Parent-report and performance-based measures of executive function assess different constructs

A total of 405 children of 5–18 years of age were administered performance-based and parent-report measures of executive function (EF), and measures of motor, attention, reading, and mathematics performance. Attention, reading, and mathematics abilities were associated with a parent-report measure of EF. Reading and mathematics abilities were also associated with performance-based measures of EF, including the Animal Sorting, Inhibition, and Response Set subtests of the Developmental NEuroPSYchological Assessment-II. In contrast, motor functioning was only associated with performance-based measures of EF. Findings suggest that different constructs of EF are measured by parent-report versus performance-based measures, and that these different constructs of EF are associated with different neurodevelopmental processes.     

Religion and Recovery Among Individuals Experiencing Homelessness

Journal of Religion and Health - Faith-based organizations provide essential recovery services to individuals experiencing homelessness. Research suggests that religion and spirituality aid...     

Examining the Link Between Exercise and Positive Relationship Events in Clinical Couples

This study contributes to the literature on potential interventions couple therapists can use outside therapy for couples. We examine this research question: Are couples that exercise on a given day more likely to experience positive events in their relationship that day? Participants were 33 couples in a treatment-as-usual setting who completed the Daily Diary of Events in Couple Therapy for up to the first 28 days they are in therapy. Multinomial logistic regression showed increased women's daily hours of exercise were significantly associated with an increased report of daily positive events for both men and women. Men's daily hours of exercise were not significantly related to daily positive events reported by either partner.     

Conceptualizing similarities and differences between purpose in life and self‐affirmation

Individuals contend with a variety of threats in daily life and may attempt to deal with them using various cognitive strategies. Two constructs borne from different literatures, purpose in life and self‐affirmation, serve to promote well‐being and to protect individuals from such threats. While self‐affirmation has often been examined as a manipulation, purpose has, until recently, been considered a dispositional resource. However, both self‐affirmation and purpose seem to confer similar advantages in response to threat. This paper reviews the evidence for the protective benefits of both purpose in life and self‐affirmation, describes the mechanisms by which each confers these advantages, and considers the boundary conditions of each. Key similarities and differences are discussed, and we argue that there are broad gaps in the literature regarding where and when these constructs might operate differentially, or why these differences exist. We conclude with a call to researchers to explore empirically how and when these important interventions might be differentially beneficial to those who cultivate them.     

Investigations of operant ABA renewal during differential reinforcement

Operant renewal is a form of relapse in which a previously extinguished response recurs due to a change in context. We designed two experiments to examine the impact of differential reinforcement of alternative behavior on ABA renewal in a translational model of relapse with 12 children. We compared levels of renewal in two 3-phase arrangements. In one arrangement, we reinforced target responding in Context A, extinguished responding in Context B, and returned to Context A while continuing to implement extinction. In a second arrangement, an alternative response produced reinforcement in Context B and during the return to Context A. Results across the 2 experiments indicated 3 general findings. First, extinction plus differential reinforcement disrupted target behavior more consistently in Context B relative to extinction alone. Second, renewal tended to be greater and more persistent during extinction alone relative to extinction plus differential reinforcement. Third, the renewal effect appeared to depend on whether the alternative response had a history of extinction in Context A. We discuss methodological implications for the treatment of severe destructive behavior.     

Smaller splenium in children with nonverbal learning disability compared to controls,high-functioning autism and ADHD

The current study investigated morphological differences in the corpus callosum in children ages 8 to 18 years old with nonverbal learning disability (NLD; n = 19), high-functioning autism (HFA; n = 23), predominantly inattentive ADHD (ADHD:PI; n = 23), and combined type ADHD (ADHD:C; n = 25), as well as those demonstrating typical development (n = 57). Midsagittal area of the corpus callosum and five midsagittal anterior-to-posterior corpus callosum segments were examined using magnetic resonance imaging. Controlling for midsagittal brain area and age, no group differences were found for total corpus callosum area. This finding indicates that higher functioning children on the autistic spectrum do not have smaller corpus callosi as has been found in previous research with heterogeneous samples. Following segmentation of the corpus callosum, the NLD group was observed to have significantly smaller splenia compared to all other groups. Smaller splenia in the NLD group was associated with lower WASI PIQ scores but not WASI VIQ scores. Children with HFA were observed to have larger midbody areas than children with NLD and neurotypically developing children. Children with HFA and NLD demonstrated behavioral symptoms of inattention and hyperactivity similar to the ADHD groups indicating that corpus callosum differences seen in the NLD and HFA groups are not related to these behaviors.     

