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Cognitive functioning, particularly executive functioning, is a strong predictor of everyday action impairments in schizophrenia. However, it is unclear if remediating cognitive deficits can lead to meaningful gains in adaptive functioning. Approaches that attempt to improve everyday action performance through bypassing or compensating for cognitive deficits are promising ways to address functional impairments. This study examined whether standardized environmental interventions can compensate for cognitive difficulties and improve action performance in schizophrenia. Forty two individuals were administered two versions of the Naturalistic Action Test (NAT)--a standard version (ST-NAT), and a user-centered version (UC-NAT) that incorporated interventions aimed at streamlining action performance. Individuals with schizophrenia demonstrated enhanced performance on the UC-NAT, demonstrating the beneficial effects of environmental interventions on everyday action. Results indicated that the interventions likely exerted their effect through compensating for global cognitive dysfunction. Additionally, the NAT's reliability and validity for schizophrenia populations, as well as the UC-NAT's utility for addressing the cognitive impairments of a variety of neurological populations were examined. / Psychology

This study examined the association between executive functions (EF), trait rumination, and symptoms and diagnosis of unipolar depression in early adolescence. In addition, the current study examined associations between executive functions and risk for depression due to maternal history of depression. Participants were 486 early adolescents (230 males, 256 females; M age = 12.88 years; SD = .62) and their mothers, who were recruited through local schools as part of the Temple University (TU) Adolescent Cognition and Emotion (ACE) Project. Measures included (a) a semi-structured diagnostic interview of mother and adolescent, (b) youth self-report forms assessing depressive symptoms and trait rumination, (c) mother-report forms assessing demographic information and offspring pubertal status, and (d) behavioral tests of EF (sustained, selective and divided attention, attentional set shifting, and working memory). Deficits in executive function were not associated with higher levels of trait rumination. Better sustained attention was marginally significantly positively associated with higher levels of trait rumination after controlling for concurrent depressive symptoms. Conversely, poorer sustained attention was significantly associated with depressive symptoms after controlling for rumination. Gender moderated the set shifting-rumination association, such that better set shifting accuracy was significantly associated with higher levels of trait rumination in boys only. Diagnosis did not moderate EF-rumination associations. No association was found between EF deficits and adolescent lifetime history of unipolar depression. Likewise, no association was found between EF deficits and maternal lifetime history of unipolar depression. In conclusion, findings do not provide evidence that EF deficits are associated with trait rumination in early adolescence, either alone or in interaction with diagnosis or gender. Rather, findings suggest dissociable patterns of association between EF and depression versus rumination and are more consistent with theories postulating that trait rumination is associated with enhanced performance on some tests of EF. In addition, findings do not provide evidence for an association between EF deficits and lifetime history of depression in early adolescence and do not suggest that deficits are present in adolescents at high risk (due to maternal history of disorder) of depression prior to first onset of disorder. Implications and directions for future research are discussed. / Psychology

Proximal risk factors including household chaos, parenting and maternal distress can have a broad impact on multiple domains of child development and functioning. Using multiple methodologies including a meta-analysis and structural equation modeling with an empirical, cross-sectional design from a larger longitudinal research study; in this dissertation, I examine the impact of household chaos on child executive functioning, socioemotional and physiological stress outcomes, the role that parenting plays in this association, and how maternal distress predicts chaos in the home. In study 1, I conduct a meta-analysis examining the direct association between household chaos and child executive functioning, as well as multiple potential moderators (e.g. child age, sex and race/ethnicity). It incorporates 26 studies, with 27 independent effect sizes with a total sample of 8,944 children. Overall, I found a significant effect of r = .22 between household chaos and child executive function. Among the moderators assessed, only measurement approach of executive functions (informant-completed questionnaire versus direct assessment) was significant, with informant-completed questionnaires yielding an effect of r = .27 compared to direct assessment, r = .16. I conducted a series of separate moderation analyses for questionnaire and direct assessment effects. No significant moderators emerged from the questionnaire analyses, despite heterogeneous effect sizes. Direct assessment analyses revealed that both