Studies of nervous system sensitivity in children with learning and attention disorders

Clinically referred children, diagnosed as having learning or attention disorders, with or without hyperactivity, were found to vary widely on a measure of nervous system sensitivity recommended by the Pavlovian investigator Vasilev. That is, the children were contrasted on their mean press and release reaction times (RTs) to four tones, ranging from soft (55 db) to very loud (100 db), with the expectation that some would be able to maintain a parallel separation of press and release RT gradients across all intensity levels (strength), whereas others would show convergence or overlap of the gradients at higher intensities (weakness). Contrary to expectation, girls did not have weaker or more sensitive nervous systems than boys, although the girls rated themselves as less tolerant of intense stimuli. Significantly more of the children diagnosed as hyperactive had weaker nervous systems. The boys also participated in a blind crossover study contrasting placebo and methylphenidate effects; the prescribing physician, who was not informed of the child’s nervous system classification, adjusted the dosage levels so that subjects with weaker nervous systems were titrated at higher dosage levels than those with stronger nervous systems. Gray (1964) suggested an explanation of this paradox, i.e., that the weak nervous system requires a more intense stimulus than the strong to reach the threshold of concentration (or focused attention), whereas for other thresholds the strong requires a more intense stimulus than the weak. Gray’s theory was further supported by the finding that children typed as weak (unmedicated) did not show as great facilitation in RT with reward (moderate stimulus) as did those typed as strong.     

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.     

Reliability of headache diagnosis

The literature on diagnosis of head pain associated with psychological factors indicates that these diagnoses rely almost exclusively on self-report criteria. The reliability of self-report criteria for diagnosis of headache has not been previously reported. The present study investigated the reliability of headache diagnosis based on the criteria suggested by the Ad Hoc Committee on Classification of Headache. The results indicated modest rater agreement. It was concluded that the headache literature may be confounded by unreliable diagnostic procedures. Improved methods of classifying headache types using self-report, behavioral, and physiological measures during pain-free and headache states are required before adequate reliability of headache classification can be achieved. It is suggested that reliable and valid measurement and classification would eliminate much of the confusion currently existing in the headache literature.     

Book reviews

The Culture of Religious Pluralism Richard E. Wentz, 1998 Boulder, Colorado & Oxford, UK: Westview Press 130 pp., £50.00 (hb), £10.50 (hb) ISBN 0–8133–2644–3 (hb), ISBN 0–8133–2644–3 (pb)

Religious Diversity and Human Rights Irene Bloom, J. Paul Martin & Wayne L. Proudfoot, eds., 1997 New York: Columbia University Press 355 pp., US$57.00, £40.00 (hb), US$21.00, £15.00 (pb) ISBN 0–231–10416–2 (hb), ISBN 0–231–10417–0 (pb)

New Religions as Global Cultures: Making the Human Sacred Irving Hexham & Karla Poewe, 1997 Boulder, CO: Westview Press xiv + 194 pp., £45.50 (hb), £13.00 (pb) ISBN: 0–8133–2507–2 (hb), ISBN 0–8133–2508–0 (pb)

Contemporary American Religion: An Ethnographic Reader Penny Edgell Becker & Nancy L. Eiesland, eds., 1997 Walnut Creek, CA: Alta Mira ress 272 pp., £19.99 ISBN 0–7619–9196–4

Sacred Tensions: Modernity and Religious Transformation in Malaysia Raymond L. M. Lee & Susan E. Ackerman, 1998 Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press ix + 172 pp., US$29.95 (hb) ISBN 1–57003–167–3

Does Christianity Cause War? David Martin, 1997 Oxford: Clarendon Press x + 226 pp., £30.00 (hb) ISBN 0–19–829267–8

Faith and Doubt: Religion and Secularisation in Literature from Wordsworth to Larkin R. L. Brett, 1997 Macon, GA: Mercer University Press 261 pp., £25.00, US$40.00 ISBN: 0 86554 544 8

The Search for Common Ground: What Unites and Divides American Catholics James D. Davidson, Andrea S. Williams, Richard A. Lamanna, Jan Stenftenagel, Kathleen Maas Wiegert, William J. Whalen, Patricia Wittberg, S.C., 1997 Huntington Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor Press 287 pp., US$24.95 (plus shipping)

The Psychology of Religious Behaviour, Belief and Experience Benjamin Beit‐Hallahmi & Michael Argyle, 1997 London: Routledge xii + 318 pp., £40.00 (hb), £14.99 (pb) ISBN 0–415–12330–5 (hb), ISBN 0 415 12331 3 (pb)

God's Daughters: Evangelical Women and the Power of Submission R. Marie Griffith, 1997 Berkeley, CA: University of California Press xi + 275 pp., US$24.95 (hb) ISBN 0–520–20764–5

Restoring the Kingdom: The Radical Christianity of the House Church Movement Andrew Walker, 1998 Guildford: Eagle 416 pp., £9.99 (pb) ISBN 0–86347–160–9

The Faith of the Managers: When Management Becomes Religion Stephen Pattison, 1997 London & Washington: Cassell 188 pp., £14.99 (pb) ISBN: 0–304–70144–0

Jerusalem: What Makes for Peace! A Palestinian Christian Contribution to Peacemaking Naim Ateek, Cedar Duaybis & Marla Schrader, eds., 1997 London: Melisende xxix + 241 pp., £12.50 (pb) ISBN 1–901764–00–1

