Attitude, knowledge, and skill competencies for practice in professional geropsychology: Implications for training and building a geropsychology workforce.

Professional geropsychology is a growing area of practice and training. To meet the mental health needs of an aging population, increasing numbers of psychologists need to develop competence to work with older adults, their families, and related care systems. The Pikes Peak model for geropsychology training (Knight, Karel, Hinrichsen, Qualls, & Duffy, 2009) delineates attitude, knowledge, and skill competencies for professional geropsychology practice and makes recommendations for training. In this paper, we define and illustrate the Pikes Peak geropsychology practice competencies through a case example. In the case, an older man with complex needs seeks care through a generalist psychologist in an outpatient setting. The attitudes, knowledge, and skills that the psychologist needs to consider, and implications for training, are reviewed. Training recommendations and resources are provided, with a focus on the training needs of psychologists who wish to expand their practices to include older adults. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Video game training to improve selective visual attention in older adults

The current study investigated the effect of video game training on older adult’s useful field of view performance (the UFOV® test). Fifty-eight older adult participants were randomized to receive practice with the target action game (Medal of Honor), a placebo control arcade game (Tetris), a clinically validated UFOV training program, or into a no contact control group. Examining pretest–posttest change in selective visual attention, the UFOV improved significantly more than the game groups; all three intervention groups improved significantly more than no-contact controls. There was a lack of difference between the two game conditions, differing from findings with younger adults. Discussion considers whether games posing less challenge might still be effective interventions for elders, and whether optimal training dosages should be higher.     

Mediators of aggression among young adult offspring of depressed mothers.

The current article explores the connection between maternal depression and offspring aggression during the transition to adulthood, expanding the scope of prior research on this topic. Both family-level factors (including parent–child relationship quality and maternal romantic relationship quality) and youth factors (including depression history and social functioning in midadolescence) were tested as potential mediators in a longitudinal community sample of 710 youth at ages 15 and 20. The results suggest that maternal depression confers a risk for higher levels of aggressive behavior by offspring at age 20. Structural equation models suggested that the association between maternal depression and youth aggression is fully mediated by youth history of depression by midadolescence, even when accounting for the stability of aggression between ages 15 and 20. Parent–child relationship quality, youth social functioning, and maternal relationship quality were not unique mediators of this association. Limitations and implications are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Expertise and age-related changes in components of intelligence.

In a sample of 263 male GO players at 48 levels of expertise and ranging from 18 to 78 years of age, it was found that factors of expertise deductive reasoning (EDR) and expertise working memory (EWM) were independent of factors of fluid reasoning (Gf) and short-term working memory (STWM) that, along with cognitive speed (Gs), have been found to characterize decline of intelligence in adulthood. The main effects of analyses of cross-sectional age differences indicated age-related decline in EDR and EWM as well as in Gf, STWM, and Gs. However, interaction and partialing analyses indicated that decline in EDR and EWM decreased to no decline with increase in level of expertise. The results thus suggest that with increase in factors known to raise the level of expertise—particularly, intensive, well-designed practice there may be no age-related decline in the intelligence that is measured in the abilities of expertise. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Early development in males with Fragile X syndrome: a review of the literature

This article reviews the current bibliographic knowledge on early neurobehavioral development and milestones in Fragile X syndrome (FraX), with emphasis on males affected by the condition. Three broad areas of early development were examined: (1) gross and fine motor, (2) speech and language, and (3) social. The result of the current review indicates very limited information on the developmental milestones in all three areas. The scarce literature on motor development shows that in FraX there is an early developmental delay. Research on speech and language demonstrates pervasive deficits in conversational skills and severe developmental delay, with increasing discrepancy between language level and chronological age in young males with FraX. Finally, deficits in social development in FraX include abnormal gaze, approach and avoidance conflict, and high incidence of autistic spectrum disorders.     

Correction to Dittmar, Halliwell, and Ive (2006).

