Pathways to violence in the children of mothers who were depressed postpartum

The impact of postnatal depression on a child's risk for violent behavior was evaluated in an urban British community sample (N=122 families). Mothers were interviewed during pregnancy, at 3 months postpartum, and when the child was 1, 4, and 11 years of age. Mothers, teachers, and children reported on violent symptoms at age 11. Structural equation modeling revealed that the child's violence was predicted by the mother's postnatal depression even when her depression during pregnancy, her later history of depression, and family characteristics were taken into account. Violence was associated with symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and problems with anger management. Children were most violent if mothers had been depressed at 3 months and at least once thereafter.     

Dual prism adaptation: calibration or alignment?

Dual adaptation to different amounts or directions of prismatic displacement, or both, can be acquired and maintained with little mutual interference. Associative recalibration of the regional task- or workspace, contingent on differentiation of distinguishing sensory information, can explain such adaptation. In contrast, nonassociative realignment restores dimensional mapping among spatial representations. Methods for measuring the separate contributions of those 2 kinds of prism adaptation are identified in the present article. On the basis of a critique of dual-adaptation studies, the authors suggest that recalibration can explain the data but that the method used in those experiments confounded realignment and might have obscured the effectiveness of dual-calibration training.     

Inhibitory attentional control in patients with frontal lobe damage

The performance of a group of frontal lobe lesion and a group of frontal lobe dementia patients was compared with the performance of their respective matched normal control groups on two tests of inhibitory attentional control-the stop-signal reaction time task and a negative priming task. Both patient groups responded significantly slower than their respective normal control groups, but they showed only marginally significant selective impairments on the measures of inhibition. The data suggest that the specific inhibitory processes evaluated by these two tests are, in general, spared in patients with focal frontal lobe lesions or frontal lobe degeneration.     

Confirmatory factor analysis of the WMS-III in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy

Five competing models specifying the factor structure underlying the Wechsler Memory Scale-Third Edition (D. Wechsler, 1997b) primary subtest scores were evaluated in a sample of patients with intractable temporal lobe epilepsy (N = 254). Models specifying separate immediate and delayed constructs resulted in inadmissible parameter estimates and model specification error. There were negligible goodness-of-fit differences between a 3-factor model of working memory, auditory memory, and visual memory and a nested--more parsimonious--2-factor model of working memory and general memory. The results suggest that specifying a separate visual memory factor provides little advantage for this sample--an unexpected finding in a population with lateralized dysfunction, for which one might have predicted separate auditory and visual memory dimensions.     

Learning and memory in S100-beta transgenic mice: an analysis of impaired and preserved function

S100-beta, a calcium-binding astrocytic protein from chromosome 21, has been implicated in CNS function generally and the hippocampus in particular. Elevated levels of S100-beta have been observed reliably in the brains of patients with Alzheimer's Disease and Down Syndrome. Groups of transgenic mice, carrying multiple S100-beta gene copies, and nontransgenic controls were administered a series of behavioral tests (delayed spatial and nonspatial non-matching-to-sample, radial arm maze, socially acquired food preference) that assessed a wide range of cognitive functions. Consistent with the widespread presence of S100-beta throughout the brain, transgenic mice exhibited learning or memory impairment on all tasks. The dementia-like cognitive profile of S100-beta mice represents a promising model for studying comparable cognitive deficits associated with neurodegenerative diseases.     