Western Scholarship and the History of Palestine Michael Prior, CM, ed., 1998 London: Melisende xvi +111 pp., £8.50 (pb) ISBN 1–901764–02–8

Rites of Passage in Contemporary Africa: Interaction between Christian and African Traditional Religions James L. Cox, ed. Series: Religion in Contemporary Africa Cardiff: Cardiff Academic Press, 1998 259 pp., £15.95 (pb) ISBN 1–899025–06–5

Between Cultures: Continuity and Change in the Lives of Young Asians Muhammad Anwar, 1998 London: Routledge 212 pp., £47.50 (hb), £14.99 (pb) ISBN 0–415–04647–5 (hb), ISBN 0–415–04648–3 (pb)

Historical Dictionary of Hinduism Bruce M. Sullivan, 1997 Lanham, Maryland & London: The Scarecrow Press xvii + 345 pp., US$49.00 ISBN 0–8108–3327–1

Religious Education: An Interpretive Approach Robert Jackson, 1997 London: Hodder & Stoughton 156 pp., £12.99 ISBN 0–340–68870‐X

The Division of Consciousness: The Secret Afterlife of the Human Psyche Peter Novak, 1997 Charlottesville, VA: Hampton Roads Publishing Company 258 pp., US$14.95 ISBN 1–57174–053–8

Religion Without Beliefs: Essays in Pantheist Theology, Comparative Religion and Ethics Frederic Lamond, 1997 London: Janus Publishing 184 pp., £7.95 (pb) ISBN 1–85756–341–7

Hiding Mark C. Taylor, 1997 Chicago: The University of Chicago Press 354 pp., US$29.95 ISBN 0–226–79159–9     

Experiencing double-bind conflict: A semantic differential assessment of interaction perceptions

Four interaction-perception perspectives of the fictitious target of a double-bind conflict were provided by four groups of subjects. The perspectives included perceptions of a daughter about herself and her father (the double-bind source), and her estimates of his perceptions of both himself and her. As predicted, the target saw herself as weak but “good”, and as cooperative and highly frustrated, while attributing all the opposite characteristics to the source, who was seen as strong but “bad”, and uncooperative and not frustrated. Further, it was found that she believed he saw himself as strong and very good, but frustrated and moderately cooperative. These observations are consistent with a hypothesis that double-bind experiences result in frustration and mixed feelings toward one's self and the source of the dilemma. It was also concluded that the target's belief that her father would not recognize her weakness, nor her cooperativeness, nor her frustration, and would disinterestedly evaluate her as neither good nor bad resulted from the inconsistent and contradictory communications which had contributed to the double bind.     

The Daily Stress Inventory: Validity and effect of repeated administration

The Daily Stress Inventory (DSI) is a self-report measure of minor stressors which is administered daily. One test of the validity of a measure of daily stress is its sensitivity to the difference between the stressors of workdays and those of weekends. A second concern in establishing the validity of a test administered repeatedly is that self-monitoring may influence the obtained scores. The present study investigated these two issues using a sample of 70 community adults who reported full-time employment. These subjects provided a week of self-monitoring with the DSI. The results indicated that the DSI was sensitive to the difference between weekends and weekdays. The analyses of the effect of repeated administration suggested that the first day of self-monitoring may differ from the other days of self-monitoring. When the first day was eliminated, there was no significant difference among the days of self-monitoring, and the difference between the weekdays and the weekends remained. The data suggest that the DSI is a valid measure of the construct of daily stress and that any influence of repeated self-monitoring with the scale may be easily resolved.     

FACILITATING TRANSITION TIMES WITH HANDICAPPED PRESCHOOL CHILDREN: A COMPARISON BETWEEN PEER-MEDIATED AND ANTECEDENT PROMPT PROCEDURES

We examined the effects of a peer-mediated versus an antecedent prompt condition on the rate of independent movement and appropriate behavior of handicapped preschool children during three classroom transition times. Using an alternating treatments design, results showed that each treatment condition yielded increases in target behaviors; however, the antecedent prompt condition was superior during all three transition settings. In addition, teacher prompts to these children were significantly reduced during the intervention conditions, indicating that the children were making these transitions more independently.     

A honeycomb data array for simulating visual processes using the C programming language

A method of simulating visual processes is formulated as a C language program. The two-dimensional image array has a honeycomb structure, in which each cell has six immediate neighbors. A general iterative simulation method that represents changes in time is used. The method is illustrated with tests of Horn’s (1974) model of the retinex lightness process of Land and McCann (1971) and of a modified form of that model.     

On the time course of letter perception: A masked priming ERP investigation

In an experiment measuring event-related brain potentials (ERPs), single-letter targets were preceded by briefly presented masked letter primes. Name and case consistency were manipulated across primes and targets so that the prime was either the same letter as the target (or not), and was presented in the same case as the target (or not). Separate analyses were performed for letters whose upper- and lowercase forms had similar features (or not). The results revealed an effect of prime-target visual similarity between 120 and 180 msec, an effect of case-specific letter identity between 180 and 220 msec, and an effect of case-independent letter identity between 220 and 300 msec. We argue that these ERP results reflect processing in a hierarchical system for letter recognition that involves both case-specific and case-independent representations of alphabetic stimuli.