Aging, body image, and body shape

Participants were 25 older men (M age = 72 years, SD = 10 years) and 27 older women (M age = 71 years, SD = 8 years) who examined multiple line-drawing figures of babies, children, young adults, middle-aged adults, and older adults. Participants picked a number on a Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (very thin) to 9 (very obese) in response to questions including "Which is the most attractive?" and "Which figure would you most like to look like?" They also completed questionnaires about their body image and body shape. In response to the age-specific line drawings (e.g., those depicting older men and older women), older women endorsed thinner figures (e.g., picked smaller numbers) than did men. Likewise, older women reported thinking more about their body shape and appearance than did men and perceived their body image as "a little too big" in comparison with the older men who perceived their body image as "just the right size." However, a breakdown of normal and overweight women in this sample revealed that for some overweight elderly women, obesity could become a satisfactory way of life. Much as with college-aged women, the endorsement of a thinner body image by many of the older adult female participants appeared to persist into late adulthood and suggests that research into body image issues with older adults is relevant and necessary.     

Caregiver Expressed Emotion and Psychiatric Symptoms in African‐Americans with Schizophrenia: An Attempt to Understand the Paradoxical Relationship

Expressed emotion (EE) is a family environmental construct that assesses how much criticism, hostility, and/or emotional over‐involvement a family member expresses about a patient (Hooley, Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 2007, 3, 329). Having high levels of EE within the family environment has generally been associated with poorer patient outcomes for schizophrenia and a range of other disorders. Paradoxically, for African‐American patients, high‐EE may be associated with a better symptom course (Rosenfarb, Bellack, & Aziz, Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 2006, 115, 112). However, this finding is in need of additional support and, if confirmed, clarification. In line with previous research, using a sample of 30 patients with schizophrenia and their primary caregivers, we hypothesized that having a caregiver classified as low‐EE would be associated with greater patient symptom severity. We also aimed to better understand why this pattern may exist by examining the content of interviews taken from the Five‐Minute Speech Sample. Results supported study hypotheses. In line with Rosenfarb et al. (2006), having a low‐EE caregiver was associated with greater symptom severity in African‐American patients. A content analysis uncovered some interesting patterns that may help elucidate this finding. Results of this study suggest that attempts to lower high‐EE in African Americans may, in fact, be counterproductive.     

Do people use category-learning judgments to regulate their learning of natural categories?

Although research has established that people can accurately judge how well they have learned categories, no research has examined whether people use their category-learning judgments (CLJs) to regulate their restudy of natural categories. Thus, in five experiments we investigated the relationship between people’s CLJs and selections of categories for restudy. Participants first attempted to learn natural categories (bird families; e.g., finches, grosbeaks, and warblers) so that they could categorize new exemplars on a final test. After this initial study phase, participants made a CLJ for each category and then selected a subset of the categories for restudy. Across experiments, we also manipulated several variables (e.g., selecting either three or nine categories, or obtaining 30% vs. 80% performance on the final test) that were expected to influence restudy selections. However, the manipulations typically had minimal impact. More important, in all experiments we found an unexpected outcome: Some participants tended to select the categories they judged to be most well learned for restudy, and others tended to select those judged to be least well learned. We discovered these qualitative differences in the use of CLJs to make restudy selections by using post-hoc analyses in Experiments 1a and 1b, and hence we sought to (a) replicate them in Experiments 2, 3, and 4 and (b) provide preliminary evidence regarding factors that can (vs. cannot) account for them. Most important, evidence across all of the experiments supported the conclusion that people do use their CLJs to select categories for restudy.