A spreading-activation theory of lemma retrieval in speaking.

This paper presents a spreading-activation theory of conceptually driven lemma retrieval--the first stage of lexical access in speaking, where lexical items specified with respect to meaning and syntactic properties are activated and selected. The mental lexicon is conceived of as a network consisting of concept, lemma, and word-form nodes and labelled links, with each lexical concept represented as an independent node. A lemma is retrieved by enhancing the activation level of the node representing the to-be-verbalized concept. This activation then spreads towards the lemma level, and the highest activated lemma node is selected. The theory resolves questions such as the hypernym problem (Levelt, 1989). Furthermore, a computer model that implements the theory is shown to be able to account for many basic findings on the time course of object naming, object categorization, and word categorization in the picture-word interference paradigm. In addition, non-trivial predictions regarding the time course of semantic facilitation for hypernyms, hyponyms, and cohyponyms are experimentally tested, and shown to be valid.     

No counterregulation after breaking the external restraint of children.

At the present, it is unknown how restraint and binge eating/counterregulation are exactly related. Earlier studies on this relationship suffer from two main shortcomings: the studies are all correlational in nature or could not rule out the contribution of confounding variables such as weight loss. The present study investigated whether a break of restraint is a sufficient condition for the occurrence of counterregulation by studying a restrained sample which is not liable to dieting practices and weight loss. The externally imposed restraint on children with regard to eating sweets was broken. However, after breaking their external restraint the children did not counterregulate. It is discussed whether restraint of food intake is really as important for binge eating as it is claimed to be or whether it is merely a consequence or an epiphenomenon of binge eating.     

Efficient pain assessment in clinical settings.

The need for efficient and practical assessment techniques of the multidimensional nature of chronic pain remains paramount in clinical settings. Visual analogue scales (VASs) and simple behavioral observation methods have been proposed as efficient, reliable, and valid measures of the subjective (sensory and affective) and overt behavioral aspects of the pain experience. The relationships among VASs and the UAB Pain Behavior Scale were examined among 48 chronic pain patients. Ratings of overt behavior were significantly related to both the VAS sensory and VAS affective ratings. Regression analysis indicated that the VAS scores accounted for significant amount of the variance (27.7%) in UAB scores. Moreover, the affective dimension of self-reported pain tended to be more strongly related to the visible manifestations of pain than were ratings of pain intensity.     

Art alone endures.

Sigmund Freud, a passionate collector of antiquities, often treated these objects as animate beings. He described such blurring of boundaries between persons and things in the protagonist of W. Jensen's novella, Gradiva. Freud began collecting when his father died, but his unusual attitude toward artefacts was established much earlier, presumably as a consequence of repeated early disappointments in human caretakers. It is postulated that this adaptive maneuver was not simply a displacement of love and hate, but a turning away from vulnerability in relationships, toward attachments over which he might retain effective control. The Freud Collection is largely focused on Greco-Roman and Egyptian objects. Freud's profound interest in classical civilization was established in childhood; he was particularly concerned with the struggle between Aryan Rome and Semitic Carthage, a conflict in which he identified with both sides. This ambivalence reflected growing up within a marginal Jewish family in a Germanic environment. Commitment to classical ideals represented an optimal manner of bridging these contrasting worlds. Egyptian artefacts were, for Freud, links to the prehistory of the Jewish people; they also represent an era when maternal deities found their proper place in man's pantheon--an echo of Freud's prehistoric past.     

The debt of neuropsychology to the epilepsies.

Both neuropsychology and psychology in general have been enhanced markedly by brain-behavior models derived from the study of the epilepsies. A significant body of neuropsychological concepts originated or were confirmed through epilepsy-based treatment and research. These concepts include the peri-Rolandic homunculus, the role of the hippocampal-temporal lobe complex in cognitive memory, hemisphere plasticity for speech in childhood, the intracarotid amytal procedure for determining hemisphere memory patency, and hemisphere-based models of cognition confirmed through human commissurotomy. Personality and social-emotional research in epilepsy are additional areas in which new conceptual models grounded in psychological science can both repay our debt to the epilepsies and provide much needed psychological research and treatment.     

