Autonomic responsivity during visual search of hyperactive and reading-disabled children

Heart rate and skin conductance measures, recorded during a visual search task, were compared for hyperactive, reading-disabled, hyperactive reading-disabled, and control elementary school boys. As shown in past work, basal autonomic levels did not statistically differentiate groups. In all groups, heart rate levels increased with task complexity, but more so on reward than on nonreward trials. In the intertriai interval, heart rate decelerated consistently when subjects were anticipating stimuli associated with reward, but when reward was uncertain, heart rate accelerated slightly or stayed the same. Control subjects exhibited anticipatory heart rate deceleration more consistently than did clinical subjects, especially the solely hyperactive ones. Skin conductance levels first decreased, then rose as task complexity increased, but the groups did not differ on this measure. A conditioning model is outlined to explain directional changes in heart rate.     

Reading ability and disfluency in stuttering and nonstuttering elementary school children

This study was aimed at comparing the reading abilities of elementary school children who stutter with their nonstuttering peers. Forty-four stuttering children from four grade levels were matched with a group of normally fluent controls on the basis of age, sex, and grade level. Reading ability was assessed by means of three Dutch standardized tests yielding a total of six scores. Disfluency scores during oral reading were also obtained for each subject. Results indicated significant differences between the two groups on reading rate and reading errors, but not on reading comprehension. Analysis of reading errors did not show qualitative differences among subjects: stuttering and nonstuttering children made the same kinds of reading errors. Similarly, the two groups did not differ with respect to performances at different grade levels. Among both groups of subjects performances became better with increasing grade on four of the six measures. Correlational analyses indicated that the measures of reading ability used in this study were significantly associated with frequency of disfluency for the nonstuttering children. In contrast, no significant relationship was found between reading ability and disfluency in the stuttering group, except for reading rate. Results are discussed with respect to the possible interaction between verbal performance and linguistic competence in reading ability measures, particularly for the stuttering child.     

A study of satisfactions and stresses of single women in midlife

Sixty single women 35 to 65 years old, previously married or never married, were interviewed about the satisfactions and stresses of the single status. Respondents were categorized as having high, medium, or low life satisfaction. Life satisfaction was found to be significantly correlated to such factors as good health, not being lonely, living with a female housemate, having many casual friends, and being invested in work. Half the women mentioned having sexual needs, which were or were not fulfilled. The other half stated that they did not have sexual needs. These two groups did not differ in life satisfaction. Regrets about not having had children occurred in one-quarter of the childless women, without necessarily implying low life satisfaction. Only 15% of the entire sample had low life satisfaction, a percentage similar to that found in the general population.The authors wish to express sincere appreciation to George Loewenstein for his aid with the computer analysis of the data.     

Role selection in the service of self-presentation

Two experiments were conducted to examine the general hypothesis that a person’s behavior in a social situation is a function of the kind of impression he wants to make on the other person, and that the kind of impression that he wants to make is influenced by the characteristics of the other person. Two experiments were conducted in which male subjects anticipated interaction with either an attractive female (attractive condition), an unattractive female (unattractive condition), or a female whose attractiveness was unknown (control). Each subject first chose either a high, medium, or low status role to enact during the interaction with the female. He then indicated the role which most closely corresponded to his true role. In Experiment I, role choices were significantly biased in the direction of higher status roles in the attractive condition but not in the unattractive or control conditions. These findings were partially replicated in Experiment II, but difference was shown to be a consequence of the fact that the experimenter was an attractive female. The subjects biased their reports of true role status in the direction of higher status, thus leaving little room for change in the selection of role to be enacted during the social interaction. These findings are consistent with the general hypothesis and with exchange theory predictions.     

Tobacco use, alcohol dependence, and cognitive performance

Chronic alcohol abuse has long been associated with a mild, generalized pattern of cognitive decrements. However, it is important to note that problem drinking rarely occurs in isolation from abuse of other drugs. For people dependent upon alcohol, tobacco is one of the mostly commonly coabused substances. Recent research suggests that individuals with alcohol dependency may gravitate toward tobacco use, in part, because of the positive effects of nicotine on aspects of cognitive performance that may be compromised as a consequence of chronic alcohol misuse. In this article, the author focuses on the effects of nicotine on behavioral and electrophysiological indexes of cognitive performance, and the impact of these effects on alcohol-related cognitive decrements. The author discusses implications of these findings in the context of treatment and recovery of people with alcoholism.     

The nature of connections: young fathers and their children

The purpose of this study was to examine the involvement of young fathers with their children at entry to a fatherhood program and at subsequent follow-up. Thirty-eight young fathers participated in this analysis. Using open-ended questions at intake and subsequent follow-up, they were asked to describe in their own words their relationships with their children. A thematic analysis was used to explore their self-reported statements. Three themes emerged from the analysis: Positive Emotionality, Accessibility, and Engagement. A comparison between thematic categories at intake and follow-up revealed that the most dramatic shift occurred in regard to Engagement. A third of the young fathers shifted from describing Positive Emotionality at intake to the more active process of Engagement at follow-up. The area that showed little change between intake to follow-up was related to Accessibility. These findings may suggest that for young fathers, becoming more involved with their children is a process which can be facilitated by participating in a fatherhood program.     

Physiologic and motor conditioning and generalization in children with minimal brain dysfunction

Twenty-six children diagnosed as having minimal brain dysfunctions (MBD) were compared with 26 controls in a conditinoing and generalization procedure. Skin resistance, heart rate, and muscle action potentials were monitored throughout. Success involved learning which of two tones signalled the accessibility of a penny. Whereas 92 per cent of controls reached the criterion of five successive correct responses, only 62 per cent of MBD’s did. Further, a third of the MBD’s were so maladaptive as to force procedural variations, while only a few minor irregularities occurred with the controls. Quality of performance was related to age, intelligence, and ability to discriminate and remember tones. Controls were more physiologically reactive than MBD’s, especially in skin resistance. Physiologic differentiation of the two tones was significant in both groups of children and appeared concurrently with motor differentiation. The only evidence of physiologic generalization was in the SR data of controls. The possibility that defective arousal structures, or defective coupling of arousal structures and other perceptual and motor structures, could account for the decreased physiologic reactivity, short attention spans, and poor concentration ofsome MBD’s is discussed. This research, in conformity with other laboratory studies of the brain, indicates that motivational as well as cognitive defects may be organically based.     

Demographic Variables Associated with Fear of AIDS and Homophobia

During the fall of 1985, over 500 introductory psychology students participated in a survey which employed different questionnaires to measure Fear of AIDS, Knowledge of AIDS, Homophobia, and Behavior Change. Opinions about public policy regarding AIDS and homosexuals, and background information such as sex and religious preference were also obtained. The results indicated that males who knew the most about AIDS were less fearful of the disease than were males who knew the least. No such relationship was found for females. In addition, respondents reported that they have been changing their behavior in light of the AIDS epidemic. This included some behaviors which were related to AIDS and some which were not. Finally, political and religious conservatives were generally more homophobic and fearful of AIDS than were liberals. In addition, conservatives generally preferred protection of the public as an approach to controlling the AIDS epidemic while liberals generally preferred to educate the public.