Longitudinal associations between people's cessation-related experiences and their satisfaction with cessation

We sought to determine whether different social, psychological, emotional, and physiological experiences associated with quitting smoking related to people's satisfaction with cessation systematically, and whether the strength of the relations changes at different points during the cessation process and for different people (e.g., optimists). Using data from smokers enrolled in a cessation program, we used mixed models to assess the average longitudinal relation between people's experiences and satisfaction measured at seven time points and whether the relations were moderated by key variables. Eight of nine experiences were related to people's satisfaction (ps < 0.05) and the models accounted for 39–44% of the within-person variance in satisfaction. Current smoking behavior was more strongly related to people's satisfaction during their early efforts to quit, whereas some experiences (e.g., feedback from others) had a stronger relation with satisfaction during people's later efforts to quit or maintain abstinence (ps < 0.05). Individual differences in optimism and prior cessation experience moderated some of the relations (ps < 0.05). The findings mark the first evidence of factors that might influence how people determine their satisfaction with smoking cessation. The implications for tailoring interventions and potentially increasing the likelihood that people maintain abstinence are discussed.     

A comparison of two report formats for alcohol and caffeine use

Abstract

The present study compared two different methods of assessing alcohol and caffeine use in a community sample of adults over a one-year period. Daily reporting of beer/wine intake was more stable over time and showed higher correspondence with Quantity-frequency measures than daily reporting of hard liquor use. Coffee and tea use showed high temporal stability and good alternate form reliability, though a tendency to underreport typical use of coffee use was observed. The psychometric properties of substance use measures appear to vary with type of beverage consumed and report format.     

Predictors of Response and Mechanisms of Change in an Organizational Skills Intervention for Students with ADHD

The purpose of the study was to evaluate predictors of response and mechanisms of change for the Homework, Organization, and Planning Skills (HOPS) intervention for middle school students with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Twenty-three middle school students with ADHD (grades 6–8) received the HOPS intervention implemented by school mental health providers and made significant improvements in parent-rated materials organization and planning skills, impairment due to organizational skills problems, and homework problems. Predictors of response examined included demographic and child characteristics, such as gender, ethnicity, intelligence, ADHD and ODD symptom severity, and ADHD medication use. Mechanisms of change examined included the therapeutic alliance and adoption of the organization and planning skills taught during the HOPS intervention. Participant implementation of the HOPS binder materials organization system and the therapeutic alliance as rated by the student significantly predicted post-intervention outcomes after controlling for pre-intervention severity. Adoption of the binder materials organization system predicted parent-rated improvements in organization, planning, and homework problems above and beyond the impact of the therapeutic alliance. These findings demonstrate the importance of teaching students with ADHD to use a structured binder organization system for organizing and filing homework and classwork materials and for transferring work to and from school.     

Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones but Words Relate to Adult Physiology? Child Abuse Experience and Women's Sympathetic Nervous System Response while Self-Reporting Trauma

Child abuse predicts a wide range of long-lasting deleterious outcomes, including disruptions in the biological systems central to emotion arousal and regulation. However, little is known about the specific ways in which child abuse affects adulthood sympathetic reactivity and recovery. This study investigated the association between child abuse experience and adult skin conductance level and habituation in 85 at-risk women as they completed a self-report trauma questionnaire. Childhood emotional abuse was independently associated with blunted skin conductance habituation over the course of survey completion after controlling for other abuse subtypes and current trauma symptoms. These results suggest that women emotionally abused as children experience prolonged emotional arousal and poor physiological regulation of emotion in response to reminders of traumatic experiences.     

Direct and indirect memory tests: What they reveal about age differences in interference

The effects of interference on memory in younger and older adults were examined in a series of three experiments. In the study task, subjects were presented with a series of sentences, each having both a target, to-be-remembered ending, and a nontarget ending. Older adults showed equal priming of targets and nontargets on an indirect memory test (Experiment 1), whereas younger adults showed greater priming of the targets. In contrast, on direct memory tests (Experiments 2 and 3) both age groups were more accurate for targets than nontargets. This pattern of results is interpreted as evidence that age differences in interference involve selective attention mechanisms, but not elaborative rehearsal processes.     

