Early Childhood Externalising Behaviour Problems: Child, Parenting, and Family-related Predictors Over Time

This study examined the dynamic relationships between child, parenting, and family-related predictor variables and early childhood externalising behaviour problems. A community sample of 395 Australian children was followed longitudinally, and assessed at 4 and 6 years with the Child Behavior Checklist, Teacher Report Form, and standard measures of parenting, temperament, and familial adversity. Variables based on the average scores across the two assessments and the change in scores between assessments were utilised as predictors of parent-reported and teacher-reported externalising behaviour problems at age 6. It was hypothesised that both higher average scores and more detrimental changes in scores, would independently predict externalising problems at age 6. Multivariable analyses found that the presence of parent-reported child externalising problems in six-year-olds were predicted by: (i) the presence of parent-reported child externalising problems at age 4, (ii) higher average “teacher-reported child externalising behaviour,” “inflexible temperament,” “non-persistent temperament,” and “over-reactive parenting,” and (iii) an increased “inflexible temperament” score between age 4 and age 6. The presence of teacher-reported child externalising problems at age 6 was predicted by higher average “parent-reported child externalising behaviour,” and “over-reactive parenting.” The results provide further evidence of the adverse impact of continuing high levels of temperament difficulties and over-reactive parenting on externalising behaviour in early childhood. However, contrary to expectations, the contribution of including the dynamic change scores was limited.     

Hippocampal formation lesions impair performance in an odor-odor association task independently of spatial context

The rodent hippocampal system is known to play an important role in memory. Evidence that this role is not limited to spatial memory has come from studies using a variety of non-spatial memory tasks. One example is the social transmission of food preference paradigm, a task in which rats learn an odor-odor association with no explicit spatial memory component. However, because training and testing in this task typically take place in the same environment, it is possible that memory for the spatial context in which odors are experienced during training is critical to subsequent retention performance. If this is the case, it might be expected that lesions of the hippocampal system would impair memory performance by disrupting the establishment of a representation of the training environment. We addressed this issue by training rats in one spatial context and then testing them either in the same or a different spatial context. Normal control rats performed equally well when tested in an environment that was the same or different from that used during training, and the retention impairment exhibited by rats with hippocampus plus subiculum lesions was equivalent in the two test environments. These results support the view that the hippocampal system is necessary for the flexible expression of nonspatial memories even when the spatial context in which the memory is acquired is not critical to retrieval.     

The contribution of postural bias to lateral preferences for holding human infants

When asked to hold an infant, 60-85% of adults hold on their left, so that the infant's head is to the left of their midline (Brüser, 1981; de Chateau, 1983; Saling & Tyson, 1981). The same group bias has been found even when persons are merely asked to imagine holding an infant (Nakamichi & Takeda, 1995; Harris, Almerigi, & Kirsch, 2000). A number of variables have been found to contribute modestly to the bias, including the sex and handedness of the holder. In the current study, the role of a new variable is investigated, namely, the feeling of comfort for holding an infant on a particular side as indexed by one's foot preference for acts of stabilizing or postural support. To test this hypothesis, 282 right-handed college students (218 women, 64 men) were given the imagine-hold task along with 4 questions about their foot preference for posture and balance. The results showed that, at least for women, the two measures were modestly but significantly related.     

The conflict adaptation effect: It’s not just priming

Analyses of trial sequences in flanker tasks have revealed cognitive adaptation, reflected in a reduced interference effect following incompatible trials (Gratton, Coles, & Donchin, 1992). These effects have been explained on the basis of the response conflict monitoring model of Botvinick, Braver, Barch, Carter, and Cohen (2001), who proposed that preceding response conflict triggers stronger topdown control, leading to performance improvements on subsequent trials of similar context. A recent study (Mayr, Awh, & Laurey, 2003) has challenged this account, suggesting that the behavioral adaptations are confined to trial sequences of exact trial repetitions and can therefore be explained by repetition priming. Here, we present two experiments in which the sequential dependency effect was present even on trial sequences that did not involve stimulus repeats. We discuss the data with respect to the conflict-monitoring and repetition-priming accounts.     

