An Examination of Lexical and Sublexical Reading Skills in Children with Neurofibromatosis Type 1

Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is an inherited neurocutaneous disorder associated with a high frequency of cognitive and learning difficulties. Based on discrepancies between IQ and academic achievement, approximately 17% of children with NF1 have been classified as having reading impairments. In this study, the lexical and sublexical reading skills of children with NF1 (n = 30) were examined using the Castles' Word/Non-Word Test (modified version), together with measures of neuropsychological functioning and academic achievement. Twenty children (67%) demonstrated deficits in one or more reading subskills, with 75% of these meeting criteria for phonological dyslexia and 20% classified with mixed dyslexia. These findings indicate that a large proportion of children with NF1 may be characterized by a specific difficulty with the sublexical procedure, suggesting a difficulty employing spelling-to-sound rules to assemble a pronunciation when reading. In line with previous studies, the present findings also suggest that discrepancy-based methods may not be sufficiently sensitive to identify children who experience reading difficulties.     

Assessing mental flexibility with a new word recognition test

This paper presents the development and preliminary evaluation of a new word recognition test (WRT) designed to measure individual differences in mental flexibility, defined as the ability to solve novel problems in unfamiliar settings. Conceptually designed to simulate problem solving in real world performance situations, the test was developed to recruit fluid and reproductive abilities and the interplay between convergent and divergent thinking. It is based on a framework that integrates and extends previous theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of cognitive ability and creative cognition. The WRT was administered with various cognitive ability and criterion measures to an undergraduate student sample (n = 266). Results provide preliminary evidence of construct validity. WRT scores correlated as expected with reference measures of cognitive ability, creative performance, and college performance (GPA). Regression analyses showed the WRT explained an additional 4.5% of variance in college performance over and above traditional cognitive ability measures that take up to five times as long to administer. Results suggest further study is warranted given the potential for its contribution to basic research and applied use.     

The implicit self and the specificity-matching principle: Implicit self-concept predicts domain-specific outcomes

According to the specificity-matching principle (Swann, Chang-Schneider, & McClarty, 2007), specific aspects of self-concept should predict domain specific outcomes, rather than broader outcomes. The purpose of the current study was to determine whether this principle, which has thus far been examined using explicit measures of the self, extends to the implicit self-concept. We tested this idea in the domain of math achievement. We observed that explicit math self-concept was correlated with specific outcomes (measures of math achievement), whereas explicit self-esteem was correlated with a broad outcome (satisfaction with life). Thus, we replicated the specificity-matching principle using explicit measures of self-esteem and self-concept. Moreover, we found that implicit self-concept was correlated with domain-specific outcomes, but not a global outcome, as the specificity-matching principle would predict. Furthermore, regression analyses indicated that implicit self-concept accounted for unique variance in the domain-specific outcomes, for which the other measures of the self could not account. Taken together, we conclude that the specificity-matching principle does indeed extend to the implicit self-concept.     

Direct Evidence of Memory Retrieval as a Source of Difficulty in Non‐Local Dependencies in Language

Linguistic dependencies between non‐adjacent words have been shown to cause comprehension difficulty, compared with local dependencies. According to one class of sentence comprehension accounts, non‐local dependencies are difficult because they require the retrieval of the first dependent from memory when the second dependent is encountered. According to these memory‐based accounts, making the first dependent accessible at the time when the second dependent is encountered should help alleviate the difficulty associated with the processing of non‐local dependencies. In a dual‐task paradigm, participants read sentences that did or did not contain a non‐local dependency (i.e., object‐ and subject‐extracted cleft constructions) while simultaneously remembering a word. The memory task was aimed at making the word held in memory accessible throughout the sentence. In an object‐extracted cleft (e.g., It was Ellen whom John consulted…), the object (Ellen) must be retrieved from memory when consulted is encountered. In the critical manipulation, the memory word was identical to the verb's object (ELLEN). In these conditions, the extraction effect was reduced in the comprehension accuracy data and eliminated in the reading time data. These results add to the body of evidence supporting memory‐based accounts of syntactic complexity.     

Associations between components of rumination and autobiographical memory specificity as measured by a Minimal Instructions Autobiographical Memory Test

Clinical studies have shown that rumination functions as a mediator between overgeneral memory—the tendency to retrieve autobiographical memories in a non-specific format—and depression. Recently, rumination has been dismantled into two distinct subcomponents: reflection, which is more adaptive, and brooding, which is more maladaptive. In the present study we examined the differential relationships of these two rumination subcomponents with autobiographical memory specificity and their mediational role for the relationship between reduced memory specificity and depression in a non-clinical sample. In addition, we investigated the usefulness of a “minimal instructions” version of the Autobiographical Memory Test (AMT) to measure memory specificity in non-clinical populations. Results indicated that the use of minimal instructions can increase the AMT's sensitivity to detect reduced autobiographical memory specificity in non-clinical individuals. Further it was found that brooding, and not reflection, is significantly associated with reduced autobiographical memory specificity and functions as a mediator between reduced memory specificity and depression.     

