Reduced or increased influence of non-pertinent information in patients with schizophrenia?

We tested the ability of 18 patients with schizophrenia and 18 matched controls to filter non-pertinent information in orientation matching tasks. The non-pertinent information consisted of pictures conveying semantic information. The pertinent information consisted of oriented line-segments drawn inside pictures or was represented by the overall orientation of the picture itself. The results showed that non-pertinent information interfered with performance of control subjects in all tasks. In contrast, non-pertinent information interfered with the performance of patients with schizophrenia to the same extent as that of matched controls only when non-pertinent and pertinent information was physically mingled, but not when they were separated. Yet, patients processed non-pertinent information in all experiments, as shown by reversed interference effects when non-pertinent and pertinent information was physically separated. These results suggest a deficit at linking physically distinct visual information in patients with schizophrenia. Additionally, performance was more impaired in patients with schizophrenia than in control subjects when the amount of displayed information increased. The results suggest the coexistence, and a possible relationship between attentional deficits and impairments at linking distinct visual information in patients with schizophrenia.     

Escaping the Dark Side of Curiosity

Curiosity as a clinical entity has been a neglected subject in the psychoanalytic literature. Freud never addressed the issue of curiosity systematically. His interest was in trying to account for children's sexual questioning. Nevertheless, hinderance to internal curiosity—this is to say, that which intimidates and abates the appetite for an exploration of one's motives—is part and parcel of psychoanalytic inquiry. And, arguably, there is no greater clinical challenge for the analyst than trying to treat an analysand who appears to lack an interest in the underlying causes of his unhappiness. The problem of impeded self-inquiry is usually exacerbated in people with more serious emotional disturbances. My position here is that in studying the conditions that mitigate against curiosity in a seriously disturbed patient, we gain access to an enlarged version of the curiosity problems of our less disturbed patients. Here I interpret my clinical impressions about problems with curiosity with ideas from the writings of Martin Buber and Albert Camus.     

Infants' reasoning about opaque and transparent occluders in an individuation task

Two experiments document that conceptual knowledge influences 3-year-olds' extension of novel words. In Experiment 1, when objects were described as having conceptual properties typical of artifacts, children extended novel labels for these objects on the basis of shape alone. When the very same objects were described as having conceptual properties typical of animate kinds, children extended novel labels for these objects on the basis of both shape and texture. Moreover, providing a salient perceptual cue (Experiment 2) did not interfere with children's reliance on conceptual information in extending novel words: when an object with eyes was labeled with a novel word in the context of a story describing the object as an artifact, children extended the label on the basis of shape alone (i.e. as though the object were an artifact). These results, which challenge directly the position that 'dumb attentional mechanisms' can account for word learning, stand as evidence for the central role of conceptual information in mapping words to meaning.     

Newborns' preference for faces: what is crucial?

Three experiments investigated whether the presence of more elements in the upper part of a configuration (i.e., up-down asymmetry) plays a role in determining newborns' preference for facelike patterns. Newborns preferred a nonfacelike stimulus with more elements in the upper part over a nonfacelike stimulus with more elements in the lower part (Experiment 1), did not show a preference for a facelike stimulus over a nonfacelike configuration equated for the number of elements in the upper part of the configuration (Experiment 2), and preferred a nonfacelike configuration located in the upper portion of the stimulus over a facelike configuration in the lower portion of the pattern (Experiment 3). Results demonstrated that up-down asymmetry is crucial in determining newborns' face preference.     

PACHIQ-R: the Parent-Child Interaction Questionnaire--revised

The PACHIQ (Parent-Child Interaction Questionnaire) is designed to help clinicians and researchers assess how parents view relationship with their children (PACHIQ-Parent version), and how children evaluate their relationship with their parents (PACHIQ-Child version). The items in this questionnaire refer to both interpersonal behavior and feelings. Conceptually, the PACHIQ is based on learning theory and structural systems theory. The development of the PACHIQ was described by Lange, Blonk and Wiers (1998). The present article reports additional psychometric data obtained in the development and validation of a revised, shorter version of the questionnaire (PACHIQ-R). We present norm tables for families with children who are referred for psychological treatment, and norm tables for families in the normal Dutch population. The PACHIQ-R displays a two-factor structure with factors interpreted as Conflict Resolution and Acceptance. The parent version of the PACHIQ-R contains 21 items, the child version 25 items.     

Are parents' gender schemas related to their children's gender-related cognitions? A meta-analysis

Meta-analyses were conducted of 43 articles (with 48 different samples) investigating the relationship between parents' gender schemas and their offspring's gender-related cognitions. The parents' offspring ranged in age from infancy to early adulthood. Offspring measures included gender self-concept, gender attitudes toward others, gender-related interests, and occupational attitudes. Overall, a small but meaningful effect size (r = .16) indicated a significant and positive correlation between parent gender schemas and offspring measures. Specifically, parents with more traditional gender schemas were more likely than parents with more nontraditional schemas to have offspring with gender-typed cognitions about themselves or others. In addition, the magnitudes of observed effect sizes were influenced by particular moderator variables, including type of parent gender schema (gender self-concept vs. gender attitudes toward others), type of offspring gender-related cognitions, parent gender, offspring gender, offspring age, and publication characteristics. The results are cautiously interpreted as suggesting a possible influence of parents on the development of their children's gender-related thinking.     

The effects of a public address system on the off-task behavior of elementary physical education students

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of teacher feedback delivered via a public address system on the off-task behavior of elementary-school physical education students. A multiple baseline design across three classes was used in this investigation. Results indicated a consistent decline in off-task behavior when the public address feedback system was used.