Executive functioning: a comparison of the Tower of London(DX) and the D-KEFS Tower Test.

This study compared the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS) Tower Test to the Tower of London (TOL)(DX) in assessing executive functioning (EF) during a psycho-educational assessment by examining students' performances on both tests. Forty-two university students were administered both tests in a counterbalanced order. Findings indicate that students did not perform significantly differently on the D-KEFS Tower Test than on the TOL(DX), but that the tests only shared 22% of their variance. Although the moderate correlation found between overall achievement scores indicates that the D-KEFS Tower Test assesses some similar EF abilities as the TOL(DX), the different problem spaces between these tests may be tapping into different constructs and may account for the non-shared variance.

Sex differences in parent and child pain ratings during an experimental child pain task.

Research in the field of pediatric pain has largely ignored the role of fathers in their children's pain experiences. The first objective of the present study was to examine the effect of the presence of mothers versus fathers on children's subjective ratings, facial expressions and physiological responses to acute pain. The second objective was to examine whether child and parent sex influence parents' proxy ratings of their children's pain. The final objective was to compare levels of agreement between mothers' and fathers' assessments of their children's pain. Participants included 73 children (37 boys, 36 girls), four to 12 years of age, along with 32 fathers and 41 mothers. Children undertook the cold pressor pain task while observed by one of their parents. During the task, the children's heart rates and facial expressions were recorded. Children provided self-reports and parents provided proxy reports of child pain intensity using the seven-point Faces Pain Scale. Neither child nor parent sex had a significant impact on children's subjective reports, facial expressions or heart rates in response to acute pain. Fathers gave their sons higher pain ratings than their daughters, whereas mothers' ratings of their sons' and daughters' pain did not differ. Kappa statistics and t tests revealed that fathers tended to be more accurate judges of their children's pain than mothers. Overall, this research highlights the importance of examining both parent and child sex differences in pediatric pain research.

Word memory test performance in Canadian adolescents with learning disabilities: a preliminary study.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate Word Memory Test (WMT) performances in students with identified learning disabilities (LDs) providing good effort to examine the influence of severe reading or learning problems on WMT performance. Participants were 63 students with LDs aged 11 to 14 years old (M = 12.19 years), who completed psychoeducational assessments as part of a transition program to secondary school. Participants were administered a battery of psychodiagnostic tests including the WMT. Results indicated that 9.5% of students with LD met Criterion A on the WMT (i.e., perform below cut-offs on any of the first three subtests of the WMT), but less than 1% met both criteria necessary for identification of low effort. Failure on the first three subtests of the WMT was associated with word reading at or below the 1st percentile and severely impaired phonetic decoding and phonological awareness skills. These results indicate that the majority of students with a history of LD are capable of passing the WMT, and use of profile analysis reduces the false-positive rate to below 1%.

Additive neurocognitive deficits in adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and depressive symptoms.

The purpose of this study was to examine the possible additive neurocognitive deficits in adults with both attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and serious depressive symptoms. Participants were 54 university students who completed a psycho-educational assessment. Three groups were examined: a group with comorbid ADHD and elevated depressive symptoms (ADHD + DEP; N = 18); a group with ADHD only (N = 18); and a group with elevated depressive symptoms only (DEP; N = 18). Group differences were examined on a battery of neurocognitive tests. The ADHD + DEP group performed significantly worse than the other groups on processing speed tasks and delayed recall of conceptual verbal information and significantly worse than the ADHD group on shifting tasks. Depressive symptom severity was significantly correlated with processing speed, verbal memory performance, and shifting in the ADHD and ADHD + DEP groups. Results suggest that the co-occurrence of ADHD and depressive symptoms in adults is associated with additional neurocognitive impairment.

Genuine, suppressed and faked facial expressions of pain in children.

Children's efforts to hide or exaggerate facial expressions of pain were compared to their genuine expressions using the cold pressor task. Fifty healthy 8- to 12-year-olds (25 boys, 25 girls) submerged their hands in cold and warm water and were instructed about what to show on their faces. Cold 10 degrees C water was used for the genuine and suppressed conditions and warm 30 degrees C water was used for the faked condition. Facial activity was videotaped and coded using the Facial Action Coding System to provide objective, detailed accounts of facial expressions in each condition, as well as during a baseline condition. Parents were subsequently asked to correctly identify each of the four conditions by viewing each video clip twice. Faked expressions of pain in children were found to show more frequent and more intense facial actions compared to their genuine pain expression, indicating that children had some understanding but were not fully successful in faking expressions of pain. Children's suppressed expressions, however, showed no differences from baseline facial actions, indicating that they were able to successfully suppress their expressions of pain. Parents correctly identified the four conditions significantly more frequently than would be expected by chance. They were generally quite successful at detecting faked pain, but experienced difficulty differentiating among the other conditions. The results indicate that children are capable of controlling their facial expressions of pain when instructed to do so, but are better able to hide their pain than to fake it.