Psychological factors in abortion. A review.

Psychological research is increasingly involved in debates regarding abortion. While recognizing the diversity of ethical and moral issues intertwined with abortion, the American Psychological Association (APA) has focused its involvement on psychological factors, most recently by appointing an expert panel to review the literature on psychological effects. This article notes the history of APA involvement and reports on the panel's conclusions. It presents evidence that abortion is not likely to be followed by severe psychological responses and that psychological aspects can best be understood within a framework of normal stress and coping rather than a model of psychopathology. Correlates of more negative responses following abortion are also discussed.     

Are insomniacs sleepy during the day? A pupillometric assessment.

A biodevelopmental model of insomnia is articulated specifying coordinated nighttime (disturbed sleep pattern) and daytime (no excessive daytime sleepiness) characteristics defining an insomnoid classification in at-risk groups: short sleepers and older adults. Pupillometry is proposed as a useful means of discriminating degree of daytime sleepiness to aid in the differential diagnosis of insomnia and insomnoid states, and the present study tested the discriminative validity of this approach. Noninsomniac (n = 34) and insomniac (n = 29) college students submitted to four 10 min pupillometry sessions tracking daytime sleepiness from morning arising to bedtime. Pupil diameter proved to be an able discriminator of these two groups though substantial overlap of the two distributions was also noted. The results supported the sensitivity of pupillometry in detecting daytime sleepiness, but yielded alternative interpretations. We observed statistical differentiation in insomniac and noninsomniac daytime sleepiness, but substantial, functional overlap between these groups. Assessment and treatment implications arising from the biodevelopmental model were hypothesized.     

Cue-exposure vs self-control in the treatment of binge eating: a pilot study.

From a recent theory on the learned nature of craving responses and binge eating, it follows that craving will extinguish when the CS-US bond is broken by prolonged exposure to the cues predicting excessive food intake with response prevention. The present authors treated six obese bulimics with cue exposure and response prevention. Six other patients learned to avoid or escape the binge-related cues with the aid of self control techniques. Although both treatments appeared to be effective in reducing the binge frequency, a most remarkable finding of the present study is that all patients treated by cue exposure were abstinent, directly after treatment and during the 1 yr follow-up. In contrast to the 100% binge-free subjects treated by cue exposure, self control techniques and relapse prevention led to abstinence in merely 33% of the subjects.     

Reaction time to threat stimuli in panic disorder and social phobia

Two studies assessed response time among clinically anxious subjects and normal controls when presented with threat, positive and neutral stimuli under perceptual (lexical decision) and semantic (category decision) task conditions. In Study 1, panic disorder subjects' (n = 14) performance was compared to that of matched normal controls (n = 14) while in Study 2 social phobic subjects (n = 24) were compared to matched normal controls (n = 24). Relative to matched normal controls, panic disorder subjects but not social phobics tended to show greater slowing in performance on the more cognitively complex (category) task. A second finding, consistent across both studies was that, compared to the normal control groups, both panic and social phobic groups showed significantly slowed responses to threat words in both the perceptual and semantic tasks. Such findings are directly counter to the predictions of a mood congruence hypothesis. This apparent contradiction is resolved by a review of the literature which indicates that mood-related facilitation effects are obtained only in tasks which tap awareness of threat information rather than speed of response. It is suggested that while anxiety may produce enhanced awareness of threat, it may inhibit responsiveness to it. The results of these studies are seen as consistent with ethological theories of inhibited motoric responses under certain threat conditions. Furthermore, the findings suggest that caution is indicated in interpreting slowed reaction time to threat stimuli in tasks such as the Stroop color naming task as purely the result of attentional processes.