Social and Academic Impairment in Youth with ADHD, Predominately Inattentive Type and Sluggish Cognitive Tempo

Sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT) was originally identified as a construct that characterized the inattention problems of some children with attention deficit disorder (ADD). Research has indicated that using SCT symptoms to identify a subset of youth with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, predominately inattentive type (ADHD-IT) may elucidate distinct patterns of impairment and thereby improve the external validity of ADHD subtypes. The objective of the current study was to investigate whether youth with clinically-assessed ADHD-IT and high levels of SCT exhibit unique social and academic impairments. In a clinic-referred sample of youth (N?=?209; 23 % female) aged 6 to 17 years, participants who met criteria for three different groups were identified: ADHD, Combined Type (ADHD-CT; n?=?80), ADHD-IT with low SCT symptoms (n?=?74), and ADHD-IT with high SCT symptoms (n?=?55). These groups were compared on indicators of social and academic functioning while considering the effects of co-occurring internalizing and disruptive behavior disorders. Youth with ADHD-IT high in SCT exhibited uniquely elevated withdrawal, as well as low leadership and low peer-directed relational and overt aggression, which were not accounted for by co-occurring disorders. This high-SCT group was also the only group to have more homework problems than the ADHD-CT group, but only when other disruptive behavior disorders were absent. The distinctiveness of the high-SCT group, which was primarily evident in social as opposed to academic functioning, provides partial support for the external validity and clinical utility of SCT.     

Assessment of cognitive function across pregnancy using CANTAB: A longitudinal study

Significant changes in endogenous plasma hormone levels are required to sustain pregnancy which provides a unique opportunity to study their effect on cognitive function.     

Better than ever? Employee reactions to ethical failures in organizations,and the ethical recovery paradox

This research examines organizational attempts to recover internally from ethical failures witnessed by employees. Drawing on research on service failure recovery, relationship repair, and behavioral ethics, we investigate how witnessing unethical acts in an organization impacts employees and their relationship with their organization. In two studies—one in the lab and one in the field—we examine the extent to which it is possible for organizations to recover fully from these ethical lapses. Results reveal an ethical recovery paradox, in which exemplary organizational efforts to recover internally from ethical failure may enhance employee perceptions of the organization to a more positive level than if no ethical failure had occurred.     

The Resources We Bring: The Cultural Assets of Diverse Medical Students

In response to the need for a more diverse workforce, our medical school developed new policies and procedures that focus on the recruitment and selection of diverse students with a specific focus on those considered underrepresented in medicine. To understand what these students bring to the practice of medicine, researchers investigated their perception of their cultural assets and how they plan to use these assets as physicians. A cross-section of 23 ethnically, culturally, and geographically diverse medical students were interviewed and data were analyzed through phenomenographical methods. The results indicate that students view themselves as having multiple assets that could be of significant value in their future practice of medicine, including: a) an interest in science and access to family members in medicine, b) personal and familial struggles with health, c) self and family as immigrants, and d) strong family and community orientations. Students perceived these as cultural assets because they could directly identify where these assets could be valuable in medicine but questioned how to maintain them throughout medical school. Now that our institution has identified these assets, next steps include administrators' investigation of ways to leverage them through curricular and educational programs.     

Dynamic measures of anxiety-related threat bias: Links to stress reactivity

Exaggerated attention to threatening information, or the threat bias, has been implicated in the development and maintenance of anxiety disorders. Recent research has highlighted methodological limitations in threat bias measures, such as temporal insensitivity, leading to the development of novel metrics that capture change and variability in threat bias over time. These metrics, however, have rarely been examined in non-clinical samples. The present study aimed to explore the utility of these trial-level metrics in predicting anxiety-related stress reactivity (stress-induced negative mood state) in trait anxious adults (N?=?52). Following a stressor, participants completed the dot probe task to generate threat bias scores. Stress reactivity was measured via stress-induced changes in subjective mood state. More variability in trial-level bias scores (TL-BSs) and greater bias away from threat (both mean and peak negative TL-BSs) predicted increased stress reactivity. The temporal characteristics of threat bias and implications for clinically-relevant measurement are discussed.     

The Effect of Type of Feedback in Multiple-Choice Testing on Long-Term Retention

We investigated how different types of feedback in multiple-choice testing influence long-term retention. Participants completed an initial multiple-choice test on general-knowledge questions. Then, they were randomly placed into one of the following four conditions: feedback displaying the original question and four alternative options including the correct answer (Feedback 1); feedback displaying the original question and the correct answer (Feedback 2); feedback displaying only the correct answer (Feedback 3); and no feedback (Control). On the final test two days later, participants in the feedback conditions showed improved retention—even participants who received Feedback 3 outperformed the control group, regardless of whether feedback followed correct or incorrect responses. There was no difference between the feedback conditions when feedback followed correct responses, but Feedback 1 was superior to Feedback 3 when feedback followed incorrect responses. The function of feedback in multiple-choice testing is to maintain correct responses and to correct erroneous responses.     

Hedonic and sensory characteristics of odors conditioned by pairing with tastants in humans

Animals readily acquire positive odor-taste hedonic associations, but evidence for this in humans remains weak and was explored further. Retronasal pairing of odors with sucrose or salty stimuli (Experiment 1) increased the rated sweetness of sucrose-paired odors without altering liking, although changes in odor pleasantness correlated with sucrose liking. Experience of odors with sucrose or quinine by sweet likers (Experiment 2) found increased pleasantness and sweetness for sucrose-paired odors, whereas quinine-paired odors became less liked and more bitter. Odor-sucrose pairings in sweet likers and dislikers (Experiment 3) found increased sweetness in both groups but increased odor liking only in likers. These data suggest that evaluative and sensory learning are dissociable and that evaluative changes are sensitive to individual differences in sweet liking.     

The role of hyperarousal in the manifestation of posttraumatic psychological distress following injury

The authors examined the temporal relation among posttraumatic stress disorder symptom clusters, using data derived from a longitudinal study of survivors of orofacial injury (N = 264). They conducted cross-lagged panel analyses, with self-reported symptom data collected at 1, 6, and 12 months postinjury. Results demonstrate that hyperarousal was a potent predictor of subsequent symptoms of reexperiencing and avoidance as well as hyperarousal. By contrast, neither reexperiencing nor avoidance was significantly related to other symptom clusters other than themselves over time. These findings underscore the distinctive nature of hyperarousal in the manifestation of posttraumatic psychological distress over time. Implications for theory, clinical intervention, and future research are discussed.     

Epidemiology of nonfatal deliberate self-harm in the United States as described in three medical databases

The absence of validated U.S. rates of nonfatal suicidal behavior places risk management and injury prevention programs at danger of being poorly informed and inadequately conceptualized. In this study we compare estimated rates of intentional self-harm from two ongoing surveys (National Electronic Injury Surveillance System-All Injury Program-NEISS-AIP; National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey-NHAMCS) to data from the Toxic Exposure Surveillance System. Results suggest that, for every 2002-2003 suicide, there were 12 (NEISSAIP) or 15 (NHAMCS) self-harm-related emergency department visits, and for every intentional self-poisoning death there were 33 intentional overdoses reported to poison control centers, of which two ultimately went untreated.