The reliability of the time-sharing paradigm

The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the reliability of the time-sharing paradigm as a function of the age of the child and the concurrent speaking task employed. Subjects were 40 normal right-handed children, 10 at each of four age levels: 3, 5, 7, and 9. Each subject was presented with three concurrent speaking tasks, syllable repetition, sentence repetition, and story telling. There were control tapping and verbal conditions as well. The entire experimental procedure was administered two times within a 2-week interval. The principal finding of the study was that children were more likely to show the predicted asymmetry on the first administration of the paradigm than on the second one. The sentence repetition task was the one most likely to show the predicted asymmetry between hands, though children showed the most consistent performance on the syllable repetition task. Based on these findings, it was suggested that the time-sharing paradigm might not be particularly reliable in showing the predicted asymmetry in repeated administration of the same tasks with the same linguistic stimuli.     

The Word-length Effect and Disyllabic Words

Three experiments compared immediate serial recall of disyllabic words that differed on spoken duration. Two sets of long- and short-duration words were selected, in each case maximizing duration differences but matching for frequency, familiarity, phonological similarity, and number of phonemes, and controlling for semantic associations. Serial recall measures were obtained using auditory and visual presentation and spoken and picture-pointing recall. In Experiments 1a and 1b, using the first set of items, long words were better recalled than short words. In Experiments 2a and 2b, using the second set of items, no difference was found between long and short disyllabic words. Experiment 3 confirmed the large advantage for short-duration words in the word set originally selected by Baddeley, Thomson, and Buchanan (1975). These findings suggest that there is no reliable advantage for short-duration disyllables in span tasks, and that previous accounts of a word-length effect in disyllables are based on accidental differences between list items. The failure to find an effect of word duration casts doubt on theories that propose that the capacity of memory span is determined by the duration of list items or the decay rate of phonological information in short-term memory.     

A COMPARISON OF SENSORY INTEGRATIVE AND BEHAVIORAL THERAPIES AS TREATMENT FOR PEDIATRIC FEEDING DISORDERS

We compared the effects of escape extinction (EE) plus noncontingent reinforcement (NCR) with sensory integration therapy as treatment for the feeding problems of 2 children. Results indicated that EE plus NCR was more effective in increasing acceptance, decreasing inappropriate behavior, and increasing amount consumed relative to sensory integration for both children. The results are discussed in terms of the challenges of evaluating sensory‐integration‐based treatments, and the reasons why component analyses of multicomponent treatments like sensory integration are important.     

Evaluation of a Family Systems Intervention for Managing Pediatric Chronic Illness: Mastering Each New Direction (MEND)

Family systems play a crucial, albeit complex, role in pediatric chronic illness. Unfortunately, very few psychosocial interventions are available to help these stressed families navigate the developmental steps of chronic illness. A new intervention (MEND) addresses the needs of these families and applies to a broad range of chronic illnesses. This article presents this family systems intervention as well as includes preliminary program evaluation data on 22 families that graduated from the program. Results show consistently strong effects across an array of psychosocial measures. Conclusions from this preliminary study suggest that families entering MEND present with high levels of stress due to the child's chronic illness, but after MEND, the level of stress and other functioning measures are comparable to those seen in healthy families, suggesting that the program offers a significant benefit to families with pediatric chronic illness.     

Participating From the Comfort of Your Living Room: Feasibility of a Group Videoconferencing Intervention to Reduce Distress in Parents of Children With a Serious Illness or Injury

ABSTRACT

This study explored the feasibility and potential effectiveness of a videoconferencing group intervention for parents of children with a life-threatening illness. Parent functioning was assessed at pre, post, and 6-month follow-up (N?=?13). Semistructured interviews explored parent experiences of the program and clinicians’ experiences were systematically recorded. Attendance was high (92%) and parents reported comfort with the online delivery. Quantitative data revealed significant reductions on three of the nine measures examined (parent guilt/worry; unresolved sorrow/anger; lack of psychological flexibility). Clinician data are described and highlights the skills and program modifications required to adapt to the videoconferencing modality. A randomized controlled trial is now underway.     

What does doodling do?

Doodling is a way of passing the time when bored by a lecture or telephone call. Does it improve or hinder attention to the primary task? To answer this question, 40 participants monitored a monotonous mock telephone message for the names of people coming to a party. Half of the group was randomly assigned to a ‘doodling’ condition where they shaded printed shapes while listening to the telephone call. The doodling group performed better on the monitoring task and recalled 29% more information on a surprise memory test. Unlike many dual task situations, doodling while working can be beneficial. Future research could test whether doodling aids cognitive performance by reducing daydreaming. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

South African Serial Homicide: Offender and Victim Demographics and Crime Scene Actions

There is an abundance of literature on serial homicide from a Western perspective that outlines operational definitions, types of offenders and how they prey upon their victims. However, currently, there is a lack of studies that compare serial homicide in different countries. The current study aims to give an overview of the demographics of serial homicide offenders and victims in South Africa and compare these to the demographics of offenders and victims from other currently available empirical studies of other countries. The sample consisted of 33 out of the total 54 solved series in South Africa between 1936–2007, which includes a total of 33 offenders, 302 victims, and 254 crime scenes. Results of the sample as a whole showed that South African serial homicide offenders are similar to offenders in other countries in terms of their actions at the crime scene and victim choice, with some notable exceptions. Additional analysis looked at the offender's consistency of targeting certain types of victims across their homicide series in comparison with the patterns of serial homicide offenders in other countries. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.