Laterality effects in perceived spatial location of hallucination-like voices

Aydin and colleagues reported a reversal of physiological 'right-ear advantage' in a group of right-handed patients with schizophrenia, using an auditory acuity test. In schizophrenia, auditory hallucinations may appear to be spatially located inside or outside the patient's head. Here we show, using virtual acoustic space techniques, that normal right-handed subjects have a right-ear advantage for correctly locating the 'source' of hallucination-like voices as from either inside or outside the head. We propose a model for understanding lateralised, external hallucinations in schizophrenia based upon reversal of normal cortical asymmetry for auditory spatial processing.     

Stress symptoms of two groups before and after the terrorist attacks of 9/11/01

This study investigated stress symptoms before and after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. Responses to the Smith Stress Symptoms Inventory were compared for Chicago area college students assessed 1 to 5 weeks after 9/11 (n=149) and a comparable sample tested up to 5 months prior to 9/11 (n=320). Post-9/11 participants scored higher on Attention Deficit. Contrary to prior research, post-9/11 participants did not score higher on distress, including Worry, Autonomic Arousal/Anxiety, Striated Muscle Tension, Depression, and Anger. It is suggested that those indirectly exposed to a terrorist attack may display traditional symptoms of distress and arousal (as suggested by previous research). Later symptoms of attention deficit and distancing may emerge. This work was based on independent pre- and post-9/11 samples and must be replicated longitudinally as a test-retest to draw conclusions regarding change over time.     

Making faces: testing the relation between child behavior problems and mothers' interpretations of child emotion expressions

We examined the relations between preschool boys' behavior problems and mothers' interpretations of children's emotion expressions. A sample of 31 mothers of oppositional boys and 28 control mothers responded to standard stimuli depicting child emotional reactions to maternal control attempts; mothers were instructed to think of the stimuli as either (a) their own child or (b) an unfamiliar child. Mothers of oppositional boys were more likely to generate negative interpretations than were control mothers when thinking of their own children; however, this difference did not generalize to the explicitly unfamiliar child condition. Mothers of oppositional boys demonstrated negative and comparison mothers demonstrated positive interpretive tendencies toward their own children. Findings suggest that child emotion cues may trigger biased maternal cognitions even in the absence of child misbehavior.     

The impact of rock videos and music with suicidal content on thoughts and attitudes about suicide

In Experiment 1, 133 college student volunteers watched a rock music video with or without suicidal content and then completed written measures assessing mood, priming of suicide-related thoughts, perceptions of personal risk, sensitivity to suicidality in others, and attitudes/beliefs about suicide. In Experiment 2, 104 college student volunteers listened to rock music with either suicidal or neutral content and then completed measures similar to Experiment 1, with the addition of a hopelessness measure. In both experiments, participants exposed to suicidal content wrote more scenarios with suicide-related themes in a projective storytelling task than those exposed to nonsuicidal content. However, there were virtually no group differences on explicit measures of affect, attitudes, and perceptions. Music and videos with suicide content appeared to prime implicit cognitions related to suicide but did not affect variables associated with increased suicide risk.     

The Prospective and Retrospective Memory Questionnaire (PRMQ): Normative data and latent structure in a large non-clinical sample

The Prospective and Retrospective Memory Questionnaire (PRMQ; Smith, Della Sala, Logie, & Maylor, 2000) was developed to provide a self-report measure of prospective and retrospective memory slips in everyday life. It consists of sixteen items, eight asking about prospective memory failures, and eight concerning retrospective failures. The PRMQ was administered to a sample of the general adult population (N = 551) ranging in age between 17 and 94. Ten competing models of the latent structure of the PRMQ were derived from theoretical and empirical sources and were tested using confirmatory factor analysis. The model with the best fit had a tripartite structure and consisted of a general memory factor (all items loaded on this factor) plus orthogonal specific factors of prospective and retrospective memory. The reliabilities (internal consistency) of the Total scale and the Prospective and Retrospective scales were acceptable: Cronbach's alpha was 0.89, 0.84, and 0.80, respectively. Age and gender did not influence PRMQ scores, thereby simplifying the presentation and interpretation of normative data. To ease interpretation of scores on the PRMQ, tables are presented for conversion of raw scores on the Total scale and Prospective and Retrospective scales to T scores (confidence limits on scores are also provided). In addition, tables are provided to allow users to assess the reliability and abnormality of differences between an individual's scores on the Prospective and Retrospective scales.     

Providing social support may be more beneficial than receiving it: results from a prospective study of mortality

This study examines the relative contributions of giving versus receiving support to longevity in a sample of older married adults. Baseline indicators of giving and receiving support were used to predict mortality status over a 5-year period in the Changing Lives of Older Couples sample. Results from logistic regression analyses indicated that mortality was significantly reduced for individuals who reported providing instrumental support to friends, relatives, and neighbors, and individuals who reported providing emotional support to their spouse. Receiving support had no effect on mortality once giving support was taken into consideration. This pattern of findings was obtained after controlling for demographic, personality, health, mental health, and marital-relationship variables. These results have implications for understanding how social contact influences health and longevity.     

Interpersonal problems,personality pathology,and social adjustment after cognitive therapy for depression

The authors examined the level and structure of the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems-Circumplex version (IIP-C; L. M. Horowitz, L. E. Alden, J. S. Wiggins, & A. L. Pincus, 2000) before and after 20 sessions of acute-phase cognitive therapy for depression (N = 118), as well as associations with the Schedule for Nonadaptive and Adaptive Personality (L. A. Clark, 1993b) and the Social Adjustment Scale--Self-Report version (M. M. Weissman & S. Bothwell, 1976). Interpersonal problems had a 3-factor structure (Interpersonal Distress, Love, and Dominance), with the latter 2 factors approximating a circumplex, both before and after therapy. Interpersonal Distress decreased and social adjustment increased with therapy, but the Love and Dominance dimensions were relatively stable, similar to personality constructs. Social adjustment related negatively to Interpersonal Distress but not to Love or Dominance. Personality pathology related broadly to Interpersonal Distress and discriminantly to Love and Dominance. These findings support the reliability and validity of the IIP-C and are discussed in the context of personality theory and measurement.     

Prototypes in category learning: the effects of category size, category structure, and stimulus complexity

Although research in categorization has sometimes been motivated by prototype theory, recent studies have favored exemplar theory. However, some of these studies focused on small, poorly differentiated categories composed of simple, 4-dimensional stimuli. Some analyzed the aggregate data of entire groups. Some compared powerful multiplicative exemplar models to less powerful additive prototype models. Here, comparable prototype and exemplar models were fit to individual-participant data in 4 experiments that sampled category sets varying in size, level of category structure, and stimulus complexity (dimensionality). The prototype model always fit the observed data better than the exemplar model did. Prototype-based processes seemed especially relevant when participants learned categories that were larger or contained more complex stimuli.