The free and cued selective reminding test: Validation for mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease

The International Working Group on Alzheimer's disease (AD) suggested the free and cued selective reminding test (FCSRT) to assess memory, as it showed high sensitivity and specificity in the differentiation of AD from healthy controls and other dementias. The FCSRT involves the use of selective reminding with semantic cueing in memory assessment. This study aims to validate the FCSRT for mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and AD through the analysis of the diagnostic accuracy and the suggestion of cut‐off scores. Patients were classified into two groups according to standard criteria: MCI (n = 100) and AD (n = 70). A matched control group (n = 101) of cognitively healthy subjects was included. The reliability and the validity of the FCSRT were analysed on the immediate (IR) and delayed (DR) recalls. The Cronbach's alpha was 0.915 for the IR and 0.879 for the DR. The total recall measures revealed good areas under the curve for MCI (IR: .818; DR: .828) and excellent for AD (IR: .987; DR: .991). Furthermore, the MCI group was subdivided with respect to a non‐similar/similar AD pattern of impairment, with almost half of the subjects showing an AD‐like decline. This analysis represents a novel contribution regarding the properties of the FCSRT in illustrating the heterogeneity of MCI at baseline. The FCSRT has proved to be a very useful tool in the characterization of the memory impairment of the AD spectrum.     

Age-related differences in attentional bias for emotional faces

Past research suggests an aging-related positivity effect in orienting to faces. However, these studies have eschewed direct comparison of orienting when positive and negative faces are presented simultaneously, thereby potentially underestimating the degree to which emotional valence influences such effects. In the current study younger and older adults viewed face pairs for 1000 ms, and upon face-pair offset indicated the location of a dot that appeared in the former location of one of the faces, to assess attentional orienting. When shown negative–neutral pairs, both age groups were biased to attend to negative faces, but when shown positive–negative pairs only younger adults showed a bias toward negative; older adults showed a lack of orienting toward either emotional face. Results suggest younger adults have a negativity bias in attention orienting regardless of the valence of nearby stimuli, whereas older adults show an absence of this bias when positive information is present.     

Dynamic adjustments of cognitive control during economic decision making

Decision making in the Ultimatum game requires the resolution of conflicts between economic self-interest and fairness intuitions. Since cognitive control processes play an important role in conflict resolution, the present study examined how control processes that are triggered by conflicts between fairness and self-interest in unfair offers affect subsequent decisions in the Ultimatum game. Our results revealed that more unfair offers were accepted following previously unfair, compared to previously fair offers. Interestingly, the magnitude of this conflict adaptation effect correlated with the individual subjects' focus on economic self-interest. We concluded that conflicts between fairness and self-interest trigger cognitive control processes, which reinforce the focus on the current task goal.     

Cultural Adaptation of CBT for Aboriginal Australians

This paper provides a commentary and provides international context to the research conducted by J. Bennett‐Levy et al. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is a highly structured psychological treatment that has unprecedented empirical validation relative to other approaches to therapy. Despite the wealth of evidence supporting its use, the case for CBT is far less compelling for ethnic minority groups. There is however a growing body of international literature supporting the notion of adaptation of CBT for these groups. The research by J. Bennett‐Levy et al. represents a positive step toward validating CBT for use with Australia's indigenous people that is likely to shape the future direction of research in this field. Suggestions are made regarding the next logical empirical steps in this important area of investigation.     

Development of interactions between sensorimotor representations in school-aged children

Reliable sensory-motor integration is a pre-requisite for optimal movement control; the functionality of this integration changes during development. Previous research has shown that motor performance of school-age children is characterized by higher variability, particularly under conditions where vision is not available, and movement planning and control is largely based on kinesthetic input. The purpose of the current study was to determine the characteristics of how kinesthetic-motor internal representations interact with visuo-motor representations during development. To this end, we induced a visuo-motor adaptation in 59 children, ranging from 5 to 12 years of age, as well as in a group of adults, and measured initial directional error (IDE) and endpoint error (EPE) during a subsequent condition where visual feedback was not available, and participants had to rely on kinesthetic input. Our results show that older children (age range 9–12 years) de-adapted significantly more than younger children (age range 5–8 years) over the course of 36 trials in the absence of vision, suggesting that the kinesthetic-motor internal representation in the older children was utilized more efficiently to guide hand movements, and was comparable to the performance of the adults.     

