Evolutionary psychology and developmental dynamics: comment on Lickliter and Honeycutt (2003)

Evolutionary psychology provides a cogent metatheory for psychological science. It has furnished compelling theories of major domains of human functioning, including mating, parenting, kinship, morality, cooperation, conflict, aggression, and aesthetics. It has produced hundreds of empirical discoveries missed entirely by prior psychologists. Developmental dynamics, properly conceived, can add to the theoretical foundation of evolutionary psychology. But it has not provided alternative theories capable of explaining the many detailed empirical discoveries made by evolutionary' psychologists. Nor has it generated a comparable bounty of new empirical discoveries. By critical scientific standards--theoretical cogency, predictive accuracy, interdisciplinary consistency, and empirical harvest--modern evolutionary psychology fares well compared with alternatives.     

Psychometric evaluation of the outcome based performance measures

The Outcome Based Performance Measures are widely used to evaluate and accredit organizations providing services to persons with disabilities. This study evaluated the interrater reliability, levels of difficulty for items, and factor groupings of this measure with 448 Nevadans with mental retardation. Results supported the measure's reliability and most of the items' levels of difficulty. Factor analysis yielded seven factors with item loadings that varied moderately from prior reports, tending to coincide with the original measure's logically-based groupings. Revisions to the measure are suggested.     

Anxiety as a Predictor and Outcome Variable in the Multimodal Treatment Study of Children with ADHD (MTA)

Initial moderator analyses in the Multimodal Treatment Study of Children with ADHD (MTA) suggested that child anxiety ascertained by parent report on the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children 2.3 (DISC Anxiety) differentially moderated the outcome of treatment. Left unanswered were questions regarding the nature of DISC Anxiety, the impact of comorbid conduct problems on the moderating effect of DISC Anxiety, and the clinical significance of DISC Anxiety as a moderator of treatment outcome. Thirty-three percent of MTA subjects met DSM-III-R criteria for an anxiety disorder excluding simple phobias. Of these, two-thirds also met DSM-III-R criteria for comorbid oppositional-defiant or conduct disorder whereas one-third did not, yielding an odds ratio of approximately two for DISC Anxiety, given conduct problems. In this context, exploratory analyses of baseline data suggest that DISC Anxiety may reflect parental attributions regarding child negative affectivity and associated behavior problems (unlike fearfulness), particularly in the area of social interactions, another core component of anxiety that is more typically associated with phobic symptoms. Analyses using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) indicate that the moderating effect of DISC Anxiety continues to favor the inclusion of psychosocial treatment for anxious ADHD children irrespective of the presence or absence of comorbid conduct problems. This effect, which is clinically meaningful, is confined primarily to parent-reported outcomes involving disruptive behavior, internalizing symptoms, and inattention; and is generally stronger for combined than unimodal treatment. Contravening earlier studies, no adverse effect of anxiety on medication response for core ADHD or other outcomes in anxious or nonanxious ADHD children was demonstrated. When treating ADHD, it is important to search for comorbid anxiety and negative affectivity and to adjust treatment strategies accordingly.     

Classroom-based functional and adjunctive assessments: proactive approaches to intervention selection for adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

The present investigation evaluated the utility of classroom-based functional and adjunctive assessments of problem behaviors for 2 adolescents who met diagnostic criteria for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and comorbid oppositional defiant disorder (ODD). For children with ADHD-ODD, environmental classroom variables, when systematically manipulated by teachers, were related to the occurrence and nonoccurrence of problem behaviors. Classroom interventions derived from information that was obtained during functional and adjunctive assessments and from subsequent analyses resulted in substantial reductions in problem behaviors. Teacher and student consumer satisfaction ratings indicated that the interventions were effective and feasible in the classroom setting.     

Hypnotizability, preference for an imagic cognitive style, and memory creation in hypnosis

We sought to extend the finding (Laurence & Perry, 1983) that it is possible through hypnosis to create a pseudomemory of a specific event. Subjects were compared on their responses to a hypnotic suggestion. We also examined the relation between nonhypnotic measures (Preference for an Imagic Cognitive Style [PICS] test and the Tellegen Absorption Scale [TAS]) and response to the suggestion. Highly (45.45%) and moderately-highly (46.15%) susceptible subjects believed that the pseudomemory was veridical, but none of the low susceptible subjects did so. Together, hypnotic susceptibility, the PICS, and their interaction more strongly predicted pseudomemory creation than any of these main effects alone. Performance on the TAS was also related to the occurrence of pseudomemory, but this relation was redundant with performance on the other measures. These results point to the complexity of the variables involved in pseudomemory creation during hypnosis.     

Hypnotizability and automaticity: toward a parallel distributed processing model of hypnotic responding

We tested a hypothesis from parallel distributed processing theory that highly hypnotizable subjects have greater connection strengths along verbal pathways and would show greater Stroop effects than low hypnotizable subjects. Using Cheesman & Merikle's (1986) paradigm, which varied cue visibility and probability, we assessed automatic and strategic effects on Stroop performance. Compared with 9 low and 9 moderately hypnotizable subjects, 9 highly hypnotizable ones showed significantly greater Stroop effects for both visible- and degraded-word trials. No strategic differences emerged for the 3 hypnotizability groups. These findings support the contention that highly hypnotizable persons have stronger verbal connection strengths than their moderately and low susceptible counterparts, and they may account for highly hypnotizable persons' propensity to disregard personal attributions and label their responses in hypnosis as being involuntary.     

THE EFFECTS OF INTERSPERSED MAINTENANCE TASKS ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN A SEVERE CHILDHOOD STROKE VICTIM

We examined the effects of task-sequencing variables on the academic performance of an 8-year-old severe stroke victim. Within a multiple baseline design, previously acquired (maintenance) task trials were systematically interspersed at designated points in treatment among new (acquisition) task trials. The results showed improvements in both academic responding and subjective ratings of motivation in each of four treated areas (spelling, reading, word-finding, and memory). Social validation data obtained from standardized school placement examinations suggested marked improvement in a variety of related areas of academic functioning. Results suggest that children suffering severe strokes may be capable of learning more than has previously been suspected, and that behavioral treatments may improve such children's functioning.