Psychoanalytic patients in the U.S., CANADA,and Australia: I. DSM-III-R disorders,indications, previous treatment,medications, and length of treatment

To determine the demographics, DSM-III-R disorders diagnosed, indications used in recommending psychoanalysis, previous treatment histories, use of medication, and length of treatment in patients in psychoanalysis in the U.S., Canada, and Australia, a mail survey of practice was sent to every other active member of the American Psychoanalytic Association and every member of the Australian Psychoanalytical Society. This supplemented an earlier survey sent to all Ontario psychoanalysts. The response rates were 40.1 % (n = 342) for the U.S., 67.2% (n = 117) for Canada, and 73.9% (n = 51) for Australia. Respondents supplied data on 1,718 patients. The employment rate for patients increases as analysis progresses (p < .0001). The mean number of concurrent categories of disorders (Axis I, Axis II, and Disorders First Evident in Childhood) per patient at the start of treatment is 5.01 (SD = 3.66; median = 4; mode = 3). There are no statistically significant differences across countries. Mood, anxiety, sexual dysfunction, and personality disorders are most common. American Psychiatric Association / American Psychoanalytic Association peer review criteria for indicating psychoanalysis are followed for 86.5% of patients. Over 80% of patients in all three countries had undergone previous treatments prior to analysis. In the U.S., 18.2% of analysands are on concurrent psychoactive medication; in Australia, 9.6%. The mean length of analyses conducted in the U.S. is 5.7 years, in Australia 6.6, and in Canada 4.8. Psychoanalytic patients in all three countries have similar rates of DSM-III-R psychopathology, and many indications of chronicity.     

Differential effects of list strength on recollection and familiarity

Numerous studies have found a null list strength effect (LSE) for recognition sensitivity: Strengthening memory traces associated with some studied items does not impair recognition of nonstrengthened studied items. In Experiment 1, the author found a LSE using receiver operating characteristic-based measures of recognition sensitivity. To account for the discrepancy between this and prior research, the author (a) argues that a LSE occurs for recollection but not for discrimination based on familiarity, and (b) presents self-report data consistent with this hypothesis. Experiment 2 tested the dual-process hypothesis more directly, using switched-plurality (SP) lures to isolate the contribution of recollection. There was a significant LSE for comparisons involving SP lures; the LSE for discrimination of studied items and nominally unrelated lures (which can be supported by familiarity) was not significant.     

A basis for bias in geographical judgments

To determine why North Americans tend to locate European cities south of North American cities at similar latitudes (Tversky, 1981), we had observers provide bearing estimates between cities in the U.S. and Europe. Earlier research using latitude estimates of these cities has indicated that each continent has several subjective regions (Friedman & Brown, 2000a). Participants judged cities from two subjectively northern regions (Milwaukee-Munich), two subjectively southern regions (Memphis-Lisbon), and the two "crossed" regions (Albuquerque-Geneva; Minneapolis-Rome). Estimates were biased only when cities from the subjectively northern regions of North America were paired with cities from the subjectively southern region of Europe. In contrast to the view that biases are derived from distorted or aligned map-like representations, the data provide evidence that the subjective representation of global geography is principally categorical. Biases in numerical location estimates of individual cities and in bearing estimates between city pairs are derived from plausible reasoning processes operating on the same categorical representations.     

The perception of length on curved and flat surfaces

In three experiments, observers judged the apparent extents of spatial intervals along the surface of a curved cylinder or a flat plane that was binocularly viewed in a natural, indoor environment. The observers' judgments of surface lengths were precise and reliable but were also inaccurate and subject to relatively large constant errors. These distortions differed among the observers, but they tended to perceive lengths oriented along the curved dimension of the cylinder as being longer than physically equivalent lengths in the noncurved dimension. This phenomenon did not occur when the observers judged curved and noncurved paths on the flat surface. In addition, some observers' judgments of length were affected by changes in the distance to the cylinder, whereas others were affected by the cylinder's orientation in space. These results demonstrate that the perception of length on surfaces is highly dependent on the particular context in which the length occurs.     

