Mutual visual regard during mother-infant play.

Mutual visual regard was observed in 48 mother-infant dyads during a 6-min. play session. Infant-mother dyads containing 4 mo. -olds displayed significantly more mutual visual regard than dyads containing 6- or 8-mo.-olds. In addition, the more time infants spent in face-to-face interaction with mother, the more smiling they engaged in. No sex difference were observed.     

Effects of parent enhancement therapy on the treatment outcome and generalization of a parent training program

The purpose of the present study was to examine the effectiveness of parent enhancement training in facilitating treatment and maintenance effects of a parent training program. Seventeen mothers and their clinic-referred noncompliant children were assigned to either a parent training alone group or a parent training plus parent enhancement therapy group. Fifteen mothers and their nonclinic children served as a quasi-control group. All clinic-referred mother-child dyads were treated individually by teaching the mother to reward compliance and other prosocial behavior and to use time-out for noncompliance. In addition, mothers in the parent training plus parent enhancement group also received treatment related to the following areas: parent's perception of their child's behavior, parent's personal adjustment, parent's marital adjustment, and parent's extrafamilial relationships. Assessment consisted of four home observations by independent observers prior to treatment, after treatment, and at a 2-month follow-up. The data indicated that the parent training plus parent enhancement therapy was more effective than parent training alone in changing child deviant behavior at posttreatment and in maintaining child compliance, child deviant behavior, parental rewards and parent contingent attention at follow-up. The control group did not change over the three assessment periods.     

Personality Correlates of Anorexic Symptomatology in Female Undergraduates

In this study, the authors examined personality correlates (obsessiveness, dependency, self-directed hostility, and assertiveness) of anorexic symptomatology in female undergraduates. Regression analyses demonstrated that only obsessiveness and emotional reliance on another person (a measure of dependency) were related to anorexic symptoms, accounting for 19% of the variance. These findings are discussed in relation to S. Orbach's (1985, 1986) and other researchers' concept of the anorexic personality. Implications for therapeutic interventions and directions for future research are provided.     

The horizon-ratio relation as information for relative size in pictures

The horizon-ratio relation was found to be an effective source of information for relative size in pictures under some conditions: when the difference in image size of depicted “same real size” objects was not too great (Experiment 1), and when the horizon line was not too high or too low in the picture (Experiment 2). The latter finding seemed to be linked to the observers’ identification of the horizontal line as the horizon (and not as the edge of a finite surface). In addition, individual patterns of response were remarkably systematic even in the absence of a horizon, or any other pictorial information, (Experiment 3). It is suggested that in this case observers imposed a horizon on the picture on which to base their relative size judgments, possibly based on the observer’s own eye level or on the content of the picture. It is concluded that although the horizon-ratio relation provides the same kind of information as that available in the optic arrays from real scenes, pictorial information requires the satisfaction of additional constraints in order to be fully effective.     

The time course of mood-induced decrements in colour-naming of threat-related words

The current study investigated the relationship between processing biases towards affectively negative words and a film-based mood manipulation procedure. Subjects either watched a film about nuclear war or sat alone for ten minutes and then colournamed sets of negative, positive and neutral words. Testing occurred after one of three possible time intervals. Impaired colour-naming of negative words was found both immediately and five minutes after watching the film. There was no consistent pattern of colour-naming impairments for the positive words. It was found that, when baseline Stroop performance was taken into account, and the semantic priming effect caused by stimulus homogeneity was controlled for, the resulting impairment in the colournaming of negative words was accounted for by state anxiety levels alone, and not the previously found interaction of state and trait anxiety.     

Organizational context,sponsorship and policy research output

Over the last several decades a significant capacity to produce policy research has been institutionalized across government and academe and around their borders. Diverse organizational settings and sponsors yield a wide array of forms of policy research and analysis. Yet little is known about the influence of organizational context and sponsorship on research output. Implications for knowledge accumulation and the use of research in policy-making also are uncertain. In this study a random sample of 1,291 cases of policy research and analysis from 1975–1990 and the organizational conditions surrounding their production is described. Log linear analysis suggests that organization and sponsorship are directly related to the type and breadth of research performed. A considerable range of two-way interactions link specific producer and sponsor types to characteristics of research output. He is the author ofThe Impact of Policy Analysis (University of Pittsburgh Press) and assorted journal articles.     

Factors to consider in assessing adult litigants' complaints of childhood sexual abuse

Based on limited research, clinical and forensic experience and observations, factors hypothesized to be potentially useful in forensic evaluation of claims of decades-delayed discovery of childhood sexual abuse are delineated. Factors considered include: (1) alleged victim factors, (2) memory factors, (3) therapist/examiner factors, (4) external influences on the abuse account, (5) evidential patterns. Differences among a limited sample of cases seen by the author are described. Present knowledge does not provide a basis for reliable determination of whether a specific recollection is true or false, based only upon the claimant's account. At this time, there is no empirically validated method for discriminating valid from invalid cases. Experts testifying for either side must exercise caution and restraint as it may be premature and even unethical in many cases to propound opinions about the validity or invalidity of the memories.     

Change in affective state assessed by impaired color-naming of threat-related words

This study investigated the effects of mood induction on Stroop color-naming times for threat-related words. The subjects’ task was to color-name sets of threat-related words and affectively neutral matched control words both before and after mood-induction. Subjects were shown a short film about the medical effects of nuclear war (negative affect manipulation), a humorous cartoon, or no film. A significant and highly reliable color-naming decrement of the threat-related words was observed only after the negative affect manipulation. This indicates that the attentional bias towards the processing of threat-related material observed in clinically anxious or high Trait-Anxious subjects can be induced in initially nonanxious subjects. An incidental recall task included in the procedure provided no evidence of mood state dependent recall.     

Cumulation of the tendency to segregate auditory streams: Resetting by changes in location and loudness

In four experiments, the accumulation, over time, of a tendency to hear separate high and low streams in a sequence of high (H) and low (L) tones, presented in a galloping rhythm (HLH-HLH-…), was studied. Each trial was composed of two parts, an induction sequence, then a test sequence, with no break between them. The test sequence was always heard at the far left. When the induction sequence and the test sequence were identical, the presence of the induction sequence increased the tendency for the test sequence to split into two streams. However, when the sequences differed in location (cued by differences in interaural timing or intensity over headphones and by loudspeaker placement in a free field) or when they differed in loudness, the accumulation of the segregative tendency was reset, and the test sequence sounded more integrated. When the induction sequence changed in location or loudness in gradual steps toward the value of the test sequence, resetting was much less. It appears that the accumulation of information about streams in different frequency regions is sensitive to sudden changes in parameters, even when they affect the frequency regions equally. This prevents the system from accumulating data across unrelated events.