Effects of context on a visual 3-D pointing task

We examined the effects of egocentric and contextual references on a 3-D exocentric pointing task. Large systematic deviations were found for the slant (angle in the horizontal plane). For most observers, the deviations were smaller when the veridical pointing direction was parallel to a wall. For some observers the size of the deviations was also dependent on whether the veridical pointing direction was frontoparallel or not. For the tilt (angle in the vertical plane), the deviations were smaller and less systematic. Hence, although observers show comparable systematic deviations, the way in which the presence of structure in an environment is used for judging positions of objects is observer-dependent.     

Depressive symptoms in early marriage: predictions from relationship confidence and negative marital interaction.

The authors proposed a model of depressive symptoms in early marriage in which relationship confidence, defined as perceived couple-level efficacy to manage conflicts and maintain a healthy relationship, mediates the effect of negative marital interactions on depressive symptoms. The model was tested in a sample of 139 couples assessed prior to marriage and 1 year later. As predicted, relationship confidence demonstrated simple negative associations with negative marital interaction and depressive symptoms for all participants. Longitudinal path analyses supported the mediational model for women only. In women but not men, negative marital interaction indirectly had an impact on depressive symptoms through the mediator of relationship confidence. Findings suggest that relationship confidence may be important to understanding links between marital distress and depressive symptoms, especially in women.     

Anxiety sensitivity within the anxiety disorders: disorder-specific sensitivities and depression comorbidity

The tendency to perceive anxious states as aversive and harmful is hypothesized to confer vulnerability to the development of anxiety disorders. The most commonly used measure of anxiety sensitivity, the Anxiety Sensitivity Index [ASI; Reiss, S., Peterson, R.A., Gursky, D.M., & McNally R.J. (1986). Anxiety sensitivity, anxiety frequency, and the prediction of fearfulness. Behavior Research and Therapy, 24, 1-8], is composed of multiple lower-order factors, assessing fear of physical symptoms, fear of publicly observable anxious symptoms, and fear of cognitive dyscontrol. This study examined the convergent validity of the lower-order anxiety sensitivity dimensions in DSM-IV diagnosed anxiety disorders. Participants with primary diagnoses of panic disorder with agoraphobia, social phobia, and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) completed the ASI and measures of anxiety and depression severity. Support was found for the convergent validity of all ASI dimensions in reference to thematically related anxiety disorders and in the identification of patients presenting with and without secondary major depressive disorder (MDD). The ASI-fear of cognitive dyscontrol dimension displayed strong and nonredundant associations with GAD, dimensional depression scores, and secondary diagnoses of MDD. The conceptual implications of the shared importance of fear of cognitive dyscontrol in GAD and MDD are discussed.     

Treatment for anxiety disorders: Efficacy to effectiveness to implementation

Anxiety disorders are common, costly and debilitating, and yet often unrecognized or inadequately treated in real world, primary care settings. Our group has been researching ways of delivering evidence-based treatment for anxiety in primary care settings, with special interest to preserving the fidelity of the treatment while at the same time promoting its sustainability once the research is over. In this paper, we describe the programs we have developed and our directions for future research. Our first study evaluated the efficacy of CBT and expert pharmacotherapy recommendations for panic disorder in primary care, using a collaborative care model of service delivery (CCAP). Symptom, disability and mental health functioning measures were superior for the intervention group compared to treatment as usual both in the short term and the long term, although also more costly. In our ongoing CALM study, we have extended our population to include panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, generalized anxiety disorder and posttraumatic disorder, while at the same time utilizing clinicians with limited mental health care experience. In addition to pharmacotherapy management, we developed a computer-assisted CBT that guides both novice clinician and patient, thereby contributing to sustainability once the research is over. We have also incorporated a measurement based approach to treatment planning, using a web-based tracking system of patient status. To date, the computer-assisted CBT program has been shown to be acceptable to clinicians and patients. Clinicians rated the program highly, and patients engaged in the program. Future directions for our research include dissemination and implementation of the CALM program, testing potential alternations to the CALM program, and distance delivery of CALM.     

Experiences and Decisions that Motivate Women at Increased Risk of Breast Cancer to Participate in an Experimental Screening Program

Although the discovery of mutations on BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes associated with high breast cancer risk has given rise to screening and surveillance initiatives, there is little documentation on why high-risk women choose to enter screening programs. The objective of this qualitative study was to develop a detailed understanding of the experiences and decisions that motivate women with increased risk of hereditary breast cancer to participate in the multicentered Quebec experimental breast screening program. Our study involved 21 participants who were either BRCA carriers or at risk and untested. These women were interviewed while participating in the screening program. Our study demonstrates that intensive screening programs may provide valuable reassurance for women with increased familial risk of hereditary breast cancer, who count on early detection and rapid response from professionals if and when a problem arises. Health professionals must take these and others concerns into account to ensure their interventions are most consistent with women’s needs.     

