Facial expressions of pain in muscle-contraction headache patients

Using a judgment and component analysis of facial actions, 14 muscle-contraction headache (MCH) patients were videotaped in headache and nonheadache states. In addition, patients were also required to undergo a resting physiological assessment (frontalis electromyography, temporal blood volume pulse, and heart rate), reaction-time task, and complete self-report measures of pain state and mood. Headache and nonheadache state of MCH patients were reliably identified by 20 observers. Characteristics of facial expressions that occurred most frequently in the headache state included furrowed eyebrows, closed eyes, slow eye blinks, lip pursuing, facial grimacing, and flat facial affect. Headache state was also associated with increased latency to respond to an auditory tone and mood disturbances, but no differences in baseline physiological activity were observed. Our findings provide support for the utility and clinical relevance of judgment and component analysis of facial actions in MCH patients.     

Qualitative age differences in memory for text: a life-span developmental perspective

Qualitative differences in memory for text among 4 age groups (mean ages = 14.14, 17.55, 48.35, and 67.12 years) were examined in this study. Participants produced written recall and summary responses after presentation of a story and an essay. The response protocols were scored for their reproductive, elaborative, and metaphoric content. Age-group differences were observed in the quality of the responses. In general, the adolescent recall and summary responses were reproductive and text based, whereas the adult responses were more reconstructive and interpretive. Age-group differences were especially apparent in the story condition: The adolescents recalled and summarized the story's propositional content, whereas many of the adults recalled and summarized the story's psychological and metaphoric meanings as well. Individual difference variables accounted for much of the age-related variability in the essay but not in the story responses.     

The mirror effect in recognition memory: data and theory

The mirror effect is a regularity in recognition memory that requires reexamination of current views of memory. Five experiments that further support and extended the generality of the mirror effect are reported. The first two experiments vary word frequency. The third and fourth vary both word frequency and concreteness. The fifth experiment varies word frequency, concreteness, and the subject's operations on the words. The experiments furnish data on the stability of the effect, its relation to response times, its extension to multiple mirror effects, and its extension beyond stimulus variables to operation variables. A theory of the effect and predictions that derive from the theory are presented.     

TEACHING A PARENT TO TRAIN A SPOUSE IN CHILD MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES

This study analyzed several aspects of the training of a mother and father in child management techniques for use with their 6-year-old severely developmentally delayed son. The mother received clinic training in procedures for increasing her son's independent dressing skills; subsequently, she was asked to teach the same procedures to her husband with no assistance from the trainer. For both parents, procedures were introduced sequentially across two components of parent behavior in a multiple baseline design. Examinations were made of (a) the effectiveness of initial child management training on the mother's behaviors, (b) her ability to teach the same techniques to her husband independently, (c) the generalization of both parents' skills from the training setting (a dressing task) to two untrained activities (eating and toy use), and (d) the impact of training on the child's behavior. Results showed that the mother learned to implement the trained procedures and successfully communicated them to her husband, as evidenced by substantial positive changes in both parents' behaviors after being introduced to the child management skills. Both parents showed some generalization to the untrained activities, and their written comments following training indicated they understood the procedures. Clear-cut improvements were observed in the child's attending and independent performance of dressing and toy use skills concurrent with parent training. A 2-year follow-up report indicated that both parents retained their knowledge of skills taught, continued to use the procedures, and rated the training as very helpful in teaching the child self-help skills.     

The speech production abilities of stutterers: Recent, ongoing, and future research

Recent and ongoing research into the speech production abilities of stutterers has followed four disparate paths. First, there have been objective studies of physiologic, aerodynamic, and acoustic parameters of stutterers' habitual speech patterns and the patterns they display while speaking in the presence of such novel stimuli as DAF or masking. Second, investigators have undertaken the fiberoptic examination of stutterers' larynges during fluent and stuttered utterances. Third, there have been studies of the speed with which stutterers start and terminate voicing independent of the act of speaking. Finally, there have been investigations of possible perceptible differences between the fluency of stutterers and normal speakers. Each of these four types of research is examined. Tentative conclusions are drawn, and directions for future theorizing and experimentation are suggested.     

MODIFICATION OF COMBINED MIGRAINE-MUSCLE CONTRACTION HEADACHES USING BVP AND EMG FEEDBACK

The effect of blood volume pulse (BVP) and frontalis muscle action potential (EMG) feedback on control of vasoconstriction of the temporal artery and frontalis muscle activity in combined migraine-muscle tension subjects was investigated in a multiple baseline design (across subjects and responses). The data indicated: (a) both subjects obtained an ability to control BVP during BVP feedback and EMG during EMG feedback; (b) there were decreases in frequency of migraine headaches during BVP feedback and decreases in muscle contraction headaches during EMG feedback. The results of this study supported the theoretical explanation of two pain mechanisms involved in combined muscle contraction-migraine headaches as well as the effectiveness of biofeedback procedures that target directly the specific pain mechanism in the elimination of the two types of head pain.     

Brain injury and movement recall: Preselection, active-passive and interference effects

Stroke patients with unilateral lesions were compared with age-controls and students on their ability to reproduce a terminal location established kinesthetically by a previous movement. Conditions for the criterion movement differed over active/passive and preselected/constrained (experiment 1) and whether the retention interval between the criterion and recall movements involved mental rehearsal of the criterion movement or yes/no responding to a mental arithmetic task (experiment 2). Whereas students showed more accurate recall with little effect of criterion movement condition, patient groups showed a preselection effect, but only with active movements. A preferred hand advantage observed for the patient controls did not occur with stroke patients, and prevention of mental rehearsal during the retention interval disrupted recall more for the stroke patients. These findings are interpreted in terms of hemisphere-specific coding strategies whose relative use depends on the attentional demands of the task.     

A correlational study of stutterers' adaptation and voice initiation times

The purpose of this study was to determine the strength of the relationship, if any, between stutterers' amount of improvement in controlling phonation (voice initiation time) and their amount of improvement in stuttering during adaptation.Thirteen adult stutterers were required to participate in an adaptation task and a voice initiation time (VIT) task. The major finding was a weak, positive correlation between subjects' adaptation and their VIT difference scores. The correlation obtained, though weak, was interpreted to be informative; namely that while there is quite probably a laryngeal component in stuttering, it does not stand alone. It seems likely that the complexities of stuttering will not be fully understood until experiments include a number of potential or known dimensions of the disorder.