Verbal Memory Abilities of Children With Brain Tumors

Several critical neuroanatomical structures and pathways for memory performance are located in the third ventricle region. This led us to predict that verbal memory abilities would be more impaired in children treated for third ventricle tumors compared to those treated for cerebellar tumors. Archival data was obtained from 24 pediatric patients with third ventricle region tumors and 18 pediatric patients with cerebellar tumors. Neuroradiological verifications of tumor involvement and hydrocephalus severity (i.e., Evans Index) on preoperative scans and MRIs proximal to the time of the neuropsychological evaluation were conducted. The potential confounds of hydrocephalus severity, seizure medication, age, radiation treatment, and chemotherapy were addressed. Verbal IQ was comparable between tumor groups and in the Average range. The third ventricle region group performed significantly worse on list learning and delayed list recall compared to the cerebellar group. Their mean performance was in the clinically impaired range on both trials. The third ventricle region tumor group performed better than the cerebellar tumor group on Digit Span, a basic repetition, attention span task. These findings support the hypothesis that pediatric patients with third ventricle region brain tumors are more likely to be impaired on verbal recall tasks compared to pediatric patients with cerebellar brain tumors. In contrast, patients who were treated for cerebellar tumors were more impaired on the basic repetition, attention span task compared to patients who were treated for third ventricle tumors. Future studies should examine the specific neuroanatomical structures and pathways that are damaged and may influence differential cognitive impairments in children.     

Dimension-specific attention directs learning and listening on auditory training tasks

The relative contributions of bottom-up versus top-down sensory inputs to auditory learning are not well established. In our experiment, listeners were instructed to perform either a frequency discrimination (FD) task ("FD-train group") or an intensity discrimination (ID) task ("ID-train group") during training on a set of physically identical tones that were impossible to discriminate consistently above chance, allowing us to vary top-down attention whilst keeping bottom-up inputs fixed. A third, control group did not receive any training. Only the FD-train group improved on a FD probe following training, whereas all groups improved on ID following training. However, only the ID-train group also showed changes in performance accuracy as a function of interval with training on the ID task. These findings suggest that top-down, dimension-specific attention can direct auditory learning, even when this learning is not reflected in conventional performance measures of threshold change.     

Assessment of repeated relational patterns for individual cases using the SASB-based Intrex questionnaire

Repeated interpersonal patterns are central to case conceptualization and treatment planning in interpersonal and attachment-based approaches to therapy. In this study, raters (133 college students, 165 inpatients) provided data on the Intrex questionnaire (Benjamin, 2000) about self-treatment, relationship with a significant other, and remembered interactions with parents in childhood. Within-subject profiles were inspected for precise behavioral matches conforming to 3 "copy process" (CP) patterns: identification (behaving like an important other), recapitulation (behaving as if the other person is still present and in charge), and introjection (treating the self the way another did). We observed CP evidence in most individual ratings. Consistent with expectation, nonclinical raters tended to copy a securely attached pattern of affiliation, low hostility, and moderate degrees of enmeshment and differentiation. Only patients copied maladaptive behavior at greater than base rate expectation. We discuss implications and provide recommendations for use of Intrex in individual assessment of CP.     

Individual-oriented and socially oriented cultural conceptions of subjective well-being: Conceptual analysis and scale development

Adopting a 'cross-cultural indigenous approach' (CCI), we attempted a conceptual analysis of cultural conceptions of SWB in terms of individual-oriented SWB (ISWB) and socially oriented SWB (SSWB) views. Also incorporating findings from our previous qualitative studies, a culturally balanced and fair measurement, The Individual-oriented and Socially oriented cultural conceptions of SWB Scales (ISSWB) was developed and evaluated in two studies involving Chinese and American participants. The 51-item version of the new measure showed good internal consistency reliability, test–retest reliability, convergent and discriminant validity. Further analysis showed that the Chinese possessed stronger SSWB than the Americans, while the Americans possessed stronger ISWB than the Chinese. There were also intracultural differences among the Chinese people. Overall, the studies showed the utility of ISSWB scales for future studies.     

The experience of counselling for female clients with anorexia nervosa: A person‐centred perspective

Anorexia nervosa is a serious and potentially life‐threatening condition, which has been studied from a range of theoretical perspectives. However, the relevance of person‐centred theory and practice in relation to anorexia nervosa has not previously been explored in the literature. The purpose of this study was to understand the experiences of clients who had received counselling for anorexia nervosa, and to set these experiences against the backdrop of person‐centred theory. The study is based on intensive heuristic analysis of interviews with five clients who had completed counselling for anorexia nervosa within the previous three months. Collaboration between the researcher and the participants led to an identification of two of the six ‘core’ conditions identified by Rogers as being of real importance to clients with anorexia: unconditional positive regard and congruence. The context in which counselling is offered was also of crucial significance to these clients. Implications for practice are discussed.     

The impact of periventricular brain injury on reading and spelling abilities in the late elementary and adolescent years.

The present study was designed: (1) to investigate the long-term consequences of both the presence and the severity of periventricular brain injury (PVBI) on intellectual, academic, and cognitive outcome in extremely-low-birthweight (ELBW: < 1,000 grams) children at a mean age of 11 years; and (2) to determine the nature of the underlying difficulties associated with academic problems in these children. The results indicated that ELBW children without PVBI performed as well as full-term children on intelligence, academic, and cognitive ability tests. In contrast, ELBW children with mild and severe PVBI achieved significantly lower scores than either ELBW children without PVBI or children who were born at term. A second analysis indicated that, after accounting for Full Scale IQ, working memory and phonological processing were significant predictors of reading and spelling performance in ELBW children. These findings suggest that the presence and severity of PVBI, and not ELBW status alone, is associated with performance on tests of intelligence, and academic and cognitive functioning, and that some of the same factors known to be associated with learning disabilities in full-term children contribute to learning disabilities in ELBW children.     

The representation of ontological category concepts as affected by healthy aging: normative data and theoretical implications

Attributes associated with concept representations, such as familiarity, typicality, and age of acquisition, have been shown to be important influences on lexical-semantic processing. In most previous studies of healthy and pathological aging, these attributes are not equated for younger and older adults separately on the stimuli used. In this study, normative data were collected to test whether there exist any age differences in these attributes. The results demonstrate that the ratings given by younger and older adults on natural and manmade category items correlated positively. However, age differences were also apparent, whereby older adults provided higher ratings overall than younger adults. Suggestions and hypotheses are presented to explain this pattern of age differences, which relate to how category concepts may be represented by healthy younger and older adults. Also, the possible implications for these differential age ratings on lexical-semantic processing are discussed. The age differences apparent in this study demonstrate the need to consider age-appropriate normative ratings in the selection of stimuli for use in lexical-semantic processing studies of aging, and the normative data presented provide a means of equating category stimuli. The complete list of all the means is available at www.psychonomic.org/archive.     

Narcissism and childhood recollections: a quantitative test of psychoanalytic predictions

Different psychotherapeutic theories provide contradictory accounts of adult narcissism as the product of either parental coldness or excessive parental admiration during childhood. Yet, none of these theories has been tested systematically in a nonclinical sample. The authors compared four structural equation models predicting overt and covert narcissism among 120 United Kingdom adults. Both forms of narcissism were predicted by both recollections of parental coldness and recollections of excessive parental admiration. Moreover, a suppression relationship was detected between these predictors: The effects of each were stronger when modeled together than separately. These effects were found after controlling for working models of attachment; covert narcissism was predicted also by attachment anxiety. This combination of childhood experiences may help to explain the paradoxical combination of grandiosity and fragility in adult narcissism.