Production of narrative discourse in aphasia

The study described the abilities of a group of 15 moderately impaired aphasics and 15 normals to produce narrative discourse. The experimental tasks included telling stories, summarizing stories, and giving morals to stories. The data were analyzed in terms of sentential grammar, discourse grammar, and subjective ratings of content and clarity of language. The results showed that aphasics produced well-structured discourse. The language of the aphasics' discourse was reduced in both complexity and amount, as compared to that produced by normals. The reduction of language reflected selective reduction of hierarchically organized information. The findings of the study confirm the results of previous research on mildly impaired aphasics, which also showed preservation of discourse structure with selective reduction of information.     

BIOFEEDBACK AND RATIONAL-EMOTIVE THERAPY IN THE MANAGEMENT OF MIGRAINE HEADACHE

Twenty-four migraine patients were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: (a) self-monitoring of headache activity (waiting list), (b) frontalis EMG biofeedback, (c) digit temperature biofeedback, and (d) digit temperature biofeedback plus Rational-Emotive Therapy (RET). Bidirectional control over the target physiological response was assessed through a reversal design in each session. Following at least a four-week baseline, the three biofeedback groups received 8 to 10, 30-minute sessions of bidirectional biofeedback training, scheduled twice a week. Subjects in the combined digit temperature biofeedback plus RET group received three 40-minute sessions of RET as an addition to the third, fifth, and seventh biofeedback sessions. Records of daily home practice were kept throughout treatment and three-month followup. Subjects on the waiting list monitored headaches for at least five months, corresponding to “baseline”, “treatment”, and three-month followup. Digit temperature biofeedback alone and in conjunction with RET did not prove to be more effective than the control conditions. All the EMG subjects reduced headache activity to two-thirds or less of the baseline level by the third month of followup. Bidirectional digit temperature performance did not improve with training, was demonstrated in only 33% of the biofeedback sessions, was not maintained over time, and was unrelated to improvement in headache activity. EMG subjects reported biofeedback performance to be an easier task and met the performance criterion on 85% of the sessions. The frequency of home practice contributed over 55% of the variance in retrospective estimates of headache improvement but was not related to changes in daily records of headache activity.     

Preference for information about intensity of signaled tailshock

Three experiments are reported which were designed to demonstrate preference for signaled shock and to delineate the roles of the preparatory-response, information-seeking, and signaled-safety hypotheses of this phenomenon. Experiment 1 demonstrated a preference for a signal-tailshock condition over a tailshock-signal condition in a shuttlebox. In Experiment 3, rats were exposed to signaled tailshock of two intensities in both compartments of the shuttlebox, but in one compartment the signals provided information about the intensity of the impending tailshock, whereas in the other compartment the signals did not. The tailshock intensities were .6 and 1.3 mA for one group and .6 and 1.8 mA for a second group. Experiment 2 assured that even the smaller intensity difference was readily discriminable. For Group .6-1.8 a significant preference for the condition in which the signals predicted the intensity of the impending tailshocks was obtained, but no preference for either condition was found for Group .6-1.3. As signaled safety was equated in the two compartments of Experiment 3, the observed preference cannot be accounted for by the signaled-safety hypothesis. Information seeking cannot explain the lack of preference in Group .6-1.3 as the difference between those two intensities was proven discriminable in Experiment 2. Assuming that sufficient differences in shock intensity yield different preparatory responses, the present results are compatible with the preparatory-response hypothesis and suggest that preparatory responding plays a role in producing the preference for signaled shock.     

The stability of binocular rivalry during spaced and massed viewing

Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics - The purpose of the study was consideration of the stability of binocular rivalry rates during extended periods of spaced and massed viewing by untrained...     

Sacred Violations,Perceptions of Injustice,and Anger in Muslims

Anger has been at the center of religiopolitical conflicts and has been associated with well‐being. This study examined the role of Muslim anger in sociopolitical events perceived as a sacred violation. A Muslim sample (N = 151) identified adverse political events that have deeply affected them; and completed measures of anger, sacred violations, perceptions of injustice, and religiousness. Sacred violations and perceptions of injustice were associated with greater levels of anger, with sacred violations being the stronger predictor. Post hoc analyses revealed that surrender problem‐solving style increased anger control. The findings provide broad support for the importance of religious appraisals of adverse political events in Muslim anger.