Reactions to and Desire for Prognostic Testing in Choroidal Melanoma Patients

To determine if choroidal melanoma patients want cytogenetic prognostic information. Ninety-nine choroidal melanoma patients completed a questionnaire regarding their opinions about receiving prognostic information. The perceived usefulness of prognostic information was evaluated in patients who had undergone cytogenetic testing. Depressive symptoms, quality of life, and interest in supportive counseling during test receipt were assessed. Ninety-seven percent of respondents reported that they would have wanted prognostic information at the time of their treatment and 98% of respondents reported that supportive counseling should be offered when prognostic information is given. Patients who had received a more favorable prognostic result were more likely to endorse the usefulness of cytogenetic testing than were patients who had received a less favorable prognostic result. Psychological status did not vary significantly as a function of cytogenetic test result. Prognostic information was important to patients with choroidal melanoma, even in the absence of prophylactic measures which might improve prognosis.     

The parental attitude research instrument: An approach to use of attitude questionnaires

Parental attitude questionnaires such as the Parental Attitude Research Instrument (PARI) are still in use despite their inherent difficulties. In light of the need to test theoretical models by measuring a range of parental characteristics, the properties of the PARI were re-examined and, on the basis of a factor analysis of the 23 subtests of the PARI, a shortened version was constructed. A measure of maternal Authoritarian Control, which was found to be associated with measures of maternal mental ability, personality, level of education, reading age, number of adverse family conditions and child-rearing practices, has proved useful for other projects related to this ongoing study. It is recommended that such instruments be used only in conjunction with other measures which examine the family environment, for example in an index of child-rearing practices.     

Diagnosis of Mood Disorders

This article provides an overview of mood disorders according to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.) criteria and other relevant information. Differential diagnosis is facilitated through discussion of differences and similarities among mental disorders, age and gender-related patterns of mood disorders, and useful diagnostic tools.     

Acute neuropsychological consequences of coronary artery bypass surgery

This study examines a series of coronary artery bypass patients (CABS) for neuropsychological and regional cerebral blood flow (RCBF) changes at 8 days and 8 weeks post surgery. Seventy-three percent were found to have moderate or severe neuropsychological deficits at 8 days post operation and 37% at 8 weeks post surgery. A comparison group of major vascular and thoracic surgery patients was also found to have a significant proportion of neuropsychological deficit following surgery. The RCBF assessments indicated a significant drop in mean RCBF at 8 days post surgery in the coronary artery bypass group which did not persist to 8 weeks. The comparison group showed no changes in RCBF following surgery. The findings suggest different patterns of recovery and origins of the neuropsychological deficit in the two groups and emphasize the need for appropriate control groups in studies examining the cortical effects of extracorporeal circulation. In addition, the project received generous support from the special trustees of the Middlesex Hospital.     

Perceptions of parent-adolescent communication within families: it is a matter of perspective

This study examined the concordance between parental and youth's perceptions regarding open communication in their families and its association with youth's psychosocial adjustment. The relative importance of parental and adolescents' perceptions of open family communication in relation to youth's psychosocial adjustment was also investigated. Participants were 336 parent-youth dyads from inner-city low-income communities in an eastern city in the United States. Both parental and youth's perceptions of open communication in the family were categorized into "high" and "low" groups using a median split in scores. Four parent-youth concordance groups (i.e. high-high, high-low, low-high and low-low) were derived based on the combination of the levels of parental and youth's perceptions. Parental and youth's perceptions about open communication were modestly correlated (r = 0.129, p < 0.05). The level of concordance differed by youth gender with male adolescents and their parents being more likely to perceive lower levels of open communication (i.e. "low-low") than females and their parents (32% versus 19%, p < 0.05). In general, youth demonstrated poorer psychosocial adjustment if they perceived a lower level of open communication between them and their parents, independent of the level of their parents' perceptions (e.g. "high" or "low"). The findings suggest an important role of adolescents' own perceptions of the openness of the family communication in relation to adolescent psychosocial adjustment. Developmentally and gender appropriate intervention programs are needed to improve the openness of parent-adolescent communication, to help both parents and youth to recognize the significant preventive role of open communication in the family, especially, the socioeconomically disadvantaged families.     

Gender biases in children's appraisals of injury risk and other children's risk-taking behaviors

Children ages 6, 8, and 10 years were given tasks designed to assess their beliefs about risk of injury from activities. Children were asked to appraise the risk of injury for boys and girls engaging in various play behaviors and to judge the sex of the character in stories about children engaging in activities that result in injuries. Results revealed gender biases in children's appraisals of injury risk: Both boys and girls rated boys as having a lower likelihood of injury than girls even though the boys and girls were engaging in the exact same activities. Children also showed higher accuracy in identifying the sex of the character in stories of boys' injuries than girls' injuries, and accuracy improved with the participant's age. Overall, the results indicate that by the age of 6 years children already have differential beliefs about injury vulnerability for boys and girls. Although boys routinely experience more injuries than girls, children rate girls as having a greater risk of injury than boys. With increasing age, school-age children develop a greater awareness of the ways in which boys and girls differ in risk-taking activities that lead to injury outcomes.     

Plaid motion rivalry: correlates with binocular rivalry and positive mood state

Recently Hupé and Rubin (2003, Vision Research 43 531- 548) re-introduced the plaid as a form of perceptual rivalry by using two sets of drifting gratings behind a circular aperture to produce quasi-regular perceptual alternations between a coherent moving plaid of diamond-shaped intersections and the two sets of component 'sliding' gratings. We call this phenomenon plaid motion rivalry (PMR), and have compared its temporal dynamics with those of binocular rivalry in a sample of subjects covering a wide range of perceptual alternation rates. In support of the proposal that all rivalries may be mediated by a common switching mechanism, we found a high correlation between alternation rates induced by PMR and binocular rivalry. In keeping with a link discovered between the phase of rivalry and mood, we also found a link between PMR and an individual's mood state that is consistent with suggestions that each opposing phase of rivalry is associated with one or the other hemisphere, with the 'diamonds' phase of PMR linked with the 'positive' left hemisphere.     

Memory for targets in a multilevel simulated environment: Evidence for vertical asymmetry in spatial memory

In two experiments, adult participants explored a symmetrical three-tiered computer-simulated building that contained six distinctive objects, two on each floor. Following exploration, the objects were removed, and the participants were asked to make direction judgments from each floor, indicating the former positions of the objects on that floor and on higher and lower floors. Relative tilt error scores indicated a bias, in that targets that were higher than the test location were judged as consistently lower than their actual positions and targets that were lower than the test location were judged as consistently higher than their actual positions. Absolute tilt errors revealed an asymmetry, with more accurate and less variable tilt errors for judgments directed to lower floors than for judgments directed to higher floors. Experiment 3 ruled out an account of the findings that does not relate them to spatial memory. The results suggest that the superiority of downward over upward spatial judgments, previously reported in two-dimensional visual-spatial tasks, extends to navigational spatial memory.