Catastrophic reaction and anosognosia in anterior-posterior and left-right models of the cerebral control of emotion

Summary The anterior-posterior and left-right models of the cerebral representation of emotion produce conflicting predictions in some cases, and identical predictions in others, of the affective states which can result from brain damage. Some possible causes of confusion are discussed which focus on the possibility that there may be a range of affective disorders which follow brain damage, some of which may be better explained as indirect, natural reactions. It is also suggested that a partial cause of the confusion is the desire to group together all affective disorders into a single catastrophic reaction-anosognosia dichotomy.     

Option Choice and Careers Guidance: Gender and Computing in Secondary Schools

Gender differences in the take-up of computing subjects in secondary schools are examined. The findings are presented of a research project which included an investigation of the option schemes and careers guidance given to pupils in eight secondary schools. The findings indicate that schools tend not to take any form of positive action to encourage the take-up of computing subjects by female pupils, and that careers guidance personnel take the view that sex-stereotyped choices of optional subjects and careers are overwhelmingly determined by agencies other than schools.     

Brain damage,diagnosis, and substance abuse among violent offenders

Neuropsychological functioning, diagnoses, and substance abuse were compared among killers, nonhomicidal assaulters, and nonviolent offender controls. The Reitan and Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological test batteries, the WAIS-R, CT scans, and EEGs were examined with a trend to more neuropathology found in killers and assaulters than in controls. There were no group differences in ICD-9 diagnosis nor on the MMPI, although considerable personality pathology was noted in all groups. Violent offenders scored higher on the Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test (MAST). The violent offenders were more likely to experience alcohol and drug-related mood dysphoria. The interaction of neuropsychological, personality, and substance abuse variables is discussed.     

A new temporal illusion or the TOE once again?

Recently, Nakajima, ten Hoopen, and van der Wilk (1991) and Nakajima, ten Hoopen, Hilkhuysen, and Sasaki (1992) described what they believed to be a new illusion of auditory time perception. They reported that the perceived duration of a temporal interval was influenced by an immediately preceding or succeeding temporal interval The influence of a neighboring temporal interval on perceived duration is not a new illusion, however, but is another demonstration of the time-order error     

Early Adult Outcomes of Students at “Risk”

It is commonly assumed that students from disadvantaged backgrounds often drop out of school and that dropping out necessarily leads to low educational attainment and negative labor force outcomes. Using data from the High School and Beyond sophomore cohort from the years 1980 to 1992, this paper assesses the validity of that assumed sequence of educational and labor force outcomes. The analysis is organized around the hypothesis that it is not just dropping out of school but also later actions taken by the students who are at risk that explain their poor early adult outcomes. Comparisons are made between those with many of the specified risk characteristics and those with none of them. For both educational attainment and earnings, the later contingent actions explain more of the difference between high-risk and no-risk students than being a high school dropout does. The results show the importance of examining the role of career contingencies and taking multiple life domains into account.     

Is there a constant minimum perceptual duration?

It has been suggested in the recent literature that all stimuli briefer than a critical duration have identical perceptual durations. Relevant simultaneity, reaction time, temporal order and duration discrimination data are discussed, and new data are presented. It is concluded that the relationship between the physical duration of a stimulus and its perceptual duration is not yet understood.     

Psychophysical theories of duration discrimination

There are few quantitative theories of duration discrimination and few established empirical phenomena to guide theorizing. This paper discusses three such theories and several empirical findings. The theories assume that the discrimination is based only upon information extracted from the temporal extent of the stimulus pattern, and experimental evidence is presented that clearly supports this assumption for many stimulus patterns. Recent findings which indicate that duration information is analyzed in certain ways that are fundamentally different from other stimulus dimensions are reviewed, the duration discrimination psychometric function is examined, and the time-order error is discussed. The three theories are compared in terms of their ability to incorporate the empirical data.