Childhood Anxiety Sensitivity Index Factors Predict Unique Variance in DSM‐IV Anxiety Disorder Symptoms

Anxiety sensitivity (AS) is an established cognitive risk factor for anxiety disorders. In children and adolescents, AS is usually measured with the Childhood Anxiety Sensitivity Index (CASI). Factor analytic studies suggest that the CASI is comprised of 3 lower‐order factors pertaining to Physical, Psychological and Social Concerns. There has been little research on the validity of these lower‐order factors. We examined the concurrent and incremental validity of the CASI and its lower‐order factors in a non‐clinical sample of 349 children and adolescents. CASI scores predicted symptoms of DSM‐IV anxiety disorder subtypes as measured by the Spence Children's Anxiety Scale (SCAS) after accounting for variance due to State‐Trait Anxiety Inventory scores. CASI Physical Concerns scores incrementally predicted scores on each of the SCAS scales, whereas scores on the Social and Psychological Concerns subscales incrementally predicted scores on conceptually related symptom scales (e.g. CASI Social Concerns scores predicted Social Phobia symptoms). Overall, this study demonstrates that there is added value in measuring AS factors in children and adolescents.     

Health-related behaviours and their correlates in a general population sample of 45-year old women

Abstract

Preventive strategies for menopausal women to reduce the risks for osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease has been the focus of considerable attention, but understanding of mid-aged women's behavioural risk factors for these diseases is meagre. The current study describes a range of health-related behaviours and their psychosocial correlates, in a sample of 45-year old women, recruited from five general practices and assessed by postal survey (N=106, response rate 60%). Results suggest that health promotion for this group might best focus upon increases in regular exercise, calcium intake and breast awareness, and decreases in cigarette and caffeine consumption. The behaviours assessed were generally not inter-related. However, several associations were identified between behaviours and health and psychosocial variables. The main ones were the association between menopausal status and smoking, and the relationship between body weight, self-esteem and physical exercise. It is argued that the menopause transition can be an opportunity for preventive work.     

双视角下编码与提取相关性词差异的ERP研究

当个体的特征对周围人的利害影响大于本人时（如残忍）,该特征是他相关（other-relevance）的;反之则是主相关（possessor-relevance,如忧郁）的。研究比较了两种视角下（接受者视角：加工他人的特征;持有者视角：加工自我的特征）相关性特征在编码（判断特征词的相关性）与提取（新旧判断）过程中的ERP特点并发现：编码时双视角下都有他相关比主相关的波幅更大;提取时双视角下都有他相关比主相关的N400波形更负,仅在持有者视角时主相关比他相关的P600更正。可见他相关的加工优势体现在双视角下编码的全程与提取的早期,而主相关的优势表现在持有者视角的情景记忆提取过程中。     

Temporal processing within and across senses

This special issue on temporal processing within and across senses was the outcome of a two-day workshop that took place in Tübingen, Germany. The aim of the workshop and this special issue was to advance our knowledge on timing and the senses and to bring together two lines of research that have not yet interacted, those of synchrony and duration perception.     

Notes on Kant's derivation of the various formulae of the categorical imperative

Abstract

This article is concerned with examining Kant's derivation of the various formulae of his Categorical Imperative. It is in agreement with Paton in maintaining that Kant actually mentions five formulae. But it is not in agreement with him, and some others, in maintaining that they are ultimately reducible to three. Nor is it in agreement with those who maintain that they are ultimately reducible to just one. According to the present article, they are ultimately reducible to two: that about a moral law being a universal law; and that about a moral law involving treating human beings as ends in themselves.     

