Electrophysiologic Manifestations of Impaired Temporal Lobe Auditory Processing in Verbal Auditory Agnosia

The present study examined the extent to which verbal auditory agnosia (VAA) is primarily a phonemic decoding disorder, as contrasted to a more global defect in acoustic processing. Subjects were six young adults who presented with VAA in childhood and who, at the time of testing, showed varying degrees of residual auditory discrimination impairment. They were compared to a group of young adults with normal language development matched for age and gender. Cortical event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded to tones and to consonant-vowel stimuli presented in an "oddball" discrimination paradigm. In addition to cortical ERPs, auditory brainstem responses (ABRs) and middle latency responses (MLRs) were recorded. Cognitive and language assessments were obtained for the VAA subjects. ABRs and MLRs were normal. In comparison with the control group, the cortical ERPs of the VAA subjects showed a delay in the N1 component recorded over lateral temporal cortex both to tones and to speech sounds, despite an N1 of normal latency overlying the frontocentral region of the scalp. These electrophysiologic findings indicate a slowing of processing of both speech and nonspeech auditory stimuli and suggest that the locus of this abnormality is within the secondary auditory cortex in the lateral surface of the temporal lobes.     

Concurrent measurement of heart rate and instrumental avoidance behavior in the Rhesus monkey

A graphical method has been developed for the concurrent recording of heart beats and lever responses during behavioral experiments. The EKG signal fed into any DC amplifier goes to a fixed level trigger circuit and relay driver with its own power supply. The signal from this drives any standard cumulative recorder. Lever response rates are recorded concurrently on an additional cumulative recorder using the same paper speed.     

Choice with uncertain outcomes: conditioned reinforcement effects.

Pigeons responded on concurrent chains with equal initial- and terminal-link durations. In all conditions, the terminal links of one chain ended reliably in reinforcement; the terminal links on the alternative chain ended in either food or blackout. In Experiment 1, the terminal-link stimuli were correlated with (signaled) the outcome, and the durations of the initial and terminal links were varied across conditions. Preference did not vary systematically across conditions. In Experiment 2, terminal-link durations were varied under different stimulus conditions. The initial links were variable-interval 80-s schedules. Preference for the reliable alternative was generally higher in unsignaled than in signaled conditions. Preference increased with terminal-link durations only in the unsignaled conditions. There were no consistent differences between conditions with and without a common signal for reinforcement on the two chains. In the first series of conditions in Experiment 3, a single response was required in the initial links, and the stimulus conditions during 50-s terminal links were varied. Preference for the reliable outcome approached 1.0 in unsignaled conditions and was considerably lower (below .50 for 3 of 5 subjects) in signaled conditions. In a final series of signaled conditions with relatively long terminal links, preference varied with duration of the initial links. The results extend previous findings and are discussed in terms of the delay reduction signaled by terminal-link stimuli.     

Black Children's Adaptive Functioning and Maladaptive Behavior Associated With Quality of Family Support

The authors investigated differences in low-income Black children's adaptive functioning and maladaptive behavior in association with their father-figures' presence or absence, grade level, gender, and quality of family support as perceived by the children's caregivers.     

Psychometric evaluation of the Geriatric Depression Scale and the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale using an elderly community sample

In this study the psychometric properties of the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) and the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS) were evaluated and compared, using a relatively large elderly community sample. The GDS generally performed well, replicating earlier findings from a different population. Also, as hypothesized, the SDS, which has a multiple-choice format, had a higher non-completion rate than the GDS, which has a true-false format. Finally, no significant differences between the responses of young-old and old-old subjects were observed.     

Repetition and Reconfiguration: Demand‐Based Confabulation in Initial Eyewitness Memory

Repeated recall, as a result of repeated questioning, is typical of situations involving eyewitness evidence. The present study addressed questions of eyewitness performance with reference to repeated questioning in an initial interview, in a format based on actual police procedures. This experiment focused on eyewitness accuracy, eyewitness confidence, and the addition of false details to eyewitness accounts. Ninety‐two adult respondents were asked to recall all the information they could from a single viewing of a scene depicting an assailant aiming a handgun at a victim. This initial question was followed by three additional questions, in which respondents were asked to report any additional details they could recall. On average, respondents provided several times as many correct as false details to the initial question. However, performance deteriorated significantly to the three subsequent questions; on average, across the three subsequent questions, witnesses recalled nearly as much false as accurate information. Witness confidence was positively related to amount of accurate information recalled. However, confidence was also positively related to the number of instances of erroneous recall. These results indicate that reconfigurative dynamics begin to operate, producing confabulated responses in response to questioning demands, as early as the initial interview. This work may also help to clarify the critical relationship between accuracy and confidence in eyewitness reportage, at least within the framework reflected by the present research. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.