We examined the association between bilingualism, executive function (EF), and brain volume in older monolinguals and bilinguals who spoke English, Spanish, or both, and were cognitively normal (CN) or diagnosed with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) or dementia. Gray matter volume (GMV) was higher in language and EF brain regions among bilinguals, but no differences were found in memory regions. Neuropsychological performance did not vary across language groups over time; however, bilinguals exhibited reduced Stroop interference and lower scores on Digit Span Backwards and category fluency. Higher scores on Digit Span Backwards were associated with a younger age of English acquisition, and a greater degree of balanced bilingualism was associated with lower scores in category fluency. The initial age of cognitive decline did not differ between language groups. The influence of bilingualism appears to be reflected in increased GMV in language and EF regions, and to a lesser degree, in EF.

One of the “truisms” of personnel selection is that overqualified applicants are likely to be a poor fit and thus experience low job satisfaction and performance and higher turnover. Recently, the issue of overqualification has come to the forefront because of the economic downturn, especially in some European Union countries where unemployment rates are extremely high. However, empirical research on overqualification in the industrial–organizational/organizational behavior literature is limited. In this article, we argue that although there may be drawbacks to overqualification for both organizations and employees, overqualification may also provide a number of positive outcomes for workers and employers alike. We review the limited research on overqualification, noting the positive and negative consequences of overqualification and the conditions under which overqualified employees may be a boon to organizations. We conclude by recommending some possible research streams to better understand the overqualification phenomenon and by making recommendations for organizational practices.

In our focal article, we contended that overqualified employees may present unique advantages to hiring organizations and that decisions regarding overqualified employees should be made considering the strengths as well as potential limitations of employing overqualified employees. In this response to commentaries on our original article, we identify distinctions researchers should pay attention to. Specifically, measurement of overqualification (whether objective or subjective measures are used), dimension of overqualification in question (overeducation, being overskilled, overintelligence, or overexperience), when and from whose perspective overqualification is assessed (before or after employment), whether overqualification occurs within the context of other overqualified employees, the degree of choice available to the job applicant in becoming overqualified, as well as the specific nature of the population being affected by overqualification are important issues that affect the theory as well as management of overqualification.

Pet owners desire treats with adequate nutritional profiles, functional benefits, long-lasting properties and an interactive nature. Therefore, it is pivotal to understand the digestion characteristics of treats produced by different processing methods and having variable nutritional composition. The objective of the present study was to measure in vitro disappearance characteristics of selected categories of commercially available treats. In vitro procedures developed by Boisen and Eggum in 1991 were modified to handle larger sample sizes. Treat samples were evaluated in triplicate. Following incubation, in vitro DM disappearance (DMD) was calculated. In vitro DMD of selected treats varied widely. For the gastric phase, DMD ranged from 6·9 to 88·8 %, whereas intestinal phase digestion resulted in a DMD range of 10·7–100·0 % (P < 0·05). Because of differences in treat composition and size, they were divided into six categories: Biscuit, Bone, Chew, Dental, Meat Product and Rawhide. In general, Bone was the least digestible treat category in both gastric and intestinal phases. Meat Product and Rawhide treats had a DMD of 71·5–100 % after the intestinal phase, whereas Biscuit had values above 93 %. Chew and Dental treats had a wide DMD range (54·5–100 %). Understanding the DMD of commercially available treats is important to verify their safety for consumption and potential digestibility once ingested. These data indicate wide variation in DMD among and within different treat categories. This information will assist pet food sale associates, pet owners and veterinarians to make more educated decisions when it relates to selection and recommendations about commercially available treats. Future work is needed to expand the knowledge on in vitro DMD and safety of treats and to further investigate their impact on in vivo DM digestibility once fed to dogs.

Of major interest to those concerned with early mnemonic process and function is the question of whether early memories likely encoded without the benefit of language later are accessible to verbal report. In the context of a controlled laboratory study, we examined this question in children who were 16 and 20 months at the time of exposure to specific target events and who subsequently were tested for their memories of the events after a delay of either 6 or 12 months (at 22–32 months) and then again at 3 years. At the first delayed-recall test, children evidenced memory both nonverbally and verbally. Nonverbal mnemonic expression was related to age at the time of test; verbal mnemonic expression was related to verbal fluency at the time of test. At the second delayed-recall test, children evidenced continued accessibility of their early memories. Verbal mnemonic expression was related to previous mnemonic expression, both nonverbal and verbal, each of which contributed unique variance. The relevance of these findings on memory for controlled laboratory events for issues of memory for traumatic experiences is discussed.