Are children better witnesses than adolescents? Developmental trends in different false memory paradigms

Abstract

The current study compared older children’s (11/12-year-olds) and adolescents’ (14/15-year-olds) vulnerability to false memory creation using two different methods (i.e., the Deese/Roediger-McDermott [DRM] and memory conformity paradigms) involving neutral and negative stimuli. In line with previous research, a developmental reversal effect was found for the DRM paradigm, which means that when employing this method children displayed lower false memory levels than adolescents. However, when using the memory conformity paradigm, the opposite pattern was found, with adolescents forming fewer false memories than children. This indicates that in a co-witness context, adolescents are less prone to memory errors than children. The emotional valence of the stimuli used in both paradigms did not notably affect the production of false memories. There was no statistically significant correlation between false memories as measured by the DRM and the memory conformity paradigms. Altogether, the current study indicates that there is no single type of false memory as different experimental paradigms evoke different types of erroneous recollections. Additionally, our study corroborates past findings in the literature concerning the issue of developmental reversal, strengthening the idea that under certain circumstances children might indeed be better witnesses than adolescents.     

‘Let's Talk About Children’: Investigating the Use of a Family‐focused Intervention in the Gambling Support Services Sector

The family‐focused mental health intervention, ‘Let's Talk About Children,’ has positively influenced the lives of families affected by parental mental illness. This paper outlines the use of this brief, strengths‐based intervention for parents with gambling and other co‐occurring issues from the gamblers’ support services sector. Over a six‐month period, a training manual and accompanying resources were adapted for the gamblers’ support services sector and a targeted training session developed. Nine problem gambling counsellors from three Victorian gambling support services trialled the Let's Talk About Children intervention over a four‐month period. Qualitative data were gathered through focus groups, interviews, and practice enquiry groups to determine the impact of the Let's Talk About Children model for gambling support services. The results are presented as ‘practice wisdoms and recommendations’ reporting on the impact of the trial and to provide some guidance to support others in the implementation of a specific family‐focused intervention. This paper reports on the first exploratory trial of Let's Talk About Children for the gambler's support services sector in Australia.     

The role of empathy in training social work students in motivational interviewing

Motivational interviewing (MI), an evidence-based approach with empathy as a key principle, effectively addresses client concerns found in the child welfare population. Training social workers in MI, and to be empathic, would increase the likelihood of better service delivery. Live supervision (LS) is a form of training that provides real-time feedback by clinical supervisors. This randomized comparison trial compared the effectiveness of LS or Teaching as Usual (TAU) on empathy in 54 MSW and BSW social work students. TAU involved students receiving online modules and assigned readings. Data were collected at baseline, after the interventions, and at five months follow-up. Differences in perceived empathy and empathic behaviors were measured by the Motivational Interviewing Treatment Integrity (MITI) and Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (TEQ). The study also assessed whether demographic variables or perceived empathy (TEQ) predicted empathic behaviors (MITI). Results indicate that, while both groups improved on empathy as measured by the MITI and TEQ, the LS group demonstrated more improvement. Demographic variables had no impact on empathy. The TEQ and MITI also did not demonstrate predictability suggesting the complexity of measuring empathy. The implications for social work education and future training are discussed.     

Exploring Home Sharing for Elders

Research suggests that third party-arranged home sharing (“TPAHS”) enables elders to remain at home in advanced age by connecting elder home owners with suitable live-in “matches.” TPAHS potentially saves elders, their families, and Medicaid budgets millions of a dollars per year in avoided and postponed nursing home costs. In interviews with elder TPAHS participants of one TPAHS program, we found that similarity in values, ability to utilize the TPAHS organization's guidance, and, when relevant, familiarity with their matches' mental health challenges, correlated with said participants' satisfaction with their matches while a lack of these qualities correlated with match dissatisfaction. With these findings in mind, we suggest strategies TPAHS organizations can use to best serve the elderly TPAHS participants who may benefit from intensified match support but may not seek it.     

