Combined Individual Cognitive Behavior Therapy and Parent Training for Childhood Depression: 2- to 3-Year Follow-Up

Fourteen children with significant depressive symptoms from an open clinical trial of Primary and Secondary Control Enhancement Training augmented with Caregiver–Child Relationship Enhancement Training, participated in a 2- to 3-year follow-up assessment. The results suggested that the significant decreases in depressive symptoms observed at posttreatment were maintained at 2- to 3-year follow-up. Mothers' reports of significant improvement of child psychosocial functioning were also maintained, providing social validation of the effects. Pretreatment child-rated mother-child relations predicted depressive symptoms at 2- to 3-year follow-up. These long-term data support the use of the combined intervention and suggest the need for further research on caregiver involvement in treatment.     

Single-Case Evaluation of a Negative Reinforcement Toilet Training Intervention

ABSTRACT

A negative reinforcement intervention was used to toilet train a child with multiple disabilities. The child appeared to actively withhold urinating in the toilet and was unresponsive to two positive reinforcement training programs. Negative reinforcement required that the child remain in the bathroom during toileting opportunities until he urinated properly. In-toilet urinating was achieved on the first day of intervention and the duration of training sessions decreased steadily. Appropriate toileting and an absence of urinary incontinence were documented post-intervention.     

Making a case for case studies in psychotherapy training: A small step towards establishing an empirical basis for psychotherapy training

The evidence debate in psychotherapy pays little attention to developing an evidence base for training practices. Understanding effective training requires an examination of what makes training work. This article examines the role of case studies in psychotherapy training. This has not been articulated explicitly or researched systematically in spite of its cardinal importance. An analysis of the role of case studies in psychotherapy training is presented. Reading, watching, or hearing about cases can offer novice psychotherapists access to a closed world; access to psychological theory in action; access to whole courses of therapy; access to different approaches; access to significant moments; access to the therapeutic relationship; access to a wide range of client types; access to working in different contexts; and the opportunity of identifying with therapists and clients. Writing or presenting cases offer students the opportunity of: learning to integrate information into a relevant whole; being in the ‘hot seat’; learning to give appropriate feedback; assessing the validity of interpretations, inferences, and interventions; adapting methods to suit the client; and learning to collaborate with other professionals. The paper presents directions for future research into psychotherapy training, specifically proposing an international survey of training practices at psychotherapy training institutions.     

The relationship between early life stress and working memory in adulthood: A systematic review and meta-analysis

ABSTRACT

Exposure to early life stress has been linked to impairment in cognitive functioning in adulthood. The aim of this study was to systematically review the literature on the relationship between early life stress and working memory, a central component of cognitive functioning. Database searches yielded 358 abstracts matching the search terms. Abstract screening followed by full-text review resulted in 26 publications suitable for inclusion, of which 23 were included in the meta-analysis. Results of the meta-analysis suggested exposure to early life stress was associated with poorer working memory. Even though there were a wide variety of working memory tasks used, this effect was significant for both phonological and visuospatial working memory tasks, and both visual and aural task presentation modalities. The effect was also found in samples with and without clinical psychopathology. This review provides recommendations for future research and implications for clinical practice.     

Prospective memory training in young adults enhances trained-task but not transfer-task performance

ABSTRACT

Training and transfer effects of prospective memory training have not been assessed in healthy young adults yet. The present study examined the effects of an 8-day prospective memory training programme using the Virtual Week computer game in 18–24-year-old students. Using the performance of an active control group as comparison, the study revealed a significant short-lived beneficial training-induced effect on a nearest-transfer task consisting of a different version of the trained task. No evidence was obtained for transfer effects to other tasks measuring prospective memory (near transfer), or to tasks measuring various executive functions or general intelligence (far transfer). These results were compared to those from a previous study in which an identical training and testing protocol was used in 13–15-year-old adolescents. This study did reveal some evidence of near and far transfer. The results of the two studies combined suggest a greater potential for prospective memory training to induce beneficial transfer effects in young adolescents than in young adults.     

全球视野下高等医学教育面临的挑战与改革出路

医学卫生人才培养质量和高等医学教育改革备受全球瞩目.分别从体制层面涉及的四个功能和教学层面涉及的四个方面分析了目前我国高等医学教育面临的一些问题及其原因,并从全球视野出发,重新定位医学教育改革的目标,探讨在全球视野下我国高等医学教育改革的出路,提出改革构想.     

Green construction and energy training program for at‐risk individuals: a case study

Training individuals who are at risk of unemployment/underemployment to increase their employability is a mission of many nonprofit agencies. These training programs, often supported by government funding, attempt to reduce these individuals’ reliance on government assistance. The purpose of this study is to obtain hard data and an in‐depth understanding about the factors that contribute to the success of the Green Construction training program. The methodology used is a multimethod, multimeasure approach, which provides a reasonably robust triangulation of results. The findings indicate that the program is successful because it has good participant retention, knowledge gain, and placement rates.     

Cognitive bias modification of interpretations: A viable treatment for child and adolescent anxiety?

Anxiety disorders in children and adolescents are common and impairing. As many patients do not benefit from – or have difficulties accessing – frontline treatments, novel, effective and easy-to-deliver interventions are needed. Cognitive Bias Modification of Interpretations (CBM-I) training has been used to treat adult anxiety disorders. CBM-I methods train individuals to endorse benign rather than negative resolutions of ambiguous cues. Developmental extensions of CBM-I are important for several reasons. First, implementing CBM-I in symptomatic children and adolescents may facilitate early preventative gains. Second, as training uses simple learning mechanisms, CBM-I may reflect a developmentally-suitable strategy for shaping adaptive processing styles. Third, as this age range involves protracted neurocognitive maturation and associated plasticity, administering CBM-I early could drive powerful, long-lasting benefits for emotional development. Finally, data from CBM-I studies could inform the cognitive mechanisms involved in the genesis of early-emerging anxiety. This paper provides the first organised review of CBM-I studies conducted in children and adolescents, and contains suggestions for future research that may help realise the therapeutic potential of early CBM-I interventions.     

Music Training and Semantic Clustering in College Students

College students with 5 or more years of music training recalled significantly more words from a 16-item word list than did students with 0-4 years of training. The superior recall of the extensively trained students linked to better application of a semantic-clustering strategy across a series of 3 test trials. Music education and language experience may have similar influences on the development of verbal memory.     

Effects of Frustration Increase and Decrease on Percentage of Short Interresponse Times

The finding by H. L. Armus (1986) that short (less than 1 s) interresponse times (IRTs) occur with greater frequency at higher levels of required lever-pressing effort was investigated. It has been hypothesized that greater percentages of short IRTs at higher effort requirements are an expression of frustration (S. Boyer & R. Carroll, 1980); in the present study, between-groups manipulations of effort and reward combinations were made in an attempt to increase and decrease relative frustration and thereby increase and decrease percentages of short IRTs. The subjects were 17 experimentally naive, male Long-Evans rats. Manipulation of effort requirements and reward magnitudes yielded both an increase and a decrease in percentage of short IRTs. The rats switched from low effort and high reward to high effort and low reward demonstrated the greatest increase in percentage of short IRTs, whereas the rats switched from low effort and low reward to high effort and high reward demonstrated a decrease in short IRTs.