Reduced or increased influence of non-pertinent information in patients with schizophrenia?

We tested the ability of 18 patients with schizophrenia and 18 matched controls to filter non-pertinent information in orientation matching tasks. The non-pertinent information consisted of pictures conveying semantic information. The pertinent information consisted of oriented line-segments drawn inside pictures or was represented by the overall orientation of the picture itself. The results showed that non-pertinent information interfered with performance of control subjects in all tasks. In contrast, non-pertinent information interfered with the performance of patients with schizophrenia to the same extent as that of matched controls only when non-pertinent and pertinent information was physically mingled, but not when they were separated. Yet, patients processed non-pertinent information in all experiments, as shown by reversed interference effects when non-pertinent and pertinent information was physically separated. These results suggest a deficit at linking physically distinct visual information in patients with schizophrenia. Additionally, performance was more impaired in patients with schizophrenia than in control subjects when the amount of displayed information increased. The results suggest the coexistence, and a possible relationship between attentional deficits and impairments at linking distinct visual information in patients with schizophrenia.     

Is the acquisition of basic-colour terms in young children constrained?

We investigated whether the learning of colour terms in childhood is constrained by a developmental order of acquisition as predicted by Berlin and Kay [1969 Basic Color Terms (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press)]. Forty-three children, aged between 2 and 5 years and grouped according to language ability, were given two tasks testing colour conceptualisation. Colour comprehension was assessed in a spoken-word-to-colour-matching task in which a target colour was presented in conjunction with two distractor colours. Colour naming was measured in an explicit naming task in which colours were presented individually for oral naming. Results showed that children's knowledge of basic-colour terms varied across tasks and language age, providing little support for a systematic developmental order. In addition, we found only limited support for an advantage for the conceptualisation of primary (red, green, blue, yellow, black, white) compared to non-primary colour terms across tasks and language age. Instead, our data suggest that children acquire reliable knowledge of nine basic colours within a 3-month period (35.6 to 39.5 months) after which there is a considerable lag of up to 9 months before accurate knowledge of the final two colours (brown and grey) is acquired. We propose that children acquire colour term knowledge in two distinct time frames that reflect the establishment of, first, the exterior (yellow, blue, black, green, white, pink, orange, red, and purple) and, second, the interior structure (brown and grey) of conceptual colour space. These results fail to provide significant support for the order predicted by Berlin and Kay, and suggest, instead, that the development of colour term knowledge is largely unconstrained.     

The role of reinforcement contingencies in chronic alcoholism: An experimental analysis of one case

investigators have questioned chronic alcoholics and round that some of them have returned to normal social drinking (Davies, 1962; Lemere, 1953; Nørvig and Nielsen, 1956; Selzer and Holloway. 1957; and Shea, 1954). These findings would seem inconsistent with such notions as loss of control or craving as the basis of compulsive drinking. Moreover, antecedents and consequences of these explanatory constructs, have not been elucidated. The purpose of this research was to make an intensive study of a single subject to see if specific conditions could be identified under which a chronic alcoholic's drinking could be controlled, in a setting in which environmental variables could be systematically varied and drinking behavior documented.     

Reducing playground bullying and supporting beliefs: an experimental trial of the steps to respect program

Six schools were randomly assigned to a multilevel bullying intervention or a control condition. Children in Grades 3-6 (N=1,023) completed pre- and posttest surveys of behaviors and beliefs and were rated by teachers. Observers coded playground behavior of a random subsample (n=544). Hierarchical analyses of changes in playground behavior revealed declines in bullying and argumentative behavior among intervention-group children relative to control-group children, increases in agreeable interactions, and a trend toward reduced destructive bystander behavior. Those in the intervention group reported enhanced bystander responsibility, greater perceived adult responsiveness, and less acceptance of bullying/aggression than those in the control group. Self-reported aggression did not differ between the groups. Implications for future research on the development and prevention of bullying are discussed.     

