Neurobehavioral sequelae of child sexual abuse.

This study examined intellectual and memory functioning in a sample of sexually abused children compared to demographically and age-matched controls. The severity of abuse and other pertinent factors were also examined in relation to cognitive performance. Elevated levels of psychopathology were present in the abused children, as well as diminished performance on tasks influenced by attention/concentration. However, after controlling for differences in IQ and socioeconomic status (SES), significant differences in memory function were not found. Results are discussed in the context of stress effects on cognition and the potential resiliency of cognitive function in children undergoing treatment for sexual abuse.     

Genetic Counseling: Implications for Community Counselors

A special issue of the Journal of Health Psychology (Vol. 7, No. 2, 2002) was reviewed. The articles covered a variety of qualitative studies conducted using an interpretive phenomenological analysis method to examine the interviews with people who had received genetic testing and counseling. Implications for the broader counseling field were also presented.     

Perceptions of Deservedness of Social Aid as a Function of Prenatal Diagnostic Testing1

This study examined whether judgments of deservedness of social aid subsequent to the birth of a disabled child vary as a function of prenatal diagnostic testing (PDT) use as predicted by the attribution‐affect‐action model (Weiner, 1980). A sample of family physicians/obstetricians (n= 341) and a university employee sample (n= 281) made attribution ratings in 3 scenarios in which an at‐risk pregnant woman gave birth to a disabled child. The findings indicate that women who chose not to use PDT or who chose to continue the pregnancy following a diagnosis were judged more responsible, more to blame, and less deserving of both sympathy and social aid subsequent to giving birth to a disabled child than were women to whom testing was not made available.     

A Qualitative Investigation of Supervisees' Experiences of Triadic Supervision

Although triadic supervision has existed for some time, few studies have focused on this form of supervision or its effectiveness. In this qualitative study, the experiences of 6 master's‐level students from a counselor education program who participated as supervisees in triadic supervision were explored using in‐depth, open‐ended interviews. The data analysis resulted in 5 major categories, which are discussed. Implications of the findings for clinical supervision and further research are also addressed.     

Neural Systems Mediating American Sign Language: Effects of Sensory Experience and Age of Acquisition

ERPs were recorded from deaf and hearing native signers and from hearing subjects who acquired ASL late or not at all as they viewed ASL signs that formed sentences. The results were compared across these groups and with those from hearing subjects reading English sentences. The results suggest that there are constraints on the organization of the neural systems that mediate formal languages and that these are independent of the modality through which language is acquired. These include different specializations of anterior and posterior cortical regions in aspects of grammatical and semantic processing and a bias for the left hemisphere to mediate aspects of mnemonic functions in language. Additionally, the results suggest that the nature and timing of sensory and language experience significantly impact the development of the language systems of the brain. Effects of the early acquisition of ASL include an increased role for the right hemisphere and for parietal cortex and this occurs in both hearing and deaf native signers. An increased role of posterior temporal and occipital areas occurs in deaf native signers only and thus may be attributable to auditory deprivation.     

Differential production of positive and negative discriminative stimuli by normal and retarded children

Using an observing procedure similar to Wyckoff's (1969), two normal and two mentally retarded children were studied. The children were initially trained to earn pennies by pressing a rectangular key according to a multiple variable-interval extinction schedule of reinforcement. After discrimination training, the children were allowed to produce the discriminative stimuli by depressing a second or observing key. The retarded children were different from the normal children in that they produced more of the positive discriminative stimulus (S+) than the negative discriminative stimulus (S?). In the case of the retarded children, S+ observing started high and remained high. In the case of the normal children, S+ observing was initially substantial and then rapidly diminished.     

The effect of prior experience on recognition thresholds for plane-disoriented pictures of familiar objects

We investigated plane rotation effects on the minimum presentation duration that is required in order to recognize pictures of familiar objects, using the method of ascending limits. Subjects made unspeeded verification responses, selecting from 126 written alternatives. Replicating similar identification studies in which brief, masked pictures (Lawson & Jolicoeur, 1998) were presented, disorientation reduced the efficiency of recognition. Mirroring the findings in speeded picture naming studies (e.g., Jolicoeur, 1985; Jolicoeur & Milliken, 1989), but in contrast to those of Lawson and Jolicoeur (1998), orientation effects were found over a wide range of views and were attenuated but not eliminated with experience with a given object. The results bridge the findings from unspeeded verification and speeded naming tasks. They suggest that the same orientation-sensitive processes are tapped in both cases, and that practice effects on these processes are object specific.     

Depression and the interpretation of ambiguity

A number of studies have produced findings consistent with the possibility that depressives display a negative bias in interpretation. However, the results of such studies can equally well be explained by the operation of a depression-linked response bias, reflecting an elevated tendency for depressives to emit or endorse negatively-toned response options. The present experiment compares the patterns of interpretative processing displayed by subjects who differ in their BDI scores, using a priming methodology developed by anxiety researchers to eliminate the contaminating influence of emotional response bias. The pattern of priming effects obtained provides no evidence to support the existence of a negative interpretative bias in the more depressive individuals. Indeed, quite the reverse conclusion is sustained by the findings, which indicate that high BDI subjects showed an attenuated tendency to activate the more negative interpretations of the ambiguous textual stimuli. The conceptual and methodological implications of these findings are discussed, together with some specific suggestions for future research on this topic.