Profiles of symbol-reading skills in organic patients

One (unitary) school of thought views all symbolic competences as closely related, while a rival (pluralistic) approach underscores the relative differences among modes of symbolic processing. To secure information on the plausibility of these competing hypotheses, matched groups of left- and right-hemisphere patients were given a visual symbol-recognition test. Subjects were required to choose the correctly depicted symbol among a set of four. The results challenge a strong version of the “unitary” hypothesis. What emerges instead is a view of symbol systems as a continuum: relatively linguistic symbol systems prove challenging for left-hemisphere patients, relatively nonlinguistic systems pose comparable difficulties for right-hemisphere patients. Contrary to hypothesis, the processing of numerical symbols poses special difficulty for right-hemisphere patients. Performance on trademarks—items which can be processed by linguistic or nonlinguistic strategies—suggests that organic patients with contrasting pathologies may adopt different processing strategies when confronting identical physical stimuli.     

Psychometric and CT scan measurements in a case of crossed aphasia in a dextral

A case of crossed aphasia with lesion deep to the right supramarginal gyrus was studied to determine (1) if this patient behaved similar to patients with the same lesion site in the left hemisphere, (2) if visuospatial deficits were present, and (3) if the CT scan asymmetries were similar to those of other right-handers. Speech and language skills were similar to those patients with similar lesions in the left hemisphere. Visuospatial and arithmetic deficits were similar to those described after right-hemisphere and left-hemisphere damage. CT scan asymmetries were atypical. These results provide behavioral and neuroradiological confirmation of atypical hemispheric dominance.     

Semantic field,naming, and auditory comprehension in aphasia

The status of semantic fields for 16 target nouns was compared in high and low comprehension aphasics, brain damaged, and normal controls, by measuring latency and miss rate for recognition of six classes of associates, which were presented orally on tape. The ability to name each target was also examined as a function of the integrity of the subject's semantic field for that word. Low comprehension aphasics showed both quantitative and qualitative changes in semantic fields, while milder aphasics showed only mild quantitative impairment, as compared to controls. Both latency and miss rate measures indicated that failure to name a word is associated with reduced semantic field for that word. This result is interpreted as supporting the view that nameing is, in part, determined by the convergence of associations.     

The effects of modifying color-meaning concepts on racial concept attitudes in five- and eight-year-old children

Williams and Edwards (1969) found that changing the positive and negative evaluations given to color concepts by preschool children through reinforcement procedures over two sessions reduced their racial concept attitude scores measured during a third session. The present study replicated their negative reinforcement and control procedures with 5-year-old children, and extended their research to include 8-year-old children. The present results replicated the original findings and in fact showed a larger change in racial attitude scores. While the color-meaning concepts were modified to a greater extent in the older children, the effect of the negative reinforcement procedure on racial attitude scores was similar for the two age groups.     

Skin temperature biofeedback in children and adults

Skin temperature biofeedback performance was studied in 38 children, ages 6 to 10, and 38 of their parents, across two sessions of audio biofeedback segments in which the participants alternately attempted hand-warming and hand-cooling. Skin temperature from each hand was monitored throughout, but only one hand at a time was in the feedback loop. The major finding was that children were superior to adults in controlling skin temperature in the presence of biofeedback (p < .001). Adults showed no skin temperature control. For children, temperature changes were greater for the hand in the feedback loop as compared to the contralateral hand (p < .001). Children were equally successful in increasing and decreasing skin temperature. The results are consistent with earlier studies and suggest that children have considerable potential for neuropsychological self-regulation.     

The role of the right hemisphere in the apprehension of complex linguistic materials

To secure information on which aspects of linguistic functioning might be mediated by the nondominant hemisphere, a test battery assessing sensitivity to narrational and humorous materials was administered to a population of right-hemisphere-damaged patients, as well as relevant control groups of normal, aging, and aphasic individuals. While elementary linguistic functioning was adequate, the right-hemisphere-injured groups exhibited consistent difficulties in respecting the boundaries of a fictive entity, assessing the plausibility of elements within a story or joke, selecting the appropriate punch line for a joke, and integrating elements of a story into a coherent narrative. Certain elements—specifically emotional content and noncanonical facts injected into a narrative—also posed characteristic difficulties for these patients. The results suggest that, in contrast to the other populations, right-hemisphere patients exhibit special difficulties in processing complex linguistic entities and in utilizing the surrounding context as they assess linguistic messages.     

Surprise but not coherence: Sensitivity to verbal humor in right-hemisphere patients

Verbal humor deficits were investigated in right-hemisphere-damaged patients. It was hypothesized that the appreciation of jokes presupposes two elements: sensitivity to the surprise element entailed in the punch line of a joke and apprehension of the coherence which results when the punch line has been integrated with the body of the joke. The possible dissociation between these elements was tested by asking subjects to select from four alternatives the appropriate ending to a joke. Right-hemisphere patients exhibited a selective attraction to endings which contained an element of surprise but which were not otherwise coherent with the body of the joke. This finding suggests that right-hemisphere patients have difficulty in integrating content across parts of a narrative and confirms the psychological reality of the proposed distinction between the surprise and coherence elements of humor processing.     

Effects of massed practice and meprobamate on spasmodic torticollis: an experimental analysis

In recent years a variety of behavioral techniques have been used in the treatment of spasmodic torticollis including negative practice (Agras and Marshall, 1965). faradic aversion (Brierly, 1967). instructions and negative feedback (Bernhardt et al., 1972). and systematic desensitization (Meares. 1973). However, in most of the aforementioned reports the controlling effects of the particular technique over dependent measures (voluntary and/or involuntary evocations of the tic) have not been demonstrated experimentally (see Hersen and Eisler, 1973 for review). In the present single case experimental analysis (Barlow and Hersen. 1973; Hersen and Barlow, 1974). the effects of massed practice (see Yates. 1958) and meprobamate on a subject exhibiting spasmodic torticollis were systematically examined. Following Bernhardt. Hersen and Barlow (1972). treatment efficacy was evaluated by monitoring rate of involuntary torticollis movements per 10-min videotaped recording sessions.     

