Semantic memory disorders

Semantic memory encompasses knowledge of objects, facts and words. A number of brain regions are probably involved, but the left infero-lateral temporal lobe appears to play a key role. The separability of semantic memory from episodic (or autobiographical) memory is a focus of current debate. Impaired semantic memory is a common feature of Alzheimer's disease but is invariably overshadowed by a profound deficit in episodic memory. In semantic dementia, a rarer disorder associated with focal temporal-lobe atrophy, there is selective loss of semantic memory, characterized by preservation of superordinate knowledge of words, and objects, but loss of finer-grained information. This pattern can be interpreted as a degradation of features from a distributed network of semantic representations. Following Herpes simplex encephalitis, patients sometimes show disproportionate loss of knowledge for natural kinds (e.g. animals) with relative preservation of knowledge about artefacts, this may reflect differential damage to neural systems critical for perceptual as opposed to functional features, perceptual properties being more salient in knowledge about natural kinds.     

Social interactional processes within the family: The study of the moment-by-moment family transactions in which human social development is imbedded

A strategy for the study of social interaction in the family is reviewed that places particular emphasis on those variables that have proven useful or hold promise for the identification and understanding of factors that affect human social development. First, the heavy reliance on observational data and other main features of the approach are described. Second, an attempt is made to summarize some of the more significant findings from this type of research that have added significantly to our understanding of social development within the family. Third, the major research methods used in this approach are described, as well as the research that needs to be done in order to improve the methodology. Finally, a number of major gaps in our substantive knowledge about social interaction within the family are indicated.     

On the detection of stepwise changes in a constant signal level

A stepwise change in the frequency of a continuous pure tone is taken as an element signal. The detectability of a single step is compared with the detectability of a pattern composed of two such steps in order to determine the ways in which the steps interact and how these interactions depend upon the time interval between the steps. It is shown that two positive steps separated by D msec interact by summation (d’ for two steps being greater than d’ for a single step) and that this summation is 100% even when D=100 msec. The extent of summation decreases as D is increased beyond 100 msec, leveling off at about 40% when D is near 1,000 msec. A positive step followed by a negative step (an increment) presents a more complex picture. When D=0 msec, the pattern is the null signal, and, of course, the two steps subtract completely. As D is increased, the extent of subtraction decreases, becoming zero when D is about 400 msec. Increasing D beyond 400 msec results in summation, reaching about 40% when D=2,000 msec. For D less than about 1,000 msec, the sign of the second step in a two-step signal is important: two steps of like sign summate, and two steps of unlike sign subtract. However, when the two steps are separated by about 2,000 msec, the sign of the second step is irrelevant: summation occurs, and the extent, about 40%, is the same for two steps of like sign and two steps of unlike sign. A brief theoretical discussion stresses the extant need for an information-processing theory of signal detection.     

Model building in developmental psychopathology: a pragmatic approach to understanding and intervention

Proposes model building as a pragmatic and integrative approach to developmental psychopathology. The model-building process is iterative within a program of research, cycling through the following phases of research: theory, field observation, construct definition, measurement development, construct analysis, model testing, experimental field trials, and model revision. Research on the development of and interventions for antisocial behavior is discussed as a tool for reflecting on the model-building process. The ecological framework is offered as a science-based heuristic that integrates various levels of analysis and theoretical perspectives.     

Clinical issues in mental health service delivery to refugees

Serious limitations exist in the delivery of mental health services to refugees throughout the resettlement process. Having survived harrowing physical and psychological traumas prior to reaching refugee camps, many refugees encounter mental health services in overseas camps that are characterized by fragmentation, instability, language barriers, and severe staff shortages. Refugees requiring mental health intervention after resettlement in the United States confront additional barriers, including frequent misdiagnosis, inappropriate use of interpreters and paraprofessionals, and culturally inappropriate treatment methods. Suggestions for improving mental health services for refugee populations emphasize modifying diagnostic assumptions and treatment approaches, recognizing potential problems associated with using interpreters and paraprofessionals, and examining the role of consultation, prevention, and outreach services in addressing refugee mental health concerns.     

Differential hemispheric mediation of nonverbal visual stimuli.

Studies employing schematic faces of three features explored the role of the left hemisphere as an analytic processor in difficult discriminations and the role of the right hemisphere in easy gestalt matches. In a discrimination task, the successively presented members of a stimulus pair differed in all three features. When both stimuli went to the same visual field there was a Visual Field X Judgments interaction; judgments same were processed faster in the left visual field. When a test stimulus differing on all three features from a previously memorized target face was matched to the latter, both judgments same and different were made faster for stimuli in the left visual field. However, when the test stimulus and the memory items differed on only one feature the right field proved superior for both judgments same and different.     

Humanistic education: The challenge to the counsellor

Counselling has long been considered to be an ancillary service in American education, its general purpose being to assure that the student is free enough from personal concerns and emotional problems to concentrate upon the objective of education, which is the development of the intellect (or cognitive abilities). Humanistic education questions this goal, and proposes that the objective of education should be the development of the student as a whole person, or the development of self-actualising persons. Counsellors, ideally, have always held this as their goal. When education adopts it also, then counselling will not be an ancillary activity, but will be central to the educative process.