Drawing: its contribution to naming in aphasia

Drawing in aphasia therapy has been used predominately as a substitution for speech or to augment communication when other modalities are non-functional. The value of drawing as a route for facilitating verbal expression has not been a focus of prior research. We compared the usefulness of drawing and writing as compensatory strategies for improving naming in individuals with aphasia. Activation patterns of writing and drawing in healthy adults were examined using fMRI. Clinical results suggest that drawing facilitated naming whereas writing diminished accurate naming responses, and that drawing quality is not relevant to this facilitatory effect. Functional MRI findings revealed strong bi-hemispheric activation of semantic and phonological networks while drawing that may support our clinical findings.     

The relationship between life satisfaction, self-consciousness, and the Myers-Briggs type inventory dimensions.

The study was an investigation of the relationship between psychological well-being, life satisfaction, self-consciousness, and the four Myers-Briggs Type Indicator dimensions (MBTI; I. B. Myers & M. H. McCaulley, 1985). The participants were 97 college students (79 women and 18 men whose mean age was 31.4 years). All the students were administered four instruments, the Psychological Well-Being Inventory (C. D. Ryff, 1989), the Satisfaction With Life Scale (E. Diener, R. A. Emmons, R. J. Larsen, & S. Griffin, 1985), the Self-Consciousness Scale-Revised (M. F. Scheier & C. S. Carver, 1985), and the MBTI (Form G Self-Scoring). MANOVAs revealed significant differences on three of the four dimensions of the MBTI with extraverts showing higher psychological well-being and life satisfaction and lower self-consciousness than introverts. Intuition types scored higher in psychological well-being and lower in self-consciousness than Sensing types. Judging types scored higher in psychological well-being than Perceiving types. Correlational analyses showed that most dimensions of psychological well-being were negatively related to self-consciousness. The relationship between life satisfaction and personality variables is discussed.     

Modeling the Ecological Validity of Neurocognitive Assessment in Adults with Acquired Brain Injury

Neuropsychologists are increasingly asked to make judgments regarding treatment options and rehabilitation strategies in addition to evaluating the degree and scope of neuropsychological impairment following acquired brain injuries. The capacity to make informed clinical decisions relies upon research investigating the relationships between neuropsychological and psychosocial status (i.e., ecological validity). Unfortunately, much of this research employs exploratory analyses, an approach that can lead to theoretical ambiguity and ad-hoc interpretations. The current availability and accessibility of analytical tools, like structural equation modeling (SEM), however, permits the testing of specific hypotheses regarding ecological validity and promotes a-priori theory development. In the current study, a theory-driven model of the ecological validity of a neurocognitive assessment was tested against data obtained from individuals with acquired brain injury using SEM. The results provide confirmatory evidence for the ecological validity of neurocognitive constructs and empirical support for a theory-driven analytical approach to ecological validity research.     

Transformation of the discriminative and eliciting functions of generalized relational stimuli

In three experiments, match-to-sample procedures were used with undergraduates to establish arbitrary relational functions for three abstract visual stimuli. In the presence of samples A, B, and C, participants were trained to select the smallest, middle, and largest member, respectively, of a series of three-comparison arrays. In Experiment 1, the B (choose middle) stimulus was then used to train a steady rate of keyboard pressing before the A (choose smallest) and the C (choose largest) stimuli were presented. Participants pressed slower to A and faster to C than to B. Then B was paired with mild shock in a Pavlovian procedure with skin conductance change as the dependent variable. When presented with A and C, 6 of 8 experimental participants showed smaller skin conductance changes to A and larger skin conductance changes to C than to B. In Experiment 2, A was then used as a sample in a match-to-sample procedure to establish an arbitrary size ranking among four same-sized colored circle comparisons. One of the middle circles was then used to establish a steady rate of pressing before the other circles were presented. Five of 6 participants responded slower to the "smaller" circle and faster to the "larger" circle than they did to the "middle" circle. In Experiment 3, A, B, and C were then presented on a series of test trials requiring participants to pick the comparison that was less than, greater than, or equal to the sample. Novel stimuli were included on some trials. Results indicated that the relational training procedures produced derived relations among the stimuli used in training and that these allowed correct inferences of relative size ranking among novel stimuli.     

