We conducted a meta-analysis to determine the effectiveness of animal-assisted activities (AAA) and animal-assisted therapy (AAT) for reducing depressive symptoms in humans. To be included in the meta-analysis, studies had to demonstrate random assignment, include a comparison/control group, use AAA or AAT, use a self-report measure of depression, and report sufficient information to calculate effect sizes, a statistical standardization of the strength of a treatment effect. Five studies were identified for analysis. The aggregate effect size for these studies was of medium magnitude and statistically significant, indicating that AAA/AAT are associated with fewer depressive symptoms. This analysis revealed gaps in the research on AAA/AAT, which we attempted to identify in order to better understand the factors that make AAA and AAT effective at reducing depression.

This research tested hypotheses that news media often report violence against women (VAW) in passive-verb format and that this leads readers to be more accepting of VAW than reports using the active voice. In Study 1, 1,501 verbs from news stories were classified as having active or passive voice. Passive voice use for both VAW (rape) and nonsexual violence (murder) was greater than for comparison verbs. Findings of a follow-up semantic differential study suggested that these verbs'negativity could account for the results. In a third study, 54 college students read mock news reports on rape, battery, robbery, and murder, rated victim harm and perpetrator responsibility after each, and completed scales of attitudes toward sexual violence. With passive voice, males, but notfemales, attributed less victim harm and perpetrator responsibility for VAW than with active voice. Both females and males showed more acceptance of VAW with passive voice use.

This study tested 2 main hypotheses for explaining repetition blindness (RB), a difficulty in encoding and recalling rapidly presented repeated words in sentences. Under 1 hypothesis, RB reflects an inhibitory process and should be more pronounced in young than in older Ss, who typically exhibit diminished inhibitory processes. Under the second hypothesis, RB reflects a failure to bind a specific connection: The second connection from the single node for encoding a repeated word is difficult to form under time pressure. Under this binding hypothesis, young adults should exhibit less RB than older adults, who typically require more time to form new connections. Results supported a version of the binding hypothesis but contradicted the inhibition hypothesis, and did not support hypotheses whereby RB reflects either a refractory effect or perceptual fusion of the repeated words.

The present study investigated the scope of planning in speech production by examining onset latencies for sentences describing moving picture displays. The experimental sentences began with either a simple or complex noun phrase, but were matched in length and content words. Results from young and old normal participants replicated previous findings of Smith and Wheeldon (1999) in showing longer onset latencies for sentences beginning with a complex noun phrase, supporting a phrasal scope of planning. Two aphasic patients were tested who, in previous studies, had shown a short-term memory deficit either in semantic retention (patient ML)or in phonological retention (patient EA). Patient ML showed a markedly greater disadvantage for the sentences beginning with a complex noun phrase whereas EAshowed an effect within normal range. The present results from the patients, together with those from previous studies, indicate that the phrasal planning is occurring at a lexical-semantic level using a capacity that is also involved in comprehension.

This study demonstrates a recently predicted cognitive phenomenon known as semantic blindness, an inhibitory effect attributable to concept repetition in the serial recall of rapidly presented sentences. Projicient bilinguals read mixed, Spanish-English selltences, each including a target and a pretarget word. Targets and pretargets were related in three ways: They were idelltical (e.g., like-like), semantically identical across languages (e.g., gusta-like), and nonidelltical within or across languages (e.g., read-like). Equivalent repetition blindness was found for targets with idelltical and semantically idelltical pretargets, indicating that repetition deficits were occurring solely at the semantic level, rather than at orthographic or phonological levels.

An intensive training program for behavioral health professionals increased tobacco treatment and patient quit attempts. Strategies beyond training may be needed to enhance prescribing by these practitioners.

The Americans With Disabilities Act requires that nursing programs not discriminate against students with disabilities. This article describes a qualitative study of RNs who had disabilities while in nursing school. As students, participants tried to hide their disabilities, experienced fear and anger from faculty, were frequently told they could never be nurses, wanted to be treated like everyone else, had to work harder than others to prove themselves worthy, and learned to advocate for themselves.

This research demonstrates a new cognitive phenomenon known as repetition deafness, a difficulty in immediate recall of repeated words in computer-compressed speech. Sixty-four subjects heard sentences and lists at four speeded rates: 70, 55, 35, and 28 ms/ phoneme. Each target word in the materials followed a pretarget word that was either identical (repeated-target condition) or different (unrepeated-target condition), and targets were harder to recall when repeated than unrepeated. Repetition deafness was rate-limited, occurring only with rapid rates ofpresentation (55 ms/pJlOneme or less), and decreased in magnitude as structllre increased from lists to sentences. Implications for current theories of repetition deficits are discussed.