Toward a more pragmatic approach to morality: a critical evaluation of Kohlberg's model

In this article, the authors evaluate L. Kohlberg's (1984) cognitive- developmental approach to morality, find it wanting, and introduce a more pragmatic approach. They review research designed to evaluate Kohlberg's model, describe how they revised the model to accommodate discrepant findings, and explain why they concluded that it is poorly equipped to account for the ways in which people make moral decisions in their everyday lives. The authors outline in 11 propositions a framework for a new approach that is more attentive to the purposes that people use morality to achieve. People make moral judgments and engage in moral behaviors to induce themselves and others to uphold systems of cooperative exchange that help them achieve their goals and advance their interests.     

Does L/M cone opponency disappear in human periphery?

We have assessed the optimal cone contrast sensitivity across eccentricity in human vision of the two cone-opponent mechanisms [L/M or red-green, and S/(L + M) or blue-yellow] and the luminance mechanism. We have used a novel stimulus, termed a 'sinring', that is a radially modulated sine-wave arc, Gaussian enveloped in both angular and radial directions. This stimulus overcomes the problem inherent in Gabor stimuli of confounding stimulus spatial frequency, size, and eccentricity and so allows contrast sensitivity to be tracked accurately into the periphery. Our results show that L/M cone opponency declines steeply across the human periphery and becomes behaviourally absent by 25-30 deg (in the nasal field). This result suggests that any L/M cone-opponent neurons found in primate peripheral retina beyond this limit are unlikely to be significant for colour contrast detection measured behaviourally.     

Self-reported personality disorder in the children in the community sample: convergent and prospective validity in late adolescence and adulthood

Approximately 800 youths from the Children in the Community Study (Cohen & Cohen, 1996) have been assessed prospectively for over 20 years to study personality disorders (PDs) in adolescents and young adults. In this article we evaluate the Children in the Community Self-Report (CIC-SR) Scales, which were designed to assess DSM-IV PDs using self-reported prospective data from this longitudinal sample. To evaluate convergent validity, we assessed concordance between the CIC-SR Scales and the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Personality Disorders (SCID-II; First, Gibbon, Spitzer, Williams, & Benjamin, 1995) in 644 participants at mean age 33. To assess predictive validity, we used CIC-SR Scales at mean age 22 to predict subsequent CIC-SR and SCID-II Personality Questionnaire scores at mean age 33. In these analyses the CIC-SR Scales matched or exceeded benchmarks established in previous comparisons between self-report instruments and structured clinical interviews. Unlike other self-report scales, the CIC-SR did not appear to overestimate diagnoses when compared with SCID-II clinical diagnoses.     

Infants' comprehension of toy replicas as symbols for real objects

Infants' understanding of toy model-real exemplar relations was assessed through preferential looking and habituation tasks. Results from the preferential looking task suggest that 18-month toddlers are just beginning to demonstrate comprehension of symbolic relations between iconic models and their real object counterparts. Performance of 10- and 14-month-old infants in the preferential looking task did not improve when across-domain pairs of videos were used in place of within-domain pairs. Habituation task results indicated that 10-month-olds do not comprehend symbolic relations between miniature toy replicas and their "real" counterparts, but that such understanding begins to emerge by age 14 months. Interactions between symbolic processing and early lexical development are considered, as are methodological implications for the study of infant categorization.     

A paradoxical dissociation in the effects of midazolam on recollection and automatic processes in the process dissociation procedure

This study used midazolam-induced amnesia to explore the plausibility of the estimates provided by the process dissociation procedure (PDP), which is designed to estimate the contributions of recollection (R) and automatic (A) processes to implicit memory performance. In a double-blind, placebo-controlled, within-subject design with 24 participants, single midazolam doses were administered intravenously, and word stem completion performance was used to calculate PDP estimates. A dissociation was observed such that midazolam decreased R but increased A estimates relative to placebo. Given that a manipulation that induces amnesia would not be expected to facilitate a memory process, these results add to the accumulating body of evidence suggesting that PDP estimates are not always theoretically plausible. Such evidence raises important questions about the use of the PDP.