Cross language learning disabilities and verbal versus spatial memory

The research reported in this talk involves comparisons of verbal and spatial memory tasks across groups of children (and adults) with different types of learning difficulties. The research focuses on children with literacy acquisition problems and investigates whether such problems are related to specific areas of deficit. In the first piece of research, children with dyslexia (literacy learning problems) and dyspraxia (motor deficits) were contrasted on measures of memory (for example, tasks that required the retention of sequences of verbal material or spatial movements) and additional measures of literacy (reading and spelling), phonological (awareness of sounds within words) and motor (fine and gross motor tasks) functioning. The data were consistent with a dissociation between tasks/groups such that dyslexics showed weak phonological processing but intact visuo-spatial processing, whereas children with dyspraxia showed weaknesses on task involving visuo-spatial information, but average levels of performance on tasks that required phonological processing. Similar results were identified amongst adult groups, consistent with a deviant level of functioning rather than a developmental delay. A second line of research contrasted children with or without literacy problems across language backgrounds (English, Arabic, Chinese and bilingual children). Consistent with the dyslexia data, children with poor English literacy skills showed weaknesses in verbal/phonological memory tasks but not in visuo-spatial memory. However, for Chinese-language children, visuo-spatial memory differed between good and poor literacy learners, but there was little evidence for verbal memory differences. In contrast, the Arabic and bilingual children showed differences in both verbal and visuo-spatial areas, although the evidence was consistent with enhanced visual/spatial skills amongst the good literacy groups, rather than poor literacy children showing weaknesses in those tasks. These data suggest that the influence of memory skills on learning may vary with the language of instruction. A final line of enquiry considers whether teaching strategies to children with learning difficulties may overcome some of the identified memory deficits and lead to better levels of learning. English language children with learning difficulties were taught visual and verbal strategies to support retention of materials in short-term memory tasks. In the majority of cases, learning was improved when it focused on visuo-spatial strategies but not when verbal strategies were used. These data support the relationship between learning difficulties and different aspects of short-term memory that may lead to poor levels of learning. It also presents evidence that memory (particularly those related to visuo-spatial) processes are influenced by the context within which learning is taking place, both in terms of the language of instruction and the strategies used to support learning. For some children with educational difficulties based around language-related deficits, visuo-spatial strategies may support acquisition.     

Predicting post‐traumatic growth and post‐traumatic stress in firefighters

Emergency service workers (e.g., firefighters, police, and paramedics) are exposed to elevated levels of potentially traumatising events through the course of their work. Such exposure can have lasting negative consequences (e.g., post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)) and/or positive outcomes (e.g., post‐traumatic growth (PTG)). Research had implicated trauma, occupational and personal variables that account for variance in post‐trauma outcomes yet at this stage no research has investigated these factors and their relative influence on both PTSD and PTG in a single study. Based in Calhoun and Tedeschi's model of PTG and previous research, in this study regression models of PTG and PTSD symptoms among 218 firefighters were tested. Results indicated organisational factors predicted symptoms of PTSD, while there was partial support for the hypothesis that coping and social support would be predictors of PTG. Experiencing multiple sources of trauma, higher levels of organisational and operational stress, and utilising cognitive reappraisal coping were all significant predictors of PTSD symptoms. Increases in PTG were predicted by experiencing trauma from multiple sources and the use of self‐care coping. Results highlight the importance of organisational factors in the development of PTSD symptoms, and of individual factors for promoting PTG.     

Testing and Training Analogical Responding in Young Children Using A Relational Evaluation Procedure

The Psychological Record - Analogical responding, or relating relations, as operationally defined by relational frame theory (RFT), is ubiquitous in everyday language and cognition, and is a key...     

How social connectedness affects guilt and shame: Mediation by hope and differentiation of self

We tested a mediation model of social connectedness and guilt and shame. Social connectedness was hypothesized to be related to greater hope and differentiation of self. Hope and differentiation of self, in turn, were expected to be related to less shame and more prosocial guilt. The results found that hope mediated the relationship between social connectedness and guilt, and differentiation of self mediated the relationship between social connectedness and shame. Alternative explanatory models were explored and taken into consideration in the interpretation of the results.     

Performance on a face perception task is associated with empathy quotient scores, but not systemizing scores or participant sex

This preliminary study investigated whether individual differences in performance on a difficult social perception task (determining the sex of shape normalized, line drawn dynamic faces) are related to sex of observer, scores on an empathy quotient and scores on a systemizing quotient. Performance in the face perception task (N = 60) was above chance, indicating that participants could judge the sex of the degraded facial stimuli from dynamic information alone. There was a trend for women to be more accurate in their judgments of target sex than men, but regression analyses indicated that EQ scores alone predicted performance on the task. This study suggests that empathy may mediate sex differences in face perception abilities, and potentially other tasks in social perception.     

