Posttraumatic stress disorder symptomatology among partners of men in treatment for relationship abuse

This longitudinal study examined posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms among current and former female partners (N = 96) of men participating in a group treatment program for partner abuse perpetrators. Female partner probable PTSD rates, obtained during time points corresponding with pretreatment, posttreatment, and 6-month follow-up for the male clients, were 52%, 34%, and 29%, respectively. Psychological abuse exposure was more strongly and uniquely associated with PTSD symptoms than was physical abuse exposure. Among psychological abuse ratings, denigration, restrictive engulfment, and dominance/intimidation behaviors evidenced the strongest associations with PTSD symptoms. Findings from this study suggest the association between psychological abuse and PTSD is complex and multidetermined.     

Three traditional and three new childhood anxiety questionnaires: their reliability and validity in a normal adolescent sample

The current study examined the psychometrics of three traditional [i.e., the trait anxiety version of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children (STAIC), the Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale (RCMAS), and the Fear Survey Schedule for Children - Revised (FSSC-R)] and three new childhood anxiety scales [the Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children (MASC), the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED), and the Spence Children's Anxiety Scale (SCAS)] in a large sample of normal adolescents (N=521). Childhood anxiety scales were generally found to be reliable in terms of internal consistency. Furthermore, evidence was obtained for the convergent and divergent validity of the various anxiety questionnaires. That is, anxiety questionnaire scores were found to be substantially intercorrelated. Particularly strong associations were found between total scores of the STAIC and the RCMAS, total scores of the SCARED and the SCAS, and between subscales that intend to measure specific categories of anxiety symptoms. Childhood anxiety questionnaires were substantially connected to an index of depression, although correlations among anxiety questionnaires were generally higher than those between anxiety scales and a measure of depression.     

The emergence of a new paradigm in ape language research

In recent years we have seen a dramatic shift, in several different areas of communication studies, from an information-theoretic to a dynamic systems paradigm. In an information processing system, communication, whether between cells, mammals, apes, or humans, is said to occur when one organism encodes information into a signal that is transmitted to another organism that decodes the signal. In a dynamic system, all of the elements are continuously interacting with and changing in respect to one another, and an aggregate pattern emerges from this mutual co-action. Whereas the information-processing paradigm looks at communication as a linear, binary sequence of events, the dynamic systems paradigm looks at the relation between behaviors and how the whole configuration changes over time. One of the most dramatic examples of the significance of shifting from an information processing to a dynamic systems paradigm can be found in the debate over the interpretation of recent advances in ape language research (ALR). To some extent, many of the early ALR studies reinforced the stereotype that animal communication is functional and stimulus bound, precisely because they were based on an information-processing paradigm that promoted a static model of communicative development. But Savage-Rumbaugh's recent results with bonobos has introduced an entirely new dimension into this debate. Shifting the terms of the discussion from an information-processing to a dynamic systems paradigm not only highlights the striking differences between Savage-Rumbaugh's research and earlier ALR studies, but further, it sheds illuminating light on the factors that underpin the development of communication skills in great apes and humans, and the relationship between communicative development and the development of language.     

Posttraumatic stress disorder and retrospectively reported stressor exposure: a longitudinal prediction model

There has been recent concern about the degree to which posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptomatology influences reports of prior exposure to highly stressful life events. In this longitudinal study of 2,942 male and female Gulf War veterans, the authors documented change in stressor reporting across 2 occasions and the association between change and PTSD symptom severity. A regression-based cross-lagged analysis was used to examine the relationship between PTSD symptom severity and later reported stressor exposure. Shifts in reporting over time were modestly associated with PTSD symptom severity. The cross-lagged analysis revealed a marginal association between Time 1 PTSD symptom severity and Time 2 reported stressor exposure for men and suggested that later reports of stressor exposure are primarily accounted for by earlier reports and less so by earlier PTSD symptomatology.     

Using brief assessments to evaluate aberrant behavior maintained by attention

We examined the use of brief functional assessments to identify idiosyncratic variables associated with aberrant behavior maintained by positive reinforcement in the form of attention. Two participants with severe developmental disabilities and their parents were involved in the assessment and treatment evaluation process. A modified attention condition was introduced, which involved both parents interacting with a third person. Results of the assessment demonstrated that aberrant behavior occurred only in the modified attention condition for both participants. Treatment consisted of the parents delivering attention on a fixed-time schedule during this specific social context. Results indicated that the treatment reduced problem behavior. Follow-up evaluations with 1 participant indicated maintenance of treatment effects for up to 6 months.     

Using fMRI to study recovery from acquired dysphasia

We have used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to characterize brain activations associated with two distinct language tasks performed by a 28-year-old woman after partial recovery from dysphasia due to a left frontal hemispheric ischemic stroke. MRI showed that her ischemic lesion extended posteriorly from the left inferior frontal to the perisylvian cortex. fMRI scans of both language tasks revealed substantial differences in activation pattern relative to controls. The nature of this difference was task-specific. During performance of a verbal semantic decision task, the patient, in contrast to controls, activated a network of brain areas that excluded the inferior frontal gyrus (in either hemisphere). A second task involving rhyme judgment was designed to place a heavier cognitive load on language production processes and activated the left inferior frontal gyrus (Broca's area) strongly in normal controls. During this task, the most prominent frontal activation in the patient occurred in the right homologue of Broca's area. Subsequent analysis of this data by methods able to deal with responses of changing amplitude revealed additional, less sustained recruitment by the patient of cortex adjacent to the infarct in the region inferior to Broca's area during rhyming. These results suggest that in addition to changes in cognitive strategy, recovery from dysphasia could be mediated by both the preservation of neuronal networks in and around the infarct and the use of homologous regions in the contralateral hemisphere.     

Dementia with Lewy bodies: a pure case

A pure case of autopsy-confirmed dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) is described. The patient presented with distinctive verbal fluency deficits in the context of mild language impairment, intact recognition memory, and impaired paragraph recall. Neuroimaging (CT and SPECT) showed progressive medial temporal lobe atrophy. Neuropathology revealed Lewy bodies, degeneration in the substantia nigra, nucleus basalis of Meynert (Nakano & Hirano, 1984), and locus ceruleus, but no pathology characteristic of Alzheimer's disease. It is in this sense that the case is "pure" DLB. Early neuropsychological diagnosis of DLB is essential (Salmon et al., 1996) given the potentially fatal hazard of neuroleptics (McKeith et al., 1992) and the difficulties associated with clinical neurological diagnoses (Litvan et al., 1998).     

Sex Really Does Sell: The Recall of Sexual and Non‐sexual Television Advertisements in Sexual and Non‐sexual Programmes

The present study examined memory for advertisements as a function of both advertisement content and the contextual programme content. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: in one condition, they watched a sexual programme and in the other a non‐sexual programme. Embedded within each programme were the same highly sexual and non‐sexual advertisements that had been matched in pairs for five products. Memory for the advertisements and involvement in the programmes was measured. It was found that on three indices (free recall, brand recognition and prompted recall), memory for the sexual advertisements was superior to that for non‐sexual advertisements. There was no effect of the programme content on advertisement recall and no relationship between programme involvement and advertisement recall. The results are discussed with reference to extant literature on memory for advertisements. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.