Working memory impairments in dyslexia are well documented. However, research has mostly been limited to the phonological domain, a modality in which people with dyslexia have a range of problems. In ...this paper, 22 adult students with dyslexia and 22 age- and IQ-matched controls were presented with both verbal and visuospatial working memory tasks. Performance was compared on measures of simple span, complex span (requiring both storage and processing), and dynamic memory updating in the two domains. The dyslexic group had significantly lower spans than the controls on all the verbal tasks, both simple and complex, and also on the spatial complex span measure. Impairments remained on the complex span measures after controlling statistically for simple span performance, suggesting a central executive impairment in dyslexia. The novelty of task demands on the initial trials of the spatial updating task also proved more problematic for the dyslexic than control participants. The results are interpreted in terms of extant theories of dyslexia. The possibility of a supervisory attentional system deficit in dyslexia is also raised. It seems clear that working memory difficulties in dyslexia extend into adulthood, can affect performance in both the phonological and visuospatial modalities, and implicate central executive dysfunction, in addition to problems with storage.
Three linked studies, testing key aspects of the Pathways towards Problem and Pathological Gambling Model (Blaszczynski and Nower in Addiction 87(5):487–499,
2002
), are presented. Study one ...comprised 204 students and 490 gambling forum users. It predicted differences in gambling severity, mental health and substance use across different motives for gambling. Those with a primary social motive for gambling displayed less severe gambling and anxiety than those without, with the primary coping subgroup displaying the most anxiety and depression. Those who gambled primarily to enhance positive affect reported severe gambling. Study two comprised 404 gambling forum users and 265 students. Similar groups to the Pathways Model emerged, with a behaviourally conditioned and an emotionally vulnerable group. Unexpectedly, however, those in the emotionally vulnerable group reported more severe cognitive distortions than the behaviourally conditioned group. The final study, 378 gambling forum users and 201 students, found, as predicted, that three distinct gambling groups emerged; (1) those with lower levels of psychopathology and higher levels of protective factors; (2) those with heightened pre-existing anxiety and depression, and moderate levels of protective factors; and (3) those with heightened impulsivity, psychopathology, offending behaviour and the least protective factors. Three gambling groups are consequently presented (Social Gambler; Affect-Regulation Gambler; Antisocial Gambler) alongside the proposed Integrated Risk and Protective Factors Model of Gambling Types (IRPF-MGT). Directions for future research and implications for practice are outlined.
•Population health and wellbeing are informed by social and political contexts.•The public education system is a key feature of a county's infrastructure.•We used four indicators to assess a county's ...education context.•These included local revenue, per-pupil spending, teacher salary, and curriculum.•Counties that offered quality education contexts had better health and wellbeing.
Stark inequalities in health and wellbeing exist across US counties. Schools are a key feature of counties and residents often make decisions about where to live based on the quality of the local schools. How counties invest in their local schools may reflect one way that health and wellbeing become embedded in geographic places.
We constructed four indicators of county-level education context using administrative data from all US public schools and linked these to population health data from the RWJF County Health Rankings and Roadmaps Program. Using state-fixed effects spatial error models, we examined if county-level education context relates to county rankings on two indices of population health and wellbeing – quality of life and health behaviors – after adjusting for county-level demographic, economic, and social contexts.
Total county revenue from local sources and the percentage of a county's high school students enrolled in advanced placement coursework were associated with better county rankings on quality of life and health behavior. We also found a curvilinear relationship between county-level per-pupil spending and county rankings on our population health and wellbeing outcomes. In fully adjusted models, the education context indicators were attenuated; all three remained significantly associated with county rankings on health behavior, but only revenue from local sources was significantly associated with county rankings on quality of life.
Providing a quality education context may yield health and wellbeing dividends at the county-level given the public education system's far-reaching influence on social and economic wellbeing.
