Cluttering upgraded

The articles in this special edition have been scrutinized for new information on the problem of cluttering. The etiology of the disorder is still a riddle, but we now seem to know more about its relationship to learning disorders. Cluttering is not only a fluency and language disorder, but pragmatic rules are also violated by clutterers.

The most encouraging advances presented in this special edition are within assessment and therapy. New diagnostic instruments have been developed. The widely accepted view of a poor prognosis for clutterers has been partly refuted, even if we still only have a couple of case studies showing long-time effects of therapy. Recommendations for further research and development are suggested.     

DIAGNOSTIC EXPLOITATION OF VISUAL AFTEREFFECT MEASURES IN A MODERATELY DEPRESSIVE PATIENT GROUP

SMITH, G. J. W., FRIES, I., ANDERSSON, A. L. & RIED, J. Diagnostic exploitation of visual aftereffect measures in a moderately depressive patient group. Scand. J. Psychol. , 1971, 12, 68–79.–A group of 39 moderately depressive patients were tested before and after therapy with two serial aftereffect tests. One of them concerned size, intensity, and color of projected afterimages (AI), the other the duration of spiral aftereffects (SAE). AI and SAE data correlated highly with psychiatric ratings of depressive retardation, anxiety, and compulsion. These correlations formed the nucleus of three independent dimensions in a factorial space.     

The use of extreme groups in assessing relationships

The relationship between variables in applied and experimental research is often investigated by the use of extreme (i.e., upper and lower) groups. Earlier analytical work has demonstrated that the extreme groups procedure is more powerful than the standard correlational approach for some values of the correlation and extreme group size. The present article provides methods for using the covariance information that is usually discarded in the classical extreme groups approach. Essentially, then, the new procedure combines the extreme groups approach and the correlational approach. Consequently, it includes the advantages of each and is shown to be more powerful than either approach used alone.     

DIFFERENCES IN VERBALLY EXPRESSED COGNITION FOLLOWING LEFT AND RIGHT VENTROLATERAL THALAMOTOMY

A lmgren , P.-E., A ndersson , A. L. & K ullberg , G. Differences in verbally expressed cognition following left and right ventrolateral thalamotomy. Scand. J. Psychol ., 1969, 10 , 243–249.—Patients with Parkinson's disease, subjected to ventrolateral thalamotomy, 44 on the left side and 23 on the right, were tested pre- and postoperatively with the Color-Word Test (CWT), a memory test of word pairs (WPT), and Raven's Progressive Matrices Test (PMT). As to performance change from pre- to postoperative testing, there were significant differences between the two groups of operatees on the CWT (p =0.000001, at best) and the WPT(p = 0.01), implying a less effective postoperative performance in the group with left-sided thalamic lesion. Such a lesion seems to impair the continuous suppression of previously relevant information in connection with selection of the appropriate verbal response.     

The classification of individuals into two criterion groups on the basis of a discontinuous payoff function

An analytic method is presented for optimally classifying individuals into two subgroups on the basis of a cutting score on a test or test composite. The development assumes the test and criterion scores to be normally distributed, and the correlation surface to be bivariate normal. It is further assumed that individuals belong to the first or second sub-group depending on whether their criterion score is above or below a specified value. The predictor cutting score is determined so as to maximize the expected value of the decision procedure, taking gains and losses associated with correct and incorrect assignments into account.The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Navy Department. This research was supported in part by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health, MH 10449-01.     

Effective Assertive Behavior in the Workplace: Responding to Unfair Criticism

A social rules perspective was employed to identify the elements of socially appropriate responses to unfair criticism in the workplace. Women generally endorsed for themselves response strategies based on stronger obligation and softer rights components, while men endorsed responses based on stronger personal rights expression and weaker obligation components. In support of the utility of a social rules approach to operationalizing context-specific expectations, behavioral responses based on gender and status-specific rules were evaluated as more effective on task, relationship, and self-respect dimensions than were rights-only, rights-plus-empathy, or submissive strategies. Results are discussed in terms of the development of a context-specific model of interpersonal competence and implications for interpersonal skills and assertion training.