A case of thalamic aphasia with postmortem verification

This study discusses a case of aphasia after dominant thalamic lesion, a hemorrhagic infarction. Unlike other such cases, both repeated standardized assessment and postmortem verification were available. The patient was assessed at 3 weeks and again at 9 weeks postonset. The aphasia demonstrated the syndrome common to dominant thalamic hemorrhage: fluent but paraphasic output sometimes deteriorating to jargon, comprehension less impaired than this type of output usually indicates, and the least impairment in repetition. As sometimes reported in previous cases, semantic paraphasias were more common than phonemic paraphasias. The lesion was located in the dorsal aspect of the lateral nucleus, but it extended into the pulvinar, including the anterior superior lateral aspect which has been implicated in language by previous studies. Thus, data from this case are consistent with an involvement of the dominant pulvinar in language and suggest that this role involves the semantic aspects of language.     

Behavioral conditioned responses across multiple conditioning/testing trials elicited by lithium- and amphetamine-paired flavors

The present experiment measured the pattern of conditioned responses across 10 conditioning/testing trials which were elicited by an intraoral presentation of either a lithium- or an amphetamine-paired flavor. A nonspecific conditioned response pattern of suppressed limb flicking after five conditioning trials and of suppressed scratching after six conditioning trials was supported by both drugs. Lithium-specific increased activity level after one conditioning trial and chin rubbing after two conditioning trials were observed across conditioning/testing days. The lithium-specific conditioned responses were not the result of a stronger flavor aversion, because both lithium and amphetamine produced equivalent flavor avoidance responses across the 10 conditioning/testing trials. The results support previous research which suggests that flavor aversions produced by lithium and amphetamine are produced by different unconditioned response mechanisms.     

Perceived Consensus in Estimates of the Prevalence of Driving Errors and Violations

This paper reports a study of perceptions of the prevalence of certain driving errors and violations in a large ( N = 1,656) sample of drivers. In keeping with previous research on perceptions of social consensus, it was predicted that (a) drivers who reported that they themselves regularly commit these errors and violations would make larger estimates of the percentage of other road users who regularly engage in these behaviors, by comparison with drivers who reported that they do not regularly commit these errors and violations; (b) comparison of estimates of social consensus for own behavior with the actual numbers of respondents reporting that they did or did not engage in these behaviors would show that those who do commit the behaviors regularly would overestimate consensus for their position, while those who do not commit the behaviors regularly would underestimate consensus for their position; and (c) these tendencies to overestimate or underestimate actual consensus for own position would be correlated with the perceived offensiveness to others of the behavior concerned, such that departures from actual consensus would be greater for behaviors rated as more offensive. The results provide strong support for the first two predictions but none for the third; indeed, the degree of over- or underestimation tended to be inversely related to offensiveness. In addition, there were unanticipated but highly consistent sex and age differences in perceptions of the prevalence of the target behaviors, with female and younger respondents making higher estimates than male and older respondents, respectively. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Interactionism revisited: Reflections on the continuing crisis in the personality area

The current status of the personality area is critically examined with the view that problems in the discipline voiced two decades ago are still prevalent. Recurring problems in the personality area have important ramifications for much of contemporary theoretical and applied psychology. The interactional approach to personality came to the fore in the 1970s and early 1980s as an explicit attempt to resolve a number of perceived weaknesses in the personality area. While it has become common for researchers to publicly advocate an interactional position, in practice little interactional research has been conducted recently. The historical developments of the trait and situationism models of personality research and relevant assessment issues are outlined. This history is of interest because it helps to illuminate why and how many current personality researchers continue to perpetuate problems in the personality area. The interactional model of personality is also examined. Finally, the development of an interactional model for the study of anxiety is examined as a specific example of the theoretical, research, and practical benefits of this approach.     

Coping with coping assessment: A critical review

The recent literature on self-report measures of coping reactions and strategies is reviewed and critically evaluated. Most of the coping research has focused on assessing several basic coping behaviours or reactions. These include dimensions such as task-oriented coping, emotion-oriented coping, and avoidance-oriented coping. In general, most of the coping scales that have been developed have a variety of psychometric inadequacies. This state of affairs has created at least two major problems in the coping literature: (1) The proliferation of problematic coping scales, sometimes measuring different constructs, makes it difficult to generalize from one population and/or one health problem to another. (2) Since psychometrically sound instruments are a precondition for studying the relationships among coping, personality, and health, scales with psychometric problems preclude obtaining valid and generalizable information about coping behaviour. Methodological problems in the area have seriously restricted the development of a systematic body of theory and empirical knowledge about coping.     

Financial and practical implications of counselling psychology training: A student survey

It is common knowledge that students make considerable sacrifices in order to pursue a course of study, and there is no reason to belive that counselling psychology trainees are any differnt in this regrd. The results are presented of a survey of 56 postgraduate students in the greater London area which addressed some of the practical and financial implications of counselling psychology training. While none of the respondents was registered on a BPS recognised course, the majority intended to become Chartered Counselling Psychologists. Many t rainees had considerable debts as a consequence of having to pay tution fees, for personal psychological counselling and in some cases to for the supervision of their practical work with clients. Most trainees found that they had to set up their own practice placements, which were unpaid, and had difficulty doing so. The majority of respondents devoted, on average, 30 hours per week to their studies while nearly 60% had a paid job (not related to counselling) to help them cover their expenses. Inplications are discussed for conunselling psychology training in the 1990's and beyond.     

Ratio scale measurement of the perceived lengths of lines.

In Experiments 1 and 2, magnitude and category estimates of perceived line length difference were used to rank order 36 pairs of lines with respect to the psychological length difference between the lines forming a pair. In Experiment 3 magnitude estimates of line length ratios were used to order the same 36 pairs with respect to the psychological length ratio between the lines comprising a pair. A nonmetric analysis of the rank-order of the difference and ratio judgments was used to construct a ratio scale of perceived line length. Perceived line length was found to be a power function of physical line length with an exponent of .46. In Experiments 4 and 5, magnitude and category estimates of line length similarity were obtained. A nonmetric analysis of these data indicated that similarity judgments were monotonic inverses of judgments of psychological ratios.