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Research has begun to investigate the reliability of cannabis-intoxicated eyewitnesses; however, no studies have evaluated eyewitness memory among chronic cannabis users after a minimum 24-h abstinence. This study compared cannabis users' (n = 23) and nonusers' (n = 26) eyewitness recall/identification and investigated the relationship between eyewitness memory and neuropsychological functioning. Users demonstrated better visual recognition relative to nonusers. Groups' neuropsychological performance was otherwise similar. Regarding eyewitness memory, users recalled more inaccurate crime details when cued, whereas total accurate and inaccurate details recalled were similar. Neither user status, lineup type, their interaction, nor education were credible predictors of lineup identification accuracy. Verbal memory performance and years of education, but not user status, credibly predicted eyewitness recall accuracy. Findings suggest that cannabis-user eyewitnesses may require special consideration regarding police interviewing techniques; however, additional research is necessary to determine the conditions in which chronic cannabis users are reliable or unreliable eyewitnesses.

Objective: Given the decreased clinical training opportunities during the COVID-19 pandemic, this study aimed to provide insights into how training directors and supervising neuropsychologists from internships offering neuropsychology training adjusted expectations of competitive applicants. Method: Respondents (n = 50) from internships offering at least an "exposure" in neuropsychology completed questions about how training expectations of competitive applicants have changed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Results: Most respondents reported decreased expectations for clinical hours and research productivity and increased expectations for telehealth experience and involvement in working with culturally diverse populations. Additionally, more than half of respondents from programs at university-affiliated and Veteran Affairs medical centers indicated reduced expectations for average number of integrated reports. Furthermore, compared to respondents at Veteran Affairs medical centers, respondents at university-affiliated medical centers stated decreased expectations for average number of paper presentations. Conclusions: The COVID-19 pandemic has motivated subtle changes in expectations of competitive neuropsychology-oriented internship applicants, specific to clinical experience, research productivity, and prioritization of certain application materials. Qualitative responses suggest that many respondents endeavored to improve applicant screening rather than lower expectations for applicants. As a result, consistent with previous recommendations, the importance of fit between trainee and training program should continue to be emphasized by prospective applicants. These findings have important implications for trainees for the next several years, as graduate students at all stages of training ultimately progress to the internship application stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most individuals recover quickly from a concussion; however, youth who sustain multiple concussions may be at risk for long-term cognitive impairments. This case study examines the neuropsychological performance of a 13-year-old malewith five head injuries. After his first concussion during study participation (fourth injury overall), several improvements were observed, likely due to practice effects, yet after sustaining another concussion <2 years later,declines were observed in visuoconstruction, verbal memory, and intellectual functioning. Across serial re-evaluation, his vocabulary knowledge declined, and fewer improvements were observed than anticipated when accounting for serial practice effects, highlighting the possible cumulative impact of multiple concussions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the recent rise in cannabis use and reported association between use and biopsychosocial risk, identifying factors to reduce use is important. This study examined the association between religion and spirituality factors and cannabis initiation and use. An online survey sample (N = 935) provided demographic, childhood religious affiliation (association with a specific religious group), religiosity (e.g., church attendance, prayer), spirituality, and substance use-related information. As hypothesized, participants with higher religiosity scores were less likely to be regular cannabis users (p =.017). However, cannabis use (early initiation, regular use, recent use, problematic use) was not associated with religious affiliation or with religious affiliation type (religions grouped by identifiable characteristics). Nevertheless, religious affiliation type was associated with recent alcohol use (p <.001) and recent intoxication (p =.006) among participants who reported cannabis use at least once, supporting previous research suggesting an inverse relation between religiosity and substance use. Overall, childhood religious affiliation type was not associated with cannabis use milestones as had been previously reported for alcohol use milestones. This suggests important differences between alcohol and cannabis use characteristics (e.g., social acceptability, recreational vs. medicinal substance) that may have implications for future substance use research, prevention, and treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective The specialty of clinical neuropsychology has experienced significant professional growth and increasing standardization of educational and training guidelines over the past 20 years. Previous literature demonstrated the importance of routine distribution of selection criteria used by training directors and supervising neuropsychologists for competitive applicants aiming to specialize in neuropsychology during internship. This study examined supervisors' updated expectations for competitive applicants from a more diverse sample of doctoral internship programs offering neuropsychological training. These data also provide cross-sectional and longitudinal comparisons to help trainees tailor their graduate training experiences. Method The sample included training directors and/or supervising neuropsychologists from 80 internship programs (73.4% of submitted surveys). Spearman correlations, analyses of variance, and chi-square tests of independence were conducted for cross-sectional and longitudinal comparisons. Results Clinical experience in assessment and the personal interview were consistently the two most prioritized criteria across all groups, whereas prioritization of the additional criteria was variable based on the program's characteristics. Internship programs generally preferred practica experience at university-affiliated medical centers, Veterans Affairs medical centers, and private/community-based hospitals. University-affiliated medical centers and internships offering ≥50% neuropsychology training showed similar preferences for applicants with a depth and breadth of graduate school experience in neuropsychology. Longitudinally, the applicant expectations for programs offering ≥50% neuropsychology training remained largely unchanged between 2000 and 2020. Conclusions This study updated expectations for competitive applicants from a diverse sample of neuropsychology training programs, underscored the importance of fit between trainee and program, and demonstrated consistency over time for trainees seeking neuropsychology training during internship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Research evaluating the neuropsychological effects of cannabis has yielded mixed findings, with some studies finding cognitive deficits in cannabis users (primarily in learning