初中生感知教师自主支持对学业倦怠的影响：基本心理需要、自主动机的中介作用

以自我决定理论为基础,使用修订的学习氛围量表、基本心理需要量表、学业调节问卷和学业倦怠问卷对613名初中生进行施测,探讨了初中生感知的教师自主支持、基本心理需要、自我决定动机和学业倦怠之间的关系。研究发现：（1）学生感知的教师自主支持与基本心理需要满足、自主动机呈显著正相关,基本心理需要满足、自主动机与学业倦怠水平呈显著负相关;（2）基本心理需要、自主动机可以单独作为中介变量在学生感知教师自主支持与学业倦怠之间起中介作用,基本心理需要-自主动机也可以形成中介链在学生感知教师自主支持与学业倦怠之间起中介作用。     

Brief Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia in Parkinson's Disease: A Case Series Study1

Parkinson's disease (PD) patients frequently suffer from insomnia and insomnia can result in reduction of quality of life in PD. Although pharmacotherapy is most applicable for insomnia, it may cause side-effects in PD. The purpose of the study was to investigate the efficacy of brief cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBTI) in PD. A total of 11 PD patients aged 43–84 years with chronic insomnia received two sessions of CBTI. Patients reported a significant decrease in total score for the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI). The total score for the Parkinson's Disease Sleep Scale (PDSS) improved. Although objective sleep measured by actigraph did not improve, subjective sleep measured by sleep diary improved. Functional impairment measured by the Sheehan Disability Scale (SDS) significantly decreased. These results revealed that brief CBTI was effective in improving insomnia in PD, with improvements extending to functional impairments that had been affected by insomnia. Additionally, this non-pharmacotherapy treatment could be easily applied to PD patients who may have difficulty coming to the clinic frequently due to physical symptoms.     

The effect of question repetition within interviews on young children's eyewitness recall

This study investigated the influence of question repetition and question type (answerable, unanswerable, or opinion seeking) on children's recall. A total of 136 children (5-, 7-, and 9-year-olds) watched a live 15-min presentation. One week later, the children were asked 20 questions that were repeated an additional two times within the interview. Accuracy of children's responses to unanswerable questions declined with repetition. Children were more likely to change a response to an unanswerable question than to an answerable question. Overall, children maintained the same answers to only three-quarters of the repeated questions. The most common pattern of change was for children to change their answer the second time a question was asked and then to maintain that answer when questioned again. The high percentage of changed answers within a single interview has important implications for forensic interviewing.     

Are young children's drawings canonically biased?

In a between-subjects design, 4- to 6-year-olds were asked to draw from three-dimensional (3D) models, two-and-a-half-dimensional (212D) models with or without depth cues, or two-dimensional (2D) models of a familiar object (a saucepan) in noncanonical orientations (handle at the back or at the front). Results showed that canonical errors were produced mainly by the youngest children in the 3D models copying condition. A large proportion of errors did not, however, reflect biases toward the participants' "own" view of the object; rather, these errors reflected biases toward their "best" view of the object. Drawing from models having fewer than three dimensions resulted in a significant increase in view-specific productions in all children for the back orientation. When a more complex front orientation of the object was proposed, sensitivity to model type developed gradually with age. Results are discussed in terms of the flexibility of the mental model that mediates between children's perception of a model object and the depiction decisions.     

The sensitivity of response rate to the rate of variable-interval reinforcement for pigeons and rats: a review

The relation between the rate of a response (B) and the rate of its reinforcement (R) is well known to be approximately hyperbolic: B = kR/(R + Ro), where k represents the maximum response rate, and Ro indicates the rate of reinforcers that will engender a response rate equal to half its maximum value. A review of data reported in 17 published papers revealed that, under variable-interval schedules of reinforcement, Ro was usually lower when pigeons were the subjects than when rats were the subjects. The value of k, in contrast, did not differ consistently between pigeons and rats. Some accounts interpret Ro as the rate of alternative, unscheduled reinforcers in the situation, expressed in units of the scheduled reinforcer. So interpreted, the difference in Ro implies that less alternative reinforcement (relative to the scheduled reinforcement) typically is available to pigeons in their operant conditioning chambers than it is to rats in theirs. Whether or not that interpretation of Ro is valid, the pigeon-rat difference in Ro ensures that for reinforcer rates above about 10 per hour, response rate will be noticeably less sensitive to changes in reinforcer rate (and presumably to changes in other incentive and motivational operations) with pigeons than with rats as subjects, at least with the experimental conditions typically employed.