Parallel short forms of the family of origin scale: Evidence of their reliability and validity

Two parallel short forms of the Family of Origin Scale were developed from data provided by 69 women and 63 men who completed the full Family of Origin Scale along with a variety of measures of family-of-origin characteristics. Data on the reliability and validity of the short forms are provided and discussed. The results indicate that both short forms are strongly and significantly correlated with each other and with the full-scale version of the FOS and that they share its reliability and validity characteristics to a very high degree.     

GUIDED VISUAL SEARCH IS A LEFT-HEMISPHERE PROCESS IN SPLIT-BRAIN PATIENTS

Abstract— Previous research has shown that split-brain (callosotomy) patients search through visual displays twice as fast as normal observers when items are divided evenly between visual hemifields, as though each disconnected hemisphere possessed its own attentional scanning system (Luck, Hillyard, Mangun, & Gazzaniga, 1989, 1994) Results from 3 split-brain patients in the present study indicate that the ability to limit search to a relevant subset of the visual display is lateralized to the left cerebral hemisphere. This ability to perform guided search was not shown in the right hemisphere, even when the search time in that hemisphere was superior to search time in the left Furthermore, guided search was observed for both hemifields in normal control observers. These findings suggest that, as with higher cognitive processes such as language, strategic visuospatial attentional processes are preferentially lateralized to the left cerebral hemisphere. The findings also imply that the callosum mediates guided search in the right hemisphere of normal subjects     

Illness, the problem of evil, and the analogical structure of healing: on the difference Christianity makes in bioethics.

A Christian bioethic needs to place the medical approach to sickness, suffering, and death within the context of redemption and the renewal of humanity in the image of God. This can be done by accounting for the way in which the disruptions of the human life-world that attend the illness experience manifest the structure of the problem of evil and point toward an answer that transcends the individual and the medical community. Further, the disease-oriented approach to medicine, when understood in the context of the analogia entis, can be taken as an analogy for a deeper spiritual healing, and can thus become a vehicle through which one can minister to the disruptions of a patient's life-world. An appreciation of the analogical structure of healing provides the basis for a Christian ethic of care.     

Active control in interrupted dynamic spatial orientation: The detection of orientation change

Gibson (1966, 1979) suggested that an important property of perception is that the observer is active. Two experiments were conducted to examine the benefits of active observation in determining dynamic spatial orientation. Subjects were presented with displays simulating locomotion through a three-dimensional environment. Active observers continuously controlled locomotion, whereas passive observers viewed the display. During the trial, the display was blacked out for a brief period, followed by a static image that was at either the correct or the incorrect orientation following the blackout. Subjects were required to indicate whether they were positioned at the correct extrapolated orientation. The presence or absence of orientation change, the type of change (changes in rotation about the depth axis [roll], horizontal axis [pitch], or forward translation), the duration of the blackout, and the consistency of change were varied. In addition, the experiments used either a compensatory or a pursuit tracking task. Active observers had greater sensitivity than did passive observers in detecting a change for both tracking tasks. Subjects in both experiments exhibited greater sensitivity in detecting inconsistent changes (relative to consistent changes), suggesting that the dynamics specified by optical flow were incorporated in extrapolated orientation. In addition, sensitivity decreased with an increase in blackout duration. The results are discussed in terms of an extrapolation model of perception that incorporates the responses executed by active observers.     

RUMINATIONS ON RUSE AND RELIGION

Abstract. I am in general agreement with Ruse on most religious and scientific issues but find little justification in his partial return to Christianity. His rejection of the literal interpretation of certain "Jewish myths," once started, can logically end only with the rejection of all the important content of both Old and New Testaments. His recognition that religious establishments have been responsible for much personal stress and many of history's great tragedies is understated.     

Conditional Control of Fluid Consumption in an Occasion Setting Paradigm Is Independent of Pavlovian Associations

Drug states, flavors, and contextual cues were each trained as conditional discriminative stimuli to control a saccharin-LiCl association. In transfer tests, drug states transferred control over consumption to other flavored solutions and to food. Contexts and flavors transferred control only to other flavored solutions. Pavlovian control groups given direct pairings of context-LiCl or flavor-LiCl did not show reliable transfer. However, these control groups did show greater or the same aversion to the specific context or flavor predicting LiCl compared to the context or flavor discrimination groups. The dissociation of the discrimination and Pavlovian groups on transfer versus preference tests suggests that performance on the occasion setting task cannot be due to simple excitation or learning about a unique compound cue. Data from extinction procedures provide further support for the dissociation between simple excitation and occasion setting.     

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.     

Prevalence of ADHD and comorbid disorders among elementary school children screened for disruptive behavior

In the context of a school-based prevention of conduct disorder program, 7,231 first- through fourth-grade children were screened for cross-setting disruptive behavior. Frequencies of DSM-III-R psychiatric disorders and patterns of comorbidity were assessed. We also examined the association of psychiatric diagnosis with child and parent characteristics to determine differential risk based on diagnostic subgroups. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and oppositional-defiant disorder (ODD) were the most frequent diagnoses. Mood and anxiety disorders were infrequent as single diagnoses. Patterns of comorbidity demonstrated that both externalizing and internalizing disorders commonly cooccurred with ADHD. More severe degrees of psychopathology and psychosocial risk accrued to the subgroup of youths with ADHD plus a comorbid externalizing disorder.This study was supported by grant MN-46584 from the National Institute of Mental Health.