• Sisterly bonding may bring reproductive benefits to rabbits, finds a study in February's Journal of Comparative Psychology (Vol. 122, No. 1). Wild rabbit sisters that stayed together during social group formation produced offspring two weeks earlier than female rabbits without sisters present. Researchers at the University of Bayreuth in Germany say coalitions between rabbit sisters lead to more positive social interactions and may help combat negative consequences of stress.
• Treatment for older adults battling depression doesn't work as well when close family members are upset by the patient's depressive symptoms, according to a study in March's Psychology and Aging (Vol. 23, No. 1). This research may be particularly alarming because a positive early response to antidepressants is an important factor in older adults' long-term recovery, says lead author Lynn M. Martire, PhD, of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. "Patients might benefit from a caregiver-focused psychosocial intervention along with their antidepressant medication," she says.
• The national movement toward sequential, as opposed to simultaneous, police lineup presentations—to reduce the likelihood of mistaken eyewitness identification—may be premature, finds a study in March's Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied (Vol. 14, No. 1). Researchers from the University of Oklahoma and the University of California-Riverside found that sequential lineups were only better in restricted circumstances, such as when the suspect was placed later in the lineup.
• Adolescents' use of popular social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook does not appear to increase their risk of being victimized by online predators, according to a study published in the February/March American Psychologist (Vol. 63, No. 2). Rather, researchers at the University of New Hampshire's Crimes against Children Research Center found that it is risky interactions such as talking online about sex to unknown people that increases vulnerability. As a result, more effort should be made to provide teens—rather than parents—with information about how to stay safe online, says Kimberly J. Mitchell, PhD, one of the study's authors. "We have to help teens understand the drawbacks and inappropriateness of romantic relationships with adults," she says. "Adolescents who are involved in these relationships [may not] be aware that what is happening to them is a crime."
• Research with 92 undergraduates at the University of Saskatchewan shows that drilling multiplication tables during elementary school may hinder one's ability to master division and factoring problems later on. In the study, published in May's Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition (Vol. 34, No. 3), researchers found that practicing simple multiplication problems made it more difficult for students to then do the reverse—factoring. Similarly, practicing factoring problems alone made it harder for them to then multiply. When the two were practiced together, however, students did well in both tasks. Lead author Jamie Campbell, PhD, says the disparity may arise because the mind focuses exclusively on one task when the computations are practiced alone, but stays flexible when studying multiplication and factoring together. Just as simple division is based on factoring, mixed practice could improve learning of multiplication, factoring and division.
—A. Novotney
