Cognitive task effects on hemispheric blood flow in humans: Evidence for individual differences in hemispheric activation

Evidence from two indirect measures of hemispheric activity, EEG α and conjugate lateral eye movements, has pointed to the existence of individual differences in hemispheric activation. Results from a more direct indicator of hemispheric activity, regional cerebral blood flow as measured by the ¹³³Xe inhalation method, show that such individual differences can be detected in the distribution of blood in the two hemispheres and that the amount of increase in blood flow in the right relative to the left hemisphere is correlated with performance on a spatial task. These results corroborate and extend the findings from the EEG and eye movement studies and suggest that the dimension of individual differences in hemispheric activation may exert significant influence on cognitive performance and on problem-solving strategies.     

TEACHING THE HANDICAPPED TO EAT IN PUBLIC PLACES: ACQUISITION,GENERALIZATION AND MAINTENANCE OF RESTAURANT SKILLS

This study examined classroom-based instruction in restauranting skills for handicapped persons. Three male students were taught each of four skill components in sequential order: locating, ordering, paying, and eating and exiting. Training was implemented in a multiple baseline design across subjects and consisted of modeling and role playing in conjunction with photo slide sequences and a simulated ordering counter. The use of a menu containing general item classes and a finger matching procedure for identifying errors in the delivery of change greatly reduced the reading and math skills necessary to enter and complete the program. Periodic probes were conducted in a McDonald's restaurant prior to, during, and up to one-year following the termination of training. In addition, two probes (overt and covert observation) were conducted in a Burger King restaurant to assess further generalization to a location different from the one depicted throughout training. Results showed that students' performance on restaurant probes improved as a result of training, generalized to novel settings, maintained over an extended period of time, and was comparable to that of a normative sample of nonretarded persons.     

Hypnosis for young adults: Freeing “the doctor who resides within”

This paper explains that the phenomenon of hypnosis is a naturally occurring talent, capacity, and skill that some practitioners suggest exists in nearly 90% of the population. Erickson's concept of and utilization of indirect suggestion is described and critiqued as an approach consistent with the separation/individuation issues confronting contemporary young adults. Hypnotherapy is recommended as a highly effective tool in a society suffering from severe alienation and lack of identity. Hypnosis is compared and contrasted with Cousin's discussion of placebo utilization in medicine. Hypnosis, akin to the placebo, is recognized as giving the doctor who resides within each patient a change to go to work.     

The air gap phenomenon in children's landscape drawings

The “air gap” phenomenon was found to be very common in the free landscape drawings of middle and later childhood. Three experiments are reported in which the contextual cues for such drawings were systematically manipulated. When subjects were supplied with drawing sheets constructed to imply the absence of the air gap, the phenomenon was eliminated in most of their drawings. When supplied with sheets constructed to imply its presence, most subjects produced air gap drawings using contextually provided reference lines. There were no consistent transfer effects across different cuing orders. The susceptibility of the air gap phenomenon to modification by task manipulation suggests that it results from problems of production rather than from defects in the child's internal representation of the world.     

Stuttering and fluency: Exclusive events or points on a continuum?

In recent years, several studies have been conducted in which the fluency of stutterers was compared with that of normal speakers. These investigations have been of two basic types, some involving objective measures of physiologic, aerodynamic, or acoustic features of the subjects' fluent speech signal, and others involving experiments performed in which listeners attempted to distinguish the fluency produced by stutterers from that generated by normal speakers. The body of literature pertaining to each of these two types of investigations is reviewed and interpreted. The interpretations offered are then developed in an effort to shed further light on both fluency and stuttering. Implications for further research, as well as for the evaluation, treatment, and post-therapy assessment of stutterers are drawn.     

Personality scores and licit and illicit substance use

The effects of personality structure on subsequent substance use was examined. Data were collected from 841 men from Zürich questioned twice at the age of 19 and 22 about drug use and personality. Multiple regression and canonical correlation analysis methodology indicated a significant relationship between personality and subsequent substance use. Illicit drug consumption was positively related to the personality scale Depressiveness and negatively to Dominance and Excitability, cigarette consumption correlated with Nervousness and Sociability and alcohol consumption was related to Nervousness, Depressiveness and Sociability. The association of illicit drug use with Emotional Lability decreased when cigarette and alcohol consumption was included in the analysis. The cannabis users described themselves less neurotic than the consumers of alcohol and cigarettes.     

Personality and the topography of the conditioned eyelid response

One-hundred and four women were tested on an eyelid conditioning paradigm in a 2 x 2 x 2 factorial design where two levels of US intensity (1 vs 3 p.s.i.) were balanced against two rest pause interpolations (after 25 and after 50 trials), and the presence or absence of a warning stimulus prior to CS-US presentation. Subjects were later classified as high, low or intermediate extraverts on the basis of a personality questionnaire. A very detailed analysis of conditioned responses was carried out, using both simple and composite measures including work-ratio, utility-ratio, CR frequency, peak latency, peak amplitude, response area and effective response area, degree of avoidance amplitude and latency, etc. Major findings related to similar effects of high intensity US vs low intensity US, and introversion vs extraversion; introverts react as if they were responding to more intense stimuli than extraverts. This finding cuts across other parameter variables, and supports Eysenck's formulation of personality-conditioning relationships in terms of higher cortical arousal in introverts as compared with extraverts.     

The effects of intergroup comparison on the polarization of opinions

This study investigates the expression of attitudes by individuals within the context of groups. A link is made between two theoretical areas: that of intergroup relations and that of the effects of group interaction on the expression of opinions. It is argued that individuals in groups adopt more polarized attitudes to achieve a more positively distinct group identity, and to afford themselves identification with that group. Subjects individually expressed their opinion on an issue, while the salience of group membership was varied by evoking the identity of an alternative group which held opposed opinions on the issue. When their own group identity was more salient, subjects tended to express their opinions in a more polarized manner, and in a manner more in keeping with the presumed view of their group. Also, they attributed to the other group attitudes that were more polarized and more in keeping with their presumed view of the issue.