Direct and Indirect Measures of Social Perception,Behavior, and Emotional Functioning in Children with Asperger’s Disorder,Nonverbal Learning Disability,or ADHD

Understanding social interactions is crucial for development of social competence. The present study was one of the first to utilize direct and indirect measures of social perception to explore possible differences among children with nonverbal learning disability (NLD), Asperger’s Syndrome (AS), Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder-Combined (ADHD-C), Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder-Predominately Inattentive (ADHD-PI), and controls (N = 342). Multiple informants provided ratings of the child’s behavioral and social functioning. Results indicated that the NLD and AS groups experienced the most difficulty understanding emotional and nonverbal cues on the direct measure. In addition, children with AS or NLD showed significant signs of sadness and social withdrawal compared to the other groups. Attentional skills, while related to social perception, did not predict social perception difficulties to the same degree as number of AS symptoms.     

Inconsistent Self-Report of Delinquency by Adolescents and Young Adults with ADHD

The purpose of the current study was to test the ability of adolescents and young adults with childhood ADHD to reliably self-report delinquency history. Data were examined from the Pittsburgh ADHD Longitudinal Study (PALS), a follow-up study of children diagnosed with ADHD between 1987 and 1996. Self-report of lifetime delinquency history was compared to concurrent parent-report and to self-report 1 year later. Participants included 313 male probands and 209 demographically similar comparison individuals without ADHD. Results indicated that adolescents and young adults with childhood ADHD were more likely than comparison participants to fail to report delinquent acts reported by a parent and to recant acts they endorsed 1 year earlier. This trend was most apparent for acts of mild to moderate severity. After controlling for several covariates, current ADHD symptom severity and parent-report of the participant’s tendency to lie predicted reporting fewer delinquent acts than one’s parent. Current ADHD symptom severity also predicted more recanting of previously endorsed acts. Based on these findings, several recommendations are made for the assessment of delinquency history in adolescents and young adults with childhood ADHD.     

Uneven Profiles: Language Minority Learners' Word Reading, Vocabulary, and Reading Comprehension Skills

English reading comprehension skill development was examined in a group of 87 native Spanish-speakers developing English literacy skills, followed from fourth through fifth grade. Specifically, the effects of Spanish (L1) and English (L2) oral language and word reading skills on reading comprehension were investigated. The participants showed average word reading skills and below average comprehension skills, influenced by low oral language skills. Structural equation modeling confirmed that L2 oral language skills had a large, significant effect on L2 reading comprehension, whereas students' word-level reading skills, whether in L1 or L2, were not significantly related to English reading comprehension in three of four models fitted. The results converge with findings from studies with monolinguals demonstrating the influence of oral language on reading comprehension outcomes, and extend these findings by showing that, for language minority learners, L2 oral language exerts a stronger influence than word reading in models of L2 reading.     

Evidence for specificity of ERP abnormalities during response inhibition in ADHD children: A comparison with reading disorder children without ADHD

Executive function and working memory deficits are not only present in ADHD, but also in reading disorder (RD). Here, high-density ERPs were recorded during the Stop Signal Task in 53 children and adolescents: An ADHD-combined type group, a group with RD, and a healthy control group. The ADHD-C group displayed unique abnormalities of the frontal N200. Both healthy controls and RD groups showed a success-related right frontal N200 modulation, which was absent in the ADHD group. Second, for Success Inhibition trials, the ADHD-C had smaller right frontal N200 waves relative to healthy controls, while the RD group did not. In contrast, NoGo-P3 abnormalities were present both in the ADHD-C and RD groups. Impaired early response inhibition mechanisms, indexed by the frontal N200, appear to be limited to ADHD-C. In contrast, deficits in later cognitive control and error monitoring mechanisms, indexed by the NoGo-P3, appear to be present in both conditions.     

The flexibility of source‐monitoring training: Reducing young children's source confusions

The effect of source‐monitoring training on the ability of 3‐ to 4‐year‐old children to discriminate between events seen live and those described in a story was examined. All children saw a live presentation of a target event and heard about a similar target event from a storybook. Three to 4 days later, the children received either source‐monitoring or control training involving a different set of events. Within each training condition, the children were taught to discriminate events (source training) or identify features of events (control training) acquired from sources that were either analogous (live–story events) or partially analogous (live—video events) to the target‐event sources. Immediately after training, all children were asked to monitor the source of the target events seen a few days earlier. The children in both the analogous and partially analogous source‐monitoring training groups more accurately distinguished between the target live and story events than did children in the control training groups. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Role of Laughter When Discussing Workplace Barriers: Women in Information Technology Jobs

Focus group discussions with 39 women in Information Technology positions in a large company were used to identify the barriers they faced, when group laughter occurred, and which theoretical perspective best explained the group laughter. The barriers mentioned included family responsibilities, politics, stress, discrimination, and the problematic attitudes of upper management, supervisors, and coworkers. Laughter occurred when respondents discussed external clients, internal politics, discrimination, respect, promotions, family responsibilities, gender differences, and when derogatory comments were made or reported. Superiority and incongruity theories were supported.     

Binary choice under instructions to select versus reject

Two experiments examine differences in binary choice under select versus reject instructions. Three aspects of the choice process are examined: commitment to the chosen alternative, absolute magnitude of attribute evaluations, and information distortion during the choice process. Although the findings support previously hypothesized causes (Study 1), these results are reversed when the decision alternatives are uniformly negative (Study 2a). Accompanying verbal protocols (Study 2b) provide additional insights into the underlying decision process. The results consistently support a compatibility effect. Whenever there is a match between the valences of the alternatives and of the decision strategy, namely selecting a positive alternative or rejecting a negative one, there is greater accentuation of attribute differences, higher certainty in the final choice, and more information distortion. Metaphorically, the choice process seems to flow more smoothly in the compatible conditions.     

Do early interviews affect children's long‐term event recall?

The present study examined the effects of the timing of an initial interview on children's recall of an event over delays of 1 and 2 years. Fifty‐five children who had originally participated in a novel event when they were between 5‐ and 6‐years old and had been interviewed about it following either short (1 week or less) or long (1 or 6 month) delays were re‐interviewed 1 and 2 years after the original experience. An additional 20 children not interviewed prior to the 1‐year interview were included as a no‐prior‐interview control group. Long delays to the initial interview led to better open‐ended recall at the 1‐year delay than short delays to initial interview or no prior interview. However, initial interviews that followed short delays had a greater impact on children's responses to specific questions. The results suggest that prior interview history is an important consideration when examining the effects of long delays on children's event reports, and that the effects of the timing of an initial interview depend on the nature of the information recalled. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

“She doesn’t let age define her”1: Sexuality and motherhood in recent “middle-aged chick flicks”

This article explores Hollywood’s recent representation of older women as having a relatively more open and fluid sexuality than they were portrayed as having in earlier decades. While seemingly offering a liberatory vision of older women as sexual beings, there is nevertheless a subtext in many of these films that this newfound sexuality is disturbing to the stability of the nuclear family. The analysis also focuses on the “super-text” of how the actresses who portray these older women, such as Susan Sarandon and Diane Keaton, are themselves constructed in the popular press as being mutually sexy and “women of a certain age.” In this way, these popular cultural representations are trying to tap into the growing demographic of aging female bady boomers, both celebrating and marketing to this group as sexually embodied beings.