A novel version of the Mental Rotations Test (MRT) that alternated the standard block figures with three-dimensional human figures was administered to 99 men and 129 women. Women and men differed predictably in their retrospective reports of childhood play and digit ratios, a putative measure of prenatal androgen action. Compared to the block figure items, human figure items on the modified MRT were associated with an improvement in performance in both sexes. However, consistent with the study hypothesis, the enhancing effect of the human figure condition on performance as measured by conventional scores was smaller in men compared to women and not at all evident in men when performance was measured by ratio scores. A closer inspection of the human figures effects on test scores showed performance in women improved for both male and female figure items. In contrast, relative to scores on block figure items, performance in men improved when stimuli were male figures but did not improve when stimuli were female figures. These results add to the evidence that the magnitude of sex differences in scores on the MRT may vary according to the test content and item properties. The findings suggest that online measures of cognitive processing in response to different classes of test stimuli (e.g., animate vs. inanimate objects, self-relevant vs. neutral stimuli) may prove useful in research aimed at understanding the hormonal and social factors contributing to the sex difference in performance on the MRT.

The second to fourth (2D:4D) digit ratio, a sexually dimorphic, phenotypic characteristic putatively associated with perinatal androgen action, has been used to evaluate the hypothesized relation between prenatal hormonal factors and a variety of sexually dimorphic behaviors, including sexlinked psychopathology. Smaller digit ratios, suggestive of stronger perinatal androgen action, have been associated with male-linked disorders (e.g., autism), and larger digit ratios, suggestive of weaker perinatal androgen action, have been associated with female-linked disorders (e.g., depression and eating disorders). To evaluate the possible relation between digit ratio and another traditionally female-linked disorder, anxiety, 2D:4D ratios were measured in a non-clinical sample (58 men, 52 women). Participants also completed a battery of anxiety and gender role measures and performed two spatial/cognitive tasks typically showing a male advantage (mental rotation and targeting) and two tasks typically showing a female advantage (location memory and spatial working memory). Men with a more feminine pattern of sex-linked traits and behaviors (including digit ratios) reported greater anxiety. In contrast, greater anxiety in women was associated with both female-typical and male-typical traits and behaviors, and no significant association between digit ratio and anxiety was found. This pattern of results suggests that the development of anxiety is multiply determined, with contributing factors varying by sex.

Screening for psychopathology is desirable in many settings where routine administration of full assessment batteries is not practical or cost efficient. The Personality Assessment Screener (PAS) is a 22-item self-report subset of Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) items that was designed to screen for respondents who would be likely to achieve a clinically significant PAI profile. In this study, the PAS demonstrated classification rates in a sample of veterans referred for psychological evaluations that were similar to those described in initial validation studies. In addition, the three-item Negative Affect element of the PAS demonstrated impressive reliability and sensitivity given its brevity. These results support the use of the PAS as a screening tool to indicate clinically significant PAI profiles among veterans.The utility of brief and empirically validated mental health screeners has been embraced by both Veteran's Affairs Hospitals and the military as a way to efficiently MILITARY PSYCHOLOGY, 22:465-473, 2010

Borderline personality is diagnosed in clinical settings three times more often in women than in men, and symptom severity in women appears sensitive to circulating sex steroid levels. In non-human mammals, prenatal hormones contribute to the development of sex-linked behavior and their responsiveness to postnatal hormones. Therefore, this study examined the hypothesis that prenatal hormones may influence the development of borderline personality traits by measuring a marker of perinatal androgen action, the 2D:4D ratio, and salivary hormone levels in 58 men and 52 women. Participants completed the Borderline Features Subscales (BOR) of the Personality Assessment Inventory, gender role questionnaires, and four sex-linked cognitive tasks. Digit ratios were a significant predictor of the affective component of borderline personality, such that in both sexes 2D:4D ratios suggestive of weaker perinatal androgen action contributed to greater borderline personality features overall and greater affective instability. In addition, women reporting greater affective instability showed larger changes in estradiol across the session, consistent with the influence of stress and emotional reactivity on hormonal function. These findings are consistent with an increasing body of research suggesting that hormonal factors associated with the expression of typical gender-linked behavior may also contribute to the expression of gender-linked maladaptive behavior.