Adult Needs and Strengths Assessment-Abbreviated Referral Version to specify psychiatric care needed for incoming patients: exploratory analysis

The present study examined the Adult Needs and Strengths Assessment-Abbreviated Referral Version ratings for a group of 272 incoming psychiatric patients over a 2-yr. period to assess whether the rating scale was useful in predicting clinical placement for psychiatric treatment. Participants were patients (125 women) admitted to Regional Mental Health Care, St. Thomas, Canada between April 2004 and June 2006. Most participants were Euro-Canadian and ranged in age from 16 to 87 years. Clinical cutoff scores were established using observed mean differences in the patients' total scores and are expected to help guide psychiatric triage and longer term rehabilitation placement decisions. A canonical discriminant function analysis showed 85.9% of original level of care placements were correctly classified. The rating scale is a valid and reliable tool to specify level of psychiatric care needed for adults with mental disorders.     

Varenicline-induced mixed mood and psychotic episode in a patient with a past history of depression

Varenicline is a promising agent with demonstrated efficacy in the promotion of smoking cessation. However, from the time of initial trials, it has been associated with significant psychiatric adverse effects. We describe a case where mixed mood and psychotic disturbance developed in an individual with a history of depression and a family history of bipolar disorder. Based on this case, we hypothesize a possible mechanism of action for these adverse effects and preventive measures that could be undertaken in its effective use.     

Preference for Same‐ Versus Cross‐Sex Friendships1

How is preferring same‐ vs. cross‐sex friendships related to one's perceptions of these friendships? In Phase 1, college students (N = 122) listed qualities they valued in their same‐ and cross‐sex friends. In Phase 2, survey items constructed from the responses were administered to 231 students who indicated a preference for same‐ vs. cross‐sex friendship. Those who reported a preference for opposite‐sex friends rated these friendships as higher in closeness, trust, caring, having common interests, and providing narcissistic benefits, compared to those who reported a preference for same‐sex friends. Results demonstrate that gender differences often associated with close friendships are greatly attenuated and sometimes reversed when preference for same‐ vs. cross‐sex friendship is included as a moderating variable.     

Relational memory during infancy: evidence from eye tracking

Here we report evidence from a new eye‐tracking measure of relational memory that suggests that 9‐month‐old infants can encode memories in terms of the relations among items, a function putatively subserved by the hippocampus. Infants learned about the association between faces that were superimposed on unique scenic backgrounds. During test trials, infants were shown three faces presented on a familiar scene. All three faces were equally familiar; however, one had been presented with the test background earlier. Visual behavior was recorded continuously using a TOBII eye tracker. Infants looked preferentially at the face that matched the test background very early in the trial; however, the time course of this preferential looking effect varied as a function of delay. These results suggest that by 9 months of age infants can form memories that represent the relations among items and maintain them over short delays.     

The impact of individual trauma symptoms of deployed soldiers on relationship satisfaction.

Research traditionally has focused on the development of individual symptoms in those who experienced trauma directly but has overlooked the interpersonal impact of trauma. The current study reports data from 45 male Army soldiers who recently returned from a military deployment to Iraq (Operation Iraqi Freedom) or Afghanistan (Operation Enduring Freedom) and their female spouses/partners. The results indicated that increased trauma symptoms, particularly sleep problems, dissociation, and severe sexual problems, in the soldiers significantly predicted lower marital/relationship satisfaction for both soldiers and their female partners. The results suggest that individual trauma symptoms negatively impact relationship satisfaction in military couples in which the husband has been exposed to war trauma.     

Age-related differences in immediate serial recall: Dissociating chunk formation and capacity

We assessed the contribution of two hypothesized mechanisms to impaired memory performance of older adults in an immediate serial recall task: decreased temporary information storage in a capacity-limited mechanism, such as the focus of attention, and a deficit in binding together different components into cohesive chunks. Using a method in which paired associations between words were taught at varying levels to allow an identification of multiword chunks (Cowan, Chen, & Rouder, 2004), we found that older adults recalled considerably fewer chunks and, on average, smaller chunks than did young adults. Their performance was fairly well simulated by dividing attention in younger adults, unlike what has been found for long-term associative learning. Paired-associate knowledge may be used in an implicit manner in serial recall, given that younger adults under divided attention and older adults use it well despite the relatively small chunk capacities displayed by these groups.     

How implicitly activated and explicitly acquired knowledge contribute to the effectiveness of retrieval cues

The extralist cued recall task simulates everyday reminding because a memory is encoded on the fly and retrieved later by an unexpected cue. Target words are studied individually, and recall is cued by associatively related words having preexisting forward links to them. In Experiments 1 and 2, forward cue-to-target and backward target-to-cue strengths were varied over an extended range in order to determine how these two sources of strength are related and which source has a greater effect. Forward and backward strengths had additive effects on recall, with forward strength having a consistently larger effect. The PIER2 model accurately predicted these findings, but a plausible generation-recognition version of the model, called PIER.GR, could not. In Experiment 3, forward and backward strengths, level of processing, and study time were varied in order to determine how preexisting lexical knowledge is related to knowledge acquired during the study episode. The main finding indicates that preexisting knowledge and episodic knowledge have additive effects on extralist cued recall. PIER2 can explain these findings because it assumes that these sources of strength contribute independently to recall, whereas the eSAM model cannot explain the findings because it assumes that the sources of strength are multiplicatively related.     

Housing for People with Serious Mental Illness: A Comparison of Values and Research

This article contrasts values associated with the delivery of housing programs for people with serious mental illness with the typical topics pertaining to housing that are studied by researchers. Six values were identified through a search and content analysis of the literature on housing for people with serious mental illness. A second review of the literature was conducted to identify research on housing for this population. A comparison of findings from the two reviews suggested that whereas values concerned with the therapeutic benefits of housing had received considerable research attention, those concerned with a citizenship dimension had received relatively little. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for the delivery of housing services and for housing research.     

Familiar shapes attract attention in figure-ground displays

We report five experiments that explore the effect of figure-ground factors on attention. We hypothesized that figural cues, such as familiar shape, would draw attention to the figural side in an attentional cuing task using bipartite figure-ground displays. The first two experiments used faces in profile as the familiar shape and found a perceptual advantage for targets presented on the meaningful side of the central contour in detection speed (Experiment 1) and discrimination accuracy (Experiment 2). The third experiment demonstrated the figural advantage in response time (RT) with nine other familiar shapes (including a sea horse, a guitar, a fir tree, etc.), but only when targets appeared in close proximity to the contour. A fourth experiment obtained a figural advantage in a discrimination task with the larger set of familiar shapes. The final experiment ruled out eye movements as a possible confounding factor by replicating the RT advantage for targets on the figural side of face displays when all trials containing eye movements were eliminated. The results are discussed in terms of ecological influences on attention, and are cast within the framework of Yantis and Jonides's hypothesis that attention is exogenously drawn to the onset of new perceptual objects. We argue that the figural side constitutes an "object" whereas the ground side does not, and that figural cues such as shape familiarity are effective in determining which areas represent objects.     

Ways an actualist might be

I discuss Stalnaker’s views on modality. In particular, his views on actualism, anti-essentialism, counterpart theory, and the Barcan formulas.