Temporal and spatial distance in situation models

In two experiments, we investigated how readers use information about temporal and spatial distance to focus attention on the more important parts of the situation model that they create during narrative comprehension. Effects of spatial distance were measured by testing the accessibility in memory of objects and rooms located at differing distances from the protagonist's current location. Before the test probe, an intervening episode was inserted in the narrative. Story time distance was manipulated by stating that the intervening episode lasted for either minutes or hours. Discourse time--that is, time spent reading from prime to test--was manipulated by describing the intervening episode either briefly or at length. Clear effects of story time distance and spatial distance on accessibility were found, whereas discourse time distance did not affect accessibility. The results are interpreted as supporting constructionist theories of text comprehension.     

Does Smoking by Pregnant Women Influence IQ, Birth Weight, and Developmental Disabilities in Their Infants? A Methodological Review and Multivariate Analysis

Neuropsychologists are asked frequently to address the issue of the cause of a variety of central nervous system problems that may affect higher cortical function. One such issue is the relationship of maternal smoking to adverse reproductive outcomes involving neocortical insult including mental retardation, learning disabilities, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and other insults that may be related to prolonged hypoxic states in utero. The instant paper develops the issue of causation as a scientific inquiry, reviews several traditional, applicable models, and critiques these models. An additional model of motility is proposed and discussed. The issue of the relationship of maternal smoking to adverse reproductive outcomes is then addressed from a review perspective along with new empirical analyses, the latter demonstrating that researchers tend to draw causal conclusions independent of whether the respective design of their studies would support conclusions about the causation of an event. Causal conclusions in the absence of causal designs have often lead to incomplete and incorrect conclusions. It is necessary to match conclusions not only to the outcomes of a research project but also to its design and accompanying limitations.     

Covert face recognition in neurologically intact participants

Prosopagnosic patients may maintain some ability to recognize familiar faces, although they remain unaware of this ability. This phenomenon – called covert face recognition – was investigated in neurologically intact participants, using priming techniques. Participants were quicker to indicate that a target-name was familiar when the preceding prime-face belonged to the same person compared with an unrelated familiar person. This was observed both when prime-faces could be recognized overtly and when they were presented too briefly to be recognized overtly (Exps. 1 and 2). Thus, covert face recognition was observed in neurologically intact participants. In Exp. 3, participants were quicker to recognize a familiar face when that person's face had been seen previously, but only when it had been recognized overtly on the first encounter. These results are interpreted within the framework of an interactive activation model of face recognition. Received: 21 September 1998 / Accepted: 2 March 1999     

Transforming mental health care for children and their families

In April 2002, the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health was created by executive order to study the mental health care delivery system in our nation and to make recommendations for improvements so that individuals with serious mental disorders can live, work, learn, and fully participate in their homes and communities. In its report, "Achieving the Promise: Transforming Mental Health Care in America," the commission provided strategies to address critical infrastructure, practice, and research issues. This article focuses on the work of the commission's Subcommittee on Children and Families, describing its vision for mental health service delivery for children and providing suggestions for strengthening community-based care for youths with or at risk of behavioral health disorders. Training, research, practice, and policy implications for psychologists are discussed.     

The course of depressive symptoms in men from early adolescence to young adulthood: identifying latent trajectories and early predictors

Heterogeneity in the longitudinal course of depressive symptoms was studied through the use of general growth mixture modeling for young men in the Oregon Youth Study (N=206), who ranged in age from 15 to 24 years. Four trajectory classes were identified: the very-low, the moderate-decreasing, the high-decreasing, and the high-persistent classes. The 3 lowest classes differed primarily quantitatively with the initial level or mean level across time being the major determinant of class differences, whereas the high-persistent class appeared qualitatively different in terms of long-term developmental trends and variation. Findings from univariate and multivariate analyses revealed specific effects of childhood, parental, contextual, and individual risk factors on the class membership as well as on the growth within each trajectory class.     

Empathy scores in medical school and ratings of empathic behavior in residency training 3 years later

The authors designed the present study to examine the association between individuals' scores on the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy (JSPE; M. Hojat, J. S. Gonnella, S. Mangione, T. J. Nasca, & M. Magee, 2003; M. Hojat, J. S. Gonnella, T. J. Nasca, S. Mangione, M. Vergare, & M. Magee, 2002; M. Hojat, S. Mangione, T. J. Nasca, M. J. M. Cohen, J. S. Gonnella, J. B. Erdmann, J. J. Veloski, & M. Magee, 2001), a self-report empathy scale, during medical school and ratings of their empathic behavior made by directors of their residency training programs 3 years later. Participants were 106 physicians. The authors examined the relationships between scores on the JSPE (with 20 Likert-type items) at the beginning of the students' 3rd year of medical school and ratings of their empathic behavior made by directors of their residency training programs. Top scorers on the JSPE in medical school, compared to Bottom scorers, obtained a significantly higher average rating of empathic behavior in residency 3 years later (p < .05, effect size = 0.50). The findings support the long-term predictive validity of the self-report empathy scale, JSPE, despite different methods of evaluations (self-report and supervisors' ratings) and despite a time interval between evaluations (3 years). Because empathy is relevant to prosocial and helping behavior, it is important for investigators to further enhance our understanding of its correlates and outcomes among health professionals.     

Understanding the structural determinants of object confusion in memory: an assessment of psychophysical approaches to estimating visual similarity

Computer-generated shapes varying on visual dimensions such as curvature, tapering, and thickness have been used to investigate identification deficits in the category-specific visual agnosia (CSVA) Patient E.L.M.. However, whether the implemented variations on each of these dimensions were perceived by novice observers as "similar amounts of change" is unknown. To estimate distance in psychophysical shape space, sets of shapes were developed using two different scaling methods--an objective method based on visual search, and a subjective method based on judgments of similarity--and a third approach that did not involve scaling. How well each method estimated psychophysical shape space was assessed by measuring the confusions within memory among the shapes. The results suggested that, although neither of the approaches perfectly reflected psychophysical shape space, subjective scaling was a better estimator of distance in psychophysical shape space than were other approaches. The number of confusions produced on each set of shapes was used to develop a new set of shapes that accurately estimated distance in psychophysical shape space. These results suggest that a combination of approaches is preferable in order to accurately estimate distance in psychophysical shape space.     

Recognition by humans and pigeons of novel views of 3-D objects and their photographs

Humans and pigeons were trained to discriminate between 2 views of actual 3-D objects or their photographs. They were tested on novel views that were either within the closest rotational distance between the training views (interpolated) or outside of that range (extrapolated). When training views were 60 degrees apart, pigeons, but not humans, recognized novel views of actual objects better than their pictures. Further, both species recognized interpolated views of both stimulus types better than extrapolated views, but a single distinctive geon enhanced recognition of novel views only for humans. When training views were 90 degrees apart, pigeons recognized interpolated views better than extrapolated views with actual objects but not with photographs. Thus, pigeons may represent actual objects differently than their pictures.