Prospective Relations Between Organized Activity Participation and Psychopathology During Adolescence

This longitudinal study examined psychopathology as a predictor and outcome of organized activity involvement during high school among 198 adolescents who varied in risk for psychopathology as a function of their mother's depression history. Higher levels of internalizing and externalizing symptoms in eighth grade significantly predicted lower levels of involvement in academic clubs during high school, over and above risk and SES. Tobacco use prior to high school predicted lower levels of involvement overall and in academic clubs and performance arts. Controlling for psychopathology prior to high school, higher levels of activity involvement were associated with lower levels of externalizing symptoms, less tobacco use, and fewer diagnoses of behavior disorders and substance abuse in 12th grade. The positive association between risk and adolescent psychopathology was not buffered by adolescent activity involvement. Overall, these findings suggest that involvement in organized activities may contribute to lower levels of externalizing psychopathology during high school even when controlling for prior psychopathology.     

Sequelae of Aggression in Acutely Suicidal Adolescents

The consequences of aggression on problem course and suicide risk were examined in 270 acutely suicidal adolescents (ages 12-17 years; 184 girls). Participants were assessed during psychiatric hospitalization (T1), 6-months post-hospitalization (T2), and 15 or more months post-hospitalization (T3). Study variables included self- and parent-reported aggression; self-reported internalizing symptoms, suicidal ideation, suicide attempt, and adverse events; and clinician-rated suicidal behavior. Aggression was not directly related to suicide attempt concurrently or prospectively. However, among more aggressive youth, internalizing symptoms were more predictive of T3 suicide attempt than among less aggressive youth. T1 aggression predicted aggressive incidents and the likelihood of incarceration prior to T3. Two-level hierarchical linear modeling indicated that self-reported aggression and internalizing problems were linked in terms of severity and rates of decline over time. Overall, parent-reported aggression was negatively associated with suicidal ideation. Findings highlight (a) the continuity and consequences of aggression, (b) a possible role of aggression in worsening suicide risk factors and potentiating suicide attempt, and (c) the importance of ongoing research on subtypes of suicidal adolescents.     

Sleep,sex, and the Web: Surveying the difficult-to-reach clinical population suffering from sexsomnia

One major advantage of Web-based research lies in its ability to reach and study people who have rare conditions of interest. Another advantage is that, due to the anonymity of the survey situation, the Internet is particularly suited for surveys on sensitive topics. Sexsomnia is a newly identified medical condition whose sufferers engage in sexual behavior during their sleep. Problematic cases are highly distressing and have forensic implications. The consensus among opinion leaders in sleep medicine is that sexsomnia may be quite common but that it often goes unreported because of shame and embarrassment. Thus, little is known about this condition’s demographics and clinical features. This article reports findings from a sample analysis of 20 years of research on sexsomnia and discusses the results, strengths, and weaknesses of a recent Web-based survey conducted on the difficult-to-reach clinical population that suffers from sexsomnia.     

Synchrony effects in automatic and controlled retrieval

Using a speeded retrieval procedure, we investigated time-of-day effects in automatic and controlled retrieval. Morning-type adults were tested at either peak (early morning) or off-peak (late afternoon) times on a speeded implicit (Experiment 1) or explicit (Experiment 2) stem completion task. In Experiment 1, retrieval strategies were identified by changes in response speed between a practice phase with rapid retrieval and an implicit memory test phase. Performance based on controlled retrieval (shown by slowdown participants) showed more priming at peak than at off-peak times of day, a finding confirmed in Experiment 2, in which the participants were given intentional retrieval instructions when the materials switched. In contrast, performance based on automatic retrieval (shown by nonslowdown participants) did not differ across peak and off-peak times. The finding suggests a robust synchrony effect in controlled retrieval, but not in automatic retrieval, which does not appear to vary across the day.     

Collaboration during visual search

Two experiments examine how collaboration influences visual search performance. Working with a partner or on their own, participants reported whether a target was present or absent in briefly presented search displays. We compared the search performance of individuals working together (collaborative pairs) with the pooled responses of the individuals working alone (nominal pairs). Collaborative pairs were less likely than nominal pairs to correctly detect a target and they were less likely to make false alarms. Signal detection analyses revealed that collaborative pairs were more sensitive to the presence of the target and had a more conservative response bias than the nominal pairs. This pattern was observed even when the presence of another individual was matched across pairs. The results are discussed in the context of task-sharing, social loafing and current theories of visual search.     

Moving eyes and moving thought: On the spatial compatibility between eye movements and cognition

Grant and Spivey (2003) proposed that eye movement trajectories can influence spatial reasoning by way of an implicit eye-movement-to-cognition link. We tested this proposal and investigated the nature of this link by continuously monitoring eye movements and asking participants to perform a problem-solving task under free-viewing conditions while occasionally guiding their eye movements (via an unrelated tracking task), either in a pattern related to the problem’s solution or in unrelated patterns. Although participants reported that they were not aware of any relationship between the tracking task and the problem, those who moved their eyes in a pattern related to the problem’s solution were the most successful problem solvers. Our results support the existence of an implicit compatibility between spatial cognition and the eye movement patterns that people use to examine a scene.     

Why do children perseverate when they seem to know better: Graded working memory,or directed inhibition?

Children sometimes have trouble switching from one task to another, despite demonstrating an awareness of current task demands. This behavior could reflect problems either directly inhibiting previously relevant information or sufficiently activating graded working memory representations for the current task. We tested competing predictions from each account, using a computerized card-sorting task in which we assessed children’s task switching abilities and their response speed to simple questions about current task demands. All children answered these questions correctly, but children who successfully switched tasks responded more quickly to questions than did children who perseverated on previous tasks, even after factoring out processing speed and age. This reaction time difference supports graded working memory accounts, with stronger representations of current task demands aiding both task-switching and responses to questions. This result poses a challenge for directed inhibition accounts, because nothing needs to be inhibited to answer simple questions that lack conflicting information.     

Accomplishing Meaning in a Stratified World: An Existential-Phenomenological Reading of Max Weber’s ‘Class,Status, Party’

This is an existential-phenomenological reading of Max Weber’s “Class, Status, Party” that seeks a fuller understanding of meaning accomplishment in a stratified World. I appropriate stratification as a single meaning structure ontically defined by domination, intersubjectivity, and life-chances and ontologically determined by the power-to-be (Seinkönnen), There-being-with-others (Mitdasein), and potentiality (Möglichkeit). I then discuss the significance of these structures in finite transcendence (There-being, Dasein) and describe ways they factually unfold in World achievement. I conclude with logotherapeutic reflections concerning meaning accomplishment in a stratified World and a summary of key questions facing existential-phenomenology in light of the likelihood that There-being must embrace, indeed, live, the inherent equality of Being (Gleichheit des Seins) among Daseins to accomplish its authenticity.     

Models of covariation-based causal judgment: A review and synthesis

Causal judgment is assumed to play a central role in prediction, control, and explanation. Here, we consider the function or functions that map contingency information concerning the relationship between a single cue and a single outcome onto causal judgments. We evaluate normative accounts of causal induction and report the findings of an extensive meta-analysis in which we used a cross-validation model-fitting method and carried out a qualitative analysis of experimental trends in order to compare a number of alternative models. The best model to emerge from this competition is one in which judgments are based on the difference between the amount of confirming and disconfirming evidence. A rational justification for the use of this model is proposed.