Emotional Impulsivity in Children with ADHD Associated with Comorbid—Not ADHD—Symptomatology

Children with ADHD often demonstrate sudden and intense shifts in both positive and negative affect. This study examined the role of diagnostic status on emotional impulsivity in children utilizing ecological momentary assessment (EMA). Parents of 64 8–12 year old children (15 ADHD-only; 27 ADHD-comorbid; 22 control) completed a diagnostic structured interview and then an EMA protocol, rating the child’s affect thrice daily for 28 days. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) suggested that children with ADHD and a comorbid disorder demonstrated significantly more EMA-derived emotional impulsivity than children with ADHD only and control children. No difference was found between children with ADHD only and control children. This study suggested that children with ADHD demonstrate significantly higher levels of emotional impulsivity than control children only in the presence of a comorbid disorder.     

Design decisions in a Pascal-based operant conditioning system

FREDL, a Pascal-based system for control of operant experiments, has been implemented on the IBM PC computer. In the foreground, recurring operations, such as decrementing counters that serve as local clocks, are controlled by a dictionary specifying automatic properties of user defined variables, and random logic is implemented by a user-written Pascal overlay. In the background, the remainder of the program controls communication with the user, output of data to disk, and production of cumulative records.     

An evaluation of Unix in the psychology computer laboratory

Psychology users of the Unix operating system responded to questionnaire items concerning the use of Unix, the ease of learning and using Unix, and the value and quality of the system for their research needs. The data suggest that Unix is poor according to human-factors criteria, but good according to programming and systems criteria.     

The MED-PC experimental apparatus programming system

MED-PC is a software system that implements the MEDSTATE NOTATION dialect of state notation on IBM PC and compatible computers equipped with MED Associates interfacing. It provides a programming environment in which users can write short programs in a specialized language to control and record the events of operant and classical conditioning experiments. As many as eight experimental stations, each with up to 8 inputs and 32 outputs, running the same or different experimental procedures, may be active simultaneously. The system provides a standard set of run-time features, including mechanisms for displaying real-time data, simulation of responses, manipulation of array and variable contents, and writing of disk files. The system is based upon polling techniques, and is implemented as a translator that generates Pascal units, which are then linked to previously compiled Pascal routines.     

Program library for DECtalk text-to-speech system

The DECtalk text-to-speech conversion system offers promise for both basic and applied research. This paper is a report on a program library for the system that utilizes the routines by Edwards (1987). The library contains a number of useful Pascal routines which simplify the basic control of DECtalk. The demonstration program that we have devised should assist users of the system.     

Trauma exposure is associated with increased context-dependent adjustments of cognitive control in patients with posttraumatic stress disorder and healthy controls

Recent evidence has suggested that posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with alterations in prefrontal-cortex-dependent cognitive processes (e.g., working memory, cognitive control). However, it remains unclear whether these cognitive dysfunctions are related to PTSD symptomatology or trauma exposure. Furthermore, regarding cognitive control, research has only focused on the integrity of selected control functions, but not their dynamic regulation in response to changing environmental demands. Therefore, the present study investigated dynamic variations in interference control, in addition to overall interference susceptibility and working memory (WM) performance in matched groups of 24 PTSD patients and 26 traumatized and 30 nontraumatized healthy controls. The Simon task was used to measure overall interference susceptibility and the flexible adjustment of cognitive control, on the basis of the occurrence of response conflicts (conflict adaptation effect). WM performance was assessed with the forward and backward digit span tasks. Since we have previously shown that trauma exposure per se is associated with reduced hair cortisol concentrations (HCC), we further explored whether PTSD/trauma-related cognitive alterations are related to HCC in proximal 3-cm hair segments. The results revealed that PTSD patients and traumatized controls showed significantly more pronounced conflict adaptation effects than nontraumatized controls. Moreover, the conflict adaptation effect was positively related to the number of lifetime traumatic events and the frequency of traumatization. The groups did not differ in overall interference susceptibility or WM performance. Exploratory analyses revealed no association between HCC and the observed cognitive differences. These results suggest that context-driven control adjustments constitute a sensitive correlate of trauma exposure, irrespective of PTSD.     

Immaturity,delinquency, and the WechslerP > V sign

The classic psychodiagnostic sign for delinquency —Wechsler Performance IQ being higher than Verbal IQ —has shown generally good validity, improvable by a modifier variable (Warren's I -level system). Reasoning from the I-level immaturity theory of delinquency, the present study investigated age as a possible substitute for the I-level in its role as a moderator variable for the Wechsler P> Vsign, within a population of male juvenile delinquents. As hypothesized, young age predicted a high P > Vscore, supporting the immaturity theory of delinquency. Types of immaturity are discussed. Future work should test the P > Vsign as an aid in evaluating delinquency treatment methods.     

