Perceptual asymmetries in normal children and children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder

Perceptual asymmetries in normal right-handed children (7-12 years of age) and children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), combined type, were investigated using various chimeric stimuli in free-viewing conditions. In the face-matching task, participants indicated which of two symmetrical face chimeras more closely resembled the original; in the chimeric faces task, participants indicated which of a pair of faces appeared happier; and in the grey scales task participants indicated which of two shaded rectangles appeared to be darker overall. Leftward biases were found for normal children with no effects of age. Contrary to expectations, normal leftward biases were also found for ADHD children in the face-matching and the chimeric faces tasks; however, a significant leftward bias was not observed in the grey scales task. The absence of anomalous perceptual bias in ADHD children on these purely perceptual tasks, suggests that anomalous perceptual asymmetries observed in other tasks (line bisection and cancellation tasks) may have been confounded by the motor response, and/or the explicit spatial components of those tasks.     

The neurodevelopmental frontostriatal disorders: evolutionary adaptiveness and anomalous lateralization

The frontostriatal system (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, lateral orbitofrontal cortex, anterior cingulate, supplementary motor area, and associated basal-ganglia structures) is subject to a range of neurodevelopmental disorders: Tourette's syndrome (TS), obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), schizophrenia (SCZ), autism, and probably depression. The system is responsible for our adaptive responses (initiation, execution, or withholding) to environmental situations, and the above disorders, involving effectively excessive release or withholding of various types of response, are all a consequence of changes in specific frontostriatal regions. The disorders all have a genetic component, and their persistence in the genome indicates that their clinical manifestations may also be associated, perhaps in low levels in close relatives, with certain adaptive advantages in given situations. Thus autism is associated with computational careers, depression with literary creativity, SCZ with lateral thinking and the Odyssean personality, ADHD with an Ice-Age readiness to respond, OCD with a focused range of interests, and TS with competitive sports and jazz improvisation. The disorders are all highly comorbid, and which one predominantly manifests may depend on how the frontostriatal system happens to be compromised as a result of inherited genetic predispositions and environmental contingency. We review the adaptive nature of the various subclinical manifestations and the evidence for concomitant phenomena (possibly epiphenomena): alterations in structural, functional, and behavioral lateralization in each syndrome. Indeed it is not clear that altered lateralization in frontostriatal disorders of a neurodevelopmental origin generally has any adaptive significance; it may often simply serve as a marker for altered regulatory function of the frontostriatal system, alterations which in low genetic dosage or penetrance continue to play an adaptive role in clinically unaffected close relatives of probands, but which, in high dosage or penetrance in the probands themselves, are generally deleterious.     

Dysfunctional thinking in major depressive disorder: a deficit in metacognitive monitoring?

Speed of response to attitudinal statements has predictive behavioral significance and reflects the relative contributions of "automatic" access to precomputed schematic representations and slower "controlled" on-line processing. Latencies to Dysfunctional Attitude Scale (A. N. Weissman & A. T. Beck, 1978) and neutral statements were measured in 30 depressed patients and 30 nondepressed controls. For controls, responses incompatible with functional schemas were markedly slowed. This pattern of latencies is consistent with the operation of metacognitive monitoring of potential dysfunctional responses, dependent on limited controlled processing resources. For patients, there was no evidence of selective slowing for these or any other form of response. Results suggest that depressed patients have a deficit of metacognitive monitoring of dysfunctional cognitive products.     

Developing Measures of Basic Job-Relevant English Proficiency for the Prediction of Job Performance and Promotability

The present study is an attempt to devise reliable and valid measures of job-relevant basic English proficiency to be applied in the prediction of job performance and promotability in an entry-level manual labor job dominated by workers whose native language is not English. An audio test and a reading test were developed to assess the ability to understand spoken English and written English respectively using job relevant material. Results showed that both tests demonstrated high predictive validity for the criteria of supervisory assessments of incumbents' English proficiency on the job, overall job performance, and promotability. In predicting ratings of overall job performance and promotability, each test provided incremental validity over the predictability provided by the other test. In addition, the tests also provided incremental validity in predicting promotability over the predictability provided by overall job performance.     

Psychosocial enhancement of immunocompetence in a geriatric population

This study assessed the enhancement of immunocompetence by relaxation and social contact in 45 geriatric residents of independent-living facilities. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of three protocols: relaxation training, social contact, or no contact. Subjects in the relaxation and social-contact conditions were seen individually three times a week for a month. Blood samples and self-report data were obtained at baseline, at the end of the intervention, and at a 1-month follow-up. At the end of the intervention, the relaxation group showed a significant increase in natural killer cell activity, and significant decreases in antibody titers to Herpes simplex virus and self-rated distress; the other two groups showed nonsignificant changes. There was a general increase in the T-lymphocyte response to phytohemagglutinin stimulation at the end of the intervention, with greater change at lower mitogen concentrations. These data suggest that cellular immunocompetence may be enhanced by psychosocial interventions.     

Subjective assessments of firmness: The use of a rating scale

An experiment was carried out to investigate the extent to which an absolute standard for firmness could be held independently of variations occurring within the samples being judged.

Although the method gave good results as a whole, it was found that, when correlating the ratings to the objective measurements, the absolute standards were not held independently of the average firmness of the groups being judged. In practice, if a certain sample was judged, within a “soft” series of samples, it would be rated as being firmer than when it was judged among “firm” samples. Certain differences in the effects of these changes were related to the nature of the subjects' previous experience.

When the results were considered on a relative comparison basis, it was found that a much lower threshold was achieved than had previously been obtained with judgments for springs using paired comparison methods. There were certain trends in the levels of discrimination with time. These trends are discussed.

The strength of grip of the subjects bore some relation to their initial rating values, but apparently was not related to their level of discrimination. Subjects who were able to exert a more constant pressure throughout the test did not seem to be any better at discriminating than were others.

Ratings made for a single sample two months after the main experiment were very similar to those previously given for the same sample.     

Gender Differences in Leadership Aspirations and Job and Life Attribute Preferences among U.S. Undergraduate Students

The purpose of the present study was to examine gender differences in constructs associated with leadership aspirations in a sample of 467 undergraduate students because these might contribute to the gender gap in leadership attainment. The results demonstrated that female participants perceived themselves as having less leadership ability than male participants, and viewed their attainment of leadership roles as less likely than male participants did, which could reflect anticipated discrimination. Female participants reported less interest than male participants in elite leadership positions (e.g., CEO, senator), and associated positive characteristics with such roles less than male participants. They were also less likely than male participants to indicate a willingness to accept a promotion that would require them to sacrifice enjoyable work. Male and female participants ranked the importance of a variety of job and life attribute preferences similarly, though female participants emphasized the importance of life attribute preferences (e.g., family, good health), whereas male participants emphasized the importance of job attribute preferences (e.g., high salary). Finally, male participants were more likely than female participants to expect and prefer that they would out-earn their future spouses. These results highlight the need for greater consideration of how young women’s and men’s leadership aspirations and job/life preferences contribute to the gender gap in leadership attainment.