The free and cued selective reminding test for predicting progression to Alzheimer's disease in patients with mild cognitive impairment: A prospective longitudinal study

Amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) patients carry a greater risk of conversion to Alzheimer's disease (AD). Therefore, the International Working Group (IWG) on AD aims to consider some cases of aMCI as symptomatic prodromal AD. The core diagnostic marker of AD is a significant and progressive memory deficit, and the Free and Cued Selective Reminding Test (FCSRT) was recommended by the IWG to test memory in cases of possible prodromal AD. This study aims to investigate whether the performance on the FCSRT would enhance the ability to predict conversion to AD in an aMCI group. A longitudinal study was conducted on 88 aMCI patients, and neuropsychological tests were analysed on the relative risk of conversion to AD. During follow‐up (23.82 months), 33% of the aMCI population converted to AD. An impaired FCSRT TR was significantly associated with the risk of conversion to dementia, with a mean time to conversion of 25 months. The FCSRT demonstrates utility for detecting AD at its prodromal stage, thus supporting its use as a valid clinical marker.     

Rising inpatient numbers in forensic security hospitals of German federal state of Baden-Württemberg: Background and explanatory approaches

In this article, we describe critical epidemiological trends in forensic psychiatric care in the German federal state of Baden-Württemberg. For some years, there has been a marked increase in the number of patients with psychoses and with a migration background in the high-security hospitals of Baden-Württemberg. We present a number of studies exploring hypotheses as to why this is the case. Taking into account a set of person-related and non-person (forensic system)-related variables, we suggest that rising treatment figures may be understood in terms of system variables rather than individual patient characteristics. Findings regarding predictors of treatment length and legal outcome, as well as characteristics of migrant patients and patients assigned to forensic aftercare, are discussed.     

Spelling development in the Spanish language

This study focused on spelling development in Spanish children from elementary grades. A sample of 1045 was selected from 2nd to 6th grade belonging to four schools in Tenerife Island with an age range between 7 and 12 years old (M = 113.8, SD = 17.6). We administered a standardized writing test that includes diverse subtests to assess spelling, ruled and not ruled, and various written composition tasks (i.e., writing a story based on vignettes, describing a character and writing a story). We calculated the average of correct spellings in each variable and school level, and we also analyzed the type of misspellings that children made across different writing tasks. We found that spelling is acquired by 4th-grade children when it is not ruled, whereas the spelling of ruled words is acquired by 5th-grade children. When we analyzed the misspellings in a dictation task, we found that the children confused spelling of the graphemes c/s/z/x. Across different writing tasks, we found that students committed more misspellings with the graphemes b/v, h y c/s/z/x before they finished the 4th elementary grade.     

Holistic processing of faces: perceptual and decisional components

Researchers have used several composite face paradigms to assess holistic processing of faces. In the selective attention paradigm, participants decide whether one face part (e.g., top) is the same as a previously seen face part. Their judgment is affected by whether the irrelevant part of the test face is the same as or different than the relevant part of the study face. This failure of selective attention implies holistic processing. However, the authors show that this task alone cannot distinguish between perceptual and decisional sources of holism. The distinction can be addressed by the complete identification paradigm, in which both face parts are judged to be same or different, combined with analyses based on general recognition theory (F. G. Ashby & J. T. Townsend, 1986). The authors used a different paradigm, sequential responses, to relate these 2 paradigms empirically and theoretically. Sequential responses produced the same results as did selective attention and complete identification. Moreover, disruptions of holistic processing by systematic misalignment of the faces corresponded with systematic and significant changes in the decisional components, but not in the perceptual components, that were extracted using general recognition theory measures. This finding suggests a significant decisional component of holistic face processing in the composite face task.     

Effects of inversion and negation on social inferences from faces

Judgments about personality and other social characteristics based on facial appearance are remarkably consistent across individuals. However, whereas the facial cues that underpin age and sex judgments are already well understood, the physical bases for judgments of characteristics such as intelligence or trustworthiness are still unknown. Inversion and photographic negation are used here to investigate the visual processes underlying social inferences from the face and to explore whether various judgments might rely on different perceptual representations. In experiment 1, the perceptions of age, sex, attractiveness, approachability, intelligence, and trustworthiness, but not distinctiveness, were affected by inversion, and all these characteristics were affected by negation. The effects of inversion and negation were independent, suggesting that they impaired the encoding of different types of information. Moreover, an independent manipulation of hue and luminance in experiment 2 showed that the effects of negation were mainly due to the reversal of luminance values. These results are consistent with the view that information about the configuration of features (the processing of which is impaired by inversion) and information about surface properties (the processing of which is impaired by brightness negation) are both used in the perception of social characteristics from faces. In addition, the fact that there was a similar pattern of impairment across most judgments suggests that there is an initial common perceptual representation of the face, from which most characteristics are inferred.     

Presence and emotions in virtual environments: the influence of stereoscopy.

This study investigates how stereoscopy (the illusion of depth and 3D imaging) affects the sense of presence and the intensity of the positive mood that users feel in virtual environments (VEs). A between-group design was used, and 40 volunteers were randomly assigned to one of two experimental conditions (stereoscopy vs. no stereoscopy) and to one of two emotional VEs (relaxation or joy). The participants' emotions were assessed before and after the VR experience. Presence was measured with two postexperiment questionnaires (ITC-SOPI and SUS). Results show that there were no differences between stereoscopic and monoscopic presentations in VEs (neither subjective sense of presence nor emotional reactions). Practical and theoretical implications of these findings are discussed herein.     

Women's access to managerial positions: an experimental study of leadership styles and gender

This study attempts to test one of the explanations of the scarce representation of women in managerial positions, specifically the one advanced by "role congruity theory of prejudice toward female leaders" (Eagly & Karau, 2002), which appeals to the fact that women get unfavorable evaluations if they adopt male-stereotypical leadership styles. One-hundred and thirty-six undergraduate students participated in an experiment with a 2 (Male-stereotypical vs. Female-stereotypical leadership style) x 2 (Male vs. Female leader) design. Dependent variables were leader's competence, efficacy, and evaluation in a series of traits. It was found that, regardless of sex, the leaders were considered more competent and efficient, and were evaluated more favorably, when they adopted stereotypically feminine leadership styles. Implications of these findings for women's underrepresentation as leaders in management top positions worldwide are discussed.     

A loss of status and a sense of defeat: an evolutionary perspective on professional burnout

This longitudinal study among Spanish teachers (N = 558) examined burnout from an evolutionary social rank perspective. The types of stress differed among various school levels, and a sense of defeat was highest among teachers in primary schools. A low status, a loss of status and a sense of defeat were independent cross‐sectional predictors of burnout. Longitudinally a sense of defeat predicted an increase in burnout over time, especially among males and teachers in high schools. The status related variables were in general more important predictors of burnout than stressors that are usually associated with burnout. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Gaze following as a function of affective expression in 3-, 6- and 9-month-old infants

The influence of affective expression on gaze following was investigated in 3-, 6- and 9-month-old infants. Gaze following became more robust at the older ages. There was no strong evidence that infants' gaze following activity was differentially influenced by the adult's affective expression, but rather for a developmental difference in emotion processing.