Reflections on the EPPP: A commentary on Sharpless and Barber.

In their article “The EPPP in the Era of Evidence-Based Practice,” B. A. Sharpless and J. P. Barber (see record 2009-11890-004) shine a critical spotlight on the standardized exam for professional psychology licensure. Yet their arguments are based on some inaccurate assumptions about the purpose and the validity of the Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology (EPPP). In this critical response paper, we focus on several areas of disagreement with Sharpless and Barber, including the purpose of the EPPP, reflections on its validity and failure rates, and the need for generic versus specialized entry-level professional licensure. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Continuing education in psychology: Outcomes, evaluations, and mandates.

How effective is continuing education (CE) for maintaining professional competencies, how should its effects be measured, and should it be mandated for licensure renewal? These and other questions were addressed in a review of the existing literature and a survey of 6,095 professional psychologists regarding their CE experiences, perceptions, and preferences. The substantial majority of respondents reported their CE experiences to be good to excellent. Overall, they reported learning a great deal that frequently translated into their practices and contributed to their more effective and ethical practice. Most also supported the idea of mandated CE, although they preferred the use of participant satisfaction ratings to knowledge or skills assessments as mechanisms for evaluating their learning. Significant differences were found between psychologists who were operating with CE mandates and those operating without mandates; mandated psychologists completed significantly more CE credits than nonmandated psychologists and were stronger supporters of CE mandates. Findings are discussed in relation to critical issues that confront the field of professional psychology and its continuing commitment to the development and documentation of professional competencies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Increasing Substance Abuse Treatment Compliance for Persons With Traumatic Brain Injury.

This study compared 3 methods of increasing participation in substance abuse treatment for clients with traumatic brain injury. Participants (N = 195) were randomly assigned to 4 conditions: (a) motivational interview, (b) reduction of logistical barriers to attendance, (c) financial incentive, and (d) attention control. Four interviewers conducted structured, brief telephone interventions targeting the timeliness of signing an individualized service plan. Participants assigned to the barrier reduction (74%) and financial incentive (83%) groups were more likely to sign within 30 days compared with the motivational interview (45%) and attention control (45%) groups. Similar results were observed for time to signing, perfect attendance at appointments, and premature termination during the following 6 months. Extent of psychiatric symptoms was the only significant covariate. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conditioning-specific reflex modification of rabbit (oryctolagus cuniculus) heart rate.

Conditioning-specific reflex modification (CRM) describes changes in rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) nictitating membrane responses (NMR) to an unconditioned stimulus (US) when the US is tested by itself after pairings of tone and electrodermal stimulation. Although CRM has been replicated, it is unclear whether it occurs in response systems other than that of the NMR. The authors report that CRM of rabbit heart rate (HR) can occur following HR conditioning. A US that elicits HR acceleration before conditioning can elicit HR deceleration after conditioning. The rabbits' electrocardiograms showed both HR conditioning and HR CRM were correlated with an increased PQ interval--an index of parasympathetic function mediated by the vagus. The data suggest conditioned HR deceleration can generalize from conditioned stimulus to US as a function of conditioning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Studies of heteropoly acid/polyvinylidenedifluoride–hexafluoroproylene composite membranes and implication for the use of heteropoly acids as the proton conducting component in a fuel cell membrane

Complete polarization curves for a number of heteropoly acids (HPAs), H₃PW₁₂O₄₀, α-H₃P₂W₁₈O₆₂, H₆P₂W₂₁O₇₁, and H₆As₂W₂₁O₆₉ as the only proton conducting component are presented for the first time. Both thin pellets of HPA and composite membranes of 1:1 (w/w) of HPA and polyvinylidenedifluoride–hexafluoropropylene (PVDF–HFP) are investigated. Although the pellets are somewhat variable, the HPA phase changes can be observed by electrochemistry and these materials show promise for solid acid fuel cell performance at >200 °C. The high proton conductivities reported for HPAs at RT are demonstrated in fuel cells using HPA/PVDF–HFP composites with limiting current densities as high as 1.6 A cm⁻² using dry O₂ and H₂. Moderate fuel cell activity is demonstrated for α-H₃PW₁₈O₆₂ at 120 °C and 25%RH. Unfortunately all of the materials studied were somewhat porous and the open circuit potentials observed were somewhat low. We were also able to show that an HPA fuel cell could be shorted by reduction of the HPA to a heteropoly blue under exceptional circumstances.     

