Negative mood,depressive symptoms,and major depression after smoking cessation treatment in smokers with a history of major depressive disorder

Negative mood, depressive symptoms, and major depressive episodes (MDEs) were examined in 179 smokers with a history of major depression in a trial comparing standard smoking cessation treatment to treatment incorporating cognitive-behavioral therapy for depression (CBT-D). Early lapses were associated with relatively large increases in negative mood on quit date. Mood improved in the 2 weeks after quit date among those returning to regular smoking but not among those smoking moderately. Continuous abstinence was associated with short- and long-term reductions in depressive symptoms. MDE incidence during follow-up was 15.3% and was not associated with abstinence. Unexpected was that CBT-D was associated with greater negative mood and depressive symptoms and increased MDE risk. Results suggest complex bidirectional associations between affect and smoking outcomes.     

Is emotional intelligence an advantage? An exploration of the impact of emotional and general intelligence on individual performance

Emotional intelligence is an increasingly popular consulting tool. According to popular opinion and work-place testimonials, emotional intelligence increases performance and productivity; however, there has been a general lack of independent, systematic analysis substantiating that claim. The authors investigated whether emotional intelligence would account for increases in individual cognitive-based performance over and above the level attributable to traditional general intelligence. The authors measured emotional intelligence with the Multifactor Emotional Intelligence Scale (MEIS; J. D. Mayer, P. Salovey, & D. R. Caruso, 1997). As measured by the MEIS, overall emotional intelligence is a composite of the 3 distinct emotional reasoning abilities: perceiving, understanding, and regulating emotions (J. D. Mayer & P. Salovey, 1997). Although further psychometric analysis of the MEIS is warranted, the authors found that overall emotional intelligence, emotional perception, and emotional regulation uniquely explained individual cognitive-based performance over and beyond the level attributable to general intelligence.     

The Gordon Diagnostic System and WISC-III Freedom from Distractibility Index: validity in identifying clinic-referred children with and without ADHD

Gordon Diagnostic System and WISC-III scores for clinic-referred 6- to 16-yr.-olds (184 with ADHD Combined Type and 46 without ADHD) were analyzed to evaluate the combination of scores and cutpoints that maximized diagnostic accuracy. Using an "ADHD cutpoint" of IQ minus the GDS Composite score > or = 13, 87.8% of the children were correctly identified as having or not having ADHD. IQ minus Freedom from Distractibility > 0 yielded 73.5% accuracy. When the two meaures were combined to create new criteria (IQ minus GDS Composite > or = 13 or IQ minus Freedom from Distractibility > or = 11), diagnostic accuracy increased to 90.9% and negative predictive power improved substantially. Diagnostic agreement between the Gordon Diagnostic System and Freedom from Distractibility was 70%, suggesting that the two tests measure both similar and unique traits.     

Face recognition by hand

We investigated participants' ability to identify and represent faces by hand. In Experiment 1, participants proved surprisingly capable of identifying unfamiliar live human faces using only their sense of touch. To evaluate the contribution of geometric and material information more directly, we biased participants toward encoding faces more in terms of geometric than material properties, by varying the exploration condition. When participants explored the faces both visually and tactually, identification accuracy did not improve relative to touch alone. When participants explored masks of the faces, thereby eliminating material cues, matching accuracy declined substantially relative to tactual identification of live faces. In Experiment 2, we explored intersensory transfer of face information between vision and touch. The findings are discussed in terms of their relevance to haptic object processing and to the face-processing literature in general.     

Leaders' anticipated and targets' self-reported resistance to task assignments: a replication

This is a follow up study of Barbuto's 2000 work in which leaders' ratings and targets' self-reported resistance to task assignments are compared. Scores on the Anticipated Resistance Indicator among 650 leader-member dyads measure resistance based on Barbuto's 1997 five concentric zones of Preference, Indifference, Legitimate, Influence, and Noninfluence, examined from both leaders' and targets' perspectives. Responses indicated that leaders tend to underestimate followers' willingness to perform assigned tasks. In addition, leaders tend to overestimate targets' unwillingness to perform undesirable, less enjoyable tasks.     

Multiple cues for quantification in infancy: is number one of them?

A review and synthesis of the literature on quantification in infancy and early childhood is provided. In most current conceptualizations, early quantification is assumed to be number based. However, the extant literature provides no clear-cut evidence that infants use number to perform quantitative tasks. Instead, new research suggests that quantification is initially based on nonnumerical cues, such as area and contour length, whether or not a task involves discrete items. The authors discuss the implications of these findings with respect to early quantification and its relation to later numerical development.     

Content mazes and filled pauses in narrative language samples of children with specific language impairment

Linguistic nonfluencies known as mazes (filled pauses, repetitions, revisions, and abandoned utterances) have been used to draw inferences about processing difficulties associated with the production of language. In children with normal language development (NL), maze frequency in general increases with linguistic complexity, being greater in narrative than conversational contexts and in longer utterances. The same tendency has been found for children with specific language impairment (SLI). However, the frequency of mazes produced by children with NL and SLI has not been compared directly at equivalent utterance lengths in narration. This study compared the frequency of filled pauses and content mazes in narrative language samples of school-age children with SLI. The children with SLI used significantly more content mazes than the children with NL, but fewer filled pauses. Unlike content mazes, the frequency of filled pauses remained stable across samples of different utterance lengths among children with SLI. This indicates that filled pauses and content mazes have different origins and should not be analyzed or interpreted in the same way.     

Spatial stimulus cue information supplying auditory saltation

Auditory saltation is a misperception of the spatial location of repetitive, transient stimuli. It arises when clicks at one location are followed in perfect temporal cadence by identical clicks at a second location. This report describes two psychophysical experiments designed to examine the sensitivity of auditory saltation to different stimulus cues for auditory spatial perception. Experiment 1 was a dichotic study in which six different six-click train stimuli were used to generate the saltation effect. Clicks lateralised by using interaural time differences and clicks lateralised by using interaural level differences produced equivalent saltation effects, confirming an earlier finding. Switching the stimulus cue from an interaural time difference to an interaural level difference (or the reverse) in mid train was inconsequential to the saltation illusion. Experiment 2 was a free-field study in which subjects rated the illusory motion generated by clicks emitted from two sound sources symmetrically disposed around the interaural axis, ie on the same cone of confusion in the auditory hemifield opposite one ear. Stimuli in such positions produce spatial location judgments that are based more heavily on monaural spectral information than on binaural computations. The free-field stimuli produced robust saltation. The data from both experiments are consistent with the view that auditory saltation can emerge from spatial processing, irrespective of the stimulus cue information used to determine click laterality or location.     

Cruise ships and kayaks: welfare and rehabilitation approaches for women with disabilities in poverty

Women with disabilities have low employment rates and about one-third live in poverty. They represent half of the population using either services of the vocational rehabilitation (VR) system or the welfare system, and many use both. Although both systems have made gains in improving their employment status, neither comprehensively addresses the needs of this population. Welfare policy has encouraged state level innovation and moved large numbers of people into employment in as little as five years. State welfare agencies offer a range of services specifically addressing the needs of families with children. VR agencies have decades of specific experience assisting people with disabilities gain employment. Welfare reform has been the cruise ship moving large numbers of people across an ocean. VR agencies have been the kayak builders designing specialized small craft to move specific people along tributaries. What can they learn from each other? Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.