Why might poor sleep quality lead to depression? A role for emotion regulation

Disordered sleep is strongly linked to future depression, but the reasons for this link are not well understood. This study tested one possibility – that poorer sleep impairs emotion regulation (ER), which over time leads to increased depressive symptoms. Our sample contained individuals with a wide range of depression symptoms (current depression, N?=?54, remitted depression, N?=?36, and healthy control, N?=?53), who were followed clinically over six months and reassessed for changes in depressive symptom levels. As predicted, maladaptive ER mediated both cross-sectional and prospective relationships between poor sleep quality and depression symptoms. In contrast, an alternative mediator, physical activity levels, did not mediate the link between sleep quality and depression symptoms. Maladaptive ER may help explain why sleep difficulties contribute to depression symptoms; implications for interventions are discussed.     

Aging and visual 3-D shape recognition from motion

Two experiments were conducted to evaluate the ability of younger and older adults to recognize 3-D object shape from patterns of optical motion. In Experiment 1, participants were required to identify dotted surfaces that rotated in depth (i.e., surface structure portrayed using the kinetic depth effect). The task difficulty was manipulated by limiting the surface point lifetimes within the stimulus apparent motion sequences. In Experiment 2, the participants identified solid, naturally shaped objects (replicas of bell peppers, Capsicum annuum) that were defined by occlusion boundary contours, patterns of specular highlights, or combined optical patterns containing both boundary contours and specular highlights. Significant and adverse effects of increased age were found in both experiments. Despite the fact that previous research has found that increases in age do not reduce solid shape discrimination, our current results indicated that the same conclusion does not hold for shape identification. We demonstrated that aging results in a reduction in the ability to visually recognize 3-D shape independent of how the 3-D structure is defined (motions of isolated points, deformations of smooth optical fields containing specular highlights, etc.).     

Psychopathic Traits Associate Differentially to Anger,Disgust and Fear Recognition among Men and Women

Psychopathy is characterized by deficits in empathy and violation of the rights of others. Recent data link psychopathy-based lack of empathy to deficits in emotion recognition (ER), in particular fear and sadness. However, questions remain about emotions like anger and disgust and some studies even report a positive relationship between psychopathy and ER. Notably, the overwhelming majority of these studies have been conducted only with men, and studies in the general population suggest that women have better ER than men. To our knowledge, only two small studies have explicitly examined ER and psychopathy among women and they did find deficits in anger and disgust recognition. Therefore, mixed findings about ER and psychopathy may be due to gender differences that need to be clarified. This study aimed at bridging this gap using a large sample of 129 male (49 %) and 132 female (51 %) participants who completed psychopathy self-reports, and a computerized facial ER task. Among women there were deficits and advantages in ER: High social dominance and lack of anxiety traits were related to decreased fear and anger recognition respectively. Traits characterized by impulsiveness and rebelliousness were associated with better disgust and anger recognition respectively. For men, psychopathic traits characterized by ruthless manipulation of others, as well as lack of fear, were related to deficits recognizing anger. These results suggest that among women some psychopathic traits may confer an advantage in ER and give impetus for studies examining gender differences in the neurobiological substrates and manifestation of the syndrome.     

Psychometric Properties of the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale-7 (GAD-7) in Outpatients with Anxiety and Mood Disorders

This study examined the psychometric properties of the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale-7 (GAD-7) in a sample of 536 outpatients presenting at a specialty clinic for anxiety and mood disorders. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to test the unidimensionality of the GAD-7. This model did not fit the data well. The CFA solution was respecified correlating residuals among items assessing somatic symptoms. This respecified model fit the data well. A series of multiple-groups CFAs determined that the measurement properties of the GAD-7 were invariant between sexes. Scale reliability estimates of the GAD-7 were favorable for the full sample, and for males and females. Sensitivity and specificity could not be balanced at any cut-point. Findings attest to the value of this instrument as a dimensional indicator of GAD severity rather than a screening tool for the presence or absence of the disorder in outpatients with anxiety and mood disorders.     

Efficacy of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy with Parents with Intellectual Disability

Parents with intellectual disability (ID) face many parenting challenges that may affect their ability to parent effectively, and such deficits are often associated with various poor child outcomes. Research findings are inconsistent for interventions targeting systematic skills for parents with ID. Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) is an empirically supported treatment that incorporates performance-based training to enhance parenting ability. This study evaluated implementation of PCIT with parents with ID using a multiple baseline design across behaviors. Results suggest increases in positive parenting behaviors and consistent discipline. However, limitations related to poor maintenance and generalization warrant the need for future research.     

