The Assessment of Preterm Infants' Behavior (APIB): furthering the understanding and measurement of neurodevelopmental competence in preterm and full-term infants

The Assessment of Preterm Infants' Behavior (APIB) is a newborn neurobehavioral assessment appropriate for preterm, at risk, and full-term newborns, from birth to 1 month after expected due date. The APIB is based in ethological-evolutionary thought and focuses on the assessment of mutually interacting behavioral subsystems in simultaneous interaction with the environment. The subsystems of functioning assessed include the autonomic (respiration, digestion, color), motor (tone, movement, postures), state organization (range, robustness, transition patterns), attention (robustness, transitions), and self-regulation (effort, success) systems as well as the degree of facilitation required to support reorganization and subsystem balance. The environment is represented by a sequence of distal, proximal, tactile, and vestibular challenges, derived from the BNBAS. The APIB conceptualizes infant competence as the degree of differentiation of subsystem function and degree of modulation of subsystem balance at any stage in infant development. Infants are understood as actively seeking their next differentiation, while counting on good enough environments to assure progressing developmental competence. In the case of interference such as premature birth, the mismatch of expectation and actual experience causes misalignment, which may become developmentally costly. The assessment is a finely tuned dialogue between examiner and infant, which requires training, skill and self-knowledge. The APIB has well established inter-rater-reliability, concurrent and construct validity, and is clinically relevant for behavioral intervention and individually appropriate and supportive care.     

Spatial and object working memory impairments in schizophrenia patients: a Bayesian item-response theory analysis

This study reports evidence that schizophrenia patients are significantly impaired in both spatial and object (shape) working memory. A 3-s delay between exposure and recall of targets was used and Bayesian item-response theory was applied to compensate for the tasks' differential difficulty while simultaneously taking account of missing data from participant attrition. Weaker evidence was found that in schizophrenia both domains are equally impaired on average, that spatial and object working memory appear to be more highly correlated with each other in the schizophrenia population than in the normal population, and that schizophrenia patients show greater variability in spatial than object working memory performance.     

Rapid judgements in assessing verbal and nonverbal cues: their potential for deception researchers and lie detection

In the present study it was investigated to what extent observers (i) could make rapid yet reliable and valid judgements of the frequency of verbal and nonverbal behaviours of interviewees (liars and truth tellers) and (ii) detect deceit after making these rapid judgements. Five observers watched 52 videoclips of 26 liars and 26 truth tellers. The findings revealed that rapid judgements were reliable and valid. They also revealed that observers were able to detect truths and lies well above the level of chance after making these rapid judgements (74% accuracy rate was found). The implications of these findings for deception researchers and lie detection are discussed. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Collective Efficacy as a Key Context in Neighborhood Support for Urban Youth

Neighborhood context, including the physical and social environment, has been implicated as important contributors to positive youth development. A transactional approach to neighborhood asserts that place and people are mutually constitutive; negative perceptions of place are intrinsically bound with negative portrayals of stigmatized groups, including youth. Adult perceptions of neighborhood youth may contribute to an increased sense of alienation and youth antisocial behavior. This study uses street‐intercept interviews with adults (N = 408) to examine the relationship between neighborhood conditions and adult support for neighborhood youth. A path model was used to examine the direct and indirect relationship of neighborhood constructs (safety, aesthetic quality, and walkability) on adult support for neighborhood youth. Neighborhood aesthetic quality and the walking environment were directly associated with adult support for youth, whereas perceived safety was indirectly associated. Collective efficacy partially explained these relationships. Findings support theorized relationships between people and places; improvements to neighborhood physical environment may directly impact resident adults’ perceptions of neighborhood young people.     