Human rights as myth and ceremony? Reevaluating the effectiveness of human rights treaties, 1981-2007

Much research has shown human rights treaties to be ineffective or even counterproductive, often contributing to greater levels of abuse among countries that ratify them. This article reevaluates the effect of four core human rights treaties on a variety of human rights outcomes. Unlike previous studies, it disaggregates treaty membership to examine the effect of relatively "stronger" and "weaker" commitments. Two-stage regression analyses that control for the endogeneity of treaty membership show that stronger commitments in the form of optional provisions that allow states and individuals to complain about human rights abuses are often associated with improved practices. The article discusses the scholarly and practical implications of these findings.     

The effect of joint control training on the acquisition and durability of a sequencing task

Gutierrez (2006) experimentally demonstrated the effects of joint control and particularly the role of response mediation in the sequencing behavior of adults using an unfamiliar language. The purpose of the current study was to replicate and extend the procedures used by Gutierrez by comparing the effects of joint control training with the effects of a prompt-and-fade procedure on the acquisition of a sequencing task. The effects of each procedure on delayed sequencing behavior were also tested. Ten undergraduate students participated in 2 experiments. The results indicated that all participants acquired the sequencing response in fewer trials and maintained accurate delayed responding when the component responses necessary for joint control were directly taught. Finally, when the self-echoic mediation component was blocked, accurate responding deteriorated in 8 of 10 participants.     

Review of walking hazards for railroad workers

This is a review of walking tasks in the railroad environment, and the injuries that result from slips, trips, falls, or other acute or even non-traumatic exposures. The lack of federal regulations for railroad walkways has led several states to develop and enforce their own regulations. Support from the research literature for such regulations has come from biomechanical studies of the effects of walking on railroad ballast, which will be reviewed.     

Disability beliefs and help-seeking behavior of depressed Chinese-American patients in a primary care setting

In this study the authors assessed the effects of disability beliefs, conceptualization and labeling of emotional disabilities, and perceived barriers on help-seeking behaviors among depressed Chinese Americans in a primary care setting. Forty-two Chinese Americans participated in semistructured interviews using established psychological measures and open-ended questions adapted from the Explanatory Model Interview Catalogue. The authors found that care utilization appears to be complicated by somatization of emotional problems, variations in causal attribution to depression, barriers to receiving mental health care, and the burden of comorbid physical conditions. Their findings highlight the importance of addressing these issues and educating patients about body-mind dialectic common to depression.     

The effect of hours of work on social interaction

Increases in hours of work per capita over past 30?years have created an intuitively plausible notion that there now is less time for social interaction. The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the effect of hours of work on social interaction. The empirical work is complicated by the argument that unobserved factors could increase both hours of work and social interaction. The empirical work in this paper employs an exogenous decline in hours of work in France due to a new employment law to bypass this endogeneity problem. The data employed are derived from the 1999?C2003 Continuous Survey of Household Living Conditions which is a random sample of French households. Gender specific results from a difference-in-difference model show that the employment laws reduced hours of work but there is no evidence that the extra hours went to increased social interactions. Contrary to the intuitive argument, the paper concludes that in the range of approximately 94 extra hours of leisure per year, hours of work have no effect on social interaction.     

The Registers of Liberated Africans of the Havana Slave Trade Commission: Implementation and Policy, 1824–1841

The Registers of Liberated Africans that were compiled in the course of British anti-slave trade suppression contain detailed biographical information for individuals who were liberated from slave ships according to international law. These records are invaluable for an analysis of the demography of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, and hence it is necessary to assess critically their generation, including who made them and for what reasons. By focusing on the Havana Slave Trade Commission between 1824 and 1841, this essay provides an overview of the registration process of over 10,000 Africans, the structure of the Mixed Commission court, and details on the court officials, including a list of 162 African-born interpreters that resulted in the issuance of emancipation certificates to thousands of Liberated Africans who were subsequently subjected to terms of apprenticeship negotiated by the British and Spanish governments.