Personal identity and brain death: a critical response

The authors contend that there are logical inconsistencies in a theory put forth by Michael Green and Daniel Wikler ("Brain death and personal identity," Philosophy and Public Affairs 1980 Winter; 9(2): 105-133) to justify the brain death concept of death. Green and Wikler had asserted that individuals cease to exist and are dead when the criteria for continuity in their personal identity are not met. Having argued that the theory of personal identity is misguided, Agich and Jones suggest that further research into the ontological foundation of brain death concepts should begin, not by rejecting medical or moral considerations, but by carefully defining the main competing concepts of brain death as brain stem death, cerebral death, death of the brain as a whole, and whole brain death, and then by relating these concepts to the ontological conditions for being a live individual or person.     

Interparent agreement on the Personality Inventory for Children: Are substantial correlations sufficient?

Mothers' and fathers' responses on the Personality Inventory for Children (PIC) were compared for 360 clinic-referred children and adolescents. Interparent agreement was measured by several different indices. Correlations between parental pairs of scale T-scores derived from each parent averaged .66 for 13 of the profile scales; 9 of the scales exceeded this value. In contrast, mothers and fathers agreed in the classification of the presence of clinical significance an average of 77% of the time across these 13 scales, and pairs of parental PIC profiles contained an average of 3 scales in disagreement. The type of index used to measure interparent agreement was found to affect the results. The discussion examines the nature of interparent disagreement and addresses the implications regarding the use of fathers as informants on this instrument.This article is based on Thomas A. Hulbert's master's thesis. The authors extend their appreciation to James Orisell and Dena Mussaff for their assistance in data preparation and analysis.     

Echoic memory and language perception

The purpose of this study was to analyze asymmetry in echoic memory as a relevant factor in language perception. Two experimental procedures were used: the presentation of temporally segmented words in fragments of 40, 80, 120 and 240 msec, separated by intervals of 40, 80, 120 and 240 msec, similar to the procedures used by A. W. F. Huggins (1975, Perception & Psychophysics, 18, 149-157); the presentation of two tones of short duration, "high" and "low," followed by an interference tone equivalent to the mean frequency of the two tones, closely following the procedure used by D. W. Massaro (1975, in D.W. Massaro (Ed.), Understanding language, New York: Academic Press). A stereophonic tape recorder was used as follows: one channel was employed for the presentation of the words or tones while, through the other channel, the subject received a white noise equivalent in intensity. All subjects carried out the task twice (right ear, left ear) and the order of presentation was counterbalanced. Only the first task showed differences between ears. Implications of the results are analyzed.     

Decision processes in visual discrimination of line orientation

The contribution of decision factors to the meridional variations in line orientation discrimination was determined for two-alternative forced-choice experimental designs. Using Johnson's (1980) formalization of decision processes in discrimination tasks, we identified three decision factors: the decision rule, memory variance, and criterial noise. In a first experiment, we showed the effect of experimental design on orientation discrimination to be similar at horizontal and oblique standard orientations, indicating that the meridional variations in orientation discrimination were not due to a decision rule anisotropy. In a second experiment, the effect of the interstimulus interval was also found to be similar at both standard orientations, suggesting that the memory variance is isotropic in the orientation domain. The results of two other experiments supported the hypothesis that the meridional variations in orientation discrimination are not due to a criterial noise anisotropy. These different results strongly suggested that the oblique effect in line orientation discrimination is due to sensorial factors rather than to decision factors. Therefore, they further support the hypothesis linking the anisotropy of the preferred orientation distribution of Area 17-S cells (a single physiologically defined class of cells in the primary visual cortex) and the meridional variations in line orientation discrimination.     

Intermittent versus continuous visual control: a reply to Elliott

Recently, Elliott (1986) has reported data that he claims are inconsistent with my hypothesis that a short-term motor memory system exists for guiding locomotion and other actions in space (Thomson, 1983). In fact, methodological flaws in Elliott's design make such conclusions unjustified and inappropriate. Moreover, insofar as comparisons can be made at all, the results are completely consistent with my own data.     

The facial muscle patterning of posed and imagery-induced expressions of emotion by expressive and nonexpressive posers

Much research on emotional facial expression employs posed expressions and expressive subjects. To test the generalizability of this research to more spontaneous expressions of both expressive and nonexpressive posers, subjects engaged in happy, sad, angry, and neutral imagery, and voluntarily posed happy, sad, and angry facial expressions while facial muscle activity (brow, cheek, and mouth regions) and autonomic activity (skin resistance and heart period) were recorded. Subjects were classified as expressive or nonexpressive on the basis of the intensity of their posed expressions. The posed and imagery-induced expressions were similar, but not identical. Brow activity present in the imagery-induced sad expressions was weak or absent in the posed ones. Both nonexpressive and expressive subjects demonstrated similar heart rate acceleration during emotional imagery and demonstrated similar posed and imagery-induced happy expressions, but nonexpressive subjects showed little facial activity during both their posed and imagery-induced sad and angry expressions. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

Family therapy in a community mother and toddler project

A home centred family therapy approach is described based on the McMaster model. This approach was applied in a controlled trial of three forms of intervention for mother and toddler problems. In this paper the experience of applying the approach is reported.     

Disrupted patterns of consummatory behavior in rats with fornix transections

The feeding and drinking behavior was examined in male rats with fornix transections and sham-operated control rats. Total food and water consumption was recorded but supplemented by a pattern analysis of feeding and drinking behavior. The behavior of the rats was continuously monitored during four hour morning and afternoon sessions under ad lib access and during a two hour session following adaptation to a restricted access feeding schedule. Rats with fornix transections were more active and exhibited increased frequencies of rearing, eating and drinking. The increased meal frequency in rats with fornix transections was accompanied by decreased meal durations and a reduction in the length of intermeal intervals. Total food and water consumption was unaffected by fornix transection as were the duration of sleep bouts and the frequencies of grooming, sleeping and carrying shavings. Fornix transections also reduced food carrying and food hoarding but only under conditions of restricted food access. The results suggest that fornix transection does not alter major homeostatic regulatory mechanisms nor does it alter the components of feeding and drinking behavior. Fornix transection alters, instead, the organization of microregulatory feeding and drinking patterns.