Neurocognitive influences on health behavior in a community sample.

CONTEXT: Dominant models of individual health behavior omit biological variables entirely and are composed almost exclusively of social-cognitive and conative variables. Research from the neurosciences suggests a role for brain function in explaining behaviors that require active self-regulation for consistent performance. However, the association between brain function and health behavior is underexplored. OBJECTIVE: To examine the predictive power of executive function for 2 health risk behaviors and 2 health protective behaviors in healthy adults. DESIGN: A cross-sectional community sample (N = 216) of adults 20-100 years of age were administered a battery of neuropsychological tests and completed self-report questionnaires regarding their health practices. It was hypothesized that poor performance on neuropsychological tests tapping executive function would be associated with poor health behavior tendencies. RESULTS: Errors on the Stroop task were positively associated with health risk behavior and negatively associated with health protective behavior after controlling for demographics, education, and IQ. CONCLUSION: Executive function is associated with health behavior tendencies. If the association is causal, explanatory models of individual health behavior should be revised to account for individual differences in biologically imbued self-regulatory abilities.     

The Growing Use of Firearms by Suicidal Older Women, 1979–1992: A Research Note

Suicide among older women (65 +) has received very little attention despite increasing numbers of suicides in this population. An examination of national mortality data from the National Center for Health Statistics for the years 1979 through 1992 shows an increasing trend in rates of suicide among older women and a declining trend among women under 65. Over the 14-year period, firearms replaced poisoning as the most prevalent method of suicide by women 65 and over. The results seem consistent with the assertion that the availability, familiarity, and cultural acceptability of firearms may play a role in the choice of suicide method among older women. Although violent death and the use of firearms are generally associated with males in our society, the trends reported here indicate that greater attention to firearm suicides among older women is warranted.     

A “word length effect”for sign language: Further evidence for the role of language in structuring working memory

We report a sign length effect in deaf users of American Sign Language that is analogous to the word length effect for speech. Lists containing long signs (signs that traverse relatively long distances) produced poorer memory performance than did lists of short signs (signs that do not change in location). Further, this length effect was eliminated by articulatory suppression (repetitive motion of the hands), and articulatory suppression produced an overall drop in performance. The pattern of results, together with previous findings (Wilson & Emmorey, 1997), provides evidence for a working memory system for sign language that consists of a phonological storage buffer and an articulatory rehearsal mechanism. This indicates a close equivalence of structure between working memory for sign language and working memory for speech. The implications of this equivalence are discussed.     

The "Social Etymology" of 'Sexual Harassment'

Language does not simply symbolize a situation or object which is already there in advance; it makes possible the existence or the appearance of that situation or object for it is a part of the mechanism whereby that situation or object is created. (Mead 1934, p. 78)     

The psychometric properties of an abbreviated form of the revised Junior Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (JEPQR-A) among 12–15-year-old U.S. young persons

The psychometric properties of an abbreviated form of the Revised Junior Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (JEPQR-A) among 203 12–15-year-old U.S. young persons are presented. The results suggest that the JEPQR-A can be recommended for use among U.S. young persons.     

The development of the menstrual symptom questionnaire

The literature has suggested that there are two separate types of primary dysmenorrhea with different physiological bases and different reported symptomatology. The purpose of this study was to construct a questionnaire based on suggestions from Dalton's (1969) theory of congestive and spasmodic types of primary dysmenorrhea, to obtain test-retest reliabilities of items, and to factor analyze the instrument to empirically investigate the two-type theory. The first set of 51 items had mean test-retest reliabilities of 0.76 and yielded two clearly distinct factors in support of the two-type hypothesis. When items with factor loadings less than ±0.35 were discarded, 25 items remained. The mean test-retest reliabilities of these items was 0.78. Again, two clearly distinct factors emerged defining congestive and spasmodic dysmenorrhea consistent with the literature. The retained items from the first questionnaire and the items from the second questionnaire loaded on the same factors both times. It was concluded that two types of dysmenorrhea do, in fact, exist and that this study has provided a reliable means of differentiating them. From a therapeutic standpoint, accurate diagnosis of type may be a prerequisite for prescribing appropriate treatment.     

Hand-eye coordination: The role of “motor memory”

Ten Ss attempted to track a visual target, which was moved either by hand (test run) or by a tape recording of the same hand movements (control run). On some test runs, movement of the target lagged behind that of the hand by a fixed amount (.18, .36, .72, or 1.44 sec). The number of saccades occurring on a given test run was divided by the number on the matched control run, and the test/control ratio was studied as a function of the hand-to-target lag time. With lag times of .36 sec or less, the test/control ratios were less than 1. indicating that manual control of the target had a significant effect on oculomotor performance. This effect disappeared at a lag close to .72 sec. The results are discussed in terms of a hypothetical “motor memory.”