Locus of control and the age difference in free recall from episodic memory.

The authors investigated the relation of locus of control (LOC) to age differences in free-recall memory performance. Older and younger participants completed P. C. Duttweiler's (1984) Internal Control Index (ICI) and subsequently performed free-recall memory tasks. Compared with the younger participants, the older participants exhibited poorer recall with more intrusions and uncorrected repetition errors as well as reduced categorical clustering. For the older participants with less internal LOC, recall proportion and item-pair associative recall clustering were lower than for the older participants with more internal LOC. By contrast, the younger participants did not exhibit any LOC effects in their recall performance. The results suggest that a differential memory organization deficit may underlie the age differences in free recall among individuals varying in LOC when they are performing an intentional learning task. This deficit is discussed in terms of a reduced-inhibition account of cognitive aging.     

Assertive community treatment: Correcting some misconceptions

Conclusions Except for Mowbray, the commentators approach the issue of mental health services quite differently than we do, a fact which may have contributed to some of their misconceptions. Although not stressed in our original report, our view of mental health services is eclectic and pragmatic, encompassing a wide range of psychosocial approaches. We agree with Salem that a range of options needs to be developed and maintained. The motivation for the development of both the ACT and DIC programs was to address the needs of a population neglected by existing mental health services. By contrast, the commentators' agendas converged on the promotion of nonprofessional forms of help-giving. Like the commentators, we have long advocated for consumer choice, self-help groups, and the use of natural supports. Where we part company with them is what we hypothesize would be a minimally sufficient response to over 2 million persons with SMI in the United States. For us, it is not enough to assert that self-help groups might be a partial answer. For us, the self-selection into self-help groups and drop-in centers (which all of the commentators readily acknowledge) leaves open some troubling questions from apolicy standpoint about what happens to those who do not self-select into such groups, especially because we believe that those who select themselves out are likely to include some of the most vulnerable segments of the SMI population. Editor's Note. This paper is an invited reply to several commentaries on an earlier paper by the authors.Preparation of this report was supported in part by Research Scientist Development Award MH 00842-01 from the National Institute of Mental Health to the first author. Our thanks to Debra Pavick for her help in preparing the drop-in center statistics cited in the report.     

Subjective phrase structure: An empirical investigation

The present study represents an attempt to investigate the basis of subjective groupings of words in sentences, employing Edwin Martin's subjective phrase structure technique. Results indicate that subjects base their judgments not only on grammatical structure but also on constituent length and on stress and intonation patterns.A shorter version of this paper was presented to the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Linguistic Association at McGill University, Montreal, May 1972.     

Rhythmic heart rate variability (sinus arrhythmia) related to stages of sleep

Evidence that the excursion of rhythmic heart rate variability (sinus arrhythmia) may be manipulated by altering the subject’s state of concentration, prompted a study of effects associated with different stages of sleep. There were 9 healthy subjects, ages 16–69, and one 55-year-old subject (C.P.) with a myocardial infarction history. Awake and during sleep the excursion of heart rate variability was greatest among the younger subjects, decreasing progressively with age. C.P. displayed rhythmic heart rate variability only when asleep. In light sleep (Stages 1 and 2) all subjects, with the exception of the 69-year-old, whose rate remained almost fixed throughout the night, displayed rhythmic heart rate variability, roughly synchronous with respiration. Neither the elderly subjeot nor C.P. entered into deep sleep (Stages 3 and 4). Among the other subjects, deep sleep was marked by a precise correlation between the frequency of respiration and heart rate variability. In REM sleep, however, in all subjects, there was often a total dissociation between respiration and rhythmic heart rate variability. There were periods of no heart rate variability with continuing regular respiration and of rhythmic heart rate variability with spontaneous breath holding. In the presence of heart rate variability during REM, C.P. displayed frequent ectopic beats, but ectopic beats were nearly absent in REM periods characterized by a steady, unvarying heart rate. The range of heart rate variability at rest and during sleep (sinus arrhythmia) reflects the manner in which autonomic activity is brought to bear in regulating the heart beat. The study of the behavior of sinus arrhythmia may offer a way to anticipate the occurrence of dangerous cardiac dysarrhythmias and sudden death, especially during sleep.     

