Measures of phonemic and semantic verbal fluency, such as FAS and Animal Fluency (Benton, Hamsher, & Sivan, 1989), are often thought to be measures of executive functioning (EF). However, some studies (Henry & Crawford, 2004a , 2004b , 2004c ) have noted there is also a language component to these tasks. The current exploratory factor-analytic study examined the underlying cognitive structure of verbal fluency. Participants were administered language and EF measures, including the Controlled Oral Word Association Test (FAS version), Animal Fluency, Boston Naming Test (BNT), Vocabulary (Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-III), Wisconsin Card-Sorting Test (WCST, perseverative responses), and Trail-Making Test-Part B (TMT-B). A 2-factor solution was found with the 1st factor, language, having significant loadings for BNT and Vocabulary, while the second factor was labeled EF because of significant loading from the WCST and TMT-B. Surprisingly, FAS and Animal Fluency loaded exclusively on to the language factor and not EF. The current results do not exclude EF as a determinant of verbal fluency, but they do suggest that language processing is the critical component for this task, even without significant aphasic symptoms. Thus, the results indicated that both letter (phonemic) and category (semantic) fluency are related to language, but the relationship to EF is not supported by the results.
Objective: Among patients with brain damage, executive function deficits and impulsivity correspond with propensity to engage in risky behaviors. Less research has addressed this issue in healthy adults, and fewer still have simultaneously evaluated the importance of executive function and impulsive personality. Additionally, most research has focused exclusively on substance use while ignoring other domains of risky behavior such as sexual activity and antisocial practices. Toward this end, we examined the association of risky behaviors with executive function and self-reported impulsivity. Method: Healthy undergraduates (n = 56) were administered the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), and UPPS-P impulsivity questionnaire. A self-report questionnaire assessed risky sexual activities, drug use, and antisocial behaviors over a 2-month interval. Results: After accounting for social desirability and performance effort, multiple regression analyses revealed a robust relationship between executive function and risk-taking. Specifically, WCST performance correlated with risky sexual and substance use behavior, whereas the IGT was uniquely linked with antisocial acts. Trait impulsivity was positively associated with sexual behavior. Conclusions: Extending previous research, executive function accounted for more variance in risky behaviors than self-reported impulsivity, but this was mediated by facet of executive function. Decision-making under risk seemed to better account for antisocial acts, whereas perseveration was more strongly linked to sexual activity and substance misuse. These data imply that poor executive function increases the likelihood that healthy young adults will engage in risky and potentially dangerous acts, extending the ecological validity of the WCST and IGT.
Objective: To date, very few studies investigating neurocognitive deficits in COVID-19 have been published. This case series addresses cognition in post-COVID-19 patient by describing three patients in acute rehabilitation to inform a model of cognitive sequelae of COVID-19. Methods: Three English-speaking inpatients with severe symptoms and long-term intensive care unit (ICU) treatment are described. All patients had a premorbid history of hypertension and hyperlipidemia and experienced delirium and hypoxemia when hospitalized. Patient 1 is a 62-year-old male with 15 years of education with additional history of obstructive sleep apnea and type 2 diabetes. Patient 2 is a 73-year-old female with 12 years of education with a premorbid medical history of alcohol use disorder and Guillain-Barre syndrome. Patient 3 is a 75-year-old male with 14 years of education. No patients had premorbid psychiatric histories. Results: The three patients demonstrated deficits on formal neuropsychological testing, particularly with encoding and verbal fluency. Memory measures improved with a more structured story memory task compared to a lessstructured verbal list-learning task, suggesting executive dysfunction impacted learning. None of the patients demonstrated rapid forgetting of information. Two patients endorsed new depressive and/or anxiety symptoms. Conclusions: The results suggest evidence for neurocognitive deficits after severe COVID-19 infection, particularly in encoding and verbal fluency. These results were interpreted with caution given the limited number of patients and the telephone-based battery. The specific mechanism that caused these cognitive deficits in these individuals remains unclear. A proposed three-stage model of cognitive dysfunction is described to help guide future research.
A nationwide collaborative research netviiork has been developed by the Association of Psychology Training Clinics (APTC) to carry out research with the potential to improve services provided in training clinic settings. Six APTC member clinics participated in this inaugural study. In addition to demonstrating that the APTC research network can recruit clients for participation in multisite research and randomize enrolled participants to conditions effectively across the network, findings from this study also conürihute to our growing understanding of the problem of premature termination within psychology training clinics. More specifically, the results conñrm earlier single-site reports in the literature that a high rate of premature termination is a common problem within psychology training clinics (multisite M = 69.4%) and that the most typical client outcome at the end of treatment is no reliable change in symptomatic distress. Findings indicate that clients' pretreatment expectations of treatment duration are positively correlated with the number of treatment sessions subsequently attended and are pi:Edictive of clients' symptom severity at termination. However, expectancy education was not associated with a reduction in premature termination. Notably, there is a positive correlation between prior treatment exposure and cuirent, prospective treatment expectations. Implications for training and policy are discussed with future directions for research suggested.
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