Time’s up! Involvement of metamemory knowledge,executive functions,and time monitoring in children’s prospective memory performance

This study examined time-based prospective memory (PM) in children and explored the possible involvement of metamemory knowledge and executive functions in the use of an appropriate time-monitoring strategy depending on the ongoing task’s difficulty. Specifically, a sample of 72 typically developing children aged 4, 6, and 9 years old were given an original PM paradigm composed of both an ongoing procedural activity and a PM task. Half of the participants (expert group) were trained in the ongoing activity before the prospective test. As expected, results show that time monitoring had a positive effect on children’s PM performance. Furthermore, mediation analyses reveal that strategic time monitoring was predicted by metamemory knowledge in the expert group but only by executive functions in the novice group. Overall, these findings provide interesting avenues to explain how metamemory knowledge, strategy use, and executive functions interact to improve PM performance during childhood.     

Reproductive Health CHOICES for Young Adults with Sickle Cell Disease or Trait: Randomized Controlled Trial Outcomes over Two Years

Interventions to assist reproductive health decision-making in populations affected by sickle cell disease (SCD) or trait (SCT) lack proven efficacy over time. Our aim was to compare effects of CHOICES, a Web-based multimedia education program on implementing informed reproductive plans, and usual care education (e-Book) on reproductive knowledge, intention, and behavior over 24 months. We randomized 234 participants with SCD (n?=?138) or SCT (n?=?96) (age 18–35 years, 35 % male, 94 % African American) to CHOICES and e-Book groups. Participants completed a sickle cell-specific reproductive measure before and four times after the intervention (6, 12, 18 and 24 months). Compared to the e-Book group the CHOICES group had significantly more improvement in knowledge over time (p?=?.004) but not intention (p?=?.18) or behavior (p?=?.69). At baseline, 114 (48.7 %) participants reported having partners who would not put the couple at risk for their children inheriting SCD. Of the 116 (49.6 %) at-risk participants, a higher poroportion of those who were in the CHOICES group chose partners that reduced their risk by the last visit than the e-Book group (p?=?.04). Study findings provide important insights for designing a national trial of the CHOICES intervention focusing on subjects whose partner status puts them at risk for having a child with SCD.     

Patient Perceptions of Telephone vs. In-Person <Emphasis Type="Italic">BRCA1/BRCA2</Emphasis> Genetic Counseling

Telephone genetic counseling (TC) for hereditary breast/ovarian cancer risk has been associated with positive outcomes in high risk women. However, little is known about how patients perceive TC. As part of a randomized trial of TC versus usual care (UC; in-person genetic counseling), we compared high risk women’s perceptions of: (1) overall satisfaction with genetic counseling; (2) convenience; (3) attentiveness during the session; (4) counselor effectiveness in providing support; and (5) counselor ability to recognize emotional responses during the session. Among the 554 participants (TC, N?=?272; UC, N?=?282), delivery mode was not associated with self-reported satisfaction. However, TC participants found counseling significantly more convenient than UC participants (OR?=?4.78, 95 % CI?=?3.32, 6.89) while also perceiving lower levels of support (OR?=?0.56, 95 % CI?=?0.40–0.80) and emotional recognition (OR?=?0.53, 95 % CI?=?0.37–0.76). In exploratory analyses, we found that non-Hispanic white participants reported higher counselor support in UC than in TC (69.4 % vs. 52.8 %; OR?=?3.06, 95 % CI?=?1.39–6.74), while minority women perceived less support in UC vs. TC (58.3 % vs. 38.7 %; OR?=?0.80, 95 % CI?=?0.39–1.65). We discuss potential research and practice implications of these findings which may further improve the effectiveness and utilization of TC.     

The role of ‘<Emphasis Type="Italic">accompagnement</Emphasis>’ in the end-of-life debate in France: from solidarity to autonomy

This article traces the way autonomy has become a recognised value in health care in France. In a country that based its social fundamentals on the very idea of solidarity for many years, autonomy has long been considered a foreign ‘Anglo-American principle’. Taking the example of the end-of-life debate, the article shows, however, how the use of the French term ‘accompagnement’ allowed autonomy to be redefined and to be associated with the concept of solidarity. Exploring the arguments used over the past 25 years in professional guidelines, parliamentary reports, ethics committee reports, and legal texts, the authors describe the shift that took place in public and legal discourses on end-of-life care. The analysis demonstrates how the scope of autonomy has been limited by other social values, such as the protection of the dying person, in order to become an accepted social value in its own right. The example of the French end-of-life debate shows that depending on how the concept of autonomy is adapted and applied in a specific context, it can be compatible with the idea of solidarity. Such compatibility has been challenged previously in the international bioethics debate. By demonstrating the possibility of combining autonomy and solidarity, this article makes an important contribution to the international bioethics debate and to the dialogue between countries that are often perceived as significantly different.     