Response and associative phase components of elaborative prompt effects in children's noun-pair learning

The effects of aural and pictorial elaborative prompts were estimated separately for response and associative phase components of children's nounpair learning. A 20-item list of noun pairs was administered individually to 200 second- and third-grade children by the method of paired-associates. Indices of response learning (free verbal recall and pictorial identification) revealed equivalent effects among prompt conditions whereas measures of associative learning (multiple-choice pictorial-recognition tests) demonstrated substantial performance facilitation as a function of both aural and pictorial elaborative prompts. This outcome was regarded as an unequivocal identification of the locus of elaborative prompt effects in children's nounpair learning.     

Comprehension disorders in aphasia: a historical review.

This paper reviews the clinical reports and theoretical inferences made by early scientists in regard to the impairment of auditory comprehension so often found in aphasics. It first presents an analysis of the literature on and the interpretation of comprehension disorders in aphasia up to the time of Pierre Marie and Arnold Pick. It then reviews early attempts to assess and quantify receptive impairment. Finally, it discusses the historical origin of some of the questions on comprehension currently under investigation by contemporary researchers.     

Temporal ordering deficits following anterior temporal lobectomy

Subjects were required to report the pitch sequence of two 10-msec tones of different frequency presented monaurally while the stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) between the two tones was varied. The value of the SOA at which the subjects achieved an 80% correct sequence report was determined by an adaptive procedure without feedback. This measure was compared in the right and left ears, on subjects with a right or left anterior temporal lobectomy and on a normal control group. The results reveal an elevated threshold for performing temporal order judgments in the ear contralateral to the surgical lesion.     

Time for auditory processing of object names by aphasics

Ten Wernicke's and ten Broca's aphasics were compared with normal controls and brain-damaged nonaphasics with respect to the time required for the auditory decoding of object names. This value was obtained by using a subtraction method with two reaction time determinations, one of which included an auditory processing phase while the other did not. The overall mean of approximately 200 msec for Broca's aphasics did not differ significantly from the normal, while the mean of 650 msec for the Wernicke aphasics was much slower. All groups responded more quickly to high-frequency than low-frequency words and all but the Wernicke aphasics improved in the second trial block over their performance in the first trial block.     

Cued recall in anterograde amnesia

After a single presentation of a word list, normal subjects exhibited better retention when prompted with semantic cues than with rhyme or letter cues. Alcoholic Korsakoff patients, patients receiving electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), and the patient N.A. exhibited impaired retention and, unlike control subjects, did not exhibit an advantage of semantic cues over letter and rhyme cues. Two experimental manipulations designed to equate the level of performance of amnesics and controls indicated that these amnesias could be understood as a reflection of weak memory strength that results from deficiencies in initial learning and retention. In addition, alcoholic Korsakoff patients appeared to have greater difficulty utilizing semantic cues than patients receiving ECT or patient N.A.     

Verbal retention deficits in aphasic and amnesic patients.

Five different groups of patients (aphasics, alcoholic Korsakoffs, nondominant hemisphere patients, alcoholics, and control patients) were asked to detect either repeated letters, repeated words, rhyming words, or words from the same category during the reading of a list. It was discovered that the number of intervening words had a greater effect on the aphasics for all conditions than it did for the other groups. However, when the rate of presentation was slowed, the aphasics showed considerable improvement while the other groups maintained their same level of performance. The Korsakoff patients were impaired only on the semantic task (same category inclusion) and did not improve at the slower presentation rate. An interpretation based on speed and level of information processing abilities is given.     

Comparison of metabolic rates, language, and memory in subcortical aphasias

Four patients with subcortical lesions and either aphasia or amnesia were compared to four patients with cortical lesions and aphasia. Each patient had [18F] fluorodeoxyglucose positron-emission computed tomography, language, and memory evaluations. Marked metabolic depression was found in the thalamus and caudate in all patients. The subcortical patients had only mild left-cortical changes, while the cortical patients showed marked cortical metabolic changes in the left hemisphere. Language changes were mild in the subcortical patients, while moderate to severe in the cortical patients. All patients showed severe verbal memory dysfunction. The only common abnormalities in the two groups were metabolic changes in the thalamus and severity of verbal memory dysfunction. These findings suggest a relationship between verbal memory and thalamic function.     

Some analyses of the verbal encoding deficit of alcoholic Korsakoff patients

Two experiments were designed to assess Korsakoff patients' ability to encode verbal information on the basis of its physical, nominal and semantic properties. The first investigation employed Wickens' release from proactive interference (PI) technique; a procedure that allows an assessment of a subject's ability to encode verbal information on the basis of its semantic properties. It was discovered that on tasks involving only a rudimentary verbal analysis, such as the ability to discriminate letters from numbers, the Korsakoff patients demonstrated a normal release from PI. However, on tasks that required a more sophisticated level of semantic encoding, such as those based on taxonomic class inclusion, the patients failed to show release from PI. The second investigation employed Posner's reaction time technique which assesses a subject's ability to encode the physical and nominal properties of simple verbal materials (letters). The results of this study showed that Korsakoff patients are impaired on even these rudimentary encoding tasks, which led to the proposal that Korsakoff patients' semantic encoding deficit might stem from an initial impairment in the speed at which physical and nominal properties of verbal information are analyzed.