and memory) and others finding no significant effects. It is important to understand how clinicians perceive this discrepancy in the empirical literature. However, no studies have assessed neuropsychologists' beliefs regarding the effects of cannabis on cognitive functioning. Thus, this study sought to evaluate how patient and cannabis-use factors influence neuropsychologists' perceptions of cannabis's cognitive effects. Method: Neuropsychologists (N = 261) read eight vignettes, each depicting cannabis users varying in age, gender, and cannabis-use history (frequency, duration, and recreational/medicinal use). Respondents rated the anticipated effects of cannabis in each vignette on nine cognitive domains. Mixed effects linear regression modeled the ratings of cognitive abilities as a function of neuropsychologist, neuropsychologists' training, vignette, patient age, gender, and frequency/duration/type of cannabis use, and treated neuropsychologist and vignette as random effects. Results: Duration of use had the most notable effect on neuropsychologists' ratings, with a small (0.1 to 0.2 SDs) yet statistically significant (p < .001) negative effect on each cognitive domain. Male gender and medicinal use also predicted lower cognitive ratings. Differences in ratings between neuropsychologists accounted for 73% of the total variability in each domain, whereas variability due to vignette alone was negligible (<1%). Conclusions: Results suggest that neuropsychologists believe that cannabis use results in broad but mild cognitive deficits, consistent with meta-analytic findings of active chronic cannabis users, particularly for males and for individuals using cannabis for medicinal purposes. Interestingly, neuropsychologists expected fewer cognitive effects in recreational cannabis users. Further, duration of use (rather than frequency) was believed to be the primary factor contributing to cognitive deficits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction:While many studies suggest that regular cannabis use leads to deficits in cognitive functioning, particularly in memory, few have measured effort put forth during testing, and none have examined this as a potential mediator. Both age of onset of regular cannabis use and frequency of use have been linked to increased risk of memory deficits. The present study sought to determine whether effort mediated the relationship between frequency or age of onset of cannabis use and learning and memory performance. Method:Sixty-two participants (74% male, mean age = 19.25 years) who met criteria for chronic cannabis use (four or more days per week for at least 12 months) completed a neuropsychological battery including the California Verbal Learning Test-II (CVLT-II) and the Rey Complex Figure (RCF) as measures of learning and memory, and the Word Memory Test (WMT) as a measure of effort put forth during neuropsychological assessment. Results:Participants who more frequently used cannabis exhibited poorer effort (as measured by WMT performance;p < .01). Bootstrapping yielded 95% confidence intervals for indirect effects and revealed that effort significantly mediated the relationship between frequency of cannabis use and CVLT-II Learning (Sum of Trials 1–5), CVLT-II Delayed Recall, and RCF Delayed Recall, but not RCF Immediate Recall. Age of onset of cannabis use was not significantly related to effort. Conclusions:Findings indicate that effort mediates the relationship between frequency of cannabis use and performance on learning and memory measures, suggesting that effort performance should be measured and controlled for in future studies assessing cognition in frequent cannabis users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Few studies examining the cognitive effects of chronic cannabis use utilize research designs where examiners are blind to user status. Even in those that do, researchers may be able to guess the user status of participants, leaving these studies vulnerable to the expectancy effect confound.Objectives: The present study examined the ability of neuropsychologists (those who would conduct research on the cognitive effects of cannabis) to differentiate cannabis users and nonusers based on physical appearance from photographs.Method: We recruited 84 participants from an international neuropsychology listserv. The sample was 59.5% female and 95.2% Caucasian, with a mean age of 41.39 years (range 26–65). Each neuropsychologist rated 25 target faces (12 cannabis users, 13 nonusers) on a Marijuana Use Likelihood Index based upon individuals' photographs.Results: Results indicate a main effect of user group, as neuropsychologists ascribed higher ratings to cannabis users on the Marijuana Use Likelihood Index, suggesting they perceive them as more likely to be users, relative to nonusers. Results also demonstrated a main effect of gender, as males received higher user ratings than females, and a significant main effect of rater gender, as female raters were more likely to rate individuals as cannabis users relative to male raters.Conclusions/Importance: The results demonstrate the importance of assessing researchers' expectations when studying the effects of chronic cannabis use, as even those designs that keep examiners blind to participant user status may be vulnerable to expectancy effects if examiners are able to guess user status based upon appearance alone. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The first version of this article was published without some final typographic and formatting changes being made by the authors. These changes do not substantially affect the content of the article, and have now all been made. [Extracted from the article]

Objective: The specialty of clinical neuropsychology has experienced significant professional growth and increasing standardization of educational and training guidelines over the past 20 years. Previous literature demonstrated the importance of routine distribution of selection criteria used by training directors and supervising neuropsychologists for competitive applicants aiming to specialize in neuropsychology during internship. This study examined supervisors' updated expectations for competitive applicants from a more diverse sample of doctoral internship programs offering neuropsychological training. These data also provide cross-sectional and longitudinal comparisons to help trainees tailor their graduate training experiences., Method: The sample included training directors and/or supervising neuropsychologists from 80 internship programs (73.4% of submitted surveys). Spearman correlations, analyses of variance, and chi-square tests of independence were conducted for cross-sectional and longitudinal comparisons., Results: Clinical experience in assessment and the personal interview were consistently the two most prioritized criteria across all groups, whereas prioritization of the additional criteria was variable based on the program's characteristics. Internship programs generally preferred practica experience at university-affiliated medical centers, Veterans Affairs medical centers, and private/community-based hospitals. University-affiliated medical centers and internships offering ≥50% neuropsychology training showed similar preferences for applicants with a depth and breadth of graduate school experience in neuropsychology. Longitudinally, the applicant expectations for programs offering ≥50% neuropsychology training remained largely unchanged between 2000 and 2020., Conclusions: This study updated expectations for competitive applicants from a diverse sample of neuropsychology training programs, underscored the importance of fit between trainee and program, and demonstrated consistency over time for trainees seeking neuropsychology training during internship., (© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.)