Deficits In Cognitive Skills Research Articles

Comparing consumer and clinician values for alternative functional states: Application of a new feature trade-off consensus building tool

Objective: To present the Features-Resource Trade-Off Game (Features Game) as a new method for comparing preferences for alternative outcomes among different groups of people. Design: The Features Game is illustrated by comparing preferences for recovery among the 18 functional status items making up the Functional Independence Measure. Methods involved trading levels of independence (resources) across the different items (features). Setting: Ten community-dwelling consumers with physical disabilities and 10 rehabilitation clinicians participated in four separate expert panels—two in Houston and two in Philadelphia. Main Outcome Measures: Five sets of hierarchical stages defined by the four separate panels specifying the profiles of function believed to most foster independent living. Results: Cognitive and communication skills were selected preferentially over the recovery of physical tasks by all panels, but, in comparison to clinicians, consumers were more willing to accept mild deficits in cognitive skills as trade for realizing earlier recovery of physical abilities. Conclusion: The overwhelming choice of cognitive and communication abilities over physical abilities suggests a need to enhance therapeutic efforts in those areas. More subtle differences in consumer and clinician preferences emphasize the importance of establishing consumer-oriented goals.

Effects of early adolescent drug use on cognitive efficacy in early-late adolescence: a developmental structural model.

Despite an accumulated body of research evidence that documents the negative physical consequences of chronic alcohol and drug use, it is less clear whether the use of these same substances produces impaired cognitive abilities during the early stages of use. Early drug use may impede acquisition of critical thinking skills and hinder the learning of important cognitive strategies required for successful transition to adulthood. To better understand these relations, longitudinal latent-variable analyses were used to examine the effects of early adolescent drug use on early-late adolescent cognitive efficacy. Latent factors of polydrug use, behavioral control, and cognitive efficacy were hypothesized in early adolescence, the latter two controlling for potential spurious relations. At outcome, six constructs were hypothesized tapping polydrug use, cognitive mastery, self-reinforcement, problem-solving confidence, decision-making skills, and cognitive and affective self-management strategies. Models were psychometrically sound and accounted for large portions of variance. Early adolescent drug use had a small but significant negative effect on cognitive and affective self-management strategies. By the 12th grade, linkages between drug use and cognitive functioning were of larger magnitude than long-term influences, perhaps reinforcing the argument that deficits in cognitive skills are developmentally delayed and surface only with exacerbated or persistent drug use. Overall, specific effects of drug use adversely influenced important cognitive skills that may be critically related to functioning in both interpersonal and intrapersonal domains.

Skills deficits, skills training, and delinquency

The last decade has witnessed a significant increase in intervention strategies that seek to teach specific skills to diverse client groups. A number of recent studies have evaluated the effects of skills training programs with court-adjudicated juvenile delinquents. Skills training with delinquents is based on the assumption that social and cognitive skills deficits contribute to an individual's decision to engage in antisocial behavior. This report identifies skills deficits found among court-adjudicated juvenile delinquents. Skills training methods and the efficacy of skills training programs with delinquents are reviewed.

Leisure and Recreation of Exceptional Children:

Exceptional children are often deprived of experiences necessary to function adequately among normal peers. Various authors have cited research indicating the habilitative effects of successful play upon the emotional, social, and cognitive skill deficits of these children. Application of behavior technology to promote specific skills can assist children with mild, moderate, severe, and profound handicaps to become more acccpted and acccptable. Theoretical bases and practical applications of therapeutic leisure and recreation programs are discussed. Examples show how such activities can be designed to create an environment to facilitate the educational treatment of handicapped students.

Reasoning and Rehabilitation

The Reasoning and Rehabilitation Project comprised an experimental test of the efficacy of an unorthodox intervention program in the rehabilitation of high-risk adult probationers. The program was derivedfrom a series of sequential studies of the principles of effective correctional programs. These studies indicated that many offenders evidence deficits in cognitive skills which are essential for pro-social adjustment and that training in these skills is an essential ingredient of effective correctional programs. Compared to regular probation and life skills training, cognitive training provided by probation officers led to a major reduction in re-arrest rates and incarceration rates among adult high-risk probationers.