On the Importance of Gender in the Psychoanalytic Relation (Discussion)

Abstract

Brenner H. On the Importance of Gender in the Psychoanalytic Relation (Discussion). Int Forum Psychoanal 1992;1:29-3 1. Stockholm. ISSN 0803-706X

In the discussion of the contributions by Alan Grey and Ann Turkel, the author compares their findings with her own, both on the theoretic and practical levels. While the question of gender evidently plays a role, its importance seems to differ depending on the traditional attitudes of society, with changes becoming apparent in line with feministic trends, but varying from one culture to the next, and also from one therapist to another depending on her/his own personal history. In conclusion, Heidy Brenner answers the question posed at the beginning, also in the sense of Alan Grey, that it is to a large extent a matter of the therapist's personal maturity whether a patient—male or female—feels comfortable with him or her; that the required openness is possible; and that the necessary frustration tolerance can be achieved, so that the patient need not hide behind a falsely understood identity with the analyst.     

Reliable Digit Span: a systematic review and cross-validation study

Reliable Digit Span (RDS) is a heavily researched symptom validity test with a recent literature review yielding more than 20 studies ranging in dates from 1994 to 2011. Unfortunately, limitations within some of the research minimize clinical generalizability. This systematic review and cross-validation study was conducted to address these limitations, thus increasing the measure's clinical utility. Sensitivity and specificity rates were calculated for the ≤6 and ≤7 cutoffs when data were globally combined and divided by clinical groups. The cross-validation of specific diagnostic groups was consistent with the data reported in the literature. Overall, caution should be used when utilizing the ≤7 cutoff in all clinical groups and when utilizing the ≤6 cutoff in the following groups: cerebrovascular accident, severe memory disorders, mental retardation, borderline intellectual functioning, and English as a second language. Additional limitations and cautions are provided.     

Inconsistent handedness and saccade execution benefit face memory without affecting interhemispheric interaction

Individuals who consistently use their dominant hand for most tasks exhibit poorer memory than individuals whose handedness is relatively inconsistent, but consistent-handers’ memory can be enhanced by making repetitive saccadic eye movements before attempting retrieval. One account of these effects is that inconsistent handedness and saccade execution are associated with increased interhemispheric interaction, which putatively facilitates retrieval. We tested this account by having participants classify faces as famous or novel. Faces were presented in the left and right visual fields simultaneously (bilaterally) or in one field only (unilaterally). As in prior studies, famous faces were classified more quickly and more accurately given bilateral presentation, but novel faces were not. These bilateral gain effects indicate that interhemispheric interaction specifically facilitates famous-face recognition, and therefore larger gains may reflect greater interhemispheric interaction. However, neither inconsistent handedness nor saccade execution increased the size of bilateral gain. Inconsistent handedness and saccade execution (the latter for consistent-handers only) did increase face-classification accuracy, but the increases were not specific to famous-face recognition, and, in fact, were somewhat stronger for novel-face identification. These results extend the beneficial mnemonic effects of inconsistent handedness and saccade execution to faces, but indicate that these benefits are not caused by increased interhemispheric interaction.     

Is saccade-induced retrieval enhancement a potential means of improving eyewitness evidence?

Saccade-induced retrieval enhancement (SIRE) is the effect whereby making bilateral saccades enhances the subsequent retrieval of memories. Two experiments explored SIRE's potential to improve eyewitness evidence. Participants viewed slideshows depicting crimes, and received contradictory and additive misinformation about event details either once (Experiment 1) or three times (Experiment 2). Participants then performed saccades or a fixation control task before being tested on their memory for the slideshows and making confidence judgements. Saccades increased discrimination between seen and unseen event details regardless of whether or what type of misinformation was presented. Because prior studies indicated that SIRE might be more robust for individuals who are strongly right-handed versus not, we examined SIRE as a function of handedness and found that saccades improved memory for event details regardless of participants' handedness. However, participants who were not strongly right-handed had fewer false memories than participants who were strongly right-handed, extending previous findings of superior memory among individuals who are not strongly right-handed. Saccades also increased confidence in true memories (Experiment 1) and decreased confidence in false memories (Experiment 2). The results support SIRE's potential to improve eyewitness evidence.     

