Assessing normative approaches to communicating violence risk: a national survey of psychologists

There is growing attention to the importance of violence risk communication, and emerging empirical evidence of how evaluating clinicians who conduct risk assessments communicate their conclusions about the risk of violence toward others. The present study addressed the perceived value of different forms of risk communication through a national survey of practicing psychologists (N = 1,000). Responses were received from a total of 256 participants, who responded to eight vignettes in which three factors relevant to risk communication were systematically varied in a 2 x 2 x 2 within-subjects design, counterbalanced for order: (i) risk model (prediction oriented versus management oriented), (ii) risk level (high risk versus low risk), and (iii) risk factors (static versus dynamic). Participants were asked to rate the value of six styles of risk communication for each of eight vignettes. The most highly valued style of risk communication involved identifying risk factors applicable to the individual, and specifying interventions to reduce risk. These results were consistent with findings from several previous studies in this area, and reflect an emerging trend in preferences for style and context of risk communication of violence.     

Semantic versus phonological false recognition in aging and Alzheimer's disease

Patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) have been found to exhibit lower levels of false recognition of semantic associates compared with healthy older adults. Because these patients may show impaired performance of episodic and semantic memory tasks, this finding could be explained by deficits in episodic memory, semantic memory, or both. The authors adapted a paradigm for comparison of semantic versus phonological false recognition. They found that: (a) patients with AD exhibited lower levels of corrected false recognition of semantic, phonological, and hybrid (mixed semantic and phonological) lists than older adults, and (b) patients with AD showed very similar levels of false recognition for all list types. These results suggest that only episodic memory deficits are necessary to explain the lower level of false recognition of semantic associates observed in patients with AD when compared to older adults. Additionally, (c) older adults showed greater levels of semantic, phonological, and hybrid false recognition than younger adults, extending previous false recognition research of semantically related words and categorized colored photographs to phonologically related words.     

Memory enhancement by a semantically unrelated emotional arousal source induced after learning

It has been well established that moderate physiological or emotional arousal modulates memory. However, there is some controversy about whether the source of arousal must be semantically related to the information to be remembered. To test this idea, 35 healthy young adult participants learned a list of common nouns and afterward viewed a semantically unrelated, neutral or emotionally arousing videotape. The tape was shown after learning to prevent arousal effects on encoding or attention, instead influencing memory consolidation. Heart rate increase was significantly greater in the arousal group, and negative affect was significantly less reported in the non-arousal group after the video. The arousal group remembered significantly more words than the non-arousal group at both 30 min and 24 h delays, despite comparable group memory performance prior to the arousal manipulation. These results demonstrate that emotional arousal, even from an unrelated source, is capable of modulating memory consolidation. Potential reasons for contradictory findings in some previous studies, such as the timing of "delayed" memory tests, are discussed.     

The clinical effectiveness of cognitive behaviour therapy: outcome for a large sample of adults treated in routine practice

There is increasing interest in questions about how far the demonstrated efficacy of psychological therapies in research trials can be translated into clinical effectiveness in routine practice. This paper summarises outcome data from several hundred patients treated with CBT in routine clinical practice in a National Health Service psychology service, and compares their outcomes with some of the published research. Although the data have flaws common in ordinary clinical practice (no untreated controls, missing data, uncontrolled pharmacotherapy, etc.), the analyses suggest that CBT in this context is an effective treatment, albeit with probably not quite such good results as it achieves in research trials. Using clinical significance statistics on standardised measures, about half of the sample reliably improved over a course of therapy, including about a third who recovered to normal range.     

Representational bias does not affect bisection of lines with a pictorially or semantically defined top by patients with left hemispatial neglect

Normal subjects may have both representational and visual-based components determining bias in bisection of horizontal, vertical, and radial lines. The influence of these components is less clear in patients with neglect. We asked 25 patients with right hemisphere stroke and clinical features of neglect to bisect lines oriented horizontally, vertically, and radially above and below eye level. Objects including human silhouette figures, arrowheads, and the words 'TOP' and 'BOTTOM' were placed at either end of each line. These figures were presented either upright or upside down in some orientations, and presented rightward and leftward in other orientations, to pictorially or semantically define a "top" to each line independent of the actual top of the visual field. Patients demonstrated a rightward bias on all horizontal line bisections, with similar bias and greater magnitude than normal subjects. Patients also demonstrated visual-based biases on some of the vertical, radial down, and radial up lines presented. However, patients did not demonstrate a significant representational bias with any of the visual cues presented on any of the line orientations. Patients with acute right hemisphere stroke demonstrate a rightward bias when asked to perform line bisection in the horizontal line orientation, as well as an upward bias in vertical line bisection. The lack of representational bias in patients with neglect may be due to a greater degree of visual-based neglect as compared to representational neglect, or it may be due to an absence of representational bias in patients with right hemisphere stroke.     

