The value of possessions in compulsive hoarding: Patterns of use and attachment

Hoarding behavior, patterns of use of possessions, and emotional attachment to possessions were examined among a sample of female undergraduates and a sample of community volunteers. Hoarding behavior was associated with a decreased frequency of use of possessions and excessive concern about maintaining control over possessions. Furthermore, high scores on the hoarding scale were associated with higher levels of perceived responsibility for: (1) being prepared; and (2) the well-being of the possession. Hoarding was also associated with greater emotional attachment to possessions and to the reliance on possessions for emotional comfort. The implications of these findings for the definition of hoarding are discussed.     

Is Speech Arrest during Wada Testing a Valid Method for Determining Hemispheric Representation of Language?

Background and objective: The intracarotid amobarbital procedure, or Wada test, is the method of choice to determine hemispheric representation of language, and is routinely used in the presurgical evaluation for intractable epilepsy. Some investigators perform comprehensive language assessments, but others base language lateralization solely on speech arrest. This study sought to determine whether speech arrest alone during Wada testing provides valid data regarding language lateralization. Methods: The subjects (previously reported) were 21 patients evaluated for intractable epilepsy, who underwent language lateralization by Wada testing and functional MRI (FMRI). For each patient, language representation was determined by calculating: (1) a Wada laterality index based exclusively on speech arrest; (2) a Wada laterality index based on comprehensive language assessment; and (3) an FMRI laterality quotient. Correlation coefficients and categorical classifications were analyzed. Results: There was no significant correlation between the Wada laterality quotient derived from duration of speech arrest and either the comprehensive Wada language laterality score (r= .35,p= .12) or FMRI language laterality score (r= .32,p= .16). Categorical classification as left, right or bilateral language also showed marked discordance between speech arrest and the other two methods. Conclusion: Duration of speech arrest during Wada testing is not a valid measure of language dominance.     

Two factors of restraint: concern for dieting and weight fluctuation

Factor analysis of the Restraint Scale produced two replicated factors: Concern for Dieting and Weight Fluctuation. Concern for Dieting reflects heightened attention to and emotional association with eating. Weight Fluctuation reflects extent of previously-experienced weight gain and loss. Weight Fluctuation was more highly positively correlated with indices of overweight status than was Concern for Dieting. Concern for Dieting was positively correlated with Public Self-Consciousness and Social Anxiety while Weight Fluctuation was not. Both versions of Restraint were weakly and inversely correlated with Body Image, although this relationship was mediated by degree of overweight status. The findings indicate that the two factors are sufficiently distinct to preclude combination into a single scale. Furthermore. Weight Fluctuation appears to be the more promising subscale for future research.     

Cognitive deficits in compulsive checkers: An exploratory study

Compulsive-checking behavior can be conceptualized as resulting, in part, from a memory failure. In order to determine if memory difficulties are associated with compulsive checking, the performance of college-student checkers were compared with the performance of non-checkers on a number of cognitive tasks hypothesized to be relevant to understanding checking behavior. Using the Checking and Cleaning subscales of the Maudsley Obsessional-Compulsive Inventory, four groups of subjects were identified: (1) Cleaning Checkers (N = 13); (2) Noncleaning Checkers (N = 13); (3) Cleaning Noncheckers (N = 13); and (4) Noncleaning Noncheckers (N = 15). It was hypothesized that the cognitive deficits studied would characterize individuals with cheeking compulsions, but not persons with non-checking compulsions (i.e. Cleaning Noncheckers) or normal controls (i.e. Noncleaning Noncheckers). Compulsive checkers were found to have a poorer memory for prior actions than non-checkers and were also found to underestimate their ability at distinguishing memories of real and imagined events, a process referred to as reality monitoring. Both of these deficits were specific to compulsive checkers and can be viewed as contributing to the likelihood that an individual will engage in checking behavior. If an individual has difficulty in recalling whether an intended action has been executed, they may be inclined to engage in checking behavior to insure the intended action is carried out. Similarly, a tendency to underestimate reality-monitoring ability could result in increased checking behavior as the individual attempts to reduce his/her uncertainty over whether a previous behavior actually occurred or merely was thought to occur. It is concluded that the study of cognitive deficits in compulsive checking is a potentially fruitful avenue for further inquiry.     

Phonetic recoding of print and its effect on the detection of concurrent speech in amplitude-modulated noise.

When an amplitude-modulated noise generated from a spoken word is presented simultaneously with the word's printed version, the noise sounds more speechlike. This auditory illusion obtained by Frost, Repp, and Katz (1988) suggests that subjects detect correspondences between speech amplitude envelopes and printed stimuli. The present study investigated whether the speech envelope is assembled from the printed word or whether it is lexically addressed. In two experiments subjects were presented with speech-plus-noise and with noise-only trials, and were required to detect the speech in the noise. The auditory stimuli were accompanied with matching or non-matching Hebrew print, which was unvoweled in Experiment 1 and voweled in Experiment 2. The stimuli of both experiments consisted of high-frequency words, low-frequency words, and non-words. The results demonstrated that matching print caused a strong bias to detect speech in the noise when the stimuli were either high- or low-frequency words, whereas no bias was found for non-words. The bias effect for words or non-words was not affected by spelling to sound regularity; that is, similar effects were obtained in the voweled and the unvoweled conditions. These results suggest that the amplitude envelope of the word is not assembled from the print. Rather, it is addressed directly from the printed word and retrieved from the mental lexicon. Since amplitude envelopes are contingent on detailed phonetic structures, this outcome suggests that representations of words in the mental lexicon are not only phonological but also phonetic in character.     

The Measurement of Self-Esteem, Stress-Related Life Events, and Locus of Control Among Unemployed and Employed Blue-Collar Workers

The purpose of this study was to measure the self-esteem, stress of life events, and locus of control among unemployed and employed blue-collar workers. It was hypothesized that (a) being unemployed decreases an individual's self-esteem, (b) being unemployed increases an individual's stress level by experiencing significant life changes, and (c) being unemployed increases an individual's external locus of control orientation. The study was conducted in a production/manufacturing organization, utilizing a systematic random sampling procedure that yielded 562 subjects. The results from the collected data did not support Hypothesis A or C. A significant change with stress in conjunction with life events was found but was mediated by several factors, including age and a nonsignificant correlation between time laid-off and stress levels. The study suggests that an individual's reaction to unemployment does not appreciably affect their self-esteem and locus of control when compared to the employed.     

Smiling and relative status in news photographs

To test the hypothesis that lower social status is associated with more smiling, the authors used newspaper photographs and their associated news stories as the basis for scoring the smiling and relative social status of the 2 individuals in each photograph. Independent raters judged smiling and 5 dimensions of relative status for 496 individuals in 248 newspaper photographs. There was no relation between status and smiling, although status and smiling were both related to other variables such as gender, age, and story valence. These findings add to a growing body of evidence that there is no generalized relation between smiling and status.