STUDIES IN THE PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF A NEW DRUG (DIETHYLPROPION)

In a 'triple blind' study on 30 subjects, 50 mg diethylpropion was compared with 10 mg dexamphetamine, 50 mg phenmetrazine, 250 mg caffeine, and placebo. The effects were measured in 5 subjective variables at 40 minutes intervals up to 4 hours. Clear trends were obtained in 'happiness', 'alertness' and 'pleasantness'. Peak effects were seen at about two hours, but in pleasantness the effects of phenmetrazine were increased even after that time. The demonstrated effects were discussed in relation to data on abuse of diethylpropion and phenmetrazine.     

Similarities and Differences in the Functions of Nonsuicidal Self‐Injury (NSSI) and Sex as Self‐Injury (SASI)

Differences and similarities were studied in the functions of two different self‐injurious behaviors (SIB): nonsuicidal self‐injury (NSSI) and sex as self‐injury (SASI). Based on type of SIB reported, adolescents were classified in one of three groups: NSSI only (n = 910), SASI only (n = 41), and both NSSI and SASI (n = 76). There was support for functional equivalence in the two forms of SIB, with automatic functions being most commonly endorsed in all three groups. There were also functional differences, with adolescents in the SASI only group reporting more social influence functions than those with NSSI only. Adolescents reporting both NSSI and SASI endorsed the highest number of functions for both behaviors. Clinical implications are discussed, emphasizing the need for emotion regulation skills.     

Sympathetic reactivity in late pregnancy is related to labour onset in women

Stress regulation during pregnancy is considered to be connected to the timing of labour initiation. Although increasing knowledge is emerging on the regulation of parturition, there is currently no way to predict the start of spontaneous labour in women. The main aim of this study was to assess pain threshold and the sympathetic nervous system response to cold pain in relation to the onset of labour in healthy pregnant women. Ninety-three pregnant women were recruited and assessed for skin conductance (SC) activity during a cold pressor test in gestational week 38. Pain threshold and cold endurance were also measured and the results were compared with data obtained from hospital records. Seventy-four women had a spontaneous labour onset and a valid SC measurement. SC activity during the cold pressor test decreased significantly with the number of days left to spontaneous parturition. This may indicate a gradual decrease in sympathetic autonomic nervous system reactivity even during the last weeks of pregnancy. Measuring SC activity during mild stress provocation is a rapid and non-invasive means to study variation in sympathetic reactivity during pregnancy, and may be useful in research on stress regulation in pregnancy and its relation to labour initiation.     

Go with the flow: How to master a nonlinear multiple-cue judgment task

The authors examined the cognitive processes that participants use in linear and nonlinear multiple-cue judgment tasks, hypothesizing that people are unable to use explicit cue abstraction in a nonlinear task, instead turning to exemplar memory. Experiment 1 confirmed that people are unable to use cue abstraction in nonlinear tasks but failed to confirm the hypothesized, spontaneous shift to exemplar memory. Instead, the participants appeared to be trapped in persistent and futile attempts to abstract the cue-criterion relations. Only after being instructed to rely on exemplar memory in Experiment 2 did they master the nonlinear task. The results suggest that adaptive shifts of representation need not occur spontaneously and that analytical thought may sometimes harm performance in nonlinear tasks.     

Multimedia learning trumps retrieval practice in psychology teaching

It is well established that studying with (vs. without) visual illustrations as well as taking tests (vs. restudying) is beneficial for learning, but on which strategy should one put the efforts, or should they be combined for best learning? Eighty‐eight upper secondary school students were given a brief lecture presented verbally (6 classes) or with the aid of a visual illustration (visuoverbal, 6 classes). The information was processed again by taking a memory test or by restudying. Recall and transfer tests were conducted after some few minutes and again after one week. The visuoverbal lecture resulted in better learning than verbal presentation only. A significant study strategy by retention interval interaction was found. However, this interaction was not qualified by a testing effect. Hence, taking tests (retrieval practice) did not lead to better learning than restudying. It was concluded that it is worthwhile to use visual illustrations in teaching. However, the present study did not reveal any synergistic effects from the combination of visuoverbal presentation and retrieval practice.     

