Unrecognized Posttraumatic Stress Disorder as a Treatment Barrier for a Gang-Involved Juvenile Offender

This study examines the case of GH, an 18-year-old Latino male participating in an employment-based delinquency intervention for gang-affiliated youth. Although postintervention measures revealed that GH showed gains on key outcomes (i.e., delinquency, employment), he experienced sporadic treatment setbacks (e.g., work absenteeism, fighting) that disrupted his progress. A comprehensive psychological assessment suggested that his aggressive, illegal behavior and difficulty maintaining employment could have been influenced by previously undiagnosed posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Excerpts from counseling sessions illustrated how reactive aggression, hypervigilance, sleep disruptions, and emotional numbing could have interfered with treatment gains and ultimately contributed to GH's re-arrest. Implications for early, accurate identification of PTSD in delinquency interventions for gang youth are discussed.     

Childhood Emotional Abuse and Young Adulthood Dating Violence: The Moderating Role of Stress Reactivity

Dating violence has been linked to past experiences of childhood emotional abuse; however, little research has explored how stress reactivity functions within interpersonal relationships to amplify or attenuate these associations. The present study investigated the moderating effects of cortisol stress reactivity on associations between retrospective self-reported childhood emotional abuse and later self-reported interpersonal violence in young adult dating relationships. The current sample consisted of 57 young adult heterosexual dating partners (46 females, 11 males) between the ages of 18 and 24. Salivary cortisol samples were collected before and after a stress task to measure stress reactivity. Moderation analyses were conducted through the PROCESS macro in SPSS version 22. The relation between childhood emotional abuse and dating violence varied depending on cortisol reactivity, such that the association between childhood emotional abuse and young adult dating violence was stronger for those who demonstrated low levels of cortisol reactivity. The association between childhood emotional abuse and dating violence was not significant for those who demonstrated high cortisol reactivity. Findings underscore the importance of studying physiological mechanisms that may confer risk in the relationship between child emotional abuse and later interpersonal consequences.     

Concealing negative evaluations of a romantic partner's physical attractiveness

Two studies provided evidence that people hide their negative evaluations of their romantic partner's physical attractiveness. This pattern was found using self‐reports of concealment (Study 1) and a behavioral observation measure (Study 2). Participants who engaged in this deception also exhibited elevated speech disfluencies, which is a deception cue. Moderators of concealment were examined. Concealment was especially pronounced for participants high in care for the partner's welfare (Studies 1 and 2), low in commitment (Studies 1 and 2), and high in attractiveness ideals (Study 2). Results suggest that people use deception to regulate their romantic partner's feelings, but that long‐term orientation or desire to maintain closeness may curtail use of this strategy.     

Adult Age Invariance in Sentence Unitization

We examined age differences on a letter detection task that was performed on four-word sentences in order to examine how letter-level and word-level processing is integrated with sentence-level unitization. Sentence-level unitization is defined as the formation of a sentence-level code that delays access to letter-level or word-level codes. There was a consistent word-frequency disadvantage for both age groups in which it took longer to detect letters within high and medium high frequency words than in low frequency words. This finding suggested that word-level and letter-level input channels were involved in a parallel “horse race” to the central processor while simultaneously outputting codes to the sentence-level at the second tier of processing. The present data also revealed that both age groups showed a larger relative increase in reaction time for letter detection for the fourth word position compared to the third word position on syntactically “intact” sentences relative to syntactically “scrambled” sentences. These data indicated that both age groups formed sentence-level codes that made letter-level codes more difficult to access. Finally, older adults' data showed a larger cost than younger adults' data for scrambled sentences than for intact sentences. These results suggest that older adults are more reliant on a syntactical processor that facilitates the parafoveal preview during the reading of syntactically intact sentences. These data suggest that whereas there are age differences in the perceptual processing of letters and words, sentence unitization and syntactical processing remain intact with increasing adult age.     

DETERMINATION AND EVALUATION OF RATE MEASUREMENTS IN THE ANALYSIS OF SPACE MEDICAL DATA

Measures of rate of change and of rate of rate of change are developed for application to physiological and psychological data. Examples are given of the use of these measures with heart-rate data for comparisons within and between subjects. It is shown that the measures provide information over and above that offered by means and variances, and that the measures appropriately reflect the impact of external variables.     

