Impairments in the perception of odor-induced tastes and their relationship to impairments in taste perception

Certain odors have tastelike qualities when sniffed. To the extent that these qualities are akin to real taste experiences, impairment in perception of odor-induced tastes should be accompanied by taste impairment, and vice versa. Twelve patients were selected with possible odor-induced taste impairments or general taste impairments via a screening test, along with a further 6 patients with a probable taste impairment (insular lesion). These 18 patients, along with 19 normal controls, completed a battery of odor, taste, visual control, and neuropsychological tests to assess impairments in odor-induced taste perception and general taste perception. Four patients had an odor-induced taste impairment and were also impaired on taste perception. A further analysis, using regression on the whole sample, indicated that taste impairments were associated with odor-induced taste abnormalities independent of other predictors. This pattern also held for the patient group alone. The insular patients also exhibited both taste and odor-induced taste impairments. This study is the first to demonstrate a relationship between impaired taste perception and the perception of odor-induced tastes and suggests that both may rely on certain common neural substrates.     

Community and health facility influences on contraceptive method choice in the Eastern Cape, South Africa

CONTEXT: Although a growing number of studies have examined how community factors influence contraceptive use, few have explored how such factors affect method choice. METHODS: Data from the 1998 South Africa Demographic and Health Survey and the 1998 Eastern Cape Facility Survey were used to examine community and health facility influences on the method choices of 1,165 women aged 15-49 who lived in the Eastern Cape. Relative risk ratios from multilevel multinomial models assessed how method choice varied between communities. RESULTS: The likelihood of using the pill or a more permanent method rather than the injection rose with the proportion of women in a community who controlled their earnings (risk ratios, 3.2 and 3.8, respectively). In communities with higher proportions of females with only a primary education, women were less likely to use the pill instead of the injection (0.1). Higher doctor staffing levels were associated with a greater likelihood of using the pill or a more permanent method (1.5 and 1.4), and having more expired methods in stock was associated with increased use of a more permanent method (2.1). Several facility factors were associated with a decreased likelihood of using the pill rather than the injection: higher numbers of community health workers in an area and higher numbers of facility nurses who had received training on HIV/AIDS in the last year (0.9 for each). Yet a substantial amount of variation in method choice was not accounted for by these variables. CONCLUSION: Future research should emphasize the collection of community-level data on structural, behavioral and cultural factors to help explain the variation in method choice between communities.     

Developmental Tasks of Early Marriage: <Emphasis Type="Italic">Barefoot in the Park</Emphasis> (1967), <Emphasis Type="Italic">Raising Arizona</Emphasis> (1987), <Emphasis Type="Italic">The Quiet Man</Emphasis> (1952)

Using three Hollywood movies as a springboard, the authors offer a discussion of the psychosocial challenges faced by an individual entering a marital relationship. Keeping their attention on both intrapsychic and interpersonal factors, as well as the group matrix surrounding the couple, the authors discuss the subtleties of identity transformation, evolution of true mutuality, distance-related conflicts, and the deeper synthesis of affection and sensuality in the setting of early marriage. Their portrayal of this adult developmental phase is intended to help clinicians evolve greater empathy with newly married individuals.     

Mathematics—a Critical Filter for STEM-Related Career Choices? A Longitudinal Examination among Australian and U.S. Adolescents

Although women have made progress in entering scientific careers in biology, they remain underrepresented in mathematically intensive fields such as physics. We investigated whether gender differences in mathematics motivation and socialisers’ perceptions impacted choices for diverse STEM careers of varying mathematical intensity. Drawing on expectancy-value theory, we tested structural equation models in which adolescents’ preferred careers related to each of physics, biology, chemistry, and mathematics were predicted by prior mathematical performance, motivations, and mothers’ perceptions. We explored potential differences in gendered processes of influence using multigroup models. Samples were 331 Australian adolescents followed from 9th to 11th grade in 1998 and 277 U.S. adolescents from 9th to 12th grade in 2009–10. In both samples female adolescents preferred biological careers more than males did; male adolescents preferred physics-related careers and also mathematical careers in the Australian sample. Mothers’ perceptions were important to female and male adolescents’ mathematics motivations; gendered motivations were more evident in the Australian sample. Mathematics interest played the strongest role in male adolescents’ preferred careers, whereas actual or perceived mathematical achievements were most important for females, demonstrating the impacts of mathematical motivations on preferences for diverse STEM careers.     

