Most adults learned to read as children with relative ease and can briefly skim a paragraph and quickly grasp its meaning. However, anecdotal evidence both from educated individuals as well as illiterate adults in underprivileged countries suggests that it is impossible to achieve this same fluency as an adult. Adults learning to read in a new orthography are ‘stuck’ in a struggling state. They never achieve the ability to skim a paragraph and instead, must read every word letter-by-letter. Since this has never been tested in a lab setting, we do not know if this inability to read fluently in a new orthography is due to a change in learning capability with age, or if this has to do with how the new orthography is taught. In the current study, we trained TCU students to recognize letter-to-sound correspondences in Hebrew using either an in-person tutor or a pre-recorded program. We compared letter recognition and fluency over the course of training. We recruited nine individuals in the tutoring group and nine in the automated training program. We evaluated whether there was a difference between the tutored group and automated training program in terms of letter recognition and fluency. We will present our results and discuss pros and cons of in-person vs. automated instruction in reading acquisition as well as implications for future research.

Nearly 70% of persons in the United States are overweight or obese. Being overweight puts people at risk for a variety of health problems, including high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke, heart disease, and heart attacks. In light of previous research demonstrating that increased meaning in life (MIL) is associated with greater well-being, the present work examined whether heightened trait and state MIL increased exercise behavior. To do this, Study 1 participants were asked to complete the Meaning in Life Questionnaire (Steger et al., 2006) to assess for individual differences in MIL; whereas, Study 2 persons were randomly assigned to a meaning manipulation (i.e., writing about an meaningful event) versus a control prompt (i.e., writing about a daily activity). Persons, in both studies, wore Fitbit activity trackers to assess steps taken over the course of 1-2 weeks. The results revealed that greater instances of MIL (either as a trait or state) were associated with a heightened engagement in Fitbit activities. The current research is thus important in identifying a low cost intervention (e.g., writing) to increase health and well-being.

Effects of Environmental Enrichment on Visual Discrimination Learning with Rats
Sarah Jones, Lauren Cleland, Cheyenne Elliott, Sydney Wilson, & Kenneth Leising
Environmental enrichment has been shown to increase cortical thickness in the brain and exploratory behaviors in rats. In the present study, 16 rats were placed for two hours a day in an enriched environment consisting of a large play cage with two ramps and several toys. Rats in the control condition were handled each day but then immediately returned to their home cage. Following 30 days of enrichment, rats were tested for anxiety and exploration behavior by placing them on a plus maze. The plus maze includes two open arms and two closed arms (i.e., with walls enclosing the arm). Rats were then trained on a visual discrimination task in an iPad-equipped operant box. In the task, rats were reinforced for a touch to one of two response locations after the presentation of a visual stimulus (e.g., clip art of clouds or a star). Half of the stimuli were reinforced when the rat responded to the right response location, and the other stimuli after a touch to the left response location. The rats were further divided into those receiving differential outcomes and a control condition. Rats in the differential outcome procedure received one outcome (e.g., pellets) after a left response and a different outcome (e.g., sucrose) after a right response. Rats in the control condition received the same outcome following both responses. Acquisition of the discrimination was compared across the enriched and control groups to examine the effect of environmental enrichment on learning of a visual discrimination.

Introduction:  Interparental conflict is characterized by threats, hostility, and withdrawal, and is related to higher levels of negative emotions in children (Cummings et al., 2003). Although destructive interparental conflict has been shown to correlate with more negative emotionality in children, depressive symptoms have been less of a focus, specifically in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Children with ASD have more social and behavioral difficulties than their typically developing (TD) counterparts (Ashwood et al., 2015). They often have other comorbid disorders, with depression being one of the most common (Ghaziuddin et al., 2002). Thus, destructive marital conflict may be associated with higher rates of depressive symptoms in children with ASD. The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of interparental conflict on depressive symptoms in children with ASD versus TD children.

Method: Families with high functioning children with ASD (n = 21) and families with TD children (n = 29) participated in this study. The children completed the child depression inventory (CDI), and also reported on the level of interparental conflict in their home using the Security in the Interparental Subsystem scale (SIS).

Results: A moderated regression was performed on depressive symptoms as a function of diagnosis (ASD vs. TD) and destructive family representations. A main effect of diagnosis on depressive symptoms was found with children with ASD reporting higher depressive symptoms than TD children, b = -3.27 (SE = .56), t = 2.86, p ≤ .01. Also, as scores on the destructive family representations subscale increased, so did the child’s report of their depressive symptoms, b = .53 (SE = .19), t = 2.73, p ≤ .01. There was not a significant difference between slopes of the interaction of diagnosis and scores on the destructive family representation subscale, b = -.08 (SE = .41), t = .22, p = .82.

Discussion: Consistent with previous research (Ghaziuddin et al., 2002), this study shows that children with ASD report higher levels of depressive symptoms than their TD counterparts. Regardless of diagnosis, an increase in destructive family representations was associated with more depressive symptoms. For children with and without an ASD, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) has been shown to reduce depression symptoms (McGillivray & Evert, 2014). It would be beneficial for both TD and ASD children who report high destructive family representations to partake in CBT to help lower depression symptoms. Future research should incorporate more measures of conflict, including parental and child reports as a predictor of child depressive symptoms.

References/Citations:
• Ashwood, Karen & Tye, Charlotte & Azadi, Bahare & Cartwright, Sally & Asherson, Philip & Bolton, Patrick. (2015). Brief report: Adaptive functioning in children with ASD, ADHD and ASD+ADHD. Journal of autism and developmental disorders. 45. doi: 10.1007/s10803-014-2352-y.
• Cummings, E. M., Goeke-Morey, M. C., & Papp, L. M. (2003). Children's responses to everyday marital conflict tactics in the home. Child Development, 74, 1918−1929.
• Ghaziuddin M, Ghaziuddin N, Greden J. (2002). Depression in persons with autism: Implications for research and clinical care. Journal of Autism Developmental Disorders, 32, 299 –306.
• McGillivray, J. A., & Evert, H. T. (2014). Group cognitive behavioral therapy program shows potential in reducing symptoms of depression and stress among young people with ASD. Journal Of Autism And Developmental Disorders, 44(8), 2041-2051. doi:10.1007/s10803-014-2087-9

People all over the world value facial attractiveness when selecting a romantic partner. An evolutionary explanation for this is that facial attractiveness could be a signal of good health. While many researchers have argued that facial attractiveness is, in fact, a reliable cue of good health, previous studies have found mixed results when investigating this relationship. These results have raised the question in our field as to the reliability of certain physical cues as honest indicators of genetic quality, which comprises health, immunocompetence, reproductive success, and longevity. To clarify the nature of the relationship between facial attractiveness and good health, a large dataset (N= 160) has been utilized from a previous study which contains photographs of participants, personal and family sickness history, as well as actual biological health markers of immunocompetence (e.g., NK cell killing % and mitogen induced proliferation). Participants from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk were recruited to rate the target photographs for facial attractiveness and perceived health. By comparing these ratings to the actual measures of health history and immunocompetence obtained in the previous study, results provide insight as to the true nature of the relationship between facial attractiveness, perceived, and actual health.