Infants of depressed mothers,although competent learners,fail to learn in response to their own mothers' infant-directed speech

Depressed mothers use less of the exaggerated prosody that is typical of infant-directed (ID) speech than do nondepressed mothers. We investigated the consequences of this reduced perceptual salience in ID speech for infant learning. Infants of nondepressed mothers readily learned that their mothers' speech signaled a face, whereas infants of depressed mothers failed to learn that their mothers' speech signaled the face. Infants of depressed mothers did, however, show strong learning in response to speech produced by an unfamiliar nondepressed mother. These outcomes indicate that the reduced perceptual salience of depressed mothers' ID speech could lead to deficient learning in otherwise competent learners.     

Neuropsychological testing for assessment of treatment effects: methodologic issues

Neuropsychological (NP) testing is now recognized as an important method for evaluating treatment effects. However, there are limitations to how these tests are currently used in most drug treatment protocols. Changes in cognition are typically defined in statistical terms, with little knowledge as to whether the observed differences are meaningful in any other sense. Methods for assessing changes in test scores need to account for test-retest reliability, practice effects, regression to the mean, and the impact of initial performance. All of these factors may vary according to the individual characteristics of the subject. This article reviews two methods from the NP literature that have attempted to account for these sources of test-retest bias. The reliable change index provides a confidence interval for predicted change by taking into account the test-retest reliability of the measure. Standardized regression-based measures use a more sophisticated statistical approach that enables them to better account for other potential sources of confound. Use of this methodology has been limited to studies of epilepsy surgery and sports-related concussion. These methods have the potential for enhancing the interpretation of NP test data in drug treatment protocols by providing an empirically based definition of clinically meaningful change.     

Psychosocial Treatment Strategies in the MTA Study: Rationale, Methods, and Critical Issues in Design and Implementation

The Collaborative Multimodal Treatment Study of Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), the MTA, is the first multisite, cooperative agreement treatment study of children, and the largest psychiatric/psychological treatment trial ever conducted by the National Institute of Mental Health. It examines the effectiveness of Medication vs. Psychosocial treatment vs. their combination for treatment of ADHD and compares these experimental arms to each other and to routine community care. In a parallel group design, 579 (male and female) ADHD children, aged 7–9 years, 11 months, were randomly assigned to one of the four experimental arms, and then received 14 months of prescribed treatment (or community care) with periodic reassessments. After delineating the theoretical and empirical rationales for Psychosocial treatment of ADHD, we describe the MTA's Psychosocial Treatment strategy applied to all children in two of the four experimental arms (Psychosocial treatment alone; Combined treatment). Psychosocial treatment consisted of three major components: a Parent Training component, a two-part School Intervention component, and a child treatment component anchored in an intensive Summer Treatment Program. Components were selected based on evidence of treatment efficacy and because they address comprehensive symptom targets, settings, comorbidities, and functional domains. We delineate key conceptual and logistical issues faced by clinical researchers in design and implementation of Psychosocial research with examples of how these issues were addressed in the MTA study.Deceased     

Parenting and Family Stress Treatment Outcomes in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): An Empirical Analysis in the MTA Study

Parenting and family stress treatment outcomes in the MTA study were examined. Male and female (579), 7–9-year-old children with combined type Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), were recruited at six sites around the United States and Canada, and randomly assigned to one of four groups: intensive, multi-faceted behavior therapy program alone (Beh); carefully titrated and monitored medication management strategy alone (MedMgt); a well-integrated combination of the two (Comb); or a community comparison group (CC). Treatment occurred over 14 months, and assessments were taken at baseline, 3, 9, and 14 months. Parenting behavior and family stress were assessed using parent-report and child-report inventories. Results showed that Beh alone, MedMgt alone, and Comb produced significantly greater decreases in a parent-rated measure of negative parenting, Negative/Ineffective Discipline, than did standard community treatment. The three MTA treatments did not differ significantly from each other on this domain. No differences were noted among the four groups on positive parenting or on family stress variables. Results are discussed in terms of the theoretical and empirically documented importance of negative parenting in the symptoms, comorbidities and long-term outcomes of ADHD.     

Morphological priming: Dissociation of phonological, semantic, and morphological factors

Previous experiments based on a masked-priming paradigm revealed robust morphological priming effects induced by two derivational morphemes in Hebrew: the root and the verbal pattern. However, considering the special characteristics of the masked-priming paradigm, the possible contributions of phonological and/or semantic factors to these morphological effects could not be firmly assessed. In the present study, the role of these factors in morphological priming was examined, using cross-modal presentation. Experiment 1 revealed that priming between morphologically related words in Hebrew is determined by higher level linguistic characteristics and cannot be reduced to phonological overlap. Experiment 2 confirmed that morphological priming occurs in Hebrew even when primes and targets are not semantically related but, nevertheless, increases with semantic similarity. The results support the claim that morphological priming cannot be accounted for by considering semantic and phonological factors alone, and they exemplify the potential of using both masked and cross-modal priming to examine morphological processing.     

A Pathological View of Disease

This paper is a response to Christopher Boorse's recent defense of hisBiostatistical Theory (BST) of health and disease. Boorse maintains that hisconcept of theoretical health and disease reflects the ``consideredusage of pathologists.' I argue that pathologists do not use ``disease' inthe purely theoretical way that is required by the BST. Pathology does notdraw a sharp distinction between theoretical and practical aspects ofmedicine. Pathology does not even need a theoretical concept of disease. Itsfocus is not theoretical, but practical; pathology's goal is to contribute tothe healing of patients. Pathology, even experimental pathology, is notvalue-free. Not only ``disease' but also such terms as ``nerve' and ``organ'are laden with conceptual values.     

The prediction of averages

Criterion measures are frequently obtained by averaging ratings, but the number and kind of ratings available may differ from individual to individual. This raises issues as to the appropriateness of any single regression equation, about the relation of variance about regression to number and kind of criterion observations, and about the preferred estimate of regression parameters. It is shown that if criterion ratings all have the same true score the regression equation for predicting the average is independent of the number and kind of criterion scores averaged.Two cases are distinguished, one where criterion measures are assumed to have the same true score, and the other where criterion measures have the same magnitude of error of measurement as well. It is further shown that the variance about regression is a function of the number and kind of criterion ratings averaged, generally decreasing as the number of measures averaged increases. Maximum likelihood estimates for the regression parameters are derived for the two cases, assuming a joint normal distribution for predictors and criterion average within each subpopulation of persons for whom the same type of criterion average is available.