Attention Problems and Executive Functions in Children With Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus

This study addressed the incidence of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) subtypes in children with spina bifida meningomyelocele and shunted hydrocephalus (SBH) as well as differences in executive functions among these subtypes. Parent rating scales revealed that 31% of the group with SBH could be identified with AD/HD, mostly the Inattentive type (23%). The group with SBH differed from normal controls on cognitive measures of executive functions, but subtype differences were not significant. Multivariate tests showed that children with SBH were rated with greater difficulties on the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF) compared to controls; those with SBH and any subtype of ADHD differed from those with SBH and no ADHD; and those with ADHD (Combined Type) differed significantly from those with ADHD (Predominantly Inattentive Type). Subtype differences on univariate tests in the latter comparison were significant on the BRIEF Inhibit scale, showing more disinhibition in those with SBH and ADHD (Combined Type), but no significant differences were apparent on the BRIEF Sustain, Shift, and Initiate scales. The results show that the incidence of ADHD in children with SBH exceeds the population rate, is represented by problems with inattention rather than with impulsivity and hyperactivity; and that as with non-brain injured individuals, subtype differences in cognitive function remain to more clearly delineated.     

Hemodynamic responses to speech and music in preverbal infants

Numerous studies have provided clues about the ontogeny of lateralization of auditory processing in humans, but most have employed specific subtypes of stimuli and/or have assessed responses in discrete temporal windows. The present study used near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) to establish changes in hemodynamic activity in the neocortex of preverbal infants (aged 4–11 months) while they were exposed to two distinct types of complex auditory stimuli (full sentences and musical phrases). Measurements were taken from bilateral temporal regions, including both anterior and posterior superior temporal gyri. When the infant sample was treated as a homogenous group, no significant effects emerged for stimulus type. However, when infants’ hemodynamic responses were categorized according to their overall changes in volume, two very clear neurophysiological patterns emerged. A high-responder group showed a pattern of early and increasing activation, primarily in the left hemisphere, similar to that observed in comparable studies with adults. In contrast, a low-responder group showed a pattern of gradual decreases in activation over time. Although age did track with responder type, no significant differences between these groups emerged for stimulus type, suggesting that the high- versus low-responder characterization generalizes across classes of auditory stimuli. These results highlight a new way to conceptualize the variable cortical blood flow patterns that are frequently observed across infants and stimuli, with hemodynamic response volumes potentially serving as an early indicator of developmental changes in auditory-processing sensitivity.     

Don't it make my brown eyes blue: Co-witness misinformation about a target's appearance can impair target-absent line-up performance

Misinformation from another witness has been shown to impair eyewitness reports, but little is known about how it may influence eyewitness identification. In Experiment 1, adult pairs comprising one participant and one experimental confederate viewed a video clip of a staged theft. Half of the participants were then misinformed by the confederate that the thief's accomplice had blue eyes (in fact, they were brown). Next, individual participants described the accomplice and completed a target-absent photographic line-up task comprising blue-eyed members. Misinformed participants were several times more likely than controls to describe the accomplice as having blue eyes, and twice as likely to identify someone from the line-up. In Experiment 2, when line-up members’ eye colour was digitally altered from blue to brown, the line-up effect disappeared, suggesting that the increase in identifications in Experiment 1 was not a generalised increase in willingness to choose from the line-up. In Experiment 3, we discounted the possibility that discussion alone could account for the line-up misinformation effect, by subjecting all participants to co-witness discussion.     

Psychological models in predicting uptake of prenatal screening

Abstract

The purpose of the current study was to determine which psychological models are most useful in predicting uptake of a prenatal screening test, maternal-serum alphafetoprotein screening for spina bifida and Down's syndrome. 1000 women eligible for the test completed standardised self-report questionnaires at two routine clinic visits to an antenatal clinic prior to the time when the test could take place. 902 underwent the screening test; 51 declined the test; and 47 did not undergo the test, giving no reason for this to staff. Knowledge of the test, the subjective expected utility attached to the test, and attitudes to doctors and medicine were all significant predictors of uptake behaviour. Results of a discriminant function analysis demonstrated distinct psychological processes underlying each of these three uptake behaviours, explaining 21% of the variance in uptake of screening. If uptake of screening is examined not as a dichotomous variable but as a group of behaviours, predictive models are identified accordingly. This would lead to rnodels of health-related behaviours as a heterogeneous rather than homogeneous phenomena, predicted and influenced by different causes.     

