TEACHING IDIOM COMPREHENSION TO CHILDREN WITH MENTAL RETARDATION

This study examined the effectiveness of a training program designed to teach children with mild mental retardation the meaning of 12 idiomatic phrases, such as “to hit the sack.” Four 9-year-old children participated in the training. A multiple baseline design across subjects and across three sets of idioms was implemented. Training consisted of presenting both literal and idiomatic contexts in the form of story narratives, and asking the children to explain the outcome of the story and to select one picture from an array of four that represented the outcome. All children demonstrated learning, although 1 child required review procedures to facilitate maintenance. Children were able to generalize their receptive learning to an expressive task with varying levels of success. All children demonstrated an ability to understand the learned idioms when presented in unfamiliar contexts.     

Dysnomia in Alzheimer's disease: an evaluation of neurobehavioral subtypes.

The relative influence of perceptual and semantic features on naming performance was investigated with reference to the neurobehavioral profiles displayed by patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Forty-one patients were classified as manifesting a verbal, visual, or global subtype based upon their pattern of neuropsychological functioning. Perceptual characteristics of to-be-named pictures were varied by manipulating the amount of line detail, whereas semantic qualities were varied by altering word frequency norms. All AD subtypes were less accurate than normal elderly controls in naming low frequency pictures. Patients and controls took longer to name low frequency and high complexity pictures, and this effect was comparable across the AD groups. Patients with predominantly visual deficits were significantly slower in naming than controls, and those with verbal impairments made a higher proportion of semantic naming errors when compared to patients displaying visual or severe global impairments. These results suggest that deficits in semantic processing contribute to naming dysfunction in AD, and they highlight the importance of examining dissociations among neurobehavioral subtypes.     

Validity and Stability of the Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory in a Nonforensic Sample of Young Adults

Scores were obtained for 103 Subjects on the Sixteen Personality Factor test, Form C; the Edwards Personal Preference Schedule; the Otis Quick Scoring Test, Form G; Raven's Progressive Matrices, Sets A-E; and on 47 handwriting variables. First, personality and intelligence variables, then handwriting variables were factored and rotated, after which factor scores were obtained. Through a regression of handwriting from personality and intelligence factor scores, it was found that 6 of 16 handwriting factors could be predicted by 5 of 10 personality and intelligence factors. These results and their relation to graphology are discussed.     

Validating a distinction between primary and secondary psychopathy with measures of Gray's BIS and BAS constructs

Investigators commonly distinguish between primary and secondary psychopathy (H. Cleckley, 1976; D.T. Lykken, 1995), though there is a lack of consensus regarding the best means to achieve this distinction. To address the validity of using R. D. Hare's (2003) Psychopathy Checklist and the G. Welsh (1956) Anxiety Scale for this purpose, the authors used 2 measures of J. A. Gray's (1987) behavioral inhibition system/behavioral activation system (BIS/BAS). Following D. T. Lykken (1995) and D. C. Fowles (1980), the authors hypothesized that primary psychopathy would be associated with a weak BIS and a normal BAS, whereas secondary psychopathy would be associated with a strong BAS and a normal BIS. Results for primary psychopathy were as predicted. Results for secondary psychopathy clearly supported the strong BAS prediction but provided mixed support for the normal BIS prediction.     

Physician and patient communication training in primary care: effects on participation and satisfaction

OBJECTIVE: To assess the effects of a communication skills training program for physicians and patients. DESIGN: A randomized experiment to improve physician communication skills was assessed 1 and 6 months after a training intervention; patient training to be active participants was assessed after 1 month. Across three primary medical care settings, 156 physicians treating 2,196 patients were randomly assigned to control group or one of three conditions (physician, patient, or both trained). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Patient satisfaction and perceptions of choice, decision-making, information, and lifestyle counseling; physicians' satisfaction and stress; and global ratings of the communication process. RESULTS: The following significant (p < .05) effects emerged: physician training improved patients' satisfaction with information and overall care; increased willingness to recommend the physician; increased physicians' counseling (as reported by patients) about weight loss, exercise, and quitting smoking and alcohol; increased physician satisfaction with physical exam detail; increased independent ratings of physicians' sensitive, connected communication with their patients, and decreased physician satisfaction with interpersonal aspects of professional life. Patient training improved physicians' satisfaction with data collection; if only physician or patient was trained, physician stress increased and physician satisfaction decreased. CONCLUSION: Implications for improving physician-patient relationship outcomes through communication skills training are discussed.     

Human topological task adapted for rats: Spatial information processes of the parietal cortex

Human research has shown that lesions of the parietal cortex disrupt spatial information processing, specifically topological information. Similar findings have been found in non-humans. It has been difficult to determine homologies between human and non-human mnemonic mechanisms for spatial information processing because methodologies and neuropathology differ. The first objective of the present study was to adapt a previously established human task for rats. The second objective was to better characterize the role of parietal cortex (PC) and dorsal hippocampus (dHPC) for topological spatial information processing. Rats had to distinguish whether a ball inside a ring or a ball outside a ring was the correct, rewarded object. After rats reached criterion on the task (>95%) they were randomly assigned to a lesion group (control, PC, and dHPC). Animals were then re-tested. Post-surgery data show that controls were 94% correct on average, dHPC rats were 89% correct on average, and PC rats were 56% correct on average. The results from the present study suggest that the parietal cortex, but not the dHPC processes topological spatial information. The present data are the first to support comparable topological spatial information processes of the parietal cortex in humans and rats.