The rhythm aftereffect: support for time sensitive neurons with broad overlapping tuning curves

Ivry [Ivry, R. B. (1996). The representation of temporal information in perception and motor control. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 6, 851-857.] proposed that explicit coding of brief time intervals is accomplished by neurons that are tuned to a preferred temporal interval and have broad overlapping tuning curves. This proposal is analogous to the orientation selective cells in visual area V1. To test this proposal, we used a temporal analog to the visual tilt aftereffect. After adapting to a fast auditory rhythm, a moderately fast test rhythm (400 ms between beats) seemed slow and vice versa. If the speed of the adapting rhythm was made too disparate from speed of the test rhythm the effect was diminished. The effect occurred whether the adapting and test stimuli were presented to the same or different ears, but did not occur when an auditory adapting rhythm was followed by a visual test rhythm. Results support the proposition that explicit time information is coded by neural units tuned to specific temporal intervals with broad overlapping tuning curves. In addition, it appears that there is a single timing mechanism for each incoming sensory mode, but distinct timers for different modes.     

The neural consequences of semantic richness: when more comes to mind, less activation is observed

Some concepts have richer semantic representations than others. That is, when considering the meaning of concepts, subjects generate more information (more features, more associates) for some concepts than for others. This variability in semantic richness influences responses in speeded tasks that involve semantic processing, such as lexical decision and semantic categorization tasks. It has been suggested that concepts with richer semantic representations build stronger attractors in semantic space, allowing faster settling of activation patterns and thus faster responding. Using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging, we examined the neural activation associated with semantic richness by contrasting activation for words with high and low numbers of associates in a semantic categorization task. Results were consistent with faster semantic settling for words with richer representations: Words with a low number of semantic associates produced more activation than words with a high number of semantic associates in a number of regions, including left inferior frontal and inferior temporal gyri.     

Impact of depression on response to comedy: a dynamic facial coding analysis

Individuals suffering from depression show diminished facial responses to positive stimuli. Recent cognitive research suggests that depressed individuals may appraise emotional stimuli differently than do nondepressed persons. Prior studies do not indicate whether depressed individuals respond differently when they encounter positive stimuli that are difficult to avoid. The authors investigated dynamic responses of individuals varying in both history of major depressive disorder (MDD) and current depressive symptomatology (N = 116) to robust positive stimuli. The Facial Action Coding System (Ekman & Friesen, 1978) was used to measure affect-related responses to a comedy clip. Participants reporting current depressive symptomatology were more likely to evince affect-related shifts in expression following the clip than were those without current symptomatology. This effect of current symptomatology emerged even when the contrast focused only on individuals with a history of MDD. Specifically, persons with current depressive symptomatology were more likely than those without current symptomatology to control their initial smiles with negative affect-related expressions. These findings suggest that integration of emotion science and social cognition may yield important advances for understanding depression.     

Biased processing of emotional information in girls at risk for depression

Researchers have documented that children of depressed mothers are at elevated risk for developing a depressive disorder themselves. There is currently little understanding, however, of what factors place these children at elevated risk. In the present study, the authors investigated whether never-disordered daughters whose mothers have experienced recurrent episodes of depression during their daughters' lifetime are characterized by biased processing of emotional information. Following a negative mood induction, participants completed an emotional-faces dot-probe task. Daughters at elevated risk for depression, but not control daughters of never-disordered mothers, selectively attended to negative facial expressions. In contrast, only control daughters selectively attended to positive facial expressions. These results provide support for cognitive vulnerability models of depression.     

A comparison of linear and nonlinear relations between organizational commitment and work outcomes

The authors compared linear and nonlinear relations between affective and continuance commitment and 3 commonly studied work outcomes (turnover cognitions, absenteeism, and job performance), observed in 3 separate research settings. Using a linear model, they replicated the common observation in the literature that affective commitment is more strongly related to work outcomes than continuance commitment. Introducing a higher order continuance commitment term into the same equations, however, they found that the linear model seriously understated the magnitude of continuance commitment's effect on all 3 criterion measures. These findings are consistent with recent developments that identify different motivational mindsets associated with affective and continuance commitment (J. P. Meyer, T. E. Becker, & C. Vandenberghe, 2004).