Effects of differential rates of alternative reinforcement on resurgence of human behavior

Despite the success of exposure‐based psychotherapies in anxiety treatment, relapse remains problematic. Resurgence, the return of previously eliminated behavior following the elimination of an alternative source of reinforcement, is a promising model of operant relapse. Nonhuman resurgence research has shown that higher rates of alternative reinforcement result in faster, more comprehensive suppression of target behavior, but also in greater resurgence when alternative reinforcement is eliminated. This study investigated rich and lean rates of alternative reinforcement on response suppression and resurgence in typically developing humans. In Phase 1, three groups (Rich, n = 18; Lean, n = 18; Control, n = 10) acquired the target response. In Phase 2, target responding was extinguished and alternative reinforcement delivered on RI 1 s, RI 3 s, and extinction schedules, respectively. Resurgence was assessed during Phase 3 under extinction conditions for all groups. Target responding was suppressed most thoroughly in Rich and partially in Lean. Target responding resurged in the Rich and Lean groups, but not in the Control group. Between groups, resurgence was more pronounced in the Rich group than the Lean and Control groups. Clinical implications of these findings, including care on the part of clinicians when identifying alternative sources of reinforcement, are discussed.     

Age-related differences in idea generation and selection for propositional language

Conceptual preparation mechanisms such as novel idea generation and selection from amongst competing alternatives are critical for language production and may contribute to age-related language deficits. This study investigated whether older adults show diminished idea generation and selection abilities, compared to younger adults. Twenty younger (18–35 years) and 20 older (60–80 years) adults completed two novel experimental tasks, an idea generation task and a selection task. Older participants were slower than younger participants overall on both tasks. Importantly, this difference was more pronounced for task conditions with greater demands on generation and selection. Older adults were also significantly reduced on a semantic, but not phonemic, word fluency task. Overall, the older group showed evidence of age-related decline specific to idea generation and selection ability. This has implications for the message formulation stage of propositional language decline in normal aging.     

Can parent‐to‐parent consultation improve the effectiveness of the Maudsley model of family‐based treatment for anorexia nervosa? A randomized control trial

Objective: This paper describes a preliminary randomized control trial that explores the use of parent‐to‐parent consultations as a potential augmentation to the Maudsley model of family‐based treatment for anorexia. Method: Twenty families were randomized into two groups, ten receiving standard treatment and ten receiving an additional parent‐to‐parent consultation early on in treatment. Measures of parental efficacy (Parents versus Anorexia Scale), patient distress (Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale) and percentage ideal body weight were taken each week. The effects of parent‐to‐parent consultations on parental efficacy and weight were analysed by comparing data with random effects models. Results: A significant treatment effect was found, with parent‐to‐parent consultations leading to a small increase in the rate of weight restoration. Conclusion: This practice has the potential to enhance weight restoration when included in the Maudsley model of family‐based treatment for anorexia nervosa. Research that tests more potent forms of intervention may also have merit.     

An inexpensive infrared detector to verify the delivery of food pellets

The reproducibility of experimental outcomes depends on consistent control of independent variables. In food-maintained operant performance, it is of utmost importance that the quantity of food delivered is reliable. To that end, some commercial food pellet dispensers have add-on attachments to sense the delivery of pellets. Not all companies, however, offer such add-ons. Aside from availability, cost and temporary reduction in throughput may be a problem for smaller labs. The present paper outlines our recent development of a simple, inexpensive infrared device to detect and confirm the delivery of pellets. The in-line construction of the detector routes the falling pellet through a barrel so that it passes between an infrared emitter and receiver. The circuitry was designed to be compatible with all commercially available behavioral measurement systems, and so may be retrofit to any existing system. Our tests with the detector so far have shown that it is 100% accurate in detecting pellet delivery. The individual unit cost is approximately 25 dollars. The low cost and versatility of the device offer an easy method to ensure the integrity of food delivery in operant settings.