Personally familiar proper names are relatively successfully processed in the human right hemisphere; or, the missing link

Responding to our abstract in Brain and Language (Ohnesorge & Van Lancker, 1999), which proposed that famous proper nouns are successfully processed in both cerebral hemispheres, Schweinberger, Landgrebe, Mohr, and Kaufmann (2001) claimed that the "link" between personal names and the right hemisphere is "illusory." Ohnesorge and Van Lancker (2001) further described six experimental studies in which LVF/RH recognition of famous proper nouns was influenced by task conditions and stimulus familiarity. Here presenting two more experiments performed to explore the refutation presented by Schweinberger et al., this article confirms an ability of the right hemisphere to recognize famous proper nouns and explains why appropriate stimulus development and task conditions are essential in furthering our understanding of the role of the right hemisphere in processing personal relevance.     

Effect of speech task on intelligibility in dysarthria: a case study of Parkinson's disease

This study assessed intelligibility in a dysarthric patient with Parkinson's disease (PD) across five speech production tasks: spontaneous speech, repetition, reading, repeated singing, and spontaneous singing, using the same phrases for all but spontaneous singing. The results show that this speaker was significantly less intelligible when speaking spontaneously than in the other tasks. Acoustic analysis suggested that relative intensity and word duration were not independently linked to intelligibility, but dysfluencies (from perceptual analysis) and articulatory/resonance patterns (from acoustic records) were related to intelligibility in predictable ways. These data indicate that speech production task may be an important variable to consider during the evaluation of dysarthria. As speech production efficiency was found to vary with task in a patient with Parkinson's disease, these results can be related to recent models of basal ganglia function in motor performance.     

Variability in aphasic patients' response times

Response time studies of acquired language disorders are plagued by tremendous variability in patients' response times. In this brief report we demonstrate how variability itself may provide informative data. Lexical decision response times, generated by nine patients, illustrate how within-patient variability may estimate stability in cognitive dynamics.     

The influence of word frequency on recency effects in directed free recall

Leading theoretical explanations of recency effects are designed to explain the reported absence of a word frequency effect on recall of words from recency serial positions. The present study used a directed free-recall procedure (J. J. Dalezman, 1976) and manipulated the frequency composition of the word lists (pure and mixed). Overall, with pure lists, a greater proportion of high-frequency (HF) words were recalled than low-frequency (LF) words, and with mixed lists, a greater proportion of LF words were recalled than HF words. Of importance, this recall advantage for one frequency over the other as a function of list composition was evident across the last three serial positions, indicating an influence of word frequency on recency effects that is dependent on the frequency composition of the lists. These results challenge one of the major assumptions on which several theories of recency effects have been based.     

Fabry disease in genetic counseling practice: recommendations of the National Society of Genetic Counselors

The objective of this document is to provide health care professionals with recommendations for genetic counseling and testing of individuals with a suspected or confirmed diagnosis of Fabry disease, with a family history of Fabry disease, and those identified as female carriers of Fabry disease. These recommendations are the opinions of a multicenter working group of genetic counselors, medical geneticists, and other health professionals with expertise in Fabry disease counseling, as well as an individual with Fabry disease who is a founder of a Fabry disease patient advocacy group in the United States. The recommendations are U.S. Preventive Task Force Class III, and they are based on clinical experience, a review of pertinent English-language articles, and reports of expert committees. This document reviews the genetics of Fabry disease, the indications for genetic testing and interpretation of results, psychosocial considerations, and references for professional and patient resources. These recommendations should not be construed as dictating an exclusive course of management, nor does use of such recommendations guarantee a particular outcome. The professional judgment of a healthcare provider, familiar with the facts and circumstances of a specific case, will always supersede these recommendations.     

Memory for extinction of conditioned fear is long-lasting and persists following spontaneous recovery

Conditioned fear responses to a tone paired with footshock rapidly extinguish when the tone is presented in the absence of the shock. Rather than erase conditioning, extinction is thought to involve the formation of new memory. In support of this, extinguished freezing spontaneously recovers with the passage of time. It is not known, however, how long extinction memory lasts or whether extinction interferes with consolidation of conditioning if given on the same day. To address this, we gave rats 7 trials of auditory fear conditioning followed 1 h later by 20 extinction trials, and tested for spontaneous recovery after a delay of 0, 1, 2, 4, 6, 10, or 14 d. Conditioned freezing to the tone gradually recovered with time to reach 100% by day 10. No-extinction controls indicated that the increase in freezing with time was not owing to incubation of conditioning memory. Complete spontaneous recovery indicates that extinction training given 1 h after conditioning does not interfere with the consolidation of conditioning memory. Despite complete recovery of freezing, rats showed savings in their rate of re-extinction, indicating persistence of extinction memory. These data support the idea that conditioning and extinction of fear are learned by independent systems, each able to retain a long-term memory.     

Effects of task performance and contextual performance on systemic rewards

Evidence from 2 samples of Air Force mechanics supported the hypothesis that contextual performance affects employees' career advancement and rewards over time. Results of hierarchical regressions controlling for experience showed task performance and contextual performance each predicted systemic rewards. Each facet explained separate variance in promotability ratings over 2 years. In both samples, contextual performance explained separate variance in informal rewards but task performance did not. Task performance explained incremental variance in career advancement 1 year later but contextual performance did not. Analyses using correlations corrected for unreliability suggest these results cannot be attributed to measurement error. Contextual performance still explained separate variance in informal rewards, and task performance explained distinct variance in career advancement a year later.     

Additional study of the Youth-Depression Adjective Check List

Replicated and extended aspects of determinations of reliability and validity for the State version of the Youth-Depression Adjective Check List. Students from Grades 9 through 12 (64 girls and 41 boys) completed the State version and the Adolescent Activities Checklist on each of 12 consecutive days and completed the Trait version, the Reynolds Adolescent Depression Scale, the Multiple Affect Adjective Check List--Revised Grade 6, and the Adolescent Activities Checklist at the beginning and the end of the study. Good reliability and validity of the State version were confirmed and extended, and preliminary information on characteristics of the Trait version of the Youth-Depression Adjective Check List also was presented. The State version seems suitable for use in research with adolescents and preadolescents. More study of the Trait version is recommended.     

A comparison of two response time models applied to perceptual matching

Two models, a Poisson race model and a diffusion model, are fit to data from a perceptual matching task. In each model, information about the similarity or the difference between two stimuli accumulates toward thresholds for either response. Stimulus variables are assumed to influence the rate at which information accumulates, and response variables are assumed to influence the level of the response thresholds. Three experiments were conducted to assess the performance of each model. In Experiment 1, observers performed under different response deadlines; in Experiment 2, response bias was manipulated by changing the relative frequency ofsame anddifferent stimuli. In Experiment 3, stimulus pairs were presented at three eccentricities: foveal, parafoveal, and peripheral. We examined whether the race and diffusion models could fit the response time and accuracy data through changes only in response parameters (for Experiments 1 and 2) or stimulus parameters (for Experiment 3). Comparisons between the two models suggest that the race model, which has not been studied extensively, can account for perceptual matching data at least as well as the diffusion model. Furthermore, without the constraints on the parameters provided by the experimental conditions, the diffusion and the race models are indistinguishable. This finding emphasizes the importance of fitting models across several conditions and imposing logical psychological constraints on the parameters of models.