Federal legislation and judicial intervention led to significant transformation in the U.S. education system during the early to mid-twentieth century. These changes may differentiate older adults in ...their experiences of aging, particularly at the intersection of race, gender, and cohort, but are not well documented among current cohorts of older adults. Our study addresses this gap by providing rich, descriptive information on the educational experiences of U.S. adults who attended primary or secondary school between 1915 and 1977. We used data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), a nationally representative, prospective study of U.S. adults over age 50 years. The HRS collected information on respondents’ schooling history and experiences through a Life History Mail Survey (LHMS). We restricted our sample to age-eligible HRS-LHMS respondents who self-identified as non-Hispanic White or non-Hispanic Black and completed at least 75% of their primary or secondary schooling in the U.S. (
n
= 10,632). Educational experiences, defined as pre-k to post-secondary education, varied across cohort, regardless of race or gender. Greater course offerings, improvements in learning support, and increasing exposure to integrated schools occurred across successive cohorts. We found the highest rates of enrollment in college preparatory curriculum and foreign-language courses as well as diagnosed learning differences in cohorts born after 1948. Among White adults, many of the gender differences in educational experiences documented in the oldest cohort were still found among the most recent cohort. Few gender differences, however, were found for Black adults regardless of cohort. Conversely, most race inequities in educational experiences persisted. Such inequities may be an important source of continued differences in experiences of aging observed across demographic groups.
Probability judgment is a vital part of many aspects of everyday life. In the present paper, we present a new theory of the way in which individuals produce probability estimates for joint events: ...conjunctive and disjunctive. We propose that a majority of individuals produce conjunctive (disjunctive) estimates by making a quasi‐random adjustment, positive or negative, from the less (more) likely component probability with the other component playing no obvious role. In two studies, we produce evidence supporting propositions that follow from our theory. First, the component probabilities do appear to play the distinct roles we propose in determining the joint event probabilities. Second, contrary to probability theory and other accounts of probability judgment, we show that the conjunctive‐less likely probability difference is unrelated to the more likely disjunctive probability difference (in normative theory these quantities are identical). In conclusion, while violating the norms of probability judgment, we argue that estimates produced in the manner we propose will be close enough to the normative values especially given the changing nature of the external environment and the incomplete nature of available information.
ABSTRACT Objective Gender and racial/ethnic disparities in sleep duration are well documented among the U.S. adult population, but we know little about how these disparities are shaped during the ...early course of adult life, a period marked by substantial changes in social roles that can influence time for sleep. Methods Prospective data was used from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97), a U.S.-based representative sample of persons born between 1980 and 1984, who were first interviewed in 1997. Sleep duration was assessed in 2002, 2007/2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011. Random-coefficient models were estimated to examine gender and racial/ethnic disparities in trajectories of sleep duration across early adulthood as a function of educational experiences, employment, and family relationships. Results Sleep duration declined during early adulthood. Women reported shorter sleep than men from age 18 to 22, but slept longer than men by age 28. Young adults of black race/ethnnicity reported sleep durations similar to those of young adults of white race/ethnicity until age 24, after which blacks slept less than whites. Educational experiences and employment characteristics reduced gender and racial/ethnic disparities, but family relationships exacerbated them. Conclusion This study is the first to establish the emergence of gender and racial/ethnic disparities in sleep duration during early adulthood.
Aims/Objectives
Cognitive deficits are now well documented in ecstasy (MDMA) users with type and relative demand of task emerging as important factors. The updating component of executive processes ...appears to be particularly affected. The study reported here used functional near infrared spectroscopy imaging to investigate changes in cortical haemodynamics during memory updating.
Method
Twenty ecstasy users and 20 non‐users completed verbal and spatial memory updating tasks and brain blood oxygenation and deoxygenation change was measured using functional near infrared spectroscopy.
Results
There was no interaction between group and difficulty on the updating tasks, though there was a significant main effect of difficulty on both tasks. The effects of group approached significance on the verbal updating task. There were significant differences in blood oxygenation and deoxygenation change at optodes centred over the right and left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, with ecstasy users showing greater blood oxygenation than the other groups.
