A closer look at self-reported suicide attempts: false positives and false negatives

The validity of self-reported suicide attempt information is undermined by false positives (e.g., incidences without intent to die), or by unreported suicide attempts, referred to as false negatives. In a sample of 1,385 Austrian adults, we explored the occurrence of false positives and false negatives with detailed, probing questions. Removing false positives decreased the rate of suicide attempters from 4.3% to 2.7%. Probing questions also revealed 0.8% false negatives. We recommend using probing questions with both those who report a suicide attempt and those who do not report a suicide attempt to increase the validity of self-reported suicide-related information.     

Adult age differences in the perceptual span during reading

Following up on research suggesting an age-related reduction in the rightward extent of the perceptual span during reading (Rayner, Castelhano, & Yang, 2009), we compared old and young adults in an N + 2-boundary paradigm in which a nonword preview of word N + 2 or word N + 2 itself is replaced by the target word once the eyes cross an invisible boundary located after word N. The intermediate word N + 1 was always three letters long. Gaze durations on word N + 2 were significantly shorter for identical than nonword N + 2 preview both for young and for old adults, with no significant difference in this preview benefit. Young adults, however, did modulate their gaze duration on word N more strongly than old adults in response to the difficulty of the parafoveal word N + 1. Taken together, the results suggest a dissociation of preview benefit and parafoveal-on-foveal effect. Results are discussed in terms of age-related decline in resilience towards distributed processing while simultaneously preserving the ability to integrate parafoveal information into foveal processing. As such, the present results relate to proposals of regulatory compensation strategies older adults use to secure an overall reading speed very similar to that of young adults.     

Cognitive training research on fluid intelligence in old age: what can older adults achieve by themselves?

Cognitive research on the plasticity of fluid intelligence has demonstrated that older adults benefit markedly from guided practice in cognitive skills and problem-solving strategies. We examined to what degree older adults are capable by themselves of achieving similar practice gains, focusing on the fluid ability of figural relations. A sample of 72 healthy older adults was assigned randomly to three conditions: control, tutor-guided training, self-guided training. Training time and training materials were held constant for the two training conditions. Posttraining performances were analyzed using a transfer of training paradigm in terms of three indicators: correct responses, accuracy, and level of item difficulty. The training programs were effective and produced a significant but narrow band of within-ability transfer. However, there was no difference between the two training groups. Older adults were shown to be capable of producing gains by themselves that were comparable to those obtained following tutor-guided training in the nature of test-relevant cognitive skills.     

Complex semantic processing in old age: does it stay or does it go?

Old adults' (N = 24) and young adults' (N = 24) speed of producing exemplars of semantic categories (i.e., semantic fluency) varying in difficulty was assessed both in a standard condition and in a "set-switching" condition where exemplars had to be produced from 2 categories in an alternating manner. "Retrieval-position function" parameters were used to assess speed of semantic access independent of nonsemantic factors. Results suggested age effects in nonsemantic components but not in semantic retrieval per se. Also, age deficits in set switching were relatively subtle. Findings are discussed with relation to issues of domain specificity of age effects as well as of the role of executive control during semantic retrieval and age differences therein.     

List-method directed forgetting: Evidence for the reset-of-encoding hypothesis employing item-recognition testing

In list-method directed forgetting (LMDF), people are cued to forget a previously studied item list (List 1) and to learn a new list of items (List 2) instead. Such cuing typically enhances memory for the List 2 items, in both recall and (sometimes) item-recognition testing. It has recently been hypothesized that the enhancement effect for List 2 items (partly) reflects the result of a reset-of-encoding process. The proposal is that encoding efficacy decreases with an increase in study material, but the forget cue can reset the encoding process to make the encoding of early List 2 items as effective as the encoding of early List 1 items. An experiment is reported that examined the reset-of-encoding hypothesis with item-recognition testing, examining influences of items' serial learning position on the effects of the forget cue. Item-recognition tests were conducted separately for the two lists. Consistent with the reset-of-encoding hypothesis, the results showed strong enhancement effects for early List 2 items, but hardly any enhancement effects for middle and late List 2 items. Like in previous item-recognition studies, no cuing effects were found for List 1 items. The results support two-mechanism accounts of LMDF, which assume a critical role for a reset-of-encoding process for List 2 enhancement.     

Suicidality and associated risk factors among lesbian, gay, and bisexual compared to heterosexual Austrian adults

This is the first study in German-speaking countries to compare the suicidality of lesbian, gay, and bisexual adults (n = 358) with matched heterosexual adults (n = 267). The former had significantly elevated incidences of current suicide ideation (28% vs. 13%) and lifetime suicide attempts defined in three ways (14% vs. 1% to 10% vs. 2%), including higher incidences for most suicidality-related risk factors. Increased psychosocial stress and vulnerability is indicated, especially with respect to a lack of family support. Controlling for risk factors in multivariate analysis diminished the association of sexual orientation with current suicide ideation.     

Infrared imaging technology and biological applications

Temperature is the most frequently measured physical quantity, second only to time. Infrared (IR) technology has been utilized successfully in astronomy (for a summary, see Hermans-Killam, 2002b) and in industrial and research settings (Gruner, 2002; Madding, 1982, 1989; Wolfe & Zissis, 1993) for decades. However, fairly recent innovations have reduced costs, increased reliability, and resulted in noncontact IR sensors offering mobile, smaller units of measurement (EOI, 2002; Flir, 2000, 2001, 2002). The advantages of using IR imaging are (1) rapidity in the millisecond range, facilitating measurement of moving targets, (2) noncontact procedures, allowing measurements of hazardous or physically inaccessible objects, (3) no interference and no energy lost from the target, (4) no risk of contamination, and (5) no mechanical effect on the surface of the object. All these factors have led to IR technology’s becoming an area of interest for new kinds of applications and users. In both manufacturing and quality control, temperature plays an important role as an indicator of the condition of a product or a piece of machinery (EOI, 2002; Flir, 2000, 2001, 2002; Raytek, 2002). In medical and veterinary applications, IR thermometry is increasingly used in organ diagnostics, in the evaluation of sports injuries and the progression of therapy, in disease evaluation (e.g., breast cancer, arthritis, and SARS; Flir, 2003), and in injury and inflammation examinations in horses, livestock (Tivey & Banhazi, 2002), and zoo animals (Hermans-Killam, 2002a; Thiesbrummel, 2002). Lastly, physiological expressions of life processes in animals (Kastberger, Winder, & Steindl, 2001; Stabentheiner, Kovac, & Hagmüller, 1995; Stabentheiner, Kovac, & Schmaranzer, 2002; Stabentheiner & Schmaranzer, 1987) and plants (Bermadinger-Stabentheiner & Stabentheiner, 1995) can be monitored. The most recent field in which IR technology has been applied is animal behavior. This article focuses on the practical options for noncontact IR thermometry— in particular, in biological applications.     

Professional expertise does not eliminate age differences in imagery-based memory performance during adulthood.

Using a testing-the-limits paradigm, the authors investigated the modulation (attenuation) of negative adult age differences in imagery-based memory performance as a function of professional expertise. Six older graphic designers, 6 normal older adults, 6 younger graphic design students, and 6 normal younger students participated in a 19-session program with a cued-recall variant of the Method of Loci. Older graphic designers attained higher levels of mnemonic performance than normal older adults but were not able to reach younger adults' level of performance; a perfect separation of age groups was achieved. Spatial visualization was a good predictor of mnemonic performance. Results suggest that negative adult age differences in imagery-based memory are attenuated but not eliminated by the advantages associated with criterion-relevant ability (talent) and experience.