Categorization does not promote symmetry in Guinea baboons (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Papio papio</Emphasis>)

Humans have the capacity to use stimuli interchangeably by forming equivalence classes, and this ability seems to be supported by our language system. According to Sidman and Tailby (Conditional discrimination vs. matching to sample: an expansion of the testing paradigm. J Exp Anal Behav 37:5–22, 1982), the formation of equivalence classes require that three relations are derived among the class members, and past experiments have shown that one of these relations, i.e., symmetry, corresponding to the ability to reverse a relation (if A → B, then B → A), is extremely difficult to obtain in non-human animals. Because language development and the ability to form equivalence classes both co-occur in children with an increased ability to form categories, the current study tested the idea that category learning might promote symmetry in a nonhuman primate species. In Experiment 1, twelve Guinea baboons (Papio papio) were trained to associate 60 pictures of bears and 60 pictures of cars to two category labels, before being tested in symmetry trials. In Experiment 2, symmetry was trained and tested by reversing the association order between labels and pictures, using a new set of stimuli. In both experiments, the baboons successfully demonstrated category discrimination, but had only a weak (though significant) tendency to respond in accordance with symmetry during test trials. Altogether, our results confirm that symmetry is inherently difficult in non-human animals. We discuss possible explanations for such a limitation and give reasons for thinking that the effects of categorization on symmetry should be further investigated.     

Destination and source memory in Huntington's disease

Destination memory refers to the recall of the destination of previously relayed information, and source memory refers to the recollection of the origin of received information. We compared both memory systems in Huntington's disease (HD) participants. For this, HD participants and healthy adults had to put 12 items in a black or a white box (destination task), and to extract another 12 items from a blue or a red box (source task). Afterwards, they had to decide in which box each item had previously been deposited (destination memory), and from which box each item had previously been extracted (source memory). HD participants showed poorer source as well as destination recall performance than healthy adults in the proposed tasks. Correlation analysis showed that destination recall was significantly correlated with episodic recall in HD participants. Destination memory impairment in HD participants seems to be considerably influenced by their episodic memory performance.     

Social representations of health and illness: the case of the Chinese community in England

This paper reports results from a qualitative study on social representations of health and illness among the Chinese community in England. It is assumed that representations of health and illness are grounded in cultural frameworks and are constructed through communication, social interaction and the practices of daily life. Our findings show that in spite of differences related to age and degrees of acculturation, Chinese people in England share a common representational system with respect to health and illness. This system is based on the traditional notions of “balance” and “harmony” between the interdependent forces of Yin and Yang. Health results from balance, whereas illness is brought about by disequilibrium. It is through these traditional Chinese concepts that Western biomedical knowledge is incorporated, producing a mixed representational field where Chinese and Western knowledge co‐exist. This representational field is transmitted through the most fundamental dimensions of culture: food, language and kinship relations. We conclude by showing that social representations of health and illness are inseparable from the struggles over identity experienced by the Chinese people in England. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Toward an Explanation of Applicant Reactions: An Examination of Organizational Justice and Attribution Frameworks

This study used the organizational justice and attribution theory frameworks to understand the processes by which applicants perceive and react to selection procedures and decisions. Actual applicants were studied at two stages in a selection process (i.e., pre-application and post-offer). Interactions between process and outcome fairness were observed for intentions (recommendation and reapplication) and self-assessed performance. Although the form of the interaction was specific to each measure, in general fair procedures resulted in more favorable perceptions, and this become more pronounced when individuals also perceived fair outcomes. An interaction was also observed for process fairness and the actual selection decision; self-efficacy was lowest for those who were selected and perceived unfair procedures. The causal attributions for the selection decision were related to intentions and self-perceptions, and applicants demonstrated self-serving biases, but only when procedures were perceived as fair. Potential links between the organizational justice and attribution frameworks were also examined. Both frameworks were found to provide insight into the psychological processes that influence applicants' intentions and self-perceptions.