Understanding marital conflict 7 years later from prenatal representations of marriage

We examine how representations of marriage, assessed prenatally, predict different types of marital conflict (cooperation, avoidance/capitulation, stonewalling, and child involvement in parental conflict) at 7 years postpartum (N=132 individuals). We assessed representations of marriage prenatally by interviewing spouses about their own parents' marriage, and then rated the content and insightfulness of their memories. Results show that marital representations characterized by higher insight predict higher cooperation and lower child involvement in parental conflict, whereas content of marital representations was not a significant predictor of marital conflict. Further, individuals who remember negative memories from their parents' marriage with high insight were lowest on child involvement in parental conflict, whereas those who remember negative memories with low insight were highest on child involvement in parental conflict. Finally, women who remember negative content with high insight report the highest cooperation, whereas women who remember negative content with low insight report the lowest cooperation. For men, however, marital representations were less effective in predicting later cooperation. We conclude that marital representations, even when assessed prenatally, influence certain types of marital conflict 7 years later. Using such findings, therapists could help spouses gain insight into how the memories of their parents' marriage relate to the use of specific conflict strategies in their marriage.     

Visual search for rare targets: distracter tuning as a mechanism for learning from repeated target-absent searches

In the typical visual search experiment, participants search for targets that are present on half of the trials and absent on the other half. However, many real-world tasks involve targets that are present only occasionally. Given this, it is important to know how people deal with the problem of finding targets they have little experience with. One possibility is that they develop an awareness of the degree to which they have effectively completed a search through complex target-absent scenes. To test this hypothesis, we had participants complete two relatively long search tasks in which only a minority of trials included targets. Stimuli were cluttered real-world scenes, and targets were defined by category. We examined participants' ability to terminate search on the target-absent scenes based on an accurate assessment of scene difficulty. Scene difficulty was estimated by computing the mean correct-trial response time (RT) for each of the target-absent scenes across all participants. These group RTs were then correlated with each participants' individual correct-trial RTs for the same stimuli to assess the degree to which a given participant's search-termination times were correlated with those of the group. These correlations successfully predicted participants' target-detection success in both experiments. These experiments suggest that an integral part of visual search is the need to calibrate search behaviour to scenes of varying levels of complexity even when no targets are present.     

Father contributions to cortisol responses in infancy and toddlerhood

The current study is one of the first prospective examinations of longitudinal associations between observed father caregiving behaviors and child cortisol reactivity and regulation in response to emotional arousal. Observations of father and mother caregiving behaviors and child cortisol levels in response to challenges at 7 months and 24 months of child age were collected. Analyses were based on a subsample of children from the Family Life Project who lived with both their biological mothers and fathers and for whom there was at least partial cortisol data (7 months: n = 717; 24 months: n = 579). At the challenge conducted at 7 months of child age, 49.0% of the sample were girls; racial composition of the sample was 25.8% African American and 74.2% European American. At the challenge conducted at 24 months of child age 49.9% of the sample were girls; racial composition was 24.7% African American and 75.3% European American. We conducted analyses across assessment points simultaneously using mixed linear modeling for repeated measures data to test for differential effects of fathering across infancy and toddlerhood. Concurrent measures of father negativity were positively associated with greater increases in child cortisol levels in response to emotion challenge at 7 months (p = .01) and with higher overall levels of cortisol at 24 months (p < .001). However, there was no evidence that father caregiving during infancy independently predicted later cortisol activity during toddlerhood.     

Gifts,talismans and tokens in analysis: symbolic enactments or sinister acts?

Analysis is nuanced with many non-verbal cues and interactions. This is vividly illustrated when gifts are presented to the analyst. Their physical presence transcends the symbolic frame of analysis because, although their meaning may be metaphorical, their presence is real. Unlike other material objects and pictures, the gift may seem to invite the analyst to receive it personally. It may apparently demand some form of action. A gift may be consciously given as a token, or it may be magically invested as a talisman. On the surface, it might appear to be an expression of love; it may be a communication of a wish for acceptance; but it may have more 'sinister', unconscious intent. It may embody the wish to expel unwanted affect, ward off evil or control the analyst. Therefore disposal, that is the resolution and settling of the object, is significant. The case with which this paper is illustrated traces the meaning of a series of gifts in a single analysis. It is hoped that this will enhance a wider understanding of this common analytic phenomenon.     

Resistance to disruption in a classroom setting

Substantial experimental evidence indicates that behavior reinforced on a denser schedule is more resistant to disruption than is behavior reinforced on a thinner schedule. The present experiment studied resistance to disruption in a natural educational environment. Responding during familiar activities was reinforced on a multiple variable-interval (VI) 7-s VI 30-s schedule for 6 participants with developmental disabilities. Resistance to disruption was measured by presenting a distracting item. Response rates in the disruption components were compared to within-session response rates in prior baseline components. Results were consistent with the predictions of behavioral momentum theory for 5 of 6 participants.     

