Manual reaction time to linguistic stimuli in child stutterers and nonstutterers

Ten stuttering and ten nonstuttering children, ages 4–8 yr, served as subjects for a motor reaction task to simple and complex linguistic stimuli. The subjects reacted by pressing one of four panels on a touch-sensitive board that depicted the appropriate semantic relationship in response to 30 simple and complex linguistic stimuli. There was a significant increase in the reaction time of both groups with increasing linguistic complexity. No significant differences were found in the reaction time between the two groups, nor in the interaction between group and complexity. Implications regarding linguistic processing are discussed, and an “overload” hypothesis of stuttering is dispelled. It is concluded that stutterers and nonstutterers in this study did not differ in their reaction time nor in their processing time of linguistic material.     

Parent-completed and adolescent-completed CDIs: Relationship to adolescent social and cognitive functioning

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of both young adolescents' scores on the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) and their mothers' ratings of the adolescents' depression (parent-completed CDI) to indices of their social and cognitive functioning obtained from a source outside the home. Subjects consisted of a nonclinic sample of 85 young adolescents (11–15 years of age), their mothers, and their social studies teachers. Recent school grades and teacher-completed measures served as the indices of adolescent social and cognitive competence. The results indicated that both adolescents' and mothers' CDI scores were significantly and negatively correlated with measures of adolescent cognitive and social functioning. Multiple regression analyses, utilizing adolescent- and parent-completed CDI scores as predictors, indicated that both predictor variables entered into the equations for cognitive functioning while only the mother-completed CDI entered into those for social functioning. When maternal depression was also entered into the multiple regressions, the findings regarding mother- and adolescent-completed CDI scores were not altered. The relationship of these findings to other somewhat disparate findings concerning the utility of mother and child reports of child depression is discussed.This research was supported, in part, by the William T. Grant Foundation and the University of Georgia's Institute for Behavioral Research.     

明尼苏达多相人格调查表的因子分析研究

本文介绍了我们用因子分析的方法,对MMPI在北京地区两大精神病院和部分正常人中进行的研究,证明了MMPI在精神科临床和不同性别、不同文化程度的正常人中具有十分近似的因子结构,具有良好的结构效度。本研究得到的因子结构与美国等国家报道的因子结构十分近似,提示MMPI可以对不同文化的民族和国家的人们具有的一些共同的人格维度进行有效的测量。最后用因子分析的结果建立了六个人格因子量表,方便了MMPI的解释工作。     

Analogical transfer in young children: Analogies as tools for communication and exposition

Children's ability to transfer what they learn in one situation to analogous problems was examined in a series of four studies. Subjects ranged in age from 3 to 10 years. The problems involved novel uses of familiar tools or simple biological themes such as mimicry as a method of defence. The data suggest that the apparent transfer reluctance shown by children in previous studies is the result of what they have been required to learn and the conditions under which they have been required to learn it. In the present studies, children as young as 3 years transferred readily if the problem domain was one they understood and engaged in, and if the traditional laboratory paradigm was modified so as to promote transfer rather than just to test for its spontaneous occurrence.     

Gender orientation and emergent leader behavior

Two studies compared the effects of masculinity and femininity on rater and ratee evaluations of emergent leader behavior in mixed- and same-sex groups. Data were collected in two consensus-seeking studies using the same procedures; only the gender composition of the task groups was changed. The first study was composed of 39 female and 21 male students in 15 mixed-sex groups, and the second study included 96 female students in 22 same-sex groups. Masculinity and femininity were measured with the Bem Sex Role Inventory [L. Bem, (1974) The Measurement of Psychology Androgyny, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, Vol. 42, pp. 155–162]. Contrary to research and theory, masculinity was not associated with peer-rated leadership, yet femininity was correlated with two measures of self-rated leadership.     

Reaction time and diazepam plasma concentration in subjects with normal gastric pH

The present study investigated the relationship of reaction time with the plasma concentration of four different formulations of diazepam (liquid, original, new, and generic). On four separate days, over a 4-month period, subjects with normal gastric pH (N=7) were administered each of the diazepam formulations. Blood samples were obtained prior to each dose and at subsequent intervals. Likewise, reaction times were evaluated prior to dosing and then at ten different intervals post-dosing. As hypothesized, reaction time performance was associated with plasma diazepam concentration, regardless of formulation type. This suggests that reaction time is a sensitive measure of cerebral functioning for individuals who are treated with diazepam. In addition to providing a measure of drug effects on cognitive functioning, the results of this study have implications concerning possible hazards of operating machinery or driving motor vehicles for individuals being treated with diazepam.     

Internalizing problems of adolescents: The role of the informant in identifying family and individual difficulties

The purpose of this study was to examine the family environment and school functioning of adolescents who differed on level of internalizing problems as reported by the adolescent and her/his mother. Thirty-six adolescents, their mothers, and their social studies teacher served as participants. Three groups were formed based on the report of level of internalizing problems: high mother and adolescent report (high concordant); low mother/high adolescent report (discordant); and low mother/low adolescent report (low concordant). The results indicated that the high concordant group, but not the discordant group, differed significantly from the low discordant group in that adolescents from the former group were from home environments with more difficulties (more interparental conflict, maternal depression, & maternal anxiety) and had more internalizing problems and lower grades in school. The results point to the importance of parent-report data when clinically assessing adolescents or conducting research on internalizing problems of adolescents.