Emotional and behavioral problems in children of depressed mothers: a school-based study in Southern Brazil

The present study aimed to verify the association between maternal depression and emotional and behavioral problems in school children in Pelotas, Southern Brazil, considering that maternal depression increases children’s vulnerability for developing psychiatric disorders. This is a cross-sectional study with a school-based sample conducted between August 2015 and November 2016 and it is part of a major project entitled ‘Healthy Childhood in Context: A Multidisciplinary Investigation’. Schoolchildren aged between 7 and 8 years and one of their respective parents or a primary caregiver were included in the study. Maternal depression was assessed using the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI). The presence of emotional and behavioral problems in children was verified by the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) – parents version. Children of depressed mothers exhibited higher mean scores in all SDQ domains and in the total score when compared to children of non-depressed mothers. Lower socio-economic status was also associated with higher SDQ scores. Our results showed the effects of both maternal depression and poverty on children emotional and behavioral problems, which evidence the need for child mental health preventive care, and free quality assistance for both mothers and their children.     

Analogous selection processes in declarative and procedural working memory: N-2 list-repetition and task-repetition costs

Working memory (WM) holds and manipulates representations for ongoing cognition. Oberauer (Psychology of Learning and Motivation, 51, 45–100, 2009) distinguishes between two analogous WM sub-systems: a declarative WM which handles the objects of thought, and a procedural WM which handles the representations of (cognitive) actions. Here, we assessed whether analogous effects are observed when participants switch between memory sets (declarative representations) and when they switch between task sets (procedural representations). One mechanism assumed to facilitate switching in procedural WM is the inhibition of previously used, but currently irrelevant task sets, as indexed by n-2 task-repetition costs (Mayr & Keele, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 129(1), 4–26, 2000). In this study we tested for an analogous effect in declarative WM. We assessed the evidence for n-2 list-repetition costs across eight experiments in which participants switched between memory lists to perform speeded classifications, mental arithmetic, or a local recognition test. N-2 list-repetition costs were obtained consistently in conditions assumed to increase interference between memory lists, and when lists formed chunks in long-term memory. Further analyses across experiments revealed a substantial contribution of episodic memory to n-2 list-repetition costs, thereby questioning the interpretation of n-2 repetition costs as reflecting inhibition. We reanalyzed the data of eight task-switching experiments, and observed that episodic memory also contributes to n-2 task-repetition costs. Taken together, these results show analogous processing principles in declarative and procedural WM, and question the relevance of inhibitory processes for efficient switching between mental sets.     

Discriminant analysis in career studying "decision/indecision": the Career Factors Inventory (CFI) as a diagnostic measure

Literature has shown that, nowadays, a multidimensional approach to decision-making has become prioritized. The Careers Factor Inventory (CFI) is, in fact, a multidimensional measurement instrument for evaluating career indecision, which may be useful in the diagnosis of adaptation behaviors in terms of career decision versus indecision. This study emerges as a follow-up to a previous study which used the CFI on a sample of university students in which this measurement instrument was found to be capable of distinguishing Low decided vs. Highly decided groups and to evaluate the discriminatory capacity of the CFI scales. It is the aim, here, to further analyse the results obtained in such study with a view to grounding the importance of the use of this Inventory as an instrument for distinguishing people who present different decision levels in relation to their careers. In this study, 494 university students from a number of higher education establishments and courses are part of the afore mentioned Low decided and Highly decided groups. The collected data were analysed by means of Discrete Discriminant Analysis models and corroborate the discriminant power of the Inventory and its use as a diagnostic instrument in the psychological intervention of career counseling and development.     

Systemic administration of a nitric oxide synthase inhibitor impairs fear sensitization in the plus-maze

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the occurrence of fear sensitization in rats previously treated with an inhibitor of the NO syntheses and submitted to Trial1/Trial2 plus-maze (PM) procedure. Male Wistar rats received a systemic treatment with N(omega)-nitro-L-Arginine-methyl ester (L-NAME; 5, 10 or 50 mg kg(-1)) and were submitted to PM Trial1. In the following day the animals were re-exposed to the PM with no drug administration (Trial2). Some standards spatial-temporal measures, such as the percentage of entries (% Open arm entries) and time spent (% Open arm time) in the open arms and risk assessment frequency were recorded and used to estimate the animal level of fear sensitization in PM Trial2. The results showed that animals receiving L-NAME (50 mg kg(-1)) displayed increased % Open arm entries and % Open arm time in Trial2 in relation to the group receiving 0.9% saline, which is compatible with impaired fear/anxiety acquisition during Trial1/Trial2 PM procedure. In addition, rats treated with L-NAME (50 mg kg(-1)) exhibited low level of risk assessment in Trial2 in relation to the group treated with 0.9% saline, which indicates low level of fear/anxiety during PM re-exposure. The number of entries into the enclosed arms was not changed by any L-NAME treatment, which suggests no bias of the drug treatments on animal locomotor activity. The data suggest that NO synthesis may mediate the fear sensitization process in the PM.     

When two heads are not better than one: Partner neglect in paired memory tasks

People can monitor the accuracy of their own memories and regulate their responses accordingly. But can they monitor and make use of another person’s memory? We document a new phenomenon whereby participants neglect a partner’s expertise when deciding whether to defer to that partner’s memory or to rely on their own. In two experiments, participants studied images for more time than, less time than, or the same amount of time as a partner, and on subsequent recognition tests they were directed to maximize team performance by either answering themselves or letting their partner respond. In both experiments, individuals failed to use the knowledge that the partner would probably have a better memory for certain items. Only when explicitly instructed to estimate their accuracy relative to their partner’s did participants take advantage of the partner’s greater expertise. Psychonomic Society, Inc.     

Reinforcement learning, conditioning, and the brain: Successes and challenges

The field of reinforcement learning has greatly influenced the neuroscientific study of conditioning. This article provides an introduction to reinforcement learning followed by an examination of the successes and challenges using reinforcement learning to understand the neural bases of conditioning. Successes reviewed include (1) the mapping of positive and negative prediction errors to the firing of dopamine neurons and neurons in the lateral habenula, respectively; (2) the mapping of model-based and model-free reinforcement learning to associative and sensorimotor cortico-basal ganglia-thalamo-cortical circuits, respectively; and (3) the mapping of actor and critic to the dorsal and ventral striatum, respectively. Challenges reviewed consist of several behavioral and neural findings that are at odds with standard reinforcement-learning models, including, among others, evidence for hyperbolic discounting and adaptive coding. The article suggests ways of reconciling reinforcement-learning models with many of the challenging findings, and highlights the need for further theoretical developments where necessary. Additional information related to this study may be downloaded from http://cabn.psychonomic-journals.org/content/supplemental.     

Age-Related Hearing Loss: Implications for Counseling

As the U.S. population ages, counseling practitioners are working with increasing numbers of hearing-impaired older adults. Age-related hearing loss affects various dimensions of the counseling process, in which communication is of primary importance. More generally, hearing loss has consequences for the overall lifestyle of the client and for effective functioning in the workplace and in social and family contexts. This article examines adaptation strategies used by hearing-impaired listeners and the implications of age-related hearing loss for counseling, intervention, and self-management.