Synchronizing programs using Macromedia Director plug-ins: An example from the field of developmental psychopathology

Synchronizing the display of a stimulus with physiological recording or subjects’ behavioral responses is crucial for acquiring valid measures of performance. This article describes a technique for integrating the presentation of stimuli, behavior reports, and physiological data employing Macromedia Director and a standard biometric program using an example from the field of developmental psychopathology. Our experience has been that the use of this technique is effective in creating complex protocols for research. Although the temporal accuracy available from this particular method is adequate for some experiments, it is not suited for investigations requiring single millisecond accuracy. Considerations and suggestions for utilizing this and similar techniques for integrating data collection and stimuli presentation are discussed.     

A comparison of the MCMI-III personality disorder and modifier indices with the MMPI-2 clinical and validity scales

In this study, we examined the relationship of the MCMI-III (Millon, Davis, & Millon, 1997; Millon, Millon, & Davis, 1994) modifier indices and personality disorder scales to the validity and basic clinical scales of the MMPI-2 (Butcher, Dahlstrom, Graham, Tellegen, & Kaemmer, 1989). The MCMI-III modifier indices highly correlated with all of the MMPI-2 validity scales except for the F(p) scale. Similarly, the MCMI-III personality disorder scales strongly covaried with the MMPI-2 validity and clinical scales except for the F(p) and 5 (Mf) scales. A factor analysis with Promax rotation revealed substantial relationships between the MMPI-2 and MCMI-III. However, the MMPI-2 F(p) scale did not tend to correlate with MMPI-2 or MCMI-III scales, indicating that F(p) scale variance was largely independent of other scales. The results suggest that clinicians should consider the interrelationship between personality characteristics and dissimulation.     

Normative data for the selective reminding test: a random digit dialing sample

Healthy control participants (46 women, M age=44.3 yr., SD=7.6; 29 men) were recruited to undergo a comprehensive neuropsychological battery and serve as a comparison group in a study of cognitive functioning in patients with Lyme isease. Participants were selected using Mitofsky-Waksberg random digit dialing. The Buschke 12-word, six-trial Selective Reminding Test was administered as part of the neuropsychological battery and normative data are presented stratified by age and sex. Performance on alternate forms of this measure were examined. Mean education, intelligence quotient, and Wide Range Achievement Test-3 Reading scores are reported.     

Aging and maintaining intentions over delays: do it or lose it

When execution of retrieved intentions must be briefly delayed, older adults display deficits in performing those intentions (G. O. Einstein, M. A. McDaniel, M. Manzi, B. Cochran, & M. Baker, 2000). This initial finding was extended by showing age-related deficits with 5-s unfilled delays, with instructions to rehearse during the delay, and with divided attention during initial retrieval of the intention. Performance increased with a break at the end of the delay period, such that when combined with full attention (during retrieval), older adults' performance approached that of younger adults. These results suggest that age compromises maintenance of information in awareness. Consequently, when forced to delay execution of retrieved intentions, older adults may rely more on plan reformulation and subsequent retrieval of the intention from long-term memory at the end of the delay.     

The neuroendocrinology of posttraumatic stress disorder: new directions

Studies of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis in persons with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have produced variable findings. This review focuses on the factors likely to have affected the outcome of these studies, including population characteristics and experimental design. Also discussed is a possible role for the adrenal neurosteroid dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) as a mediator of HPA axis adaptation to extreme stress and the psychiatric symptoms associated with PTSD. The antiglucocorticoid properties of DHEA may contribute to an upregulation of HPA axis responses as well as mitigate possible deleterious effects of high cortisol levels on the brain in some PTSD subpopulations. The neuromodulatory effects of DHEA and its metabolite DHEAS at gamma-aminobutyric acid and N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors in the brain may contribute to psychiatric symptoms associated with PTSD. The possible importance of other neurohormone systems in modulating HPA axis and symptom responses to traumatic stress is also discussed. Understanding the complex interactions of these stress-responsive neurosteroid and peptide systems may help explain the variability in patterns of HPA axis adaptation, brain changes, and psychiatric symptoms observed in PTSD and lead to better targeting of preventive and therapeutic interventions.     

Newborn infants' sensitivity to perceptual cues to lexical and grammatical words.

In our study newborn infants were presented with lists of lexical and grammatical words prepared from natural maternal speech. The results show that newborns are able to categorically discriminate these sets of words based on a constellation of perceptual cues that distinguish them. This general ability to detect and categorically discriminate sets of words on the basis of multiple acoustic and phonological cues may provide a perceptual base that can help older infants bootstrap into the acquisition of grammatical categories and syntactic structure.     

Self-Regulating Interest: The Moderating Role of Hardiness and Conscientiousness

Sansone, Weir, Harpster, and Morgan (1992) found that individuals intentionally regulated their interest in an activity when they had both the need (the task was boring) and a reason to exert the effort (an ostensible health benefit). The present study examined Hardiness and Conscientiousness as moderators of this self-regulatory process when individuals had the option of quitting in addition to the options of persisting and of engaging in interest-enhancing strategies. Undergraduates performed a boring copying activity under instructions to stop when they felt they could evaluate the task. Half were told that their evaluations would help researchers develop good jobs for others (Benefit). Results indicated high hardy individuals copied more letters when they were provided the additional Benefit information, and this effect was mediated through their attempt to make the task more interesting. High conscientious individuals persisted longer than individuals lower in conscientiousness independently of the benefit manipulation or strategy use. Implications of individual differences in self-regulation of motivation are discussed.     

Personal reputation in organizations: Two‐study constructive replication and extension of antecedents and consequences

Personal reputation has been argued to demonstrate important influences on work outcomes. However, substantive research on personal reputation is relatively scarce. This two‐study investigation empirically supports and extends existing theory regarding the temporal development of personal reputation (i.e., antecedents and consequences), and thus contributes to a more informed understanding of both the construct and criterion‐related validity of this important construct. Study 1 is conducted longitudinally, in order to assess the development of personal reputation over time, which is undertaken to demonstrate the effects of human capital and social effectiveness as antecedents of reputation. Study 2 complements and extends the first study by conducting a field investigation examining the effects of time, human capital, and social effectiveness as antecedents of personal reputation, while also exploring the reputation consequences of autonomy, power, and career success. Our findings suggest that human capital, time, and social effectiveness play a part in the development of a reputation. Furthermore, career success, power, and autonomy were shown to be outcomes of the reputation construct. Contributions and strengths of this investigation, limitations, and directions for future research are discussed.     

Belief attribution in deaf and hearing infants

Based on anticipatory looking and reactions to violations of expected events, infants have been credited with 'theory of mind' (ToM) knowledge that a person's search behaviour for an object will be guided by true or false beliefs about the object's location. However, little is known about the preconditions for looking patterns consistent with belief attribution in infants. In this study, we compared the performance of 17- to 26-month-olds on anticipatory looking in ToM tasks. The infants were either hearing or were deaf from hearing families and thus delayed in communicative experience gained from access to language and conversational input. Hearing infants significantly outperformed their deaf counterparts in anticipating the search actions of a cartoon character that held a false belief about a target-object location. By contrast, the performance of the two groups in a true belief condition did not differ significantly. These findings suggest for the first time that access to language and conversational input contributes to early ToM reasoning.