Flexible use of recent information in causal and predictive judgments

Associative and statistical theories of causal and predictive learning make opposite predictions for situations in which the most recent information contradicts the information provided by older trials (e.g., acquisition followed by extinction). Associative theories predict that people will rely on the most recent information to best adapt their behavior to the changing environment. Statistical theories predict that people will integrate what they have learned in the two phases. The results of this study showed one or the other effect as a function of response mode (trial by trial vs. global), type of question (contiguity, causality, or predictiveness), and postacquisition instructions. That is, participants are able to give either an integrative judgment, or a judgment that relies on recent information as a function of test demands. The authors concluded that any model must allow for flexible use of information once it has been acquired.     

How many faces can be processed during a single eye fixation?

The purpose of our study was to estimate the perceptual span for facial information: how many faces can be processed during a single eye fixation. We used a visual-search task, in which the targets and distractors were facial photographs. The task of the observer was to search for and identify a target face in an array of faces. We measured the time needed for one search--threshold search time--by using a multiple-alternative staircase method. The threshold represents the duration of stimulus presentation at which the probability of correct responses was 79%. The array size was varied from 2 x 2 to 8 x 8 faces. Simultaneously with the performance measurements we measured eye movements with a video eye tracker. We found that threshold search time increased with increasing set size nearly linearly. The number of fixations also increased linearly from unity at the smallest set size to about fifteen at the largest set size. The result of 2 x 2 faces during a single fixation gave an estimate of 4 faces for the perceptual span. If, on average, only half of the elements had to be scanned for finding the target, 15 fixations at the largest set size (8 x 8) gave another estimate of 2.13 faces. The mean fixation duration was around 200 ms. Thus, the results suggest that 2-4 faces can be processed during one fixation of about 200 ms.     

The Neuropsychology of Heading and Head Trauma in Association Football (Soccer): A Review

Association Football (soccer) is the most popular and widespread sport in the world. A significant proportion of the injuries suffered in football are head injuries involving trauma to the brain. In normal play, head trauma frequently arises from collisions, but some researchers have claimed that it also may arise as a consequence of heading the ball. Although assessments based on biomechanical analyses are equivocal on the potential for brain injury due to football heading, a growing literature seems to support the claim that neuropsychological impairment results from general football play and football heading in particular. However, this review suggests a distinction is required between the neuropsychological effects of concussive and subconcussive head trauma and that all of the neuropsychological studies conducted so far suffer from methodological problems. At best, a few of these studies may be regarded as exploratory. The review concludes that presently, although there is exploratory evidence of subclinical neuropsychological impairment as a consequence of football-related concussions, there is no reliable and certainly no definitive evidence that such impairment occurs as a result of general football play or normal football heading. The neuropsychological consequences of football-related subconcussive effects await confirmatory investigation.     

B.F. Skinner and the auditory inkblot: The rise and fall of the verbal summator as a projective technique

Behaviorist B.F. Skinner is not typically associated with the fields of personality assessment or projective testing. However, early in his career Skinner developed an instrument he named the verbal summator, which, at one point, he referred to as a device for "snaring out complexes," much like an auditory analogue of the Rorschach inkblots. Skinner's interest in the projective potential of his technique was relatively short lived, but whereas he used the verbal summator to generate experimental data for his theory of verbal behavior, several other clinicians and researchers exploited this potential and adapted the verbal summator technique for both research and applied purposes. The idea of an auditory inkblot struck many as a useful innovation, and the verbal summator spawned the tautophone test, the auditory apperception test, and the Azzageddi test, among others. This article traces the origin, development, and eventual demise of the verbal summator as an auditory projective technique.     

