Psychiatry and Psychology Commons^™

The Relationship Between Collective Action And Well-Being And Its Moderators: Pervasiveness Of Discrimination And Dimensions Of Action, Mindi D. Foster

Psychology Faculty Publications

Given the negative impact of perceiving gender discrimination on health (e.g., Pascoe & Smart Richman, 2009), there is a need to develop interventions to attenuate this effect; collective action may be one such intervention. Study 1 (N = 185) used an experimental paradigm to investigate whether undergraduate women in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada perceived pervasiveness of discrimination would interact with their collective action-taking to predict negative mood and well-being. Results showed that among those perceiving pervasive gender discrimination, informing friends/family and informing the media led to greater well-being than doing nothing, whereas among those perceiving gender discrimination as isolated, doing nothing …

Subjective And Non-Subjective Information In Children’S Allegations Of Abuse, Jennifer E. Newman, Kim P. Roberts

Psychology Faculty Publications

In this study, we were interested in how interviewers elicit subjective information in investigations of child abuse (e.g., descriptions of thoughts, emotions, opinions). Sixty-one interviews of children aged 4-12 years old were analyzed to determine the amount of subjective information versus non-subjective event details reported, and the type of question that elicited the information. Interviewers elicited more non-subjective than subjective information, although there was more focus on subjective information in the rapport-building phase than in the substantive phase when the allegations were elicited. Interviewer prompts and child responsiveness was congruent such that non-subjective questions elicited more non-subjective information, and subjective …

Recommendations For Interviewing Children About Repeated Experiences, Martine B. Powell, Sonja P. Brubacher, Kim P. Roberts

Psychology Faculty Publications

For just over two decades, researchers have been conducting empirical studies devoted to understanding children’s memory for, and ability to describe, individual occurrences of events they have experienced repeatedly. This knowledge is critical because children making allegations of repeated abuse are required to provide details particular to an individual incident in many jurisdictions internationally. Based on this theoretical foundation, we provide specific suggestions to practitioners to assist children in reporting as much information as possible about individual occurrences and techniques that may assist them in doing so accurately. These recommendations cover both presubstantive (i.e., “practice”) and substantive phases of the …

Children’S Use Of A ‘Time Line’ To Indicate When Events Occurred, Leanne L. Gosse, Kim P. Roberts

Psychology Faculty Publications

Children who allege abuse are often asked to provide temporal information such as when the events occurred. Yet, young children often have difficulty recalling temporal information due to their limited knowledge of temporal patterns and linguistic capabilities. As time is an abstract concept (we cannot see it), some investigators have begun to use ‘time-lines’ or pictorial representations of time to aid children. Yet, there is no published research testing whether children are able to use time-lines and whether they can provide adequate temporal information using them. We tested whether children could indicate the time-of-day of events using a pictorial time-line …

Affective Responses To Music Without Recognition: Beyond The Cognitivist Hypothesis, W. Trey Hill

Psychology Faculty Publications

A recent topic of concern for those interested in the science of music is whether affective responses to music are the result of recognition or actual affective experience. Cognitivist researchers have found that individuals recognize rather than feel an affective response when listening to music, while emotivist proponents posit that people have an intrinsic affective experience to music. While it has been promoted that biological methods must be used in order to answer this recognition-experience problem cited above, the current authors employed a more traditional technique (i.e., paper and pencil self-report surveys). Data from the present study show that participants …

Common And Specific Impairments In Attention Functioning In Girls With Chromosome 22q11.2 Deletion, Fragile X Or Turner Syndromes., A I. Quintero, Elliott A. Beaton, Danielle J. Harvey, Judith L. Ross, Tony J. Simon

Psychology Faculty Publications

Background:

Chromosome 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11.2DS), fragile X syndrome (FXS), and Turner syndrome (TS) are complex and variable developmental syndromes caused by different genetic abnormalities; yet, they share similar cognitive impairments in the domains of numbers, space, and time. The atypical development of foundational neural networks that underpin the attentional system is thought to result in further impairments in higher-order cognitive functions. The current study investigates whether children with similar higher-order cognitive impairments but different genetic disorders also show similar impairments in alerting, orienting, and executive control of attention.

