Visual and auditory attention performance in hyperactive children: Competence or compliance

The effect of self-control and compliance on the attentional performance of hyperactive children was assessed. Visual and auditory attention tasks were presented in conditions in which the experimenter was either absent and therefore not imposing external control, or present and therefore imposing some degree of control. There was no difference in performance between hyperactives and controls when the experimenter was present, but the hyperactives' performance showed a greater deterioration than controls when the experimenter was absent. The amount of movement displayed during the tasks was greater for hyperactives and increased more for this group during experimenter-absent conditions. The results support the contention that noncompliance is a major contributor to the poor performance of hyperactive children, which can be seen as an application deficit rather than an ability deficit. These findings have relevance for the current debate on the association between hyperactivity and conduct disorder, and from an applied perspective they serve to stress the importance of situational contributors to the problem behaviors of hyperactive children.     

The process of scapegoating in a neonatal nurses' group

This paper reviews the literature on scapegoating, elaborating on the underlying mechanisms before describing the process of scapegoating as it occurred in a neonatal nurse support group. Illustrative vignettes are used to discuss how scapegoating was used by group members to avoid painful feelings arising from their care of extremely ill infants. Group process is related to the stages of the group's development as feelings were addressed more directly and the need to use scapegoating as a defense decreased.     

Reading-disabled hyperactive children: A distinct subgroup of Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity?

Mixed hyperactive/reading-disabled children, selected from a large sample of hyperactive children, were compared to pure hyperactive children on demographic, behavioral, and neuropsychological measures. Children in the Mixed group were reading-disabled relative to age and IQ; those in the Pure group had achievement scores that were average relative to age and IQ. The Mixed group was significantly older than the Pure group; there were no differences in gender, race, or socioeconomic status. Behaviorally, the groups did not differ significantly on teacher ratings or on psychiatric ratings of aggression. The Mixed group had a significantly higher Performance IQ, whereas the Pure group had a significantly higher Verbal IQ and performed better on measures of cognitive impulsivity. Several other measures failed to distinguish the groups. The data give minimal support to the notion that pure hyperactive and mixed hyperative/reading-disabled children constitute distinct subgroups of Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity.This research was supported in part by Mental Health Clinical Research Grant MH-30906 and by U. S. Public Health Service Grant MH-18579.     

Predicting school performance of preschool children from parent reports

Parents of 391 preschool children ages 49 to 64 months completed a brief developmental inventory as part of a preschool screening program operated by an urban school district. The 28-item developmental inventory assessed adaptive behavior and language development. In addition, preschool children were administered the Minneapolis Preschool Screening Instrument. Teacher ratings of kindergarten performance the following year provided criterion data to validate the screening measures. Correlations with the overall teacher rating [the mean of nine ratings] were .40 for the adaptive behavior scale and .57 for the language scale. Validity figures for the developmental inventory were significantly higher for low SES than for high SES children, for older children [57 to 64 months] than for younger children [49 to 56 months], and for firstborn children than for younger siblings. No effects were found by sex. While a positive relationship between parent reports of developmental functioning and early school performance was clearly established, validity levels did not justify use of parent information as a sole source of preschool screening information.This research was supported in part by a grant from the Bureau of Education for the Handicapped.     

Variations in explicitly unpaired training are differentially effective in producing conditioned inhibition

