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Purpose: We sought to provide valid and reliable data on the acquisition of consonant sounds in speakers of Brazilian Portuguese. Method: The sample comprised 733 typically developing monolingual speakers of Brazilian Portuguese (ages 3;0-8;11 [years;months]). The presence of surface speech error patterns, the revised percentage consonants correct, and the age of sound acquisition were evaluated using phonological assessment software. The normative values for these variables were reported using means and standard deviations. Results: Age had a significant impact on phoneme production. Increasing age was generally associated with an increase in correct phoneme production, a reduction in error patterns, and an increase in scores on revised percentage consonants correct. Phonological error patterns persisted for a longer time in consonants and consonant clusters acquired later in development. The 2 youngest age groups differed from the remainder of the sample on the frequency of the following phonological patterns: cluster reduction, liquid gliding, fricative deletion-coda, and weak-syllable deletion. Performance was similar between groups starting at 5;0 years old. Conclusion: This study confirmed that nasal and stop consonants are acquired first, followed by fricatives and, finally, liquids. We suggest that future studies replicate our investigation in larger samples and younger age groups.

Introduction: Substance use disorder consists of the presence of cognitive, behavioral, and physiological symptoms, indicating continuous use of one or more substances by the individual. The literature points to the existence of a relationship between impulsive behavior, in which individuals tend to act thoughtlessly and with a lower level of planning, and consumption of substances including cannabis. Objectives: To examine the presence and severity of impulsivity in individuals with cannabis use disorder and investigate associations between sociodemographic and clinical characteristics and impulsivity. Method: Participants completed a sociodemographic data sheet and the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11). A total of 122 subjects with a diagnosis of cannabis use disorder participated, with a mean age of 34.46 years (standard deviation = 9.62). Results: The prevalence of high levels of impulsivity in the sample ranged from 30 to 33%; the BIS-11 total score was significantly associated with cohabitation and alcohol use. The BIS-11 scores for motor impulsivity and attentional impulsivity were also associated with consumption of alcohol. No associations were found between impulsivity and the variables age, education, use of tobacco, or use of cocaine/crack. Conclusion: This study contributes to understanding of substance dependence, especially cannabis. It found presence of impulsive behavior among individuals with cannabis use disorder, which is corroborated by reports in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to verify the psychometric properties of the Dysexecutive Questionnaire (DEX) through exploratory factor analysis (EFA), evidence of reliability, and convergent validity, in a sample of neurologically preserved older adults. Participants were 345 older adults who answered, in addition to DEX, a sociodemographic and clinical questionnaire, the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), and two verbal fluency tasks. The EFA was conducted through Parallel Analysis based on the generation of a polychoric correlation matrix, as well as Pearson’s correlation between the DEX scores, age, education, MMSE, and verbal fluency tasks. According to the EFA, the extraction of two factors (“Inhibition” and “Social Regulation and Planning”) was suggested and DEX was negatively associated with age and MMSE. In conclusion, DEX presented a satisfactory factorial structure for older adults, which can be considered a reliable self-report measure for complaints of executive functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of PSICO is the property of PSICO and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of PSICO is the property of PSICO and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In Brazil, the number of validated and recognized scientific instruments for clinical evaluation of elderly persons is limited. The Older Adult Self-Report (OASR) is a psychopathological rating scale for persons with more than 60 years, which evaluates adaptive functioning and psychopathology. The aim of this study was at investigating OASR construct and criterion validity evidence for Brazilian elderly. The sample included 345 individuals, between 60 and 94 years of age, which were recruited by convenience. Participants responded to a questionnaire containing questions about demographic and health information, the Mini Mental State Examination, the Geriatric Depression Scale short version and the OASR. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson's correlation and discriminant analysis. The results showed significant associations between the scores of OASR's subscales, correlating with general cognitive ability and depressive symptoms. Furthermore, OASR was sensitive to identity elderly with significant symptoms of depression. In conclusion, the OASR showed adequate evidence of construct and criterion validity for a sample of Brazilian elderly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Avaliação Psicológica is the property of Instituto Brasileiro de Avaliacao Psicologica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The aim of this study was to establish normative data for the Brazilian elderly population in the Logical Memory (LM) subtest of the Wechsler Memory Scale, revised version (WMS-R) and investigate the ability of scores in this subtest (immediate and delayed recall) to discriminate the elderly with and without depressive symptoms. The sample consisted of 334 elderly participants. Participants answered a sociodemographic and health questionnaire, the MMSE, the GDS-15, and the LM subtest. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, Student's t test, multiple linear regression, univariate analysis, and discriminant analysis. Age, education, and depressive symptoms significantly influenced all the scores of LM. Normative data were available according to three age groups, three levels of education, sex, and presence or absence of depressive symptoms. Results are in agreement with the literature, demonstrating the importance of establishing reference standards in accordance with sociodemographic and cultural characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is natural that the elderly would present difficulties in executive functions even in the early stages of a depressive condition, which may be detected by the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST). This study aimed to compare the performance of elderly people with and without depressive symptoms on the shortened version of the WCST, containing 64 cards (WCST-64). The sample consisted of 153 elderly subjects who were divided into two groups: with and without depressive symptoms. The groups were matched in terms of age, educational level and score on the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE). A Socio-Demographic Data Sheet, the Geriatric Depression Scale, MMSE and the WCST-64 were used. It was observed that, to the extent that depressive symptoms intensified, total errors, perseverative responses and perseverative errors increased on the WCST-64. The results showed that elderly people who present depressive symptoms had poorer performance on the WCST-64, compared to those without depressive symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista CEFAC is the property of Revista CEFAC and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The aim of this review is to identify and characterize cancellation tests that are administered to patients who have suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI) or a stroke. We reviewed all types of interventions in which cancellation tests were described in the study population. Studies were searched on the databases PubMed, PsycINFO and LILACS, by means of keywords representing three main constructs: cancellation paradigms AND [stroke OR TBI]. Among 216 abstracts initially found, 86 full text articles were included. We found 26 cancellation paradigms. Star Cancellation was the most widely used, followed by Line Bissection, Line Crossing and Letter Cancellation. In individuals with stroke the most used instrument was Line Crossing, and in TBI patients, the Teddy Bear Cancellation Task. Then, general findings suggested that cancellation tests in stroke patients are used mainly to diagnose hemineglect, while TBI patients have been assessed by these paradigms towards an attention profile. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Cognitive Reserve (CR) construct seeks to explain the brain's ability of compensate for degeneration caused by age or neuropathology. However, standardized measures of CR are incipient. Through a systematic review, this study aimed to investigate the instruments in the form of scales and questionnaires used as objective measures of CR, through the measurement of multiple variables related to activities conducted throughout the lifetime. The search for articles was conducted in the PubMed, Scopus, Science Direct, PsyclNFO, VHL and Cochrane databases. Seven studies were selected after applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The existence of five scales/questionnaires that measure CR was verified. The instruments present a short duration, however, they vary in the items/variables measured, there being a lack of in-depth studies with large and diversified samples. Further studies are needed to improve the validity evidence and to conduct cross-cultural adaptations of the CR scale/questionnaires. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social distancing due to the COVID-19 pandemic can impact mental health, triggering symptoms such as anxiety, stress and depression. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the levels of anxiety, depression and stress during the period of social distancing due to COVID-19 in students from a campus of the Federal Institute in the metropolitan area of Porto Alegre/RS. A correlational and exploratory study was performed. The sample of the present research was composed by 208 students, who responded to a self-administered online questionnaire with sociodemographic variables and the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale Short Form - DASS-21. The detected prevalence of symptoms classified as moderate-severe was 49% for stress, 39% for depression and 33% for anxiety. An association was found between higher levels of anxiety symptoms (OR = 5.652; 95% CI = 2.872-11.123; p < 0.001), depression (OR = 3.289; 95% CI = 1.810-5.978; p < 0.001) and stress (OR = 5.684; 95% CI = 3.120-10.355; p < 0.001) with occurrence of sleep problems during the period of social distancing. There was a protective factor provided by regular physical exercise in relation to depressive symptoms (OR = 0.490; 95% CI = 0.250-0.960; p =0.033). These data are extremely important for understanding the adverse effect on the mental health of students and for developing psychological support strategies, thus promoting well-being during and after the pandemic., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Esteves, Oliveira and Argimon.)

