Developmental amnesia

The concept of developmental amnesia is proposed to describe the impairment of normal memories during a person's school age life. One hundred psychotherapy patients were interviewed and the age of earliest memories ranged from 1–12 years, with a mode of 5 years. Memory was continuous for 53% of patients by 1st grade, while 18% reported life memory was still episodic at age 18 or later. Parental alcohol problems were associated with delay of continuous memories.     

The valuing process: A study of favorite songs and the inner experience of persons diagnosed with schizophrenia

Since valuing is a process grounded in the organizational tendency of human behavior, the characteristics of a highly valued object should reflect the experience of the individual who selects it. This research compared the favorite songs of fourteen individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia to their inner experience as assessed in a standard interview. Many relationships were revealed between the two, often pertaining to important issues identified in theories of schizophrenia. Results may have therapeutic applications and shed light on processes through which psychological difficulties persist.     

Information feedback and the learning multiple-degree-of-freedom activities

The influence of information feedback on the learning of a multiple-degree-of-freedom activity, the overhand throw, was investigated. During learning, feedback was presented in the form of knowledge of results, knowledge of performance, knowledge of performance with attention-focusing cues, or knowledge of performance with error-correcting transitional information. Across 12 practice sessions, performance was assessed with respect to both throwing distance and throwing form. Subjects provided with knowledge of performance along with transitional information demonstrated significant gains in throwing distance, compared with subjects receiving knowledge of performance or knowledge of results alone. Movement form ratings followed the same trend. Providing learners with cues to focus their attention on the relevant aspects of knowledge of performance or directly providing transitional information was a better aid to the acquisition of throwing form than providing knowledge of results or knowledge of performance alone. These results support the hypothesis that knowledge of results may not be the most potent form of feedback in multiple-degree-of-freedom activities and that knowledge of performance, when combined with additional information, can lead to significant gains in skill acquisition.     

Recovery of Locomotion in Monkeys With Spinal Cord Lesions

This study reanalyzes kinematically (via film) the pre- and postoperative locomotor behavior of 4 of the 10 monkeys with partial spinal cord lesions (T8) briefly described by Eidelberg, Walden, and Nguyen (1981). The behavior of the remaining 6 monkeys is qualitatively described. The analysis reveals that 5 of the animals initially exhibited unilateral hind limb stepping. Hind and forelimb cycle durations often differed postoperatively; the hind limbs commonly showed increased values, whereas forelimb cycle durations were reduced: ipsilateral interlimb phase values were usually inconsistent. A review of prior studies of primate spinal cord lesions indicates that sparing of the ventrolateral quadrant may not be essential for locomotor recovery (cf. Eidelberg, Walden, & Nguyen, 1981). Furthermore, this review as well as the kinematic analysis indicates that primates with very significant spinal lesions can stilI exhibit locomotor movements. Thus, although the primate's spinal cord seems less able than other mammals' to readily organize locomotor movements (Eidelberg, Walden, & Nguyen, 1981), the total absence of stepping in primates with completely transected cords is unexpected and warrants further research.     

Controlling the uncontrollable: effects of stress on illusory perceptions of controllability.

Individuals' failure to exercise actual control over an event might be compensated for by trying to bolster a generalized, subjective sense of control. Control might then be sought by undertaking acts the effect of which on the environment is illusory. This observation led to the hypothesis that stress, which undermines persons' sense of control, would engender illusory perceptions of controllability. The hypothesis was tested in 3 experiments that required Ss to choose between 2 gambling forms. Although the 2 forms were essentially identical, 1 was designed to instill an illusion of control. The results showed that highly stressed Ss, compared with those who experienced low stress, preferred gambling forms that heightened perceptions of controllability.     

Rorschach object relations of adolescents who committed homicide.

We investigated the object relations of adolescents who committed homicide. A clinical sample of 55 adolescents who committed homicide did not differ from a comparison group of nonviolent delinquents on Rorschach measures of object differentiation, mutuality of autonomy, and aggressive content. However, the subgroup of adolescents who committed homicides in the context of another crime (e.g., robbery or burglary) did manifest significantly lower object relations (poorer object differentiation and more victim responses) than the subgroup of adolescents whose homicides were committed in the context of an interpersonal conflict or dispute with the victim. These findings support the need for differentiated classification of violent individuals as urged by Megargee (1970) over 20 years ago.     

Effects of Pointing Rate and Availability of Visual Feedback on Visual and Proprioceptive Components of Prism Adaptation

While looking through laterally displacing prisms, subjects pointed 60 times straight ahead of their nose at a rate of one complete movement every 2 or 3 s, with visual feedback available early in the pointing movement or delayed until the end of the movement. Sagittal pointing was paced such that movement speed covaried with pointing rate. Aftereffect measures (obtained after every 10 pointing trials) showed that when the limb became visible early in a pointing movement, proprioceptive adaptation was greater than visual, but when visual feedback was delayed until the end of the movement, the reverse was true. This effect occurred only with the 3-s pointing rate, however. With the 2-s pointing rate, adaptation was predominately proprioceptive in nature, regardless of feedback availability. Independent of the availability of visual feedback, visual adaptation developed more quickly with 3-s pointing, whereas proprioceptive adaptation developed more rapidly with 2-s pointing. These results are discussed in terms of a model of perceptual-motor organization in which the direction of coordinative (guidance) linkage between eye-head (visual) and hand-head (proprioceptive) systems (and consequently the locus of discordance registration and adaptive recalibration) is determined jointly by pointing rate and feedback availability. An additional effect of pointing rate is to determine the rate of discordant inputs. Maximal adaptive recalibration occurs when the input (pointing) rate matches the time constant of the adaptive encoder in the guided system.