Methods:

Girls with 22q11.2DS, FXS, or TS and typically developing (TD) …

Pharmacological Interventions For Somatoform Disorders In Adults [Protocol], Maria Kleinstäuber, Michael Witthöft, Andrés Steffanowski, Michael Lambert, Günter Meinhardt, Klaus Lieb, Wolfgang Hiller

Psychology Faculty Publications

This is a protocol for a Cochrane Review (Intervention). The objectives are as follows: To assess the effects of pharmacological interventions for somatoform disorders (specifically somatisation disorder, undifferentiated somatoform disorder, somatoform autonomic dysfunction, and pain disorder) in adults.

Dynamics Of Vocalization-Induced Modulation Of Auditory Cortical Activity At Mid-Utterance, Zhaocong Chen, Jeffery A. Jones, Peng Liu, Weifeng Li, Dongfeng Huang, Hanjun Liu

Psychology Faculty Publications

Background: Recent research has addressed the suppression of cortical sensory responses to altered auditory feedback that occurs at utterance onset regarding speech. However, there is reason to assume that the mechanisms underlying sensorimotor processing at mid-utterance are different than those involved in sensorimotor control at utterance onset. The present study attempted to examine the dynamics of event-related potentials (ERPs) to different acoustic versions of auditory feedback at mid-utterance.

Methodology/Principal findings: Subjects produced a vowel sound while hearing their pitch-shifted voice (100 cents), a sum of their vocalization and pure tones, or a sum of their vocalization and white noise at …

Auditory-Motor Adaptation To Frequency-Altered Auditory Feedback Occurs When Participants Ignore Feedback, Dwayne Nicholas Keough, Colin Hawco, Jeffery A. Jones

Psychology Faculty Publications

Background

Auditory feedback is important for accurate control of voice fundamental frequency (F0). The purpose of this study was to address whether task instructions could influence the compensatory responding and sensorimotor adaptation that has been previously found when participants are presented with a series of frequency-altered feedback (FAF) trials. Trained singers and musically untrained participants (nonsingers) were informed that their auditory feedback would be manipulated in pitch while they sang the target vowel [/ɑ /]. Participants were instructed to either ‘compensate’ for, or ‘ignore’ the changes in auditory feedback. Whole utterance auditory feedback manipulations were either gradually presented …

The Impact Of The Criminalization Of Hiv Non-Disclosure On The Health And Human Rights Of “Black” Communities, Ciann L. Wilson

Psychology Faculty Publications

The criminalization of HIV non-disclosure has become a hot topic for discussion and debate amongst human rights advocates, HIV/AIDS service providers, and people infected and affected by HIV/AIDS. This paper explores the inherent problems with HIV non-disclosure laws. These laws are ambiguous and pose a serious threat to public health policy and programming by obstructing the fundamental human rights of people infected and affected by HIV/AIDS. Using a human rights framework, this paper explores the impact of non-disclosure laws on the health and rights of African, Caribbean, and Black-Canadian communities and proposes ways to address the shortcomings of HIV non-disclosure …

Everyday Confrontation Of Discrimination: The Well-Being Costs And Benefits To Women Over Time., Mindi D. Foster

Psychology Faculty Publications

Taking action against discrimination has positive consequences for well-being (e.g., Cocking & Drury, 2004) but most of this research has focused on collective actions and has used methodologies assessing one point in time. This study therefore used a diary methodology to examine how women’s everyday confrontations of discrimination would affect measures of subjective and psychological well-being, and how these relationships would change over time. In a 28-day online diary study, women indicated their daily experience of discrimination, described their response, and completed measures of well-being. Results showed that at the beginning of the study, using indirect confrontation predicted greater well-being …

How Do Interviewers And Children Discuss Individual Occurrences Of Alleged Repeated Abuse In Forensic Interviews?, Sonja P. Brubacher, Lindsay C. Malloy, Michael E. Lamb, Kim Roberts

Psychology Faculty Publications

Police interviews (n = 97) with 5- to 13-year-olds alleging multiple incidents of sexual abuse were examined to determine how interviewers elicited and children recounted specific instances of abuse. Coders assessed the labels for individual occurrences that arose in interviews, recording who generated them, how they were used, and other devices to aid particularisation such as the use of episodic and generic language. Interviewers used significantly more temporal labels than did children. With age, children were more likely to generate labels themselves, but most children generated at least one label. In 66% of the cases, interviewers ignored or replaced …

Gaze, Goals And Growing Up: Effects On Imitative Grasping, Sonja P. Brubacher, Kim P. Roberts, Sukhvinder S. Obhi