The role of coping in the relationship between stressful life events and quality of life in persons with cancer

Objective: Stressful life events (SLEs) impact the quality of life (QOL) of cancer patients. This study investigated the mediation of the relationship between SLEs and QOL (Model 1: Emotional-EQOL and Model 2: Physical/Functional-PFQOL by three types of coping: Action/Planning, Support/Advise-Seeking, and Disengagement/Denial). Design and Main Measures: 662 persons with cancer completed a Stressful Life Events Checklist, the Brief COPE scale, the FACT Emotional, Physical, and Functional Scales, and the Physical Impact Scale of the Sickness Impact Profile. Results: SLEs were positively associated with Action/Planning (Model 1: B?=?0.195, 95% CI = [0.089, 0.304]; Model 2: B?=?0.192, 95% CI = [0.086, 0.289]) and Disengagement/Denial (Model 1: B?=?0.394, 95% CI = [0.281, 0.513]; Model 2: B = .392, 95% CI = [0.285, 0.508]) but not Support/Advice-Seeking; however, only Disengagement/Denial was related to Emotional-QOL (Model 1: B = ?0.659, 95% CI = [?0.848, ?0.498]) and Physical/Functional-QOL (Model 2: B = ?1.460, 95% CI = [?1.856, ?1.069]). Thus, only Disengagement/Denial mediated the relationship between SLEs and QOL. Conclusions: The results indicated that SLEs represent a class of events for which there may be only one dominant coping response, disengagement. SLEs may not be controllable or predictable and reduce capacity for active coping with serious illness. However, SLEs may be detected at any point in the cancer trajectory so that supportive services might be provided.     

Adult attachment and spousal reactions to military deployment separations and reunions

We explored adult attachment and spousal perceptions of intrapersonal and relationship functioning during military deployments. In Study 1, spouses of military members experiencing a separation were assessed, and in Study Two, spouses of military members experiencing a reunion were assessed. Study 3 entailed a large‐scale survey of relationship perceptions of spouses of military members. In Studies One and Two, attachment dimensions were related to perceptions of intrapersonal and relationship functioning during the separation and reunion, with associations moderated by days separated/reunited. In Study 3, attachment dimensions were related to relationship perceptions, with associations moderated by deployment stages. This research not only contributes to the knowledge of attachment processes in military contexts but also has the potential to inform policies and services supporting military families.     

Using automated controlled rearing to explore the origins of object permanence

What are the origins of object permanence? Despite widespread interest in this question, methodological barriers have prevented detailed analysis of how experience shapes the development of object permanence in newborn organisms. Here, we introduce an automated controlled‐rearing method for studying the emergence of object permanence in strictly controlled virtual environments. We used newborn chicks as an animal model and recorded their behavior continuously (24/7) from the onset of vision. Across four experiments, we found that object permanence can develop rapidly, within the first few days of life. This ability developed even when chicks were reared in impoverished visual environments containing no object occlusion events. Object permanence failed to develop, however, when chicks were reared in environments containing temporally non‐smooth objects (objects moving on discontinuous spatiotemporal paths). These results suggest that experience with temporally smooth objects facilitates the development of object permanence, confirming a key prediction of temporal learning models in computational neuroscience.     

Social justice competencies for counselling and psychotherapy: Perceptions of experienced practitioners and implications for contemporary practice

The purpose of the present study was to identify social justice competencies from the perspective of psychotherapists engaged in therapeutic practice. Twenty‐five therapists were asked, “What social justice competencies do psychotherapists need?” Responses were analysed using the concept mapping method. Nine participants grouped all unique interview responses into groups. Multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis were applied. The six competency areas identified included community activism, political influence on clinical work, critical consciousness, social responsibility, self‐awareness and personal style. The results were compared and contrasted with the literature. Considerable overlap was noted. The main differences concerned the need for collaboration as an advocacy tactic, as well as local knowledge about the pressing social issues affecting members of the community within which one practices.     

Using the Reverse Order Technique with Non‐Native Speakers or Through an Interpreter

We examined whether the reverse order technique can be implemented when people speak through an interpreter. A total of 40 Chinese, 40 Korean and 30 Hispanic participants were interviewed in English or in their own native language through an interpreter. Interviewees were asked to tell the truth or lie about a secret meeting they viewed. They were asked to recall what they saw in chronological order and then in reverse order. The reverse order technique revealed two cues to deceit (detail and commissions) when an interpreter was present, whereas no cues to deceit emerged when interviewees spoke in English. This suggests that the reverse order technique can be used with an interpreter but possibly not with non‐native speakers. Perhaps the combined task of speaking in a non‐native language and reporting in reverse order is mentally taxing for liars and truth tellers, thus making differences between them unlikely to emerge. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.