Keeping track: the function of the current state buffer

The Current State Buffer has been proposed to account for our ability to keep track of significant stimuli in our immediate environment. The three experiments reported here were designed to test the independence of the Current State Buffer from the established components of Working Memory. Pre-schoolers were used in order to minimize the possible interference of other memory structures and complex strategies on the part of the subjects, thus allowing a cleaner test of the hypotheses. In the experiments, 180 pre-schoolers watched an Emu glove puppet tidy away toys into receptacles (the 'Tidy Emu Paradigm'), such that the number of pairings just exceeded their capacity for recall of the locations of toys in receptacles. We take this task to be a prototypical visuospatial Working Memory task. In the Object condition of Experiment 1, a Teddy was an object and was tidied away with the other toys. In the Character condition the Teddy was an animated character who interacted with the children and then went to sleep in one of the receptacles. Where Teddy was a character, all children remembered his location even though they had not been asked to; when he was an object only half of the children were correct despite explicit instructions to remember. More crucially, the location of the other toys was better recalled for children in the Character condition than those in the Object condition. These data are taken as evidence for the independence of the Current State Buffer from the Visuospatial Sketchpad. Other explanations, such as a von Restorff effect, are considered, and Experiments 2 and 3 test and reject these as possibilities.     

The effects of age upon the perception of depth and 3-D shape from differential motion and binocular disparity

The ability of younger and older adults to perceive the 3-D shape, depth, and curvature of smooth surfaces defined by differential motion and binocular disparity was evaluated in six experiments. The number of points defining the surfaces and their spatial and temporal correspondences were manipulated. For stereoscopic sinusoidal surfaces, the spatial frequency of the corrugations was also varied. For surfaces defined by motion, the lifetimes of the individual points in the patterns were varied, and comparisons were made between the perception of surfaces defined by points and that of more ecologically valid textured surfaces. In all experiments, the older observers were less sensitive to the depths and curvatures of the surfaces, although the deficits were much larger for motion-defined surfaces. The results demonstrate that older adults can extract depth and shape from optical patterns containing only differential motion or binocular disparity, but these abilities are often manifested at reduced levels of performance.     

Diagnosing agoraphobia in the context of panic disorder: examining the effect of DSM-IV criteria on diagnostic decision-making

A diagnostic and statistical manual (DSM)-IV diagnosis of agoraphobia in the context of panic disorder (PD) is based on three nosologically sufficient criteria: (1) avoidance, (2) use of companions, and (3) endurance of situations despite distress. Therefore, an agoraphobia diagnosis can be made across an extremely broad range of cases including when there are no avoidance behaviors (e.g., the patient endures the situation). It was hypothesized that clinicians do not weight these criteria equally and that the DSMs individual, sufficient criteria lead to poor inter-rater reliability. Clinicians (N=48) rated hypothetical patients with symptom profiles emphasizing each of these three criteria. Consistent with expectation, clinicians differentially weighted these criteria. Avoidance was relatively more apt to produce a diagnosis when only one criterion was emphasized in clinical vignettes. Inter-rater reliability was poor in instances when only one sufficient criterion was highlighted. Knowledge concerning DSM criteria resulted in a greater rate of agoraphobia endorsement, but knowledge did not account for the overall pattern of findings.     

Ruminative coping and post-event processing in social anxiety

Cognitive models of social anxiety implicate various factors in the initiation and maintenance of socially anxious states, including anticipatory processing, self-focused attention and post-event processing. The present study focused on post-event processing, which is a post-mortem analysis following a social event that is described as ruminative in nature and serves to maintain social anxiety. Participants (N=112; 64 women, 48 men) were presented with vignettes that involved making mistakes in public and were instructed to record their thoughts to allow for the examination of the content of post-event processing. Ruminative coping and distraction were assessed via self-report. Results indicated that participants high in social anxiety (n=55) were more likely to ruminate and less likely to distract when faced with socially anxious stressors compared to those low in social anxiety (n=57). Further, as hypothesized, participants high in social anxiety recorded more negative thoughts and more upward counterfactual thoughts ('if only' type thoughts on how things could have been better; associated with negative affect) compared to those low in social anxiety. These results are discussed in terms of cognitive models of social anxiety.     

Evaluating the efficiency and community safety goals of the Broward County Mental Health Court

Mental health courts have developed as one response to persons with mental illness who are involved with the criminal justice system. This study investigated the efficiency and safety goals of one such court in Broward County, FL. Mental health court (MHC) clients spent significantly fewer days in jail for the index arrest associated with study enrollment than a comparison group. MHC clients had similar survival time to re-arrest up to one year after study enrollment. MHC clients did not significantly differ from the comparison group in self-reported aggressive acts over an 8 month follow-up period, while they did self-report significantly fewer acts of violence than the comparison group at the 8 month follow-up. These findings suggest that some of the benefits associated with the MHC reported in prior studies were not achieved at the expense of efficiency and safety.