Reverse production effect: children recognize novel words better when they are heard rather than produced

This research investigates the effect of production on 4.5‐ to 6‐year‐old children's recognition of newly learned words. In Experiment 1, children were taught four novel words in a produced or heard training condition during a brief training phase. In Experiment 2, children were taught eight novel words, and this time training condition was in a blocked design. Immediately after training, children were tested on their recognition of the trained novel words using a preferential looking paradigm. In both experiments, children recognized novel words that were produced and heard during training, but demonstrated better recognition for items that were heard. These findings are opposite to previous results reported in the literature with adults and children. Our results show that benefits of speech production for word learning are dependent on factors such as task complexity and the developmental stage of the learner.     

Bridging the Divide Between Psychodynamic and Behavioral Approaches for Children with Oppositional Defiant Disorder

ABSTRACT

Oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) is one of the primary reasons youth are referred to mental health services. Disruptive behavior disorders such as ODD are heterogeneous in their presentation, developmental trajectories, and treatment needs. Given the high attrition rates in child psychotherapy in general, there is a need for a range of interventions tailored to meet the unique needs of each family to help increase familial engagement and positive outcomes for children with ODD.

This article outlines composite clinical case material of a child with ODD who was treated with Regulation Focused Psychotherapy for Children (RFP-C), a manualized, psychodynamic intervention for ODD. The case presented is then reconceptualized from a behavioral parent training perspective. This approach uses parent training to encourage positive parenting practices and reduce coercive reinforcement cycles. The case material and its reconceptualization are followed by a discussion of the distinctions between psychodynamic and behavioral approaches to children with ODD. An integrated psychotherapy approach is proposed, and the benefits and challenges of psychotherapy integration are discussed.     

Behavioral intervention to reduce physical restraint of adolescents with developmental disabilities

Physical restraint procedures sometimes are approved for implementation in human service settings for children and adults who have developmental disabilities and seriously challenging behaviors. Although use of restraint may be clinically justified to manage behavior disorders and prevent injury to self and others, procedures should be evaluated to decrease, and possibly eliminate, such methods. This study addressed the effects of restraint‐reduction procedures with two adolescents who had developmental disabilities and displayed severe aggression. Clinically significant reductions in the frequency of physical restraint were achieved through a treatment package that included the behavior‐specific criterion for the application of restraint and antecedent control approaches. The implementation of strategic interventions to decrease physical restraint utilization is discussed. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Child‐Witness and Defendant Credibility: Child Evidence Presentation Mode and Judicial Instructions1

Child‐witness presentation mode, judicial instructions, and deliberation stage effects on juror ratings of child witness and defendant were investigated Perceptions of the impact of presentation mode on witnesses, juror task, and justice also were explored. Participants (N= 108) viewed a simulated child sexual abuse trial videotape. Overall child‐witness credibility was significantly more positive with videodeposition or court‐given child evidence than with videolink. The defendant was seen as more definitely guilty when child testimony was court given than by videodeposition or videolink. Presentation mode also significantly influenced perceived impact on child witness, defendant case, and juror task. Judicial instructions interacted with presentation mode to affect perceptions of impact on child witness and juror task. Findings are discussed in relation to previous research, and implications for future research and practice are outlined.     

Collaborative Research, Knowledge and Emergence

We use the notion of emergence to consider the sorts of knowledge that can be produced in a collaborative research project. The notion invites us to see collaborative work as a developmental dynamic system in which various changes constantly occur. Among these we examine two sorts of knowledge that can be produced: scientific knowledge, and collaborative knowledge. We argue that collaborative knowledge can enable researchers to reflectively monitor their collaborative project, so as to encourage its most productive changes. On the basis of examples taken from this special issue, we highlight four modes of producing collaborative knowledge and discuss the possible uses of such knowledge.

The role of moral commitments in moral judgment

Traditional approaches to moral psychology assumed that moral judgments resulted from the application of explicit commitments, such as those embodied in consequentialist or deontological philosophies. In contrast, recent work suggests that moral judgments often result from unconscious or emotional processes, with explicit commitments generated post hoc. This paper explores the intermediate position that moral commitments mediate moral judgments, but not through their explicit and consistent application in the course of judgment. An experiment with 336 participants finds that individuals vary in the extent to which their moral commitments are consequentialist or deontological, and that this variation is systematically but imperfectly related to the moral judgments elicited by trolley car problems. Consequentialist participants find action in trolley car scenarios more permissible than do deontologists, and only consequentialists moderate their judgments when scenarios that typically elicit different intuitions are presented side by side. The findings emphasize the need for a theory of moral reasoning that can accommodate both the associations and dissociations between moral commitments and moral judgments.     

Community Implementation Successes and Challenges of a Cognitive-Behavior Therapy Group for Individuals with a First Episode of Psychosis

CBT for psychosis has recently been called a best practice, suggesting that studies have demonstrated its efficacy with many populations. Community settings are encouraged to implement best practices such as CBT yet many factors can make the implementation of CBT challenging. Issues such as clinician resistance, setting, as well as client variables (refusal, denial of symptoms, etc.) come into play. Examples of successes and challenges of a community based study of CBT groups for first episodes will be described. The strategies used to overcome these challenges and the successes of the program will be presented.