Effects of perceptual quality on the processing of human faces presented to the left and right cerebral hemispheres

Three experiments examined the effects of stimulus duration, retinal eccentricity, and visual noise on the processing of human faces presented to the left visual field/right hemisphere (LVF-RH) and right visual field/left hemisphere (RVF-LH). In Experiment 1 observers identified which of 10 similar male faces was presented on a screen. The single face was presented for 10, 55, or 100 ms at 1 degree, 4 degrees, or 9 degrees of visual angle to the left or right of fixation. Decreasing stimulus duration and increasing retinal eccentricity lowered face recognition. The effect of duration was the same for LVF-RH and RVF-LH trials, but the detrimental effect of increasing retinal eccentricity was larger on LVF-RH trials than on RVF-LH trials. In Experiment 2 observers indicated whether a single face from this same set was a member of a memorized set of five positive faces. The probe face on each trial was presented alone or embedded in visual noise. Visual noise increased the error rate more on LVF-RH trials than on RVF-LH trials. This effect was replicated in Experiment 3, which also required observers to make a much easier discrimination between male and female faces. In the male/female task visual noise tended to impair performance more on RVF-LH trials than on LVF-RH trials, opposite the effect for the male/male task. These results are discussed in terms of hemispheric asymmetry for global versus local features of faces, the level of feature analysis demanded by a task, and the level of feature analysis most disrupted by perceptual degradation.     

Iceland—Genetic Counseling Services

This brief report aims to give an overview of the history and current status of clinical genetics services in Iceland and specific genetic counseling considerations for Iceland’s population. Presently, there are two part time medical geneticists and one full time genetic counselor with an MSc education from Cardiff, within the Department of Genetic and Molecular Medicine, based in Iceland’s only tertiary healthcare facility, Landspitali, the National University Hospital. An oncologist (20 %) also contributes to the cancer genetic counseling service. In addition, a pediatric medical geneticist has a 25 % appointment at the Children’s Hospital. No other health care organization offers genetic counseling, and there are no private genetic counseling services.     

Infants’ ability to track and reach for temporarily occluded objects

Six‐month‐old infants were presented with a moving object that temporarily became invisible. The object moved on a horizontal path and was made invisible for either 400, 800 or 1,200 ms before being within reach. Two kinds of events were used to make the object invisible: blackout of the room lights and occlusion behind a screen. First, infants saw 6 trials of the fully visible motion, then 12 trials of a temporarily invisible motion and finally 6 trials of the fully visible motion again. Each infant was presented with only one of the 6 experimental conditions. The results show that reaching is much more severely affected by a period of temporary non‐visibility than tracking. The effects of the two modes of non‐visibility were rather different. In general, blackout deteriorated tracking and made the gaze lag at reappearance. It inhibited reaching but this effect attenuated with experience. Longer periods of blackout deteriorated tracking and reaching more. Compared to blackout, occlusion had both a facilitating and an inhibiting effect on infants’ actions. Tracking had less tendency to lag but reaching showed more severe inhibition. The results are discussed in terms of graded representations. Furthermore, it is argued that an occluder facilitates tracking by providing information of where the moving object becomes visible again and it inhibits reaching by interfering with the representation of the object behind the occluder.     

Partners in Crime: How Liars in Collusion Betray Themselves1

The paradigmatic task for participants in studies on deception is to assess veracity on the basis of a single statement. However, in applied contexts, lie catchers are often faced with multiple statements (reported by one or several suspects). To appreciate this mismatch, we conducted a study where each member of 10 truth‐telling pairs and 10 lying pairs (reporting fabricated alibis) was interrogated twice about an alibi. As predicted, lying pair members were more consistent between themselves than were truth‐telling pair members, and single liars and truth tellers were equally consistent over time. Furthermore, truth tellers made more commissions than did liars. Although in line with our repeat vs. reconstruct hypothesis, these findings contrast sharply with beliefs held by professional lie catchers and recommendations found in literature on deception detection. The results are translated into an applied psycholegal context.     

Does mood influence the realism of confidence judgments?

Previous research has shown that mood affects cognition, but the extent to which mood affects meta-cognitive judgments is a relatively over-looked issue. In the current study we investigated how mood influences the degree of realism in participants' confidence judgments (based on an episodic memory task). Using music and film in combination, we successfully induced an elated mood in half of the participants, but failed to induce a sad mood in the other half. In line with previous research, the participants in both conditions were overconfident in their judgments. However, and contrary to our prediction, our data indicated that there was no difference in the realism of the confidence between the conditions. When relating this result to previous research, our conclusion is that there is no, or very little, influence of mood of moderate intensity on the realism of confidence judgments.