Psychology Faculty Publications

Developmental differences in the use of social-attention cues to imitation were examined among children aged 3- and 6-years old (n = 58) and adults (n = 29). In each of 20 trials, participants watched a model grasp two objects simultaneously and move them together. On every trial, the model directed her gaze towards only one of the objects. Some object pairs were related and had a clear functional goal outcome (e.g., flower, vase), while others were functionally unrelated (e.g., cardboard square, ladybug). Owing to attentional effects of eye gaze, it was expected that all participants would more faithfully …

Processing Of Affective Faces Varying In Valence And Intensity In Shy Adults: An Event-Related Fmri Study, Erica Tatham, Louis A. Schmidt, Elliott A. Beaton, Jay Schulkin, Geoffrey B. Hall

Psychology Faculty Publications

Recent behavioral and electrocortical studies have found that shy and socially anxious adults are hypersensitive to the processing of negative and ambiguous facial emotions. We attempted to extend these findings by examining the neural correlates of affective face processing in shy adults using an event-related fMRI design. We presented pairs of faces that varied in affective valence and intensity. The faces were morphed to alter the degree of intensity of the emotional expressive faces. Twenty-four (12 shy and 12 non-shy) young adult participants then made same/different judgments to these faces while in an MR scanner. We found that shy adults …

Retrieval Of Episodic Versus Generic Information: Does The Order Of Recall Affect The Amount And Accuracy Of Details Reported By Children About Repeated Events?, Sonja P. Brubacher, Kim P. Roberts, Martine B. Powell

Psychology Faculty Publications

Children (N = 157) 4- to 8-years old participated 1 (single) or 4 times (repeated) in an interactive event. Across each condition, half were questioned a week later about the only or a specific occurrence of the event (Depth-first), and then about what usually happens. Half were prompted in the reverse order (Breadth-first). Children with repeated experience who first were asked about what usually happens reported more event-related information overall than those asked about an occurrence first. All children used episodic language when describing an occurrence; however children with repeated-event experience used episodic language less …

Dynamic Associations Of Change In Physical Activity And Change In Cognitive Function: Coordinated Analyses Of Four Longitudinal Studies, Magnus Lindwall, Cynthia R. Cimino, Laura Gibbons, Meghan Mitchell, Andreana Benitez, Cassandra L. Brown, Robert F. Kennison, Steven D. Shirk, Alireza Atri, Annie Robitaille, Stuart W. Macdonald, Elizabeth M. Zelinski, Sherry L. Willis, K. Warner Schaie, Boo Johannson, Marcus Praetorius, Roger A. Dixon, Dan M. Mungas, Scott M. Hofer, Andrea M. Piccinin

Psychology Faculty Publications

The present study used a coordinated analyses approach to examine the association of physical activity and cognitive change in four longitudinal studies. A series of multilevel growth models with physical activity included both as a fixed (between-person) and time-varying (within-person) predictor of four domains of cognitive function (reasoning, memory, fluency, and semantic knowledge) was used. Baseline physical activity predicted fluency, reasoning and memory in two studies. However, there was a consistent pattern of positive relationships between time-specific changes in physical activity and time-specific changes in cognition, controlling for expected linear trajectories over time, across all four studies. This pattern was …

Impaired Object Tracking In Children With Chromosome 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome, Margarita H. Cabaral, Elliott A. Beaton, Joel Stoddard, Tony J. Simon

Psychology Faculty Publications

Background:

Chromosome 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome (22q11.2DS) occurs in approximately 1:4,000 live births with a complex and variable presentation that includes medical, socioemotional and psychological symptoms with intellectual impairment. Cognitive impairments in spatiotemporal and visuospatial attention have also been reported. However, maintenance of selective attention to dynamic and interacting objects has not been systematically investigated in children with 22q11.2DS.

Methods:

We used a multiple object tracking task to assay capacity and resolution performance of children with 22q11.2DS aged 7 to 14 years versus age-matched typically developing (TD) peers.

