An investigation of the effects of comorbid Axis II pathology on outcome of inpatient treatment for unipolar depression

DSM-based research on comorbidity has suggested thatdepression andpersonality disorder frequently occur together and that the combination of syndromes is associated with a poor response to treatment for depression. The present study was designed to explore the effect of comorbid Axis II pathology for a sample of 45 inpatients who received treatment for major depression. Both categorical and dimensional ratings of personality disorder were used in the statistical analysis. Positive categorical diagnosis of Cluster C (anxious-avoidant) disorder, as well as higher dimensional rating of Cluster A (odd-eccentric) pathology, was predictive of a poor response to treatment (p<.05), as measured by change in pre-post clinical ratings on the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale. These results were construed as indicative of a significant Axis II comorbidity effect in the context of an inpatient, multimodal treatment setting for depression. The results also spotlight the influence of techniques of measurement in determining the outcome of statistical analysis.     

Life Satisfaction of Single Middle-Aged Professional Women

This study examined 10 factors and their relation to the life satisfaction of single middle-aged professional women. The proposed regression model, which included job satisfaction, gender identity, locus of control, social support, health, financial resources, leisure-time activities, sexual satisfaction, and regrets regarding life circumstances, was explored through a questionnaire. Questionnaires were administered to single professional women in higher education institutions. Responses were received from 152 women. Performance on life satisfaction was significantly explained by recourse to the variables of job satisfaction, internal locus of control, regrets regarding life circumstances, sexual satisfaction, and leisure-time activities.     

WHO IS HAPPY?

A flood of new studies explores people's subjective well-being (SWB) Frequent positive affect, infrequent negative affect and a global sense of satisfaction with life define high SWB These studies reveal that happiness and life satisfaction are similarly available to the young and the old, women and men, blacks and whites, the rich and the working-class. Better clues to well-being come from knowing about a person's traits, close relationships, work experiences, culture, and religiosity. We present the elements of an appraisal-based theory of happiness that recognizes the importance of adaptation, cultural world view, and personal goals     

A DEVELOPMENTAL DEFICIT IN LOCALIZING OBJECTS FROM VISION

Abstract— We describe a college student, A. H., with a developmental deficit in determining the location of objects from vision. The deficit is selective in that (a) localization from auditory or tactile information is intact, (b) A H reports the identity of mislocalized objects accurately, (c) visual localization errors preserve certain parameters of the target location, and (d) visual localization is severely impaired under certain stimulus conditions, but nearly intact under other conditions. These results bear on the representation and processing of location information in the visual system, and also have implications for understanding developmental dyslexia.     

GUIDED VISUAL SEARCH IS A LEFT-HEMISPHERE PROCESS IN SPLIT-BRAIN PATIENTS

Abstract— Previous research has shown that split-brain (callosotomy) patients search through visual displays twice as fast as normal observers when items are divided evenly between visual hemifields, as though each disconnected hemisphere possessed its own attentional scanning system (Luck, Hillyard, Mangun, & Gazzaniga, 1989, 1994) Results from 3 split-brain patients in the present study indicate that the ability to limit search to a relevant subset of the visual display is lateralized to the left cerebral hemisphere. This ability to perform guided search was not shown in the right hemisphere, even when the search time in that hemisphere was superior to search time in the left Furthermore, guided search was observed for both hemifields in normal control observers. These findings suggest that, as with higher cognitive processes such as language, strategic visuospatial attentional processes are preferentially lateralized to the left cerebral hemisphere. The findings also imply that the callosum mediates guided search in the right hemisphere of normal subjects     

GROUPING BY PROXIMITY AND MULTISTABILITY IN DOT LATTICES:

Abstract— Gestalt phenomena have long resisted quantification. In the spirit of Gestalt field theory, we propose a theory that predicts the probability of grouping by proximity in the six kinds of dot lattices (hexagonal, rhombic, square, rectangular, centered rectangular, and oblique). We claim that the unstable perceptual organization of dot lattices is caused by competing forces that attract each dot to other dots in its neighborhood. We model the decline of these forces as a function of distance with an exponential decay function. This attraction function has one parameter, the attraction constant Simple assumptions allow us to predict the entropy of the perceptual organization of different dot lattices. We showed dot lattices tachistoscopically to 7 subjects, and from the probabilities of the perceived organisations, we calculated the entropy of each lattice for each subject. The model fit the data exceedingly well. The attraction constant did not vary much over subjects     

How learning contexts facilitate strategy transfer

The present study assessed the role of context in the acquisition and transfer of a mathematical strategy. One hundred and six children were assigned to four conditions: direct strategy instruction, guided discovery, direct teaching plus discovery, or a control condition. The intervention consisted of fourteen sessions during which the number-family strategy, useful for addition and subtraction, was taught. Third grade students in the guided discovery condition performed better than those in the direct instruction condition on far transfer problems that measured deep conceptual understanding. Students who had total or partial exposure to guided discovery held stronger beliefs and adopted more positive goals about the importance of mathematical understanding and peer collaboration, attributed less importance to task extrinsic reasons for success, and reported greater use of deep processing strategies than students exposed to direct, explicit instructions. Finally, students in the discovery conditions were able to communicate more effectively during problem solving than students in the direct instructions condition.