Computerized assessment in neuropsychology: A review of tests and test batteries

This article contains detailed reviews of 13 computerized neuropsychological and performance test batteries and six stand-alone computer tests. Tasks found on these instruments are described and tables illustrate which batteries employ which measures. In addition to issues of reliability and validity, special considerations apply to computerized assessment. These issues are discussed and readers are provided information to help them assess computerized tests in relation to their particular clinical and research needs. Since many computerized tests were developed as performance assessment tools, the relationship between performance and neuropsychological assessment is examined.     

Developmental and individual differences in preschoolers' recognition memories: The influences of gender schematization and verbal labeling of information

Eighty-three 37-92-month-old children's gender schematization and recognition memories for gender-typed content were assessed. Verbal labeling of stimuli and age were positively associated with children's memories. Highly gender schematic children displayed better memories for gender-role consistent information and committed more gender transformation errors than less gender schematic children. Interactions between children's gender schematization, age, and labeling condition were observed. Labeling of stimuli facilitated less schematic children's memories for gender-role consistent information. Gender schematization was positively associated with younger children's memories, suggesting younger children's memories are more strongly mediated by gender schematization than older children's. Results support the position that studies of gender schema development require an integrated approach recognizing individual and developmental differences in gender schematic processing.Completion of this project was facilitated by funds received while the author was a National Institute of Mental Health Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Denver: Grant 5T32 MH 15780-09. This support is gratefully acknowledged. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Conference on Human Development, Charleston, South Carolina, 1988. The author would like to thank the faculty and staff of the Tiny Tot, Jack & Jill, Little Learners II, Plymouth and Upstate preschools for their assistance and cooperation. The author wishes to recognize James Aber, Rosanne David, Melisa Shack, and Susan Zigelbaum for their exceptional service in conducting the project; and would also like to thank Joan Barth, D. Bruce Carter, Gail S. Goodman, Carol L. Martin, William J. Meyer, Kathy Park, Ralph J. Roberts, Jaipaul L. Roopnarine, Margaret L. Signorella, and the anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions on earlier drafts of this article.     

Fundamentalist religion and its effect on mental health

The national self-help group, Fundamentalists Anonymous (F.A.), has focused attention upon mental problems that may be caused or exacerbated by authoritarian religion. In this article we outline assertions about the mental problems caused by membership in fundamentalist religion, illustrate these with two case histories, briefly discuss intervention strategies, and describe conceptual and empirical issues. While former members have presented problems severe enough to warrant professional treatment, a causal link between their symptoms and their religious membership has not yet been established, because there is little empirical work on the subject.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association in New York in August 1987.The authors express gratitude to Stephen Strack, Ph.D.; Robert Meagher, Ph.D.; Herman Feifel, Ph.D.; and Ted Schoenberger, M.D., for their helpful comments on previous drafts of this paper.     

Altering contingencies to facilitate compliance with traffic light systems

The effects of altering light pattern sequences on driver compliance at a busy, urban intersection were explored. The baseline light timing sequences resulted in only 46.8% of drivers stopping at the yellow or red lights. Using an A-B-C design, we altered light pattern sequences that increased the probability of drivers stopping at the signals to 88.8% and 98.8%. These findings indicate that traffic light contingencies have potent effects in influencing driver behaviors at busy intersections. Following completion of the study, the traffic engineer approved the permanence of the light timing pattern that increased traffic rule compliance. Accident data collected before and after the light timing changes indicated a reduction in automobile accidents.     

ASSESSMENT OF STIMULUS PREFERENCE AND REINFORCER VALUE WITH PROFOUNDLY RETARDED INDIVIDUALS

We evaluated a procedure for identifying potential reinforcers with profoundly retarded individuals. In Experiment 1, six persons were repeatedly exposed to 16 stimuli, and approach behaviors to each stimulus were used to identify preferred and nonpreferred stimuli. In Experiment 2, we examined the reinforcing properties of preferred and nonpreferred stimuli by delivering them contingently on the occurrence of arbitrarily selected responses. Results revealed that the preferred stimulus conditions typically produced higher rates of responding than did either the baseline or the nonpreferred stimulus conditions, suggesting that the procedure can be used to assess reinforcer value for individuals with limited behavioral repertoires.     

