Psychopathology in childhood and adolescence as reflected in projected afterimage serials

A serial visual afterimage (AI) test was administered to 136 normal and 75 anxiety-ridden children 4–16 years of age. The scoring of the AI serials involved signs of primitive functioning (size-constant and positive AIs), anxiety (large and dark AIs together with primitive AIs in older children) and process discontinuity (intermittent regressions to small, positive, or physiognomic AIs). Differences between normal and clinical children were generally highly significant in these respects. Special attention was directed to the difference between subjects with intermittent regressions to primitive functioning and subjects where regression represented a lasting functional alternative. The former subjects were more often characterized by paroxysmal or primary anxiety.     

An alternative to the methodology for analysis of covariance

A general statistical model for simultaneous analysis of data from several groups is described. The model is primarily designed to be used for the analysis of covariance. The model can handle any number of covariates and criterion variables, and any number of treatment groups. Treatment effects may be assessed when the treatment groups are not randomized. In addition, the model allows for measurement errors in the criterion variables as well as in the covariates. A wide variety of hypotheses concerning the parameters of the model can be tested by means of a large sample likelihood ratio test. In particular, the usual assumptions of ANCOVA may be tested.Research reported in this paper has been partly supported by the Swedish Council for Social Science Research under project Statistical methods for analysis of longitudinal data, project director Karl G. Jöreskog, and partly by the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation under project Structural Equation Models in the Social Sciences, project director Karl G. Jöreskog.     

Biasing the development of response topography with nonspecific positive and negative evocative verbal stimuli

Conditioned response (CR) rate and development of CR latency, rise time, and airpuff attenuation were examined for V- and C-form responders using two nonspecific command words, do and don't, as conditioned stimuli (CSs) in single-cue, double-cue, and differential eyelid conditioning. In both single-cue and differential conditioning, regardless of the command word used to signal the unconditioned stimulus (UCS), the Vs produced a higher response rate and learned a better UCS-attenuating response topography than the Cs. However, in a double-cue conditioning paradigm in which both command words were presented alone on different trials and reinforced, response latency was longer and puff attenuation poorer among Vs than when the UCS was signaled by a unique cue. In contrast, adding a second reinforced cue actually enhanced the development of puff-avoidant CR topographies among Cs compared to single-cue conditioning. These results and others indicate that response topography development is to some extent a labile process that can be biased toward either good or poor puff-avoidant properties and that the factors responsible for influencing CR topography differ for Vs and Cs.     

Counseling for Decisions

This article presents a model for training counselors to help counselees in the process of making decisions. Three ineffective decision strategies (avoidance, excessive caution, and impulse) are explained and illustrated. An effective decision-helping approach that includes processing decisions, relating values to process, and relating actions to beliefs is presented. The authors contend that in order to produce satisfactory and adequate decisions, deeply rooted affective influences as well as logic and information must be dealt with.     

Quantification of three-dimensional structures

A mathematical model, based on additive subcomponents of grouping, subitizing and adding, was derived to account for quantification latencies of three-dimensional block arrangements. Subitizing is the process that people use to directly quantify a small number of objects without counting. It was found that most people consistently subitized up to four blocks. With more than four blocks, people resorted to grouping and adding, and the model was able to account for these data. The structural variables of compactness, symmetry, linearity, and planarity were shown to have small effects on quantification latencies relative to the large effect of number of blocks. Of these structural variables, compactness had the largest effect, and in terms of the model, it is suggested that visual structure had its effect on the perceptual grouping subcomponent.