Conscious recollection in autobiographical memory: an investigation in schizophrenia

Whether or not conscious recollection in autobiographical memory is affected in schizophrenia is unknown. The aim of this study was to address this issue using an experiential approach. An autobiographical memory enquiry was used in combination with the Remember/Know procedure. Twenty-two patients with schizophrenia and 22 normal subjects were asked to recall specific autobiographical memories from four lifetime periods and to indicate the subjective states of awareness associated with the recall of what happened, when and where. They gave Remember, Know or Guess responses according to whether they recalled these aspects of the event on the basis of conscious recollection, simply knowing, or guessing. Results showed that the frequency and consistency of Remember responses was significantly lower in patients than in comparison subjects. In contrast, the frequency of Know responses was not significantly different, whereas the frequency of patients' Guess responses was significantly enhanced. It is concluded that the frequency and consistency of conscious recollection in autobiographical memory is reduced in patients with schizophrenia.     

World isolation and meaning in segmentation

The effect of meaning and isolation of words on the acquisition of segmentation of words in sentences was examined with an artificial miniature language composed of Mandarin Chinese quasi-elements. Forty undergraduate students participated in one of four groups: Word No Meaning, Word Meaning, Sentence No Meaning, or Sentence Meaning. In each group the subjects listened to the same set of words, either as isolated words or in sentences. Additionally, the meaning groups saw accompanying pictorial representations of isolated words or sentences. Pretest and posttest assessments indicated that isolation of words is a significant factor in word segmentation for an initial word set restricted in size when meaning is not provided. When meaning is provided, the isolation of words apparently does not influence word segmentation performance.     

Parents' gender-stereotyped perceptions of Newborns: The Eye of the Beholder revisited

Sex Roles - This study sought to update and extend J. Z. Rubin, F. J. Provenzano, and Z. Luria's [(1974) “The Eye of the Beholder: Parents' Views on Sex of Newborns,” American...     

Effects of stress on defensive aggression and dominance in a water competition test

Water-deprived rats in a pair competing for a single source of water quickly establish a firm relationship during which one rat drinks consistently more (dominant) than the other (submissive) animal. This relationship is formed during the first competition and is very stable during subsequent tests. Exposure of dominant rats to a severe (18 hrs immobilization), but not a mild (2 hrs immobilization), stressor reduced markedly aggressive behavior and inverted transiently the dominant submissive relationship of the pairs. Exposure of submissive rats to the severe stressor resulted in only minor reductions of aggressive behavior in these animals. Prestress anxiety predicted stress effects in the dominant animals in that high-anxious animals lost more dominant behavior and weight during stress as compared with low-anxious rats. Thus, severe stress can transiently reduce dominant but not submissive behavior during water competition and high-anxious rats are more prone to lose their aggressive behavior.     

Alcohol and Complex Functioning1

Twenty-five managers participated in two parallel 6-hour quasi-experimental simulations. On placebo treatment days, the subjects received hourly placebo drinks. On alcohol treatment days (order counterbalanced), enough alcohol was provided prior to the fourth hour of simulation participation to attain a breath alcohol level (BAL) of near 0.10. All other drinks contained a placebo beverage. Complex task performance was assessed on five variables derived from complexity theory, comparing performance for three measurement periods: (a) prior to the fourth hour of simulation participation (placebo treatment), (b) during the fourth hour (rising BALs on alcohol treatment days), and (c) during the fifth/sixth hours (falling BALs). Alcohol diminished the participants’ breadth of approach (differentiation). Performance on indicators of strategic functioning (integration) decreased after BALs had begun to fall but not while BALs were rising. The implications for performance of complex tasks under the influence of alcohol and for the applicability of the acute tolerance phenomenon to complex task environments are considered.     

Children's and adults' sex-stereotyped perceptions of infants

Sex-stereotyped perceptions of infants were examined in children (aged 5, 9, and 15 years), college students, and the children's mothers. The children and college students as a group rated labeled female infants as littler and as more beautiful, nice, and soft than labeled male infants, with no age changes in sex-stereotyped perceptions. The mothers as a group were not influenced by the labeled sex manipulation. The 5-year-olds rated the infants the least favorably and the mothers rated the infants the most favorably. Girls rated the infants as more beautiful than the boys did. Finally, the mothers with higher masculinity scores and their sons showed less sex-stereotyped perceptions of the infants than mothers with lower masculinity scores and their sons.     

The effect of ethanol on stress-induced tachycardia

A study was designed to answer the questions if low doses of ethanol would reduce stress induced increases in heart rates, if covariations would be observed between ethanol induced changes in heart rates and changes in emotional states and mental performance and if tolerance to ethanol or other personality factors would influence the ethanol induced cardiac effects. Forty-four male students with a history of high and low alcohol consumption according to questionnaire scores were matched for extraversion and neuroticism and then assigned to a group receiving either 0.8 g/kg of ethanol or a placebo drink. A stress condition of mental arithmetic was applied prior to and 45 minutes after ingestion of the drink. Heart rates and ratings of emotional states by adjective check lists were recorded before and after each stress session. A significant reduction of stress induced heart rate increases in both high and low drinking groups but no ethanol dependent change of resting heart rates were observed. Reductions of autonomic stress response by ethanol were weakly but positively correlated to respective reductions of affective stress responses and impairment of the quality of mental performance. High trait anxiety subjects seemed to benefit more from ethanol with respect to reductions of cardiac and emotional arousal than low anxious subjects.     

The unforgivable humiliation: A Dilemma in couples' treatment

Therapists sometimes encounter cases of intense marital discord in which the disaffected spouse seems unable to specify the reason for his or her discontent except in the vaguest, most general terms. Such cases may be extraordinarily difficult to treat, as the disaffected partner may seem impervious to any attempt at negotiation, to the point of dissolution of the marriage. The reason for the disaffected spouse's intransigence may seem unclear to the other spouse, to the therapist, and even to herself/himself. We hypothesize an explanation for this phenomenon in terms of the disaffected partner's experience of having suffered humiliation at the hands of the other spouse and offer a plan for treatment, citing case materials.     

Electroencephalographic responses to photic stimulation in habitual smokers and nonsmokers.

Two studies are reported in which electroencephalograms (EEGs) of habitual cigarette smokers and of nonsmokers were taken before and after they were required to smoke a cigarette. The EEGs were scored for incidence of EEG "driving" responses to photic stimulation, an index that appears to reflect the balance between central adrenergic and cholinergic nervous systems. The findings suggest that smokers tend to have a central autonomic balance less in favor of adrenergic functioning than do nonsmokers. Cigarette smoking may alleviate a possible central adrenergic insufficiency of smokers. These findings suggest a solution to "Nesbitt's paradox," which has reference to the fact that while nicotine is a central adrenergic stimulant, smokers describe the effect of smoking in sedational terms (i.e., as relaxing or calming).