Effects of talker variability on speechreading

The effects of talker variability on visual speech perception were tested by having subjects speechread sentences from either single-talker or mixed-talker sentence lists. Results revealed that changes in talker from trial to trial decreased speechreading performance. To help determine whether this decrement was due to talker change--and not a change in superficial characteristics of the stimuli--Experiment 2 tested speechreading from visual stimuli whose images were tinted by a single color, or mixed colors. Results revealed that the mixed-color lists did not inhibit speechreading performance relative to the single-color lists. These results are analogous to findings in the auditory speech literature and suggest that, like auditory speech, visual speech operations include a resource-demanding component that is influenced by talker variability.     

Patterns of Daily Time Use of Young Adults With or Without First-Episode Psychosis

This study compared patterns of daily activities and satisfaction with time use of young adults with first-episode psychosis and healthy volunteers. Fifty young adults participated in retrospective structured interviews on time use. Young adults with first-episode psychosis spend more time in sleep, passive leisure, and personal care activities, and less in total productive activities and education. No difference appeared for leisure, paid work, and household work, or satisfaction with daily time use. Reasons underlying dissatisfaction with daily time use differed between the groups. Clinical and research implications are discussed.     

Alcohol as social lubricant.

This study examines how consuming alcohol differentially affects the communicative behavior and perceptions of high and low social self‐esteem (SSE) women as they engage in a brief interaction with a flirtatious male. Alcohol myopia theory proposes that alcohol affects behavior when it blocks a person's normal inhibitions about enacting a behavior. It was predicted that low SSE women would be more inhibited when talking to a flirtatious male than would high SSE women and, therefore administration of a social self‐esteem measure and random assignment to an alcoholic or nonalcoholic beverage condition, participants (N=50) talked with an attractive, flirtatious male confederate. Low SSE women were less anxious and self‐disclosed more when drinking than when sober, whereas high SSE women were not significantly affected by alcohol consumption. The discussion highlights the complex and often contradictory effects of alcohol consumption on social interaction.     

Adrenocortical Functioning in Boys with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: Examining Subtypes of ADHD and Associated Comorbid Conditions

Disruptions to hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis function have been associated with varying forms of psychopathology in children. Studies suggesting children with ADHD have blunted HPA function have been complicated by the prevalence of comorbid diagnoses and heterogeneity of ADHD. The goals of this research were to assess the relations between waking and stress–response salivary cortisol levels and comorbid disruptive behavior (DBD) and anxiety (AnxD) disorders and problems in boys with ADHD, and to examine whether cortisol levels varied across ADHD subtypes. One hundred seventy elementary school-age boys with ADHD provided salivary cortisol at waking and in reaction to venipuncture. Parent reports were used to assess boys’ psychiatric diagnoses and severity of behavioral problems. Boys’ comorbid AnxD and anxiety problems were associated with greater cortisol reactivity, whereas boys’ comorbid DBD and oppositional problems predicted diminished adrenocortical activity. Reactive cortisol increases were greatest in boys with ADHD and comorbid AnxD, but without DBD. ADHD subtypes were not differentially associated with waking, pre-stress baseline, or reactive cortisol levels. However, comorbid DBD predicted decreased cortisol reactivity in boys with inattentive and hyperactive subtypes of ADHD, but not in boys with combined subtype of ADHD. The results clarify previous patterns of distinct and divergent dysregulations of HPA function associated with boys’ varying kinds of psychopathology.

Retrospective assessment of childhood sexual and physical abuse: a comparison of scaled and behaviorally specific approaches

This study compared retrospective reports of childhood sexual and physical abuse as assessed by two measures: the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), which uses a Likert-type scaling approach, and the Computer Assisted Maltreatment Inventory (CAMI), which employs a behaviorally specific means of assessment. Participants included 1,195 undergraduate students recruited from three geographically diverse universities. Agreement was high across the two measures in the classification of victim status (92% and 80% for sexual and physical abuse, respectively). However, the CTQ classified more participants as sexually abused than did the CAMI, whereas the opposite trend was found for physical abuse. For child physical abuse, many participants reporting abusive acts on the CAMI scored below the cut-point for physical abuse on the CTQ. Classification differences for both types of abuse were largely unrelated to demographic factors, socially desirable responding, or self-reported withholding of information. The implications of these results are discussed in light of future research using retrospective methods of assessing childhood abuse.     

