The Longitudinal Impact of a Family-Based Communication Intervention on Observational and Self-Reports of Sexual Communication

Parents can play a vital role in shaping teenagers’ sexual attitudes, behavior, and contraceptive use through communication, however, less is known about how to modify parent–adolescent communication among youth with mental health problems. The impact of a family-based sexual risk prevention intervention on both observational and self-report of parent–adolescent sexual communication was examined at 12 months among adolescents with mental health problems. Of the 721 parent–adolescent dyads recruited for the study, 167 videotapes of sexual discussions between parents and adolescent were coded for the family-based intervention and 191 videotapes for the active comparison. Longitudinal analyses examined differences between conditions (family-based vs. comparison) in self-reported and observed parent–adolescent sexual discussions and also examined the impact of gender on intervention response. More parent I-statements, healthier parent body language, and fewer adolescent Negative Vocalizations were detected for family-based intervention participants 12 months after participating in the brief intervention (11?h of total intervention time) relative to those in the comparison condition. Parents in the family-based intervention also self-reported better sexual communication at 12 months. The current study provides supporting evidence that a relatively brief family-based intervention was successful at addressing parent–adolescent sexual communication among a mental health sample.     

Heterogeneity in verbal memory: a marker of preclinical Alzheimer's disease?

Demonstrations of memory changes in those at risk for Alzheimer's disease by the presence of the APOE e4 allele have been inconsistent to date. The present study went beyond traditional analyses of central tendency (i.e., group differences on mean test scores) and also conducted distribution analyses to search for subtle cognitive differences in subgroups of normal-functioning elderly persons with the APOE e4 genotype. The results of the study revealed that (a) the e4 and non-e4 groups failed to differ in terms of their mean scores on tests of memory and verbal skills; and (b) relative to the non-e4 group, the e4 subjects had significantly greater heterogeneity of variance on the memory measures but not on fundamental verbal skills. Logistic regression analyses indicated that the discrepancy in scores on the memory measures was a significant predictor of genotype group membership (82% correct classification rate). Implications of these findings for the detection of a preclinical phase of AD are discussed.     

Seeing facial motion affects auditory processing in noise

Speech perception, especially in noise, may be maximized if the perceiver observes the naturally occurring visual-plus-auditory cues inherent in the production of spoken language. Evidence is conflicting, however, about which aspects of visual information mediate enhanced speech perception in noise. For this reason, we investigated the relative contributions of audibility and the type of visual cue in three experiments in young adults with normal hearing and vision. Relative to static visual cues, access to the talker??s phonetic gestures in speech production, especially in noise, was associated with (a) faster response times and sensitivity for speech understanding in noise, and (b) shorter latencies and reduced amplitudes of auditory N1 event-related potentials. Dynamic chewing facial motion also decreased the N1 latency, but only meaningful linguistic motions reduced the N1 amplitude. The hypothesis that auditory?Cvisual facilitation is distinct to properties of natural, dynamic speech gestures was partially supported.     

Latency of the blink reflex and stimulus intensity J

The latency of the eyeblink reflex is inversely related to the intensity of the auditory or visual stimuli used to evoke it. This is true for both mechanical and muscle action potential methods for recording the response.     

Word identification and eye fixation locations in visual and visual-plus-auditory presentations of spoken sentences

In this study, we investigated where people look on talkers' faces as they try to understand what is being said. Sixteen young adults with normal hearing and demonstrated average speechreading proficiency were evaluated under two modality presentation conditions: vision only versus vision plus low-intensity sound. They were scored for the number of words correctly identified from 80 unconnected sentences spoken by two talkers. The results showed two competing tendencies: an eye primacy effect that draws the gaze to the talkers eyes during silence and an information source attraction effect that draws the gaze to the talker's mouth during speech periods. Dynamic shifts occur between eyes and mouth prior to speech onset and following the offset of speech, and saccades tend to be suppressed during speech periods. The degree to which the gaze is drawn to the mouth during speech and the degree to which saccadic activity is suppressed depend on the difficulty of the speech identification task. Under the most difficult modality presentation condition, vison only, accuracy was related to average sentence difficulty and individual proficiency in visual speech perception, but not to the proportion of gaze time directed toward the talkers mouth or toward other parts of the talker's face.     

Training and credentialing in forensic psychiatry

The increase in legal regulation of psychiatric practice, malpractice litigation, number of mentally ill in correctional settings and concerns about the sometimes embarrassing quality of expert witness testimony has led to an heightened focus on training and credentialing of psychiatrists who work in these areas. The past 20 years has witnessed a growth of professional organizations, journals, accredited training programs and board certification. The paper outlines the nature of these programs and some of the dilemmas for the profession in establishing formal subspecialties.     

Perceived Strengths and Difficulties in Emotional Awareness and Accessing Emotion Regulation Strategies in Early Adolescents

Journal of Child and Family Studies - Emotional awareness (EA) and access to emotion regulation strategies (ER) are often conceptualized as being on a single continuum, yet discrepancies in these...     

Heterogeneity in Verbal Memory: A Marker of Preclinical Alzheimer's Disease?

ABSTRACT

Demonstrations of memory changes in those at risk for Alzheimer's disease by the presence of the APOE e4 allele have been inconsistent to date. The present study went beyond traditional analyses of central tendency (i.e., group differences on mean test scores) and also conducted distribution analyses to search for subtle cognitive differences in subgroups of normal-functioning elderly persons with the APOE e4 genotype. The results of the study revealed that (a) the e4 and non-e4 groups failed to differ in terms of their mean scores on tests of memory and verbal skills; and (b) relative to the non-e4 group, the e4 subjects had significantly greater heterogeneity of variance on the memory measures but not on fundamental verbal skills. Logistic regression analyses indicated that the discrepancy in scores on the memory measures was a significant predictor of genotype group membership (82% correct classification rate). Implications of these findings for the detection of a preclinical phase of AD are discussed.