The Constituent Structure of Subjective Memory Questionnaires: Evidence from Multiple Sclerosis

Making repetitive saccadic eye movements has been found to increase subsequent episodic memory retrieval and also to increase subsequent top-down attentional control. We theorise that these effects are related such that saccade-induced changes in attentional processing facilitate memory retrieval. We tested this idea by examining the effect of saccade execution on retrieval conditions that differed in relative ease of consciously accessing episodic memories. Based on recent theories of episodic retrieval, we reasoned that there is a larger role for top-down attention when memories are more difficult to access. Consequently, we expected saccade execution to have a greater facilitative effect on retrieval when memories were more difficult to access. We obtained the expected result in a recall procedure in Experiment 1 and in a recognition procedure in Experiment 2. We also examined an individual difference factor—consistency of handedness—as a possible moderator of saccade execution effects on retrieval. We discuss how our top-down attentional control hypothesis can be extended to explain beneficial effects of saccade execution on other types of cognition, as well as negative effects on retrieval in some cases.     

Age Related Effects in Children Taking the Computerized Assessment of Response Bias and Word Memory Test

The assessment of effort is a fundamental component of test performance analysis, since effort determines whether a psychological evaluation is valid. The assessment of effort in children has proven problematic. This may be related to the variable and inconsistent nature of children’s developing self-regulatory systems, and the fact that measures commonly used to assess effort were standardized on adults. If one uses effort measures designed for adults to assess children, then one must presume that the maintenance of effort in children is comparable to the same behavior in adults. However, because children’s executive functioning, including their abilities to self-regulate, attend, concentrate, and to engage in various cognitive activities improve with time (Barkley, 1997, pp. 209-234), our hypothesis is that young children’s effort regulation is dissimilar to that of adults, and the presumption of similarity is implausible. The purpose of this study was to determine whether age is a significant influence upon young children’s performances on the Computerized Assessment of Response Bias (CARB) and Word Memory Test (WMT). Statistical analysis suggests that younger children (those under 10 years of age) tended to produce poorer performance on these instruments. Younger children’s scores differed significantly from children ages 10 and older. Children 11 years and older produced CARB and WMT results similar to adult participants, suggesting a viability for adult normative comparisons with children in this age range. The current investigation concluded that children’s maintenance of effort appears to be significantly related to age and reading ability level. Consequently, the use of current adult-based norms with the CARB and WMT, without regard for a child’s developmental status and other contextual factors such as the child’s ability to read, appears ill-advised especially with children under 11 years of age.     

How Can You Best Measure Reaction Times?

Comparing many ways of measuring and analyzing reaction times reveals that the chosen method influences both the judged reaction time and, more importantly, conclusions about how the reaction time depends on the circumstances under study. The task was to lift one's finger in response to a tone. The response amplitude was either constrained or not. Constraining the amplitude made the response less vigorous. When the response was less vigorous it took longer to move far enough to release a switch or exceed the elasticity of the finger pulp. Although using a micro-switch would have made the reaction time appear to be longer for the constrained movement, reaction times determined in the most reliable ways were not systematically longer for the constrained movement. The most reliable method is to use extrapolation of the change in the average force that the finger exerts on the surface to estimate the reaction time.     

Using Popular Films to Enhance Classroom Learning: The Good, the Bad, and the Interesting

ABSTRACT— Popular history films sometimes contain major historical inaccuracies. Two experiments investigated how watching such films influences people's ability to remember associated texts. Subjects watched film clips and studied texts about various historical topics. Whereas the texts contained only correct information, the film clips contained both correct information (consistent with the text) and misinformation (contradicted by the text). Before watching each clip, subjects received a specific warning, a general warning, or no warning about the misinformation. One week later, they returned for a cued-recall test about the texts. Watching a film clip increased correct recall of consistent information relative to recall of the same information when subjects did not see the clip. However, when the information in the film contradicted the text, subjects often (falsely) recalled misinformation from the film. The specific warning substantially reduced this misinformation effect. Teachers should use popular history films with caution and should warn students about major inaccuracies in the films.