Some Beginnings of Word Comprehension in 6-Month-Olds

Previous studies of infants' comprehension of words estimated the onset of this ability at 9 months or later. However, these estimates were based on responses to names of relatively immobile, familiar objects. Comprehension of names referring to salient, animated figures (e.g., one's parents) may begin even earlier. In a test of this possibility, 6-month-olds were shown side-by-side videos of their parents while listening to the words "mommy" and "daddy." The infants looked significantly more at the video of the named parent. A second experiment revealed that infants do not associate these words with men and women in general. Infants shown videos of unfamiliar parents did not adjust their looking patterns in response to "mommy" and "daddy."     

Issues in group work with older lesbians

This article outlines considerations in group interventions with older lesbians. It is intended for mental health professionals who work—as leaders, supervisors, and consultants—with various kinds of groups in their professional practice, including therapy, psychoeducational, support, growth, recreational, and self-help groups. First, unique issues in the life circumstances of older lesbians are addressed. Next, five case examples are presented that illustrate the usefulness of group interventions with this population. The article concludes with recommendations for effective practice.     

Managed care and informed consent

Arguments for efficiency in health care delivery have been used to support some level of withholding of information about available treatment options from patients in managed care systems. To the extent that such arguments prevail, they may necessitate changes in the established understanding of and commitment to informed consent and the disclosure of information to patients.     

A factor analysis of the original Stanford-Binet scale

From the original Stanford-Binet scale, those items passed by between 10 and 90 per cent of a group of ten-year-old children were analyzed by the centroid method. Upon rotation, there appeared a common factor, for which two explanatory hypotheses are offered, the more tenable being that it is an effect of maturation. Primary factors tentatively identified are Number, Space, Imagery, Verbal Relations and Induction. A sixth factor apparently involves a reasoning ability and a seventh can not be interpreted.The writer is indebted to Dr. L. L. Thurstone for his interest and assistance throughout this study and to Dr. Andrew W. Brown, who made possible the collection of data at the Institute for Juvenile Research, Chicago, Illinois.     

Human responses to various conditions of water temperature

Skin-surface temperatures on thehuman hand were obtained immediately following six exposure times ranging from 5 to 60 sec. for water temperatures varying in 5° increments from 10° to 40°C. The surface of the skin was found to respond rapidly and regularly to both the temperature and time of exposure. In a second study 30 Ss exposed a hand for 5 or 30 sec. to water temperatures ranging from 10° to 45°C. and made ratings on scales of pain and comfort as well as attaching a verbal label (cold, cool, tepid, etc.) to each experience. The experience of cold became more intense over these time intervals while the experience of warmth became less, and with the threshold constant taken into account the sensations of pain and discomfort were found to follow a psychophysical power law. The usefulness of these sorts of data for interpreting the effects of noxious stimuli in basic learning studies is discussed.     

The Contribution of Music to Positive Aging: A Review

Many people value music as an important part of their everyday lives. The published literature reveals that the role of music in life is varied: it can be recreational, educational, social, emotional, therapeutic, and spiritual. The importance and relevance of music depends on the life needs and interests of the individual and the social group within which he/she lives. It is now widely recognized that music for many older people is crucial in supporting a sense of well-being. The article reviews the evidence on the role of music in promoting health and well-being, and how it can produce positive psychological and physiological benefits for individuals. The aim of this article is to increase awareness among health professionals of the importance of music and discuss how it can be used to add to older people's lives.     

Exposing racism, exploring race

Therapeutic practice cannot be neutral in the understanding of race. Living in a society that discriminates between the races affects the thoughts, feelings and experiences of all. By its emphasis on context, systemic practice offers a way to consider how social inequalities are reflected in personal dilemmas without perpetuating myths of black inferiority. A case example is used to illustrate a systemic approach which takes account of racial differences. The orientation is towards exposing the manifestations and effects of racism as well as exploring associated issues of racial identity. These ideas are linked to theoretical and research studies in related fields. A therapeutic stance of exposing racism and exploring race fits with current developments in family therapy and can be applied to the therapist's use of self.     

When is cataphoric reference recognised?

Pronouns typically have explicit antecedents in the prior discourse otherwise processing difficulty is experienced. However, it has been argued [Gordon, P. C., & Hendrick, R. (1997). Intuitive knowledge of linguistic co-reference. Cognition, 62, 325–370; Gordon, P. C., & Hendrick, R. (1998). The representation and processing of co-reference in discourse. Cognitive Science, 22, 389–424] that when a pronoun appears in a preposed subordinate clause (as in, Before she began to sing, Susan stood up), incremental interpretation is suspended and no antecedent is immediately sought, since the pronoun cannot be resolved until the main clause is encountered. We report results from an eye-tracking study showing that on encountering a pronoun that has no prior antecedent (compared to cases where there is an explicit prior antecedent), readers experience immediate difficulty whether or not the pronoun appears in a preposed subordinate clause, suggesting that attempted incremental interpretation is not suspended in these cases.     

The value of distrust

We assume that a state of distrust is the mental system’s signal that the environment is not normal—things may not be as they appear. Hence, individuals sense they should be on guard. In particular, they are likely to avoid routine strategies, ones proven to be optimal and regularly used in normal environments, because these strategies are easily anticipated by whoever may be seeking to deceive them. Conversely, a state of trust is associated with a feeling of safety. The environment is as it normally is and things really are as they appear to be. Thus, individuals see no reason to refrain from doing what they routinely do. Accordingly, we hypothesize that figuring out a new situation depends on the type of environment and the actor’s state of mind: in normal environments, where routine strategies are optimal, individuals who trust should outperform those who distrust; however, in unusual environments, where non-routine strategies are optimal, individuals who distrust should outperform those who trust. This paper reports three experiments that manipulate distrust via orienting tasks that participants perform prior to attempting to predict a series of events (Experiments 1 and 2) or solve matchstick arithmetic problems (Experiment 3). Performance success depends on discovering and implementing an appropriate rule. We found that, as predicted, the manipulation of distrust sensitized participants to the existence of non-routine contingencies, that is, contingencies that were not expected.