Perfectionism, Coping, Social Support, and Depression in Maltreated Adolescents

The current study examined the associations among dimensions of perfectionism, coping, social support, and depression in 58 adolescents with a history of maltreatment. Participants completed the Child-Adolescent Perfectionism, multidimensional measures of coping and social support, and the CES-D Depression Scale. Correlational analyses showed that depression was associated with socially prescribed perfectionism, internalized emotion-oriented coping, avoidant-oriented distancing, and low family support and peer support. Analyses of coping responses and perfectionism established links between self-oriented perfectionism and internalized emotion-oriented coping responses and self-reliant problem-solving. Socially prescribed perfectionism was associated with avoidance-oriented coping (i.e., distancing). While self-oriented perfectionism and social support were unrelated, socially prescribed perfectionism was associated with reduced levels of family support. Collectively, the findings highlight the roles of poor coping and social support as contributors to the emotional distress experienced by maltreated adolescents. Moreover, it is suggested that the distress experienced by perfectionistic youth with a history of maltreatment reflects, in part, the role of maladaptive coping styles and coping resource deficits. Our findings support further consideration of personality dimensions such as perfectionism as contributors to poor functioning among maltreated youth.     

A Controlled Study of Clicker‐Assisted Memory Enhancement in College Classrooms

Personal response systems, commonly called ‘clickers’, are widely used in secondary and post‐secondary classrooms. Although many studies show they enhance learning, experimental findings are mixed, and methodological issues limit their conclusions. Moreover, prior work has not determined whether clickers affect cognitive change or simply alert students to information likely to be on tests. The present investigation used a highly controlled methodology that removed subject and item differences from the data to explore the effect of clicker questions on memory for targeted facts in a live classroom and to gain a window on the cognitive processes affecting the outcome. We found that in‐class clicker questions given in a university psychology class augmented performance on delayed exam questions by 10–13%. Experimental results and a class survey indicate that it is unlikely that the observed effects can be attributed solely to attention grabbing. Rather, the data suggest the technology invokes the testing effect. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Predictors of Deliberate Self-Harm Behavior Among Emerging Adolescents: An Initial Test of a Self-Punitiveness Model

The current study examined the extent to which an expanded self-punitiveness model could be applied to deliberate self-harm (DSH) among students making the transition to university. Specific components of the self-punitiveness model included perfectionism, overgeneralization, self-criticism, and shame. A sample of 319 university students completed a measure of deliberate self-harm as well as two multidimensional perfectionism measures and measures of self-criticism, overgeneralization, and shame. Correlational analyses found few significant associations among deliberate self-harm and the self-punitiveness factors among men. In contrast, among women, deliberate self-harm was associated with dimensions of trait perfectionism such as parental criticism and socially prescribed perfectionism, as well as with overgeneralization, self-criticism, and both characterological shame and bodily shame with the strongest associations found with shame. Supplementary analyses found a strong link between overgeneralization and shame and an association between self-criticism and shame among women. The results support the contention that particularly among young women making the transition to university, deliberate self-harm behavior is a reflection of a self-punitive personality orientation with multiple facets and a sense of shame associated with an overgeneralized sense of failing to meet social expectations.     

Influence of perceived and preferred coach feedback on youth athletes' perceptions of team motivational climate

ObjectivesThis study examined youth ice hockey players' perceptions of individual feedback received from their coach, and the agreement and discrepancies between preferred and perceived coach feedback patterns, on athletes' perceptions of team motivational climate. The following research questions were answered: How does agreement in perceived and preferred coach feedback relate to task- and ego-involving motivational climate? How does the degree of discrepancy between perceived and preferred coach feedback relate to motivational climate? How does the direction of the discrepancy between perceived and preferred coach feedback relate to motivational climate?DesignThis study used non-probability based sampling within a cross-sectional (survey) design.MethodAthletes (n = 70) completed a self-report survey comprised of measures of coaching feedback and motivational climate. The data were examined using polynomial regression and response surface analysis.ResultsLinear associations were observed between coaching feedback and motivational climate, and unique associations between the perceived and preferred coach feedback discrepancies were distinctly related to increased perceptions of both task- and ego-involved motivational climates.ConclusionsThe type of feedback, purpose of the feedback, and agreement or discrepancy in perceptions and preferences for different feedback styles are important to understanding task- and ego-involved motivational climate in youth sport. Coaching programs should assist coaches in learning their athletes' preferences for positive and negative feedback in sport and matching these preferences with their individual feedback styles.