Cutting stress off at the pass: Reducing vigilance and responsiveness to social threat by manipulating attention.

Personality processes relating to social perception have been shown to play a significant role in the experience of stress. In 5 studies, the authors demonstrate that early stage attentional processes influence the perception of social threat and modify the human stress response. The authors first show that cortisol release in response to a stressful situation correlates with selective attention toward social threat. Second, the authors show in 2 laboratory studies that this attentional pattern, most evident among individuals with low self-esteem, can be modified with a repetitive training task. Next, in a field study, students trained to modify their attentional pattern to reduce vigilance for social threat showed lower self-reported stress related to their final exam. In a final field study with telemarketers, the attentional training task led to increased self-esteem, decreased cortisol and perceived stress responses, higher confidence, and greater work performance. Taken together, these results demonstrate the impact of antecedent-focused strategies on the late-stage consequences of social stress. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reading and the corpus callosum: An MRI family study of volume and area.

This study examines the corpus callosum in 68 readers nested in 24 families. Callosa were measured and controlled for whole brain volume, intelligence, and gender. The relation of corpus callosum size to the within-family variance of oral reading was investigated with various measurements: volume, midsagittal area, and anterior-to-posterior one-fifth area segmentations. Because this is the first known publication of MRI calculations of corpus callosum volume, some basic questions about bilateral symmetry and the efficacy of area versus volumetric measurements were explored. Results suggest that better readers within families have larger midsagittal areas at the midbody. Although reliably measured, volume did not contribute to oral reading but was highly correlated with area. Bilateral volumes of the corpus callosum were symmetric. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Modeling of high-affinity binding of the novel atrial anti-arrhythmic agent, vernakalant, to Kv1.5 channels

Vernakalant (RSD1235) is an investigational drug that converts atrial fibrillation rapidly and safely in patients intravenously [Roy et al., J. Am. Coll. Cardiol. 44 (2004) 2355–2361; Roy et al., Circulation 117 (2008) 1518–1525] and maintains sinus rhythm when given orally [Savelieva et al., Europace 10 (2008) 647–665]. Here, modeling using AutoDock4 allowed exploration of potential binding modes of vernakalant to the open-state of the Kv1.5 channel structure. Point mutations were made in the channel model based on earlier patch-clamp studies [Eldstrom et al., Mol. Pharmacol. 72 (2007) 1522–1534] and the docking simulations re-run to evaluate the ability of the docking software to predict changes in drug–channel interactions. Each AutoDock run predicted a binding conformation with an associated value for free energy of binding (FEB) in kcal/mol and an estimated inhibitory concentration (K_i). The most favored conformation had a FEB of −7.12 kcal/mol and a predicted K_i of 6.08 μM (the IC50 for vernakalant is 13.8 μM; [Eldstrom et al., Mol. Pharmacol. 72 (2007) 1522–1534]). This conformation makes contact with all four T480 residues and appears to be clearly positioned to block the channel pore.     

Longitudinal Effects of In-School and Out-of-School Homework on High School Grades.

Research has shown that time spent on homework is an important influence on school learning. Many students complete their "home" work in school, yet it is unclear whether homework's effectiveness varies depending on whether it is completed in school or at home. The purpose of this research was to determine the relative influence on students' high school grades of time spent doing homework in school as compared to time spent doing homework out-of-school. We used longitudinal data from the National Education Longitudinal Study to develop, cross-validate, and test a series of structural equation models of the effects of in-school and out-of-school homework on students' high school grades. Results suggest that out-of-school homework had a substantial effect on grades, whereas in-school homework had no such effect. This finding held across different definitions of homework, and when using achievement test scores as an alternative measure of school learning. The findings suggest that schools should encourage students to complete homework at home, rather than in school. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Confirmatory factor structure of the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children--Second Edition: Consistency with Cattell-Horn-Carroll theory.

The Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children-Second Edition (KABC-II) is a departure from the original KABC in that it allows for interpretation via two theoretical models of intelligence. This study had two purposes: to determine whether the KABC-II measures the same constructs across ages and to investigate whether those constructs are consistent with Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) theory. Multiple-sample analyses were used to test for equality of the variance-covariance matrices across the 3- to 18-year-old sample. Higher-order confirmatory factor analyses were used to compare the KABC-II model with rival CHC models for children ages 6 to 18. Results show that the KABC-II measures the same constructs across all ages. The KABC-II factor structure for school-age children is aligned closely with five broad abilities from CHC theory, although some inconsistencies were found. Models without time bonuses fit better than those with time bonuses. The results provide support for the construct validity of the KABC-II. Additional research is needed to more completely understand the measurement of fluid reasoning and the role of time bonuses on some tasks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)