Visual acuity improvement following fading and feedback training—I. Comparison of myopic and emmetropic volunteers

18 myopes and 18 emmetropes were randomly assigned in pairs to either Fading and Feedback training or a no-treatment control condition. The emmetropes were fitted with plus lenses equivalent to the spherical correction of the paired myope to simulate myopic visual acuity. Extensive visual acuity measures were obtained pre- and post-training. Data analyses indicated significant increases in recognition visual acuity for trained subjects, compared to no-treatment controls. The myopia/emmetropia variable did not interact with training even though there were noticably greater increases in visual acuity for trained myopes compared to the other conditions. Resolution visual acuity did not change as a function of training. These data are discussed in terms of their implications for better understanding the mechanisms responsible for visual acuity increases following behavioural training.     

Relationship between levels of oral and written language in beginning readers

The validity of a test battery, organized by a theoretical framework of levels of language processing and production, was evaluated at the end of kindergarten and theend of first grade. At the end of kindergarten two levels of oral language, phonemic and lexical, and at the end of first grade three levels of oral language, phonemic, lexical, and text, were correlated with word decoding and reading comprehension. At the end of first grade, the combination of phonemic and lexical skills accounted for more variance in both word decoding and reading comprehension than either phonemic or lexical skills alone. The strength of the relationship between specific levels of oral language and specific component reading skills changed after formal reading instruction was introduced. Functional relationships were found between improvement in phonemic skills or lexical skills and improvement in word decoding. Partial correlations between two levels of oral language with a third partialed out (receptive or expressive task requirements held constant) provided evidence for three semiindependent levels of oral language—phonemic, lexical, and text. Because the battery has concurrent and construct validity, school psychologists can use it to monitor beginning readers in order to prevent reading disabilities due to subtle language dysfunctions.     

Reasoning ability in older adults measured through letter and number series

Letter series and number series tests, consisting of items based on identical rules, were administered in a counterbalanced design to 58 persons (46 women and 12 men) between the ages of 61 and 88 years to determine their relative efficacy (relative difficulty and acceptability) as measures of inductive/deductive reasoning ability. Results indicated that letter and number series tests, in which each item in one has a same-rule counterpart in the other, were not equivalent in regard to their relative difficulty or popularity among the elderly. The number series test was significantly (p 0001) easier and more popular than its letter series counterpart. Some of the implications of these findings for assessing reasoning ability in the elderly were specified.     

A Twin and Family Study of the Association Between Immune System Dysfunction and Dyslexia Using Blood Serum Immunoassay and Survey Data

We conducted a study of the association between developmental reading disability (DRD) and immune disorders (ID) using both survey and immunoassay data in two separate samples of families. One sample was made up of twins and their parents and was ascertained through a population-based sampling scheme. The other sample was a set of extended pedigrees selected for apparent autosomal dominant transmission of DRD. We failed to find an association between DRD and ID in either sample, regardless of the method used to assess immune system function. Even though our twin sample provided evidence that both DRD and immune conditions were significantly heritable, there was no evidence for a genetic correlation between ID and DRD nor was there any clear indication that a special subgroup of individuals may be comorbid for these conditions because of genetic reasons. How these negative findings can be reconciled with the developmental hypothesis of Geschwind, Behan, Galaburda, and colleagues, and how they may relate to the gene locus influencing DRD that has been recently located in the HLA region of the short arm of chromosome 6 is discussed.     

Habitual Prospective Memory and Aging: Remembering Intentions and Forgetting Actions

Routine or habitual prospective memory tasks (e.g., taking medication) have the potential for creating confusions regarding whether or not an action has already been performed. We developed a laboratory paradigm for examining the kinds of processes thought to be operating in these kinds of tasks. Younger and older participants were asked to perform an action once and only once on each of 11 trials. The results showed that age and divided attention contributed to both omission and repetition errors. This new paradigm reveals memory failures in a habitual prospective memory task, and the results demonstrate that older adults are particularly susceptible to these memory problems.     

