Neuropsychological Performance in Gulf War Era Veterans: Traumatic Stress Symptomatology and Exposure to Chemical–Biological Warfare Agents

Because complaints of diminished concentration and memory are among the most common health symptoms reported by Gulf War (GW) veterans with unexplained illnesses, this study investigated neuropsychological functions among GW veterans and controls. Relationships between neuropsychological performance, severity of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptomatology, and exposure to chemical–biological warfare agents (CBW) were assessed. Participants were 225 veterans recruited from three cohorts: GW-deployed veterans from Ft. Devens, MA ( n = 141) and New Orleans, LA (n = 37), and Germany-deployed veterans from a Maine National Guard unit (n = 47). A comprehensive evaluation was completed. Severity of subclinical PTSD symptomatology was significantly related to scores on specific neuropsychological tests. PTSD symptom severity in GW-deployed veterans was found to be greater and associated with a broader range of neuropsychological deficits than in Germany-deployed veterans. PTSD severity was associated with lower performance on a range of neuropsychological tasks, whereas CBW exposure contributed to performance deficits on specific cognitive tasks.     

Neuropsychological Functioning in Danish Gulf War Veterans

Research has shown that Danish Gulf War (GW) veterans reported a significantly higher prevalence of neuropsychological symptoms than did military controls 6 years after GW deployment. To explore the possible central nervous system determinants of these complaints, neuropsychological tests were administered to stratified, random samples of the Danish cohort of 916 GW-deployed veterans and 236 non–GW-deployed participants. Multivariate analyses of covariance were used to analyze neuropsychological test outcomes among the 215 male participants (143 GW-deployed and 72 non–GW-deployed soldiers). No significant differences in neuropsychological test performances were found between the GW-deployed and non–GW-deployed groups. Troops deployed to the GW reported significantly more mood complaints (i.e., fatigue and confusion) than their nondeployed counterparts. Because they were assigned to the Gulf region during the postcombat phase, Danish GW soldiers differed from the majority of American GW-deployed troops in military assignments and possible toxicant exposures.     

Cognitive Functioning in Treatment-Seeking Gulf War Veterans: Pyridostigmine Bromide Use and PTSD

Gulf War (GW) deployed veterans have reported health symptoms since returning from the war that suggest dysfunction of the central nervous system (CNS). These symptoms include memory and concentration difficulties, fatigue, and headaches. Leading hypotheses for the etiology of these cognitive complaints include psychological factors and/or exposures to chemicals with neurotoxic properties. In this study, cognitive functioning was compared in treatment-seeking GW-deployed veterans and a treatment-seeking non–GW-deployed veteran control group. Results indicated that GW-deployed veterans performed significantly worse than the comparison group on tests of attention, visuospatial skills, visual memory, and mood. GW-deployed veterans who reported taking pyridostigmine bromide (PB) performed worse than GW-deployed veterans without PB use on executive system tasks. Treatment-seeking GW-deployed veterans with diagnoses of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) did not differ on cognitive test measures compared with GW-deployed veterans without PTSD. No interaction effect of PTSD and PB use was found.     

Effects of gender in social control of smoking cessation.

This study of 93 men and 117 women smokers during an ongoing quit attempt examined the roles of gender and social network influences on quitting. For men, social influences appeared to positively affect their ability to reduce their smoking but were less effective for women. Specifically, increased reports of a spouse or partner's influence, and family and friends' influence, were associated with greater reductions in men's smoking 2 days and 4 months post quit date, respectively. In contrast, for women, greater reports of spouse or partner influence and of family and friends' influence were associated with smaller reductions in smoking. Sex differences in social control strategies and perceived autonomy supportiveness of those strategies are discussed as possible explanations for these results.     

