The effects of clozapine on delayed spatial alternation deficits in rats with hippocampal damage

Clozapine is an atypical antipsychotic drug that has been shown to improve spatial memory in some animal models; however its efficacy in reversing spatial memory impairment in rats with hippocampal lesions is unknown. To address this issue, we tested the effects of clozapine on delayed spatial alternation deficits in rats with hippocampal damage in three separate experiments. In each experiment, adult male rats received sham surgery or direct stereotaxic infusions of the excitotoxin, NMDA, into the hippocampus. In the first study, seven days after surgery, the sham control animals received daily saline injections while the lesioned animals were split into two groups that received daily saline or clozapine (2.0 mg/kg, sc) injections. During the fifth week of injections, all animals were tested in a food-motivated delayed spatial alternation task. Saline-treated rats with excitotoxic hippocampal damage displayed significant deficits in delayed spatial alternation. Daily clozapine injections completely reversed this deficit. In a second experiment, it was found that clozapine treatment limited to the testing days only did not improve alternation performance in lesioned rats. Finally, in a third experiment, chronic clozapine treatment did not improve alternation performance in lesioned rats that were pre-trained in the alternation task prior to surgery. These results suggest that chronic, but not acute, clozapine treatment enables rats with hippocampal damage to develop new spatial learning, but can not rescue old spatial learning established prior to damage. These results may have implications for the treatment of cognitive deficits caused by hippocampal dysfunction in disorders such as schizophrenia, Alzheimer's disease, and others.     

Ecological Neuropsychology: An Alternative to the Deficit Model for Conceptualizing and Serving Students with Learning Disabilities

The present paper contends that children with learning disabilities are better served when assessment and intervention are conceptualized within an ecological neuropsychology perspective than within the traditional deficit model perspective, which is the predominant approach to intervention in medical and educational settings. The deficit method conceptualizes problems as within the child, and the major consequence of this approach is that little time is spent analyzing the learning environment or other systems that might impact the child's ability to be successful in an academic setting. Therefore, rehabilitation efforts have had limited success. In contrast, ecological neuropsychology is a strength-based approach that considers the child, as well as the systems within which he/she interacts, when assessing, diagnosing, and intervening with students who are experiencing learning difficulties.     

Personality disorders and response to outpatient treatment of chronic pain

As part of a comprehensive interdisciplinary evaluation conducted prior to participation in an outpatient chronic pain treatment program, the psychological status of 101 persons was assessed. The majority of participants was found to have a form of personality disorder, determined by conservative cutoff scores applied to their Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI) profiles. DSM-III-R Cluster C disorders (i.e., Avoidant, Dependent, Obsessive-Compulsive, and Passive-Aggressive) were overrepresented in this sample. Subsequent analyses revealed that personality disorders were related to higher levels of self-reported distress and pain at both the beginning and the end of outpatient treatment. Differential responses to treatment were observed on self-report measures; however, few relations were found between personality disorder and physical therapist ratings of impairment and improvement. Implications for the assessment of personality disorders in outpatient pain treatment programs are discussed and appropriate intervention strategies are considered.     

Effects of racial stereotypes on eyewitness performance: Implications of the real and the rumoured Allport and Postman studies

The Allport and Postman (1945, 1947) study of rumour has been widely cited in support of the claim that expectations based upon racial stereotypes can cause eyewitnesses to make dramatic errors in perceiving or remembering an event. However, this claim is founded on inaccurate accounts of the study that have appeared throughout the eyewitness testimony literature. In this article we explore the implications of the actual Allport and Postman study, and the study as erroneously described, for questions about eyewitness performance.     

PLATE A–PLATE B: USE OF SEQUENTIAL PRESENTATION IN THE TREATMENT OF FOOD SELECTIVITY

This study examined the effects of sequential presentation of foods on increasing acceptance of novel foods in a 16‐year‐old boy with autism spectrum disorder residing in a short‐term behavioral stabilization unit. The participant ate only 10 foods and one beverage prior to treatment. The intervention involved presenting a plate containing pea‐sized bites of novel foods (Plate A) and a plate containing spoonful‐sized bites of highly preferred foods (Plate B). After the participant consumed a bite from Plate A, he chose a bite from Plate B and was given a preferred beverage. The intervention, involving sequential presentation and establishing operations without the use of escape extinction, was successful in increasing the number of foods eaten from 10 to 24 while not increasing his maladaptive behaviors. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Evolution of the empirical and theoretical foundations of eyewitness identification reform

