Intrapersonal and Ecodevelopmental Factors Associated with Smoking in Hispanic Adolescents

We examined how relationships among intrapersonal (i.e., attitudes and beliefs about smoking) and ecodevelopmental (i.e., family, school, and peer) factors influence risk for lifetime smoking in immigrant Hispanic adolescents. Our sample was comprised of 223 immigrant Hispanic adolescents and their families and was drawn from 3 middle schools in a single school district. Data collected is a result of adolescent and parent completed questionnaires as well as county school data (i.e., GPA, teacher reported effort and conduct, absences). Results indicated only poor school functioning, peer smoking, and lack of perceived harm concerning smoking were directly related to adolescent lifetime smoking. Poor school functioning and peer smoking mediated the relationship between family functioning and adolescent smoking. Implications of these results for the design of smoking preventive interventions for immigrant Hispanic adolescents are discussed.     

Sex differences in relational and overt aggression in the late elementary school years

Sex differences in relational and overt aggression among 3rd (n=176), 4th (n=179), and 5th graders (n=145) from three public schools (n=500; 278 girls) were examined. Nominations of relational aggression increased over time among 4th and 5th grade girls, but not among boys or 3rd grade girls. Among 3rd graders, boys received more nominations for relational aggression than girls. By the end of the 5th grade, girls received more relational aggression nominations than boys. There was also a significant rise in nominations of overt aggression among 5th grade girls, but not among 5th grade boys or younger boys and girls. As expected, boys were more likely than girls to be nominated for overt aggression at all grade levels. The findings are helpful for explaining inconsistencies of earlier research pertaining to sex differences in relational aggression and for advancing our understanding of the causes of aggression. Aggr. Behav. 36:282–291, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

The impact of alcohol intoxication on witness suggestibility immediately and after a delay

Intoxicated witnesses are common, making it important to understand alcohol's impact on witness accuracy and suggestibility. Participants assigned to an immediate retrieval condition encoded and recalled in one of the three intoxication conditions: sober control, placebo, or intoxicated. Participants in the delayed retrieval condition were assigned to encode in one of the three intoxication conditions, returned a week later, and were assigned to retrieve in one of the three intoxication conditions. Intoxication condition at encoding was fully crossed with intoxication condition at retrieval in the delayed condition. Participants encoded a mock crime video and retrieved via a forced‐choice test, with answers already circled (purportedly by a prior participant); half of the precircled responses were incorrect. When recalling after a delay only, intoxication at encoding increased agreement with incorrect suggested answers and decreased accuracy. Results suggest intoxicated witnesses may benefit from being interviewed immediately rather than after a sobering delay.     

Paradoxical sleep deprivation impairs acquisition, consolidation, and retrieval of a discriminative avoidance task in rats

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of paradoxical sleep deprivation (PSD) for 96 h on the learning/memory processes in rats submitted to the plus-maze discriminative avoidance task (PM-DAT), which simultaneously evaluates learning, memory, anxiety and motor function. Four experiments were performed in which rats were submitted to: (1) post-training and pre-test PSD; (2) post-training or pre-test PSD; (3) pre-training PSD or pre-training paradoxical sleep (PS) rebound (24 h) and (4) pre-test PSD rebound. Concerning Experiment I, post-training and pre-test PSD induced memory deficits, an anxiolytic-like behavior and an increase in locomotor activity. In Experiment II, both post-training PS-deprived and pre-test PS-deprived groups showed memory deficits per se. However, only the pre-test PS-deprived animals presented anxiolytic-like behavior and increased locomotor activity. In Experiment III, pre-training PS-deprived rats showed learning and memory deficits, anxiolytic-like behavior and increased locomotor activity. A 24h-sleep recovery period after the PSD abolished the learning and memory deficits but not anxiety and locomotor alterations. Finally, sleep rebound did not modify acquisition (Experiment III) and retrieval (Experiment IV). This study strengthened the critical role of paradoxical sleep (but not sleep rebound) in all the phases of learning and memory formation. In addition, it suggests that PSD effects on acquisition and consolidation do not seem to be related to other behavioral alterations induced by this procedure.     

Effects of sleep deprivation on cognitive performance by United States Air Force pilots

This study examined the effects of 35 h of continuous sleep deprivation on performance in a variety of cognitive tasks as well as simulated flight. Ten United States Air Force pilots completed the Multi-Attribute Task Battery (MATB), Psychomotor Vigilance Task (PVT), and Operation Span Task (OSPAN), as well as simulated flight at 3 h intervals over a 35 h sleep deprivation period. Performance declined on all tests after about 18–20 h of continuous sleep deprivation, although the degree to which performance degraded varied. During the second half of the sleep deprivation period, performance on the simulated flight was predicted by PVT and OSPAN reasonably well but much less so by the MATB. Variance from optimal flight performance was predicted by both PVT and OSPAN but each measure added incremental validity to the prediction. The two measures together accounted for 58% of the variance in flight performance in the second half of the sleep deprivation period.     

Transcortical motor aphasia: One or two aphasias?

The name "transcortical motor aphasia" has been used to refer to two different types of language alterations: damage in the left supplementary motor area and Luria's dynamic aphasia. It is proposed that they represent two types of language disturbances different enough to be considered two different forms of aphasia.     

Latent relationships of fluid, visual, and simultaneous cognitive tasks

Horn's 1989 fluid intelligence and Luria's 1966 simultaneous processing have been represented in various cognitive assessment batteries. Although related, these concepts are purported to measure distinct cognitive functions; fluid intelligence refers to deductive reasoning whereas simultaneous processing refers to understanding complex relationships among gestalts. The current study explored the factor structure of known fluid and simultaneous tests along with visually complex new tests. A total of 56 children in Grades 1 through 5 were administered tests from the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children, Elliott's Differential Abilities Scales, and two experimental tasks. Findings suggest that (1) the two experimental subtests were psychometrically viable, (2) when analyzed as a two-factor structure, fluid and visual processing components were pronounced, and (3) when analyzed as a single-factor structure, simultaneous processing emerged. These findings indicate simultaneous processing may be a blend of fluid and visual components.     

Demographic variables and microCog performance: relationships for VA patients under treatment for substance abuse

The associations of demographic variables with cognitive performance, as measured by the MicroCog ability domain scores, were assessed with 222 substance abusers who were patients in a VA medical center. Analysis indicated that age was negatively related to all five outcomes scores, and education was positively related to measures assessing Attention/Mental Control and Reasoning/Calculation. These findings are consistent with past theoretical and applied research. The demographic variables, as a group, accounted for a total of 17% to 37% of the variance in the five domain scores.     

Random responding to the MMPI-2 F scale

Exact probabilities for a variety of F scale cutoffs are presented for detecting examinees who respond randomly to the MMPI-2 items.     

Boston Naming Test: problems with administration and scoring

The poorly written administration and scoring instructions for the Boston Naming Test allow too wide a range of interpretations. Three different, seemingly correct interpretations of the scoring methods were compared. The results show that these methods can produce large differences in the total score.