Initial experiences with the Reiber 1979 determination of autochthonous IgG production within the scope of clinical and immunologic follow-up studies in multiple sclerosis treated with immunosuppressive therapy

We carried out clinical and immunological follows-up to 21 patients suffering from multiple sclerosis, 16 of whom had been immunosuppressively treated. A remission in clinical way was possible to point out with 8 of 12 patients (66%) -average remission by 1 score acc. to the Bronx-Scale- and with these patients a local formation of immunoglobulin acc. to Reiber (1979) could be proven. With 40 to 60% of the patients pathological changes were found out by determining of routine parameters by means of liquor examinations (total number of cells, sediment, total protein, electrophoresis) in which the humoral values responded not so sensitively to immunosuppressive therapy than the cellular values. For the present, liquor- and immunodiagnostic is being considered as a solid part of diagnostic programm and therapy control with regard to patients suffering from multiple sclerosis.     

Inferring the size of a goal object from an actor's grasping movement in 6‐ and 9‐month‐old infants

The present study applied a preferential looking paradigm to test whether 6‐ and 9‐month old infants are able to infer the size of a goal object from an actor's grasping movement. The target object was a cup with the handle rotated either towards or away from the actor. In two experiments, infants saw the video of an actor's grasping movement towards an occluded target object. The aperture size of the actor's hand was varied as between‐subjects factor. Subsequently, two final states of the grasping movement were presented simultaneously with the occluder being removed. In Experiment 1, the expected final state showed the actor's hand holding a cup in a way that would be expected after the performed grasping movement. In the unexpected final state, the actor's hand held the cup at the side which would be unexpected after the performed grasping movement. Results show that 6‐ as well as 9‐month‐olds looked longer at the unexpected than at the expected final state. Experiment 2 excluded an alternative explanation of these findings, namely that the discrimination of the final states was due to geometrical familiarity or novelty of the final states. These findings provide evidence that infants are able to infer the size of a goal object from the aperture size of the actor's hand during the grasp.     

The development and effectiveness of memory strategies in kindergarten and elementary school: Findings from the Würzburg and Göttingen longitudinal memory studies

This article reports findings of the Würzburg and Göttingen Longitudinal Memory Studies, which focused on children's verbal memory development. The studies started with 102 (German) kindergarten children in Würzburg and 86 second-graders in Göttingen who were tested on various memory measures, including sort-recall, memory capacity, metamemory, and verbal IQ. Assessments were repeated nine times, with adjacent measurement points separated by 6-month time intervals. The main goals of the studies concerned the assessment of utilization deficiencies during the course of strategy development, the analysis of factors influencing the effectiveness of strategy use, and the occurrence of multiple strategy use. Findings confirmed the outcome of previous longitudinal studies in that semantic organization strategies were not always accompanied by superior recall, but utilization deficiency problems were comparably rare. Strategy effectiveness was shown as being affected mainly by memory capacity and by children's tendency to engage in multiple strategy use. However, children did not start to apply multiple strategies effectively until the end of Grade 2.