Introduction: The Test of Premorbid Functioning (TOPF) estimates cognitive ability via irregular word reading. Performance may be sensitive to regional language (Leib et al., 2023). We hypothesized regional language exposure influences TOPF scores beyond education. Methods: Using National Neuropsychology Network data (N=963), we analyzed total scores and item-level responses across four U.S. regions. Analysis included logistic regression, chi-square tests, and a one-way ANOVA comparing transition scores (points where participants began transitioning from correct to incorrect responses). Results: 13 items showed significant regional patterns (p< .05); Northeast and West outperformed South. Transition scores didn’t differ by region, F(3, 23)=0.77, p=.52. The Boston Naming Test (BNT) subset (N = 349) significantly predicted TOPF, F(1, 341)=20.70, p<.001. There was a main effect of region, F(3,341)=6.53, p<.001, and a significant Region x BNT interaction, F(3,341)=4.31, p=.005, suggesting naming ability relates to premorbid functioning differently across regions. TOPF correlated strongly with WAIS-IV Vocabulary, r(831)=.724, p<.001. Discussion: TOPF performance reflects lexical knowledge and regional experience. Effects appear item-specific rather than structural, as transition patterns remained consistent across regions. Clinicians should consider regional pronunciation when interpreting scores. Future research should examine differential item functioning and whether the effects persist after controlling for vocabulary ability.

Chronic inflammatory pain alters motivational processes that influence behavioral responses to pharmacological interventions, including negative reinforcement, where drug preference is driven by relief from an aversive state rather than intrinsic reward. β-Caryophyllene (BCP) is a plant-derived terpene with demonstrated anti-inflammatory and antihyperalgesic effects in preclinical pain models, and has been suggested to act as a cannabinoid type 2 receptor (CB2) agonist, though this mechanism remains under investigation; its motivational properties under conditions of ongoing inflammatory pain remain unclear. This study investigated whether BCP produces conditioned place preference (CPP) in mice with Complete Freund’s Adjuvant (CFA)-induced inflammatory pain using an unbiased, counterbalanced CPP paradigm with doses of 30 mg/kg and 100 mg/kg (intraperitoneal). In male mice, BCP did not produce significant CPP or aversion in either the CFA-treated or pain-free group, and locomotor activity was unaffected, indicating that BCP does not engage reward or reinforcement mechanisms under either condition. Female data collection is ongoing to assess potential sex and dose-dependent effects. These findings suggest that BCP does not engage reward-related mechanisms at the behavioral level and may represent a therapeutic option with low abuse liability.

Emerging adulthood is a critical period in development of identity, yet this period is less studied than early and middle adolescence. Further, previous work often relies on participants recruited from colleges and cross-sectional methods, which limits full understanding of this transition. We fill this gap with longitudinal and multimethod research that examines how brain development, behavior, and social context interact during emerging adulthood in a diverse sample. The purpose of our study is to investigate how reward sensitivity and tolerance for ambiguity, in addition to social support and identity, relate to adjustments during emerging adulthood. Our study involves approximately 180 participants aged 17-19 who are in their final years of high school, completed GED/equivalency, or have recently completed high school. Participants complete self-reports, behavioral measures, and neuroimaging sessions across multiple time points over three years. Our study will assess whether neural markers of reward sensitivity and ambiguity tolerance are related to global functioning over time, and whether social support and identity affect this relationship. Overall, our study fills a significant gap in developmental psychology and understanding of how neurobiological and social contextual factors support successful transition of youths emerging into adulthood.

Fidgeting – small, repetitive behaviors – may reflect inattention or conversely, attention regulatory processes, but evidence is mixed. This study investigated how observed attention-related behaviors (fidgeting, movement, off-task gaze, engagement) varied within and across individuals; and to what extent these behaviors were associated with task performance. Four adults each completed 10 15-minute sessions of the Continuous Performance Task (CPT), where they responded to infrequent and frequent non-targets using different keys. Accuracy on the infrequent trials served as the performance metric, reflecting heightened demands on attention and inhibition. Behaviors were continuously coded throughout each CPT. Descriptive barplots revealed distinct behavioral patterns across sessions: some participants showed consistent fidgeting or engagement, while others fluctuated. Pearson correlations showed that fidgeting was positively associated with infrequent trial accuracy (r = 0.52, p < .001), whereas engagement was negatively associated (r = -0.42, p <.01). Performance was not significantly correlated with movement (r = -0.08) or off-task gaze (r = -0.15). All-subsets model selection confirmed fidgeting as the strongest indicator of infrequent trial accuracy. While these results suggest that fidgeting may help maintain attention during long tasks like CPT, a closer look at the correlations at the individual level revealed great variability, underscoring the importance of considering individual differences in future investigations.