household chaos dimensions (disorganization and instability) were significantly related to child executive functions, however instability was a stronger correlate (r = .21) than disorganization (r = .09). Composition of the sample was also a significant moderator with effects increased with the proportion of minorities, and with parents with lower levels of education. Building on this work, in studies 2 and 3, I used cross-sectional empirical data from a sample of 137 mothers and their school-aged (5-year old) children. During home visits, mothers completed questionnaires assessing their mood, stressful experiences, the home environment and their child’s socioemotional functioning. Mothers also completed a video tour of the home. Mother-child interactions were videotaped and later coded for parenting. Both mothers and children independently completed behavioural assessments of executive function. Also, hair samples were collected from mothers and children from which the stress hormone, cortisol, was extracted as a biomarker of chronic stress. In order to empirically test the findings from the meta-analysis, in my second study, I used structural equation modeling to examine the indirect effect of household chaos on child executive functioning via parenting. I found that household chaos was directly and indirectly (via maternal cognitive sensitivity and emotional availability) associated with a latent variable of child executive functioning. Furthermore, instability, but not disorganization, significantly predicted child executive functioning directly and indirectly via parenting. Finally, sex-based analyses indicated that the effect of chaos on child executive functioning was significant through indirect effects only for boys. In the third study, in order to elucidate potential contributing factors to household chaos, I used a structural equation model to examine the indirect effects of a linear regression-weighted composite variable of maternal distress (depression, negative affect and physiological stress) on child hair cortisol levels and externalizing and internalizing behaviour problems via household chaos. I found that maternal distress had both direct and indirect effects (via household chaos) on child hair cortisol levels; however, only indirect effects were significant for externalizing and internalizing behaviour problems. Also, the indirect effect was only significant for household disorganization, but not instability, for child hair cortisol and externalizing and internalizing behaviour problems. Taken together, the findings from my dissertation demonstrate that: 1) household chaos has a direct, negative effect on child executive functioning and an indirect effect via parenting; and 2) maternal distress plays an important role in predicting the levels of chaos within the home which has implications for child chronic stress levels and behavioural problems. Collectively, these findings highlight the need to take a multi-method approach to measuring executive functioning in children and further, to develop and evaluate interventions that aim to support mothers, improve parenting and promote order and stability within the home in order to foster healthy developmental trajectories for children. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / Children exposed to household chaos may experience adverse outcomes across multiple domains. Parenting can also be negatively affected by household chaos which may impact the quality of parent-child interactions. Further, the physical and psychological health of the mother may regulate the levels of chaos in the home which has implications for child outcomes as well. This dissertation seeks to examine the influence of household chaos on child executive functioning, stress levels and socioemotional functioning, and the roles that parenting and maternal distress play. I address three primary objectives: 1) using meta-analytic techniques, I examine the magnitude of effect of household chaos on child executive functioning based on existing literature as well as potential factors that may modulate the strength of the linkage between household chaos and child executive functioning; and using cross-sectional data, I examine 2) how household chaos impacts parenting and subsequently, how parenting impacts child executive functioning; and 3) how maternal distress influences the level of chaos in the home and how this chaos impacts child stress levels and socioemotional functioning. Collectively, the results from this dissertation indicate that household chaos has a broad negative impact on child outcomes, and both parenting and maternal distress play important roles in understanding this impact. Further, it demonstrates the need for intervention research aimed at supporting the physical and psychological health of mothers, improving parenting and creating order and stability in homes for children.