Coordinating cognitive information: task effects and individual differences in integrating information from several sources.

In many tasks people have to coordinate the information from several sources. An example would be driving a car while listening to directions. The driver has to establish a correspondence between a visual picture and verbal instructions. This paper addresses two questions concerning information coordination. Is there an ability to coordinate information received from several sources that is different from the ability to deal with information from each source, alone? Does coordination simply involve allocating resources to deal with the component tasks, or does the act of coordination itself constitute a separate task? Four experiments examined the coordination of a verbal component task with a visual-spatial and with an auditory component task. The results showed that the ability to coordinate perceptual and verbal information is separate from the ability to deal with either perceptual or verbal information, alone. A simple resource sharing model was not adequate in explaining how coordination occurred. We relate our results to a model in which perceptual reasoning occurs independently of verbal processing, but transforming perceptual information into a propositional form is affected by concurrent verbal processing.     

Interpersonal Reactions to Depression and Physical Disablllty In Dyadic Interactions1

Examined the interpersonal responses of persons engaged in dyadic interactions with confederates who enacted either depressed or socially appropriate roles and appeared either with or without a physical disability. Subject negative evaluations of confederates were indirectly obtained from a thought-listing measure. The overt behaviors of subjects were surreptitiously recorded on videotape and measures of verbal and nonverbal behavior were acquired. Subjects spoke less to the depressed targets and had significantly higher rates of negative evaluations of these persons. In addition, subjects gazed less at the depressed confederates. These effects were not moderated by target physical appearance. Findings are discussed as they relate to social models of depression and the stigmatizing effects of disability.     

The self in transformation: Dialectical processes in long-term psychotherapy

A number of phases are notable during the process of integration of the self through psychotherapy. Each of these phases encompasses a particular ontology in relation to the dynamic self. The underlying process of change, moreover, may be conceived of as dialectical in nature with each phase having a unique thesis and antithesis. A clinical case is presented to illustrate these ideas for the therapist.     

Coping with health threat: social influence processes in reactions to medical test results

In a laboratory experiment, undergraduate subjects tested positive for an enzyme deficiency they believed to be a risk factor for pancreatic disorders. All Ss were tested with a confederate who received a positive or negative test result. For half the Ss, the confederate expressed a minimizing appraisal of the deficiency's seriousness. Although Ss' concern about the test result was significantly reduced by what the confederate said, behavioral intentions were determined by the confederate's diagnostic status. The effect of the confederate's diagnostic status on intentions was mediated by Ss' perceptions of the deficiency's prevalence. The results support Leventhal's self-regulation theory and demonstrate that the opinions and health characteristics of comparison others have differential effects on cognitive, emotional, and behavioral aspects of coping with a health threat.     

The semantics of therapeutic change

Some contemporary theorists of family therapy have recently addressed the question of how to explore the 'meaning' dimension of therapeutic change, particularly in the context of the fragmentation of 'post-modern' culture. A particularly interesting strand of work has focused on the narrative or discursive components of the family therapeutic encounter. In this article an argument is made for the importance of a 'semantic' element in theories of family therapeutic change, and the general shape of such a semantic element is outlined.     

Relations between neonatal states and 8-month developmental outcome in preterm infants

This study investigated longitudinal relations between measures of neonatal state behavior and developmental outcome in a sample of preterm infants (N = 16). Results indicate that irritability/reactivity in the neonatal period is positively associated with Bayley scores and exploratory play at 8 months. Conversely, neonatal alertness was not associated with these developmental measures. These preliminary findings, based on a small sample, are discussed in the context of preterm function.     

Selective delayed alternation deficits in dominantly inherited olivopontocerebellar atrophy

In order to characterize more completely the nature of the frontal lobe-type cognitive changes in patients with dominantly inherited olivopontocerebellar atrophy (OPCA) we administered two tasks sensitive to frontal system dysfunction, delayed alternation (DA) and delayed response (DR), to 12 patients from one OPCA family. Affected members from this family have previously been shown to have a marked and widespread cerebral (including frontal) cortical cholinergic reduction as severe as that observed in Alzheimer's disease. Performance on DA, but not on DR, was significantly impaired in the OPCA patients compared to that in the controls. We suggest that the DA deficits in OPCA could be a consequence of a loss of cholinergic innervation to orbitofrontal or possibly temporal cortical areas and/or damage to the integrity of the cerebello-frontal neuronal connections.     

Gender and values: What is the impact on decision making?

In this study we investigated C. Gilligan's [(1982), In a different voice: Psychological theory and women's development, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press] suggestion that women and men, due to socialization, develop differently in terms of moral development [L. Kohlberg (1969), “Stage and Consequence: The Cognitive Development Approach to Socialization,” In D. G. Goslin (Ed.), Handbook of socialization: Theory and research, Chicago: Rand McNally]. We also considered whether men and women differ in terms of a related construct, values of equity and equality [K. A. Rasinski (1987), “What's Fair Is Fair or Is It? Value Differences Underlying Public Views About Social Justice,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 53, pp. 201–211]. It is our expectation that gender influences overall orientation in terms of the two sets of values, and that differences in values lead decision makers to weigh decision issues and to make final decisions differently. Results suggest that there are some gender-related differences in value systems, weights of decision issues, and final decisions.