Windowed cross-correlation and peak picking for the analysis of variability in the association between behavioral time series

Cross-correlation and most other longitudinal analyses assume that the association between 2 variables is stationary. Thus, a sample of occasions of measurement is expected to be representative of the association between variables regardless of the time of onset or number of occasions in the sample. The authors propose a method to analyze the association between 2 variables when the assumption of stationarity may not be warranted. The method results in estimates of both the strength of peak association and the time lag when the peak association occurred for a range of starting values of elapsed time from the beginning of an experiment.     

The generalization of deferred imitation in enculturated chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)

Deferred imitation of object-related actions and generalization of imitation to similar but not identical tasks was assessed in three human-reared (enculturated) chimpanzees, ranging in age from 5 to 9 years. Each ape displayed high levels of deferred imitation and only slightly lower levels of generalization of imitation. The youngest two chimpanzees were more apt to generalize the model's actions when they had displayed portions of the target behaviors at baseline, consistent with the idea that learning is more likely to occur when working within the "zone of proximal development." We argue that generalization of imitation is the best evidence to date of imitative learning in chimpanzees. Electronic Publication     

Do Coping Styles Differ Across Sociocultural Groups? The Role of Measurement Equivalence in Making This Judgment

Cross-sociocultural group measurement equivalency is an important issue that generally has not been studied in the coping literature. Measurement equivalency of the COPE (Carver, Scheier, & Weintraub, 1989) was assessed across two sociocultural groups, a sample of 100 Anglo middle-class divorced mothers and a sample of 122 low-income Mexican American/Mexican immigrant mothers. A series of restrictive confirmatory factor analyses revealed that seven of the COPE's subscales may be measuring the same underlying construct across populations. However, scores derived from the subscales may not represent the same magnitude of the construct in these two groups. This study makes an important first step in furthering the understanding of coping strategies in low-income Mexican American/Mexican immigrant mothers. This study also illustrates the importance of testing for measurement equivalency before conducting comparative research in disparate populations.     

A model of dual attitudes

When an attitude changes from A1 to A2, what happens to A1? Most theories assume, at least implicitly, that the new attitude replaces the former one. The authors argue that a new attitude can override, but not replace, the old one, resulting in dual attitudes. Dual attitudes are defined as different evaluations of the same attitude object: an automatic, implicit attitude and an explicit attitude. The attitude that people endorse depends on whether they have the cognitive capacity to retrieve the explicit attitude and whether this overrides their implicit attitude. A number of literatures consistent with these hypotheses are reviewed, and the implications of the dual-attitude model for attitude theory and measurement are discussed. For example, by including only explicit measures, previous studies may have exaggerated the ease with which people change their attitudes. Even if an explicit attitude changes, an implicit attitude can remain the same.     

Contextual effects on word production: A lifespan study

The effect of sentence priming on picture naming was investigated across the lifespan, from age 3 to 87 years. Names that are normally acquired before 3 years of age were presented in auditory contexts that were semantically congruent, incongruent, or neutral in relation to each picture and its name. Sentential priming was present at all age levels. Facilitation (neutral vs. congruent) was significantly by 4 years of age and did not vary significantly with age. Interference (incongruent vs. neutral) was significant at all age levels, but changed nonmonotonically with age (largest in the youngest children, stable from young adulthood through age 70, with a small increase in the oldest participants). We conclude that picture naming is a useful tool for the investigation of sentential priming effects across the lifespan and that it can reveal potentially interesting developmental changes in the effects of sentential context on word retrieval.     

Beyond Speech Lateralization: A Review of the Variability, Reliability, and Validity of the Intracarotid Amobarbital Procedure and Its Nonlanguage Uses in Epilepsy Surgery Candidates

While the intracarotid amobarbital procedure (IAP) was originally utilized to lateralize speech functions as an aid in the surgical treatment of epilepsy, additional uses for the IAP have emerged including: (1) the use of the IAP to predict post-surgical memory changes, including both global amnesia and smaller, yet significant, material-specific memory deficits; (2) the use of the IAP to provide confirmatory evidence of lateralization of seizure focus; and (3) the use of the IAP to predict post-surgical relief from seizures. While the literature on the IAP is extensive and growing, its utility is marred by the wide variability associated with the procedure itself from epilepsy center to center. This variability renders comparisons among IAP studies problematic and conclusions about IAP efficacy difficult. The variability associated with the amobarbital procedures, as well as the reliability and the validity of the IAP in its nonlanguage uses is reviewed here. A special emphasis is devoted to research conducted in the last decade. Also discussed is the future of the IAP including anticipated research directions.     

Accounts of the confidence-accuracy relation in recognition memory

Confidence and accuracy, while often considered to tap the same memory representation, are often found to be only weakly correlated (e.g., Bothwell, Deffenbacher, & Brigham, 1987; Deffenbacher, 1980). There are at least two possible (nonexclusive) reasons for this weak relation. First, it may be simply due to noise of one sort or another; that is, it may come about because of both within- and between-subjects statistical variations that are partially uncorrelated for confidence measures on the one hand and accuracy measures on the other. Second, confidence and accuracy may be uncorrelated because they are based, at least in part, on different memory representations that are affected in different ways by different independent variables. We propose a general theory that is designed to encompass both of these possibilities and, within the context of this theory, we evaluate effects of four variables—degree of rehearsal, study duration, study luminance, and test luminance—in three face recognition experiments. In conjunction with our theory, the results allow us to begin to identify the circumstances under which confidence and accuracy are based on the same versus different sources of information in memory. The results demonstrate the conditions under which subjects are quite poor at monitoring their memory performance, and are used to extend cue utilization theories to the domain of face recognition.     

A Psychoanalytic Contribution to Psychic Vampirism: A Case Vignette

The American Journal of Psychoanalysis -     

Oral and written discourse in adolescents with closed head injury

Analysis of oral and written discourse suggested differing cognitive demands for modes of expression. Verbal samples were provided by 8 adolescents with closed head injury (CHI) and 8 controls. A generation task using a picture stimulus was the basis for discourse. Eight measures [productivity, efficiency, semantic ties (lexical, incomplete, elliptical), maze use, coherence (global, local)] were utilized. A covariate model consisting of group membership (CHI vs control), executive functioning and working memory helps to explain variance in the discourse skills of adolescents with CHI.     

Form and movement in stereokinetic cycloids: motion lost and found

In exploring stereokinesis, we devised flat cycloidal display figures which, when rotated on a disc in the frontal plane, are perceived as illusory three-dimensional forms with movement in depth; the dominant percepts were of twisted loops with an internal writhing motion. These dominant forms could be convincingly represented by stereo pairs derived from the flat display; related forms, not seen in the illusion, could also be constructed, seeming to show a selectivity for preferred stereokinetic forms by the perceptual system. Models were made of the stereo forms; when rotated, they showed similar illusions and selectivity. We suggest that the illusions arise because some components of the real motion do not appear in the sensory field. The perceptual system accommodates for this by constructing percepts which are not necessarily veridical but do reconcile form and motion into a coherent unity. The results are discussed in relation to concepts of invariance and rigidity, and with regard to the creative response to sensory data by the perceptual system.