Few studies involving the cognition of middle-aged adults are available in the international literature, particularly investigating the process of cognitive aging, executive components and attention., Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate whether there are differences in performance on neuropsychological tasks of executive functions and sustained attention between two age groups., Methods: The sample consisted of 87 adults aged from 19 to 59 years old, divided into two groups according to the age variable (younger adults and middle-aged adults). All participants were Brazilian and had no sensory, psychiatric or neurological disorders; subjects also had no history of alcohol abuse, and no self-reported use of illicit drugs or antipsychotics. The neuropsychological instruments administered were the Hayling Test, Trail Making Test, Bells Test and verbal fluency tasks., Results: Groups showed no significant differences in relation to sociodemographic variables, educational level or frequency of reading and writing habits. The younger adult group performed better than the middle-aged group on tasks that involved mainly processing speed, cognitive flexibility and lexical search., Conclusions: These findings serve as a valuable reference for cognitive processing in middle-aged adults, since a large number of comparative studies focus only on the younger and later phases of adulthood. Additional studies are needed to investigate possible interaction between different factors such as age and education., Competing Interests: Disclosure: The authors report no conflits of interest.

Objective: To describe the frequency of pragmatic and executive deficits in right brain damaged (RBD) and in traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients, and to verify possible dissociations between pragmatic and executive functions in these two groups., Methods: The sample comprised 7 cases of TBI and 7 cases of RBD. All participants were assessed by means of tasks from the Montreal Communication Evaluation Battery and executive functions tests including the Trail Making Test, Hayling Test, Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, semantic and phonemic verbal fluency tasks, and working memory tasks from the Brazilian Brief Neuropsychological Assessment Battery NEUPSILIN. Z-score was calculated and a descriptive analysis of frequency of deficits (Z< -1.5) was carried out., Results: RBD patients presented with deficits predominantly on conversational and narrative discursive tasks, while TBI patients showed a wider spread pattern of pragmatic deficits. Regarding EF, RBD deficits included predominantly working memory and verbal initiation impairment. On the other hand, TBI individuals again exhibited a general profile of executive dysfunction, affecting mainly working memory, initiation, inhibition, planning and switching. Pragmatic and executive deficits were generally associated upon comparisons of RBD patients and TBI cases, except for two simple dissociations: two post-TBI cases showed executive deficits in the absence of pragmatic deficits., Discussion: Pragmatic and executive deficits can be very frequent following TBI or vascular RBD. There seems to be an association between these abilities, indicating that although they can co-occur, a cause-consequence relationship cannot be the only hypothesis., Competing Interests: Disclosure: The authors report no conflits of interest.