Kerryn Neulinger

Reliability and validity of The Awareness of Social Inference Test (TASIT): A clinical test of social perception

Purpose. The Awareness of Social Inference Test (TASIT) is an audiovisual tool designed for the clinical assessment of social perception with alternate forms for re-testing. Part 1 assesses emotion recognition, Parts 2 and 3 assess the ability to interpret conversational remarks meant literally (i.e., sincere remarks and lies) or non-literally (i.e., sarcasm) as well as the ability to make judgments about the thoughts, intentions and feelings of speakers. This paper aims to examine TASITs reliability and validity. Method. Some 32 adults with severe, chronic brain injuries were administered Form A twice, one week apart. 38 adults with brain injuries were readministered alternate forms over a period of 5 – 26 weeks. Construct validity was examined in subsets of a sample of 116 adults with brain injuries by relating TASIT performance to standard tests of neuropsychological function and specific social perception measures. Results. Test-retest reliability ranged from 0.74 – 0.88. Alternate forms reliability ranged from 0.62 – 0.83. TASIT performance was associated with face perception, information processing speed and working memory. Socially relevant new learning and executive tasks were significantly associated with TASIT performance whereas non-social tasks showed little association. Social perception tasks such as Ekman photos and theory of mind stories were also associated. Conclusions. TASIT has adequate psychometric properties as a clinical test of social perception. It is not overly prone to practice effects and is reliable for repeat administrations. Performance on TASIT is affected by information processing speed, working memory, new learning and executive functioning, but the uniquely social material that comprises the stimuli for TASIT will provide useful insights into the particular difficulties people with clinical conditions experience when interpreting complex social phenomena.

The epidemiology of suicide and attempted suicide among young Australians

OBJECTIVE This paper summarises a report to the NHMRC the objectives of which were to review research into the epidemiology of youth suicide in Australia and identify gaps in research. METHOD Literature searches were conducted. A limited amount of new data analysis was included to shed light on reliability issues of official Australian suicide data. RESULTS The review examined suicide data systems, including issues to do with coroners, the Australian Bureau of Statistics and alternative systems. The epidemiological areas reviewed included: all ages, youth, age and gender, geographical, socioeconomic, marital, indigenous, migrants, suicides in custody and gay and lesbian suicides. CONCLUSION While much is known about the epidemiology of youth suicide, much remains to be clarified. Study of indigenous issues is perhaps the most neglected area; study of family issues may be potentially be the most productive.

Hanging, firearm, and non-domestic gas suicides among males: a comparative study

Objective: To identify characteristics that could distinguish males who completed suicide by hanging from males who completed suicide by firearms and non-domestic gas, and to suggest suicide prevention strategies targeted at hanging. Method: Using the psychological autopsy design, males who used hanging, firearms and non-domestic gas were compared on a range of variables covering social, psychological, and health related factors and aspects of the suicide incident. The sample consisted of 950 males who suicided in Queensland, Australia, between 1994 and 1996. Results: Compared with males who used firearms and non-domestic gas, males who used hanging were significantly younger, less likely to have left a suicide note, and more likely to have been diagnosed with a psychotic disorder. Compared with males who used firearms, males who used hanging were significantly more likely to have made prior suicide attempts and have had no physical illness. Compared with males who used non-domestic gas, males who used hanging were significantly more likely to have lived with others, have had prior legal trouble, and have suicided at their residence. Conclusions: The results are discussed in terms of the availability and socio-cultural acceptability of methods. The authors suggest a possible relationship between impulsive traits and method choice. This proposition requires further investigation using alternative methodologies. Some suicide prevention measures targeting hanging suicides are discussed in light of the results.

Executive Function in 7–9-Year-Old Children Born Extremely Preterm or with Extremely Low Birth Weight: Effects of Biomedical History, Age at Assessment, and Socioeconomic Status

Forty-five children born extremely preterm and/or with extremely low birth weight (ELBW), who were of average intelligence, were assessed at age 7-9 on a raft of measures of executive function (EF) designed to assess inhibition, set shifting, planning, fluency, and working memory. Relative to 45 full-term controls, the preterm/ELBW children showed reliable impairments of inhibition, fluency, and working memory. Among the 7-year olds, the preterm/ELBW group also showed significantly worse set shifting. After controlling for age and family socioeconomic status (SES), within-group analyses of the preterm/ELBW data revealed that higher birth weights were associated with better inhibition, whereas lower neurobiological risk (gauged by such aspects of neonatal medical history as a number of days on oxygen) was associated with better planning. Moreover, there were interactions between neurobiological risk and SES on the measures of inhibition, fluency, and working memory, indicating that the adverse effects of risk were greater among children from low-income households. These findings demonstrate that neonatal medical problems are associated with considerable variability in EF among normally developing preterm/ELBW children and implicate an important influence of the family environment on the maturation of EF.

Prospective memory and frontal lobe function

Abstract The study sought to examine the role of frontal lobe functioning in focal prospective memory (PM) performance and its relation to PM deficit in older adults. PM and working memory (WM) differences were studied in younger aged (n = 21), older aged (n = 20), and frontal injury (n = 14) groups. An event-based focal PM task was employed and three measures of WM were administered. The younger aged group differed from the other two groups in showing significantly higher scores on PM and on one of the WM measures, but there were no differences at a statistically significant level between the older aged group and the frontal injury groups on any of the memory measures. There were, however, some differences in correlations with a WM measure between groups. It is concluded that there are similarities and differences in the deficits in PM between older adults and patients with frontal lobe injury on focal as well as nonfocal PM tasks.

Impaired prospective memory but intact episodic memory in intellectually average 7- to 9-year-olds born very preterm and/or very low birth weight

ABSTRACT Relatively little is known about episodic memory (EM: memory for personally-experienced events) and prospective memory (PM: memory for intended actions) in children born very preterm (VP) or with very low birth weight (VLBW). This study evaluates EM and PM in mainstream-schooled 7- to 9-year-olds born VP (≤ 32 weeks) and/or VLBW (< 1500 g) and matches full-term children for comparison (n = 35 and n = 37, respectively). Additionally, participants were assessed for verbal and non-verbal ability, executive function (EF), and theory of mind (ToM). The results show that the VP/VLBW children were outperformed by the full-term children on the memory tests overall, with a significant univariate group difference in PM. Moreover, within the VP/VLBW group, the measures of PM, verbal ability and working memory all displayed reliable negative correlations with severity of neonatal illness. PM was found to be independent of EM and cognitive functioning, suggesting that this form of memory might constitute a domain of specific vulnerability for VP/VLBW children.

Premorbid functioning, welfare issues and ethics in chronic fatigue syndrome

Objective: To assess former activity levels in chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) subjects, identify differentiating variables and discuss ethical issues arising. Method: File review of 91 CFS patients from a private psychiatric practice, presenting multiple case reports, with limited case comparison data. Results: The CFS subjects appeared formerly more athletically inclined than controls. Other helpful differentiating variables included exercise intolerance, excessive need for sleep, hopefulness and subjective memory problems. Conclusions: Former exercise and other achievement levels warrant systematic research study and consideration in the assessment of CFS patients. Omissions of consideration of premorbid functioning in medicolegal evaluations raise ethical concerns.