K‐12 Outreach: Identifying the Broader Impacts of Four Outreach Projects

Over the last four years, a series of outreach programs have been offered through the Colorado School of Mines to middle school teachers from eleven school districts in the State of Colorado in the United States. Each of these programs is designed to illustrate through hands‐on activities the application of mathematics to science and engineering. Each also has an academic year follow‐up such that a faculty member, an expert teacher, or a graduate student assists the teachers in the classroom. An expected outcome of this effort is the improvement of instruction in mathematics and science in the participating middle schools; an unexpected outcome has been the impact of these projects on the culture of the participating schools, both middle schools and university. Based on our assessment efforts, this article describes the qualitative and quantitative outcomes of this sequence of projects on middle school students, teachers, graduate students, professors, and college curriculum.     

Etiology and measurement of relational aggression: A multi-informant behavior genetic investigation.

Although the study of relational aggression is gaining attention in the literature, little is known about the underlying causes of this behavior and the relative validity of various informants. These issues were addressed in a sample of 1,981 6- to 18-year-old twin pairs (36% female, 34% male, 30% opposite-sex). Relational aggression was assessed via maternal and self-report using a structured interview. Univariate models estimated genetic and environmental influences by informant and examined evidence for gender differences. A psychometric model combined data from both informants to estimate etiologic influences that were both common to the informants and informant specific. In both sexes, the latent variable reflecting the mother’s and child’s shared perception of the child’s relational aggression was substantially influenced by both additive genetic (63%) and shared environmental (37%) influences, although this latent variable accounted for much greater variance in the maternal report (66%) than it did in the youth report (9%). In addition, informant-specific additive genetic and shared environmental influences were found only for the youth report, with all remaining variance in the mother’s report attributed to nonshared environmental influences. Results are discussed in the context of measuring relational aggression and the importance of multiple informants. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The sexual harassment of uppity women.

In 3 studies, the author tested 2 competing views of sexual harassment: (a) It is motivated primarily by sexual desire and, therefore, is directed at women who meet feminine ideals, and (b) it is motivated primarily by a desire to punish gender-role deviants and, therefore, is directed at women who violate feminine ideals. Study 1 included male and female college students (N = 175) and showed that women with relatively masculine personalities (e.g., assertive, dominant, and independent) experienced the most sexual harassment. Study 2 (N = 134) showed that this effect was not because women with relatively masculine personalities were more likely than others to negatively evaluate potentially harassing scenarios. Study 3 included male and female employees at 5 organizations (N = 238) and showed that women in male-dominated organizations were harassed more than women in female-dominated organizations, and that women in male-dominated organizations who had relatively masculine personalities were sexually harassed the most. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Nonstrategic contributions to putatively strategic effects in selective attention tasks.

Proportion compatible manipulations are often used to index strategic processes in selective attention tasks. Here, a subtle confound in proportion compatible manipulations is considered. Specifically, as the proportion of compatible trials increases, the ratio of complete repetitions and complete alternations to partial repetitions increases on compatible trials but decreases on incompatible trials. This confound is demonstrated to lead to an overestimation in the magnitude of the proportion compatible effect in the context of both a Stroop and a Simon task. Implications for previous research and directions for future research using proportion compatible manipulations are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gap detection deficits in rats with tinnitus: A potential novel screening tool.

The study describes a novel method for tinnitus screening in rats by use of gap detection reflex procedures. The authors hypothesized that if a background acoustic signal was qualitatively similar to the rat's tinnitus, poorer detection of a silent gap in the background would be expected. Rats with prior evidence of tinnitus at 10 kHz (n = 14) exhibited significantly worse gap detection than controls (n = 13) when the gap was embedded in a background similar to their tinnitus. No differences between tinnitus and control rats were found with 16 kHz or broadband noise backgrounds, which helped to rule out explanations related to hearing loss or general performance deficits. The results suggest that gap detection reflex procedures might be effective for rapid tinnitus screening in rats. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)