Peter N. S. Hoaken

Cognition, Emotion, and Neurobiological Development: Mediating the Relation Between Maltreatment and Aggression:

Child maltreatment has been consistently linked to aggression, yet there have been few attempts to conceptualize precisely how maltreatment influences the development of aggression. This review proposes that biases in cognitive, emotional, and neurobiological development mediate the relation between childhood maltreatment and the development of aggression. In addition, it is posited that physical abuse and neglect may have differential effects on development: Physical abuse may result in hypervigilance to threat and a hostile attributional bias, whereas neglect may result in difficulties with emotion regulation because of a lack of emotional interactions. These processes may be “hardwired” into neural networks via the overactivation of certain brain regions and dysfunctional cognitive processes. The theoretical and necessarily speculative nature of this article is intended to stimulate hypotheses for future research. Only when the adverse effects of maltreatment on brain and cognitive development are understood can scholars hope to develop more effective interventions to alter the developmental pathway to aggression.

Alcohol affects executive cognitive functioning differentially on the ascending versus descending limb of the blood alcohol concentration curve.

BACKGROUND Executive cognitive functioning (ECF), a construct that includes cognitive abilities such as planning, abstract reasoning, and the capacity to govern self-directed behavior, has been recently researched as an antecedent to many forms of psychopathology and has been implicated in alcohol-related aggression. This study was designed to examine whether differential ECF impairments can be noted on the ascending versus the descending limbs of the blood alcohol concentration curve. METHODS Forty-one male university students participated in this study. Twenty-one subjects were given 1.32 ml of 95% alcohol per kilogram of body weight, mixed with orange juice, and the remaining 20 were given a placebo. Participants were randomly assigned to either an ascending or descending blood alcohol group and were tested on six tests of ECF on their assigned limb. Subjective mood data were also collected. RESULTS Intoxicated participants on both limbs demonstrated ECF impairment; the descending-limb group showed greater impairment than their ascending-limb counterparts. Intoxicated subjects were significantly more anxious at baseline than placebo subjects. The introduction of this covariate nullified any significant differences in subjective mood found on either limb of the blood alcohol concentration curve, but ECF impairments remained robust. CONCLUSIONS Our results support the conclusion that alcohol negatively affects cognitive performance and has a differential effect on the descending versus the ascending limb of the blood alcohol concentration curve. The latter finding may have important ramifications relating to the detrimental consequences of alcohol intoxication.

Role of executive dysfunction in predicting frequency and severity of violence

The adverse consequences of violence on society are tremendous. The proportion of offenders incarcerated for violent offenses is large, and the cost of keeping these offenders incarcerated is startling. Understanding and treating the causal underpinnings of violent crime is of utmost importance for individuals and society as a whole. Several factors have been identified as potential contributors to violent crime, including cognitive deficits in executive functioning [Hoaken et al., 2007]. To investigate this further, 77 offenders from Fenbrook Institution, a federal facility, were tested on a battery of executive functioning measures. Offenders were found to have broad and pervasive dysfunction in their executive abilities. In addition, specific scores from the battery were found using regression techniques, to predict the frequency and severity of past violent offending but not nonviolent offending. This speaks of the possibility of a new type of correctional rehabilitation program, one that focuses on the rehabilitation of basic executive functions.

Correctional Remediation Meets Neuropsychological Rehabilitation: How Brain Injury and Schizophrenia Research Can Improve Offender Programming

Many correctional services have dedicated considerable effort toward offender rehabilitation programs that aim to reduce recidivism. During the past three decades, cognitive-skills-based programs have been the foundational remediation offered within correctional facilities. These programs appear to reduce recidivism in the range of 10%. One potential for further reductions is to address deficits in offenders’ executive cognitive functioning (ECF), a constellation of abilities that includes planning, inhibition, and thought flexibility. The documented ECF deficits of offenders resemble the deficits experienced by individuals with acquired brain injury or diagnosed with schizophrenia. The body of literature addressing rehabilitation efforts of these two distinct populations provides innovative and empirically supported behavioral treatment strategies that may enrich current offender rehabilitation. Recommendations for assessment and rehabilitation of ECF deficits are discussed.

Mood, motives, and gambling in young adults: an examination of within- and between-person variations using experience sampling.

It is well established that young adults are a population at risk for problem gambling and that young adults gamble for various reasons, including positive mood enhancement and negative mood reduction. Although these motives have been identified as important proximal predictors of gambling, the research to date has focused on between-subjects relationships. What is missing is a process-level understanding of the specific within-subjects relations between mood-regulation motives for gambling, mood states, and gambling behaviors. The current study used experience sampling to assess the specific link between gambling motives, mood states, and gambling behavior. Participants were 108 young adults (ages 19-24 years), who completed baseline measures of gambling motives and gambling problems and then reported on their mood states and gambling behavior three times a day for 30 days. Multilevel modeling analyses revealed a significant positive moderating effect for enhancement motives on the relationship between positive mood and amount of time spent gambling and number of drinks consumed while gambling. In addition, problem gambling status was associated with consuming fewer drinks while gambling at higher levels of positive mood, and spending more money than intended at higher levels of negative mood. Unexpectedly, there was only one moderating effect for coping motives on the mood-gambling relationship; low coping motivated gamblers consumed more alcohol while gambling at higher levels of positive mood, whereas high coping motivated gamblers did not change their drinking in response to positive mood. The current findings highlight enhancement motives as risky motives for young adult gambling, particularly in the context of positive mood, and suggest that gambling interventions should include strategies to address positive mood management.

