The hoarding dimension of OCD: psychological comorbidity and the five-factor personality model

Although hoarding has been associated with several psychological disorders, it is most frequently linked to obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The present study assessed hoarding obsessions and compulsions in 204 individuals with OCD, and evaluated how hoarding was related to obsessive-compulsive symptom severity, psychological comorbidity, and personality as measured by the five-factor model. Results indicated that hoarding in OCD is a dimensional variable that is positively associated with dysphoria, total number of lifetime Axis I disorders, and lifetime histories of bipolar I, PTSD, and body dysmorphic disorder. Hoarding was negatively correlated with the NEO-Personality Inventory-Revised (NEO-PI-R) factor of Conscientiousness and positively associated with the NEO-PI-R factor of Neuroticism. When all personality and psychopathology variables were entered into a regression equation, dysphoria, bipolar II disorder, Conscientiousness, age, and Extraversion emerged as significant predictors of hoarding severity. Recommendations are made for clinicians and for future research.     

A novel view of between-categories contrast and within-category assimilation

This research manipulated the portion of a category distribution that is misclassified by the optimal classifier and investigated the impact on assessments of category attributes. Three separate studies manipulated the direction of overlap, the extent of overlap, and the relative base rate of the comparison category. All 3 studies produced large between-categories contrast and within-category assimilation. As expected, these effects were enhanced in conditions in which the optimal classifier misclassified a larger portion of the target category. Study 4 demonstrated that intercategory overlap in the absence of overt classification does not produce contrast and assimilation. Ironically, optimizing categorization accuracy can produce highly inaccurate beliefs about category attributes.     

An islet of social ability in Asperger Syndrome: judging social attributes from faces

We asked adults with Asperger Syndrome to judge pictorial stimuli in terms of certain social stereotypes to evaluate to what extent they have access to this type of social knowledge. Sixteen adults with Asperger Syndrome and 24 controls, matched for age and intelligence, were presented with sets of faces, bodies and objects, which had to be rated on a 7-point scale in terms of trustworthiness, attractiveness, social status, and age, or, in the case of objects, price. Despite impaired performance on two important aspects of social cognition (second-order mentalizing and face recognition) the social judgements of the individuals with Asperger Syndrome were just as competent and consistent as those of their matched controls, with only one exception: there was a trend for them to be less able to judge the attractiveness of faces if they were the same sex. We explain this difference in terms of a weakness in mentalizing, specifically the ability to take a different point of view: While all other stereotypic attributions could be made from an egocentric point of view, judging the attractiveness of faces of one's own sex requires taking the perspective of someone of the opposite sex, a challenge for people with mentalizing problems. We conclude that individuals with Asperger Syndrome show preserved aspects of social knowledge, as revealed in the attribution of stereotypes to pictures of people. These findings suggest that there are dissociable subcomponents to social cognition and that not all of these are compromised in Asperger Syndrome.     

Consequences of lexical stress on learning an artificial lexicon

Four experiments examined effects of lexical stress on lexical access for recently learned words. Participants learned artificial lexicons (48 words) containing phonologically similar items and were tested on their knowledge in a 4-alternative forced-choice (4AFC) referent-selection task. Lexical stress differences did not reduce confusions between cohort items: KAdazu and kaDAzeI were confused with one another in a 4AFC task and in gaze fixations as often as BOsapeI and BOsapaI. However, lexical stress did affect the relative likelihood of stress-initial confusions when words were embedded in running nonsense speech. Words with medial stress, regardless of initial vowel quality, were more prone to confusions than words with initial stress. The authors concluded that non-initial stress, particularly when wor segmentation is difficult, may serve as "noise" that alters lexical learning and lexical access.     

Making heads turn: the effect of familiarity and stimulus rotation on a gender-classification task

Recent work has demonstrated that facial familiarity can moderate the influence of inversion when completing a configural processing task. Here, we examine whether familiarity interacts with intermediate angles of orientation in the same way that it interacts with inversion. Participants were asked to make a gender classification to familiar and unfamiliar faces shown at seven angles of orientation. Speed and accuracy of performance were assessed for stimuli presented (i) as whole faces and (ii) as internal features. When presented as whole faces, the task was easy, as revealed by ceiling levels of accuracy and no effect of familiarity or angle of rotation on response times. However, when stimuli were presented as internal features, an influence of facial familiarity was evident. Unfamiliar faces showed no increase in difficulty across angle of rotation, whereas familiar faces showed a marked increase in difficulty across angle, which was explained by significant linear and cubic trends in the data. Results were interpreted in terms of the benefit gained from a mental representation when face processing was impaired by stimulus rotation.     

Personality characteristics associated with susceptibility to false memories

This study examined whether certain personality characteristics are associated with susceptibility to false memories. Participants first answered questions from the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator in order to measure various personality characteristics. They then watched a video excerpt, the simulated eyewitness event. They were next encouraged to lie about the videotaped event during an interview. A week later, some participants recognized confabulated events as being from the video. Two personality characteristics in particular--the introversion-extroversion and thinking-feeling dimensions--were associated with susceptibility to false memories.     

The influence of augmented feedback and prior learning on the acquisition of a new bimanual coordination pattern

The present research examined two variables regarding the acquisition of a new bimanual coordination pattern: the role of previous experience and the nature of augmented feedback. Two groups of participants acquired a new coordination pattern (135 degrees relative phase) following two sessions of practice of another novel pattern (90 degrees relative phase). Transfer of learning in these groups was compared to two groups that had not previously learned a new pattern, but were nevertheless influenced by coordination patterns that are intrinsic to the task of bimanual relative timing (in-phase, 0 degrees, and anti-phase, 180 degrees). The findings revealed that new learning overshadowed the influence of the intrinsic patterns. Learning was also greatly affected by augmented feedback: dynamic, on-line pursuit tracking information was more effective in transfer than static, terminal feedback. Implications of these findings regarding theoretical constructs in motor learning are discussed.     

Short-Term Assessment of Risk and Treatability (START): The case for a new structured professional judgment scheme

The Short-Term Assessment of Risk and Treatability (START) is a new structured professional judgment scheme intended to inform multiple risk domains relevant to everyday psychiatric clinical practice (e.g. risk to others, suicide, self-harm, self-neglect, substance abuse, unauthorized leave, and victimization). The article describes the processes involved in establishing an interdisciplinary approach to risk assessment and management. The authors present a review of the rationale for START, including the value of dynamic variables, the importance of strengths, and the extent to which clinicians must be attentive to multiple risk domains, reflecting theoretical and scientific evidence of the overlap among risks. Using the development, validation, and implementation of START as an example, the authors describe the processes by which other researchers, clinicians, and administrators could adapt existing assessment schemes or create new ones to bridge some remaining gaps in the risk assessment and management continuum.     

Aging and the perception of 3-D shape from dynamic patterns of binocular disparity

In two experiments, we investigated the ability of younger and older observers to perceive and discriminate 3-D shape from static and dynamic patterns of binocular disparity. In both experiments, the younger observers' discrimination accuracies were 20% higher than those of the older observers. Despite this quantitative difference, in all other respects the older observers performed similarly to the younger observers. Both age groups were similarly affected by changes in the magnitude of binocular disparity, by reductions in binocular correspondence, and by increases in the speed of stereoscopic motion. In addition, observers in both age groups exhibited an advantage in performance for dynamic stereograms when the patterns of binocular disparity contained significant amounts of correspondence "noise." The process of aging does affect stereopsis, but the effects are quantitative rather than qualitative.