Age Inequalities in Recognition Memory: Effects of Stimulus Presentation Time and List Repetitions

It has been suggested that age-related slowing in the execution of mental operations in time-limited visual information processing tasks can affect subsequent memory performance. To investigate this proposal, recognition memory for Chinese symbols displayed in rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) was assessed in 30 young adults and 33 older adults. The effects of presentation times (500, 1000, 2000, 2500, 3000, and 6000 ms) on target recognition were examined across six study-test trials for each participant. Recognition accuracy was higher for young adults than for older adults, especially at the shorter stimulus durations. Analysis of the time-accuracy functions describing the stimulus durations and amount of repetitions required to equate the performance of younger and older adults indicated that a limited-time mechanism provided an incomplete account for age-related differences in memory for rapidly presented information.     

Therapist Behavior During Exposure Tasks Predicts Habituation and Clinical Outcome in Three Randomized Controlled Trials for Pediatric OCD

This study measured therapist behaviors in relation to subsequent habituation within exposure tasks, and also tested their direct and indirect relationships (via habituation) with clinical outcomes of exposure therapy. We observed 459 videotaped exposure tasks with 111 participants in three clinical trials for pediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder (POTS trials). Within exposure tasks, therapist behaviors and patient fear were coded continuously. Outcomes were habituation and posttreatment change in symptom severity, global improvement, and treatment response. More therapist behaviors that encourage approach—and less use of accommodation, unrelated talk, and externalizing language—predicted greater subsequent habituation during individual exposure tasks (exposure-level), and also predicted improved patient clinical outcomes via higher “total dose” of habituation across treatment (patient-level indirect effect). For six of seven therapist behaviors analyzed, the relationship with subsequent habituation within exposure differed by patient fear (low, moderate, or high) at the time the behavior was used. Two therapist behaviors had direct effects in the opposite direction expected; more unrelated talk and less intensifying were associated with greater patient symptom reduction. Results shed light on the “black box” of in-session exposure activities and point to specific therapist behaviors that may be important for clinical outcomes. These behaviors might be best understood in the context of changing patient fear during exposure tasks. Future studies should test whether therapist behaviors can be experimentally manipulated to produce improvement in clinical outcomes.