Work site group meetings and the effectiveness of a televised smoking cessation intervention

At the work site, smoking accounts for increased health care expenses and worker absenteeism due to smoking-related illness and reduced productivity and lost wages. Developing comprehensive and accessible smoking cessation programs at the work site is an important objective for health care professionals. In this study, employees of 43 corporations participated in a televised smoking cessation program accompanied by self-help manuals. The media component involved presenting a smoking cessation program on a network television affiliate station during the 4:30 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. news for 20 days. Employees at half the corporations also had access to semiweekly self-help group meetings. Adding self-help support groups to a program involving self-help manuals and the media reports was found to significantly increase abstinence and its maintenance over time. The implications of using the media, self-help groups, and work site locations in large-scale community-based interventions are discussed.     

The interaction of stressful life events and chronic strains on community mental health

One of the possible adaptive costs of coping with stress is diminished capacity to respond to subsequent adaptive demands. This paper examined the complex interplay between major life events and one source of chronic strain. Residents of the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area exposed to higher levels of smog, who had also experienced a recent stressful life event, exhibited poorer mental health than those exposed to pollution who had not experienced a recent stressful life event. There were, however, no direct effects of smog levels on mental health. These patterns of results were replicated in both a cross-sectional and a longitudinal study. The interplay of psychosocial vulnerability and environmental conditions is discussed.     

Testing the limits of the phonetic mnemonic system

Three experiments tested the efficacy of the phonetic mnemonic system under varying conditions of application. The first study attempted unsuccessfully to replicate and extend the work of Morris and Greer (1984), who had shown training in the phonetic mnemonic method to facilitate memorization of a serial list of two-digit numbers. In the present study, subjects trained in the phonetic mnemonic method failed to learn lists of two-, four-, and six-digit numbers better than control subjects. The second experiment partially replicated the first, the differences being that training in the phonetic mnemonic method was strengthened, and time allotted for number recall was extended. Under these circumstances the phonetic mnemonic group recalled the two-, four-, and six-digit numbers significantly better than the control groups, a finding conforming with Morris and Greer's (1984) results. The third experiment partially replicated the second, everything being the same except that, in this case, subjects constructed their own key words representing each number, instead of these words being supplied by the experimenter. Under these conditions, subjects trained in the phonetic mnemonic method recalled significantly fewer numbers than control subjects.     

Ethical issues related to the artificial heart

This paper is a general survey of ethical issues related to the artificial heart. It begins by looking at the history of funding of the artificial heart program through the National Institute of Health in 1965. Attention is paid to the problem of the lack of planning related to social, ethical, economic, and legal implications. The paper then deals with three areas of ethical concerns. They are those issues relating to the experimental versus therapeutic benefits, the cost, and public involvement with a private interest.     

A critique of Dennett

This essay is intended to be a systematic exposition and critique of Daniel Dennett's general views. It is divided into three main sections. In section 1 we raise the question of the nature of a plausible scientific psychology, and suggest that the question of whether folk psychology will serve as an adequate scientific psychology is of special relevance in a discussion of Dennett. We then characterize folk psychology briefly. We suggest that Dennett's views have undergone at least one major change, and proceed to discuss both his earlier and his later views.In section 2 we suggest that Dennett is correctly perceived as an instrumentalist in his earlier works. We think that Dennett later abandons this position because of general worries about instrumentalism and, more importantly, because Dennett became convinced that an instrumentalist conception of folk psychology will not enable us to vindicate the notions of personhood, moral agency, and responsibility. This left Dennett with a dilemma. On the one hand, he does not think that beliefs, etc., will turn out to be genuine scientific posits. On the other hand, he thinks that moral agency would be impossible if we could not treat beliefs, etc. as causally efficacious in some suitable sense.In section 3 we discuss Dennett's resolution of this dilemma. The key to his current view, we suggest, is the illata-abstracta distinction. Dennett holds that both illata and abstracta are real and have causal powers, even though only illata are genuine scientific posits. He suggests that beliefs etc. are abstracta, and are the subject matter of what he calls intentional system theory. The subject matter of another theory, what Dennett calls subpersonal cognitive psychology, are illata, which are subpersonal intentional states. The important point is that this distinction lets Dennett have it both ways: (i) Since beliefs are mere abstracta, we need not commit ourselves to the thesis that beliefs will turn out to be posits of an adequate scientific psychology. (ii) Since beliefs have causal power, we are assured of moral and rational agency. We shall argue that Dennett's current view is untenable. If we are right in our arguments, then Dennett's program to produce a scientifically plausible psychology, one that will turn out to vindicate folk psychology (in some suitable sense), is a failure. It fails in the following important ways: (i) What Dennett sketches — intentional system theory cum subpersonal cognitive psychology — is not a plausible scientific psychology. (ii) As a consequence, Dennett also fails to provide a satisfactory foundation for moral and rational agency.