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-15T19:41:16Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Silvia Godoy de Sousa.pdf: 1337585 bytes, checksum: f2c99fff6d4028a3fbe2398d95ec8ac1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-08-09 / Fundo Mackenzie de Pesquisa / Executive functions refer to the individual capacity of engage in objective oriented behaviors, that is, to carry out autonomous and auto-organized actions, oriented for specific goals. Abilities related to the executive functions overlap the psychological concept of intelligent behavior; however, some studies have revealed inconsistency in the relation between those functions and intelligence. Based on this, the proposed study investigated the relation between executive and non-executive functions with intelligence. Specifically, this study analyzed the difference between groups with medium, higher and much higher intelligence concerning the executive and non-executive functions; possible gender effects over performance in executive, non-executive functions and intelligence; the relation among executive functions, non-executive functions and intelligence; and if the relation between intelligence and executive functions is more evident than the relation between intelligence and non-executive functions as the intelligence level increases. The participants were 120 students, boys and girls at age 15 and 16, attending High School in one public and three private schools in the state of São Paulo. They were divided in three groups which are medium, higher, and much higher intelligence. The material utilized were Raven Progressives Matrices General Scale, Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-III), Computerized Stroop Test, FAS Verbal Fluency Test, Trail Making Test part B, Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, Pseudowords and Words Repetition Test and Rey Complex Figure Test. Variance and Tukey posthoc analyses revealed significant differences in performance among the groups in the measure of verbal IQ and execution IQ in the WISC-III, verbal fluency, cognitive flexibility, vocabulary and visospatial processing. Student s t-Test evidenced that the girls performance were superior comparing to the boys on the Vocabulary sub-test from WISC-III, while the boys showed superior performance in the Information and Cubes sub-tests from WISC-III and in the selective attention measure evaluated by Stroop comparing to the girls. Pearson s Correlation Analysis evidenced correlations among intelligence, executive and non-executive functions most of them in a low to moderate level confirming literature regarding the executive functions multidimensionality and to the need of differenciating such construct regarding intelligence. There were no evidences that the relation between tests of intelligence and executive functions increases according to the intelligence level. So, this investigation tried to support the comprehension of the relation among executive, non-executive functions and intelligence. / As funções executivas referem-se, de forma geral, à capacidade do sujeito de engajar-se em comportamentos orientados a objetivos, ou seja, à realização de ações voluntárias, independentes, autônomas, auto-organizadas e orientadas para metas específicas. Habilidades relacionadas às funções executivas sobrepõem-se ao conceito psicológico de comportamento inteligente, porém alguns estudos têm revelado inconsistências na relação entre tais funções e inteligência. Nesse sentido, o presente estudo investigou a relação das funções executivas e não-executivas com a inteligência. Especificamente, foram analisadas as diferenças entre grupos com inteligência média, inteligência superior e inteligência muito superior nas funções executivas e não-executivas; possíveis efeitos de gênero sobre o desempenho em funções executivas, não-executivas e inteligência; a relação entre funções executivas, não-executivas e inteligência; e se a relação entre inteligência e funções executivas é mais evidente do que entre inteligência e funções não-executivas conforme aumenta o nível de inteligência. Participaram 120 adolescentes de 15 e 16 anos, alunos do Ensino Médio, de ambos os sexos, de uma escola pública e três particulares do Estado de São Paulo, divididos em três grupos, quais sejam, inteligência média, inteligência superior e inteligência muito superior. O material utilizado para a coleta de dados se constituiu das Matrizes Progressivas de Raven Escala Geral, da Escala de Inteligência Wechsler para Crianças (WISC-III), do Teste de Stroop Computadorizado, do Teste de Fluência Verbal, do Teste de Trilhas B, do Teste de Vocabulário por Imagens Peabody, do Teste de Repetição de Palavras e Pseudopalavras e do Teste Figuras Complexas de Rey. Análises de Variância e de comparação de pares de Tukey revelaram diferenças significativas de desempenho entre os grupos nas medidas de QI verbal e de execução do WISC-III, fluência verbal, flexibilidade cognitiva, vocabulário e processamento visoespacial. Test t de Student evidenciou que o desempenho das meninas foi superior em relação ao desempenho dos meninos no subteste Vocabulário do WISC-III, enquanto os meninos apresentaram desempenho superior nos subtestes Informação e Cubos do WISC-III e na medida atenção seletiva avaliada pelo Stroop quando comparados com as meninas. Análises de Correlação de Pearson evidenciaram correlações entre os testes de inteligência, funções executivas e funções não-executivas, a maioria delas de baixas a moderadas, corroborando a literatura no que tange à multidimensionalidade das funções executivas e à necessidade de diferenciar tal construto em relação à inteligência. Não houve evidências de que a relação entre inteligência e funções executivas aumenta em função do nível de inteligência. Desta forma, essa investigação tentou auxiliar na compreensão da relação entre funções executivas, não-executivas e inteligência.

