Context-processing deficits in schizophrenia: diagnostic specificity, 4-week course,and relationships to clinical symptoms

Previous research on schizophrenia suggests that context-processing disturbances are one of the core cognitive deficits present in schizophia. However, it is not clear whether such deficits are specific to schizophrenia as compared with other psychotic disorders. To address this question, the authors administered a version of the AX Continuous Performance Test designed to assess context processing in a sample of healthy controls, patients with schizophrenia, and patients with other psychotic disorders. Participants were tested at index (when medication naive and experiencing their first contact with psychiatric services) and 4 weeks later, following medication treatment. At index, patients with schizophrenia and the psychotic comparison group demonstrated similar impairments in context processing. However, context-processing deficits improved in the psychotic comparison group at 4 weeks but did not improve in patients with schizophrenia.     

Do age of onset and course of illness define biologically distinct groups within atypical depression?

Illness course separates patients with atypical depression into tricyclic responders and nonresponders as does perceptual asymmetry. The authors therefore investigated whether the course-of-illness parameters would define groups within atypical depression differing in brain laterality. Patients with atypical depression were assessed for illness course and brain laterality. Two patient groups were defined, 1 with onset prior to age 20 plus a very chronic course, and a 2nd group having later onset or less chronic illness. Patients reporting early onset of very chronic dysphoria showed significantly less right-ear (left-hemisphere) accuracy and also differed in characteristic perceptual asymmetry when compared to patients with later onset or less chronicity. Course of illness may usefully define more homogeneous depressive subgroups within atypical depression.     

The family experience of "sudden health": the case of intractable epilepsy

This article reports the experience of "sudden health" among six families who participated in an exploratory qualitative study of families with a member who elects to have corrective surgery for intractable epilepsy. Families were interviewed pre- and post-surgery (6-8 months) and the interviews were analyzed using a constant comparative methodology. Findings indicated that (1) families were organized in two primary ways (nesting and crisis) to deal with epilepsy and the aftermath of surgery and (2) "sudden health" had differing effects on these families depending on their organizational style, emotional communication process, and developmental dynamics.     

Testing mediational models with longitudinal data: questions and tips in the use of structural equation modeling

R. M. Baron and D. A. Kenny (1986; see record 1987-13085-001) provided clarion conceptual and methodological guidelines for testing mediational models with cross-sectional data. Graduating from cross-sectional to longitudinal designs enables researchers to make more rigorous inferences about the causal relations implied by such models. In this transition, misconceptions and erroneous assumptions are the norm. First, we describe some of the questions that arise (and misconceptions that sometimes emerge) in longitudinal tests of mediational models. We also provide a collection of tips for structural equation modeling (SEM) of mediational processes. Finally, we suggest a series of 5 steps when using SEM to test mediational processes in longitudinal designs: testing the measurement model, testing for added components, testing for omitted paths, testing the stationarity assumption, and estimating the mediational effects.     

Picture interpretation and Jungian typology

This study examined a Jungian picture interpretation schema, which utilizes a specific quadrant method. This proposed schema, which is used in training at the C. G. Jung Institute in Zürich, attaches significance to specific areas of a drawing. The upper left of a drawing is associated with the father; the lower left with the unconscious; the lower right with the mother; and the upper right with the future. Three questions served as the foci of this study: Is the schema valid? Do certain types within Jung's personality theory respond better than others to the schema? Does the schema work best when it elicits a strong affective response from the person who created the picture? Subjects took one of two tests: a space domain test, or a colour associative test. The results revealed only two significant effects: a positive association (in the space domain test) between unconscious material with the unconscious quadrant and a negative association (in the colour associative test) of mother material with the mother quadrant. These results suggest that the Jungian quadrant schema used to interpret drawings is invalid and of minimal practical utility. Other methods of picture interpretation are discussed as well as suggestions for future research that would be helpful to this field.     

Investigating the influence of organizational role on perceptions of risk in deep coal mines

The authors replicated O. Ostberg's (1980) study of forestry workers using a range of personnel groups in coal mines. Findings demonstrate a high level of consensus between a range of personnel groups for a set of pictorially depicted behavioral risks, at the level of rank order, but significant differences in terms of relative magnitudes. Magnitudes of perceived risk were found to be greater for those closest to the point of hazard than for members of more geographically and experientially distal groups. Findings are interpreted with reference to experiential influences associated with organizational role. Revealed differences between personnel groups are explained in terms of cognitive availability, specifically effects associated with habituation and familiarity with risk, these sources of perceptual bias appearing to interact with organizational role.     

