The effects of sleep deprivation on the attentional functions and vigilance

The study of sleep deprivation is a fruitful area of research to increase our knowledge of cognitive functions and their neural basis. In the current work, 26 healthy young adults participated in a sleep deprivation study, in which the Attentional Networks Test for Interactions and Vigilance (ANTI-V) was performed at 10a.m. after a night of normal sleep and again at 10 a.m. after 25.5-27.5 h of total sleep deprivation. The ANTI-V is an experimental task that provides measures of alerting, orienting and executive control attentional functions. Compared with previous versions, the ANTI-V includes a vigilance task, more reliable auditory alerting signals, non-predictive peripheral orienting cues, and also a neutral no-cue condition allowing the analysis of reorienting costs and orienting benefits. Thus, new evidence to evaluate the influence of sleep deprivation on attentional functioning is provided. Results revealed differences in both tonic and phasic alertness after sleep deprivation. Vigilance performance was deteriorated, while a warning tone was more helpful to increase participants' alertness, resulting in slightly faster RT and, in particular, fewer errors. The reorienting costs of having an invalid spatial cue were reduced after sleep loss. No sleep deprivation effect on the executive control measure was found in this study. Finally, since no control group was used, particular precautions were taken to reduce the influence of potential practice effects.     

Tolerance towards dating violence in Spanish adolescents

The study of intimate partner violence among adolescent and young couples in Spain remains unattended, although such abuses are well known and more frequent than in adulthood. The aim of this study is, on the one hand, to provide epidemiological information on dating relationships, and on the other hand, to identify attitudes towards violence. 2205 women enrolled in schools in diverse provinces of Spain, participated in the study. Average age was near 19 years (SD= 2.25). The Dating Violence Questionnaire (DVQ, in Spanish, CUVINO), a questionnaire that assesses both frequency and distress associated with violent behavior, was used. The DVQ allowed differentiating between groups of women self-labeled as abused and not abused on the basis of the frequency of sustained violence, although the levels of distress in the face of violence were statistically similar in both groups. Implications for future research and prevention programs are discussed.     

Assessment of a sexual coercion prevention program for adolescents

This study's focus is to evaluate a sexual coercion prevention program in adolescents. Using a before-and-after design with both a treatment group (n = 93) and a control group (n = 76), an intervention of seven sessions was completed. Said sessions included such content as conceptualizing sexual freedom, sexual coercion and voluntary consent, analyzing different sexual coercion tactics and the contexts in which they occur, empathy toward the victim, and developing abilities to avoid risky situations. Other risk factors for coercive behavior and sexual victimization are explored as well, such as alcohol use, sexist attitudes and inadequate communication, among others. The intervention's results include a decrease in stereotypical beliefs about the opposite sex and increased empathy toward victims of sexual coercion. These changes were maintained with the passage of time. Also, in the treatment group, a more acute decline was observed in the proportion of young people engaging in sexually coercive behaviors, This article emphasizes the importance, necessity and efficacy of such interventions, and discusses and analyzes possible improvements to the program for its future implementation.     

Early childhood education and crime

This article presents new evidence on the crime-reducing impacts of a high-quality, intensive early childhood program with long-term follow-up, evaluated by a randomized controlled trial. Proportionately, more women than men decrease their criminal activity after participating in the program. This gender difference arises because of the worse home environments for girls, with corresponding greater scope for improvement by the program. For both genders, treatment effects are larger for the least-advantaged children, as measured by their mother's education at baseline. The dollar value of the social cost of criminal activity averted is higher for men because they commit more costly violent crimes.     

Más Allá De Las Barreras: Competency and Practice Considerations in Language,Cultural, and Social Issues When Delivering Group CPT to Hispanic Immigrants

ABSTRACT

High rates of underassessed trauma and psychiatric disorders, particularly post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have been reported among Hispanic immigrants, especially as related to immigration trauma. Multiple studies have shown group cognitive processing therapy (CPT) to be an effective evidence-based practice (EBP) for treatment of PTSD across a number of clinical populations. To date, however, no studies have examined important competency and practice issues in linguistic, cultural, and ethical areas that group CPT providers should consider when delivering group CPT to Hispanic immigrants. This article aims to outline these and provide future directions for research.     

Blocking with serial compound stimuli: The role of local context and second-order associations

Blocking was studied with rats in two serial conditioning experiments in which CS1 was followed by CS2 and then shock. Experiment 1 demonstrated that pretraining with CS1 was able to block conditioning to CS2 when the pretraining consisted of trace conditioning. But when serial conditioning was used for pretraining, with a third stimulus as the second element of the compound, then blocking was not detected during the subsequent phase. In Experiment 2 the effect of pretraining with CS2 on blocking with CS1 was examined. Blocking was effective, but only when steps were taken to minimize the growth of second-order associations resulting from the pairing of CS1 with CS2. These results are consistent with a principle stating that the ability of a pretrained stimulus to block the added stimulus in a compound depends on the relative contiguity of each stimulus to the US.