Scientists in many disciplines have begun to raise questions about the evolution of research findings over time (Ioannidis in Epidemiology, 19, 640–648, 2008; Jennions & Møller in Proceedings of the Royal Society, Biological Sciences, 269, 43–48, 2002; Mullen, Muellerleile, & Bryan in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27, 1450–1462, 2001; Schooler in Nature, 470, 437, 2011), since many phenomena exhibit decline effects—reductions in the magnitudes of effect sizes as empirical evidence accumulates. The present article examines empirical and theoretical evolution in eyewitness identification research. For decades, the field has held that there are identification procedures that, if implemented by law enforcement, would increase eyewitness accuracy, either by reducing false identifications, with little or no change in correct identifications, or by increasing correct identifications, with little or no change in false identifications. Despite the durability of this no-cost view, it is unambiguously contradicted by data (Clark in Perspectives on Psychological Science, 7, 238–259, 2012a; Clark & Godfrey in Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 16, 22–42, 2009; Clark, Moreland, & Rush, 2013; Palmer & Brewer in Law and Human Behavior, 36, 247–255, 2012), raising questions as to how the no-cost view became well-accepted and endured for so long. Our analyses suggest that (1) seminal studies produced, or were interpreted as having produced, the no-cost pattern of results; (2) a compelling theory was developed that appeared to account for the no-cost pattern; (3) empirical results changed over the years, and subsequent studies did not reliably replicate the no-cost pattern; and (4) the no-cost view survived despite the accumulation of contradictory empirical evidence. Theories of memory that were ruled out by early data now appear to be supported by data, and the theory developed to account for early data now appears to be incorrect.     

Modality effects in rhythm processing: Auditory encoding of visual rhythms is neither obligatory nor automatic

Modality effects in rhythm processing were examined using a tempo judgment paradigm, in which participants made speeding-up or slowing-down judgments for auditory and visual sequences. A key element of stimulus construction was that the expected pattern of tempo judgments for critical test stimuli depended on a beat-based encoding of the sequence. A model-based measure of degree of beat-based encoding computed from the pattern of tempo judgments revealed greater beat sensitivity for auditory rhythms than for visual rhythms. Visual rhythms with prior auditory exposure were more likely to show a pattern of tempo judgments similar to that for auditory rhythms than were visual rhythms without prior auditory exposure, but only for a beat period of 600 msec. Slowing down the rhythms eliminated the effect of prior auditory exposure on visual rhythm processing. Taken together, the findings in this study support the view that auditory rhythms demonstrate an advantage over visual rhythms in beat-based encoding and that the auditory encoding of visual rhythms can be facilitated with prior auditory exposure, but only within a limited temporal range. The broad conclusion from this research is that “hearing visual rhythms” is neither obligatory nor automatic, as was previously claimed by Guttman, Gilroy, and Blake (2005).     

Clinical Strategies for Integrating Medication Interventions Into Behavioral Treatment for Adolescent ADHD: The Medication Integration Protocol

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is prevalent among adolescents enrolled in behavioral health services but remains undertreated, and the first-line treatment option, stimulant medication, is underutilized. To address this gap, this article introduces the Medication Integration Protocol (MIP): ADHD Assessment and Medication Consult; ADHD Psychoeducation and Client Acceptance; ADHD Symptoms and Family Relations; ADHD Medication and Family Decision-Making; and Medication Management and Integration Planning. The article concludes by highlighting what behavior therapists should know about integrating medication interventions into primary care; managing medication priorities for adolescents with multiple diagnoses, including substance use problems; and the compatibility of MIP with everyday practice conditions.     

ABOLISHING AND ESTABLISHING OPERATION ANALYSES OF SOCIAL ATTENTION AS POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT FOR PROBLEM BEHAVIOR

Three participants whose problem behavior was maintained by contingent attention were exposed to 45‐min presessions in which attention was withheld, provided on a fixed‐time (FT) 15‐s schedule, or provided on an FT 120‐s schedule. Following each presession, participants were then tested in a 15‐min session similar to the social attention condition of an analogue functional analysis. The results showed establishing operation conditions increased problem behavior during tests and that abolishing operation conditions decreased problem behavior during tests.