Baby FaceTime: can toddlers learn from online video chat?

There is abundant evidence for the ‘video deficit’: children under 2 years old learn better in person than from video. We evaluated whether these findings applied to video chat by testing whether children aged 12–25 months could form relationships with and learn from on‐screen partners. We manipulated social contingency: children experienced either real‐time FaceTime conversations or pre‐recorded Videos as the partner taught novel words, actions and patterns. Children were attentive and responsive in both conditions, but only children in the FaceTime group responded to the partner in a temporally synced manner. After one week, children in the FaceTime condition (but not the Video condition) preferred and recognized their Partner, learned more novel patterns, and the oldest children learned more novel words. Results extend previous studies to demonstrate that children under 2 years show social and cognitive learning from video chat because it retains social contingency. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at: https://youtu.be/rTXaAYd5adA     

Wellness Counseling: The Evidence Base for Practice

Wellness conceptualized as the paradigm for counseling provides strength‐based strategies for assessing clients, conceptualizing issues developmentally, and planning interventions to remediate dysfunction and optimize growth. Wellness counseling models have stimulated significant research that helps to form the evidence base for practice in the counseling field. The development of these models is explained, results of studies using the models are reviewed, and implications for research needed to further inform clinical practice and advocacy efforts are discussed.     

Adolescent reasons for quitting smoking: initial psychometric evaluation.

Most adolescent smokers report intentions to quit, and the majority attempt cessation. However, little is known regarding the relationship between adolescent motives for cessation and smoking cessation efforts. To this end, the present study describes an initial evaluation of the psychometric characteristics of the Adolescent Reasons for Quitting scale (ARFQ), a measure of adolescent motives for smoking cessation. Participants were 109 current smoking high school students assessed at baseline and 6-month follow-up. The ARFQ item content and format was developed in a separate qualitative study with 36 high school students who had previously attempted to quit smoking. Exploratory factor analyses of ARFQ items yielded 3 subscales: Short-Term Consequences, Social Disapproval, and Long-Term Concerns. Validation analyses were conducted in relation to concurrent intentions to stop smoking and prospective smoking cessation attempts, providing evidence of concurrent, predictive, and discriminant validity. In particular, the Social Disapproval and Long-Term Concerns subscales significantly predicted subsequent cessation attempts. As such, the ARFQ may prove valuable for informing interventions to encourage adolescent smoking cessation.     

An Examination of Liking,Love Styles,and Wellness Among Emerging Adults: Implications for Social Wellness and Development

Liking, love styles, and wellness were examined in an undergraduate sample (N = 168). Liking and the Mania love style were found to predict 15.8% of the variance in Total Wellness. In addition, within‐group differences in love styles and wellness were found on the basis of gender and ethnicity.     

Dissociating basal forebrain and medial temporal amnesic syndromes: Insights from classical conditioning

In humans, anterograde amnesia can result from damage to the medical temporal (MT) lobes (including hippocampus), as well as to other brain areas such as basal forebrain. Results from animal classical conditioning studies suggest that there may be qualitative differences in the memory impairment following MT vs. basal forebrain damage. Specifically, delay eyeblink conditioning is spared after MT damage in animals and humans, but impaired in animals with basal forebrain damage. Recently, we have likewise shown delay eyeblink conditioning impairment in humans with amnesia following anterior communicating artery (ACoA) aneurysm rupture, which damages the basal forebrain. Another associative learning task, a computer-based concurrent visual discrimination, also appears to be spared in MT amnesia while ACoA amnesics are slower to learn the discriminations. Conversely, animal and computational models suggest that, even though MT amnesics may learn quickly, they may learn qualitatively differently from controls, and these differences may result in impaired transfer when familiar information is presented in novel combinations. Our initial data suggests such a two-phase learning and transfer task may provide a double dissociation between MT amnesics (spared initial learning but impaired transfer) and ACoA amnesics (slow initial learning but spared transfer). Together, these merging data suggest that there are subtle but dissociable differences in the amnesic syndrome following damage to the MT lobes vs. basal forebrain, and that these differences may be most visible in non-declarative tasks such as eyeblink classical conditioning and simple associative learning.     

Using New Interactive Media to Enhance the Teaching of Psychology (and Other Disciplines) in Developing Countries

ABSTRACT— My idea for improving psychology responds to the challenge of teaching psychology in lower income, developing countries. With new Web-based e-books on the horizon, I suggest harnessing the Internet to deliver state-of-the-art, interactive, low-cost, locally adapted content to students who cannot afford books.     

Mother-toddler play interaction: A contrast of substance-exposed and nonexposed children

Recent studies have raised concerns about whether the play of cocaine-exposed or polysubstance-exposed children is deficient or disturbed, presumably as a result of the prenatal exposure. In this study, the quality of toddler play did not differ between 13 low income polysubstance-exposed and 13 low income nonexposed toddlers when rated in a 16-minute play session in their own homes with their mothers. Specifically, there were no differences in either cognitive or affective dimensions of play, as rated by observers who were blind to exposure status. In addition, the quality of maternal support for the play, as rated using the Parent/Caregiver Interaction Scale, did not differ between the two groups. Positive aspects of the mothers' behavior in supporting her child's play were predictive of higher quality child play. Power analyses suggest that the sample size was sufficient to have detected group differences if they had in fact existed. © 1997 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health     

Decision-making capacity in elderly, terminally ill patients with cancer

Despite the importance and complexity of evaluating decision-making capacity at the end of life, little research has focused on terminally ill patients' decision-making ability. The purpose of this study was to explore the decision-making capacity of elderly, terminally ill patients and the psychological and physical factors that affect decision making. Decision-making capacity and cognitive abilities were assessed using four measures: the Hopkins Competency Assessment Kit, the Bechara Gambling Task, the Concept Assessment Kit, and the Mini Mental Status Exam. In addition, symptoms of depression, level of physical functioning, and extent of physical symptoms were evaluated in order to identify correlates of decision-making ability. Two samples were compared: elderly, terminally ill patients with cancer (n = 43) and elderly, physically healthy adults living in supportive community residence (n = 35). Results revealed significantly poorer decision-making abilities among the terminal ill sample compared with healthy comparisons, but no association between demographic variables (e.g., age, race, or education) or clinical variables (depression or physical symptoms) and decision making. Implications for evaluating decision-making capacity are addressed.