Personality disorders in offenders: categorical versus dimensional approaches.

The present study focused on the consequences of cut-off scores in personality disorder diagnoses for their association with criminal behavior. Using ICD-10 personality disorder criteria eliminating offence-related symptoms, we studied the distributions of categorically diagnosed personality disorders and of dimensional personality disorder scores in a group of offenders and a noncriminal control group. Whereas the dimensional scores of the offender group differed significantly from those of the control group for all personality disorders under study, the frequency of categorical diagnoses differed significantly for two personality for two personality disorders only. Moreover, prediction of group membership (offenders vs. nonoffenders) from personality disorder scores was substantially more precise than prediction from categorical diagnoses. It is concluded that a dimensional approach to personality disorder diagnosis is not only superior theoretically but also yields more precise information about the specific associations with criminal behavior.     

Insights into sleep's role for insight: Studies with the number reduction task

In recent years, vibrant research has developed on “consolidation” during sleep: To what extent are newly experienced impressions reprocessed or even restructured during sleep? We used the number reduction task (NRT) to study if and how sleep does not only reiterate new experiences but may even lead to new insights. In the NRT, covert regularities may speed responses. This implicit acquisition of regularities may become explicitly conscious at some point, leading to a qualitative change in behavior which reflects this insight. By applying the NRT at two consecutive sessions separated by an interval, we investigated the role of sleep in this interval for attaining insight at the second session. In the first study, a night of sleep was shown to triple the number of participants attaining insight above the base rate of about 20%. In the second study, this hard core of 20% discoverers differed from other participants in their task-related EEG potentials from the very beginning already. In the third study, the additional role of sleep was specified as an effect of the deep-sleep phase of slow-wave sleep on participants who had implicitly acquired the covert regularity before sleep. It was in these participants that a specific increase of EEG during slow-wave sleep in the 10-12 Hz band was obtained. These results support the view that neuronal memory reprocessing during slow-wave sleep restructures task-related representations in the brain, and that such restructuring promotes the gain of explicit knowledge.     

Psychometric Properties of the Child Posttraumatic Cognitions Inventory in a Sample of Brazilian Children

Cognitive models of trauma propose that maladaptive cognitions in children and adolescents are causally implicated in the unfolding and maintenance of posttraumatic response. The objective of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Child Posttraumatic Cognitions Inventory (CPTCI). The sample included 131 children and adolescents. The psychometric properties of the CPTCI were examined, including reliability and convergent validity. The results showed high internal consistency for both CPTCI total scale (α = .90) and its subscales (CPTCI–PC α = .88 and CPTCI–SW α = .79) and a 2-component solution explaining 37.63% of the variance of CPTCI. Convergent validity evidence was obtained through correlations with the Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children and Children’s Depression Inventory. Findings suggest that CPTCI instruments are reliable and had adequate evidence of validity.     

How "implicit" are implicit color effects in memory?

Processing colored pictures of objects results in a preference to choose the former color for a specific object in a subsequent color choice test (Wippich & Mecklenbr?uker, 1998). We tested whether this implicit memory effect is independent of performances in episodic color recollection (recognition). In the study phase of Experiment 1, the color of line drawings was either named or its appropriateness was judged. We found only weak implicit memory effects for categorical color information. In Experiment 2, silhouettes were colored by subjects during the study phase. Performances in both the implicit and the explicit test were good. Selections of "old" colors in the implicit test, though, were almost completely confined to items for which the color was also remembered explicitly. In Experiment 3, we applied the opposition technique in order to check whether we could find any implicit effects regarding items for which no explicit color recollection was possible. This was not the case. We therefore draw the conclusion that implicit color preference effects are not independent of explicit recollection, and that they are probably based on the same episodic memory traces that are used in explicit tests.     

Left Syringeal Dominance in Testosterone-Treated Female Canaries

Male canaries (Serinus canaria) produce most of their song syllable types on the left side of the syrinx, the two-sided vocal organ. Female canaries treated with testosterone propionate begin to sing in a male fashion, a behavior seldom seen in untreated females. To learn whether syringeal dominance occurs in testosterone-treated female canaries, we deactivated either the right or the left side of the syrinx by severing the tracheosyringeal nerve on that side. Recordings of the birds’ songs were made before and after the nerve cut, and song analysis was based upon visual comparisons of sound spectrograms. Pre- and post-operative syllable types were identified by their frequency structures and repetition rates. Six of eight birds displayed clear left dominance as assessed by nerve cuts; therefore, we concluded that most, but not all, female canaries generate the majority of their syllable types with the left syrinx.     

Menstrual taboos among havik brahmin women: A study of ritual change

This paper reports on changes in the beliefs and observance of menstrual taboos among Havik Brahmins in South India. Menstrual taboos have decreased in importance over the past 20 years as a woman's primary role has been redefined as a marital partner rather than as a bearer of children. When her function was as a bearer of children for the patrilineage, she was considered subject to biological rhythms and a threat to male ritual status. With increased education, professional opportunities, and increased marriage age for women, ritual status and male dominance have become less significant. Women are ritually less dangerous, less dependent on men, and transcend the biological rhythms that menstrual taboos symbolize.The research on which this paper is based was carried out with the support of grants from the American Institute of Indian Studies (1964–1966, 1974–1975, 1987) and the American Philosophical Society (1985). I gratefully acknowledge the constructive criticism from Joan Bamberger, Kaja Finkler, Shirley Lindenbaum, and the anonymous readers who commented upon earlier drafts of this paper.