Reduction in disability in a randomized controlled trial of telephone-administered cognitive-behavioral therapy.

OBJECTIVE: The authors examined the efficacy of telephone-administered cognitive-behavioral therapy (T-CBT) and telephone-administered supportive emotion-focused therapy (T-SEFT) in reducing disability among disabled patients with multiple sclerosis and depression. Telephone administration of therapy allowed care to be delivered to a more disabled population. This is a secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial; the primary outcome results for depression are reported in D. C. Mohr, S. L. Hart, L. Julian, C. Catledge, L. Honos-Webb, L. Vella, et al. (2005). DESIGN: A randomized controlled trial, comparing 16 weeks of T-CBT with T-SEFT. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Disability was measured using Guy's Neurological Disability Scale; fatigue was measured using the Fatigue Impact Scale; depression was measured using the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale and the Beck Depression Inventory-II. RESULTS: Patients in both treatments showed significant improvements in disability and fatigue. These improvements were related to reductions in depression. T-CBT produced significantly greater decreases in disability and fatigue, compared with T-SEFT, even after controlling for depression. The greater benefit of T-CBT on disability was mediated by physical fatigue. CONCLUSION: These findings support the hypothesis that significant reductions in disability can be achieved by reducing depression in patients with multiple sclerosis. There was also evidence that further reductions could be achieved through CBT-specific interventions that include a focus on symptoms such as fatigue management.     

Global-feature classification can be acquired more rapidly than local-feature classification in both humans and pigeons

When humans process visual stimuli, global information often takes precedence over local information. In contrast, some recent studies have pointed to a local precedence effect in both pigeons and nonhuman primates. In the experiment reported here, we compared the speed of acquisition of two different categorizations of the same four geometric figures. One categorization was on the basis of a local feature, the other on the basis of a readily apparent global feature. For both humans and pigeons, the global-feature categorization was acquired more rapidly. This result reinforces the conclusion that local information does not always take precedence over global information in nonhuman animals.     

The factor structure and factorial invariance of the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) across time: evidence from two community-based samples

This study provides new knowledge about the factor structure of the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12; D. Goldberg, 1972) through the application of confirmatory factor analysis to longitudinal data, thereby enabling investigation of the factor structure, its invariance across time, and the rank-order stability of the factors. Two community-based longitudinal adult samples with 1-year (n = 640) and 6-year (n = 330) follow-up times were studied. As a result, the correlated 3-factor model (i.e., Anxiety/Depression, Social Dysfunction, and Loss of Confidence) showed a better fit with both samples than the alternative models. The correlated 3-factor structure was also relatively invariant across time in both samples, indicating that the scale has good construct validity. The rank-order stabilities of the factors were low across time, which suggests that the GHQ-12 measures temporal mental state.     

The logic of the stimulus

This paper examines the contribution of stimulus processing to animal logics. In the classic functionalist S-O-R view of learning (and cognition), stimuli provide the raw material to which the organism applies its cognitive processes–its logic, which may be taxon-specific. Stimuli may contribute to the logic of the organism's response, and may do so in taxon-specific ways. Firstly, any non-trivial stimulus has an internal organization that may constrain or bias the way that the organism addresses it; since stimuli can only be defined relative to the organism's perceptual apparatus, and this apparatus is taxon-specific, such constraints or biases will often be taxon-specific. Secondly, the representation of a stimulus that the perceptual system builds, and the analysis it makes of this representation, may provide a model for the synthesis and analysis done at a more cognitive level. Such a model is plausible for evolutionary reasons: perceptual analysis was probably perfected before cognitive analysis in the evolutionary history of the vertebrates. Like stimulus-driven analysis, such perceptually modelled cognition may be taxon-specific because of the taxon-specificity of the perceptual apparatus. However, it may also be the case that different taxa are able to free themselves from the stimulus logic, and therefore apply a more abstract logic, to different extents. This thesis is defended with reference to two examples of cases where animals' cognitive logic seems to be isomorphic with perceptual logic, specifically in the case of pigeons' attention to global and local information in visual stimuli, and dogs' failure to comprehend means-end relationships in string-pulling tasks.This contribution is part of the special issue “Animal Logics” (Watanabe and Huber 2006).     

Do readers make inferences about conversational topics?

When we read that two protagonists in a story chatted together for a couple of minutes, do we draw inferences about the topic of the conversation on the basis of information presented earlier in the text? Participants read passages in which protagonists part and later reunite; the passages ended with a sentence either that implied conversation or did not. In Experiment 1, participants' continuation sentences indicated that inferences about the topic of conversation were drawn. Recognition probe data in Experiment 2 provided more immediate evidence of such inferences. Experiment 3 addressed a possible confound in Experiment 2 and again provided evidence that readers inferred the continuation of the conversation. In Experiments 4 and 5, we investigated the effect of having the targeted conversational topic be a secret that should not be shared between the protagonists. The results are discussed in terms of the collaboration between passive, memory-based text processing and schema-driven comprehension processes.     