To evaluate a contingency interpretation of conditioned inhibition (CI), rats were given “explicity unpaired” training in which the locus and duration of a CS within the inter-US (shock) interval were systematically manipulated for different groups. Summation and retardation tests in Experiment 1 indicated that stronger CI resulted from both a backward and a trace CS than from a midlocus CS of equal or greater duration. Complementing these findings, the same tests in Experiment 2 showed that, by comparison with novel-stimulus controls, CI developed to a trace CS but not to a mid-locus CS, nor to a trace CS that was accompanied by an immediate signal for the US. These findings argue against a contingency interpretation of CI and favor a contiguity interpretation stressing the short-term rehearsal of stimulus events. Such rehearsal of the US allows a backward CS, but not a mid-locus CS with an extended US-CS interval, to be discriminated as a signal for nonreinforcement, and thus to develop as a conditioned inhibitor. Similarly, excitatory conditioning to the memory trace of a CS allows the nominal trace CS to develop as a signal for nonreinforcement, and thus as a conditioned inhibitor, but not when its memory trace is overshadowed by another CS that immediately precedes the US. In short, the development of CI is facilitated when excitation is mediated by the memorial processing of either the US or a discrete CS for the US rather than by contextual cues.     

Human Agency in the Missio Dei and the Problem of Discipleship

At the heart of this article is an inquiry into the relationship between human and divine agency in the doctrine of the missio Dei and a critique of the turn to the language of discipleship in looking to articulate this agency. Taking the World Council of Churches’ Commission of World Mission and Evangelism's two recent documents, Together towards Life: Mission and Evangelism in Changing Landscapes (TTL) and the “Arusha Call to Discipleship,” as a case study, this article will seek to articulate an account of human participation in the missio Dei which maintains the emphasis on spirituality in TTL. Through a close reading of TTL and the Arusha Call, the article will demonstrate that the introduction of discipleship language has not solved the issue of agency but rather has changed the account of agency and, as a result, the missiology. By turning to accounts of faithful participation from qualitative research into British Methodism, to John V. Taylor's Go-between God, and to Pope Francis’ Evangelii gaudium, I will suggest that a better account of human agency in the missio Dei can be developed by emphasizing the pneumatology of TTL and by turning to language of attentiveness, accompaniment, and discernment.     

The influence of eye movements and eye position on perception of the visual vertical

Summary Four experiments are reported which involved the adjustment of two points of light in an otherwise dark room to the visual vertical. In the first two experiments different point separations (corresponding to visual angles of about 2° and 23°) were employed in an attempt to control the degree of scanning eye movements. Binocular adjustments to the visual vertical during body tilt were influenced by the point separation (Exp. 1), but monocular adjustments with the head upright were not (Exp. 2). Using the larger point separation and fixating the top point the visual vertical using the right eye was counterclockwise of that with fixation of the bottom point when the head was upright (Exp. 3), but this difference was not found for judgments during tilt (Exp. 4). The results were discussed in terms of the rotational changes in eye position accompanying scanning eye movements and ocular elevation and depression.

---

Zusammenfassung Es wird über vier Experimente berichtet, in denen es um die Einstellungen zweier Lichtpunkte in eine vertikale Richtung geht. In den ersten zwei Experimenten sollte der Einfluß der Fixierbewegungen der Augen geprüft werden. Der Winkelabstand der Lichtpunkte betrug 2° oder 23°. Bei seitwärts geneigtem Körper und binokularer Betrachtung wurde ein Unterschied gefunden (Exp. 1). Bei aufrecht gehaltenem Kopf und monokularer Betrachtung dagegen zeigte sich kein Unterschied (Exp. 2). Wurde in aufrechter Körperlage und bei einem Punktabstand von 23° der obere Punkt mit dem rechten Auge fixiert, so verschob sich die scheinbare Vertikale im Uhrzeigersinn; sie verschob sich noch weiter im Uhrzeigersinn, wenn der untere Punkt fixiert wurde (Exp. 3). Bei geneigtem Körper wurde dagegen kein Unterschied festgestellt (Exp. 4). Die Ergebnisse werden im Zusammenhang mit der Augendrehung diskutiert, die mit dem scanning sowie mit der Auf- und Abbewegung der Augen beim Fixieren verbunden ist.

---

---

This research was carried out while I was a recipient of a Forschungsstipendium from the Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung, appreciation for which is gratefully acknowledged. I also wish to thank the subjects who participated in the experiments.