Reports an error in "Does Barbie make girls want to be thin? The effect of experimental exposure to images of dolls on the body image of 5- to 8-year-old girls" by Helga Dittmar, Emma Halliwell and Suzanne Ive (Developmental Psychology, 2006 Mar, Vol 42[2], 283-292). A substantive error occurs in the Body shape dissatisfaction section on page 287. The sentence describing the calculation of body shape dissatisfaction scores from girls' responses to the Child Figure Rating Scale should instead read as follows: "A body shape dissatisfaction score was computed by subtracting the girl's actual from her ideal body size." (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2006-03514-007.) The ubiquitous Barbie doll was examined in the present study as a possible cause for young girls' body dissatisfaction. A total of 162 girls, from age 5 to age 8, were exposed to images of either Barbie dolls, Emme dolls (U.S. size 16), or no dolls (baseline control) and then completed assessments of body image. Girls exposed to Barbie reported lower body esteem and greater desire for a thinner body shape than girls in the other exposure conditions. However, this immediate negative impact of Barbie doll was no longer evident in the oldest girls. These findings imply that, even if dolls cease to function as aspirational role models for older girls, early exposure to dolls epitomizing an unrealistically thin body ideal may damage girls' body image, which would contribute to an increased risk of disordered eating and weight cycling. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Violence classifications and their impact on observed relationships with key factors in young offenders.

The understanding of violent criminal behavior is hindered by definitional problems in both the legal and research communities. Different definitions of violent criminal behavior and different classifications of the severity of violence are fundamental problems that need to be resolved in order to develop better conceptual models of the precursors to criminal violence that can inform management and treatment of violent young offenders. This study evaluated 6 classifications of violent juvenile offenses derived from the legal system and published research. The authors compare frequencies from different classifications and examine the influence of classifications on observed associations with expected predictor variables. Differences in frequencies and perceived associations between classifications highlight the need to adopt a consistent method of coding violent offenses for research purposes in order to obtain valid results that are capable of informing policy, the judiciary, and the development of effective interventions. The final classification system offers a method of systematic coding based on the type, frequency, and outcome of the violent behavior that distinguishes between levels of violence severity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attentional versus motor inhibition in adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Faulty inhibition is theorized to be a central feature in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), but it remains unclear whether inhibitory impairments encompass both motoric and attentional domains. Further, characterization of inhibitory deficits in adults with ADHD is needed. We experimentally assessed adults who met diagnostic criteria for ADHD and a subgroup who had partially remitted. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.; American Psychiatric Association, 1994) subtype effects were also examined. Motoric inhibition was assessed with the antisaccade task, and attentional inhibition was assessed with the attentional blink (AB) task. Antisaccade results replicated prior findings of extended latencies and increased anticipatory saccades in ADHD. Errors, however, appeared to be epiphenomenal to ADHD as they were absent when symptoms had partially remitted. Anticipatory saccades appeared as potential core problems that remained even when symptoms had improved. Differential response patterns were found for predominantly inattentive and combined subtypes, with the latter showing increasing anticipatory movements with increasing fixation time. In the AB task, ADHD groups committed more errors but showed no convincing evidence of an abnormal blink. These results demonstrate clear effects on motoric inhibition but not attentional inhibition in adults with ADHD. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Aging, practice, and perceptual tasks: A diffusion model analysis.

Practice effects were examined in a masked letter discrimination task and a masked brightness discrimination task for college-age and 60- to 75-year-old subjects. The diffusion model (Ratcliff, 1978) was fit to the response time and accuracy data and used to extract estimates of components of processing from the data. Relative to young subjects, the older subjects began the experiments with slower and less accurate performance; however, across sessions their accuracy improved because the quality of the information on which their decisions were based improved, and this, along with reduced decision criteria, led to shorter response times. For the brightness, but not the letter, discrimination task, the older subjects' performance matched that of the younger group by the end of 4 sessions, except that their nondecision components of processing were slightly slower. These analyses illustrate how a well-specified model can provide a unified view of multiple aspects of data that are often interpreted separately. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

婴幼儿配方食品和乳粉中维生素B2的测定

采用高效液相-二极管阵列检测器检测婴幼儿配方食品和乳粉中核黄素(维生素B2),样品在稀盐酸环境中高温水解、酶解,经C18反相色谱柱分离,流动相为乙酸钠(pH=4.5)-甲醇(体积比为65∶35),检测波长为450nm。本方法中维生素B2线性范围为0~26.5μg/mL,检出限为0.02μg/mL。维生素B2平均加标回收率为94.0%,维生素B2相对标准偏差为0.44%,合成标准不确定度为4.917×10-3。该方法简单、快速、测定干扰小,结果与国家标准测定方法比较无显著性差异。