Results:

Children with 22q11.2DS but not TD children demonstrated impaired performance when task …

Vibrotactile Working Memory As A Model Paradigm For Psychology, Neuroscience, And Computational Modeling, Tyler D. Bancroft, William E. Hockley, Philip Servos

Psychology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Children’S Episodic And Generic Reports Of Alleged Abuse, Luke Schneider, Heather L. Price, Kim Roberts, Amy M. Hedrick

Psychology Faculty Publications

With the present data, we explored the relations between the language of interviewer questions, children’s reports, and case and child characteristics in forensic interviews. Results clearly indicated that the type of questions posed by interviewers – either probing generic or episodic features of an event – was related to the specificity of information reported by children. Further, interviewers appeared to adjust their questioning strategies based on the frequency of the alleged abuse. Children alleging single instances of abuse were asked more episodic questions than those alleging multiple abuses. In contrast, children alleging multiple incidents of abuse were asked a greater …

Neuropsychiatric Profiles In Dementia, David K. Johnson, Amber S. Watts, Benjamin A. Chapin, Raeann E. Anderson, Jeffrey M. Burns

Psychology Faculty Publications

We compared patterns of neuropsychiatric symptoms across 4 dementia types [Alzheimer disease (AD), vascular dementia (VAD), dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), and Parkinson disease dementia], and 2 mixed groups (AD/VAD and AD/DLB) in sample of 2,963 individuals from the National Alzheimer's Coordinating Center Uniform Data Set between September 2005 and June 2008. We used confirmatory factor analysis to compare neuropsychiatric symptom severity ratings made by collateral sources on the Neuropsychiatric Inventory Questionnaire for people with Clinical Dementia Rating scores of 1 or higher. A 3-factor model of psychiatric symptoms (mood, psychotic, and frontal) was shared across all dementia types. Between-group …

Does Practice Make Perfect? A Randomized Control Trial Of Behavioral Rehearsal On Suicide Prevention Gatekeeper Skills, Wendi F. Cross, David Seaburn, Danette Gibbs, Karen Schmeelk-Cone, Ann Marie White, Eric D. Caine

Psychology Faculty Publications

Suicide is the third leading cause of death among 10-24-year-olds and the target of school-based prevention efforts. Gatekeeper training, a broadly disseminated prevention strategy, has been found to enhance participant knowledge and attitudes about intervening with distressed youth. Although the goal of training is the development of gatekeeper skills to intervene with at-risk youth, the impact on skills and use of training is less known. Brief gatekeeper training programs are largely educational and do not employ active learning strategies such as behavioral rehearsal through role play practice to assist skill development. In this study, we compare gatekeeper training as usual …

Auditory Feedback Control Of Vocal Pitch During Sustained Vocalization: A Cross-Sectional Study Of Adult Aging, Peng Liu, Zhaocong Chen, Jeffery A. Jones, Dongfeng Huang, Hanjun Liu

Psychology Faculty Publications

Background: Auditory feedback has been demonstrated to play an important role in the control of voice fundamental frequency (F₀), but the mechanisms underlying the processing of auditory feedback remain poorly understood. It has been well documented that young adults can use auditory feedback to stabilize their voice F₀ by making compensatory responses to perturbations they hear in their vocal pitch feedback. However, little is known about the effects of aging on the processing of audio-vocal feedback during vocalization.

Methodology/Principal Findings: In the present study, we recruited adults who were between 19 and 75 years of age and …

Mechanisms Of Interference In Vibrotactile Working Memory, Tyler D. Bancroft, Philip Servos, William E. Hockley

Psychology Faculty Publications

In previous studies of interference in vibrotactile working memory, subjects were presented with an interfering distractor stimulus during the delay period between the target and probe stimuli in a delayed match-to-sample task. The accuracy of same/different decisions indicated feature overwriting was the mechanism of interference. However, the distractor was presented late in the delay period, and the distractor may have interfered with the decision-making process, rather than the maintenance of stored information. The present study varies the timing of distractor onset (either early, in the middle, or late in the delay period), and demonstrates both overwriting and non-overwriting forms of …

The Effects Of An Intensive Training And Feedback Program On Investigative Interviews Of Children, Heather L. Price, Kim P. Roberts

Psychology Faculty Publications

In the present study, we assessed the effectiveness of an extensive training and feedback program with investigative interviewers of child victims of alleged abuse and neglect in a large Canadian city. Twelve investigative interviewers participated in a joint training initiative that lasted eight months and involved classroom components and extensive weekly verbal and written feedback. Interviewers were significantly more likely to use open-ended prompts and elicited more information from children with open-ended prompts following training. These differences were especially prominent following a subsequent ‘refresher’ training session. No negative effects of training were observed. Clear evidence was found of the benefits …

The Effect Of Event Repetition On The Production Of Story-Grammar In Children’S Event Narratives, Brooke B. Feltis, Martine B. Powell, Kim P. Roberts

Psychology Faculty Publications

Objective: This study examined the effect of event repetition on the amount and nature of story grammar produced by children when recalling the event.

