Objective: To examine whether COMT (catechol-O-methyltransferase) polymorphism modulates aspects of sleep in children diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Method: Nightly sleep actigraphic recordings during a double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover clinical study (1 week of 0.5 mg/kg MPH; 1 week of placebo) were…

Background: The study aimed to confirm previous findings showing links between household chaos and parenting in addition to examining whether household chaos was predictive of children's behaviour over and above parenting. In addition, we investigated whether household chaos acts as a moderator between parenting and children's behaviour. Method:…

Background: It has been repeatedly found that performance of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is more impaired when a long inter-stimulus interval (ISI) is used than when a short ISI is used. According to the cognitive-energetic model, this may reflect difficulty in remaining in an optimal motor activation state…

Background: The right shift (RS) theory of handedness suggests that poor phonology may occur in the general population as a risk associated with absence of an agent of left cerebral speech, the hypothesised RS + gene. The theory predicts that poor phonology is associated with reduced bias to right-handedness. Methods: A representative cohort of…

Background: A minority of patients with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) do not respond favorably to methylphenidate. This has been partially associated with homozygosity for the Dopamine transporter (DAT1) 10-repeat allele and the presence of one or two Dopamine D4 receptor (DRD4) 7-repeat alleles. This study examined the sibling…

Categorical accessibility is a cognitive factor that limits the extent of creative conceptual expansion. In the present study, we sought to establish the categorical accessibility norms in five conceptual domains among American and Hong Kong Chinese university students. In addition, we predicted that the tendency to access normatively inaccessible…

The Drug Addiction Treatment Act of 2000 (DATA-2000) allows qualified physicians to treat opioid-dependent patients with schedule III-V medications, such as buprenorphine, in practices separate from licensed, accredited opioid treatment programs. Physicians may attain this qualification by completing 8-hours of training in treating opioid…

Researchers in early social-cognition have found that the ability to reverse an ambiguous figure is correlated with success on theory of mind tasks (e.g. Gopnik & Rosati, 2001). The present experiment examined children with autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) without mental delay to see whether a similar relationship existed. Ropar, Mitchell, and…

This study examined the effects of one unfamiliar adult's warm, responsive interactions or cold, aloof, unresponsive interactions on child emotion and subsequent social initiatives to a second adult. Participants were 32 4 1/2- to 5 1/2-year-old preschool children. Nurturing, responsive caregiving and non-nurturing, unresponsive caregiving were…

This study examined the extent to which children and parents have concordant views about parental differential treatment (PDT) and whether such concordance is linked with variations in sibling relationship quality. Seventy-four 11- to 13-year-old children, their older siblings, and their parents were interviewed about their experiences with PDT…

Cerebellum plays an important role in speech motor control. Various tasks like sustained phonation, diadochokinesis and conversation have been used to tap the speech timing abilities of dysarthric clients with cerebellar lesion. It has recently been proposed that not all areas of the cerebellum may be involved in speech motor control; especially…

In this article, the author discusses the necessity of challenging the widely-held belief that students inevitably make second language progress through studying abroad. Through administering a series of pre- and post-tests, quantitative and qualitative, to students enrolled in three different programs of varying lengths in Spain, the author…

This study explored the degree of verbal short-term memory deficit among individuals with Down syndrome and Williams syndrome, and the extent to which any such impairment could be accounted for by a relative slowing of rehearsal and output processes. Measures of serial recall and detailed assessments of speeded articulation for short and long…

Matched samples of 174 pairs of persons with mental retardation who live in either community settings or congregate care settings were compared on both cost and outcome dimensions. It was learned that costs were significantly lower in community programs. Greater levels of service and integration were evident in the community programs, but…

Relationships between repetitive behaviors (RBs) and associated clinical features (i.e., cognitive and adaptive functioning levels, sleep problems, medication use, and other behavioral problems) were examined in two groups (High nonverbal IQ greater than or equal to 97 versus Low nonverbal IQ less than or equal to 56) of children with autism…