Valuing Environmental Outcomes: Preferences for Constant or Improving Sequences

Experimental results on individuals' preferences for temporal sequences of environmental outcomes related to air quality and near-shore ocean water quality are compared with preferences for sequences of health and monetary outcomes. Generally, graduate business student participants gave significantly lower ratings to environmental and health sequences (with equal means) that worsened over time, relative to the ratings they gave to sequences that either remained the same or improved over time. This pattern was reversed by the participants when they faced sequences of monetary payments. This preference structure held for both short (5-year) and long (50-year) time horizons, and it was confirmed with choice data. A model proposed by Loewenstein and Prelec for the valuation of sequences of outcomes was applied to the current data set and compared to the traditional discounting model. In all cases, the model that incorporated “Gestalt” features of the sequence (slope and uniformity) performed better than the net present value discounting model at predicting the mean ratings for the sequences in the different domains.     

Reaction Papers and Journal Writing as Techniques for Assessing Resistance in Multicultural Courses

Writing reaction papers and journal entries has been a common assignment for multicultural courses (P. E. Priester, 2001). However, few individuals have discussed this technique in the literature in order to provide a model for those developing multicultural courses. The authors also discuss use of reaction papers to address student resistance in multicultural courses. Los ensayos de reacción y los diarios son trabajos comunmente asignados en cursos multiculturales (P.E. Priester, 2001). Pero, pocos han examinado esta técnica de una manera academica, para crear un modelo de los trabajos para aquellos que quieren desarroyar un curso multicultural. Los autores también tratan del uso de los ensayos de reacción para enfrentarse a la resistencia de los estudiantes en estos cursos.     

What causes the spacing effect? Some effects of repetition,duration, and spacing on memory for pictures

Three experiments examined effects of the spacing of repetitions on memory for pictures. In Experiment I, the duration of the first presentation (P(1)) was manipulated, as was P(1)-P(2) spacing. The effect of spacing on judged frequency was independent of P(1) duration. In Experiment II, pictures were given M massed presentations just prior to the P(M)-P(M+1) spacing interval. The form of the spacing curve was independent of M. Neither experiment confirmed the prediction of "overhabituation," derived from the habituation-recovery explanation of the spacing effect. In Experiment III, subjects made both duration and frequency judgments. The duration judgment results were not consistent with the notion that subjects remember multiple massed presentations as single occurrences of especially long duration. Some evidence from Experiments I and III suggests that an interrupted stimulus is recognized better than one that is not interrupted-a finding that, if replicable, would support the habituation-recovery account of the spacing effect.     

Voluntary attention and the spacing effect

Three experiments were done to test the hypothesis that the spacing effect results from a voluntary decision by the subject to pay little attention to the second presentation (P₂) of an item when it occurs shortly after the first (P¹)- In all three experiments, the spacing of repetitions was varied. In Experiment I, allocation of attention was manipulated by pairing P₂ of some pictures with a signal that indicated high payoff for later retention. In Experiment II, attention was controlled more directly by requiring the subject, in one condition, to recite words aloud. In both experiments, the dependent variable was judged frequency. In neither experiment did the effect of the attention manipulation interact with that of the spacing of repetitions. In Experiment III, the number of eye fixations given a picture was taken to be a measure of attention. The number of fixations dropped from P₁ to P₂ to P₃, but was unaffected by the spacing of repetitions. The experiments provide no support for a voluntary attention explanation of the spacing effect.     

The layman's use of trait and behavioral information to predict behavior

This study investigated conditions that determine subjects' preferences for information about another person's traits versus his specific past behavior in order to predict his future behavior. The similarity-dissimilarity between the situation for which past behavior was available and the one to which predictions had to be made strongly influenced the choice of specific behavioral information versus more general trait information. As expected, behavioral information was preferred most when the situation to which behavior had to be predicted was highly similar to the one for which the past behavioral data were available. On the other hand, more general trait information was preferred in predicting to situations that were not directly similar to those for which past behavioral information was available. The effect of the temporal span covered by available information was also explored.