Introduction : La prise de décision (PD), les fonctions exécutives et l’apathie ont des processusneuropsychologiques et des substrats neuro-anatomiques communs. Tous trois sont altérés dans lamaladie d’Alzheimer (MA) mais aussi dans le Trouble Léger de la Cognition (TLC). Par ailleurs, ladéficience décisionnelle peut affecter l’autonomie.Méthode : Afin d’évaluer les corrélats exécutifs cognitifs et comportementaux de la PD, nous avonscomparé 20 sujets contrôles (CT), 20 patients ayant un TLC et 20 patients MA.Outre le MMSE et l’échelle de Beck (dépression), tous ont complété 3 épreuves exécutives liées aumodèle de Miyake (évaluant la flexibilité, l’inhibition et la mémoire de travail), 2 échelles d’apathie,une échelle de compétence (autonomie) et 2 tâches décisionnelles (sous ambiguïté et sous risque).3 études ont été finalisées : (1) Fonctions exécutives et PD, (2) Apathie et PD, (3) PD et autonomie.Résultats : Il existe une relative comparabilité des patients TLC et MA, inférieurs aux sujets CT, dupoint de vue de la PD, des fonctions exécutives, de l’apathie et de l’autonomie. La PD sous risqueimplique directement les fonctions exécutives et est associée à la composante cognitive de l’apathie,alors que celle sous ambiguïté les implique indirectement et est associée à la composantecomportementale de l’apathie. Il y a un effet équivalent de chacune des modalités décisionnelles surl’autonomie.Conclusion : La PD dans la MA et le TLC semble d’abord altérée par des facteurs exécutifs cognitifs,dont l’expression varie suivant la modalité décisionnelle. Les implications théoriques, cliniques et lavalidité écologique de ces outils d’évaluation sont discutées. / Introduction : Decision making (DM), executive functions and apathy have commonneuropsychological processes and neuroanatomical substrates. The three of them are impaired in theAlzheimer disease (AD) but also in the Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). Besides, decision deficitcan impair autonomy.Method : In order to estimate the behavioral and cognitive executive correlates of DM, we havecompared 20 Control subjects (CT), 20 patients with MCI and 20 patients with AD.In addition with the MMSE and the Beck Inventory (depression), all have performed 3 executive testslinked to the Miyake model (estimating flexibility, inhibition and working memory), two apathyscales, one competency scale (autonomy) and two decision tasks (under ambiguity and under risk).Three studies have been completed : (1) Executive functions and DM, (2) Apathy and DM, (3) DMand autonomy.Results : there is a relative comparability between MCI and AD patients, below CT subjects,regarding DM, executive functions, apathy and autonomy.DM under risk directly implies the executive functions and is associated with the cognitive componentof apathy, whereas DM under ambiguity implies them indirectly and is associated with the behavioralcomponent of apathy. There is a similar impact of both decision modes on autonomy.Conclusion : DM in AD and MCI seems first to be impaired by cognitive executive factors, whoseform varies according to the decision model. The theoretical, clinical involvements and the ecologicalvalidity of these evaluation tools are challenged.

Executive Functions (EF) and Emotion Regulation (ER) are essential for children´s ability to regulate and control thoughts, behavior and emotions but the developmental relations between them are unclear. The present study was performed within the project PsPATHS with the purpose to investigate the relation between EF and ER. Performance on cognitive tasks tapping inhibitory control, working memory and cognitive flexibility were combined with teacher report of ER in 55 four to five year old preschool children. Contrary to the hypothesis, no significant relations could be established between EF and ER in this sample. For the EF components, the result showed a significant association between inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility, however, no further associations could be evidenced. The study demonstrates an advantage in using multiple measures and suggests that attention along with motivational and affective aspects of EF should be considered in future research of children´s ability to regulate emotions.