Patterns of movement in the first 6 months of life: new directions

The field of infant perceptual development has relied heavily on the preferential-looking and habituation paradigms. Despite the obvious advantages of employing standardized methodologies, there is a need to study how perceptual variables give rise to and guide action beginning in the neonatal period. It is argued here that, in the first 5 months of life, it is important to distinguish reflexive patterns of movement from voluntary and cortically controlled patterns. Some criteria are defined. This paper describes three experiments which utilized movement counters to record developmental changes in the frequency and synchrony of limb movements in infants under 5 months. The results show that there is a general increase in frequency of limb movements from 1 to 5 months, but with a plateau or even a decrease in activity from the middle of the third month to the end of the fourth month. It was also demonstrated that synchrony scores (co-activation) for pairs of limbs showed significant increases from 1 month to 5 months. Finally, in all three experiments the presentation of an attractive toy resulted in suppression of activity. The results of the three experiments are interpreted to measure a gradual increase in cortically controlled movement patterns.     

Topographic electroencephalographic alpha in recovered depressed elderly

Late-middle-aged and elderly normal volunteers with past histories of Major Depression according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (third edition-revised) criteria were compared with sex- and age-matched control subjects using topographic electroencephalographic (EEG) indices. Healthy, euthymic recovered depressed subjects showed greater alpha amplitudes than controls. Delta, theta, and beta amplitudes did not reliably distinguish the groups. Considered in the context of previous research indicating that actively depressed subjects exhibit elevated EEG alpha compared to controls, these findings raise questions concerning state and trait conceptualizations of depression and EEG alpha.     

Family Functioning of Male Alcoholics and Their Female Partners during Periods of Drinking and Abstinence

Family functioning of 20 alcoholic male veterans and their female partners was assessed in relation to drinking (wet) and abstinent (dry) intervals. Repeated measures analyses performed on the McMaster Family Assessment Device (FAD) indicated that on all 7 scales of the FAD, alcoholics and their mates perceived family functioning to be better during dry than wet periods. In contrast to their alcoholic mates, female partners gave healthier ratings to all FAD scales except Roles in the dry condition and Affective Involvement in the wet condition. According to published cutoff scores for healthy and unhealthy family functioning, alcoholics as a group viewed their wet and dry family functioning as unhealthy, although the female group regarded the family's dry Problem Solving and Behavioral Control as healthy. These findings suggest that the family functioning of alcohol-involved couples is biphasic, oscillating between drinking and abstinent periods.     

Enuresis in cross-cultural perspective: a comparison of training for elimination control in three Israeli ethnic groups

Enuresis was investigated in the context of different styles of training for bladder control among three Israeli ethnic groups (Jews of Moroccan, Kurdish or Eastern European descent). Semistructured interviews were conducted in ethnically homogeneous agricultural villages with 46 mothers of 248 children between the ages of 3 and 18 years. In contrast to previous British and American studies, no sex differences were found, but there were higher rates of primary enuresis and lower rates of secondary (regressive) enuresis. Enuresis was correlated among siblings in the Kurdish group only and with disorderly sleeping arrangements in the Moroccan group. The Moroccan and Kurdish groups had higher rates of enuresis than the Ashkenazi group. The higher rates appear to be related to differences in the age of onset of training and a lack of age-appropriate changes in the parent-child interaction, which led to chronic enuresis and the inability to seek effective assistance. These results are discussed in terms of a proposed typology for training: an early symbiotic style, a strict toddler style, and a communicative partnership.     

The development of structural complexity in the child's concept of family: the effect of cognitive stage, sex, and intactness of family

Twenty-eight boys and 28 girls at each of the Piagetian preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational cognitive stages were given an interview focusing on their concepts of family. Half of each group were from intact families, and half were from divorced families. Interviews were scored for two structural aspects of the concept of family: conceptual level, and use of dimensions that structure the concept. The complexity of children's concepts was strongly related to cognitive stage and, to a lesser degree, to sex. Frequency of use of concept dimensions was strongly affected by general developmental level, though not specifically cognitive stage, and by intactness of family, but to a lesser degree by sex. Specific information is provided on the effect of these factors on perceptions of family composition, parental roles, and breadth of family activities.     

Eyewitness accuracy and confidence: within- versus between-subjects correlations

Previous researchers using between-subjects comparisons have found eyewitness confidence and accuracy to be only negligibly correlated. In this study, we examined the predictive power of confidence in within-subject terms. Ninety-six subjects answered, and made confidence ratings for, a series of questions about a crime they witnessed. The average between-subjects and within-subject accuracy-confidence correlations were comparably low: r = .14 (p less than .001) and r = .17 (p less than .001), respectively. Confidence is neither a useful predictor of the accuracy of a particular witness nor of the accuracy of particular statements made by the same witness. Another possible predictor of accuracy, response latency, correlated only negligibly with accuracy (r = -.09 within subjects), but more strongly with confidence (r = -.27 within subjects). This pattern was obtained for both between-subjects and within-subject comparisons. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.     

Interfacing Apple and IBM computers for the analysis of clinical biofeedback

This paper demonstrates a method of transferring research data from a remote clinic to a large university mainframe for data manipulation and statistical analysis. Data collected by an Apple //e computer were transferred to an IBM 3031 mainframe by sending data files to an IBM PC by telephone modem or by direct hardwire connection to the PC. The IMB PC performed data-formatting routines and then uploaded the files to the mainframe for storage. Advantages and disadvantages of sending data over telephone lines via a modem are discussed.     

Single-subject statistical analysis of computer-assisted biofeedback

Single-subject statistics were used to analyze physiological data [electromyographic (EMG) temperature] recorded from two patients receiving computer-assisted biofeedback treatment in a clinic. When the data were analyzed by an ANOVA method or a regression technique, the results demonstrated that both patients learned to significantly reduce EMG levels. The rationale of using single-subject statistics is discussed, and the applicability of the statistical technique to the clinic population is illustrated.