Simulation study of a decision-making model of squash competition, phase two: Testing the model through the use of computer simulation

This study aims at verifying the inner validity and logic of a squash competition decision-making model through the use of computer simulation. The model defines the cognitive-decisional strategy of the defending player (D) when selecting a motor reaction in response to his opponent's shot. Computer simulation of the model was carried out on a PDP-10 computer using a recent version of UCI-LISP. Protocol analysis data pertaining to the nature of the information D processes when awaiting the attacking player's shot were fed into the simulation program in order to examine the extent to which the model can reproduce decisions reached in various defensive contexts. Simulation results reveal that the proposed model can account for a substantial part of the variation in the speed and accuracy of D's motor reaction in real sport situations. Several factors like time pressure, expectancies, uncertainty, recency and familiarity of the relationship between signal and response appear to affect D's motor response via the cognitive-decisional strategy employed by the defending player. Particular discrepancies observed between simulation results and decisions reached by expert players in specific defensive situations nevertheless indicate that the decision rule utilized within the present model needs to be refined. In this regard, several issues are discussed and suggestions for further simulation studies are put forward in order to account more precisely for the various features characterizing the defensive player's motor reaction in real sporting context.     

Psychopathology subtypes and symptom correlates among former prisoners of war

Psychopathology and symptom patterns were studied in 60 former prisoners-of-war (POWs) by administering standardized tests including the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), an adjustment problem checklist, and a structured clinical interview. Most POWs showed marked psychological impairment, but modal profile analysis identified two prototypic MMPI patterns, which differed in pervasiveness and type of psychopathology. Profile subtypes were defined by unique clusters of clinical symptoms and differed in confinement stress severity. The typology of symptoms argues against a homogeneous conceptualization of stress-induced disorders and suggests the need for definition of the severity and subtype of stress phenomena and individual difference factors in responding to trauma.     

Social adjustment in the offspring of parents with bipolar affective disorder

The social adjustment of the adolescent offspring of parents with bipolar affective disorder (n=41) was compared to that of the offspring of parents with nonaffective psychiatric disorders (n=22) and the offspring of normal controls (n=26). In addition, the relationship between social adjustment and cyclothymia in offspring was determined. Social adjustment was assessed using the Life Activities Inventory, a new measure developed to assess social functioning in adolescents and young adults. Cyclothymia was assessed with the General Behavior Inventory. As a group, the offspring of bipolar parents did not differ significantly from either control group on social adjustment. However, the cyclothymic offspring of bipolar parents exhibited significantly poorer social adjustment than the noncyclothymic offspring of bipolars and the offspring of psychiatric and normal controls. These findings suggest that poor social functioning in the adolescent offspring of parents with bipolar illness may be associated with the early manifestations of affective disorder. In addition, these data indicate that despite its subsyndromal intensity, cyclothymia can result in significant social impairment.This study was supported in part by National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Research Grant MH-39782 to Daniel N. Klein and NIMH Grants MH-33083 and MH-37195 to Richard A. Depue.     

On the relation between genuine and simulated amnesia

When claims of amnesia are made in legal cases, it is necessary to determine whether they are genuine or simulated. This article assesses current knowledge of the relation between genuine and simulated amnesia and discusses issues that are critical to understanding of the problem. It is argued that there are few well established facts regarding the nature of simulated amnesia, and no evidence that experts can distinguish accurately between genuine and simulated amnesia. Suggestions are made for future research that draw upon recent advances in cognitive psychology, social psychology, and neuropsychology.     

Comments on Hughes and Sussman''s time-sharing study of cerebral laterality in language-disordered and normal children

M. Hughes and H. M. Sussman (1983, Brain and Language, 19, 48-64) suggest that the time-sharing paradigm "does not serve as an adequate behavioral index for language lateralization in children." The merits of this conclusion are considered and general interpretative issues regarding manual interference in dual-task/time-sharing studies are discussed.     

