Do Children and Adolescents with Anorexia Nervosa Display an Inefficient Cognitive Processing Style?

Objective: This study aimed to examine neuropsychological processing in children and adolescents with Anorexia Nervosa (AN). The relationship of clinical and demographic variables to neuropsychological functioning within the AN group was also explored.  Method: The performance of 41 children and adolescents with a diagnosis of AN were compared to 43 healthy control (HC) participants on a number of neuropsychological measures.  Results: There were no differences in IQ between AN and HC groups. However, children and adolescents with AN displayed significantly more perseverative errors on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, and lower Style and Central Coherence scores on the Rey Osterrieth Complex Figure Test relative to HCs.  Conclusion: Inefficient cognitive processing in the AN group was independent of clinical and demographic variables, suggesting it might represent an underlying trait for AN. The implications of these findings are discussed

Effects of bilingual and monolingual presentations and time on concept- and language-matching tasks

Balanced Turkish-English bilingual participants viewed word pairs, presented both monolingually (English-English or Turkish-Turkish) or bilingually (English-Turkish or Turkish-English) and both for short and long durations, They made decisions on whether the simultaneously presented words in a pair were in the same language or not, or whether they denoted the same concept or not In the short presentation condition, we found no evidence for subliminal processing In cases in which both words were consciously identified, participants were more accurate, although not faster in the long than in the short presentation condition for both language and concept decisions. In the long presentation condition, language decisions were more accurate than concept decisions, although not faster. In addition, language decisions were not affected by whether the words were synonyms (concept identity), and concept decisions were not affected by whether the presentation was monolingual or bilingual (language identity), although in the monolingual conditions, "same" decisions were faster but not more accurate, and in the bilingual conditions a speed-accuracy trade-off was observed in that "same" decisions were faster but "different" decisions were more accurate

How are letters containing diacritics represented? Repetition blindness for Turkish words

When two orthographically similar words are displayed using rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP), the repeated letters in the second critical word (W2) are not detected, leading to a deficit in reporting this word known as repetition blindness (RB). In Turkish, letters containing diacritic markings (e. g., s x, o) are considered separate letters, yet are visually highly similar to their non-diacritic analogues (s, o). Two experiments used the phenomenon of RB to investigate whether diacritic letters are represented as more similar to their non-diacritic analogues than are two unrelated letters. In Experiment 1, substantially more RB was found for words differing in just a diacritic (isim-isim) compared to orthographic neighbours (words differing in a visually non-similar letter, such as ilim-isim). In Experiment 2, the amount of RB for identical words (isim-isim) was comparable to words that differed by a single diacritic marking (isim-isim). We conclude that diacritic letters are mentally represented as variants of their non-diacritic analogue. Letter/word recognition researchers may be interested in pursuing these findings using standard techniques such as backward masking and orthographic priming

Bilinguals' recall and recognition of emotion words

Recall of emotion words is superior to neutral words. Prior work reported in this journal (Anooshian & Hertel, 1994) found that this effect was absent in a second language. Words in a second language may thus lack the emotional associations of words acquired in childhood. To determine whether memory probes may be generally useful for assessing emotionality effects in a first versus a second language, Anooshian and Hertel's paradigm was extended in several ways. Recall was compared to recognition, and a variety of types of emotion words were studied, including taboo terms, and phrases likely to be learned in childhood (reprimands). Superior memory for emotion words was obtained in both the recall and recognition tasks, but this occurred in both the first and second language and indeed was stronger, for some stimuli, in the second language. This suggests that, even for bilingual speakers who acquire their second late (after age 12), words in the second language retain rich emotional associations

Cigarette smoking in a student sample: Neurocognitive and clinical correlates

Why do adolescents begin to smoke in the face of profound health risks and aggressive antismoking campaigns? The present study tested predictions based on two theoretical models of tobacco use in young adults: (1) the self-medication model; and (2) the orbitofrontal/disinhibition model. Investigators speculated that a significant number of smokers were self-medicating since nicotine possesses mood-elevating and hedonic properties. The self-medication model predicts that smokers will demonstrate increased rates of psychopathology relative to nonsmokers. Similarly, researchers have suggested that individuals with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) employ nicotine to enhance cognitive function. The ADHD/self-medication model predicts that smokers will perform poorly on tests of executive function and report a greater number of ADHD symptoms. A considerable body of research indicates that tobacco use is associated with several related personality traits including extraversion, impulsivity, risk taking, sensation seeking, novelty seeking, and antisocial personality features. Antisocial behavior and related personality traits as well as tobacco use may reflect, in part, a failure to effectively employ reward and punishment cues to guide behavior. This failure may reflect orbitofrontal dysfunction. The orbitoftontal/disinhibition model predicts that smokers will perform poorly on neurocognitive tasks considered sensitive to orbitofrontal dysfunction and will obtain significantly higher scores on measures of behavioral disinhibition and antisocial personality relative to nonsmokers. To test these predictions, we administered a battery of neuropsychological tests, clinical scales, and personality questionnaires to university student smokers and nonsmokers. Results did not support the self-medication model or the ADHD/self-medication model; however, findings were consistent with the orbitofrontal/disinhibition model. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Taboo words and reprimands elicit greater autonomic reactivity in a first language than in a second language

Second language speakers commonly acknowledge that taboo terms can be uttered with greater ease in their second language (L2) than in their first language (L1). To investigate this phenomenon psychophysiologically, 32 Turkish-English bilinguals rated a variety of stimuli for pleasantness in Turkish (L1) and English (L2) while skin conductance was monitored via fingertip electrodes. Participants demonstrated greater autonomic arousal to taboo words and childhood reprimands ("Shame on you!") in their L1 compared to their L2. This finding provides quantifiable support for the subjective experiences of L2 speakers

Patterns of Axis-II comorbidity in a Turkish OCD sample

Objective: Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) patients frequently present with Axis-II disorders, particularly Cluster C (anxiety spectrum) and Cluster A (schizophrenic spectrum) personality disorders. The present study examined patterns of Axis-II comorbidity in a Turkish OCD sample. In addition, we explored the impact of personality disorder symptoms on OCD-symptom severity and symptom profile