Low-dose caffeine discrimination and self-reported mood effects in normal volunteers.

A caffeine versus placebo discrimination procedure was used to determine the lowest caffeine dose that could produce discrimination and self-reported mood effects in normal volunteers. During daily sessions under double-blind conditions, caffeine-abstinent subjects orally ingested a capsule containing 178 mg caffeine or placebo. Before beginning discrimination training, the compounds were identified to subjects by letter codes. Fifteen, 30, and 45 min after capsule ingestion, subjects guessed the capsule's letter code. Correct guesses at 45 min earned money. After each session, subjects received a supplementary capsule containing caffeine or placebo to ensure that, within each phase of the study, subjects received the same daily dose of caffeine equal to the training dose. Five of the 15 subjects acquired the caffeine versus placebo discrimination within the first 20 sessions (greater than or equal to 75% correct); 6 other subjects acquired the discrimination with additional training. Nine subjects who acquired the discrimination were subsequently trained at progressively lower caffeine doses. In general, the lowest dose to produce discrimination (greater than or equal to 75% correct) was also the lowest dose to produce self-reported mood effects: 4 subjects showed discrimination and self-reported mood effects at 100 mg caffeine, 2 at 56 mg, 1 at 32 mg, and 1 at 18 mg. One of these subjects also showed self-reported mood effects at 10 mg. The present study documents discriminative stimulus and self-reported mood effects of caffeine at doses below those previously shown to affect any behavior in normal volunteers.     

Linking empirically based theory and evaluation: The family bereavement program

Conclusion We have illustrated how our small theory (Lipsey, 1990) of bereavement guided the development and evaluation of a preventive intervention for bereaved children. Our small theory, based on prior empirical research, enabled us to identify family processes that appeared to mediate the effects of parental death on child mental health. Our intervention was designed to attempt to change these processes. The evaluation of our experimental trial of the intervention assessed changes on these processes as well as the more distal mental health outcomes. The experimental trial showed some-what encouraging results, in terms of the program's ability to modify the warmth of the parent–child relationship and to decrease symptomatology in the adolescent children. We also obtained further empirical support for our underlying theoretical model. Finally, implications for redesign of the program were derived from assessing the adequacy of the program components to change each of the mediators in the theoretical model.Support for this research was provided by NIMH grant P5OMH39246 which is gratefully acknowledged. David R. Pillow is now at Western Psychiatric Institute, Pittsburgh; Fred Rogosch is at the University of Rochester; Janette Beals is now at University of Colorado Health Sciences Center; Kim D. Reynolds is now at the University of Alabama, Birmingham; Carl Kallgren is now at the Pennsylvania State University, at Erie; and Rafael Ramirez is now at the University of Puerto Rico.     

Negative cognitive errors and positive illusions for negative divorce events: Predictors of children's psychological adjustment

This study examined the relations among negative cognitive errors regarding hypothetical negative divorce events, positive illusions about those same events, actual divorce events, and psychological adjustment in 38 8- to 12-year-old children whose parents had divorced within the previous 2 years. Children's scores on a scale of negative cognitive errors (catastmphizing, overgeneralizing, and personalizing) correlated significantly with self-reported symptoms of anxiety and self-esteem, and with maternal reports of behavior problems. Children's scores on a scale measuring positive illusions (high self-regard, illusion of personal control, and optimism for the future) correlated significantly with less self-reported aggression. Both appraisal types accounted for variance in some measures of symptomatology beyond that explained by actual events. There was no significant association between children's negative cognitive errors and positive illusions. The implications of these results for theories of negative cognitive errors and of positive illusions, as well as for future research, are discussed.     

A review of outcome studies of rational-emotive therapy from 1982–1989

In 1977, DiGiuseppe and Miller provided a review of the literature assessing the effectiveness of Rational-Emotive Therapy (RET). In 1984, McGovern and Silverman completed a similar review for outcome studies conducted from 1977 through mid-1981. This present study is meant as a continuation of those reviews. The 89 studies reviewed are divided into three sections: outcome studies that do not compare Rational-Emotive Therapy with other types of treatment; a review of outcome studies that do compare RET with other types of psychotherapy; and a review of Rational-Emotive outcome studies that either combine RET with other therapies or are not appropriate for the first two sections. There does appear to be some increased sophistication in the research conducted since 1982. Increases were noted in the number of control groups used in the current research as well as in the number of follow-up studies. There also appears to be an improvement in the comparison of RET with other forms of therapy, and the number of problem areas in which RET has been tested has increased. A decrease in post-test only studies and an increased variety of subjects have also improved the current research. Issues such as socioeconomic status and I.Q. of subjects, duration of treatment, and lack of longitudinal studies remain unaddressed. It is suggested that future researchers concentrate on these specific problems to improve the credibility of RET. This review coincides with the previous findings that RET is a valuable, effective therapy that warrants increased research to broaden its application.Manuel S. Silverman, Ph.D., is a Professor of Counseling Psychology at Loyola University Chicago.Margaret M. McCarthy, M.A., is a recent graduate of Loyola University Chicago.Terrance McGovern, Ph.D., is in Private Practice in Downers Grove, Illinois.     

