The structure of vocational interests in Filipino adolescents

The structure of vocational interests was investigated in Filipino high school students (N = 503), who rated their interest in 303 culture-relevant occupational titles and 93 major fields of study. Item-level principal components analyses identified general interest, prestige, and sex-type dimensions, rather than Prediger's (1982) People/Things and Data/Ideas dimensions. Additional factor analyses were conducted to derive scales that measure more specific interests, including Unskilled/Semiskilled Labor, Male-dominated, Engineering/Technology, Science, Medical, Arts, Commerce, Government/Law, and Education. The interest scales showed some resemblance or overlap with Holland's types, and gender differences on the scales conformed to expectations. However, the relationships among the scales and occupations were better accounted for by prestige and sex-type than by People/Things and Data/Ideas dimensions or by Holland's circular model. Developmental, cultural, educational, and economic factors that might account for Filipino students' focus on prestige and sex-type were discussed.     

Adult mice maintained on a high-fat diet exhibit object location memory deficits and reduced hippocampal SIRT1 gene expression

Mounting evidence has established that diet-induced obesity (DIO) is associated with deficits in hippocampus-dependent memory. The bulk of research studies dealing with this topic have utilized rats fed a high-fat diet as an experimental model. To date, there has been a paucity of research studies that have established whether the memory deficits exhibited in DIO rats can be recapitulated in mice. Moreover, the majority of experiments that have evaluated memory performance in rodent models of DIO have utilized memory tests that are essentially aversive in nature (i.e., Morris water maze). The current study sought to fill an empirical void by determining if mice maintained on a high-fat diet exhibit deficits in two non-aversive memory paradigms: novel object recognition (NOR) and object location memory (OLM). Here we report that mice fed a high-fat diet over 23 weeks exhibit intact NOR, albeit a marked impairment in hippocampus-dependent OLM. We also determined the existence of corresponding aberrations in gene expression within the hippocampus of DIO mice. DIO mice exhibited significant reductions in both SIRT1 and PP1 mRNA within the hippocampus. Our data suggest that mice maintained on a high-fat diet present with impaired hippocampus-dependent spatial memory and a corresponding alteration in the expression of genes that have been implicated in memory consolidation.     

Skilled deaf readers have an enhanced perceptual span in reading

Recent evidence suggests that, compared with hearing people, deaf people have enhanced visual attention to simple stimuli viewed in the parafovea and periphery. Although a large part of reading involves processing the fixated words in foveal vision, readers also utilize information in parafoveal vision to preprocess upcoming words and decide where to look next. In the study reported here, we investigated whether auditory deprivation affects low-level visual processing during reading by comparing the perceptual span of deaf signers who were skilled and less-skilled readers with the perceptual span of skilled hearing readers. Compared with hearing readers, the two groups of deaf readers had a larger perceptual span than would be expected given their reading ability. These results provide the first evidence that deaf readers' enhanced attentional allocation to the parafovea is used during complex cognitive tasks, such as reading.     

When half a face is as good as a whole: Effects of simple substantial occlusion on visual and audiovisual speech perception

The visible movement of a talker's face is an influential component of speech perception. However, the ability of this influence to function when large areas of the face (~50%) are covered by simple substantial occlusions, and so are not visible to the observer, has yet to be fully determined. In Experiment 1, both visual speech identification and the influence of visual speech on identifying congruent and incongruent auditory speech were investigated using displays of a whole (unoccluded) talking face and of the same face occluded vertically so that the entire left or right hemiface was covered. Both the identification of visual speech and its influence on auditory speech perception were identical across all three face displays. Experiment 2 replicated and extended these results, showing that visual and audiovisual speech perception also functioned well with other simple substantial occlusions (horizontal and diagonal). Indeed, displays in which entire upper facial areas were occluded produced performance levels equal to those obtained with unoccluded displays. Occluding entire lower facial areas elicited some impairments in performance, but visual speech perception and visual speech influences on auditory speech perception were still apparent. Finally, implications of these findings for understanding the processes supporting visual and audiovisual speech perception are discussed.     

The NEO Five-Factor Inventory: latent structure and relationships with dimensions of anxiety and depressive disorders in a large clinical sample

The present study evaluated the latent structure of the NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO FFI) and relations between the five-factor model (FFM) of personality and dimensions of DSM-IV anxiety and depressive disorders (panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder [GAD], obsessive-compulsive disorder, social phobia [SOC], major depressive disorder [MDD]) in a large sample of outpatients (N = 1,980). Exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) was used to show that a five-factor solution provided acceptable model fit, albeit with some poorly functioning items. Neuroticism demonstrated significant positive associations with all but one of the disorder constructs whereas Extraversion was inversely related to SOC and MDD. Conscientiousness was inversely related to MDD but demonstrated a positive relationship with GAD. Results are discussed in regard to potential revisions to the NEO FFI, the evaluation of other NEO instruments using ESEM, and clinical implications of structural paths between FFM domains and specific emotional disorders.     

Distinguishing general and specific personality disorder features and implications for substance dependence comorbidity

Clinical and population-based samples show high comorbidity between Substance Use Disorders (SUDs) and Axis II Personality Disorders (PDs). However, Axis II disorders are frequently comorbid with each other, and existing research has generally failed to distinguish the extent to which SUD/PD comorbidity is general or specific with respect to both specific types of PDs and specific types of SUDs. We sought to determine whether ostensibly specific comorbid substance dependence-Axis II diagnoses (e.g., alcohol use dependence and borderline personality disorder) are reflective of more pervasive or general personality pathology or whether the comorbidity is specific to individual PDs. Face-to-face interview data from Wave 1 and Wave 2 of the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions were analyzed. Participants included 34,653 adults living in households in the United States. We used hierarchical factor models to statistically partition general and specific personality disorder dimensions while simultaneously testing for specific PD-substance dependence relations. Results indicated that substance dependence-Axis II comorbidity is characterized by general (pervasive) pathology and by Cluster B PD pathology over and above the relationship to the general PD factor. Further, these relations between PD factors and substance dependence diagnoses appeared to largely account for the comorbidity among substance dependence diagnoses in the younger but not older participants. Our findings suggest that a failure to consider the general PD factor, which we interpret as reflecting interpersonal dysfunction, can lead to potential mischaracterizations of the nature of certain PD and SUD comorbidities.