The Undoing Effect of Positive Emotions

Positive emotions are hypothesized to undo the cardiovascular aftereffects of negative emotions. Study 1 tests this undoing effect. Participants (n = 170) experiencing anxiety-induced cardiovascular reactivity viewed a film that elicited (a) contentment, (b) amusement, (c) neutrality, or (d) sadness. Contentment-eliciting and amusing films produced faster cardiovascular recovery than neutral or sad films did. Participants in Study 2 (n = 185) viewed these same films following a neutral state. Results disconfirm the alternative explanation that the undoing effect reflects a simple replacement process. Findings are contextualized by Fredrickson's broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions (B. L. Fredrickson, 1998).     

An image is worth a thousand words: why nouns tend to dominate verbs in early word learning

Nouns are generally easier to learn than verbs (e.g., Bornstein, 2005; Bornstein et al., 2004; Gentner, 1982; Maguire, Hirsh-Pasek, & Golinkoff, 2006). Yet, verbs appear in children's earliest vocabularies, creating a seeming paradox. This paper examines one hypothesis about the difference between noun and verb acquisition. Perhaps the advantage nouns have is not a function of grammatical form class but rather related to a word's imageability. Here, word imageability ratings and form class (nouns and verbs) were correlated with age of acquisition according to the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (CDI) (Fenson et al., 1994). CDI age of acquisition was negatively correlated with words' imageability ratings. Further, a word's imageability contributes to the variance of the word's age of acquisition above and beyond form class, suggesting that at the beginning of word learning, imageability might be a driving factor.     

Irrelevant visual faces influence haptic identification of facial expressions of emotion

This study demonstrates that when people attempt to identify a facial expression of emotion (FEE) by haptically exploring a 3D facemask, they are affected by viewing a simultaneous, task-irrelevant visual FEE portrayed by another person. In comparison to a control condition, where visual noise was presented, the visual FEE facilitated haptic identification when congruent (visual and haptic FEEs same category). When the visual and haptic FEEs were incongruent, haptic identification was impaired, and error responses shifted toward the visually depicted emotion. In contrast, visual emotion labels that matched or mismatched the haptic FEE category produced no such effects. The findings indicate that vision and touch interact in FEE recognition at a level where featural invariants of the emotional category (cf. precise facial geometry or general concepts) are processed, even when the visual and haptic FEEs are not attributable to a common source. Processing mechanisms behind these effects are considered.     

supporting workplace diversity: emerging roles for employment counselors

Employment counselors generally understand the benefits of workplace diversity; most are actively engaged in supporting diverse clients to attach to the workforce. However, they are less likely to be involved in supporting organizations to create workplaces where diverse workers are welcomed, appreciated, and fully engaged. In this article, results from a Canadian project to develop the Supporting Employers Embracing Diversity (S.E.E.D.) tool kit are presented and 10 emerging roles that employment counselors can play are introduced.     

Competence in Coping with Future-Related Stress in Adolescents from France,Italy, Great Britain,and Germany

The present study investigated how European adolescents cope with perceived future-related stress. Altogether 3,154 adolescents (mean age of 15 years) from four countries (n = 1,071 Italians, n = 1,433 Germans, n = 308 French, and n = 341 British) participated in the study. They completed the Problem Questionnaire, which assesses future-related stress, and the CASQ, which assesses how three coping styles (active coping, internal coping, and withdrawal) are used to deal with future-related stress. German and British adolescents showed low levels of stress, whereas French and Italian adolescents had high levels. All adolescents anticipated future-related problems but did not portray their futures negatively. In addition, they dealt with future-related stress actively and showed high levels of coping competence. Adolescents used active coping strategies most frequently, followed by thinking about possible solutions. Dysfunctional coping strategies (e.g., withdrawal) were used much less often. The effects of age, gender, and family variables on stress perception and coping style were negligible. Overall, our findings highlight the tenets of positive psychology by revealing that adolescents are concerned about their futures and that they show high agency in dealing with future-related problems. Further, the findings are relevant for positive youth development programs, especially those which endorse positive orientation to the future and coping competence.