女大学生性别角色、性别观念与大学适应的关系

对北京市某校1082名女大学生的调查,探讨性别角色与大学适应的关系,进一步验证一致性模型、双性化模型和男性化模型哪一种理想性别模型更适合女大学生这一群体,并探讨当今中国多元性别文化背景下,对女大学生性别角色模型的影响。研究结果表明：（1）女大学生的理想性别角色模型是双性化模型;（2）平等性别观念对女大学生大学适应有促进作用,而传统性别观念和反传统性别观念对女大学生大学适应有阻碍作用;（3）性别观念对女大学生大学适应的影响,是通过男性化、女性化特质的中介作用产生影响,中介效应显著,中介效应检验进一步证明了双     

Adaptation of the Coping With Stress Course for Black Adolescents in Low-Income Communities: Examples of Surface Structure and Deep Structure Cultural Adaptations

Black adolescents in low-income communities are at increased risk of developing mental health problems due to the impact of cumulative poverty-related stressors and racial discrimination, yet Black youth have relatively low rates of mental health service utilization, resulting in significant unmet need. The Coping With Stress (CWS) Course is an evidence-based, cognitive behavioral intervention that has been shown to reduce the incidence of anxiety, mood, and conduct problems among predominantly White samples, as well as Asian and Latinx youth. In the past 25 years since the CWS Course was introduced, Black adolescents have either been severely underrepresented or conspicuously absent from program evaluation research on the CWS Course, with few exceptions. The purpose of this article is threefold: (1) to justify the need for cultural adaptations to the CWS Course for Black adolescents from low-income communities, (2) to describe the scientific basis for the specific surface structure and deep structure modifications made to the culturally adapted version of the CWS Course, known as Resilient In spite of Stressful Events or RISE, and (3) to illustrate the deep structure adaptations with a vignette drawn from implementation of the RISE program with Black adolescents in a low-income, urban community.     

Validation and study of psychometric properties of a French version of the Highly Sensitive Person Scale (HSPS-FR)

IntroductionThe Highly Sensitive Person Scale based on the sensory-processing sensitivity is a self-assessment questionnaire consisting of 27 items. The scale is designed in order to identify individuals with high sensitivity.ObjectiveThe objective was to develop a French version of the scale. We tested its internal consistency and test-retest reliability on a French population sample. Another aim of this study was also to question the multidimensionality of the scale, for which several different models are suggested within the literature.MethodAfter translation and back-translation, a validation study was conducted on 814 adults. They were invited to complete an online questionnaire during the lockdown implemented due to COVID 19, between March 31st and May 11th (2020).ResultsThe internal reliability of the French version of HSPS was very good, with a Cronbach's alpha of .90, as was that of the factors. Correlations between factors were significant (p < .001). The intra-class correlation (ICC) for test-retest was .889 (0.874–0.903; 95% confidence interval). Factor analyses suggested a 4-factors structure, mixing the models found in the literature.ConclusionsThis study focused on a French adaptation of the HSPS scale. The results showed good psychometric qualities and stayed true to the original HSPS scale. The scale could be useful both to practitioners in their clinical practice and to researchers in fundamental research.     

Assessing the predictive validity of cultural intelligence over time

The study examines four core components of cultural intelligence (CQ) - Behavioral, Motivational, Cognitive and Meta-cognitive - as predictors of cross-cultural adaptation problems in a longitudinal study of international students in New Zealand and tests the hypothesis that Motivational CQ predicts better psychological and sociocultural outcomes over time. One hundred and four students completed measures of CQ during a pre-term orientation program and assessments of adaptation problems approximately three months later. In line with the hypothesis, bi-variate correlations indicated that Motivational CQ was related to fewer psychological symptoms (r = −.30, p < .01) and sociocultural adaptation problems (r = −.27, p < .01). However, hierarchical regression analysis, controlling for age, gender, length of residence abroad and region of origin, revealed that while Motivational CQ was a significant (negative) predictor (ß = −.36, p < .01) of psychological symptoms, the overall amount of variance explained (14.6%) in the model was not significant. In contrast, region of origin (ß = .37, p < .01) was the only significant predictor of sociocultural adaptation problems with international students from Western countries reporting fewer difficulties than those from other regions. The results are discussed in relation to contemporary theories of motivation along with recommendations for future research.