Neuropsychological screening for cognitive impairment using computer-assisted tasks

The aim of this study was to validate a computer-assisted screening battery for classifying patients into two groups, those with and without cognitive impairment. Participants were all patients referred to the neuropsychology clinics at four VA medical centers during a 1-year period. Patients meeting the study inclusionary criteria (N = 252) were administered the Neurobehavioral Evaluation System-3 (NES3) computer-assisted battery. A detailed neuropsychological examination was carried out by an experienced neuropsychologist, who diagnosed the patient as cognitively impaired or not impaired. The neuropsychologist's diagnosis was the gold standard. Recursive partitioning analyses yielded several classification procedures using the NES3 data to predict the gold standard These procedures produced a set of six NES3 tasks that provide good sensitivity and specificity in predicting di- agnosis. Sensitivity and specificity for the least random classification procedure were 0.87 and 0.67, respectively. The results suggest that computer-assisted screening methods are a promising means of triaging patients.     

Nine Months of Multicomponent Behavioral Treatment for ADHD and Effectiveness of MTA Fading Procedures

We examined 9-month data from the 14-month NIMH Multimodal Treatment Study of Children with ADHD (the MTA) as a further check on the relative effect of medication (MedMgt) and behavioral treatment (Beh) for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) while Beh was still being delivered at greater intensity than at 14-month endpoint, and conversely as a check on the efficacy of the MTA behavioral generalization/maintenance procedures. Intention-to-treat analysis at 9 months showed essentially the same results as at 14 months, after Beh had been completely faded; MedMgt and the combination (Comb) of medication and Beh were significantly superior to Beh and community care (CC) for ADHD and oppositional-defiant (ODD) symptoms, with mixed results for social skills and internalizing symptoms. All treatment-group differences examined as changes in slopes from 9 to 14 months were nonsignificant (we found general improvement for all groups). Slopes from baseline to 9 months correlated highly (r > .74, p < .0001) with slopes from baseline to 14 months for all groups. The time function from baseline to 14 months showed a significant linear, but not quadratic, trend for the main outcome measure (a composite of parent- and teacher-rated ADHD and ODD symptoms) for all groups. Findings suggest that in contrast to the hypothesized deterioration in the relative benefit of Beh between 9 and 14 months (after completion of fading), the MTA Beh generalization and maintenance procedures implemented through 9 months apparently yielded continuing improvement through 14 months, with preservation of the relative position of Beh compared to other treatment strategies.     

Individual differences in emotional expression discrimination are associated with emotion label production in toddlers

It is possible that the visual discrimination of emotion categories and emotion word vocabulary develop via common emotion-specific processes. In contrast, it is possible that they develop with vocabulary development more generally. This study contrasts these two possibilities. Twenty-three 26-month-olds participated in a visual perceptual discrimination task involving emotional facial expressions. After familiarization to a 100% happy face, toddlers were tested for their visual preference for a novel sad face in a side-by-side presentation paired with the familiar happy face. Parental report was used to quantify production of emotion words and vocabulary generally. Visual preference for the novel emotion (sad) in the discrimination task correlated with emotion word vocabulary size but not with overall vocabulary size.     

Self-reported psychosocial factors among in vitro fertilization patients interviewed alone or with the partner

The purpose of this study was to compare the sociodemographic and psychosocial characteristics reported by female in vitro fertilization (IVF) patients interviewed alone or with the partner in heterosexual couples. During 12 months (2011–2012), all patients undergoing IVF or intracytoplasmic sperm injection at one public reproductive medicine unit, in Portugal, were interviewed on the day of the diagnosis of pregnancy, being recruited 221 women interviewed with the partner and 92 interviewed alone. Interviewers collected data on sociodemographic and obstetric characteristics; and anxiety, depression, social support and partner relationship were collected by self-administered questionnaires. χ² test was used to assess the independent association between the categorical variables and being interviewed alone or with the partner. For continuous variables, mean or median differences were compared by the t-test or the Mann–Whitney test, according to data distribution. No statistically significant differences were found in the self-reporting of depression, anxiety, social support and partner relationship or in sociodemographic and obstetric characteristics between women interviewed alone or with the partner. Although women interviewed alone were older and more frequently had children than women interviewed with the partner, no significant associations were observed. Thus, having a male partner present in the research setting during a self-administered questionnaire seems not to influence women’s responses to psychosocial measures. Other outcomes and settings need to be evaluated to support evidence-based guidelines for research on infertility.