Phonological loop and central executive contributions to oral comprehension skills of 5.5 to 9.5 years old children

Oral story comprehension in 5.5, 7.5 and 9.5 year old children is examined in relation to working memory (WM) contributions. The phonological loop (PL) of the Baddeley and Hitch WM model was assessed with word, non‐word and digit recall and a word list matching task. The central executive (CE) was assessed with listening, counting and backward digit recall tasks. A composite score was calculated for each WM component. Receptive vocabulary and oral comprehension were also assessed. Regression analyses demonstrated CE contributions to oral comprehension overall, and also to comprehension sub‐skills (above any vocabulary contributions). Effects were stronger in preschoolers and decreased with age. The PL did not play an important role in oral comprehension. Comprehension control was the comprehension skill best predicted. The study demonstrates the CE importance in off‐line comprehension processes during early childhood and the usefulness of assessing CE processes for identifying possible comprehension difficulties later at school. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Self-coping complexity: Role of self-construal in relational, individual and collective coping styles and health outcomes

Using a tripartite relational (R), individual (I) and collective (C) framework, three studies explored the health benefits of self-coping complexity (SCC). Study 1 ( N  = 333) developed and validated RIC coping scales. Study 2 ( N  = 346) identified two clusters of Australians, those with an expansive pattern of multiple self-aspects and coping styles, and those with a more restricted self-coping pattern. Both clusters reported similar stress, but the expansive high SCC cluster reported greater well-being. A culturally diverse sample ( N  = 225) in Study 3 yielded the expected high SCC RIC self-coping cluster, plus interdependent RC and independent I clusters. Cluster membership was not associated with culture or gender in these studies, but greater SCC did confer a health advantage to men and women from both Eastern and Western cultures.     

Predictors and Trajectories of Response to the Homework,Organization, and Planning Skills (HOPS) Intervention for Adolescents With ADHD

The goal of the present study was to evaluate the relative importance of adolescent and parent skills acquired during participation in the Homework, Organization, and Planning Skills (HOPS) intervention in predicting intervention response. A sample of 111 middle school students with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (66% male; M_age = 11.99, SD = 1.05) received the HOPS intervention, which includes 16 brief sessions with the adolescent and two parent meetings. Each session, school mental health providers completed checklists measuring students’ acquisition of homework recording, materials organization, and time management skills. Parents provided information on whether they monitored and used contingencies to reinforce skills use at home. Outcome measures included parent and teacher ratings of homework problems and organizational/time management skills postintervention. Grade point average and assignment completion were also evaluated as objective outcomes. Regressions found accurate homework recording and time management to be unique predictors of parent-reported homework and organizational skills outcomes. Growth mixture models examining organizational skills trajectories throughout the intervention significantly predicted parent- and teacher-reported outcomes, GPA, and assignment completion; homework recording trajectories predicted parent-reported outcomes and GPA. Sixty-eight percent of participants displayed high acquisition of organization and homework recording skills. Parent-reported use of monitoring and contingencies to support adolescent skills implementation was not associated with outcomes. Results highlight the importance of examining individual differences in school-based intervention studies targeting organization, time management, and planning. Importantly, for a school-based adolescent-focused intervention, improvement in outcomes does not appear to be dependent upon parent skills implementation.     

A brief actuarial assessment for the prediction of wife assault recidivism: the Ontario domestic assault risk assessment

An actuarial assessment to predict male-to-female marital violence was constructed from a pool of potential predictors in a sample of 589 offenders identified in police records and followed up for an average of almost 5 years. Archival information in several domains (offender characteristics, domestic violence history, nondomestic criminal history, relationship characteristics, victim characteristics, index offense) and recidivism were subjected to setwise and stepwise logistic regression. The resulting 13-item scale, the Ontario Domestic Assault Risk Assessment (ODARA), showed a large effect size in predicting new assaults against legal or common-law wives or ex-wives (Cohen's d = 1.1, relative operating characteristic area =.77) and was associated with number and severity of new assaults and time until recidivism. Cross-validation and comparisons with other instruments are also reported.