Assessing the specificity of autobiographical memory in individuals at a trait-based vulnerability to bipolar disorder using a sentence completion task

Overgeneral autobiographical memory recall has been associated with the diagnosis of bipolar disorder, but the role of overgenerality in the vulnerability to bipolar disorder remains under-researched. While a previous study suggested that high-risk individuals for bipolar disorder recall emotionally negative memories in specific detail, this is in contrast to memory recall patterns noted in bipolar samples. The Autobiographical Memory Test (AMT) used in previous non-clinical studies has also been criticised for not being sensitive to overgenerality due to its repetition of specificity instructions and practice trials. The traditional AMT format may allow some individuals to override their trait-based tendencies to be overgeneral. The current study used a sentence completion task to assess memory specificity in groups of students at a low and high trait-based vulnerability for bipolar disorder. In contrast to previous research, high-risk individuals recalled fewer specific positive memories and greater numbers of overgeneral negative memories than low-risk individuals. These results support the notion that the vulnerability for bipolar disorder might be associated with similar recall biases as demonstrated in bipolar samples, and that the AMT might not be sufficiently sensitive to detect overgenerality in non-clinical groups. The implications of these findings and directions for future research are discussed.     

Executive Dysfunctions Across Adulthood: Measurement Properties and Correlates of the DEX Self-Report Questionnaire

ABSTRACT

Difficulties in executive processes can disturb daily life functioning. Using data obtained from two independent community-dwelling samples (n ₁?=?468, n ₂?=?669, 18–97 years), we examined the factor structure of the Dysexecutive Functioning Questionnaire (DEX) and explored the frequencies and potential correlates of self-reported executive difficulties. Our results revealed that executive problems are parsimoniously described with one underlying factor. Everyday executive dysfunctions were moderately frequent throughout adulthood. Reports of executive problems were associated with individual difference characteristics including age, subjective health, personality, affect, and cognition. We also found that, although executive functions are known to decline with advancing adult age, younger age groups reported more problems than older groups, an effect that was partially mediated by a negative affect factor. We discuss implications for the validity of the instrument as well as directions for future research on executive functioning difficulties in everyday life.     

Construction and validation of an ecological version of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test applied to an elderly population

ABSTRACT

The goal of this project was to construct and validate an ecological version of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) aimed at the elderly. This was accomplished by replacing the geometric stimuli of the traditional version with stimuli belonging to the semantic category of transport vehicles, and by elimination of the color yellow. The results showed the ecological WCST version was preferred over the traditional version and older people felt less tired during test performance. In the two independent normal elderly groups, all pairs of scores that can be derived from the WCST correlated significantly with each other. Six of 11 outcome measures of the traditional WCST-128 (long) version were significantly influenced by age. By contrast, in the WCST-64 (short) version and in the ecological WCST-54 version only one measure was affected by the age variable. No significant effect of education level or gender emerged from the results in any WCST version. Again, the subjects with cognitive deterioration had lower performance in the ecological WCST-54 version than in the two traditional WCST versions. It seems reasonable to assume that the ecological version of WCST is more discriminating and has more advantages than the traditional versions. Further research on individual differences in the performance on this task will increase understanding of the components of the test, and of the variety of factors and possible deficits that could lead to an impaired performance of the test.     

Test anxiety and ego-threatening stress: Over- (and under-) estimation of emotional reactivity

Abstract

This study examined discrepancies between subjective and objective measures of state anxiety as a function of test anxiety in undergraduates. Under evaluative stress conditions, state anxiety was assessed in terms of (a) self-reported cognitive and somatic anxiety, (b) behavioral reactivity (motor and facial tension, avoidance comments and avoidance of eye contact), (c) physiological arousal (heart rate and skin resistance), and (d) cognitive and motor task performance. Participants high in test anxiety showed disproportionately greater self-reported than objective state anxiety. In contrast, those low in test anxiety showed lower self-reported than objective anxiety. The high- and the low-test-anxiety groups differed only in self-reported emotional reactivity. In line with current cognitive theories of anxiety, overestimation of reactivity in high-test anxiety, as well as underestimation in low-test anxiety, are conceptualized as a hypervigilance bias and an avoidance bias, respectively, in processing internal cues, i.e., prioritization and inhibition of attention to one's own behavioral and physiological signs of distress.     

The 24-item Brief HEXACO Inventory (BHI)

Up until now, no really short instrument that measures the six personality dimensions of the HEXACO model has been available. In two studies, I report the construction of the Brief HEXACO Inventory (BHI), which represents the 24 HEXACO facets with 1 item per facet (i.e., 4 items per domain) and which takes approximately 2–3 min to complete. Although characterized by relatively low alpha reliability, its test–retest stability, self-other agreement, and convergent correlations with full-length scales are relatively high and its validity loss is only modest. Correcting for attenuation using a weighted average of alpha reliability, test–retest stability, and self-other agreement, the BHI re-estimates the original construct validity correlations of the HEXACO-PI-R with relatively great accuracy.