Fixed-time schedule effects in combination with response-dependent schedules

We evaluated the effects of fixed-interval (FI), fixed-time (FT), and conjoint (combined) FI FT reinforcement schedules on the responding of 3 adults who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia. Responding on vocational tasks decreased for 2 of 3 participants under FT alone relative to FI alone. Responding under FI FT resulted in response persistence for 2 of 3 participants. Results have implications for the maintenance of desirable behavior, as well as for situations in which FT treatment has been implemented for problem behavior and problem behavior is nevertheless reinforced by caregivers.     

Perceived burdensomeness, familism, and suicidal ideation among Mexican women: enhancing understanding of risk and protective factors

The interpersonal-psychological theory of suicide and a culturally-relevant construct, familism, was used to examine predictors of suicidal ideation among Mexican and Mexican American women in the United States. A sense of perceived burdensomeness toward others was expected to significantly predict suicidal ideation, especially among women who endorsed high levels of familism. Mexican and Mexican American outpatient women (N = 73) completed self-report measures and an interview measure of suicidal ideation. Main and interactive effects of perceived burdensomeness and familism were examined. Perceived burdensomeness, but not familism, significantly predicted suicidal ideation. The interaction hypothesis was not supported. These findings highlight perceived burdensomeness as a risk factor for suicidal behavior in Mexican and Mexican American women.     

Parent’s Perception of Their First Encounter with Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

Parents who came with their child to Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (CAP) for the first time were interviewed 1–2 weeks afterwards in the presence of the child and the therapists. In a grounded theory analysis they revealed uncertainty about their role in the first meeting as well as of future planning. What had been important to them were aspects like communication, sharing perspectives, and the reformulation of problems.     

Effects of Illness Representation,Perceived Quality of Information Provided by the Health-Care Professional,and Perceived Social Support on Depressive Symptoms of the Caregivers of Children with Leukemia

The present study examined the effects of illness representation, perceived quality of information provided by the health-care professional, and perceived social support on the depressive symptoms of the caregivers of children with leukemia. The sample was composed of 71 caregivers of children with leukemia living in Turkey. The obtained data were analyzed by path analysis. The results show that caregivers of children with leukemia experience higher levels of depressive symptoms when they have negative illness representation and lower levels of depressive symptoms when they perceive higher levels of social support. Moreover, they perceive higher social support when they perceive high quality of information provided by health-care professionals. It can be suggested that intervention programs which aim to increase caregivers’ social support and change their illness representation in a positive way would be helpful for the caregivers showing depressive symptoms.     

Sex differences in language first appear in gesture

Children differ in how quickly they reach linguistic milestones. Boys typically produce their first multi‐word sentences later than girls do. We ask here whether there are sex differences in children’s gestures that precede, and presage, these sex differences in speech. To explore this question, we observed 22 girls and 18 boys every 4 months as they progressed from one‐word speech to multi‐word speech. We found that boys not only produced speech + speech (S+S) combinations (‘drink juice’) 3 months later than girls, but they also produced gesture + speech (G+S) combinations expressing the same types of semantic relations (‘eat’ + point at cookie) 3 months later than girls. Because G+S combinations are produced earlier than S+S combinations, children’s gestures provide the first sign that boys are likely to lag behind girls in the onset of sentence constructions.     

Drivers’ propensity to have different types of intelligent speed adaptation installed in their cars

The aim of the present study was to examine if there are differences in drivers’ propensity to have different types of intelligent speed adaptation installed in their cars depending on the sample of drivers (i.e. Swedish or Turkish), their aberrant driving behaviours (i.e. violations and errors), and/or the technical solution used (i.e. speed limit information, advisory, supportive and intervening systems). A sample of 224 Swedish and 316 Turkish drivers completed a questionnaire including questions based on the driver behaviour questionnaire (DBQ) as well as questions about the drivers’ propensity to have different types of intelligent speed adaptation installed in their cars. The results showed that the Swedish sample of drivers was less positive than the Turkish sample of drivers towards having the advisory, supportive and intervening systems installed. Furthermore, drivers who frequently commit violations were less positive towards having any of these systems installed than were drivers who commit violations less frequently, while drivers who frequently make errors were more positive towards having the systems installed than were drivers who make errors less frequently. Both the Swedish and the Turkish sample of drivers were most positive towards having the speed limit information system installed, followed by the advisory system on second place, the supportive system on third place and lastly the intervening system on fourth place.     

The influence of color on the perception of scene gist

In 3 experiments the authors used a new contextual bias paradigm to explore how quickly information is extracted from a scene to activate gist, whether color contributes to this activation, and how color contributes, if it does. Participants were shown a brief presentation of a scene followed by the name of a target object. The target object could be consistent or inconsistent with scene gist but was never actually present in the scene. Scene gist activation was operationalized as the degree to which participants respond "yes" to consistent versus inconsistent objects, reflecting a response bias produced by scene gist. Experiment 1 demonstrated that scene gist is activated after a 42-ms exposure and that the strength of the activation increases with longer presentation durations. Experiments 2 and 3 explored the contribution of color to the activation of scene gist. The results revealed that color has an influence across a wide variety of scenes and is directly associated with scene gist.     

Never quite good enough: The paradox of sticky developmental relationships for elite university graduates

Drawing on the mentoring, education, and social psychology literatures, this longitudinal study examines how the persistence of developmental relationships from an elite graduate school influences subjective career outcomes during early career. Participants (n = 136) were surveyed about their developmental networks—a group of individuals who take an active interest in and action to advance a focal individual’s career—and subjective career outcomes over the 10 years (1996-2006) post graduation. Results show that although receiving mentoring from one’s entire developmental network was positively related to career-related self-efficacy and perceptions of career success, this was not the case for ties retained from graduate school. Continuing to receive mentoring support from developers from graduate school and further, from peers from graduate school, was negatively related to perceptions of career success. These findings offer insight into the dynamics and potentially negative consequences of developmental networks and highlight the significance of social comparison during early career.     

Internet Versus Group Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment of Distress Associated With Tinnitus: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Tinnitus distress can be reduced by means of cognitive-behavior therapy (CBT), and the treatment can be delivered in different ways. The most recent format is Internet-based self-help. The aim of this study was to compare this treatment (n = 26) with standard group-based CBT (n = 25) in a randomized controlled trial. Outcomes on self-report inventories measuring tinnitus distress were evaluated immediately after and 1 year after treatment. Results showed that both groups had improved, and there were few differences between them. The effect size for the Internet treatment was d = 0.73 (95% CI = 0.16–1.30) and for the group treatment was d = 0.64 (95% CI = 0.07–1.21). The Internet treatment consumed less therapist time and was 1.7 times as cost-effective as the group treatment. At pretreatment patients rated the Internet treatment as less credible than the group treatment. In conclusion, Internet treatment for tinnitus distress merits further investigation, as the outcomes achieved are promising.     

Distributed rereading can hurt the spacing effect in text memory

The spacing effect refers to the commonly observed phenomenon that memory for spaced repetitions is better than for massed repetitions. In the present study, we examined this effect in students' memory for a lengthy expository text. Participants read the text twice, either in immediate succession (massed repetition), with a 4‐day interstudy interval (spaced short), or with a 3.5‐weeks interstudy interval (spaced long). Two days after the second study trial, all participants were tested. The results demonstrated that students in the spaced‐short condition remembered more of the content than those in the massed condition. By contrast, students in the spaced‐long condition remembered as much as students in the massed condition. These results were interpreted in terms of a theoretical framework, which combines mechanisms of encoding variability and study‐phase retrieval to account for the spacing effect. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.