Severity and Frequency of Reactive and Instrumental Violent Offending: Divergent Validity of Subtypes of Violence in an Adult Forensic Sample

A common practice in forensic research is to distinguish between reactive and instrumental violence, but recent critics have asserted that these subtypes of violence are not orthogonal and that this distinction has outlived its usefulness. To test the validity of the reactive–instrumental distinction, the authors reviewed the official files of 71 violent male offenders to determine the frequency and severity of reactive and instrumental violent offending. Overall, 79% of violent offenses could be categorized as purely instrumental or purely reactive, and as hypothesized, reactive violent offenses were more severe than instrumental violent offenses. Both parametric and nonparametric correlation analyses indicated that the frequency of instrumental violent offending was negatively related to the frequency of reactive violent offending. These findings support the reactive–instrumental distinction. Implications pertaining to offender specialization, the general theory of crime, and specialized rehabilitation programs are discussed.

Mood, motives, and money: An examination of factors that differentiate online and non-online young adult gamblers

Background and aims To date, there is a lack of research on psychological factors associated with young adult online gambling. The current study examined differences between young adult online and non-online gamblers, using information gathered at baseline and over 30 days during which participants reported on their moods, gambling behaviors, and reasons for initiating and discontinuing gambling. Methods Participants were 108 young adult regular gamblers (i.e., gambling four or more times in the past month) who participated in a 30-day daily diary study. Results Male gender, baseline coping motives for gambling and negative affect averaged across the 30 days emerged as significant correlates of online gambling, over and above other background variables. Online gamblers also scored higher on a baseline measure of pathological gambling. Over the 30 days of self-monitoring, online gamblers spent more time gambling, and won more money gambling, whereas non-online gamblers consumed more alcohol while gambling. Online gambling was more often initiated to make money, because of boredom and to demonstrate skills, whereas non-online gambling was more often initiated for social reasons and for excitement. Online gambling was more often discontinued because of boredom, fatigue or distress, whereas non-online gambling was discontinued because friends stopped gambling or mood was improved. Discussion and conclusions This study provides preliminary evidence that coping strategies may be particularly important to reduce risks for online gamblers, whereas strategies for non-online gamblers should focus on the social aspects of gambling.

Effectiveness of cognitive remediation for female inmates: a pilot study

There is considerable evidence that neurocognitive deficits are frequent among incarcerated offenders. However, current correctional programming does not directly seek to remediate deficits in offenders’ neurocognitive deficits. In this pilot project, we sought to treat neurocognitive deficits in incarcerated Portuguese adult women offenders (n = 28) using cognitive remediation to target cognitive flexibility, memory, and planning. Statistically significant positive changes, with medium to large effect sizes, were discovered across several neurocognitive domains, including attention, speed of processing, verbal learning and memory, cognitive flexibility, and planning. We also found a decrease in the negative emotional states of depression, anxiety, tension/stress, and on disturbed behavior in prison. Cognitive remediation has the potential to enhance the neurocognitive functioning of incarcerated women. Controlled research is needed to establish cognitive remediation fully as an intervention for the treatment of neurocognitive deficits of incarcerated women.

Cognitive function is associated with prison behaviour among women in prison but not with subjective perception of adjustment to prison

BACKGROUND There is considerable evidence that aspects of cognitive function, especially executive function, are associated with antisocial behaviour and violence, but most research to date has measured current cognition and previous criminal behaviour. Furthermore, this research has been conducted almost exclusively with male offenders. AIM The aim of this study is to examine relationships between a wide range of cognitive functions and behaviours among women in prison. Our hypotheses were that cognitive functioning would be associated with both more-or-less contemporaneously observed behaviour problems and self-rated adjustment to the environment. METHOD Forty-five drug-free imprisoned female offenders were individually assessed on a battery of cognitive measures. Prison staff rated their behaviour on the Prison Behaviour Rating Scale and the women rated their own sense of adjustment to the environment on the Prison Adjustment Questionnaire. RESULTS Stepwise hierarchical regressions indicated that attention was independently associated with behaviours reflecting tension, depression, isolation, fear, victimisation and worry, whereas processing speed was independently associated with behaviours reflecting lack of energy, mental slowness and lack of awareness of the surrounding environment and total Prison Adjustment Questionnaire score. There was no relationship between cognitive functioning and subjective perception of adjustment to prison. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE AND FUTURE RESEARCH Results indicate that cognition contributes to some of the behavioural problems displayed by inmates in the prison context. Future studies should evaluate the role of programmes to improve cognitive processes in also improving prison behaviour and also test for continuities and discontinuities with post-release integrative success.

Understanding the Effects of Social Desirability on Gambling Self-Reports

Gambling self-reports may be subject to several types of bias, including social desirability bias, which may undermine their utility for capturing gambling behaviour in both research and clinical practice. Retrospective self-reports of gambling are frequently used to assess patterns of behaviour over specific periods of time, but may not be as reliable as experience sampling (ES) methods, which involve multiple assessments of gambling over the course of several days. The purpose of the current study was to examine the impact of two aspects of social desirability, impression management (IM) and self-deceptive enhancement (SDE), on the correspondence between reports of gambling assessed via ES and retrospective recall using the Gambling Timeline Followback (G-TLFB; Weinstock et al. Psychological Assessment, 16, 72–80, 2004). Participants were 81 emerging adult gamblers who completed a 30-day ES study and a retrospective assessment of their gambling. Although the overall association between social desirability and gambling reports was minimal, the correspondence between retrospective and ES reports was lower for those with higher scores on IM (for money won-lost) and SDE (for money intended to risk). Gamblers who wish to present themselves in a favourable way – either intentionally (IM) or unintentionally (SDE) – may be less reliable in their reports of gambling when asked to reflect on an extended period of time compared to when asked to provide an in-the-moment account of their gambling behaviour. These findings have important implications for understanding the circumstances under which individuals bias their retrospective self-reports of gambling and highlight the utility of more fine-grained assessments of gambling behaviour.