A FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS OF PHOTO-OBJECT MATCHING SKILLS OF SEVERELY RETARDED ADOLESCENTS

Matching-to-sample procedures were used to assess picture representation skills of severely retarded, nonverbal adolescents. Identity matching within the classes of objects and life-size, full-color photos of the objects was first used to assess visual discrimination, a necessary condition for picture representation. Picture representation was then assessed through photo-object matching tasks. Five students demonstrated visual discrimination (identity matching) within the two classes of photos and the objects. Only one student demonstrated photo-object matching. The results of the four students who failed to demonstrate photo-object matching suggested that physical properties of photos (flat, rectangular) and depth dimensions of objects may exert more control over matching than the similarities of the objects and images within the photos. An analysis of figure-ground variables was conducted to provide an empirical basis for program development in the use of pictures. In one series of tests, rectangular shape and background were removed by cutting out the figures in the photos. The edge shape of the photo and the edge shape of the image were then identical. The results suggest that photo-object matching may be facilitated by using cut-out figures rather than the complete rectangular photo.     

Imitation in language development: If,when, and why

In order to explore the function of imitation for first language learning, imitative and spontaneous utterances were compared in the naturalistic speech of six children in the course of their development from single-word utterances (when mean length of utterance was essentially 1.0) to the emergence of grammar (when mean length of utterance approached 2.0). The relative extent of imitation, and lexical and grammatical variation in imitative and spontaneous speech were determined. There were inter-subject differences in the extent of imitation, but each child was consistent in the tendency to imitate or not to imitate across time. For those children who imitated, there were both lexical and grammatical differences in imitative and spontaneous speech, and a developmental shift from imitative to spontaneous use of particular words and semantic-syntactic relations between words. The results are discussed as evidence of an active processing of model utterances relative to the contexts in which they occur for information for language learning.     

When “I like you” indicates disagreement an experimental differentiation of information and affect

It was hypothesized that the independent manipulation of the informational content and the affective meaning of personal evaluations would indicate that both informational judgments and attraction responses are a joint function of the two stimulus components. In a 2 × 2 factorial design, each of 80 subjects was exposed to a videotape message from a stranger which was either affectively positive or negative and informationally positive or negative. Analysis of variance indicated that perceived similarity was influenced only by the informational variable (p < .0001) while attraction was influenced by both information (p < .0001) and affect (p < .002). It was suggested that the most inclusive theories of person perception and attraction will necessarily encompass elements of both cognitive and reinforcement formulations.     

Facial and autonomic manifestations of the dimensional structure of emotion

While subjects viewed and rated a series of 25 emotionally evocative slides, their heart rate and skin conductance were continuously monitored and their facial expressions were covertly videotaped. Judges subsequently viewed the videotapes and rated trial-by-trial the pleasantness and intensity of each subject's facial expressions. Both phasic skin conductance responding and judged facial intensity were curvilinearly related to self-reported pleasantness, with the largest responses occurring at both extremes of the self-report scale. In contrast, phasic cardiac reactions and judged facial pleasantness were linearly related to self-reported pleasantness; extreme pleasantness was accompanied by heart rate acceleration, and unpleasantness by cardiac deceleration. The results suggest that visceral information reflects the dimensions that underlie the organization of affects and, hence, may play a more important role in emotional experience than is assumed in a number of currently held theories of emotion.     

Interrogatives in dialogue: Case study of mother and child 16–19 months

Question-answer sequences were examined within the dialogues of a mother-infant dyad. Mother and male infant were observed at the infant's ages of 16, 17, 18, and 19 months. The structure, content, and function of the mother's questions were analyzed in conjunction with the child's contingent responses. The child exhibited an increase in overall responsiveness to his mother's questions for the period observed. In terms of question structure and content, at about 17 months the mother began to ask more of those questions to which the child responded with a higher percentage of relevant-appropriate responses. In terms of question function, no single systematic pattern of change occurred in the frequencies of various question functions and responses. It was concluded that the present data describe a process of simultaneous change in the direction of greater congruency between mother and child behaviors, although further research is needed to determine the generalizability of the present results.     

Gender differences in attributions about microcomputer learning in elementary school

To investigate whether girls' attributions about computer use were more likely to follow a pattern of learned helplessness, boys' and girls' attributions about a computerized drill-and-practice task and a tutorial program were assessed. Factor analysis of responses on an attribution questionnaire revealed three factors that differed across gender and across task. Multiple regression, using exposure time, group size, attributions, and interactions to predict posttest scores, showed different patterns for boys and girls and between tasks. For the drill-and-practice task, girls benefited from increased exposure time, and attributions to ease of task and ability predicted performance for both boys and girls. For the tutorial task, increased exposure time did not benefit either sex. Girls, however, benefitted from working in larger groups, while boys benefitted from working in smaller groups. Attributions to luck, as well as perceptions of ability and ease of task, predicted posttest scores. However, for girls, attributions to luck predicted higher scores, while for boys, attributions to luck were negatively correlated with performance. Implications for including appropriate feedback to encourage a mastery approach in computer learning, as well as optimal group size and group composition for positive attributional style and academic success, are discussed.This research was supported by Concordia University and the Fonds Pour la Formation des Chercheurs et l'Aide a la Recherche (Grant EQ-2951), Government of Quebec, Canada.The authors wish to thank Ms. Patricia Peters for assistance with the statistical analysis, and Dr. Philip Abrami, for his contribution to the project.     

A PREOCCUPATION WITH OBJECT-REPRESENTATION: THE BECKETT-BION CASE REVISITED

Taking issue with the notion of a profound reciprocal influence of Samuel Beckett and his analyst, Wilfred Bion, based on supposition all too often passed as fact, the author refutes the idea that Bion's ‘Attacks on linking’ was based on his later‐to‐be famous patient. Choosing, rather, to apply Bion's concepts of transformation and assaults on verbal thought to Beckett's remarkably visual and highly dissociative writing, she finds in the analyst's work a means of exploring a startling preoccupation with object representation and an anxiety of remembrance constant throughout the writer's texts. Is this fixation attributable only to aesthetic strategy or does it say something about the writer's own inner representational world? Relating the writer's obsession to Bion's concepts and, moreover, its dissociative expression to the decathexis and blank mourning explored by Green, she uncovers within it a reflection of the kind of evocative memory disturbance identified with primary dyadic dysfunction. This application of Bion and Green to Beckett veers distinctly less towards psychohistory, however, than to how sublimation has rendered this object‐relational failure an aesthetic success.     

The Psychological Burden Inflicted By Multiple Cancers in Li-Fraumeni Families: Five Case Studies

To gain insight into the psychological, emotional, relational, and family problems of families afflicted by Li-Fraumeni syndrome, we interviewed members of five such families in the Pediatric Oncology Department, Gustave Roussy Institute, where at least one member of the family had been treated. These interviews showed that families were psychologically fragile, that their interactions and thinking patterns were related to a family background plagued by the repeated occurrence of cancer, and was often marked by physical or psychological violence. They had complex imaginary etiologic explanations, and showed an ambivalent willingness to learn about cancer and the risks involved. They expressed their fear of transmitting doom and death, posed questions about whether their parents would have had them had they known the test result, and about what their own attitude would be toward childbearing. Thus genetic testing awoke disconcerting and unsolved questions for them. These first results can contribute to the design of supportive interventions and future clinical research.