Do emotional stimuli enhance or impede recall relative to neutral stimuli? An investigation of two “false memory” tasks

Many eyewitness memory situations involve negative and distressing events; however, many studies investigating “false memory” phenomena use neutral stimuli only. The aim of the present study was to determine how both the Deese–Roediger–McDermott (DRM) procedure and the Misinformation Effect Paradigm tasks were related to each other using distressing and neutral stimuli. Participants completed the DRM (with negative and neutral word lists) and viewed a distressing or neutral film. Misinformation for the film was introduced and memory was assessed. Film accuracy and misinformation susceptibility were found to be greater for those who viewed the distressing film relative to the neutral film. Accuracy responses on both tasks were related, however, susceptibility to the DRM illusion and Misinformation Effect were not. The misinformation findings support the Paradoxical Negative Emotion (PNE) hypothesis that negative stimuli will lead to remembering more accurate details but also greater likelihood of memory distortion. However, the PNE hypothesis was not supported for the DRM results. The findings also suggest that the DRM and Misinformation tasks are not equivalent and may have differences in underlying mechanisms. Future research should focus on more ecologically valid methods of assessing false memory.     

Psychometric Properties of the Parenting Sense of Competence Scale in Treatment-Seeking Post-9/11 Veterans

Although evidence suggests deployment-related stress impacts parenting, few measures of parenting competency have been validated in returning post-9/11 veterans. As part of clinical care in a multidisciplinary clinic serving veterans and military families, 178 treatment-seeking OEF/OIF/OND veterans completed measures including the 16-item Parenting Sense of Competence Scale (PSOC), a widely-used measure of parental efficacy and satisfaction; the Family Assessment Device—general functioning subscale; and the depression, anxiety, and stress scale. Utilizing data from an IRB-approved de-identified data repository, we examined the psychometrics and factor structure of the PSOC. According to a proposed clinical cut-off, 10?% of our clinical sample of veterans exhibited low self-confidence in parenting. A confirmatory factor analysis of the 2-factor structure introducing correlated error terms between items 3 and 9, and between items 10 and 11, revealed to be a satisfactory fit to the data (Χ ² /df?=?1.57, RMSEA?=?0.056 [90?% CI 0.039–0.073]; CFI?=?0.928; TLI?=?0.914; SRMR?=?0.055). In addition, the PSOC exhibited good convergent validity with measures of parental distress (r?=??.22, p?<?0.01 with anxiety symptoms, and r?=??.33, p?<?.001 with depressive symptoms) and family functioning (r?=??.53, p?<?.0001), very good temporal stability (r?=?.81, p?<?.0.0001), and excellent internal consistency (α?=?.85). The PSOC exhibited satisfactory psychometric properties in treatment-seeking veterans and may be used by clinicians and researchers to assess parenting sense of competence, including satisfaction and sense of efficacy, in this population.     

Diffusion of novel foraging behaviour in Amazon parrots through social learning

While social learning has been demonstrated in species across many taxa, the role it plays in everyday foraging decisions is not well understood. Investigating social learning during foraging could shed light on the emergence of cultural variation in different groups. We used an open diffusion experiment to examine the spread of a novel foraging technique in captive Amazon parrots. Three groups were tested using a two-action foraging box, including experimental groups exposed to demonstrators using different techniques and control birds. We also examined the influence of agonistic and pilfering behaviour on task acquisition. We found evidence of social learning: more experimental birds than control birds interacted with and opened the box. The birds were, however, no more likely to use the demonstrated technique than the non-demonstrated one, making local or stimulus enhancement the most likely mechanism. Exhibiting aggression was positively correlated with box opening, whilst receiving aggression did not reduce motivation to engage with the box, indicating that willingness to defend access to the box was important in task acquisition. Pilfering food and success in opening the box were also positively correlated; however, having food pilfered did not affect victims’ motivation to interact with the box. In a group context, pilfering may promote learning of new foraging opportunities. Although previous studies have demonstrated that psittacines are capable of imitation, in this naturalistic set-up there was no evidence that parrots copied the demonstrated opening technique. Foraging behaviour in wild populations of Amazons could therefore be facilitated by low-fidelity social learning mechanisms.