HIPS: Image processing under UNIX. Software and applications

HIPS (Human Information Processing Laboratory’s Image processing System) is a software system for image processing that runs under the UNIX operating system. HIPS is modular and flexible: it provides automatic documentation of its actions, and is relatively independent of special equipment. It has proved its usefulness in the study of the perception of American Sign Language (ASL). Here, we demonstrate some of its applications in the study of vision, and as a tool in general signal processing. Ten examples of HIPS-generated stimuli and—in some cases—analyses are provided, including the spatial filtering analysis of two types of visual illusions; the study of frequency channels with sine-wave gratings and band-limited noise; 3-dimensional perceptual reconstruction from 2-dimensional images in the kinetic depth effect; the perception of depth in random dot stereograms and cinematograms; and the perceptual segregation of objects induced by differential dot motion. Finally, examples of noise-masked, cartoon coded, and hierarchically encoded ASL images are provided.     

CORE: Computer-controlled operant reinforcement

A Pascal-based system and software is described for computer reinforcement of operant responding (CORE). CORE allows a single microcomputer to control up to eight different work stations simultaneously, on one of several schedules. The user need not be familiar with Pascal, although modifications of the programs require a good working knowledge. The system is menu-driven and interacts with the user in a question-and-answer format. The user can select a variety of experimental parameters, for example, session and reinforcement duration, delay, and type of reinforcement schedule. During run-time, CORE provides frequently updated on-screen graphics (Cumulative Records or Interresponse Time Distributions) and counter display. Permanently stored data and information from other counters may also be displayed or printed from the disk. Presently, three programs are implemented for a variety of related reinforcement schedules (e.g., fixed ratio, variable ratio, fixed interval, variable interval, alternation).     

Rethinking Reconstructionist Confucianism’s Rethinking

In this review of Fan Ruiping’s book, I am concerned first of all about how representative his account of Confucianism/Ruism is in relationship to the multiform traditions associated with that teaching through more than two thousand years of its existence. Fan emphasizes pre-imperial forms of Confucian traditions, but neglects many alternatives from later sources. Secondly, his account of “familism” lends itself to questions related to the problem of revenge that is associated with traditional Confucianism. This raises further ethical doubts about the effectiveness of his reconstructed Confucianism within contemporary Chinese society. Finally, his “familism” appears to focus on extended family structures, but whether this is suitable and relevant for the structures of modern family transformations in mainland China is questioned.     

Mandel'štam and Dante: TheDivine Comedy in Mandel'štam's poetry of the 1930s

Osip Mandel'?tam (1891–1938?) belongs among the greatest Russian poets of the twentieth century. During the thirties, when he led a tragic existence and felt a premonition of his inevitable violent death, Mandel'?tam saw in Dante not only the greatest poet, but also his own superior teacher, and his poems of that period contain a tormented meditation on the masterpiece of Dante's genius — theDivine Comedy. Epic poetry of Dante, Homer, Virgil and others was possible because the inner world of each poet was essentially at one with the ethos of the society in which he lived. Mandel'?tam's inner world was Judaeo-Christian, European, and rooted in classical and neo-Platonic philosophy, but his outer world, consisting of a new Marxist or pseudo-Marxist system, was totally at odds with it. Thus Mandel'?tam could not embody the epic impulse of the society he opposed. He was left with the tormented lyric impulse. The fundamental conflict between Mandel'?tam as a lyric poet and the society in which he had to live and work accounts for the fact that his vision of Stalinist society in a number of respects remarkably corresponds to Dante's vision of a perverted divine order in theInferno.     

The psychology of tokenism: An analysis

American society is analyzed as a gender-class system wherein tokenism is defined as a form of interclass mobility. Two role partners, Sponsor and Token, sustain the institution of tokenism: the Token is a member of the deviant class and the Sponsor is a member of the dominant class. The content and functioning of this role partnership are broadly defined. The limitations of tokenism and implications for change in the social system are discussed.     

A brief scoring method for voice stress analysis

The Psychological Stress Evaluator (PSE) detects inaudible frequency changes in the human voice, and it is claimed that the pattern of these changes can provide a measure of psychophysiological arousal. A few studies have given some support to this hypothesis, but further clarifica tion is needed. One major technical problem in this research is that the traditional scoring esyStem is unreliable unless considerable numbers of scores are taken and averaged , The paper presents a conveniently brief scoring system which has fair reliahility, and which correlates significantly with a measure of Critical Flicker Fusion Threshold.     