Comparisons of three different investigative interview techniques with young children

After viewing a film of a mother hitting her son, a film not seen by the college student interviewers, children were misinformed about a detail (via exposure to a misleading question) as well as explicitly coached to disclose 3 false details. The children were then interviewed by interviewers who had previously learned 1 of 3 different interviewing procedures: the Yuille Step-Wise Interview developed by J. C. Yuille, R. Hunter, R. Joffe, & J. Zapamiuk (1993); a doll play interview developed by Action for Child Protection Inc. (1994); or the Modified Structured Interview developed for this study. The Modified Structured Interview yielded more "where" information and was better at detecting if coaching had occurred. However, the interviewers were not very good at discriminating suggested versus coached versus correct witnessed information. The authors found that the deeper one digs for memories, the more one uncovers incorrect versus correct items. They concluded that although the Modified Structured Interview was superior to the techniques currently in use, cautions are necessary.     

Maternal correlates of toddler insecure and dependent behavior

The present study was designed to examine the relationship between characteristics of mothers and their toddler's insecure and dependent behavior. The authors studied 254 2-year-old toddlers and their mothers via a structured questionnaire administered to the mothers in their homes. The extent to which insecure and dependent behavior is related to the domains of maternal child rearing, maternal personality traits, parental marital relations, and maternal drug use was assessed. Using Pearson correlations and hierarchical multiple regression analyses, the authors found that the maternal child-rearing and maternal personality domains have a direct effect on the toddlers' insecure and dependent behavior. The maternal child-rearing domain also served as a mediator for the domains of the maternal personality attributes, parents' marital relations, and maternal drug use. There also was evidence suggesting an indirect effect of maternal personality attributes on the toddlers' insecure and dependent behavior, which is mediated by the domain of maternal child-rearing practices. Implications for the prevention of insecure and dependent behavior in toddlers are discussed.     

Event-related potential and behavioral measures of attention in 5-, 7-, and 9-year-olds

In 2 experiments, the development of auditory selective attention in children was assessed. The participants, aged 5, 7, and 9 years, responded to target stimuli in the left ear for 1 series (ignoring the standard stimuli) and in the right ear for the other series. In Experiment 1, event-related potentials (ERPs) evoked by the auditory stimuli were recorded from frontal, central, and parietal sites. The 9-year-olds showed a greater processing negativity (Nd) to the attended channel compared with the 5-year-olds. Both 7- and 9-year-olds showed significantly larger amplitudes for the P3 component of ERPs in the attended vs. ignored condition. Behaviorally, the 5-year-olds made fewer hits and more false alarms than did older children, and the 9-year-olds made significantly more false alarms than did the 7-year-olds. The results of Experiment 2 showed that the detriment in the performance of the 9-year-olds was a result of task parameters. The inability of 5-year-olds to attend selectively appears to involve problems with the inhibition of the processing of irrelevant information and with selection of the correct response.     

Rigidity in children's drawings and its relation with representational change

Four studies tested the application of to the drawing domain. In particular, we tested her claim that young children are inhibited in their attempts at changing their graphic representations (representational change) due to being constrained by the order in which the elements of the representation are drawn (procedural rigidity). The first study required 60 children (4- to 6-year-olds and an older comparison group of 8-year-olds) to make three drawings of a familiar and novel topic. From these drawings each child was measured for procedural rigidity. In a further drawing the child was asked to modify their usual representation of each topic. Regression analyses revealed procedural rigidity levels were not predictive of manipulation performance. A second study, testing 75 4- to 6-year-olds and a third study, testing 30 3- to 4-year-olds, revealed that when young children were specifically asked to manipulate rigid sub-procedures on a familiar topic they were indeed able to do so. Finally, a fourth study (testing 40 5-year-olds and 40 8-year-olds) removed the notational trace in drawing (a possible aid for procedural interruption) but this still produced no evidence of a relation between procedural rigidity and representational change. We suggest how the concept of procedural rigidity might be re-interpreted for the drawing domain so that the RR model can remain as a domain-general theory of cognitive development. We also suggest the development of information processing may be crucial for flexibility in drawing.