The effect of negation on deductive inferences

Research shows that negation can suppress the activation of propositions presented explicitly in text, but does negation have a similar effect on propositions that can be inferred? That is, does negation inhibit the inference process? Four experiments investigated whether a deductive inference that produces a negated conclusion (therefore not a) is made as readily as a similar inference form that yields an affirmative conclusion (therefore a). A combination of naming latencies, verification times, and reading times indicate that negation does not affect the deductive inference process itself, although it may inhibit the activation of inferred concepts.     

Femininity and fertility in sisters with twin brothers: prenatal androgenization? Cross-sex socialization?

Are sisters of twin brothers behaviorally or physiologically masculinized? Prenatal exposure to their brothers' androgens and postnatal socialization experiences unique to girls growing up with twin brothers might influence their attitudes, pubertal development, and reproductive histories. To investigate, we studied age- and cohort-matched samples of Finnish sisters from same-sex and opposite-sex twin pairs. Using data from two ongoing longitudinal studies of consecutive birth cohorts of Finnish twins, we assessed pubertal development at ages 11 and 14 and endorsement of attitudes associated with femininity at age 16. We also studied fertility in Finnish women from same- and opposite-sex twin pairs born from 1958 through 1971, obtaining information on their child-bearing histories when they were ages 15 to 28. Results of each comparison were unambiguously negative: There was no evidence of differences between sisters from same- and opposite-sex twin pairs, and thus, no evidence of either androgenization or cross-sex socialization.     

Effortful Control in “Hot” and “Cool” Tasks Differentially Predicts Children’s Behavior Problems and Academic Performance

Effortful control (EC), the capacity to deliberately suppress a dominant response and perform a subdominant response, rapidly developing in toddler and preschool age, has been shown to be a robust predictor of children’s adjustment. Not settled, however, is whether a view of EC as a heterogeneous rather than unidimensional construct may offer advantages in the context of predicting diverse developmental outcomes. This study focused on the potential distinction between “hot” EC function (delay-of-gratification tasks that called for suppressing an emotionally charged response) and more abstract “cool” EC functions (motor inhibition tasks, suppressing-initiating response or Go-No Go tasks, and effortful attention or Stroop-like tasks). Children (N?=?100) were observed performing EC tasks at 38 and 52 months. Mothers, fathers, and teachers rated children’s behavior problems and academic performance at 67, 80, and 100 months, and children participated in a clinical interview at 100 months. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analyses with latent variables produced consistent findings across all informants: Children’s scores in “hot” EC tasks, presumably engaging emotion regulation skills, predicted behavior problems but not academic performance, whereas their scores in “cool” EC tasks, specifically those engaging effortful attention, predicted academic performance but not behavior problems. The models of EC as a heterogeneous construct offered some advantages over the unidimensional models. Methodological and clinical implications of the findings are discussed.     

Controlling reactive aggression through cognitive evaluation of proactive aggression cues

The authors investigated how the relationship between the acts of proactive and reactive aggression was moderated by the individual differences in cognitive regulation of emotion. An aggression paradigm, a electrocardiogram recording, a cognitive assessment battery, and a short form IQ test were completed by 109 children, aged 8 to 13 years (Juujärvi, Kaartinen, Laitinen, Vanninen, & Pulkkinen, 2006 Juujärvi, P., Kaartinen, J., Laitinen, T., Vanninen, E. and Pulkkinen, L. 2006. Effects of physical provocations on heart rate reactivity, and reactive aggression in children. Aggressive Behavior, 32: 99–109. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Juujärvi, Kooistra, Kaartinen, & Pulkkinen, 2001 Juujärvi, P., Kooistra, L., Kaartinen, J. and Pulkkinen, L. 2001. An aggression machine: V. Determinants of reactive aggression revisited. Aggressive Behavior, 27: 430–445. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Lehto, Juujärvi, Kooistra, & Pulkkinen, 2003 Lehto, J. E., Juujärvi, P., Kooistra, L. and Pulkkinen, L. 2003. Dimensions of executive functioning: Evidence from children. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 21: 59–80. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). The less the children subdued the intensity of their defence to the attacks in the aggression paradigm, the poorer they performed in the cognitive assessment battery tasks measuring Working memory capacity and in the task assessing crystallised intelligence. The mean cardiovascular reactivity during the aggression paradigm was neither associated with the performances in either the cognitive assessment battery nor the intelligence tasks. Both information processing and knowledge dimensions of cognition contributed to regulation of emotion, but the respective effects of the processes cannot be inferred from the mean cardiovascular reactivity.     

Associations between authoritative parenting and the sun exposure and sun protective behaviours of adolescents and their friends

Associations between the sun exposure and sun protective behaviours of adolescents and their friends were examined along with the role played by authoritative parenting and other family and peer socialisation factors. Four hundred and two adolescents (198 males, 204 females) participated in the research. It was found that these adolescents and their friends shared similar sun exposure and sun protective behaviours and had similar parenting backgrounds. Parental authoritativeness was positively associated with the use of sun protection, even after the effects of other familial and peer variables were controlled, but not with the time spent sunbathing which was associated with friends’ behaviours. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.