Evaluating the invariance and validity of the structure of dysfunctional attitudes in an adolescent population

Form A of the Dysfunctional Attitude Scale (DAS-A), a self-report measure of depressive beliefs, is widely used to test Beck's cognitive model of depression. The present study is the first to evaluate the DAS-A factor structure in an adolescent population of 542 high school juniors and the first to examine a hierarchical model. Findings support the existence of a hierarchical structure consisting of two conceptually meaningful group factors (Dysfunctional Attitudes About Achievement and Dysfunctional Attitudes About Needing Approval), a method factor consisting of reverse-worded items, and a general factor, which accounts for 65% of the variance in total scores. The general factor is related to sociotropy, autonomy, and neuroticism, whereas the Dysfunctional Attitudes About Achievement and Dysfunctional Attitudes About Needing Approval factors demonstrate convergent and discriminant validity with respect to autonomy and sociotropy. The structure displays partial metric invariance in female and male students as well as in Caucasian and Non-Caucasian students.     

School Psychologist and Teacher Perceptions of Social Power in Consultation

Social power has been recognized as central to understanding aspects of school consultation. This study examined school psychologist and teacher perceptions of the effectiveness of 11 bases of social power that psychologists might use with initially resistant teachers. Results suggested that psychologists and teachers held similar views about power within consultation: Both groups rated expert and informational power as the most effective bases, ranked the 11 power bases in a similar way, and indicated that psychologists would be more effective using “soft” (i.e., subtle, positive, noncoercive) bases rather than “hard” bases. Findings also suggested that the groups held different views of social power: Psychologists rated impersonal and personal reward power as more effective than did teachers, and teachers rated psychologists' use of legitimate position, informational, and legitimate dependence power as more effective than did psychologists.     

Newborn categorization of vowel‐like sounds

While there are many theories of the development of speech perception, there are few data on speech perception in human newborns. This paper examines the manner in which newborns responded to a set of stimuli that define one surface of the adult vowel space. Experiment 1 used a preferential listening/habituation paradigm to discover how newborns divide that vowel space. Results indicated that there were zones of high preference flanked by zones of low preference. The zones of high preference approximately corresponded to areas where adults readily identify vowels. Experiment 2 presented newborns with pairs of vowels from the zones found in Experiment 1. One member of each pair was the most preferred vowel from a zone, and the other member was the least preferred vowel from the adjacent zone of low preference. The pattern of preference was preserved in Experiment 2. However, a comparison of Experiments 1 and 2 indicated that habituation had occurred in Experiment 1. Experiment 3 tested the hypothesis that the habituation seen in Experiment 1 was due to processes of categorization, by using a familiarization preference paradigm. The results supported the hypothesis that newborns categorized the vowel space in an adult‐like manner, with vowels perceived as relatively good or poor exemplars of a vowel category.     

On the heritability of inspection time and its covariance with IQ: a twin study

Using the classical twin design, this study investigates the influence of genetic factors on the large phenotypic variance in inspection time (IT), and whether the well established IT–IQ association can be explained by a common genetic factor. Three hundred ninety pairs of twins (184 monozygotic, MZ; 206 dizygotic, DZ) with a mean age of 16 years participated, and 49 pairs returned approximately 3 months later for retesting. As in many IT studies, the pi figure stimulus was used and IT was estimated from the cumulative normal ogive. IT ranged from 39.4 to 774.1 ms (159±110.1 ms) with faster ITs (by an average of 26.9 ms) found in the retest session from which a reliability of .69 was estimated. Full-scale IQ (FIQ) was assessed by the Multidimensional Aptitude Battery (MAB) and ranged from 79 to 145 (111±13). The phenotypic association between IT and FIQ was confirmed (−.35) and bivariate results showed that a common genetic factor accounted for 36% of the variance in IT and 32% of the variance in FIQ. The maximum likelihood estimate of the genetic correlation was −.63. When performance and verbal IQ (PIQ & VIQ) were analysed with IT, a stronger phenotypic and genetic relationship was found between PIQ and IT than with VIQ. A large part of the IT variance (64%) was accounted for by a unique environmental factor. Further genetic factors were needed to explain the remaining variance in IQ with a small component of unique environmental variance present. The separability of a shared genetic factor influencing IT and IQ from the total genetic variance in IQ suggests that IT affects a specific subcomponent of intelligence rather than a generalised efficiency.