Performance of disturbed hyperactive and nonhyperactive children on an objective measure of hyperactivity

Twenty hyperactive emotionally disturbed children (6–11 years) and a matched sample of nonhyperactive emotionally disturbed children were selected from the population of a therapeutic day treatment facility on the basis of teacher ratings. They were administered the Matching Familiar Figures Test-20 and were rated on several scales of impulsivity and/or hyperactivity. Each subject was required to perform on the Delay Task of the Gordon Diagnostic System, which required them to inhibit behavioral responding on a temporally based schedule (DRL-6) in order to win points. Children classified as hyperactive, whether by one or more criteria, were relatively unable to refrain from emitting a high number of nonreinforced responses. Moreover, these performance differences persisted regardless of age or IQ and were stable over the 8 minutes required to complete the test.The authors gratefully acknowledge the efforts of the following members of the Institute of Clinical Psychology, University of Virginia: Richard Abidin, Ann Loper, Ronald Reeve, and Sherry Kraft. Data analyses were conducted using STATMANAGER, Hayden Software Company, copyright 1983.     

Subfertility among the very intelligent: An examination of the American Mensa

Recent data on post-war birth cohorts in the U.S.A. show a negative relationship between IQ and fertility, both actual and expected. Previous investigators (e.g. Bajema, the Reeds and Waller) had found a slightly positive relationship for certain pre-war birth cohorts. This secular change in the relationship between IQ and fertility is replicated here for data on the membership of the American Mensa. Members born before the war exhibit a fertility below but close to that of the equivalent cohorts in the nation as a whole. Members born during and after the war exhibit a fertility that is substantially lower than that of the equivalent national cohorts. Apparently, rising fertility, which characterized the period in which the pre-war birth cohorts bore their children, causes a convergence in birth rates across IQ classes. Declining and/or low fertility, which characterizes the period in which the post-war birth cohorts are bearing their children, has the opposite effect, i.e. a divergence in birth rates across IQ classes, with the lower birth rates in the higher-IQ classes. The membership of Mensa may not be a representative sample of the high-IQ population as a whole, as it seems to attract a disproportionate number of low procreators even for this population. However, there is no reason to believe that changes in fertility rates across cohorts within Mensa, relative to changes in the national fertility rates, do not reliably reflect changes in fertility rates across cohorts within the high-IQ population of the U.S.A. as a whole, again relative to those of the nation, though these rates may be fluctuating around different means.     

Neurology,psychology, and extraordinary religious experiences

Temporal lobe epilepsy and certain personality disorders often result in experiences described as religious. TLE research suggests a possible neurological basis for such experiences. Immediately the question arises about the authenticity of these experiences as religious. An experience is authentic if it furthers the authentic growth of the subject, regardless of what triggered it. So pathology may occasion authentic religious experiences, even as history exemplifies. For practical purposes, the further question about God in religious experience is secondary. The exception, miraculous occurrences, should not be granted without sufficient reason. This approach dissolves all conflict between science and faith.     

Behavioral consequences of song learning: Discrimination of song types by male white-crowned sparrows

The functional significance of learned population differences in male song in the white-crowned sparrow was explored in natural populations using playback tests. Laboratory results have shown that learning of the population-specific song seems to take place in early life and is strongly dependent upon the nature of the auditory experience at that time. However, the varied results of recent studies make it difficult to reach a confident conclusion about the ecological functions of song learning. The present research took advantage of naturally occurring variation in the differences between songs of adjacent populations to determine a function relating degree of difference in song to intensity of territorial singing elicited. Applying a typological evaluation of syllable structure to the four segments of the song allowed a crude quantitative ranking of the differences between local songs and playback stimuli. These results, together with those of other studies, suggest a unimodal aggressive response function of males to songs of other males. A maximum response to songs slightly different from the local song environment suggests that male exclusion based upon acquired song components may contribute to the maintenance of discrete and stable song dialects.     

Revival of psychology in former Czechoslovakia and the contemporary Czech Republic after the fall of Totalitarian communist regimes

After the general societal and political change in November 1989 in Czechoslovakia, the subject “History of Psychology” became the stable component of curriculum of studying psychology at the Department of Psychology of Faculty of Arts of Charles University in Prague. The author of this paper has taught “History of Psychology” in Czech since 1998 for more than 20 years all students of psychology and he is teaching this subject the students of ERASMUS+ program from whole Europe, studying at Charles University in Prague, now. Indivisible part of the curriculum is represented by the history of Czechoslovak and Czech psychology. In References, the most important publications in the field of history of Czechoslovak and Czech psychology are presented.