Cognitive Function in Parkinson's Disease: Association with Anxiety but Not Depression

To reexamine the relationships of depression, anxiety and cognitive impairment in Parkinson's disease (PD), 27 patients with idiopathic PD received two measures of depression, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, and the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS). Contrary to some earlier studies, measures of depression, even those that separated mood from somatic symptoms, were not correlated with any measure of cognitive performance. By contrast, measures of anxiety were signifiantly and negatively correlated with all RBANS indexes. Because anxiety and depression are partially overlapping psychiatric disorders, inconsistent reports concerning the relationship of depression and cognition in PD may have arisen because different studies included varying proportions of depressed patients who were also highly anxious.     

Evaluating Generalization of Addition-Fact Fluency Using the Taped-Problems Procedure in a Second-Grade Classroom

A multiple-baseline design across math-fact sets was used to evaluate the effects of a taped-problems intervention on students’ performance with addition facts and their inverses in an intact, rural, second-grade classroom. Results suggested that the procedure was effective in improving fluency on math facts as well as their inverses. Across 3 sets of math facts, 15 students increased their fluency (i.e., average increases of 5 digits correct per min or more) on math-problem sets and these improvements were maintained over time. Additionally, results provide evidence that these increases generalized to inverse-problem sets. However, 4 students showed little gains (i.e., average increases of fewer than 5 digits correct per min) on math problems. Discussion focuses on evaluating academic interventions for generalization and directions for future research.     

Spoiled milk: an experimental examination of bias against mothers who breastfeed

Drawing from the objectification literature, three experiments tested the hypothesis that breastfeeding mothers are the victims of bias. In Study 1, participants rated a woman who had breastfed as incompetent. Study 2 replicated these effects and determined that the bias was specific to conditions that sexualized the breast. In Study 3, participants interacted with a confederate in which attention was drawn to her as a mother, as a mother who breastfeeds, as a woman with sexualized breasts, or in a neutral condition. Results showed the breastfeeding confederate was rated significantly less competent in general, in math and work specifically, and was less likely to be hired compared to all other conditions, except for the sexualized breast condition. Importantly, the breastfeeding mother emphasis and the sexualized breast emphasis resulted in equally negative evaluations. Results suggest that although breastfeeding may be economical and healthy, the social cost is potentially great.     

Social Support, Social Undermining, and Coping in Underemployed and Unemployed Persons

Participants (94 unemployed, 77 underemployed) were administered scales tapping social support, social undermining, coping, and distress. We hypothesised that the unemployed would exhibit less social support but more social undermining and distress than the underemployed; females would report more social support but less social undermining; social support would better predict coping than social undermining; social undermining would better predict distress than social support. The unemployed reported less social support, more distress, and poorer coping. Males reported less social support and more emotion-focused coping. Social support significantly predicted distress and coping. No group or gender differences were identified for social undermining, which did not predict distress or coping. We discuss the role of social undermining and distress in the unemployed.     

The School Bully: Assessing the Problem, Developing Interventions, and Future Research Directions

A growing concern exists among educators regarding the prevalence and impact of bullying behavior in the public schools. This behavior has serious repercussions for school climate and school safety in general. In addition, strong indicators suggest bullying behavior appears to be a precursor for community violence. Studies indicate that educators are not fully aware of the prevalence or the seriousness of bullying behavior in schools. A need exists to assess systematically the extent to which bullying behavior may be present in a given school. The critical features of several bullying assessment instruments were examined. In response to the growing concern regarding bullying, a large number of programs designed to address bullying are emerging. However, it is recommended that before selecting a program three criteria should be considered: the program (a) is supported by research; (b) is based on sound behavioral principles; and (c) emphasizes teaching prosocial behavior to replace bullying behavior.     

Category number impacts rule-based but not information-integration category learning: further evidence for dissociable category-learning systems

Category number effects on rule-based and information-integration category learning were investigated. Category number affected accuracy and the distribution of best-fitting models in the rule-based task but had no effect on accuracy and little effect on the distribution of best-fining models in the information-integration task. In the 2 category conditions, rule-based learning was better than information-integration learning, whereas in the 4 category conditions, unidimensional and conjunctive rule-based learning was worse than information-integration learning. Rule-based strategies were used in the 2-category/rule-based condition, but about half of the observers used rule-based strategies in the 4-category unidimensional and conjunctive rule-based conditions. Information-integration strategies were used in the 4-category/ information-integration condition and by the end of training were used in the 2-category/information-integration condition.     

Competition and cooperation in the five-factor model: individual differences in achievement orientation

The authors investigated the relationship between basic achievement orientations of competition and cooperation and the five-factor model of personality as measured by the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R; P. T. Costa & R. R. McCrae, 1992). They examined 2 types of competition: hypercompetition (R. M. Ryckman, B. Thornton, & J. C. Butler, 1994) and personal development competition (R. M. Ryckman, M. Hammer, L. M. Kaczor, & J. A. Gold, 1996), as conceptualized by K. Horney (1937). In a sample of 251 young adults, 14% to 38% of the variance in achievement orientations was collectively predicted by NEO-PI-R domain scales. Of NEO-PI-R predictors, Agreeableness was most important in characterizing differences between various achievement orientations; Agreeableness was negatively related to hypercompetition, positively related to cooperation, and unrelated to personal development competition. Extraversion was positively related to both cooperation and personal development competition but was unrelated to hypercompetition. In contrast, Openness and Conscientiousness were least helpful in differentiating among achievement orientations. These findings support the useful application of the NEO-PI-R in achievement research and highlight competition and cooperation as interpersonally laden achievement orientations.     

Neighborhood context, personality, and stressful life events as predictors of depression among African American women

The authors tested neighborhood context, negative life events, and negative affectivity as predictors of the onset of major depression among 720 African American women. Neighborhood-level economic disadvantage (e.g., percentage of residents below the poverty line) and social disorder (e.g., delinquency, drug use) predicted the onset of major depression when controlling for individual-level demographic characteristics. Neighborhood-level disadvantage/disorder interacted with negative life events, such that women who experienced recent negative life events and lived in high disadvantage/disorder neighborhoods were more likely to become depressed than were those who lived in more benign settings, both concurrently and over a 2-year period. Neighborhood disadvantage/disorder can be viewed as a vulnerability factor that increases susceptibility to depression following the experience of negative life events.     

Perceived Social Status and Suicidal Ideation in Maltreated Children and Adolescents

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - Recent decades have seen an alarming increase in rates of suicide among young people, including children and adolescents (“youth”)....     

The effects of interleaved practice

Previous research shows that interleaving rather than blocking practice of different skills (e.g. abcbcacab instead of aaabbbccc) usually improves subsequent test performance. Yet interleaving, but not blocking, ensures that practice of any particular skill is distributed, or spaced, because any two opportunities to practice the same task are not consecutive. Hence, because spaced practice typically improves test performance, the previously observed test benefits of interleaving may be due to spacing rather than interleaving per se. In the experiment reported herein, children practiced four kinds of mathematics problems in an order that was interleaved or blocked, and the degree of spacing was fixed. The interleaving of practice impaired practice session performance yet doubled scores on a test given one day later. An analysis of the errors suggested that interleaving boosted test scores by improving participants' ability to pair each problem with the appropriate procedure. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.