Examination of Spatial Working Memory Performance in Children and Adolescents with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Combined Type (ADHD-CT) and Anxiety

Spatial working memory (SWM) is known to be impaired in children with ADHD-CT, whether anxiety is present or not. Yet, it remains unclear whether anxiety disorders add to the SWM impairments evident in ADHD-CT and whether these findings extend into adolescents with ADHD-CT and anxiety. Further, it is not yet known whether children and adolescents with carefully defined anxiety disorders alone, demonstrate SWM deficits. This study explored the association of SWM and its strategy and spatial span components in carefully defined children and adolescents (age 6–16 years) with ADHD-CT alone (N?=?163; 14 % female), ADHD-CT and anxiety (N?=?243; 23 % female), anxiety disorders alone (N?=?69; 25 % female) compared to age- and gender-matched healthy control participants (N?=?116; 19 % female). The relationship between SWM and its strategy and span components and core ADHD-CT symptoms and anxiety symptoms were also examined. There was no evidence of an additive effect of ADHD and anxiety on SWM, strategy and spatial span deficits. But, anxiety disorders alone were associated with impaired SWM and span performance compared to healthy control participants. In contrast, strategy did not differ between children and adolescents with anxiety disorders alone and healthy control participants, suggesting that with anxiety span is the most affected component. Further, these findings were age-independent. This study concurs with and extends current influential models about the cognitive effects of anxiety on performance in the setting of ADHD-CT. Clinical implications and future research directions are discussed.     

To What Extent do we Hear Phonemic Contrasts in a Non-native Regional Variety? Tracking the Dynamics of Perceptual Processing with EEG

This combined ERP and behavioral experiment explores the dynamics of processing during the discrimination of vowels in a non-native regional variety. Southern listeners were presented with three word forms, two of which are encountered in both Standard and Southern French ([kot] and [kut]), whereas the third one exists in Standard but not Southern French ([kot]). EEG recordings suggest that all of the word pairs were discriminated by the listeners, although discrimination arose about 100ms later for the pairs which included the non-native word form than for those which contained word forms common to both French varieties. Behavioral data provide evidence that vowel discrimination is sensitive to the influence of the listeners’ native phonemic inventory at a late decisional stage of processing.     

A DISCOURSE ON SOPHOCLES: FREUD AND DETERMINISM

A study on the subjective experience of neuroleptic treatment is used as an example of research that employs psychoanalytic theory and methodology outside the clinical situation. Psychoanalytic tenets such as psychosexuality and the unconscious are highlighted, and the systematic study of internal reality is discussed with reference to the study on neuroleptics, the results of which are presented in extenso. Metapsychology is considered as a means for systematization, and self-reflexive countertransference analysis is seen as a means for fostering trustworthiness and reliability. The validity criteria discussed are clinical relevance, coherence, and originality (as distinct from merely confirming received theory). Value conflicts between academic and psychoanalytic scientific cultures are described with reference to the data of the specimen study. The concluding discussion includes a brief comparison of the time-limited interview method with long-term, clinical psychoanalytic inquiries.

“Flechsig's Brain science is the theory and Schreber's delusions are the practice of the same traumatic collapse of…subjectivity, of the gap separating bodily cause and symbolic effect. Schreber's point would seem to be that the elimination of the gap—the attempt to fill it with neuroanatomical knowledge—is nothing short of soul murder.” Eric Santner (1996), My own private Germany: Daniel Paul Schreber's secret history of modernity (p. 75)     

Respiratory feedback in the generation of emotion

This article reports two studies investigating the relationship between emotional feelings and respiration. In the first study, participants were asked to produce an emotion of either joy, anger, fear or sadness and to describe the breathing pattern that fit best with the generated emotion. Results revealed that breathing patterns reported during voluntary production of emotion were (a) comparable to those objectively recorded in psychophysiological experiments on emotion arousal, (b) consistently similar across individuals, and (c) clearly differentiated among joy, anger, fear, and sadness. A second study used breathing instructions based on Study 1's results to investigate the impact of the manipulation of respiration on emotional feeling state. A cover story was used so that participants could not guess the actual purpose of the study. This manipulation produced significant emotional feeling states that were differentiated according to the type of breathing pattern. The implications of these findings for emotion theories based on peripheral feedback and for emotion regulation are discussed.     

