Interparent agreement on the Personality Inventory for Children: Are substantial correlations sufficient?

Mothers' and fathers' responses on the Personality Inventory for Children (PIC) were compared for 360 clinic-referred children and adolescents. Interparent agreement was measured by several different indices. Correlations between parental pairs of scale T-scores derived from each parent averaged .66 for 13 of the profile scales; 9 of the scales exceeded this value. In contrast, mothers and fathers agreed in the classification of the presence of clinical significance an average of 77% of the time across these 13 scales, and pairs of parental PIC profiles contained an average of 3 scales in disagreement. The type of index used to measure interparent agreement was found to affect the results. The discussion examines the nature of interparent disagreement and addresses the implications regarding the use of fathers as informants on this instrument.This article is based on Thomas A. Hulbert's master's thesis. The authors extend their appreciation to James Orisell and Dena Mussaff for their assistance in data preparation and analysis.     

Decision processes in visual discrimination of line orientation

The contribution of decision factors to the meridional variations in line orientation discrimination was determined for two-alternative forced-choice experimental designs. Using Johnson's (1980) formalization of decision processes in discrimination tasks, we identified three decision factors: the decision rule, memory variance, and criterial noise. In a first experiment, we showed the effect of experimental design on orientation discrimination to be similar at horizontal and oblique standard orientations, indicating that the meridional variations in orientation discrimination were not due to a decision rule anisotropy. In a second experiment, the effect of the interstimulus interval was also found to be similar at both standard orientations, suggesting that the memory variance is isotropic in the orientation domain. The results of two other experiments supported the hypothesis that the meridional variations in orientation discrimination are not due to a criterial noise anisotropy. These different results strongly suggested that the oblique effect in line orientation discrimination is due to sensorial factors rather than to decision factors. Therefore, they further support the hypothesis linking the anisotropy of the preferred orientation distribution of Area 17-S cells (a single physiologically defined class of cells in the primary visual cortex) and the meridional variations in line orientation discrimination.     

Intermittent versus continuous visual control: a reply to Elliott

Recently, Elliott (1986) has reported data that he claims are inconsistent with my hypothesis that a short-term motor memory system exists for guiding locomotion and other actions in space (Thomson, 1983). In fact, methodological flaws in Elliott's design make such conclusions unjustified and inappropriate. Moreover, insofar as comparisons can be made at all, the results are completely consistent with my own data.     

Disruption of reference in aging

A homogeneous sample of normal adults living in a religious order in a study of age effects on reference as a cohesive device in discourse production and comprehension. Narrative and procedural discourse were examined across various levels of complexity and stimulus/response requirements. Results indicate that significant ambiguity of reference emerges in the younger elderly group (age 64-76) in comparison to the middle-aged group (age 27 to 55), and increases markedly in the older elderly group (age 77-92). Related impairments of comprehension and cognition were also observed. These findings are interpreted to be general features of linguistic variation with advancing age. Communicative consequences of ambiguous reference are discussed.     

Memory storage and retrieval processes in category learning

The detailed course of learning is studied for categorization tasks defined by independent or contingent probability distributions over the features of category exemplars. College-age subjects viewed sequences of bar charts that simulated symptom patterns and responded to each chart with a recognition and a categorization judgment. Fuzzy, probabilistically defined categories were learned relatively rapidly when individual features were correlated with category assignment, more slowly when only patterns carried category information. Limits of performance were suboptimal, evidently because of capacity limitations on judgmental processes as well as limitations on memory. Categorization proved systematically related to feature and exemplar probabilities, under different circumstances, and to similarity among exemplars of categories. Unique retrieval cues for exemplar patterns facilitated recognition but entered into categorization only at retention intervals within the range of short-term memory. The findings are interpreted within the framework of a general array model that yields both exemplar-similarity and feature-frequency models as special cases and provides quantitative accounts of the course of learning in each of the categorization tasks studied.     

On the Dialectics of Liberation Theology

In this article the author argues that no coherent theology of liberation is possible if that theory's rational grounding of historical analysis is based on the dialectics of scientific socialism. After a brief outline of the affinities between the Marxist and Christian salvation histories, the author discusses the scientific status of the dialectical laws, highlights the role that dialectics play in the theology of liberation developed by Gustavo Gutierrez (1973), and reflects on the future development of liberation theology.     

Disturbances in exploratory behavior and functional recovery in the Y and radial mazes following dopamine depletion of the lateral septum

The effects of 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) injected into the lateral septum in rats were investigated for spontaneous alternation behavior in a Y maze and for spatially oriented behavior in an 8-arm radial maze. The performance of the animals in these tests was assessed under two physiological states, food-satiated and food-deprived. The selective depletion of septal dopaminergic concentrations leads to behavioral disturbances in both the Y and the radial mazes. These deficits disappeared when the animals with 6-OHDA lesions were food-deprived. These results confirm other studies from our laboratory and support two conclusions. First, lesions of dopaminergic neurons lead to behavioral impairments which resemble those found after the total lesion of the structure they innervate. Second, these behavioral impairments are responsive to therapeutic treatments, manipulations of the internal or external environment, or the level of arousal, since under certain conditions a recovery of function can occur in the absence of dopaminergic neurons. These two points provide additional support for a nonspecific role for the dopaminergic neurons originating in the ventral tegmental area. These neurons could have a permissive role in the functioning of the forebrain structures they innervate.