Evidence for Discontinuity Patterns Across the Stages of Change: A Role for Attitudinal Ambivalence

Cross-sectional analyses of the transtheoretical ("stages of change") model (TTM) can provide valuable information concerning the variables that are likely to shift individuals from one stage to the next. The present study was designed to investigate the roles of theory of planned behaviour (TPB) variables and attitudinal ambivalence across the stages of change. Two samples derived from the general population completed measures of stage, TPB and attitudinal ambivalence with respect to consuming a low-fat diet (n = 148) and eating five portions of fruit and vegetables per day (n = 151). Consistent with previous research, the present study found linear increases in TPB variables across the stages of change. However, as predicted, attitudinal ambivalence showed discontinuity patterns, displaying a quadratic relationship with the stages of change, such that least ambivalence was experienced in the precontemplation and maintenance stages. Discussion of the findings focuses on implications for the development of theory-driven interventions.     

Age-related decline in the ability to decode emotional prosody: Primary or secondary phenomenon?

Emotion processing deficits can cause catastrophic damage to a person's ability to interact socially. While it is known that older adults have difficulty identifying facial emotions, it is still not clear whether this difficulty extends to identification of the emotion conveyed by prosody. This study investigated whether the ability of older adults to decode emotional prosody falls below that of young adults after controlling for loss of hearing sensitivity and key features of cognitive ageing. Apart from frontal lobe load, only verbal IQ was associated with the age-related reduction in performance displayed by older participants, but a notable deficit existed after controlling for its effects. It is concluded that older adults may indeed have difficulty deducing the emotion conveyed by prosody, and that while this difficulty can be exaggerated by some aspects of cognitive ageing, it is primary in origin.     

Differential Competencies Contributing to Children's Comprehension of Narrative and Expository Texts

The purpose of this study was to examine the connections between the oral reading abilities and the spelling behaviors of third and fifth grade students. Seventy-two third graders and sixty fifth graders from two different schools (one urban and one suburban) were the subjects of the study. Each subject read a selection one level above his/her current grade placement, spelled the words on the appropriate grade level list of the Qualitative Inventory of Word Knowledge and took the appropriate level of the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Tests. Oral readings were scored for accuracy, rate and phrasing. Spellings were scored for accuracy, phonetic quality and stage of spelling development. These scores were then analyzed using correlations, partial correlations and multiple regression techniques. At both grade levels there were high, significant correlations between spelling and reading variables, with spelling variables accounting for from 40% to 60% of the variance in oral reading measures and a smaller, but still significant percentage of the variance when standardized test scores were used as a control. These results confirm a strong relationship between spelling skill and oral reading ability, supporting the argument that a common body of conceptual word knowledge underlies both.     

Mother-Child Attachment and Gender Identity in Preadolescence

We investigated the relations of two dimensions of attachment insecurity (avoidant with mother, preoccupied with mother) to three dimensions of gender identity (gender typicality, gender contentedness, felt pressure for gender differentiation) in preadolescent children. We hypothesized that attachment insecurity (of either sort) fosters felt pressure for gender differentiation but impedes the development of felt gender typicality and gender contentedness. Participants were 863 Black, Hispanic, and White fifth graders attending public schools in the southeast United States (443 girls, 420 boys; M age = 11.1 years). Each attachment measure was associated with each gender identity measure in the expected way, but some associations hinged on child gender or ethnicity/race. Avoidant attachment was negatively associated with felt gender typicality only for White children, negatively associated with gender contentedness for the entire sample, and positively associated with felt pressure for gender differentiation only for White children. Preoccupied attachment was negatively associated with felt gender typicality for the entire sample, negatively associated with gender contentedness only for boys, and positively associated with felt pressure for gender differentiation only for girls.     

The Sensory Profile of People With Post-Traumatic Stress Symptoms

Thirty participants with post-traumatic stress (PTS) symptoms and 30 healthy controls completed the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Symptom Scale (PSS-SR) and the Adolescent/Adult Sensory Profile (AASP). Participants with PTS symptoms vacillated between sensory sensitivity, sensation avoiding, and low registration. Sensation avoiding and low registration correlated with intrusive thoughts related to PTS. Discriminant Analysis classified 73% of the study group and 80% of the controls. PTS may be related to hypersensitivity and low registration. Further studies about the sensory profile of people with PTS symptoms may contribute to research and optimize evaluation and intervention for people with PTSD.