Using hippocampal‐dependent eyeblink conditioning to predict individual differences in spatial reorientation strategies in 3‐ to 6‐year‐olds

The hippocampus is a subcortical structure in the medial temporal lobe involved in cognitive functions such as spatial navigation and reorientation, episodic memory, and associative learning. While much is understood about the role of hippocampal function in learning and memory in adults, less is known about the relations between the hippocampus and the development of these cognitive skills in young children due to the limitations of using standard methods (e.g., MRI) to examine brain structure and function in developing populations. This study used hippocampal‐dependent trace eyeblink conditioning (EBC) as a feasible approach to examine individual differences in hippocampal functioning as they relate to spatial reorientation and episodic memory performance in young children. Three‐ to six‐year‐old children (N = 50) completed tasks that measured EBC, spatial reorientation, and episodic memory, as well as non‐hippocampal‐dependent processing speed abilities. Results revealed that when age was held constant, individual differences in EBC performance were significantly related to individual differences in performance on the spatial reorientation test, but not on the episodic memory or processing speed tests. When the relations between hippocampal‐dependent EBC and different reorientation strategies were explored, it was found that individual differences in hippocampal function predicted the use of geometric information for reorienting in space as opposed to a combined strategy that uses both geometric information and salient visual cues. The utilization of eyeblink conditioning to examine hippocampal function in young populations and its implications for understanding the dissociation between spatial reorientation and episodic memory development are discussed.     

Priors and payoffs in confidence judgments

Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics - Priors and payoffs are known to affect perceptual decision-making, but little is understood about how they influence confidence judgments. For optimal...     

An Exploration of Mothers' Successful Completion of Family-Centered Residential Substance Use Treatment

Behavioral health and substance use centers have started focusing efforts on creating, adopting, and implementing evidence-based practices and programs that effectively address the needs of women and, particularly, mothers entering treatment with children. However, women with substance use disorders (SUDs) remain an underserved and understudied population; even less studied are the complexities and unique SUD treatment needs of women who have children. Family therapists' systemic training is a valued approach in conceptualizing and implementing treatment for mothers with SUDs and their families. This study explored the construct of mothering children during family-centered substance use treatment using a transcendental phenomenological approach. Analysis revealed themes related to motherhood, parenting, and support for mothers and children. Two themes emerged from the data: (a) grappling with motherhood and addiction leading to the decision for treatment and (b) specific aspects of the treatment program conducive to motherhood. Results indicated the positive impact of mothers' experiences in family-centered substance use treatment, aligning with previous literature that suggests mothers are more engaged in treatment when their children remain in their care. The insights gleaned from the participants in this study provide suggestions for further improving programming that supports mothers and their children during the recovery process. Treatment considerations are offered for family therapists working with mothers with SUDs and their families.     

Resilience Factors and Suicide Risk for a Sample of Transgender Clients

This study explored how individual- and community-based resilience factors operated together in order to reduce risk of suicide for a sample of transgender therapy clients. We collected cross-sectional survey data from 106 transgender therapy clients at a local community center, including demographic information, experiences of relational support, participants' emotional stability, and risk for suicide. Results from our mediation analysis indicated that high levels of perceived relational support are related to reduced risk for suicide and that this happens by way of a person's emotional stability. Clinical implications for family therapists are discussed based on the significant indirect effect found in this study.     

A comparison of sources of baseline data for treatments of problem behavior following a functional analysis

It is common practice in research on the treatment of problem behavior to compare levels of targeted behaviors during treatment to levels when treatment is not in place. Some researchers use data collected as part of a multielement functional analysis as the initial baseline, whereas others collect new baseline data following completion of the functional analysis. We evaluated whether the source of baseline data influences the reliability and efficiency of decision-making. Results suggest that similar decisions are made in regard to treatment efficacy using the different sources of baseline data, but using data from a multielement functional analysis as baseline may save time. Interrater agreement was adequate, but lower for some graphs than has been observed in past studies. Several potential explanations for this discrepancy are discussed.     

A multiple species approach to sequential learning: Are you a man or a mouse?

We have developed a method for studying list learning in animals and humans, and we use variants of the task to examine list learning in rats, mice, and humans. This method holds several advantages over other methods. It has been found to be easily learned without lengthy pretraining. The data gathered with this procedure provide a measure of correct response rates, of incorrect responses and the locations of these responses, and of response latency on a trial-by-trialbasis. We have examined mouse, rat, and human list acquisition of patterns ranging from 12 to 48 items in length. This procedure has also been used to examine many aspects of list learning, such as the effects of the placement of phrasing cues that are either consistent or inconsistent with the structure of the list in rats and mice, the effects of phrasing cues of differing modalities in mice, the sensitivity of subjects to violations of list structure in rats, subjects’ abilities to “chunk” from nonadjacent serial positions in structured lists in rats, and subjects’ sensitivity to serial patterns with multiple levels of hierarchical organization. The procedure has also been used to examine the effects of drugs on sequential learning.     

Living the vision: health care, social justice and institutional identity.

This paper will examine the topic of identity in Roman Catholicism from the perspective of topics contained in or absent from mission statements of 25 Catholic health care institutions. In particular, I will look at these from the perspective of social justice as well as how this and other topics such as human dignity, sanctity of life, stewardship, pastoral care and the likelihood of mergers with other institutions will affect the healing ministry of Catholic health care providers. The article will conclude that there are three key dimensions to Catholic health care: leadership in advocating reform of the current health care system, care for the marginalized and under-insured, and the provision of pastoral care in all institutions.     

Use of a raster framebuffer in vision research

For the study of human and animal vision, the video framebuffer is the only technology that is capable of displaying two-dimensional images with precise control of contrast, luminance, and display timing. The video framebuffer also allows precise control of color. However, this device is not designed for precise psychophysical displays, and techniques must be developed to use them in this role. In this paper, we describe a number of basic methods used in our lab. In order to be concrete, we use an Adage RDS-3000 raster display system (Adage, 1982) as an example, since that is the device we have actually used. The Adage is hosted by a PDP-11/73 under the Venix operating system. The principles generalize to other machines. Where it clarifies the issues, we have shown the syntax of the software routines involved.     

Professional service involvement of leadership faculty: An assessment of gender,role, and satisfaction

This study explored gender differences among educational administration faculty and their participation in and satisfaction with professional association activities. The study population would be characterized as overwhelmingly male and white, but with women and minority candidates beginning to enter the faculty ranks. Women faculty reported involvement in more professional service activities and a slightly higher satisfaction with their involvement than their male colleagues. However, women participated in different types of and more professional association activities than men.     

The role of reference in children's acquisition of a miniature artificial language

Nursery school children were presented with a simple miniature artificial language in one of three conditions. In the first, the stimuli to which the words referred contained an inherent lawful relationship and the language syntax reflected this relationship. In the second, the stimuli contained an inherent lawful relationship but the language syntax did not reflect this relationship. In the third, no lawful relationship existed among the stimuli to which the words referred so the language syntax imposed an arbitrary relationship among stimuli. Subjects in the first group were able to produce more correct utterances than those in the other two groups when the stimuli to which the words referred were not present, suggesting that some form of semantic mediation mechanism was being used. Evidence from novel constructions indicates that for both groups using stimuli containing an inherent lawful relation there were interactions between semantic learning mechanisms and syntax learning mechanisms.