Reexamining personal, social, and cultural influences on compliance behavior in the United States, Poland, and Hong Kong

Researchers have extended the literature on strategies of gaining compliance with a request to incorporate cultural variations into the analytic framework. In the present investigation, the authors sought to go beyond previous studies of the factors increasing compliance rates by reexamining how researchers conceptualize and measure personal, social, and cultural influences on compliance behavior in the United States, Poland, and Hong Kong. The authors found that different levels of compliance were affected by culture, principles of influence, and the individual's personal orientation of idiocentrism/allocentrism (I/A). In the present study, the authors extended previous cross-cultural work by decomposing the I/A into 2 separate individual difference variables: normative perceptions and evaluative perceptions. The interaction of person and situation on compliance showed the power of situational demands and the strength of different aspects of personal collectivism. Different patterns of compliance at the culture level revealed the importance of culture in shaping this behavioral tendency. Thus, the authors' integration of personal, social, and cultural influences provided an interactive model to help researchers explain compliance more comprehensively.     

Use of the Conners-wells adolescent self-report scale (short form) with children

The short form of the Conners-Wells Adolescent Self-Report Scale (CASS:Short) is administered to 319 children and 844 adolescents to investigate whether the instrument can be used with respondents under the age of 12. Mothers of all respondents are asked to rate each child using a measure designed to assess a parallel set of problem behaviors. The factor structure of the CASS:Short is tested in both samples and is found to have good fit to the data. Mean levels of ADHD symptomatology are also examined for possible sex and age effects, as was the relationship between parent and self-report ratings. The overall results provide empirical support for the use of the CASS:Short with children ages 7 to 11.     

Discourse after Closed Head Injury in Young Children

This study examined narrative discourse in 23 children, ages 6 to 8 years, who sustained a severe closed head injury (CHI) at least 1 year prior to assessment. Narratives were analyzed at multiple levels using language and information structure measures. Results revealed significant discourse impairments in the CHI group on all measures of information structure, whereas differences in the linguistic domain failed to reach significance. In addition, effects of age at injury and lateralization of lesion on discourse were considered. Although no significant differences were found according to age at injury, a consistent pattern of generally poorer discourse scores was found for the early injured group (<5 years). With regard to lesion focus, the group findings were unimpressive. However, preliminary examination of individual CHI cases with relatively large lateralized lesions suggested that the late injured children may show the language–brain patterns reported in brain-injured adults, whereas early injured children may not.     

Cross-cultural Differences in Self-reported Decision-making Style and Confidence

The Melbourne Decision Making Questionnaire (Mann, Burnett, Radford, & Ford, 1997) measures self-reported decision-making coping patterns. The questionnaire was administered to samples of University students in the US (N = 475), Australia (N = 262), New Zealand (N = 260), Japan (N = 359), Hong Kong (N = 281), and Taiwan (N = 414). As predicted, students from the three Western, individualistic cultures (US, Australia, and New Zealand) were more confident of their decision-making ability than students from the three East Asian, group-oriented cultures (Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan). No cross-cultural differences were found in scores on decision vigilance (a careful decision-making style). However, compared with Western students, the Asian students tended to score higher on buck-passing and procrastination (avoidant styles of decision making) as well as hypervigilance (a panicky style of decision making). Japanese students scored lowest on decision self-esteem and highest on procrastination and hypervigilance. It was argued that the conflict model and its attendant coping patterns is relevant for describing and comparing decision making in both Western and Asian cultures.     

Chinese Dimensions of Parenting: Broadening Western Predictors and Outcomes

This study examined perceived parental styles and psychosocial adjustment in 97 Hong Kong Chinese late adolescent girls, using culturally sensitive measures of parenting (warmth, restrictive control, and attributes related to the Chinese philosophy of guan or “training”), and of adjustment. Parenting characteristics associated with guan showed coherence, correlated significantly with parental warmth, and predicted well-being. Contrary to the suggestions of other investigators, restrictive control related negatively to self-esteem and well-being. Maternal control and paternal warmth emerged as important parent style variables in relating to adaptation, and exercized their effects on well-being partly through the mediating agency of self-esteem and relationship harmony. This preliminary study provides an empirical investigation of the impact exercized by a culturally specific dimension proposed for Chinese parenting, and highlights the importance of using culturally sensitive measures of adaptation.