Developmental cascades from early childhood attachment security to adolescent level of personality functioning among high-risk youth.

This study examines associations between early childhood attachment security and adolescent personality functioning in a high-risk sample within a developmental psychopathology framework. Data from 2,268 children (1165 male; 1103 female) and caregivers participating in Future of Families and Child Well-Being Study (FFCWS) were used to examine (1) effects of genetic polymorphisms of the serotonin transporter (5-HTTLPR) and dopamine D4 receptor (DRD4) genes and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on attachment security and emotional and behavioral dysregulation in early childhood and (2) longitudinal associations and transactional relationships among attachment security, dysregulation, negative parenting attitudes and behaviors, social competence, and adolescent personality functioning. Results revealed that ACEs predicted attachment security over and above sex or the genetic risk, and gene × environment interactions did not increment prediction.

Simulating Local Biases in Visual Attention in Neurocognitive Performance.

Typical visual perception includes an attention bias toward right hemisphere mediated global, holistic cortical processing. An atypically local, detail-oriented focus of attention is characteristic of left hemisphere processing and is often observed in patients whose field of attention is restricted by certain types of neurocognitive impairment. We designed the present pair of studies to induce a local attentional focus to observe its consequences on neurocognitive measures of visuospatial processing.

Stimulus Characteristics in Picture Story Exercise Cards and Their Effects on the Social Cognition and Object Relations Scale-Global Rating Method.

This study examined the effects of stimulus characteristics from the Picture Story Exercise (PSE; Smith, 1992) on the quality of social cognition and object relational functions as expressed in narrative responses. A nonclinical sample of 140 adults told stories to five PSE cards. Three trained raters scored the narratives using the Social Cognition and Object Relations Scale-Global Rating Method (SCORS-G; Stein & Slavin-Mulford, 2018).

Correspondence of Maximum and Typical Performance Measures of Cognitive Processing.

We examined associations among cognitive processing measures that varied on a continuum from maximum to typical performance tasks in the context of an ego depletion study. Our intent was to replicate and extend the findings of Charek, Meyer, and Mihura, which showed that ego depletion had an expected effect on selected scores from the Rorschach inkblot task. We hypothesized that Rorschach variables indicative of cognitive sophistication would correlate with neuropsychological measures of cognitive ability and that Rorschach variables theoretically unassociated with cognitive processing would not correlate with those criterion measures.

Development and preliminary validation of a brief behavioral measure of psychotic propensity.

Extensive research demonstrates that the dimensional assessment of psychotic manifestations is a primary strength of the Rorschach inkblot task, which provides an in vivo sample of problem-solving behavior and normative standards concerning the logic and coherence of thought processes and the typicality of perceptual representations. This article presents foundational research for the Thought and Perception Assessment System (TPAS), a Rorschach-based system designed to assess solely for disordered thinking and perceptual aberrations using either the standard 10-card set of inkblots or alternative 3-, 4-, and 5-card short forms. Using data from three patient samples (ns = 61, 93, and 133) and one nonpatient sample (n = 118), we document the equivalence of mean scores across the full and short-form card sets.