodemographics and prior mental health diagnosis, both the general neurocognitive factor (logit [β] = ?.197 to ?.521; p < .01) and MTH (β = ?.024 to ?.064; p < .05) were associated with all outcomes. When both predictors were examined simultaneously, the general neurocognitive factor continued to be associated with all outcomes (β = ?.164 to ?.417; p < .05) and MTH continued to be associated with suicide attempt (β = ?.015; p = .046) and ideation (β = ?.014; p = .018). These small but robust associations suggest that future research must continue to examine the extent to which objective neurocognitive tests may enhance understanding and prediction of suicide risk.     

Inhibition of return in a selective reaching task: an investigation of reference frames.

Most previous studies of inhibition of return (IOR) have examined reaction time (RT) and accuracy. These effects have been observed via saccades to targets or with key-press responses. In this study the authors examined, for the first time, IOR in components of a selective reaching task in which participants directly reached for and depressed target keys. When the interval between cue and target was 600 ms, robust IOR effects were observed in RT to begin the reach, but no effects were observed in the movement components (movement time to complete the reach and the path of the reach). However, when the cue-target interval was short (200 ms), hand paths deviated toward the cue. The results suggest that although RT measures of IOR appear to reveal perceptual rather than action-based processes, action-based representations may be briefly activated by irrelevant cues, which can be observed via analysis of three-dimensional reach path.     

Task effects reveal cognitive flexibility responding to frequency and predictability: Evidence from eye movements in reading and proofreading

It is well-known that word frequency and predictability affect processing time. These effects change magnitude across tasks, but studies testing this use tasks with different response types (e.g., lexical decision, naming, and fixation time during reading; Schilling, Rayner, & Chumbley, 1998), preventing direct comparison. Recently, Kaakinen and Hyönä (2010) overcame this problem, comparing fixation times in reading for comprehension and proofreading, showing that the frequency effect was larger in proofreading than in reading. This result could be explained by readers exhibiting substantial cognitive flexibility, and qualitatively changing how they process words in the proofreading task in a way that magnifies effects of word frequency. Alternatively, readers may not change word processing so dramatically, and instead may perform more careful identification generally, increasing the magnitude of many word processing effects (e.g., both frequency and predictability). We tested these possibilities with two experiments: subjects read for comprehension and then proofread for spelling errors (letter transpositions) that produce nonwords (e.g., trcak for track as in Kaakinen & Hyönä) or that produce real but unintended words (e.g., trial for trail) to compare how the task changes these effects. Replicating Kaakinen and Hyönä, frequency effects increased during proofreading. However, predictability effects only increased when integration with the sentence context was necessary to detect errors (i.e., when spelling errors produced words that were inappropriate in the sentence; trial for trail). The results suggest that readers adopt sophisticated word processing strategies to accommodate task demands.