Attention and Communication Following TBI: Making the Connection through a Meta-Narrative Systematic Review

Neuropsychology Review - Background and aim: Communication difficulties are one of the hallmark characteristics of adults following traumatic brain injury (TBI), a difficulty that incorporates...     

Female Paralympic Athlete Views of Effective and Ineffective Coaching Practices

People with physical disabilities are at a higher risk of developing secondary physical and mental health conditions, such as fatigue, obesity, and depression. The purpose of this study was to explore female Paralympic athlete views of effective and ineffective coaching practices. Individual semistructured interviews were conducted with 8 athletes who achieved an average of 8 combined Paralympic and Parapan American medals. A hierarchical content analysis revealed the athletes’ perceptions and experiences of both effective and ineffective coaching strategies and behaviors, including how these experiences affected them on a personal and professional level. All athletes achieved tremendous athletic accomplishments and recognized the importance and value of their coaches in helping them reach such high standards of success. In addition, the participants spoke about male coaches inappropriately addressing their disability and gender and how it negatively influenced their psychological well-being. These results are particularly troublesome when you consider that females with a disability are more susceptible to experiencing discrimination, exclusion, or harassment and more likely to experience body image issues compared to their male counterparts. This research adds to the small body of coaching knowledge in parasport and is one of the first studies to include an all-female sample of Paralympic athletes. In addition, it offers a number of practical implications for coaches, athletes, and the Paralympic community.

Lay Summary: This study adds to the small body of coaching knowledge in parasport by interviewing female Paralympic athletes. Athletes talked about coaches who enhanced their athletic performance and personal development, whereas others spoke about male coaches inappropriately addressing their disability and gender and how it negatively influenced their psychological well-being.     

Dropout policies and trends for students with and without disabilities

Students with and without disabilities are dropping out of school at an alarming rate. However, the precise extent of the problem remains elusive because individual schools, school districts, and state departments of education often use different definitional criteria and calculation methods. In addition, specific reasons why students drop out continues to be speculative and minimal research exists validating current dropout prevention programs for students with and without disabilities. This study examined methods secondary school principals used to calculate dropout rates, reasons they believed students dropped out of school, and what prevention programs were being used for students with and without disabilities. Results indicated that school districts used calculation methods that minimized dropout rates, students with and without disabilities dropped out for similar reasons, and few empirically validated prevention programs were being implemented. Implications for practice and directions for future research are discussed.     

Locus of control predicts appraisals and cardiovascular reactivity to a novel active coping task

These two studies investigated the influence of dispositional locus of control (LOC) on subjective and physiological responses to a novel laboratory stressor task. Across two studies, 64 healthy undergraduate students, ages 18-22, completed Levenson's (LOC) scales for internal, powerful others, and chance prior to performing a video-game task. Participants rated pretask and posttask stressfulness and coping ability (i.e., measures of primary and secondary appraisal). Cardiovascular measures (heart period, HP; preejection period, PEP; respiratory sinus arrhythmia, RSA; cardiac output, CO; systolic blood pressure, SBP; diastolic blood pressure, DBP & total peripheral resistance, TPR) were recorded during 4-minute baseline and 4-minute stressor task periods. The internal LOC factor predicted pretask reports of coping ability as well as posttask reports of stressfulness. In contrast, the powerful-others LOC factor predicted cardiac changes (HP, PEP, and RSA) during the task but not cardiac output or any other vascular change measure. These results underscore the importance of using the three subscales of the Levenson LOC to assess relationships between dispositional LOC and the response to stressors because self-reported appraisals of a task are predicted by a different component of dispositional LOC than are task-related cardiovascular functions.     

The spacing effect,free recall,and two-process theory: a closer look

Two experiments used procedures similar to those used by R. L. Greene (1989) to test the 2-process theory of the spacing effect and, in particular, the contextual-variability subtheory that applies to free-recall performance. Experiment 1 obtained a spacing effect in free recall following intentional learning but not following incidental learning, contrary to a previous result supporting the 2-process theory. Experiment 2 replicated the incidental-learning results when a slow presentation rate was used. However, with a faster presentation rate, a spacing effect was obtained, and performance exceeded that of the slow-presentation-rate condition at the longest lag. Neither the contextual-variability subtheory of 2-process theory nor an alternative deficient-processing hypothesis was able to account for all of the data.     

Critical issues in the prevention of violence-related behavior in youth

Violence prevention programs with varying degrees of scientific support have proliferated in the United States and elsewhere. This paper previewed a broad range of programs involving youth, families, or systems that aimed to prevent or reduce violence-related behavior. The purpose of the review was to address critical issues concerning (1) target level of programming, (2) theory-driven versus problem-driven conceptualization, (3) cultural considerations, (4) developmental considerations, (5) intervention fidelity, and (6) outcome and impact assessment. Conclusions about these issues address tendencies and trends across programs.     

Children's understanding of the Ulysses conflict

Two studies explored children's understanding of how the presence of conflicting mental states in a single mind can lead people to act so as to subvert their own desires. Study 1 analyzed explanations by children (4--7 years) and adults of behaviors arising from this sort of 'Ulysses conflict' and compared them with their understanding of conflicting desires in different minds, as well as with changes of mind within an individual across time. The data revealed that only the adults were able to adequately explain the Ulysses conflict. Study 2 asked children (4--7 years) and adults to choose among three explicitly presented competing explanations for self-subverting behaviors. The results suggest that an understanding of the influence of conflicting mental states on behaviors does not occur until at least 7 years of age.     

Index to Volume 29

Other Index

Index to Volume 29     

Neuropsychological impairments in the syndromes of schizophrenia: a comparison between different dimensional models

This study investigates the associations between the different symptom dimensions of schizophrenia and neuropsychological performances. Globally, the results replicate previously described associations. The "negative" dimension correlates with impaired sustained attention and working memory, thus suggestive of dorsolateral frontal cortex dysfunction. "Disorganization" correlates with the ability to inhibit proactive interference. thus with ventromedial frontal dysfunction. The results also add support to the view that the "psychotic" dimension described in three-dimension models includes in fact two distinct dimensions, (1) "hallucinations," here associated to episodic memory measures, and (2) "delusions", here associated to visuospatial attention, thus suggestive of mediotemporal and posterior neocortical dysfunction, respectively.     

Relationship Quality of Aggressive Children and Their Siblings: A Multiinformant, Multimeasure Investigation

Sibling influence on the learning and enactment of aggressive behavior has been consistently demonstrated in studies of sibling relationships. Available evidence suggests that, compared with nonaggressive children's sibling interactions, the sibling interactions of aggressive children are marked by more frequent, intense, and prolonged aggressive behaviors. Although research on normative and aggressive children's sibling interactions has increased recently, a number of limitations in this literature were addressed in this study by: (1) including both an aggressive and nonaggressive comparison group, (2) examining both positive and negative features of sibling relationships, (3) employing a multimethod/multiinformant approach to data collection, and (4) utilizing an improved self-report method. In support of our hypotheses and consistent with previous research, results showed that aggressive children's sibling relationships were marked by higher levels of observed conflict and lower levels of self-reported positive features. When gender was examined, results showed that older brother/younger sister dyads were characterized by higher levels of negative features and lower levels of positive features.