Samantha E. John

A Terror Management Perspective on the Role of Death-Related Anxiety in Psychological Dysfunction

Building on previous existential theorizing, terror management theory provides a unique approach to conceptualizing the development, maintenance, and impact of psychological disorders. The theory suggests that awareness of mortality creates the potential for anxiety, which is managed by an anxiety-buffering system consisting of ones cultural worldview, self-esteem, and interpersonal attachments. The pursuit of meaning, personal value, and interpersonal connections that motivates much human behavior is driven, in part, by the need to control this potential for death-related anxiety. This article provides an overview of terror management theory and a discussion of its implications for understanding clinical conditions, along with a review of research exploring the roles of death-related anxiety and the anxiety-buffering system in anxiety disorders, posttraumatic stress disorder, and depression.

Regression-Based Norms for a Bi-factor Model for Scoring the Brief Test of Adult Cognition by Telephone (BTACT)

The current study developed regression-based normative adjustments for a bi-factor model of the The Brief Test of Adult Cognition by Telephone (BTACT). Archival data from the Midlife Development in the United States-II Cognitive Project were used to develop eight separate linear regression models that predicted bi-factor BTACT scores, accounting for age, education, gender, and occupation-alone and in various combinations. All regression models provided statistically significant fit to the data. A three-predictor regression model fit best and accounted for 32.8% of the variance in the global bi-factor BTACT score. The fit of the regression models was not improved by gender. Eight different regression models are presented to allow the user flexibility in applying demographic corrections to the bi-factor BTACT scores. Occupation corrections, while not widely used, may provide useful demographic adjustments for adult populations or for those individuals who have attained an occupational status not commensurate with expected educational attainment.

Phishing suspiciousness in older and younger adults: The role of executive functioning

Phishing is the spoofing of Internet websites or emails aimed at tricking users into entering sensitive information, with such goals as financial or identity theft. The current study sought to determine whether age is associated with increased susceptibility to phishing and whether tests of executive functioning can predict phishing susceptibility. A total of 193 cognitively intact participants, 91 younger adults and 102 older adults, were primarily recruited through a Psychology department undergraduate subject pool and a gerontology research registry, respectively. The Executive Functions Module from the Neuropsychological Assessment Battery and the Iowa Gambling Task were the primary cognitive predictors of reported phishing suspiciousness. Other predictors included age group (older vs. younger), sex, education, race, ethnicity, prior knowledge of phishing, prior susceptibility to phishing, and whether or not browsing behaviors were reportedly different in the laboratory setting versus at home. A logistic regression, which accounted for a 22.7% reduction in error variance compared to the null model and predicted phishing suspiciousness with 73.1% (95% CI [66.0, 80.3]) accuracy, revealed three statistically significant predictors: the main effect of education (b = 0.58, SE = 0.27) and the interactions of age group with prior awareness of phishing (b = 2.31, SE = 1.12) and performance on the Neuropsychological Assessment Battery Mazes test (b = 0.16, SE = 0.07). Whether or not older adults reported being suspicious of the phishing attacks used in this study was partially explained by educational history and prior phishing knowledge. This suggests that simple educational interventions may be effective in reducing phishing vulnerability. Although one test of executive functioning was found useful for identifying those at risk of phishing susceptibility, four tests were not found to be useful; these results speak to the need for more ecologically valid tools in clinical neuropsychology.

The effects of age on the learning and forgetting of primacy, middle, and recency components of a multi-trial word list

