Nonlinear models of clinical judgement: communal nonlinearity and nonlinear accuracy

Despite our intuition that representative expert judgments are highly nonlinear, previous studies have shown only little, if any, nonlinearity in such judgments. The current study presents a method for assessing nonlinearity in judgment that is based on estimating communal nonlinearity—the systematic nonlinearity shared by the community of judges. The article also examines the predictive accuracy of communal nonlinearity, and compares it with the corresponding linear accuracy.     

Hopelessness depression as a distinct dimension of depressive symptoms among clinical and non-clinical samples

Subtyping depression has been an interest of theorists and clinicians for at least four centuries. In this paper, we examined the validity of the symptom cluster component of the hopelessness theory of depression. We used structural equation modeling analyses on large samples of psychiatric outpatients (N=1604, 844, and 680) and Air Force cadets (N=1404) who completed the items of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Findings were supportive of the hopelessness depression cluster as a distinct depressive syndrome. Implications for the nosology of depression and for depression theory were discussed.     

Use of a structured investigative protocol enhances young children's responses to free-recall prompts in the course of forensic interviews

One hundred alleged victims of child sexual abuse (ages 4-12 years; M = 8.1 years) were interviewed by police investigators about their alleged experiences. Half of the children were interviewed using the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development's structured interview protocol, whereas the other children--matched with respect to their age, relationship with the alleged perpetrator, and seriousness of the alleged offenses--were interviewed using standard interview practices. Protocol-guided interviews elicited more information using open-ended prompts and less information using option-posing and suggestive questions than did standard interviews; there were no age differences in the amount of information provided in response to open-ended invitations. In 89% of the protocol interviews, children made their preliminary allegations in response to open-ended prompts, compared with 36% in the standard interviews.     

Stress-induced relapse to drug seeking in the rat: role of the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis and amygdala

There is growing interest in the role that the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) and central nucleus of the amygdala (CeA), components of the extended amygdala, play in drug addiction. Within the BNST and CeA, there is an extensive system of intrinsic, primarily GABAergic, interconnections known to synthesize a variety of neuropeptides, including corticotrophin-releasing factor (CRF). The actions of CRF at extrahypothalamic sites,including the BNST and CeA, have been implicated in stress responses and in the aversive effects of withdrawal from drugs of abuse. Most recently, we have shown a critical role for extrahypothalamic CRF in stress-induced reinstatement of drug seeking in rats. In attempting to determine which brain circuitry mediates the effect of stress on relapse and, more specifically, where in the brain CRF acts to initiate the behaviours involved in relapse, we focused on the BNST and CeA. In the present paper, we summarize studies we have conducted that explore the role of these brain sites in stress-induced relapse to heroin and cocaine seeking, and then consider how our findings can be understood within the more general context of what is known about the role of the BNST and CeA in stress-related and general approach behaviours, such as drug seeking.     

Predicting bulimic symptoms: an interactive model of self-efficacy, perfectionism, and perceived weight status

An interactive model of perfectionism, perceived weight status, and self-efficacy was tested on 406 women to predict the bulimic symptoms of binge eating and inappropriate compensatory behaviors separately. This longitudinal study assessed hypothesized vulnerabilities of high perfectionism and low self-efficacy and the stressor of feeling overweight at Time 1 and then gathered weekly assessments of binge eating, vomiting, laxative use, fasting, and diet pill use for 11 weeks. As predicted, results showed that perfectionism, weight perception, and self-efficacy interacted to prospectively predict binge eating. In particular, women high in perfectionism who felt they were overweight and who had low self-efficacy reported the most number of weeks of binge eating. This interactive model did not predict inappropriate compensatory behaviors. Future directions and clinical implications are discussed.     

Old Testament Turning Points: The Narratives That Shaped a Nation – Victor H. Matthews

Book reviewed:
Old Testament Turning Points: The Narratives That Shaped a Nation , Victor H. Matthews, Baker Academic 2005 (0-8010-2774-8), 208 pp., pb $18.99     

Memory-based versus on-line processing: Implications for attitude strength

Three experiments tested whether the manner in which attitudes are created—through on-line or memory-based processing—can impact the resultant strength of those attitudes. In each study, participants were presented with 20 behavioral statements about a person named Marie. Whereas some participants were asked to continually evaluate Marie based upon each sentence and then report their overall evaluation (on-line processing), others were asked to focus on the sentence structure and to evaluate Marie only after they had read all the sentences (memory-based processing). Even when controlling for attitude accessibility, attitudes created through on-line processing were stronger than attitudes created through memory-based processing: Experiment 1 showed that participants in the on-line condition felt more certain of their attitudes, Experiment 2 showed that on-line attitudes were better predictors of participants’ evaluative preferences, while Experiment 3 showed that on-line attitudes manifested stronger attitude-behavioral intention correspondence.     

What-where-when memory in pigeons

The authors report a novel approach to testing episodic-like memory for single events. Pigeons were trained in separate sessions to match the identity of a sample on a touch screen, to match its location, and to report on the length of the retention interval. When these 3 tasks were mixed randomly within sessions, birds were more than 80% correct on each task. However, performance on 2 different tests in succession after each sample was not consistent with an integrated memory for sample location, time, and identity. Experiment 2 tested binding of location and identity memories in 2 different ways. The results were again consistent with independent feature memories. Implications for tests of episodic-like memory are discussed.