Linguistic recovery after closed head injury

Recovery from acute aphasia after closed head injury was studied in 21 young adults at least 6 months after injury. Three profiles of scores were found using standardized language tests. Persistent expressive and receptive impairment was present in 6 patients who sustained severe diffuse brain injury resulting in global cognitive deficit. Residual expressive impairment, primarily of naming, was associated with mild diffuse brain injury though focal left-hemisphere injury was present in 3 of 6 cases. Patients who recovered to normal levels on all language tests generally had acute neurologic findings consistent with mild diffuse brain injury. Cranial computed tomography at the time of followup frequently disclosed ventricular enlargement.     

Qualitative and quantitative differences and patterns of variability in disfluencies emitted by preschool stutterers and nonstutterers during dyadic conversations

Disfluencies produced by 24 young stuttering and nonstuttering boys (4 to 5 years old) interacting in three dyadic sessions were analyzed. Each child interacted with his own mother, an unfamiliar mother of a stutterer, and an unfamiliar mother of a nonstutterer. Significant quantitative and qualitative differences were found in the number and types of disfluencies emitted by the two groups of children. Stuttering children with more severe disfluency problems differed quantitatively from those with less severe problems. Total frequency of disfluency was highly consistent for both groups of children. Only two disfluency types (tense pauses and whole-word repetitions) showed significant variability across sessions. This research demonstrates the feasibility of differential diagnosis of young stuttering children.     

Visual search of common scenes

A visual search reaction time task was used to examine the relationships among encoding, comparison, and search processes. Targets, either pictures of objects or their names, were briefly presented and followed, at stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) ranging from 200 to 2000 ms, by pictorial scenes having a 50% probability of containing the target. Generally, subjects responded more rapidly with picture than word targets, this difference diminishing at longer SOAs. Searches appeared to be restricted to certain portions of the scene depending on the congruency between the target and the scene. The sequence of decisions in the search task was discussed.     

The performance of two pathological gambling screens in college students

The psychometric properties of two pathological gambling (PG) screening instruments, the South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS) and the Massachusetts Gambling Screen-DSM-IV subscale (MAGS), were explored in a sample of college students (N = 159). Participants completed the two screening instruments, a diagnostic interview for PG, the Gambling-Timeline Followback (G-TLFB), Gambling Self-Efficacy Questionnaire (GSEQ), and the Hopkins Symptom Checklist (HSCL). Both screening measures were found to have adequate internal consistency and were highly correlated with each other and the diagnostic interview. The screening measures demonstrated convergent and discriminant validity. Using the diagnostic interview as the criterion measure, the SOGS demonstrated better sensitivity in identifying PG college students than the MAGS. The MAGS demonstrated better specificity in identifying non-PG college students than the SOGS. The results of this study suggest that although neither measure is perfect in identifying PG college students, the SOGS is a more appropriate measure for screening purposes.     

Direct, mediated, moderated, and cumulative relations between neighborhood characteristics and adolescent outcomes

Using data from the 1990 Survey of Children and Parents, we explored direct and indirect associations between neighborhood conditions and adolescents' well-being. Analyses of data from 348 parents and their 14- to 17-year-old children indicated that neighborhood characteristics were directly related to adolescent outcomes (i.e., psychological adjustment and school problems). Second, parenting behaviors and peer characteristics significantly mediated this association. Third, the relative adaptiveness of parenting behaviors and peer attributes was contingent on neighborhood characteristics. Finally, neighborhood, parenting, and peer variables each had a unique contribution to adolescent outcomes; thus, stress across these domains was additive and posed cumulative risk for adolescents' well-being.     

INTRODUCTION TO SYMPOSIUM ON “JUST HOW SPECIAL ARE HUMANS?”

We here introduce the Zygon Symposium on “Just How Special Are Humans?” This collection is based on a symposium at Harvard University in 2020 that brought together world leaders on the study of human nature from science, theology, and philosophy. They shared their research and perceptive insights on this key topic of great contemporary interest from quite different disciplines and viewpoints. The present Symposium contains articles further developed from the presentations, as well as two additional contributions from experts specializing in theological ethics and philosophy of religion.