Caught between Scylla and Charybdis: How Economic Stressors and Occupational Risk Factors Influence Workers’ Occupational Health Reactions to COVID-19

Workers and their families bear much of the economic burden of COVID-19. Even though they have declined somewhat, unemployment rates are considerably higher than before the start of the pandemic. Many workers also face uncertainty about their future employment prospects and increasing financial strain. At the same time, the workplace is a common source of transmission of COVID-19 and many jobs previously seen as relatively safe are now viewed as potentially hazardous. Thus, many workers face dual threats of economic stress and COVID-19 exposure. This paper develops a model of workers’ responses to these dual threats, including risk perception and resource depletion as mediating factors that influence the relationship of economic stress and occupational risk factors with COVID-19 compliance-related attitudes, safe behavior at work, and physical and mental health outcomes. The paper also describes contextual moderators of these relationships at the individual, unit, and regional level. Directions for future research are discussed.     

Risk–need–responsivity and its application in behavioral health settings: A feasibility study of a treatment planning support tool

The risk–need–responsivity (RNR) model suggests several key practices for justice‐involved populations under correctional supervision. Behavioral health treatment planning aligned with RNR principles for offender populations with co‐occurring mental health and substance use disorders (CODs) could be one method for integrating RNR into clinical care. To explore a unique approach to working with behavioral health and RNR principles, the authors implemented a mixed‐methods feasibility study of the acceptability, usability, and utility of a newly developed RNR treatment planning support tool (RNR TST). The tool was implemented in a re‐entry program serving adults with co‐occurring mental health and opioid use disorders. Chart reviews of RNR TSTs (N = 55) and a focus group (N = 14 re‐entry clinical staff) were conducted. Ninety‐six percent of the RNR TSTs incorporated the use of a validated risk–need assessment and 70% of the RNR TSTs were semi‐complete to complete. Focus group interviews highlighted behavioral health staff perspectives on the acceptability, usability, and utility of the RNR TST. This novel RNR TST has the potential to assist behavioral health providers in integrating RNR principles into treatment planning. Further development and testing are needed to determine its impact on client care and outcomes.     

Reassessing working memory: comment on Just and Carpenter (1992) and Waters and Caplan (1996)

M. A. Just and P. A. Carpenter's (1992) capacity theory of comprehension posits a linguistic working memory functionally separated from the representation of linguistic knowledge. G. S. Waters and D. Caplan's (1996) critique of this approach retained the notion of a separate working memory. In this article, the authors present an alternative account motivated by a connectionist approach to language comprehension. In their view, processing capacity emerges from network architecture and experience and is not a primitive that can vary independently. Individual differences in comprehension do not stem from variations in a separate working memory capacity; instead they emerge from an interaction of biological factors and language experience. This alternative is argued to provide a superior account of comprehension results previously attributed to a separate working memory capacity.     

The evolution of domain-general mechanisms in intelligence and learning

For both humans and animals, domain-general mechanisms are fallible but powerful tools for attaining evolutionary goals (e.g., resources) in uncertain, novel environments that were not recurrent features of the environment of evolutionary adaptedness. Domain-general mechanisms interact in complex ways with domain-specific, information-encapsulated modules, most importantly by manipulating information obtained from various modules in attempting to solve novel problems. Mechanisms of general intelligence, particularly the executive functions of working memory, underlie analogical reasoning as well as the decontextualization processes that are central to human thought. Although there is a variety of evolved, special purpose learning devices, learning is also characterized by domain-general mechanisms that are able to achieve evolutionary goals by making novel and serendipitous associations with environmental cues.     

The implications of cortical recruitment and brain morphology for individual differences in inhibitory function in aging humans

The authors assessed individual differences in cortical recruitment, brain morphology, and inhibitory task performance. Similar to previous studies, older adults tended toward bilateral activity during task performance more than younger adults. However, better performing older adults showed less bilateral activity than poorer performers, contrary to the idea that additional activity is universally compensatory. A review of the results and of extant literature suggests that compensatory activity in prefrontal cortex may only be effective if the additional cortical processors brought to bear on the task can play a complementary role in task performance. Morphological analyses revealed that frontal white matter tracts differed as a function of performance in older adults, suggesting that hemispheric connectivity might impact both patterns of recruitment and cognitive performance.     

Inconsistency in serial choice decision and motor reaction times dissociate in younger and older adults

Intraindividual variability (inconsistency) in reaction time (RT) latencies was investigated in a group of younger (M=25.46 years) and older (M=69.29 years) men. Both groups performed 300 trials in 2-, 4-, and 8-choice RT conditions where RTs for decision and motor components of the task were recorded separately. A dissociation was evident in that inconsistency was greater in older adults for decision RTs when task demands relating to the number of choices and fatigue arising from time-on-task were high. For younger persons, a weak trend toward greater inconsistency in motor RTs was evident. The results are consistent with accounts suggesting that inconsistency in neurobiological mechanisms increases with age, and that attentional lapses or fluctuations in executive control contribute to RT inconsistency.