Method: Children aged 4 years (N = 50) and 7 years (N = 56) participated in either one or six occurrences of a highly similar event where details varied across the occurrences. Half the children in each age and event group recalled the last/single occurrence 5-6 days later and the other half recalling the last/single occurrence after 5-6 weeks (the final and single occurrence was the same). Children’s free recall responses were classified according …

Effects Of Practicing Episodic Versus Scripted Recall On Children’S Subsequent Narratives Of A Repeated Event, Sonja P. Brubacher, Kim P. Roberts, Martine B. Powell

Psychology Faculty Publications

Children (N = 240) aged 5 to 8 participated in 1 or 4 activity sessions involving interactive tasks (e.g., completing a puzzle); children with single-event participation served as a control group. One week after their last/only session, all children were practised in episodic recall of unrelated experiences by asking about either 1) a single-experience event, 2) a specific instance of a repeated event, or 3) scripted recall of a series of events. Children were subsequently interviewed in an open-ended, non-suggestive manner about one of the activity sessions; children with repeated experience were permitted to nominate the session they wanted …

Children’S Ability To Recall Unique Aspects Of One Occurrence Of A Repeated Event, Sonja P. Brubacher, Una Glisic, Kim P. Roberts, Martine B. Powell

Psychology Faculty Publications

Preschool and school-age children’s memory and source monitoring were investigated by questioning them about one occurrence of a repeated lab event (n = 39). Each of the four occurrences had the same structure, but with varying alternatives for the specific activities and items presented. Variable details had a different alternative each time; hi/lo details presented the identical alternative three times and changed once. New details were present in one occurrence only and thus had no alternatives. Children more often confused variable, lo, and new details across occurrences than hi details. The 4- to 5-year-oldchildren were less …

Using Spaced Learning Principles To Translate Knowledge Into Behavior: Evidence From Investigative Interviews Of Alleged Child Abuse Victims, Alexis E. Rischke, Kim P. Roberts, Heather L. Price

Psychology Faculty Publications

The present study assessed the progress of 13 investigative interviewers (child protection workers and police officers) before, during, and after an intensive training program (n = 132 interviews). Training began with a 2-day workshop covering the principles of child development and child-friendly interviewing. Interviewers then submitted interviews on a bi-weekly basis to which they received written and verbal feedback over an 8-month period. A refresher session took place two months into training. Interestingly, improvements were observed only after the refresher session. Interviews conducted post-refresher training contained proportionally more open-ended questions, more child details in response to open-ended questions, and proportionally …

How Might Stress Contribute To Increased Risk For Schizophrenia In Children With Chromosome 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome?, Elliott A. Beaton, Tony J. Simon

Psychology Faculty Publications

The most common human microdeletion occurs at chromosome 22q11.2. The associated syndrome (22q11.2DS) has a complex and variable phenotype with
a high risk of schizophrenia. While the role of stress in the etiopathology of schizophrenia has been under investigation for over 30 years (Walker et al. 2008), the stress–diathesis model has yet to be investigated in children with
22q11.2DS. Children with 22q11.2DS face serious medical, behavioral, and socioemotional challenges from infancy into adulthood. Chronic stress elevates glucocorticoids, decreases immunocompetence, negatively impacts brain
development and function, and is associated with psychiatric illness in adulthood. Drawing knowledge from the extant and well-developed …

Work Intensity And Substance Use Among Adolescents Employed Part-Time In Entry-Level Jobs, Jessica Samuolis

Psychology Faculty Publications

This study investigated the relationship between number of hours worked, or work intensity, and substance use in a sample of adolescent employees of a supermarket chain. Employees working half-time or more per week (high-intensity hours) were over three times as likely to smoke compared to those working an average of 10 hours or less per week (low-intensity hours). Males working a high intensity number of hours were more than twice as likely to drink compared to males working at low intensity. Utilizing participants drawn from a uniform employment setting, the research findings add to the growing body of evidence linking …