“I'm Having a Little Struggle With This,Can You Help Me Out?”: Examining Impacts and Processes of a Social Capital Intervention for First‐Generation College Students

Social capital plays a key role in college and career success, and research indicates that a dearth of on‐campus connections contributes to challenges first‐generation college students face in effectively navigating the college environment. This study investigates a novel intervention that focuses on the development of skills and attitudes to empower first‐generation college students to cultivate social capital and on‐campus connections during the transition to college. A mixed methods, explanatory design was used to evaluate impacts and processes of the intervention among first‐generation college students (n = 164) in the context of an ethnically diverse, urban, public university in the Northeast. Results indicated that students who participated in the intervention demonstrated improved attitudes and behaviors around seeking support in college, closer relationships with instructors, and higher GPAs at the end of their first year in college. These results suggest the potential benefits of a relatively scalable approach to supporting the needs of first‐generation college students.     

Alpha2A-adrenoceptor stimulation improves prefrontal cortical regulation of behavior through inhibition of cAMP signaling in aging animals

The working-memory functions of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) are improved by stimulation of postsynaptic, alpha2A-adrenoceptors, especially in aged animals with PFC cognitive deficits. Thus, the alpha2A-adrenoceptor agonist, guanfacine, greatly improves working-memory performance in monkeys and rats following systemic administration or intra-PFC infusion. Alpha2A-adrenoceptors are generally coupled to Gi, which can inhibit adenylyl cyclases and reduce the production of cAMP. However, no study has directly examined whether the working-memory enhancement observed with guanfacine or other alpha2A-adrenoceptor agonists results from cAMP inhibition. The current study confirmed this hypothesis in both rats and monkeys, showing that treatments that increase cAMP-mediated signaling block guanfacine's beneficial effects. In aged rats, guanfacine was infused directly into the prelimbic PFC and was challenged with co-infusions of the cAMP analog, Sp-cAMPS. In aging monkeys, systemically administered guanfacine was challenged with the phosphodiesterase 4 inhibitor, rolipram, using intramuscular doses known to have no effect on their own. In both studies, agents that mimicked the actions of cAMP (rats) or increased endogenous cAMP (monkeys) completely blocked the enhancing effects of guanfacine on working-memory performance. These results are consistent with alpha2A-adrenoceptor stimulation enhancing PFC working-memory function via inhibition of cAMP-mediated signaling.     

Perceived family environments of depressed and anxious children: Child's and maternal figure's perspectives

This study examined perceived environment among families with a depressed, depressed and anxious, anxious, or normal child from the 4th to 7th grades. Fifty-one such children were classified according to criteria from the K- SADS and a set of self-ratings of depression and anxiety. Results showed that children in all three diagnostic groups, and to a lesser extent their mothers, experienced their families as more distressed on a host of dimensions relative to controls. In addition, significant differences were found between families with a depressed and anxious child and those with an anxious child. Discriminant function analyses revealed that 68.63 % of the youngsters could be classified correctly into depressed and anxious groups on the basis of their family ratings alone.     

Cognitive processing in specifically language-impaired children

Eighteen language-impaired children and 25 non-language-impaired children were evaluated to investigate the relationship between language ability and selected aspects of the five-component problem-solving process defined by Kagan and Kogan (1970). Non-impaired children performed better than language-impaired children on nearly all components of the problem-solving process. Language-impaired children had particular difficulties in the areas of coding and hypothesis generation. In fact, coding ability was inversely related to the number of errors made in hypothesis evaluation. Coding ability was also positively correlated with language ability. The exact causal relationship between coding ability, language ability, and error-making in hypothesis evaluation is unclear; however, improving coding skills through training may increase automaticity and lead to improved performance in the higher levels of the problem-solving process.     

Sensitization and aversive conditioning: Effects on the startle reflex and electrodermal responding

Animal data suggest that shock sensitization as well as aversive learning potentiates the acoustic startle reflex. The present experiment tested, whether this shock sensitization also occurs in human subjects and whether it precedes aversive conditioning. Sixty subjects viewed—prior to conditioning—a series of slides of different emotional contents including the to be conditioned stimuli (CSs). Afterwards, the experimenter attached the shock electrodes and initiated shock exposure. Then, subjects were randomly assigned to view a series of two slides, each for eight acquisition trials in which one slide was followed by a shock. Subsequently, extinction trials (12 for each slide) were administered. During preconditioning, acquisition, and extinction, startle probes occurred unpredictably during and between slide viewing. Preconditioning data replicated previous results by Lang and his associates, showing that the startle response magnitude is directly related to the affective valence induced by the slides. Shock exposure strongly facilitated the startle reflex magnitude. This shock sensitization was absent for the skin conductance response. Course of learning also varied for both response systems. The data suggest that startle reflex potentiation indexes the acquisition of an avoidance disposition, which is preceded by a general sensitization of the protective reflexes. Skin conductance learning follows arousal changes and is modulated by cognitive processes.     

Identification of language-impaired children on the basis of rapid perception and production skills

Discriminant function analysis was used to determine whether performance on temporal perception and production tasks alone could correctly classify children as language-impaired or normal. The analysis identified six variables, all of which assessed temporal perceptual and production abilities, which taken in combination correctly classified 98% of participating subjects. None of these variables assess the higher-level linguistic abilities (semantic, syntactic, pragmatic) that have classically been considered to be deficient in language-impaired children, or have been used to diagnose them clinically.     

Can the Discretionary Nature of Certain Criteria Lead to Differential Prediction Across Cultural Groups?

We examined the conjecture that relations between constructs across cultures may be susceptible to cultural moderation where the performance of the criterion construct is discretionary. This hypothesis was investigated using the relationship between personality and three performance constructs, with samples from the United States and New Zealand, two ideologically distinct cultures with respect to achievement orientation. All hypotheses were supported by results of hierarchical moderated regression analyses using bias free measures, suggesting that considering whether construct behaviors are discretionary is important when considering the merit of generalizing research findings across cultures.     

Constructing personality scales under the assumptions of an ideal point response process: toward increasing the flexibility of personality measures

The main aim of this article is to explicate why a transition to ideal point methods of scale construction is needed to advance the field of personality assessment. The study empirically demonstrated the substantive benefits of ideal point methodology as compared with the dominance framework underlying traditional methods of scale construction. Specifically, using a large, heterogeneous pool of order items, the authors constructed scales using traditional classical test theory, dominance item response theory (IRT), and ideal point IRT methods. The merits of each method were examined in terms of item pool utilization, model-data fit, measurement precision, and construct and criterion-related validity. Results show that adoption of the ideal point approach provided a more flexible platform for creating future personality measures, and this transition did not adversely affect the validity of personality test scores.     

Behavioral and neuroanatomical investigation of Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory (HSAM)

A single case study recently documented one woman's ability to recall accurately vast amounts of autobiographical information, spanning most of her lifetime, without the use of practiced mnemonics (Parker, Cahill, & McGaugh, 2006). The current study reports findings based on eleven participants expressing this same memory ability, now referred to as Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory (HSAM). Participants were identified and subsequently characterized based on screening for memory of public events. They were then tested for personal autobiographical memories as well as for memory assessed by laboratory memory tests. Additionally, whole-brain structural MRI scans were obtained. Results indicated that HSAM participants performed significantly better at recalling public as well as personal autobiographical events as well as the days and dates on which these events occurred. However, their performance was comparable to age- and sex-matched controls on most standard laboratory memory tests. Neuroanatomical results identified nine structures as being morphologically different from those of control participants. The study of HSAM may provide new insights into the neurobiology of autobiographical memory.