Attentional control in the aging brain: insights from an fMRI study of the stroop task

Several recent studies of aging and cognition have attributed decreases in the efficiency of working memory processes to possible declines in attentional control, the mechanism(s) by which the brain attempts to limit its processing to that of task-relevant information. Here we used fMRI measures of neural activity during performance of the color-word Stroop task to compare the neural substrates of attentional control in younger (ages: 21-27 years old) and older participants (ages: 60-75 years old) during conditions of both increased competition (incongruent and congruent neutral) and increased conflict (incongruent and congruent neutral). We found evidence of age-related decreases in the responsiveness of structures thought to support attentional control (e.g., dorsolateral prefrontal and parietal cortices), suggesting possible impairments in the implementation of attentional control in older participants. Consistent with this notion, older participants exhibited more extensive activation of ventral visual processing regions (i.e., temporal cortex) and anterior inferior prefrontal cortices, reflecting a decreased ability to inhibit the processing of task-irrelevant information. Also, the anterior cingulate cortex, a region involved in evaluatory processes at the level of response (e.g., detecting potential for error), showed age-related increases in its sensitivity to the presence of competing color information. These findings are discussed in terms of newly emerging models of attentional control in the human brain.     

Telling stories: the perils and promise of using verbal reports to study math strategies

The problem size effect in adult arithmetic performance is generally attributed to direct retrieval processes operating on a network representation in long-term memory. J. LeFevre and her colleagues (J. LeFevre, J. Bisanz, et al., 1996; J. LeFevre, G. S. Sadesky, & J. Bisanz, 1996) challenged this explanation using verbal report evidence that adults also use time consuming nonretrieval strategies to solve simple addition and multiplication. The authors replicated J. LeFevre and colleagues' methods, but added instructional biasing and silent control conditions to test these methods. Both reaction time and report results suggest that LeFevre and colleagues' conclusions about nonretrieval frequency may have been influenced by instructions that revealed the experimental hypothesis and affected participants' strategy reports. Obtaining evidence about adult strategy use in simple arithmetic will require understanding instructional demand and appropriate report methodology.     

Potential for crime and knowledge of legal sanctions

The importance of knowledge of legal sanctions for deterrence is debatable, but the debate can be resolved only through exploratory research on the subject Using survey data, this research compares individuals in terms of the degree to which they accurately perceive statutory maximum prison sentences for 19 types of crimes. Contrary to expectations, evidence that high‐potential offenders perceived statutory maximums significantly more accurately than low‐potential offenders is rather limited, with most respondents unaware of maximum prison sentences. The empirical results also show that respondents apparently derive their perceptual estimates of the maximums from shared beliefs about what ought to be done to criminal offenders, not knowledge of what actually can be done to them, as indicated by the significant relationships between individual perceptions of maximum prison sentences and individual preferences for those sentences. The implications of those findings for developing and testing a theory of deterrence are discussed.     

'Nanotwin' networks connecting columnar defects in YBa2Cu3O7-delta and implications for magnetic vortex interactions

A unique structure, a network of nanotwins, is revealed for the first time in high-energy ion-irradiated YBa₂Cu₃O_7-delta. This structure is shown to form only at ion doses of 1011 cm-2 or greater and thus is not revealed in any earlier electron microscopy studies. In this higher-dose regime, the well known columnar defects are connected by the nanotwin structure, thus affecting bulk superconducting properties. Consequences for a number of published interpretations of such measurements related to pinning and dynamics of magnetic vortices are discussed.     

Test anxiety,self-evaluative worry,and sleep disturbance in college students

Abstract

The present research examined the extent to which sleep disturbance is involved in the experience of test anxiety. In Study 1, a sample of 80 subjects completed a trait measure of test anxiety and completed a sleep inventory with reference to the past 30 days. In Study 2, a sample of 188 subjects provided measures of trait and state test anxiety and completed a sleep inventory for the night preceding an actual test. The results of Study 1 and Study 2 confirmed that test anxiety is associated with self-reported sleep disturbance. In addition, the results of Study 2 showed that sleep disturbance is also associated with increased state test anxiety. Finally, it was found in Study 2 that sleep disturbance was not related to actual test performance. However, poorer test performance was associated with increased state and trait test anxiety. It is concluded that certain characteristics associated with test anxiety are stable and may be detected in evaluative and non-evaluative situations. The results are discussed with particular reference to their implications for the test anxiety construct itself as well as treatment strategies for the test-anxious student.