Personality Predictors of Protégé Mentoring History

The present study identifies personality characteristics that are predicted to be associated with protégé status in a series of mentoring relationships, an area of research that has not been explored previously. Predictors of mentoring history identified are need for achievement, need for dominance, self-esteem, and tension dissipation. A MANOVA, using number of previous mentors as the independent variable and 4 personality characteristics (need for achievement, need for dominance, self-esteem, and tension dissipation) as outcome variables, showed a significant relationship. Univariate follow-up tests indicated that the number of previous mentoring relationships was significantly associated with need for achievement, need for dominance, and self-esteem, but not tension dissipation. Results are discussed in terms of protégé development, and directions for future research are suggested.     

The role of cluster B and C personality disturbance in the course of depression: a prospective study

The association between personality disturbance and depression has been noted consistently. Prospective tests of personality's impact on the course of depression, however, are lacking. In a sample of 159 undergraduates who experienced at least one prospective depressive episode, dimensional scores for clusters B and C personality disturbance were examined as prospective predictors of four indicators of the course of depression: severity, episode duration, symptomatic chronicity and number of episodes. Cluster C personality disturbance, characterized by anxious and fearful features, predicted depression chronicity. Cluster B, characterized by dramatic, emotional and/or erratic features, predicted severity and duration of depression. The findings are discussed in terms of the possible mechanisms underlying the effects of clusters B and C, as well as implications for future research.     

Divided attention at retrieval disrupts knowing but not remembering

The view that remember and know responses can be explained within a dual-process framework has recently been questioned (e.g., Gardiner, Konstantinou, Karayianni, & Gregg, 2005). The aims of the present study were to investigate further discrepancies between remember/know (R/K) studies and dual-process models of recognition memory. In two experiments participants were required to make old/new and R/K decisions under full and divided attention conditions. Experiment 1 used a two-step R/K procedure and showed that attention during retrieval reduced overall recognition performance. Experiment 2 used a one-step R/K procedure and showed that dividing attention at retrieval only affected know responses, suggesting that knowing but not remembering relies on controlled retrieval processes. These findings and findings from recent research provide evidence that is inconsistent with the dual-process explanation for R/K research.     

Description of a Behavioral Intervention to Reduce Substance Use and Related Risk and Increase Positive Parenting among Urban Mothers with Alcohol and Other Drug Problems

The abuse of alcohol and other substances by mothers raising adolescent children has serious adverse effects on family functioning and youth outcomes, and on mothers’ own health and adaptation. Mothers who are also HIV-infected face additional challenges. In the present report, we describe a multi-session intervention conducted in individual sessions for mothers with alcohol and other substance use problems who are raising adolescent children. We outline the primary components of the intervention and include case studies and examples of exercises and tools. We found that engagement with the intervention and high rates of attendance were facilitated by tapping into mothers’ desires to improve their relationships with their adolescent children, the use of a harm reduction approach toward substance use, and intensive outreach. We also discuss lessons learned in the course of implementing and evaluating the intervention.     

The influence of sad mood on cognition

Neuroimaging has identified an overlapping network of brain regions whose activity is modulated by mood and cognition. Studies of depressed individuals have shown changes in perception, attention, memory, and executive functions. This suggests that mood has a pervasive effect on cognition. Direct evidence of the effect of sad mood on cognition is surprisingly limited, however. Published studies have generally addressed a single cognitive ability per study because the fleeting nature of laboratory-induced mood precludes extended testing, and robust findings are limited to mood effects on memory for emotional stimuli. In this study, sad mood was induced and prolonged, enabling the effects of mood to be assessed for an array of abilities, including those that share neural substrates with sad mood and those affected by depression. Sad mood affected memory for emotional words and facial emotion recognition, but not the other processes measured, with a significant nonuniformity of effect over tasks. These results are consistent with circumscribed effects of sad mood on certain emotion-related cognitive processes, but not on cognition more generally.     

Self-control relies on glucose as a limited energy source: willpower is more than a metaphor

The present work suggests that self-control relies on glucose as a limited energy source. Laboratory tests of self-control (i.e., the Stroop task, thought suppression, emotion regulation, attention control) and of social behaviors (i.e., helping behavior, coping with thoughts of death, stifling prejudice during an interracial interaction) showed that (a) acts of self-control reduced blood glucose levels, (b) low levels of blood glucose after an initial self-control task predicted poor performance on a subsequent self-control task, and (c) initial acts of self-control impaired performance on subsequent self-control tasks, but consuming a glucose drink eliminated these impairments. Self-control requires a certain amount of glucose to operate unimpaired. A single act of self-control causes glucose to drop below optimal levels, thereby impairing subsequent attempts at self-control.