Differential thresholds for limb movement measured using adaptive techniques

Differential thresholds for limb movement were measured in 10 subjects, using the transformed up-down procedure. Subjects were required to indicate which of two random displacement perturbations delivered to their forearms had the larger standard deviation (SD). TheSD of the reference signal was fixed for each experimental condition at one of seven values ranging from 0.05 to 3.2 mm. TheSD of the other signal varied depending on the subject’s response. Using this procedure, the differential threshold for limb movement was calculated to be 8%, which is very similar to the thresholds estimated previously for changes in limb position (9%) and force (7%). The sensitivity of the human proprioceptive system to changes in limb displacement was much greater than anticipated, with subjects being able to resolve a 5-μm difference between two perturbations delivered to their arms.     

COGNITIVE SUPPRESSION DURING SACCADIC EYE MOVEMENTS

Abstract— Saccadic eye movements are made at least 100,000 times each day It is well known that sensitivity to visual input is suppressed during saccades, we examined whether cognitive activity (specifically, menial rotation) is suppressed as well If cognitive processing occurs during saccades, a prime viewed in one fixation should exert a larger influence on a target viewed in a second fixation when a long rather than a short saccade separates their viewing No such effect was found, even though the lime difference between long and short saccades was effective in a no-saccade control These results indicate that at least some cognitive operations are suppressed during saccades     

Infant crying: Acoustics,perception and communication

This paper first reviews briefly the literature on the acoustics of infant cry sounds and then presents two empirical studies on the perception of cry and noncry sounds in their social-communicative context. Acoustic analysis of cry sounds has undergone dramatic changes in the last 35 years, including the introduction of more than a hundred different acoustic measures. The study of cry acoustics, however, remains largely focused on neonates who have various medical problems or are at risk for developmental delays. Relatively little is known about how cry sounds and cry perception change developmentally, or about how they compare with noncry sounds. The data presented here support the notion that both auditory and visual information are important in caregivers' interpretations of infant sounds in naturalistic contexts. When only auditory information is available (Study 1), cry sounds become generally more recognizable from 3 to 12 months of age; perception of noncry sounds, however, generally does not change over age. When auditory and visual information contradict each other (Study 2), adults tend to perform at chance levels, with a few interesting exceptions. It is suggested that broadening studies of acoustic analysis and perception to include both cry and noncry sounds should increase our understanding of the development of communication in infancy. Finally, we suggest that examining the cry in its developmental context holds great possibility for delineating the factors that underlie adults' responses to crying.     

Locus of Control as a Stress Moderator and Mediator in Children of Divorce

This paper examined the stress moderator and mediator effects of four dimensions of perceived control in children of divorce. The dimensions of locus of control included internal control for positive events, internal control for negative events, unknown control for positive events, and unknown control for negative events. The sample consisted of 222 children between the ages of 8 and 12 whose parents had divorced in the previous 2 years. Moderational analyses showed that unknown control for positive events interacted with negative events to predict total symptoms. Plots of the simple slopes indicated a stress buffering effect whereby the slope of negative events on symptoms was higher for high than for low levels of unknown control for positive events. Mediational analysis showed that the relations between negative events and symptoms were mediated by both unknown control for positive events and unknown control for negative events. In contrast, evidence was not found for either a stress mediational or a moderational model for perceived internal control for positive or negative events. These results suggest that unknown control beliefs may be a particularly important dimension of control for children of divorce.     

Retinal masking during pursuit eye movements: implications for spatiotopic visual persistence

White (1976) reported that presentation of a masking stimulus during a pursuit eye movement interfered with the perception of a target stimulus that shared the same spatial, rather than retinal, coordinates as the mask. This finding has been interpreted as evidence for the existence of spatiotopic visual persistence. We doubted White's results because they implied a high degree of position constancy during pursuit eye movements, contrary to previous research, and because White did not monitor subjects' eye position during pursuit; if White's subjects did not make continuous pursuit eye movements, it might appear that masking was spatial when in fact it was retinal. We attempted to replicate White's results and found that when eye position was monitored to ensure that subjects made continuous pursuit movements, masking was retinal rather than spatial. Subjects' phenomenal impressions also indicated that retinal, rather than spatial, factors underlay performance in this task. The implications of these and other results regarding the existence of spatiotopic visual persistence are discussed.     

Are professors likely to report having “beliefs” about the intelligence and competence of students who stutter?

Some university students who stutter report that they avoid participating in class discussions and talking with professors because they believe that if their professors find out they stutter, the professors are likely to view the students as being less intelligent and/or competent than they otherwise would. The purpose of this study was to determine whether professors, as a group, are likely to report such beliefs. A random sample of 87 professors at Marquette University, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and the State University of New York at Stonybrook rated “A Student Who Stutters” on each of 81 seven-point, bipolar semantic differential scales, including intelligent/unintelligent and competent/incompetent. Although there was considerable scatter in their ratings for the majority of the scales, 85 of the 87 rated the student at the center or “positive” end of the intelligent/unintelligent scale and 83 of the 87 did so on the competent/incompetent one. Assuming that the attitutes reported by the professors reflect their “real” ones, these data suggest that many—perhaps the majority—do not have negative attitudes about the intelligence and competence of their students who stutter.