Family history in ovarian cancer referral population

In order to determine the incidence of familial and hereditary ovarian cancer in a referral patient population, we conducted a retrospective study of 44 patients from a consecutive set of 62 patients treated for ovarian carcinoma at the Gynecologic Oncology Clinic at the Richland Memorial Hospital Center for Cancer Treatment and Research between January 1, 1993 and December 31, 1993. In our study of the referred patients, only two (4.55%) reported a history of at least one first-degree relative also being affected with ovarian cancer. However, 13 patients (29.55%) reported a family history consistent with one of the hereditary ovarian cancer syndromes. In addition to having a suggestive family history, these 13 families demonstrated several cardinal features of hereditary cancer syndromes including early onset, bilaterality, multiple primary tumors, and transmission. Race was the only significantly different demographic factor between the hereditary and sporadic ovarian cancer groups. All 13 patients who appeared to have a hereditary form of cancer were Caucasian.     

An extension of the conflict between visualization and reading

An experiment is reported which suggests that reading about a series of spatial relations and visualizing them are activities which interfere with one another. Subjects were given sentences which described a set of spatial relations. After the spatial layout described by a given sentence had been deduced, the subjects either read or listened to a final presentation of this same sentence. It was found that the modality of this final presentation influenced the speed with which the subjects performed a subsequent mental transformation of the spatial relations; the transformation was completed more slowly immediately after reading the sentence than after listening to it. This result confirms the subjects' reports that their visualization of the spatial relations was interrupted by reading the sentence, but not by listening to it. The relation between the visual and the analogical aspects of visualization is briefly discussed.     

Backward and forward masking associated with saccadic eye movement

Visual masking effects on test flash thresholds were measured under real and simulated eye movement conditions to determine whether visual masking is primarily responsible for elevations in threshold that are sometimes associated with saccadic eye movements. Brief luminous flashes presented to the central retina before, during, and after saccades were masked by stimuli presented either pre- or postsaccadically. The amount and time course of masking were quantitatively dependent on stimulus parameters of intensity and temporal separation and were unaffected by eye movement parameters (amplitude, velocity, direction) as long as retinal stimulus conditions were constant. The duration of forward masking was longer than that of backward masking. When retinal conditions during saccades were mimicked while the eyes were held steady, masking interactions were identical to those obtained during real saccades. These results indicate that masking effects during saccades in ordinary environments are determined solely by the stimulus situation at the retina. Putative nonvisual, centrally originating saccadic suppression suggested by other authors is evidently not additive with visually determined masking during saccades.     

How to drastically reduce priming in word stem completion—and still present the words

This paper describes a series of experiments in which we demonstrated that "dysphonemic" word stems, which are likely not pronounced in isolation as they are within a word (e.g., MUS in MUSHROOM or LEG in LEGEND), showed less priming than did "phonemic stems" (e.g., MUS in MUSTARD or LEG in LEGACY). Furthermore, words with either dysphonemic or phonemic three-letter stems gave rise to equivalent levels of priming when test cues were four-letter stems (LEGE) or word fragments (L_G_ND). Moreover, the difference between phonemic and dysphonemic stems persisted when nonpresented completion rates were matched. A final cued-recall experiment revealed that performance was greater for phonemic stems than for dysphonemic stems and that this difference was greater for older participants than for younger ones. These results are not readily accounted for by extant theoretical approaches and point to important methodological issues regarding stem completion.     

Primacy and recency in primed free association and associative cued recall

Two experiments compared the serial positions of primed words in an implicit free association test with words recalled in a cued recall test. In both tests, weakly or strongly related word pairs were studied, and the first words of each pair formed the test cues. In the implicit test, weakly related words pairs showed primacy and extended recency effects but strongly related word pairs did not. In the explicit test, both weakly and strongly related word pairs showed primacy and extended recency effects. These functional dissociations between implicit and explicit memory tests indicate that strongly related word pairs are encoded together because they have unitized memory representations that function as integrated units without requiring any additional associative links to be made, but that an additional system or process is required to strengthen weakly related word pairs during encoding. In addition, a further additional system or process is accessed by explicit retrieval.     

Age differences in memory for prospective compared with retrospective subject-performed tasks

In two experiments, younger and older adults studied three lists of verbal phrases, each of the latter describing a simple action. One list was studied and recalled verbally; one was recalled verbally, but the actions were performed at study [retrospective SPTs (subject-performed tasks)]; and one was studied verbally and the actions were performed at test (prospective SPTs). With long lists, but not with short ones, retrospective-SPT recall exceeded verbal recall and older adults recalled fewer SPTs than did younger adults. Prospective-SPT recall did not exceed verbal recall at either list length, and in each of these prospective-SPT tests, older adults recalled fewer action phrases than did younger adults. Thus, it appears that when retrospective and prospective tasks are equated there are marked age differences that are generally consistent with the view that memory impairment in the elderly is more likely to occur in tasks that make higher attentional processing demands.     

A comparison of serial position effects in implicit and explicit word-stem completion

In this study I examined a further possible dissociation between implicit and explicit memory—whether implicit memory produces serial position effects that are similar to those found in explicit memory. When implicit word-stem completion and explicit word-stem cued recall were compared, only the explicit test showed significant primacy and recency effects. The explicit test was sensitive to the order in which stimuli words were encoded, but the implicit test was not. This dissociation between implicit and explicit memory provides further evidence that conscious retrieval processes were not involved in the implicit test.     

Molecular carrier testing for the fragile X syndrome: Issues for genetic counselors

Molecular analysis of the fragile X (FMR-1) gene identifies female fragile X carriers, but appropriate genetic counseling can only be provided if the limitations of the testing methods are understood. Molecular analysis of this gene is achieved with both the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and Southern blot techniques. PCR is faster and can determine the actual number of CGG repeats, which modifies genetic counseling substantially. However, for a sizeable percentage of women, PCR alone is not conclusive, and Southern analysis is necessary to complete the study. While this procedure takes longer, it is usually conclusive. Women who present for genetic counseling and carrier testing in the second trimester of pregnancy need this information quickly, and for them the turn-around time is paramount. It is critical that genetic counselors understand these methods so that they can educate their clients and facilitate appropriate follow-up.