Economic Evaluation Alongside a Clinical Trial of Telephone Versus In-Person Genetic Counseling for BRCA1/2 Mutations in Geographically Underserved Areas.

Purpose: BRCA1/2 counseling and mutation testing is recommended for high-risk women, but geographic barriers exist, and no data on the costs and yields of diverse delivery approaches are available.

Methods: We performed an economic evaluation with a randomized clinical trial comparing telephone versus in-person counseling at 14 locations (nine geographically remote). Costs included fixed overhead, variable staff, and patient time costs; research costs were excluded.

The effects of study order and backward associative strength on illusory recollection: A source-strength effect does not always occur.

We investigated illusory recollection by dividing lists of associated words into three subsets (high, medium and low) based on their backward associative strength (BAS) to an unstudied theme. Participants studied these subsets at different visual locations on a computer screen and afterwards were given a source memory test. In Experiment 1, we varied the order in which high- and medium-BAS subsets were studied.

Expanding access to BRCA1/2 genetic counseling with telephone delivery: a cluster randomized trial.

Background: The growing demand for cancer genetic services underscores the need to consider approaches that enhance access and efficiency of genetic counseling. Telephone delivery of cancer genetic services may improve access to these services for individuals experiencing geographic (rural areas) and structural (travel time, transportation, childcare) barriers to access.

Methods: This cluster-randomized clinical trial used population-based sampling of women at risk for BRCA1/2 mutations to compare telephone and in-person counseling for: 1) equivalency of testing uptake and 2) noninferiority of changes in psychosocial measures.

Age differences in voluntary task switching.

Task choice processes in older (60+ years) and younger (18-30 years) adults were compared using a voluntary task switching procedure (Arrington & Logan, 2004). To assess age-related differences in task representation maintenance, preparation times were varied across a large range of response-to-stimulus intervals (100, 500, 1,000, and 5,000 ms) and the environmental influence on task selection was varied by repeating or changing stimuli from trial to trial. Older adults switched less frequently than younger adults and this effect was the same at each RSI.

The role of verbal short-term memory in task selection: how articulatory suppression influences task choice in voluntary task switching.

The roles of verbal short-term memory (vSTM) in task selection and task performance processes were examined when individuals were asked to voluntarily choose which of two tasks to perform on each trial randomly. Consistent with previous voluntary task-switching (VTS) research, we hypothesized that vSTM would support random task selection by maintaining a sequence of previously executed tasks that would be used by a representativeness heuristic. Furthermore, because using a representativeness heuristic requires sufficient time for updating and comparison processes, we expected that vSTM would have a greater effect on task selection when more time was available.

Variation in individuals' semantic networks for common knowledge is associated with false memory.

Three experiments assessed the relationships between false memories of words and their degree of connectedness within individual semantic networks. In the first two experiments, participants studied associated word lists (e.g.

Working memory capacity modulates task performance but has little influence on task choice.

Variation in the ability to maintain internal goals while resolving competition from multiple information streams has been related to individual differences in working memory capacity (WMC). In a multitask environment, task choice and task performance are influenced by internal goals, prior behavior within the environment, and the availability of relevant and irrelevant information in the environment. Using the voluntary task-switching procedure, task performance, as measured by switch costs, was related to WMC, but only at short preparation intervals.

The influence of distinctive processing manipulations on older adults' false memory.

Covertly generating item-specific characteristics for each studied word from DRM (Deese-Roediger-McDermott) lists decreases false memory in young adults. The typical interpretation of this finding is that item-specific characteristics act as additional unique source information bound to each studied item at encoding, and at retrieval young adults can use the absence of this type of information to reject non-presented associated words that might otherwise be falsely remembered. In two experiments, we examined whether healthy older adults could use this strategy to reduce their false memories in the DRM paradigm.

Age-related deficits in reality monitoring of action memories.

The authors describe 3 theoretical accounts of age-related increases in falsely remembering that imagined actions were performed (A. K. Thomas & J.

Implementation intentions facilitate prospective memory under high attention demands.

An implementation intention is a planning technique that involves specifying a situation for initiating an intended action and linking these specific cues to the intention. In two experiments with young adults, we found significant increases in prospective memory with implementation intentions. With an implementation intention, but not with standard instructions, prospective memory performance was maintained under demanding attentional conditions (Experiment 2).

Age deficits in the control of prepotent responses: evidence for an inhibitory decline.

Older adults have more difficulty than younger adults appropriately directing their behavior when the required response is in competition with a prepotent response. The authors varied the difficulty of inhibiting a prepotent eye movement response by varying the response cue (peripheral onset or central arrow). The response cue manipulation did not affect prosaccade accuracy and latency for either age group and did not affect younger adults' antisaccades.

Age differences in veridical and false recall are not inevitable: the role of frontal lobe function.

The relationship of neuropsychological measures of frontal lobe function to age differences in false recall was assessed using the Deese/Roediger-McDermott associative false memory paradigm (Deese, 1959; Roediger & McDermott, 1995). As other studies have found, older adults were less likely to correctly recall studied items and more likely to falsely recall highly related but nonpresented items than were younger adults. When older adults were divided based on a composite measure of frontal lobe functioning, this age difference was found only for low frontal lobe functioning individuals.

Inhibitory processes in adults with persistent childhood onset ADHD.

The theory that attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) stems from a deficit in an executive behavioral inhibition process has been little studied in adults, where the validity of ADHD is in debate. This study examined, in high-functioning young adults with persistent ADHD and a control group, 2 leading measures of inhibitory control: the antisaccad task and the negative priming task. ADHD adults showed weakened ability to effortfully stop a refle ve or anticipated oculomotor response but had normal ability to automatically suppress irrelevant information.