A computer-controlled matrix system for presentation to the skin of complex spatiotemporal patterns

A system for presenting complex spatiotemporal patterns to the skin is described. The computer-controlled device consists of a matrix of 64 piezoceramic benders mounted in a support system that can be fitted to steeply contoured skin surfaces such as the thigh. Vibrotactile patterns that include movement across the skin’s surface and/or intensitive variation within or across display epochs are programmed and presented in a frame-by-frame manner, similar to the production of motion pictures. Patterns can be predefined, or modified by observers’ responses to allow for an interactive haptographic display. Design considerations for the construction of the tactile matrix, computer interface, and software are discussed.     

Introduction to Unix

The Unix operating system, developed by Bell Laboratories and distributed by Western Electric, represents a new direction in the design of an operating system. This paper describes the system and its utility in the field of psychological research.     

On neurotransmitter mechanisms of reinforcement and internal inhibition

Experiments reported in this study have been performed in order to investigate cholinergic and GABA-ergic neurotransmitter systems and substance P in the realization of internal inhibition and pain reinforcement. This was accomplished during the elaboration of inhibitory and defensive conditioned reflexes to light flashes in alert, nonimmobilized rabbits. Present results together with a review of past research indicate that the cholinergic system is directly involved in transmitting the effects of pain reinforcement to neocortical neurons. Substance P, a neuropeptide, reduces the background activity of neocortical and hippocampol neurons and the response of cortical neurons to pain and positive conditioned stimuli. The cholinergic system and substance P exert a modulating effect on the elaboration of internal inhibition. Phenybut, a GABA derivative capable of penetrating the blood-brain barrier, enhances inhibitory hyperpolarization in the cerebral cortex and improves discrimination between the inhibitory and reinforcing light flashes. It appears, therefore, that the GABA-ergic system plays a leading part in the elaboration of internal inhibition. Neuronal activity and slow potential changes in response to positive conditioned and pain stimuli occur in the same direction after administering the preparations, and the dynamics of these changes is different from that in responses to inhibitory stimuli. It may be supposed on these grounds that the neurotransmitter and neuromodulator systems studied possess a considerable degree of plasticity.     

Behavioral assessment of eating patterns and blood glucose in diabetes using the Self-Monitoring Analysis System

The Self-Monitoring Analysis System is a set of microcomputer programs that were developed to remove clinical judgment from the task of behavioral assessment using self-monitoring diaries. The program is written in Turbo Pascal and runs on MS-DOS (16-bit) or CP/M (8-bit) microcomputer systems. The program allows the user to custom design data bases with hundreds of binary, categorical, integral, and real variables. Full-screen data-entry forms can be custom designed, and random access files allow for flexible data entry and editing. The program makes extensive utilization of Pascal’s very flexible data structure capabilities. Dynamic allocation of memory allows the program to maximize its use of available RAM. Data from a patient with diabetes is presented as a case study illustrating the system’s utility.     

The Pavlovian basis of reciprocal inhibition therapy

While there is a slight disagreement between Wolpe’s views and Pavlov’s statements concerning the application of experimental psychology to the study of psychiatry, Wolpe indicates that he owes much to Pavlov. A Pavlovian analysis of therapy by reciprocal inhibition, which includes the physiological constructs as well as Pavlovian methodology, will increase our understanding of Reciprocal Inhibition therapy. The major techniques of Reciprocal Inhibition therapy are discussed in the terms of Pavlovian method and theory. Desensitization based on systematic relaxation appears to be effective because the excitatory stimulus is presented when the subject’s cortex is predominantly in an inhibitory state while relaxed. Assertive training relies mainly on building up the excitatory process by use of the second signal system. Thought-stopping is analogous to the external inhibition procedure with the use of the second signaling system as the “extra” stimulus. Deductions from Pavlov’s typology predict that an excitable subject will be difficult to desensitize and somewhat easier to train in assertive behavior and thought-stopping. Some implications of relating Pavlovian method and theory to Reciprocal Inhibition therapy are discussed.     

A self-contained microcomputer system for psychological testing

This paper describes a newly available microcomputer system for the on-line administration, scoring, and interpretation of psychological tests. User response to the system is reported. Results of a validity study of the system’s Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory interpretative program are presented.