Examination of the influence of contingency on changes in reinforcer value

This study examined how the amount of effort required to produce a reinforcer influenced subsequent preference for, and strength of, that reinforcer in 7 individuals with intellectual disabilities. Preference assessments identified four moderately preferred stimuli for each participant, and progressive-ratio (PR) analyses indexed reinforcer strength. Stimuli were then assigned to one of four conditions for 4 weeks: fixed-ratio (FR) 1 schedule, escalating FR schedule, yoked noncontingent (NCR) delivery, and restricted access. Preference assessments and PR schedules were then repeated to examine changes in selection percentages and PR break points. Selection percentages decreased for all NCR stimuli but increased for most of the restricted stimuli. There were no systematic changes in selection percentages for either of the contingent stimuli. Break points increased, on average, for all conditions, but the increase was highest for the restricted stimuli and lowest for the NCR stimuli. These results are discussed in relation to recent basic research addressing the influence of effort on stimulus value.     

A call for integrating a mental health perspective into systems of care for abused and neglected infants and young children

A system of care for abused and neglected infants and young children should adopt a comprehensive perspective, with mental health considerations systematically incorporated into policies and decisions affecting children and their families. Children age birth to 5 years have disproportionately high rates of maltreatment, with long-term consequences for their mental and physical health. Research on normal development and developmental psychopathology has shown that early development unfolds in an ecology of transactional influences among biological, interpersonal, and environmental domains. Psychologists should collaborate with other early intervention disciplines to create systems of care based on an ecological-transactional model of development that includes early mental health principles in order to serve the needs of these young children. Didactic courses, practicums, and internships in infant and early childhood mental health should become integral components of undergraduate and graduate curricula in psychology in order to build capacity to achieve this goal. Recommendations are offered for systemic change by integrating infant and early childhood mental health principles into existing systems of care for young children and their families.     

Interaction and representational integration: evidence from speech errors

We examine the mechanisms that support interaction between lexical, phonological and phonetic processes during language production. Studies of the phonetics of speech errors have provided evidence that partially activated lexical and phonological representations influence phonetic processing. We examine how these interactive effects are modulated by lexical frequency. Previous research has demonstrated that during lexical access, the processing of high frequency words is facilitated; in contrast, during phonetic encoding, the properties of low frequency words are enhanced. These contrasting effects provide the opportunity to distinguish two theoretical perspectives on how interaction between processing levels can be increased. A theory in which cascading activation is used to increase interaction predicts that the facilitation of high frequency words will enhance their influence on the phonetic properties of speech errors. Alternatively, if interaction is increased by integrating levels of representation, the phonetics of speech errors will reflect the retrieval of enhanced phonetic properties for low frequency words. Utilizing a novel statistical analysis method, we show that in experimentally induced speech errors low lexical frequency targets and outcomes exhibit enhanced phonetic processing. We sketch an interactive model of lexical, phonological and phonetic processing that accounts for the conflicting effects of lexical frequency on lexical access and phonetic processing.     

Preschool acuity of the approximate number system correlates with school math ability

Previous research shows a correlation between individual differences in people's school math abilities and the accuracy with which they rapidly and nonverbally approximate how many items are in a scene. This finding is surprising because the Approximate Number System (ANS) underlying numerical estimation is shared with infants and with non-human animals who never acquire formal mathematics. However, it remains unclear whether the link between individual differences in math ability and the ANS depends on formal mathematics instruction. Earlier studies demonstrating this link tested participants only after they had received many years of mathematics education, or assessed participants' ANS acuity using tasks that required additional symbolic or arithmetic processing similar to that required in standardized math tests. To ask whether the ANS and math ability are linked early in life, we measured the ANS acuity of 200 3- to 5-year-old children using a task that did not also require symbol use or arithmetic calculation. We also measured children's math ability and vocabulary size prior to the onset of formal math instruction. We found that children's ANS acuity correlated with their math ability, even when age and verbal skills were controlled for. These findings provide evidence for a relationship between the primitive sense of number and math ability starting early in life.     

Practicing what we know: Multicultural counseling competence among clinical psychology trainees and experienced multicultural psychologists

Multicultural (MC) competence is considered a necessary skill for clinical and counseling psychologists; however, there is little to no research on the assessment of demonstrated multicultural counseling competence (DMCCC) of clinical psychology graduate students. In this study, we developed a MC assessment instrument to assess DMCCC of clinical psychology graduate students compared with MC-experienced psychologists. In addition, we assessed for differences between the endorsement of MC-appropriate strategies and actual use of these strategies in clinical practice, both by MC-experienced psychologists and clinical psychology students. Results revealed significant differences between the DMCCC of clinical psychology graduate students and MC-experienced psychologists. Significant differences also emerged between endorsement of strategies as multiculturally appropriate and likelihood of actual use of these strategies. Findings suggest that future training and competence models should incorporate participants' ability to not only identify multiculturally appropriate strategies but also use these strategies in therapy.