Discussion
The lack of a behavioural difference on both tasks but presence of blood oxygenation and deoxygenation changes in letter updating provides support for the notion that ecstasy‐polydrug users are investing more effort to achieve the same behavioural output. Total lifetime dose was high, and recency of use was significantly related to most changes, suggesting that heavy and recent use may be particularly detrimental.
Previous findings report use of the drug ecstasy (MDMA) to be associated with lower emotional intelligence (EI), and compromised functioning in brain areas responsible for emotion. This study ...explored the relationship between ecstasy use, EI, mood and parenting styles. Questionnaire measures of drug use, lifestyle, parenting style and EI were obtained, with separate IQ measures for fluid intelligence (Ravens matrices) and pre-morbid intelligence National Adult Reading Test (NART). Current mood measures were obtained from an adjective checklist. The sample comprised 78 ecstasy/polydrug users, 38 cannabis only users and 34 non-drug users. Drug use was categorised at three levels (non-user, cannabis-only user and ecstasy-polydrug user). Factorial ANOVA using drug use as an independent variable showed no significant group effects in EI. EI showed significant correlations with current mood that were positive for arousal and negative for both anxiety and depression. EI was also significantly and positively correlated with the perceived degree of parental control. Regression analyses showed that these relationships remained significant after controlling for differences in IQ, age, gender, and ecstasy use. Adverse mood effects specifically associated with ecstasy use were significantly related to lower EI, and were independent of IQ, age and gender. Higher EI was significantly associated with ecstasy-related precautions used when taking this drug. Contrary to earlier findings, ecstasy-polydrug users did not differ from non-users on EI. However, self-reported ecstasy-related mood disturbances were related to lower EI, with the compromising of orbitofrontal cortical functioning being possible here.
Tversky and Kahneman's (1983) account of conjunctive probability judgment in terms of the representativeness heuristic is questioned. Instead, potential surprise (Shackle, 1969) is proposed as an ...important mechanism underlying subjective probability judgment. Study 1 reveals that, consistent with Shackle's theory, probabilities assigned to conjunctions are predominantly determined by the magnitude of the smaller component event probability. Also consistent with Shackle, Study 2 shows that for disjunctions, this role is performed by the larger component. Study 3 again contrasts the relative roles played by the component events in determining the value assigned to the conjunction. The results of the study are consistent with two reasoning processes: one analytically based, in which due account is taken of both component events, the other heuristic in nature and consistent with Shackle's theory of potential surprise. The implications of these results for a range of different types of judgment, e.g. with regard to person perception, stereotyping, categorization, and typicality, are evaluated.
Introduction and Aims. Research in adolescents has shown that parental warmth and control are important factors in drug use. The present study focused upon investigating perceived parental warmth and ...control in a sample of post-adolescent ecstasy polydrug users, and investigating their relationship to severity of drug use. Design and Methods. A total of 128 (65 male) ecstasy polydrug users, 51 (17 male), cannabis-only users and 54 (13 male) non-users were recruited from a university population. All participants completed the parenting styles and drug use questionnaires. Results. Compared to non-users, a greater proportion of ecstasy polydrug users characterised their parents' style as neglectful. The modal style endorsed by non-users was authoritative. Those who rated their parents' style as authoritative had significantly lower lifetime consumption and average dose of ecstasy relative to those describing their parents as neglectful. Again, relative to those describing their parents as neglectful, participants from authoritarian backgrounds had significantly smaller lifetime consumption of ecstasy and cocaine and significantly smaller average doses of cannabis, ecstasy and cocaine. Contrary to expectation, there was no significant association between perceived parental warmth and the severity of ecstasy use. Discussion and Conclusions. The present study is, to our knowledge, the first to quantify drug use, and relate it to perceived parental practices in a post-adolescent sample of ecstasy polydrug users. The results provide further support for the relationship between perceived parental control and drug use.
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