Early developments in the ability to understand the relation between stimulus and reward

Delayed nonmatching to sample (DNMS) is used to test the recognition memory function dependent on the medial temporal lobe. Children cannot succeed on this task until about 21 months. Because robust recognition is present well before then, the late emergence of another ability must account for the late success on DNMS. Evidence is presented here that the critical late-maturing competence is the ability to grasp the relation between stimulus and reward--that is, to understand that the stimulus is a symbol or marker for the reward. Infants of 9 and 12 months were tested on 3 conditions of DNMS. A sample object was presented. After a delay, the sample and a novel object appeared; choice of the novel object was rewarded. In the standard task, the reward was in a well beneath the stimulus. In the verbal-reward condition the reward was not a separate object but was praise and applause. In the Velcro condition, the reward, although a separate and separable object, was attached to the base of the stimulus. Most infants at both ages succeeded in the verbal-reward and Velcro conditions but not in the standard condition.     

The relations between temperament and empathy in 2-year-olds.

The role of infant and toddler temperament in the prediction of empathy in 2-year-old children was examined. Assessments of temperament included reactivity and affect observed at 4 months of age, as well as inhibition at Age 2. Empathy was measured in 2-year-old children's responses to simulations of distress performed by their mothers and by an unfamiliar person. Children showed relatively more concern for the mother's distress, but they were also responsive to unfamiliar victims. Infants who were unreactive and showed little affect also showed less empathy toward the unfamiliar adult almost 2 years later. Inhibition toward an unfamiliar adult (but not toward the mother) at 2 years of age was negatively related to empathy. Inhibited temperament may thus have a major impact on young children's empathy in unfamiliar contexts. Findings also highlight the need to consider early underarousal as another dimension of temperament that may dampen expressions of empathic concern.     

MMPI-A in the inpatient assessment of adolescents with eating disorders.

The MMPI-A (Butcher et al., 1992), like the older MMPI (Hathaway & McKinley, 1983), distinguishes between anorexia and bulimia. In this study, 245 adolescent girls diagnosed with anorexia, bulimia, or eating disorder not otherwise specified completed the MMPI-A. Multivariate analyses revealed significant differences between anorexia and bulimia on the MMPI-A's validity, clinical, content, and supplementary scales, particularly suggesting multiple impulse control problems among bulimic patients. However, profiles were also more homogeneous across eating disorder groups than in studies using the older MMPI, with high points involving some combination of Scales 1, 2, 3, and 0 for two thirds of the patients in this study. Implications are considered for understanding the common and differential psychopathology of eating disorders.     

Executive functioning and compliance in HIV patients

25 adult HIV patients were evaluated in a study of appointments, medication, and compliance with restrictions on sexual activity. The Executive Interview (EXIT) was useful in assessing these patients for cognitive difficulties; compliance with medication and countertransference issues were negatively correlated with EXIT scores.     

K-ABC simultaneous processing, DAS nonverbal reasoning, and Horn's expanded fluid-crystallized theory.

Horn's distinction between--fluid intelligence (Gf) and visualization (Gv) was investigated with two Nonverbal Reasoning subtests from the Differential Ability Scales and three Simultaneous Processing subtests from the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children. The sample comprised a predominantly Euro-American groups of 57 normal boys and girls between the ages of 6 and 12 years. Principal factor analysis yielded clear-cut Gf and Gv dimensions. The Gf factor was composed both of Differential Ability Scales and Kaufman-ABC subtests, suggesting that the construct of simultaneous processing is not merely a measure of Gv, as researchers have hypothesized, but also measures Horn's Gf fluid intelligence to a considerable extent.     

Race, culture, and psychotherapy: transference to minority therapists

We present observations on the use of racial and cultural stereotypes in psychoanalytic psychotherapy with patients from the majority culture and with those from minority backgrounds. Earlier work has centered on black/white patient dyads and has not taken other possible combinations into account. "Race" and "culture" have sometimes been used synonymously. Our clinical experience indicates that there is some overlap in the themes of transferences to us as members of different racial minorities. We note, however, that for the African-American therapist, projections are more often based on racial stereotypes, whereas for the Chinese-American therapist, projections are based more on cultural assumptions. When careful attention is paid to the manifestations of racial and cultural stereotyping, much can be learned about the patient's inner life, to the benefit of the analytic work.     

Correlations for timing consistency among tapping and drawing tasks: evidence against a single timing process for motor control.

Three experiments were conducted to examine whether timing processes can be shared by continuous tapping and drawing tasks. In all 3 experiments, temporal precision in tapping was not related to temporal precision in continuous drawing. There were modest correlations among the tapping tasks, and there were significant correlations among the drawing tasks. In Experiment 3, the function relating timing variance to the square of the observed movement duration for tapping was different from that for drawing. The conclusions drawn were that timing is not an ability to be shared by a variety of tasks but instead that the temporal qualities of skilled movement are the result of the specific processes necessary to produce a trajectory. These results are consistent with the idea that timing is an emergent property of movement.     

Better discrimination of small changes in commonly encountered than in less commonly encountered auditory stimuli

Results from 3 auditory tasks revealed that small changes made in stimuli commonly encountered in everyday life are more easily discriminated than are the same changes made in stimuli not as commonly encountered. The tasks required discrimination of a frequency difference in 1 tone of 6-tone chords or nonchords, discrimination of a duration difference in 1 note of common tunes or nontunes, and discrimination of the deletion of a band of frequencies from speech sounds played forward or backward. Different crews of college-aged listeners served in the different tasks. If future research shows this difference in discriminability to be a general property of commonly encountered stimuli--attributable to a difference in the way they are processed in the nervous system--then discrimination tests of this sort could become useful for assessing whether stimuli have made the transition from one form of processing to the other.     

A developmental grammar for syllable structure in the production of child language.

The order of acquisition of Dutch syllable types by first language learners is analyzed as following from an initial ranking and subsequent rerankings of constraints in an optimality theoretic grammar. Initially, structural constraints are all ranked above faithfulness constraints, leading to core syllable (CV) productions only. Subsequently, faithfulness gradually rises to the highest position in the ranking, allowing more and more marked syllable types to appear in production. Local conjunctions of Structural constraints allow for a more detailed analysis.