Regional cerebral blood flow patterns during verbal and nonverbal auditory activation

Current views of the relationship between audition and cerebral function suggest that increases in regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) would occur in the superior, mid, and posterior portions of the temporal lobes, and that these changes would be more lateralized to the left hemisphere for a verbal than a nonverbal auditory task. We measured rCBF using the xenon inhalation technique in a group of healthy subjects during three conditions: (1) resting baseline, (2) auditory verbal activation (listening for word meaning), and (3) auditory nonverbal activation (listening for reduction of intensity in a series of noise bursts). Both verbal and nonverbal conditions produced highly significant increases in rCBF over the left posterior Sylvian region with a trend for verbal activation to evoke a wider area of flow increase than the nonverbal task.     

An inexpensive pure-tone pattern generator

A low-cost sound pattern generator that is remotely programmable has been developed to produce pure-tone auditory patterns. The device, which is compatible with relay programming equipment, can generate either of two auditory patterns in the sequence ABA or BAB. The generator features an independently settable range of ON and OFF durations (0.1 to 1.0 sec) for pure-tone bursts and a selectable range (0.2 to 2.0 sec) of intercycle intervals. The inexpensive construction cost coupled with the flexibility of the timing characteristics of the generator should make it of interest to a wide variety of auditory researchers.     

Behavior Problems in Young Children With or At Risk for Developmental Delay

We examined the prevalence of behavior problems and their relationship to child, parent, and family factors in 76 children with or at risk for developmental delay. Parents reported that 42% of the children had behavior problems. Child Behavior Checklist (CBC) scores revealed that 25% of the sample scored above the borderline cutoff. Although the total, externalizing, and internalizing mean CBC scores did not differ from the normative group (same-aged peers without developmental delay), each of the syndrome subscales was significantly higher in the study group. The Reiss Scales for Children's Dual Diagnosis revealed that, as compared to older children (4 years) with developmental delay, the study sample scored significantly lower on the total score and 8 of the 10 subscales. Increased CBC total scores were significantly related to dependency and management of the child, birth weight, gestational length, paternal illness, maternal depression, perceived personal burden of care, maternal escape-avoidance coping strategy, family disharmony, and financial stress. CBC total scores were significantly negatively correlated with being of a multiple birth, paternal education, maternal employment, two-parent family, family social support, and family income. Multiple regression analyses revealed that an empirically-derived combination of child, parent, and family variables accounted for 31% of the variance in CBC total scores. Our findings suggest that 2-year old children with or at-risk for developmental delay may already be showing signs of increased risk of behavior problems relative to peers without developmental delay. We identified several child, parent, and family variables that may help to pinpoint children at increased riskxs for psychopathology.     

Consumption After a Diet Violation: Disinhibition or Compensation?

ABSTRACT— Previous research, restricted to the laboratory, has found that restrained eaters overeat after they violate their diet. However, there has been no evidence showing that this same process occurs outside the lab. We hypothesized that outside of this artificial setting, restrained eaters would be able to control their eating. In Study 1 , 127 participants reported hourly on their diet violations and eating over 2 days. In Study 2 , 89 participants tracked their intake for 8 days, and 50 of these participants consumed a milk shake (a diet violation) on Day 7, as part of an ostensibly unrelated study. As hypothesized, dieters did not overeat following violations of their diet in either study. These findings are in contrast with those of previous lab studies and dispel the widely held belief that diet violations lead to overeating in everyday life.     

The input bias: The misuse of input information in judgments of outcomes

In this paper we identify an input bias, the systematic misuse of input information in judgments of outcome quality. In many settings irrelevant input measures, such as the amount of time an employee spends in the office, influence outcome assessments, such as performance reviews. Across four studies we find that input values subtly, but significantly distort judgments of outcome quality. Irrelevant input information predictably influences outcome assessments even when people recognize that input measures should not matter and believe that input information did not matter. We examine the mechanics of the input bias, and suggest that because input measures are often easy to manipulate or misrepresent, the input bias is likely to have broad implications for managerial judgment and decision making.     

Independence of long-term contextual memory and short-term perceptual hypotheses: Evidence from contextual cueing of interrupted search

Observers are able to resume an interrupted search trial faster relative to responding to a new, unseen display. This finding of rapid resumption is attributed to short-term perceptual hypotheses generated on the current look and confirmed upon subsequent looks at the same display. It has been suggested that the contents of perceptual hypotheses are similar to those of other forms of memory acquired long-term through repeated exposure to the same search displays over the course of several trials, that is, the memory supporting “contextual cueing.” In three experiments, we investigated the relationship between short-term perceptual hypotheses and long-term contextual memory. The results indicated that long-term, contextual memory of repeated displays neither affected the generation nor the confirmation of short-term perceptual hypotheses for these displays. Furthermore, the analysis of eye movements suggests that long-term memory provides an initial benefit in guiding attention to the target, whereas in subsequent looks guidance is entirely based on short-term perceptual hypotheses. Overall, the results reveal a picture of both long- and short-term memory contributing to reliable performance gains in interrupted search, while exerting their effects in an independent manner.     

Bug distribution and statistical pattern classification

A model (called the rule space model) which permits measuring cognitive skill acquisition, diagnosing cognitive errors, detecting the weaknesses and strengths of knowledge possessed by individuals was introduced earlier. This study further discusses the theoretical foundation of the model by introducing bug distribution and hypothesis testing (Bayes' decision rules for minimum errors) for classifying subjects into their most plausible latent state of knowledge. The model is illustrated with the domain of fraction arithmetic and compared with the results obtained from a conventional artificial intelligence approach.The authors would like to acknowledge Mr. Robert Baillie for developing several computer programs used for this research.This research was sponsored by the Personnel and Training Research Program, Psychological Sciences Division, Office of Naval Research.Some of the analyses presented in this report were performed on the PLATO® system. The PLATO® system is a development of the University of Illinois and PLATO® is a service mark of the Control Data Corporation.