Efficacy of guided self-help behavioural activation and physical activity for depression: a randomized controlled trial

Behavioural activation and physical activity have received empirical support that highlight their efficacy in reducing depression. Even though both behavioural activation and physical activity share the common goal of reactivating the individual, limited research has directly compared these interventions, and more research is required to evaluate their efficacy when offered in low-intensity formats. The present study involves a randomized controlled clinical trial comparing the efficacy of two guided self-help interventions for the treatment of depression: behavioural activation and physical activity. Fifty-nine participants presenting mild-to-moderate symptoms of depression were randomized either to a behavioural activation intervention (n = 20), a physical activity intervention (n = 19) or a wait-list control group (n = 20). All participants completed symptom measure pre-, mid- and post-intervention, as well as at a two-month follow-up. Mixed-model analyses of variance revealed that both interventions were significantly more efficacious in reducing depressive symptoms in comparison with the control group. Physical activity involved significantly less time-investment compared to the behavioural activation condition (less than half the amount of time). These results indicate that physical activity and behavioural activation both effectively reduce depressive symptoms and are favourably applicable in low-intensity formats. Implications of these results and avenues for future research are discussed.     

Implicit Memory in Korsakoff’s Syndrome: A Review of Procedural Learning and Priming Studies

Korsakoff's syndrome (KS) is characterized by dense anterograde amnesia resulting from damage to the diencephalon region, typically resulting from chronic alcohol abuse and thiamine deficiency. This review assesses the integrity of the implicit memory system in KS, focusing on studies of procedural learning and priming. KS patients are impaired on several measures of procedural memory, most likely due to impairment in cognitive functions associated with alcohol-related neural damage outside of the diencephalon. The pattern of performance on tasks of implicit priming suggests reliance on a residual, non-flexible memory operating more or less in an automatic fashion. Our review concludes that whether measures of implicit memory reveal intact or impaired performance in individuals with KS depends heavily on specific task parameters and demands, including timing between stimuli, the specific nature of the stimuli used in a task, and the integrity of supportive cognitive functions necessary for performance.     

The Impact of a Pre-Vocational Program on Cognition,Symptoms, and Work Re-Integration in Schizophrenia

This study measured the effects of a pre-vocational program on cognition, symptoms, and integration to work in schizophrenia. Twelve participants, receiving pharmacological treatment only, were compared to 14 participants, who were part of a pre-vocational program and who received pharmacological treatment on pre and post measures. The work skills training group was offered by an occupational therapist. Results showed statistically significant differences in negative and general symptoms, visual attention, learning, and integration to work when comparing the two groups in favor of the program. These results provide evidence of the positive effects of occupational therapy interventions in mental health.     

The effects of violent video games on aggression.

Violent content video games such as Mortal Kombat and Doom have become very popular among children and adolescents, causing great concern for parents, teachers, and policy makers. This study cumulates findings across existing empirical research on the effects of violent video games to estimate overall effect size and discern important trends and moderating variables. Results suggest there is a smaller effect of violent video games on aggression than has been found with television violence on aggression. This effect is positively associated with type of game violence and negatively related to time spent playing the games. Directions for future programmatic research on video games are outlined.     

SEVERITY OF CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE AND REVICTIMIZATION: THE MEDIATING ROLE OF COPING AND TRAUMA SYMPTOMS

Child sexual abuse (CSA) has consistently been associated with the use of avoidant coping; these coping methods have been associated with increased trauma symptoms, which have, in turn, been linked to increased risk for adult sexual revictimization. Given these previous findings, the purpose of the current study was to test a model that conceptualized the relationships among these variables. Specifically, CSA severity was conceptualized as leading to the use of avoidant coping, which was proposed to lead to maintenance of trauma symptoms, which would, in turn, impact severity of revictimization indirectly. This comprehensive model was tested in a cross-sectional study of a large, geographically diverse sample of college women. Participants were 99 female undergraduates classified as having experienced CSA who completed measures of abuse history, coping style, current levels of trauma symptoms, and adult sexual revictimization. Multivariate path analysis indicated that the data fit the hypothesized model for verbally coercive, but not physically aggressive, revictimization. Specifically, increased CSA severity was associated with the use of avoidant coping, which, in turn, predicted greater levels of trauma symptomatology and severity of sexual coercion in adulthood. Although cross-sectional in nature, findings from this study suggest that coping strategies and trauma symptoms may represent modifiable factors that place women at increased risk for verbally coercive sexual revictimization.