Language Enrichment Teacher Preparation and Practice Predicts Third Grade Reading Comprehension

First and second grade public school teachers were trained through interactive video-conferencing to implement Language Enrichment, an Orton-Gillingham-based literacy instruction. The effectiveness of the linguistically informed training was demonstrated by documenting the longitudinal third grade reading comprehension achievement of their students. Student achievement was measured on the state-mandated achievement test, Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS). Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) showed that students whose teachers were trained in Language Enrichment instruction had higher third grade reading comprehension achievement than students whose teachers were not trained. Additionally, a significant effect of the length of Language Enrichment teaching experience of the second grade teacher on third grade reading comprehension was found. Earlier occurring second grade teacher training was associated with higher reading scores than later training. Based on these findings it is suggested that teachers who have content-rich knowledge known to support literacy acquisition can provide reading instruction that results in a level of reading comprehension that is significantly higher than that resulting from teachers who do not have a well-developed domain of knowledge concerning the reading process. This study also indicates that teacher competence was enhanced through practice because student reading achievement of the more-experienced Language Enrichment teachers was higher than that of the less-experienced Language Enrichment teachers.     

(Re)imagining Literacy and Teacher Preparation Through Collaboration

This article reports the outcomes of the first 3 years of an ongoing participatory action research (PAR) project that brought together literacy and content-area teacher educators. The purpose of our collaboration was two-fold: (a) to develop shared understandings or theories related to literacy and the place of literacy instruction in content-area classrooms, and (b) to make changes to our work with preservice teachers in order to prepare them to support adolescents’ content learning and discipline-specific literacy development. The findings reveal that the collaborative activities allowed participants to embrace broad notions of text and literacy that are useful in making sense of disciplinary aims and pedagogy. Furthermore, as teacher educators came to shift their thinking about literacy and disciplinary learning and teaching, their work with preservice teachers changed. Implications for future collaborative activities to promote content-area literacy are discussed.     

Mindfulness increases recall of self-threatening information

Previous research has suggested that we tend to show impaired memory for self-threatening information, an effect known as mnemic neglect. Mnemic neglect is believed to be due to shallow processing or inhibition of self-threatening information. Mnemic neglect, however, could also be an example of experiential avoidance and mindfulness training has been demonstrated to counteract experiential avoidance. The current study was designed to negate experiential avoidance on a memory task via mindfulness training and attempt to increase recall of self-threatening information. Participants were exposed to a short intervention, either mindfulness or unfocused attention, before being instructed to read and later recall self-referent behaviors. The findings indicated that recall of self-threatening and other self-referent information was increased following the mindfulness but not unfocused attention intervention. The utility of mindfulness as a strategy for negating the experiential avoidance normally associated with self-threatening information and increasing memory performance are discussed.     

REVIEWS

This article identifies a previously ignored social movement that existed in London during 1827–1831. The Jewish rights movement, as it will be called here, actually involved a coalition of Jews and Christians. During the movement’s initial phase, London Jews, led by Moses E. Levy (an activist from the United States), joined in solidarity with their oppressed brethren in Russia: their public protests against tsarist policies drew a broad response from the national and international press. This unparalleled movement influenced national political agendas and major legislative reforms, and resulted in striking changes within the Anglo‐Jewish community. By utilising the modern social movement framework as an essential tool to reconstruct this long‐forgotten collective effort, the Jewish rights movement has emerged as a notable chapter in the development of modern Jewish political identity.

“At the present moment, the eyes of England, of Europe, and of a great part of the civilized world seem to be directed toward us, and… men are looking with something approaching anxiety for the result of the Public Meetings of the Jewish Nation that have been called (the first time for many centuries)” (Levy Jewish Community).     

DECISION MAKING ABOUT ADVANCE DIRECTIVES BY MARRIED WOMEN

One goal of this exploratory study was to describe the experiences of 41 wives engaged in a congregationally based educational program promoting the discussion of advance directives (ADs). Other goals were to explore whether marital commitment was an antecedent for engaging in AD discussions, as well as whether it was positively associated with wives' increased trust that their husbands would carry out their AD preferences. Eighty percent of the wives discussed ADs with their husbands, and 44% revised/signed an AD. Slightly over half of the couples discussed ADs for 1 hour or less.There was marginal support for the hypothesis that there would be a positive association between wives' discussing ADs with their husbands and marital commitment. There was strong support for the hypothesis that wives' level of commitment would be positively associated with their trust that their husbands would carry out their AD preferences.