FORTRAN control of graphics on the amiga microcomputer

The graphic capabilities of the Amiga microcomputer offer considerable potential for perceptual and cognitive research. These capabilities, however, are most easily accessed via the C programming language. Manipulating Amiga graphics hardware is considerably more difficult for the FORTRAN programmer. A package of FORTRAN 77 routines is described which has been designed to allow images to be easily processed and presented by means of calls from a FORTRAN experiment control program.     

An experiment control system for the Amiga microcomputer

The Commodore Amiga microcomputer, with its powerful and versatile hardware features, is well-suited to many areas of behavioral research. The complexity of the hardware and software, however, creates considerable difficulties for the researcher who wishes to construct real-time experiment-control programs. The present article describes a coordinated package of routines that have been designed to support experiment-control programs written in FORTRAN 77. The package was constructed specifically for cognitive research on verbal processes, but is sufficiently flexible to be useful in a variety of other applications. The functions performed by the program include the construction of stimulus displays, response detection, and timing operations.     

Relationships between the MAPI and the MMPI in the assessment of adolescent psychopathology.

Although the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) and the Millon Adolescent Personality Inventory (MAPI) are both widely used in the clinical assessment of adolescents, no research has examined the interrelationship between these two instruments. We investigated MMPI and MAPI responses from 199 adolescents assessed at entrance to inpatient or outpatient psychiatric programs in Florida and Virginia. Univariate correlation analyses identified areas of significant associations between these measures, with coefficients ranging widely from -.70 to .72. Substantial diagnostic differences were found between these instruments. The MAPI, for example, yielded no depression-related diagnoses, but produced many more adjustment disorder and personality disorder diagnoses than the MMPI. The rates of diagnostic assignment agreements between diagnoses produced by clinical judgment, MMPI findings, and MAPI interpretive reports were typically quite low.     

Correlation of eye color on self-paced and reactive motor performance.

Researchers continue to examine the distinctiveness of motor performance by dark- versus light-eyed individuals. Dark-eyed individuals generally perform better at reactive type tasks (boxing, hitting a ball, defensive positions in football, rotary pursuit), while light-eyed individuals perform better at self-paced tasks (bowling, golf, pitching baseballs). Subjects performed two tasks, rotary pursuit and ball tossing (with light and dark background). Eye color (light or dark) and accuracy of performance were recorded for each subject. No significant difference was found between eye color and performance on the pursuit rotor (reactive activity). A significant difference was found between men's and women's performance in throwing a ball (self-paced activity) at a light-colored background.     

Risk and protective factors for alcohol and other drug problems in adolescence and early adulthood: implications for substance abuse prevention.

The authors suggest that the most promising route to effective strategies for the prevention of adolescent alcohol and other drug problems is through a risk-focused approach. This approach requires the identification of risk factors for drug abuse, identification of methods by which risk factors have been effectively addressed, and application of these methods to appropriate high-risk and general population samples in controlled studies. The authors review risk and protective factors for drug abuse, assess a number of approaches for drug abuse prevention potential with high-risk groups, and make recommendations for research and practice.     

Electrophysiological evidence for temporal overlap among contingent mental processes.

A series of studies assessed perceptual-motor transmission of stimulus information by measuring lateralization of movement-related brain potentials in a choice reaction task with no-go trials. When stimuli varied in shape and size, lateralized potentials on no-go trials suggested that easily recognized shape information was used to initiate motor preparation and that this preparation was aborted when size analysis signified that the response should be withheld. This indicates that movement preparation can begin once partial perceptual information about a stimulus becomes available, contrary to an assumption of fully discrete models of information processing. By contrast, when stimuli varied only in size, no evidence for preliminary response preparation was obtained, contrary to an assumption of fully continuous models but consistent with asynchronous discrete coding models (Miller, 1982, 1988).     

Adaptation to juvenile rheumatic disease: a controlled evaluation of functional disability with a one-year follow-up.

Compared the adaptation of 165 patients with juvenile rheumatic disease (JRD) to that of their healthy siblings. Patients were divided into those with mild functional disability and those with moderate/severe disability. Adaptation in several domains was assessed by parents and children on two occasions 1 year apart. The adjustment difficulties of the JRD children were limited primarily to social functioning but appeared also in the psychological and family problems domains. Compared to "mild" patients, "moderate/severe" patients had more adjustment difficulties; in some areas, mild patients functioned as well as their healthy siblings. Some Time 1 differences were replicated at Time 2. The results help to delineate (a) the specific domains in which children with chronic disease have adjustment difficulties and (b) the factors that put children at risk for developing adjustment problems.     

Cults and the law: A discussion of the legality of alleged cult activities

Recent news reports show that there is, yet again, increasing concern regarding cults and satanic cults. Among the concerns raised is the fear that cults may be engaging in illegal activity, including abducting and sacrificing humans. A survey was conducted in the United States and Canada to assess the attitudes of people regarding cults and satanic cults, and to identify those activities in which people believe cults engage. It is suggested that all religions began as “cults” and a brief review of the law concerning the free exercise of religion demonstrates that several religious groups have been treated with suspect, and have even been referred to as cults (e.g. Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons). Results from the survey are used to consider the extent to which the activities in which cults are thought to engage are legal. It is concluded that many of the activities in which cults are believed to engage are really mere beliefs that are protected by the first amendment. For those activities that are illegal, it is suggested that current laws are adequate to protect society from whatever harm people believe cults pose.     

The aftermath of Ford v. Wainwright

Whatever happened to Alvin Ford? This paper describes the aftermath of the Supreme Court's 1986 ruling in Ford v. Wainwright. The Ford decision held that exempting the mentally incompetent from execution is a matter of constitutional right, and hence the determination of who is competent for execution cannot be left solely in the hands of the executive branch of the government. We describe the hearing in Ford's case in federal district court that occurred after the Supreme Court's decision, the judge's ruling, and Ford's subsequent (and final) appeal. We conclude that despite the decision in Ford, it remains all but impossible for defense attorneys to prove that psychotic death row clients are incompetent for execution.