The instrumental and the focal child: Two patterns of parent-child dynamics in separation-impeding families

This study has discussed two distinct relational patterns which can occur between parents suffering from a narcissistic disturbance and their children: the instrumental and the focal child syndromes. Individual and intergenerational dynamics were examined. The typical outcomes for the child were outlined.     

Diagnosis of "cataphasia" based on a drawing

Drawings done by a patient before examination led to the suspicion of cataphasia, in view of previous experience of similar pictures drawn by verbigerate patients, and this proved to be so. We assume that the verbigerate affection of the thinking process is pictorially reflected in spontaneous casual drawing. In a less spontaneous situation, on other hand, the patient will not be so completely disorganised, and thus the author of an utterly confused drawing can still retain some measure of mental control in the course of tests.     

On the role of the anterior cingulate cortex in phonation: A case report

A 41-year-old male patient is presented with a lesion in the anterior cingulate cortex, medial orbital cortex, and rostral striatum bilaterally and supplementary motor area on the left side. The patient first exhibited a state of akinetic mutism which lasted about 6 weeks. During this state, no volitional vocal utterances were made; there were, however, occasional groans of pain. During recovery, the mute phase was replaced by a state in which the patient could whisper but not phonate verbal utterances. About 10 weeks after the accident, phonation was restored. The speech was characterized, however, by monotonous intonation and a very low frequency of spontaneous utterances. While the frequency of spontaneous speech improved noticeably during the following months, emotional intonation remained permanently defective. A comparison of the present case with other cases from the literature as well as experimental monkey data suggest that the anterior cingulate cortex is involved in the volitional control of emotional vocal utterances.     

Semantic activation due to synonym, antonym, and rhyme production

Semantic activation due to priming, and the time course of its dissipation, were examined. Following a word presentation, the subject performed one of three tasks: synonym, antonym, or rhyme production. The first presentation of a word together with the task was the primer. The second presentation of the same word occurred after 0 to 4 intervening words. Effects of priming were looked for in the speed of the first response to the second presentation of the word. A production facilitation occurred when synonym production was primed by antonym production to the same word, the primed word immediately following the primer. Facilitation decreased with increasing number of interpolated tasks. No effect was found when antonym production was primed by synonym production to the same word. The results are discussed in terms of spreading-activation due to active use of the associative link between the concept and its antonyms.     

Interactive effects of noise and neuroticism on recall from semantic memory

Subjects recalled names of countries during 8 or 5 min. (Experiments 1 and 2) or performed a set of brief (40 sec) tasks recalling items from semantic or factual memory (Experiment 3), either in silence or in intermittent white noise (95 dB (A)). Noise interfered consistently with the performance of "neurotic" subjects (i.e., subjects scoring above the median on the EPI scale of neuroticism) but had little effect on that of "stable" ones. Performance was not significantly related to extraversion, nor to self-rated activation, and it was uncorrelated with neuroticism in the no-noise condition. An interpretation of the results emphasizing the distracting effects of noise is discussed.     

Über einige Bedingungen des Zusammenhanges von Lidschlag und Blickwendung

Zusammenfassung Der Zusammenhang zwischen Blickwendung und Lidschlag wurde experimentell untersucht. Als wirksame Faktoren erwiesen sich die Größe der Blickwendung, die Kopfbewegung, die Art der Wahrnehmungsobjekte (Person — Gegenstand) und bei Personen der Grad der Aufmerksamkeitszuwendung. Über alle Versuchsbedingungen hinweg zeigte sich die relative Häufigkeit des Lidschlages bei der Blickwendung als individuell konstant.

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The relationship between gaze movement and eye blink under various conditions

Summary The relationship between gaze movement and eye blink was investigated. The angle of eye movement, movement of the head, the type of objects perceived (person-object) and (when persons were viewed) the degree of attention were found to be relevant factors. Under all conditions studied, the relative frequency of blinking during gaze movement was shown to be individually constant.

     

QUANTITATIVE PSYCHOPHYSICAL AND ELECTRO-PHYSIOLOGICAL DATA ON SOME ODOROUS COMPOUNDS

D rake , B., J ohansson , B., von S ydow , E. & D øving , K. B. Quantitative psychophysical and electrophysiological data on some odorous compounds. Scand.J. Psychol ., 1969, 10 , 89–96.—Magnitude estimations of odor intensity, and electrophysiological responses from frog olfactory epithelia, were obtained for dilution series of 8 odorous compounds. Comparing of data with each other and with known vapor phase concentrations showed relations between pooled psychophysical data and vapor phase concentrations, and between electrophysiological data and vapor phase concentrations, describable by power functions (exponents 0.26–0.50 and 0.18—0.39). There were also high correlations between electrophysiological data and individual as well as pooled psychophysical data. The results give an impression about the feasibility of using a biological detector in gas chromatography.