A microprocessor-based psychopathology laboratory: I. Why bother?

The greater than usual need for stimulus control, closed-loop design to control for organic state variables, and the acquisition of complex data on thought disorders makes on-line microprocessors especially important in psychopathology research.     

Word valence, attention, and hemispheric activity in depressed, remitted, and nondepressed controls

Clinically depressed (n = 20), previously depressed (n = 28), and nondepressed control (n = 27) individuals, classified according to a structured clinical diagnostic interview, participated in a study employing a modified prior entry (Titchener, 1908) procedure to investigate interrelationships among word (adjective) valence, visual attention, and cerebral hemispheric activity. Overall, positive words were selected more quickly when presented to the right, versus left, visual field (RVF, LVF); the opposite pattern was observed for negative words. While there was no significant group X Valence X Visual Field interaction, planned comparisons revealed that the aforementioned Valence X Visual Field interaction was significant only for the nondepressed control group. Although the remitted group exhibited an overall pattern similar to the control group, the depressed group evinced a pattern in the opposite direction for positive words (i.e., quicker in the LVF than the RVF).     

Hierarchical elaboration in the conceptual structures of vietnam combat veterans

Abstract

Sixty male Vietnam combat veterans, 30 hospitalized for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and 30 with no PTSD or other psychiatric disorder, sorted and labeled their life events into numeric matrices (repertory grids). Through hierarchical-classes analysis of a subject's matrix, we could compare the hierarchical level (elaboration) of the subject's constructs of a negative combat event with the hierarchical levels of other subjects' constructs of negative combat events and with the subject's precombat life event construction. As predicted, the level of construct elaboration was virtually identical for the two groups for precombat non-trauma-related events but was reduced in the PTSD group for the negative combat event. In addition, the Pythagorean distance scores of the PTSD group indicated less conceptual distance between the negative combat event and negative life events after Vietnam compared with the non-PTSD group's scores. Patients with PTSD rated negative life events more extremely (fewer “shades of gray” ratings) than did the non-PTSD group, especially life events that occurred after Vietnam.     

Voyage of Invention

The author responds to nine commentaries on the book Human Being: Being Human (Cromwell, 2010).     

Cognitive Complexity and Dissociative Identity Disorder

Thirteen patients with dissociative identity disorder (DID), 13 with other mental disorders, and 10 nondiagnosed comparison participants were given individual grids. Results showed that displaying alternate personalities did not portend a more multidimensional level of thinking. Instead, the nonclinical comparison group had the greater degree of complexity in comparison to both clinical groups. A notable clinical observation was that DID patients, as compared to non-DID participants, had a greater understanding and speed in completing the grid. Findings are discussed in terms of the advantages of personal construct theory for conceptualizing the construct of dissociation.     

A clarification of Multisystem-Multimethod assessment: reductionism versus wholism

A clarification and response to a critique of the Multisystem-Multimethod (MS-MM) family assessment is provided in this paper. This approach consists of a logic for integrating family assessment, systems thinking, and clinical interventions. In contrast to the wholistic, or systemic, focus of MS-MM family assessment, the critique of these procedures recommends a more reductionistic approach that contradicts basic elements of systems theory. The critique advocates the isolation and measurement of a few family phenomena, whereas MS-MM assessment recognizes the interdependence among the levels of organization and components of family systems.     

Span of apprehension in schizophrenic patients as a function of distractor masking and laterality.

Twenty schizophrenic patients, 10 depressed control patients, and 20 normal control subjects were compared in a forced-choice, target-detection method for assessing the span of apprehension. The detection task required the subject to report which of 2 target letters was presented among 7 other (distractor) letters. Performance accuracy was examined as a function of target location and whether the distractor letters were masked after their presentation. The backward masking of the distractors improved target-detection accuracy of both control groups but reduced accuracy of the schizophrenic group. In addition, schizophrenics performed particularly poorly on targets located in the left half or lower half of the display. These results suggest that response to the masking of distractors may be a new index of attentional shortcoming in schizophrenia. Various theoretical explanations for the target location findings are also discussed.     

Horizontal Plane Head Stabilization During Locomotor Tasks

Frequency characteristics of head stabilization were examined during locomotor tasks in healthy young adults (N = 8) who performed normal walking and 3 walking tasks designed to produce perturbations primarily in the horizontal plane. In the 3 walking tasks, the arms moved in phase with leg movement, with abnormally large amplitude, and at twice the frequency of leg movement. Head-in-space angular velocity was examined at the predominant frequencies of trunk motion. Head movements in space occurred at low frequencies (< 4.0 Hz) in all conditions and at higher frequencies (> 4.0 Hz) when the arms moved at twice the frequency of the legs. Head stabilization strategies were determined from head-on-trunk with respect to trunk frequency profiles derived from angular velocity data. During natural walking at low frequencies (< 3.0 Hz), head-on-trunk movement was less than trunk movement. At frequencies 3.0 Hz or greater, equal and opposite compensatory movement ensured head stability. When arm swing was altered, compensatory movement guaranteed head stability at all frequencies. Head stabilization was successful for frequencies up to 10.0 Hz during locomotor tasks Maintaining head stability at high frequencies during voluntary tasks suggests that participants used feedforward mechanisms to coordinate head and trunk movements. Maintenance of head stability during dynamic tasks allows optimal conditions for vestibulo-ocular reflex function.