Reading-disabled hyperactive children: A distinct subgroup of Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity?

Mixed hyperactive/reading-disabled children, selected from a large sample of hyperactive children, were compared to pure hyperactive children on demographic, behavioral, and neuropsychological measures. Children in the Mixed group were reading-disabled relative to age and IQ; those in the Pure group had achievement scores that were average relative to age and IQ. The Mixed group was significantly older than the Pure group; there were no differences in gender, race, or socioeconomic status. Behaviorally, the groups did not differ significantly on teacher ratings or on psychiatric ratings of aggression. The Mixed group had a significantly higher Performance IQ, whereas the Pure group had a significantly higher Verbal IQ and performed better on measures of cognitive impulsivity. Several other measures failed to distinguish the groups. The data give minimal support to the notion that pure hyperactive and mixed hyperative/reading-disabled children constitute distinct subgroups of Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity.This research was supported in part by Mental Health Clinical Research Grant MH-30906 and by U. S. Public Health Service Grant MH-18579.     

Instrumentalness and expressiveness: Predictors of heterosexual relationship satisfaction

The purpose of this study was to identify the extent to which stage of relationship development moderated the link between instrumentalness, expressiveness, and relationship satisfaction. Three hundred ninety three subjects indicated that they were either casually dating, seriously dating, or engaged. Results revealed that although relationship stage predicted satisfaction for both males and females, it did not interact significantly with instrumentalness and expressiveness and thus, did not serve a moderating function. Results also indicated that for males, self-perceptions of instrumentalness and expressiveness, as well as partner's perceived expressiveness predicted relationship satisfaction. For females, partner's perceived instrumentalness and expressiveness significantly predicted relationship satisfaction. Discussion centered on the different findings for males and females, and on implications for future research concerning the influence of instrumentalness and expressiveness on dyadic interaction.     

A time-limited group for patients with HIV infection and their partners

This paper presents the authors' experience coleading a time-limited group treatment for HIV-positive patients and their partners. Because of the impact of this disease not only on the infected person, but also on his or her partner, a couples group format was used. This 12-week group consisted of four couples, heterosexual and homosexual, of diverse ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. While the group focused primarily on couples' issues, individual concerns, conflicts, and experiences relating to the HIV diagnosis were also explored. Clinical vignettes demonstrate the process and benefits of this group experience.     

Semantic operations deficits in sentence comprehension

Summary The ability of aphasic patients to comprehend sentences involving the combination of two linguistic operations was tested in a sentence/picture matching task. Sentences included affirmative, negative, uncompared and comparative types. Aphasic patients had significantly greater difficulty in understanding negative-comparative constructions than sentence types involving only a single operation. Comparison of the responses of the aphasic patients with data obtained in a perceptual comparison task revealed that a subgroup of patients had marked difficulty in integrating information in both tasks. The results are interpreted as an indication that some aphasic patients are especially disturbed in their ability to combine several operations in the construction of semantic representations for sentences. It is further argued that this deficit may extend to an inability to integrate information in the perceptual/spatial domain, as suggested by Luria in his discussion of the syndrome of semantic aphasia.The research reported here was supported by NIH research grant 14099 to The Johns Hopkins University. We would like to thank Dr. Annamaria Basili, Chief, Department of Audiology and Speech Pathology, Fort Howard Veterans Administration Medical Center, for permission to test the patients. We are indebted to the entire staff of that department for their continued cooperation, and for their many useful comments on the research reported. We also thank Michael Giordano, Conrad Selnick, and Susan Baisley for their assistance in data analysis. A version of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of B.A.B.B.L.E., Niagara Falls, Canada, March, 1979     

Mood and fluency: The case of pronunciation ease,liking and trust

We explored the impact of mood on the judgemental consequences of word pronounceability in six Experiments (1 preregistered, total N = 1183). Positive and negative mood was induced via video clips (all but Experiment 4) and subliminal affective primes (Experiment 4). Additionally, participants were presented with easy- and difficult-to-pronounce letter strings. These were framed as target words to be judged for liking (Experiments 1–2), as names of eBay sellers to be judged for trustworthiness (Experiments 3–5), or as either seller names or passwords to provoke opposing interpretations of pronunciation fluency (Experiment 6). While pronounceability showed a robust effect across experiments, mood did not modulate the judgemental use of (Experiments 1–4), the correction for (Experiment 5) and the interpretation (Experiment 6) of word pronounceability. In conclusion, the judgemental effects of pronounceability persist despite the presence of more objective and task-pertinent cues, resist judgemental correction and remain unaffected by affective states.     

Well-Being Indicators and Convergence Across Italian Regions

This article studies convergence across Italian regions by means of two composite indicators of socio-economic progress reflecting the multidimensional nature of human well-being. The first composite indicator includes, other than household disposable income in Italy, two sub-indicators regarding health and education; the second composite indicator considers, in addition to those considered by the former, three further sub-indicators relating to the quality of the socio-institutional context, age and gender disparities in the labor market and regional competitiveness. The data base of the 17 variables or indexes used to construct the six abovementioned sub-indicators cover the period from 1998 to 2008. We assess the existence of both σ and γ- convergence; the latter computed by means of Kendall′s index. Consistent with the findings in other European countries that also use composite economic and quality of life indicators we find evidence of regional σ-convergence in well-being, but do not observe significant processes of intra-distributional mobility. In other words, while dispersion across Italian regions in terms of well-being levels declined in the period, the regional ranking remained substantially unchanged.     

Group status drives majority and minority integration preferences

This research examined preferences for national- and campus-level assimilative and pluralistic policies among Black and White students under different contexts, as majority- and minority-group members. We targeted attitudes at two universities, one where 85% of the student body is White, and another where 76% of students are Black. The results revealed that when a group constituted the majority, its members generally preferred assimilationist policies, and when a group constituted the minority, its members generally preferred pluralistic policies. The results support a functional perspective: Both majority and minority groups seek to protect and enhance their collective identities.