Group administration influences design but not written word fluency testing

Adquisición y Recuerdo de Palabras Emocionales en Población Monolingüe y Bilingüe

La memoria emocional alude al efecto que poseen las emociones sobre la formación de recuerdos. En personas que utilizan un segundo idioma, este efecto presenta resultados controversiales. El objetivo de este trabajo fue indagar el posible efecto de la emoción en los procesos de memoria en personas adultas bilingües (BL) y monolingües (ML). Participaron 49 sujetos quienes codificaron una lista de palabras en español (ML y BL) o en inglés (BL) indicando valencia y arousal para cada una. Inmediatamente y siete días después, se evaluó su recuerdo libre y reconocimiento. Los resultados indicaron que para aquellos sujetos que codificaron los estímulos en español (ML y BL) las palabras fueron calificadas con una mayor carga emocional que para aquellos participantes que las codificaron en inglés (BL). Además, el grupo ML presentó mayor cantidad de intrusiones que ambos grupos BL. Se concluye que existen factores particulares en el procesamiento de la información emocional que modulan el recuerdo emocional en BL y ML.

Neuropsychological performance of Finnish and Egyptian children with autism spectrum disorder

Background

Previous studies investigating neuropsychological functioning of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have only analysed certain abilities, such as executive functions or language. While comprehensive assessment of the neuropsychological profile of children with ASD has been the focus of recent research, most of the published evidence originates from single centres. Though studies on differences in neuropsychological features of children with ASD across countries are essential for identifying different phenotypes of ASD, such studies have not been conducted.

Objective

Our goal was to assess the neuropsychological abilities of children with ASD in northern Finland and Egypt and to examine the effect of age and intelligence quotient (IQ) on these abilities.

Design

Selected verbal and non-verbal subtests of the neuropsychological assessment NEPSY were used to examine 88 children with ASD in northern Finland (n=54, age M=11.2, IQ M=117.1) and Egypt (n=34, age M=8.4, IQ M=96.6).

Results

Finnish ASD children scored significantly higher than their Egyptian counterparts on the verbal NEPSY subtests Comprehension of Instructions (p<0.001), Comprehension of Sentence Structure (p<0.01), Narrative Memory (p<0.001) and Verbal Fluency (p<0.05) and on the non-verbal NEPSY subtest Design Fluency (p<0.01). Finnish and Egyptian ASD children did not differ on the subtests Memory for Faces, Object Recognition and Object Memory. In addition, we found that age and verbal IQ can have significant influence on neuropsychological performance.

Conclusions

Our results suggest a possible cultural impact on verbal and visuomotor fluency. However, the ability to recognize and memorize objects and the disability to remember faces appear to be typical for ASD and culturally independent.

HIGHER MODIFIED BECK DEPRESSION INVENTORY SCORES ARE ASSOCIATED WITH BODY, EATING, AND EXERCISE COMPARISONS BUT DECREASED EXERCISE AMOUNTS

Previous research has indicated that exercise can lead to decreased depression symptoms. The relationship of depression with right frontal lobe activity and self-image (body, eating, and exercise) were investigated as reasons why depressive symptoms might lead to decreased exercise. 120 college students (79 women) completed design fluency tasks followed by a set of questionnaires on depression and exercise. High (M = 23.03, SD = 5.92) and low quartiles (M = 3.11, SD = 1.59) were created using the Modified Beck Depression Inventory (mBDI) for primary analyses. The group with higher mBDI scores produced fewer unique designs (suggesting lower right frontal activity) and was more likely to make comparisons based on body shape, eating, and exercise. The group with higher mBDI scores reported significantly less strenuous and moderate exercise. These findings indicate that the relationship between exercise and depression could work in both directions. While exercise can be used as a potential treatment to decrease depression, increased depressive symptoms could be a hindrance to exercise.