Repetition blindness in sentence contexts: Not just an attribution?

Selective "blindness" to repeated words in rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) occurs even when omitting these words compromises sentence syntax and meaning. The contributions of lexical and contextual factors to this repetition blindness (RB) phenomenon were evaluated using three tasks that combined RB and ambiguity resolution paradigms. During an RSVP sentence, a repeated word and matched but incongruous control were presented simultaneously, and participants were asked to report the entire sentence, including only the appropriate word. Substantial RB was evident in impaired report of repeated targets, whereas report of nonrepeated targets was enhanced when the distractor was a repeat. Experiment 2 confirmed these results with reduced reporting requirements, and Experiment 3 demonstrated the independence of repetition and sentence congruity effects. Results across all contexts support a lexical account of RB, which assumes that reactivation and identification of rapidly repeated words are impaired due to the refractory nature of lexical representations.     

The effect of early cognitions on cigarette and alcohol use during adolescence

The present study predicts cigarette and alcohol use in adolescence from the development of children's cognitions in the elementary years. Using latent growth modeling, the authors examined a model using data from 712 participants in the Oregon Youth Substance Use Project, who were in the 2nd through 5th grade at the 1st assessment and followed for 6 annual or semiannual assessments over 7 years. Growth in children's prototypes and subjective norms in the elementary years (Times 1 through 4) were related to their substance use in adolescence (Time 6) through their willingness and intentions (Time 5) to smoke and drink. Across the sample, for both substances, the intercept and slope of prototypes were either indirectly related to use through willingness or directly related to use. Both the intercept and slope of subjective norms were indirectly related to use of both substances through both willingness and intentions and directly related to cigarette use. Results suggest that elementary children have measurable cognitions regarding substance use that develop during the elementary years and predict use later in adolescence. These findings emphasize the need for prevention programs targeted at changing children's social images of substance users and encouraging more accurate perceptions of peers' use.     

Radon and cigarette smoking: perceptions of this synergistic health risk.

Past approaches to the measurement of the perceived risk of combined hazards have failed to demonstrate awareness of synergy (S. E. Hampson et al., 1998; D. Hermand, E. Mullet, & B. Coutelle, 1995; D. Hermand, E. Mullet, & S. Lavieville, 1997). Respondents (N = 650) were provided with information about the synergistic risk of lung cancer from the combination of smoking and radon, and their risk perceptions were assessed on two occasions. At Time 1, using Likert-type scales, there was no evidence of synergistic risk perception. At Time 2, using a scale based on the appraisal of relative risk with anchors allowing for the expression of synergy, the combined hazard of radon and smoking was rated as significantly more of a health risk than the single hazards. The findings are discussed in terms of methodological issues in assessing synergistic risk.     

Preschool Executive Control and Internalizing Symptoms in Elementary School

Depression and anxiety are prevalent and impairing forms of psychopathology in children and adolescents. Deficits in early executive control (EC) may contribute to the development of these problems, but longitudinal studies with rigorous measurement across key developmental periods are limited. The current study examines EC in preschool as a predictor of subsequent depression and anxiety symptoms in elementary school in a community sample (N?=?280). Child participants completed a battery of nine developmentally-appropriate tasks designed to measure major aspects of EC at age 5 years, 3 months. Children later participated in an elementary school follow-up phase, during which they completed validated norm-referenced self-report questionnaires of depression and anxiety symptoms in fourth grade. Results indicate that poorer preschool EC was significantly associated with both greater depression and anxiety symptoms in elementary school, controlling for baseline depression and anxiety symptoms in preschool and other relevant variables. These findings suggest that poor EC may be an important risk factor for the development of internalizing psychopathology in childhood. Given emerging evidence for the modifiability of EC, particularly in preschool, EC promotion interventions may hold promise as a potential target in psychopathology prevention.     

Bilinguals' memory for medical information: Effects of modality,type of information and order of information

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to discover whether late bilinguals and monolmguals respond differently to memory tasks about information patainins to naturalistic but simulated medical consultations. The sample comprised 24 Italian/English late bilinguals and 24 English speaking monolinguals. Thne medical information texts were presented to subjects in either the oral or the written modality. Type of information (diagnostic or treatment). and order of presentation (first or last) of type of information were also manipulated. Subjects performed a word stem completion (WSC) task, followed by a he mall task. Overall, bilinguals recalled less information than the monolinguals, and were less likely to respond with an old word in the WSC task Bilinguals were more adversely affected by the order of presentation of treatment information than were monolinguals, remembering less treatment information when it occurred last. Both groups remembered information presented first better than information presented last, with treatment information slightly better remembered than diagnostic. No modality of presentation effects wen found Implications for compliance behaviours are discussed.

Medical information

bilingual

memory.     

Relations Among Children's Coping Strategies and Anxiety: The Mediating Role of Coping Efficacy

The current study tests a model that depicts the relationships among coping strategies (active, distraction, avoidance, and support seeking) and anxiety symptoms. SEM is used to test if the relationship between these variables is mediated by coping efficacy. A large sample of Canadian children (N = 506) aged 8 to 11 years (boys = 249, girls = 245, unknown gender = 12) participated in the study. Results showed that coping efficacy is a partial mediator of the relations between active coping strategies and anxiety symptoms, however support was not found for it to be an effective mediator for other coping strategies. This study contributes to the understanding of childhood anxiety by highlighting the importance of the relationship between anxiety and the methods children use to cope with stress and how perceptions of their coping abilities influence this relationship.     

Meeting Survivors Where They Are: The Vital Role of Trauma-Informed and Competent Clinicians in Primary Care

For adult survivors of adverse childhood experiences, primary care is the entryway to treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It is estimated 25% of adult primary care patients have PTSD, and they present to their provider more often with pain and non-specific physical symptoms rather than mental health issues. Physicians, even those somewhat knowledgeable about trauma and PTSD, are unlikely to assess for it in order to avoid issues they may not have the time and/or skills to sufficiently address. This is due to PTSD treatment not being a core training competency in graduate-level education and professional training being timely and expensive. Usual care for PTSD consists of medication to manage symptoms and a referral to a mental health clinician. However, substantial disparities and patient, provider, and delivery system-level barriers means survivors are unlikely to follow-through with referrals nor receive adequate treatment when they do. In this theoretical article, we review the trials and tribulations experienced by research teams and argue what is lacking is trauma-informed care. None of the trials reviewed mentioned trauma-informed care as a component of their intervention nor as a recommendation for future studies. We also outline a host of recommendations for best practice protocols that benefit patients and the collaborative care teams meeting them where they are. Trauma-informed care deepens the focus on relational, physiological, and physical safety. Attention to soothing physiological arousal through the physician-patient-clinician triad creates more positive associations toward moving forward in treatment for survivors and providers.     

Social learning in captive African elephants (Loxodonta africana africana)

Social learning is a more efficient method of information acquisition and application than trial and error learning and is prevalent across a variety of animal taxa. Social learning is assumed to be important for elephants, but evidence in support of that claim is mostly anecdotal. Using a herd of six adult female African bush elephants (Loxodonta africana africana) at the San Diego Zoo’s Safari Park, we evaluated whether viewing a conspecific’s interactions facilitated learning of a novel task. The tasks used feeding apparatus that could be solved in one of two distinct ways. Contrary to our hypothesis, the method the demonstrating animal used did not predict the method used by the observer. However, we did find evidence of social learning: After watching the model, subjects spent a greater percentage of their time interacting with the apparatus than they did in unmodeled trials. These results suggest that the demonstrations of a model may increase the motivation of elephants to explore novel foraging tasks.