Dilution in legal decision making: Effect of non-diagnostic information in relation to amount of diagnostic evidence

Judgments about others are often based on information that varies in terms of its diagnosticity or usefulness in predicting a certain outcome. Previous studies have demonstrated a “dilution effect” in which the addition of nondiagnostic or irrelevant information yields less extreme judgments than those based solely on diagnostic information. Two studies investigated the dilution effect in a juror decision making context in which no midpoint of a scale was provided by researchers. Study 1 examined the inclusion of positive, negative, or neutral character information in a criminal case and found that this nondiagnostic information affected attitude toward the defendant but did not “dilute” guilt judgments. The cases in Study 1 contained a larger amount of diagnostic information than studies that demonstrated the dilution effect. Thus, the amount of diagnostic evidence provided was varied in Study 2, and the results showed “diluted” judgments only when a small amount of diagnostic information was presented. Limitations to the dilution effect were discussed.     

Reasoning ability in older adults measured through letter and number series

Letter series and number series tests, consisting of items based on identical rules, were administered in a counterbalanced design to 58 persons (46 women and 12 men) between the ages of 61 and 88 years to determine their relative efficacy (relative difficulty and acceptability) as measures of inductive/deductive reasoning ability. Results indicated that letter and number series tests, in which each item in one has a same-rule counterpart in the other, were not equivalent in regard to their relative difficulty or popularity among the elderly. The number series test was significantly (p 0001) easier and more popular than its letter series counterpart. Some of the implications of these findings for assessing reasoning ability in the elderly were specified.     

Posttraining Electrical Stimulation of Vagal Afferents with Concomitant Vagal Efferent Inactivation Enhances Memory Storage Processes in the Rat

Peripherally administered or released substances that modulate memory storage, but do not freely enter the brain, may produce their effects on memory by activating peripheral receptors that send messages centrally through the vagus nerve. Indeed, vagus nerve stimulation enhances memory performance, although it is unclear whether this effect is due to the activation of vagal afferents or efferents. To eliminate the possible influence of descending fibers on memory storage processes, rats were implanted with cuff electrode/catheter systems along the left cervical vagus. Forty-eight hours following surgery, each animal received a 3.0-μl infusion (1.0 μl/min) of either lidocaine hydrochloride (75.0 mM) or isotonic saline below the point of stimulation. Animals were then trained 10 min later on an inhibitory-avoidance task with a 0.75-mA, 1.0-s foot shock. Sham stimulation or vagus nerve stimulation (0.5-ms biphasic pulses; 20.0 Hz; 30 s; 0.2, 0.4, or 0.8 mA) was administered immediately after training. Memory, tested 24 h later, was enhanced by stimulation whether descending vagus nerve fibers were inactivated or not. Both lidocaine- and saline-infused groups showed an intensity-dependent, inverted-U-shaped pattern of retention performance, with the greatest effect observed for 0.4 mA (U= 9,p< .05, andU= 7,p< .01, respectively). Additionally, animals that received lidocaine infusions, but no vagus nerve stimulation, showed impaired memory compared to the performance of saline-infused control animals (U= 11,p< .05). Together, these findings suggest that vagal afferents carry messages about peripheral states that lead to the modulation of memory storage and that the memory-enhancing effect produced by vagus nerve stimulation is not mediated via the activation of vagal efferents.     

Sterilizations reconsidered?

Cowdin and Tuohey argue for a rethinking of Catholic bioethical principles and the Church's moral authority. Citing the Second Vatican Council for support, they argue that if the Church were to respect the proper autonomy of medicine, it would allow sterilizations. In this essay I argue against Cowdin and Tuohey's understanding that the Church has derived its moral laws independent of consultation with medicine and that it treats medicine simply as a source of technical expertise. I also argue that they misunderstand that nature of autonomy as well as the Church's position regarding the type of autonomy they request for medicine. I will especially argue against their understanding of the principles of totality and double effect as "dispensations" from the moral order. I conclude that they have provided no grounds to cause the Church to reconsider its condemnation of all sterilizations.