California’s educational crisis is evidenced by nearly 50,000 students enrolled in continuation high schools, a trend triggered by disengagement and barriers interfering with learning, rather than internal disorders. This descriptive case study identifies the specific supports and re-engagement protocols a Southern California continuation school uses to address barriers and restore graduation pathways. Fourteen staff members, comprising certificated teachers, administrators, counselors, and classified assistants, were asked to complete a survey. Participants answered 14 Likert-scale items reporting how many students have learning/behavior problems, and the extent to which existing supports are established. Five participants opted into an optional questionnaire consisting of seven interrogatives, providing detailed accounts of current student and learning supports. Through descriptive statistics and illustrative quotes, anticipated findings would suggest that small class sizes and individualized attention align with increased student competence. The accounts are expected to demonstrate how intrinsic motivation and Career Technical Education (CTE) programs primarily foster re-engagement. This study’s documentation of specific supports and re-engagement protocols provides an expandable model for alternative education programs seeking to develop better support systems, re-engage disconnected students, and restore graduation pathways.

Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) is a severe form of interpersonal trauma associated with elevated risk for long-term psychological distress, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Within many Hispanic communities, familialism (familismo), a cultural orientation emphasizing family loyalty, obligation, interconnectedness, and preservation of family unity, plays a central role in identity formation and relational decision-making. While familialism is often linked to resilience and social support, it may also intensify psychological conflict in the context of intra-familial abuse or unsupportive disclosure responses. The present study examines whether familialism moderates the relationship between CSA severity and PTSD symptom severity among Hispanic young adults aged 18–30. Using validated self-report measures of CSA (CTQ-SF), PTSD symptoms (PCL-5), and familialism (Attitudinal Familism Scale), this cross-sectional study will employ hierarchical moderation analyses to test whether familialism alters the strength of this association. It is hypothesized that familialism will function as a conditional cultural mechanism: buffering PTSD symptoms when family responses are supportive, but exacerbating symptoms when abuse occurs within the family or disclosure is discouraged. By positioning familialism as a psychological mechanism rather than a demographic characteristic, this study advances culturally grounded models of trauma and informs more culturally responsive approaches to assessment and intervention.

Emotion language is central to children’s socioemotional development, yet little is known about how structural features—such as word intensity (e.g., sad vs. devastated), modifier use (e.g., a little scared, really happy), and lexical diversity, defined as the use of different, non-repeated emotion words—vary by gender. Research has documented gender differences in emotion socialization, with caregivers using more diverse and frequent emotionally-charged language with girls than boys, overall affecting how children encode and communicate emotional experiences. The present study investigates whether these socialization patterns manifest as gender influences in children’s independent production of emotion language. English-speaking children aged 4–6 (N = 60) completed a vignette task where they listened to 10 brief narratives depicting characters in emotionally evocative situations and were asked to name how the character felt, then prompted to provide a secondary, unique emotion label. Responses were coded for the three structural features across 20 opportunities. Independent samples t-tests showed no significant gender differences for emotion word intensity or modifier use, but a significant gender effect emerged for lexical diversity (p = .006): girls were more likely than boys to provide unique labels without repetition or omission. Together, these findings suggest that while boys and girls demonstrate comparable levels of emotion word specificity and modifier use, girls show greater flexibility in emotion vocabulary.

Human judgments about others are rarely grounded in complete information. A single trait adjective (like) “kind,” “selfish,” or “charming”) can prompt people to make broad assumptions about someone’s character and predict how they will behave in the future. My research examines how the linguistic breadth of trait descriptions shapes these inferences. More specifically, I investigate how the breadth of trait adjectives influences whether people expect a trait to remain consistent across time and situations. Some adjectives are broad and appear to describe a wide range of behaviors (e.g., “kind”), while others are narrower and imply more context-specific tendencies (e.g., “charming”). Although trait language plays a central role in impression formation, relatively little research has isolated how differences in trait breadth affect judgments about personality stability. In this study, participants evaluated short descriptions consisting of a person’s name paired with a single trait adjective (e.g., “Olivia is described as friendly”). Participants then rate how consistent they expect the behavior to be across time and across situations. The trait descriptors vary systematically along two dimensions: breadth (broad vs. narrow) and valence (positive vs. negative). By isolating the role of trait breadth, my research contributes to a deeper understanding of how people form confident beliefs about others’ character from minimal linguistic information.

Friendships are essential to human health and thriving. Friend preferences help facilitate these benefits by guiding individuals toward partners likely to provide maximal benefits. Homophily—the tendency for humans to affiliate with similar others—shapes friendship formation, with friends often matching in gender, social status, education, religion, physical attractiveness, and personality. Because age predicts shared life stage, social roles, and alliance value, preferences for similarly aged friends may represent an understudied dimension of homophily. Although prior research suggests people may gravitate toward friends in similar life stages, little work has explicitly aimed to test whether adults have age-related friend preferences—as well as whether people might be more permissive of age gaps for friends versus romantic partners. To address this gap, we analyzed survey data from an online sample of Oklahoma State University undergraduates (N = 306). Participants (Mage = 19.2, SD = 2.3; 70.3% women) demonstrated robust age-specific preferences, with strong correlations between participants' own age and self-reported ideal friend age across friendship categories (best, close, and more peripheral friends; rs = .83–.85, p < .001). Actual friend ages were moderately correlated with these preferences (rs = .28–.53, p < .001). Although the low variance in undergraduate age likely inflated assortment patterns, findings provide clear evidence of age-based homophily in young adult friendship contexts.