The Relationship Between Frustration Intolerance,Unhealthy Emotions,and Assertive Behaviour in Italian Students

The aim of the present research was to investigate the relationship between frustration intolerance and emotional-behavioural problems. Specifically, the study explored whether frustration intolerance beliefs were associated with difficulties in assertive behaviour, anxiety, depression, and anger in a non-clinical student sample (N = 250). For this purpose an Italian version of the Frustration Discomfort Scale (FDS) was developed. The findings supported a multidimensional model of frustration intolerance and the relationship between specific frustration intolerance beliefs and emotional-behavioural problems. Regarding unhealthy emotions, structural equation modeling (SEM) analyses (model A) indicated that discomfort intolerance and emotional intolerance had a significant relationship with state anxiety, trait anxiety, and depression. The discomfort intolerance and entitlement sub-scales had a significant relationship with state anger and trait anger, while entitlement directly predicted trait anger. Regarding assertiveness, SEM analyses (model B) indicated that emotional intolerance had a significant relationship with distress when being assertive. More generally, the FDS full scale score (model C) was significantly related to unhealthy emotions and (model D) unassertive behaviour (distress). The present study provided evidence of the cross-cultural applicability of the FDS.     

A failure to replicate rapid syntactic adaptation in comprehension

Language comprehension requires successfully navigating linguistic variability. One hypothesis for how listeners manage variability is that they rapidly update their expectations of likely linguistic events in new contexts. This process, called adaptation, allows listeners to better predict the upcoming linguistic input. In previous work, Fine, Jaeger, Farmer, and Qian (PLoS ONE, 8, e77661, 2013) found evidence for syntactic adaptation. Subjects repeatedly encountered sentences in which a verb was temporarily ambiguous between main verb (MV) and reduced relative clause (RC) interpretations. They found that subjects who had higher levels of exposure to the unexpected RC interpretation of the sentences had an easier time reading the RC sentences but a more difficult time reading the MV sentences. They concluded that syntactic adaptation occurs rapidly in unexpected structures and also results in difficulty with processing the previously expected alternative structures. This article presents two experiments. Experiment 1 was designed as a follow-up to Fine et al.’s study and failed to find evidence of adaptation. A power analysis of Fine et al.’s raw data revealed that a similar study would need double the items and four times the subjects to reach 95% power. In Experiment 2 we designed a close replication of Fine et al.’s experiment using these sample size guidelines. No evidence of rapid syntactic adaptation was found in this experiment. The failure to find evidence of adaptation in both experiments calls into question the robustness of the effect.     

Frustration and Discomfort Intolerance: Introduction to the Special Issue

This article aims to provide an overview of the Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) concept of frustration intolerance. Therapeutic issues regarding these beliefs are discussed, including engagement, the use of disputation, and behavioral techniques.     

Frustration Intolerance: Therapy Issues and Strategies

This article aims to provide an overview of the Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) concept of frustration intolerance. Therapeutic issues regarding these beliefs are discussed, including engagement, the use of disputation, and behavioral techniques.     

Visual orientation by motion-produced blur patterns: Detection of divergence

Blur patterns are physiological “streaks” of photochemical and neural activity that occur whenever an observer and his visual environment are in relative motion. When retinal velocities are high, the impression of visual “flow” gives way to one of a field of “blur lines” whose patterns are rich with information about the motions and the optical textures that produced them. Simulated blur patterns were produced and thresholds measured for the detection of divergence at nine retinal loci. Sensitivity was somewhat greater in the central retina. Thresh-olds remained the same despite variations in pattern velocity, number of elements, and the presence or absence of an internal velocity gradient. Observers were able to orient above-threshold patterns, but consistently underestimated the amount of slant.