Factors associated with Borderline pathology in school-age children

The Diagnostic Interview for Borderlines as revised (DIB-R) for use with children and chart review was completed using the records of 54 children, ages 6 to 12 years, who had been admitted to a public psychiatric hospital. Based on the results of the DIB-R, the children were grouped as borderline and nonborderline. The two groups were then compared with regard to 52 independent variables which have historically been associated with the borderline diagnosis. Stepwise logistic regression was used to identify the cluster of diagnostic and independent variables which best discriminated the borderline subjects. Self-destructive behavior, irritable affect, anhedonia, and an externalizing disorder diagnosis at the time of admission accounted for 95.4% of the borderline children. These findings are in contrast to previous studies which have found an assortment of neuropsychological and/or neurological deficits and stressed the importance of a tendency toward psychotic regression on psychological testing as discriminative variables. The authors underscore the idea that borderline pathology may represent a spectrum of disorders and the need for a more specific psychiatric nosology in describing and diagnosing these children.     

双作业的信息编码方式对作业绩效的影响

采用单作业和双作业操作,探讨了不同信息编码方式对双作业操作绩效的影响。实验结果证明：若采用相同的信息编码方式,同时操作的两种作业就会产生相互干扰,降低双作业操作绩效;相反,若同时操作的两种作业采用不同信息编码方式将有效地减小双作业操作的相互干扰,使双作业操作的绩效得到提高。     

Perceived social context and risk preference: A re-examination of framing effects in a life-death decision problem

This study examines the effects of perceived group context on subjects risk attitudes and their sensitivity to the framing of choice outcomes in a ‘life-death’ decision problem. It seeks to uncover the psychological mechanisms underlying decision-making biases by systematically manipulating the decision context in which the ‘life-death’ problem was described. The study revealed that subjects risk preferences varied as a function of the experimental manipulations. Previously observed reversals in preferences (framing effects) appeared in large-group contexts and disappeared in small-group and family contexts. When considering the fate of small groups, subjects unambiguously favored the probabilistic outcome, no matter how the ‘life-death’ decision problem was framed. The empirical data obtained from the present study suggest that human choice patterns are behaviorally distinguishable across large-group, small-group, and family social contexts.     

六个月至三岁儿童用左右手抓物的实验研究

对300名6个月至3岁的儿童进行了抓物的实验。发现1岁以内儿童的左、右手率在50％上下,随年龄增长,右手率逐渐增加:1—1(1/2)岁为69.4％,1(1/2)—2岁为71.3％,2—2(1/2)岁为76.9％,2(1/2)—3岁为81.5％。男、女存在差异,男孩右手率较女孩高。实验中出现双手抓物现象,但1岁半后此现象迅速减少。父母双方或一方为左利者,其孩子的左手率比那些父母为右利者高。此外,孩子抓物时对不同颜色物品和玩具则呈现选择性倾向。     

Software tools for creating line drawings on a CRT

A software package that can be used for the generation of line drawings on CRTs is discussed. The pictures obtained are stored as sets of coordinates of line segments. Complex pictures consist of sets of subpictures. In this way, pictures, or parts of pictures, can be easily manipulated (e.g., rotated, translated, scaled) and can be displayed on different types of display systems.     

Self-focused attention and reactions to conflicting standards

A fundamental postulate of self-awareness theory that has received considerable empirical support is that self-focused attention increases behavioral consistency with “standards of correctness.” This appears to be true whether the standards are internal (such as attitudes or values) or external (e.g., norms). There is some question, however, as to what happens in situations in which an important personal standard conflicts with a salient external standard. Research by E. Diener and T. K. Srull (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1979, 37, 413–423) has suggested that under such circumstances the social standard is likely to predominate. However, there is reason to believe that the standards employed in their study may not have been very salient nor very important to the subjects. In the present experiment, subjects with either conservative or liberal sexual attitudes were exposed to information suggesting a prevailing norm of sexual liberalism. They were then asked to respond to a number of sexual and nonsexual attitude measures while their attention was or was not self-directed by means of a mirror. Primary results indicated that self-awareness enhanced conformity to the social standard (as in Diener & Srull, 1979) for the conservative subjects; however, correlational analyses within the self-focused and non-self-focused conditions indicated that self-aware subjects did not “abandon” their personal standards when responding to the conformity pressure. Instead, their responses tended to be more in line with their previously expressed attitudes than did the responses of the non-self-focused group. Results are discussed in terms of the effects of self-awareness on reactions to potent, but conflicting behavioral standards.     

Effects of response-dependent and independent electric shock on schedule-induced polydipsia

In Experiment I, lever pressing by rats was maintained by the delivery of food pellets under a 45-sec fixed-interval schedule. Fixed-time 180-sec and fixed-interval 180-sec schedules of shock delivery were systematically superimposed on the baseline food schedule to study effects on schedule-induced water intake. Response-dependent shock had little, if any, effect on water intake, whereas shocks independent of lever pressing attenuated fluid intake. In Experiment 2, rats received food pellets under a fixed-time 60-sec schedule. Electric shock delivered concurrently under a variable-time 180-sec schedule, but never while the animal was licking or within 5 sec after licking terminated, led to similar attenuation of water intake. These findings suggest that schedule-induced polydipsia is sensitive to differences in the functional properties of response-independent and dependent electric shock.