ABSTRACT The serial position effect reveals that recall of a supraspan list of words follows a predictable pattern, whereby words at the beginning (primacy) and end (recency) of a list are recalled more easily than words in the middle. This effect has typically been studied using single list-learning trials, but in neuropsychology, multi-trial list-learning tests are more commonly used. The current study examined trends in learning for primacy, middle, and recency effects across multiple trials in younger and older age cohorts. Participants were 158 volunteers, including 79 adults aged 17–36 (“younger” group) and 79 adults aged 54–89 years (“older” group). Each participant completed four learning trials and one delayed (5–10 min) recall trial from the Memory Assessment Scales. Scores were divided into primacy (first four words), middle (middle four words), and recency (final four words) scores for all trials. For list acquisition, mixed effects modeling examined the main effects of and interactions between learning slope (logarithmic), age group, and serial position. Rate of learning increased logarithmically over four trials and varied by serial position, with growth of middle and recency word acquisition increasing more rapidly than recall of primacy words; this interaction did not differ by age group. Delayed retention differed according to age group and serial position; both older and younger adults demonstrated similar retention for primacy words, but older adults showed reduced retention for middle and recency words. Although older adults acquired less information across learning trials, the reason for this reduced acquisition was related to initial learning, not to rate of learning over time. Older compared to younger adults were less efficient at transferring middle and recency words from short-term to long-term memory.

An Empirical Comparison of Competing Factor Structures for the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status: A Project FRONTIER Study

The original factor structure of the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS) has received little empirical support, but at least eight alternative factor structures have been identified in the literature. The current study used confirmatory factor analysis to compare the original RBANS model with eight alternatives, which were adjusted to include a general factor. Participant data were obtained from Project FRONTIER, an epidemiological study of rural health, and comprised 341 adults (229 women, 112 men) with mean age of 61.2 years (SD = 12.1) and mean education of 12.4 years (SD = 3.3). A bifactor version of the model proposed by Duff and colleagues provided the best fit to the data (CFI = 0.98; root-mean-squared error of approximation = 0.07), but required further modification to produce appropriate factor loadings. The results support the inclusion of a general factor and provide partial replication of the Duff and colleagues RBANS model.

Cross-validation and extension of the latent dementia phenotype in the ADNI dataset

Background:To assess the usefulness of cognitive function composites (CFC) to discriminate between healthy aging (HA), nonAlzheimer’s disease (non-AD) amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment (aMCI), and prodromal Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Methods: Two samples of subjects, > 64 years old, were analyzed. The discovery group (DG) was of 59 subjects, recruited from Recercalia project, divided in 39 HA (20 men) and 20 aMCI (12 man). The replication group (RG) was a bigger sample (n1⁄4175), recruited from AB255 study, divided in 42 HA (21 men) and 133 aMCI (64 man). In both groups all aMCI presented storage memory impairment, and no comorbidities that could explain their cognitive impairment. All subjects received an extensive neuropsychological assessment, including CFC’s sensitive to: language, memory, praxis, visual gnosis and executive functions, all with ADN available and APOE genotyped. A PET-PIB scanner, was administered at baseline to the DG, and subjects were divided in PiB+ or PiBwith a cutoff value of PIB1⁄41.5, that is, HA+ (n1⁄4 2), HA(n1⁄437), aMCI+ (n1⁄412), and aMCI(n1⁄48). The HA+ group was excluded from the analysis due to the sample size (n1⁄42). A PET-FDG scanner, was administered at baseline to the RG, and analyzed according to the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) methods. The subjects were divided in FDG+ or FDGwith a cutoff value of FDG1⁄41.2, that is, HA (n1⁄442), aMCI+(n1⁄457), aMCI(n1⁄476). The HA group were all FDG-. Results: For the DG, delayed recall on memory (DR), executive and language CFC’s were the best discriminating between, HA-, aMCIand aMCI+ groups. Learning and recognition on memory CFC did significantly discriminate between HA and aMCI whole groups, but not between aMCI+ and aMCIgroups. For the RG all CFC’s but visual gnosis composite, discriminated between HA and aMCI groups on the whole sample. DR on memory and executive CFC’s showed the highest values to discriminate between, HA, aMCIand aMCI+ groups, independently of their APOE-ε4 genotype. Conclusions: A brief neuropsychological battery comprising tests sensitive to fronto-temporal functions, such as memory delayed recall and executive functions may be useful to discriminate between HA, non-AD aMCI and prodomal AD. P3-197 CROSS-VALIDATION AND EXTENSION OF THE LATENT DEMENTIA PHENOTYPE IN THE ADNI DATASET