The “Longing for Interpersonal Touch Picture Questionnaire”: Development of a new measurement for touch perception

Touch is a crucial factor of physiological and psychological health in humans. A lack of touch in contrast is associated with adverse implications on mental health. A new “Longing for Interpersonal Touch Picture Questionnaire (LITPQ)” was developed and tested for its concurrent, predictive, discriminant and face validity as well as its relation to psychological distress. Six different types of touch were depicted and touch frequency and touch wish concerning different interaction partners assessed. A sample of 110 participants aged 18–56 years completed the LITPQ as well as an existing touch deprivation questionnaire and a questionnaire on mental health. Frequency and wish for touch were higher for close interaction partners than for strangers. For 72.7% of the participants, their touch wish exceeded the reported touch frequency. The LITPQ correlated moderately with the existing questionnaire for touch deprivation and was independent of relationship status or gender but positively correlated with depressiveness, anxiety and somatization. Measuring longing for touch is a very complex task considering the many aspects of subjective touch perception and confounds in the method of self-report of touch. In our view, the LITPQ provides promising insights into this matter.     

Anterior temporal cortex and semantic memory: Reconciling findings from neuropsychology and functional imaging

Studies of semantic impairment arising from brain disease suggest that the anterior temporal lobes are critical for semantic abilities in humans; yet activation of these regions is rarely reported in functional imaging studies of healthy controls performing semantic tasks. Here, we combined neuropsychological and PE T functional imaging data to show that when healthy subjects identify concepts at a specific level, the regions activated correspond to the site of maximal atrophy in patients with relatively pure semantic impairment. The stimuli were color photographs of common animals or vehicles, and the task was category verification at specific (e.g., robin), intermediate (e.g., bird), or general (e.g., animal) levels. Specific, relative to general, categorization activated the antero-lateral temporal cortices bilaterally, despite matching of these experimental conditions for difficulty. Critically, in patients with atrophy in precisely these areas, the most pronounced deficit was in the retrieval of specific semantic information.     

Functional imaging of the semantic system: retrieval of sensory-experienced and verbally learned knowledge

This paper considers how functional neuro-imaging can be used to investigate the organization of the semantic system and the limitations associated with this technique. The majority of the functional imaging studies of the semantic system have looked for divisions by varying stimulus category. These studies have led to divergent results and no clear anatomical hypotheses have emerged to account for the dissociations seen in behavioral studies. Only a few functional imaging studies have used task as a variable to differentiate the neural correlates of semantic features more directly. We extend these findings by presenting a new study that contrasts tasks that differentially weight sensory (color and taste) and verbally learned (origin) semantic features. Irrespective of the type of semantic feature retrieved, a common semantic system was activated as demonstrated in many previous studies. In addition, the retrieval of verbally learned, but not sensory-experienced, features enhanced activation in medial and lateral posterior parietal areas. We attribute these "verbally learned" effects to differences in retrieval strategy and conclude that evidence for segregation of semantic features at an anatomical level remains weak. We believe that functional imaging has the potential to increase our understanding of the neuronal infrastructure that sustains semantic processing but progress may require multiple experiments until a consistent explanatory framework emerges.     

Experimental approaches to developmental dyslexia: An introduction

Summary The nine papers on reading processes and problems collected together in this issue are discussed and related to each other. The studies all share a theoretical framework which is based on models of cognitive psychology and experimental methods developed in this area. A single major hypothesis emerges from these studies on the nature of developmental dyslexia. In its weak form the hypothesis suggests a phonological deficit, in its strong form a specific deficit in speech-motor programming. While other determinants of reading failure are not ruled out, the evidence from the various independent experiments allows the surprisingly parsimonious interpretation of developmental dyslexia as a type of speech problem.     

Correlational analysis of speakers' heights, weights, and temporal speech features.

Correlation coefficients on height, weight, and temporal features were computed separately for 15 female and 15 male speakers. With only one exception, speakers' heights and weights were not significantly correlated with their temporal characteristics. Implications of these findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Position effects in encoding briefly exposed item matrices: evidence for a reading bias or merely a matter of the selection criterion?

Position effects are frequently reported in experiments that investigate the recognition of items from briefly exposed stimulus matrices. A reliable finding is the ability to report items from the first row of the matrix more accurately than from the second row. The present experiments explore whether this position effect depends upon the selection criterion used to indicate the subgroup of items that has to be reported in a given trial. In Experiment 1, German and Chinese participants were presented with language-specific items which had to be selected by column. In Experiment 2, Germans were presented with Latin letters and the selection criterion was letter color. A strong row effect was evident in both experiments although the selection criteria did not prompt a line-by-line grouping of the items. The row effect is seen as a manifestation of top-down processing that is derived from reading habits.     

Rechtliche Rahmenbedingungen und Behandlungspraxis bei persönlichkeitsgestörten Straftätern in den Niederlanden

Zusammenfassung   Die Behandlung pers?nlichkeitsgest?rter Straft?ter, die in den Niederlanden haupts?chlich dem Ma?regelvollzug obliegt, steht durch die Forderung von Politik und ?ffentlichkeit nach maximaler Sicherheit der Allgemeinheit momentan unter st?ndigem Druck. Gleichzeitig finden im Ma?regelvollzug Entwicklungen statt, die gew?hrleisten sollen, dass der Sektor seine prim?re Aufgabe, die Gesellschaft vor rückfallgef?hrdeten Straft?tern zu schützen, besser erfüllen kann. Dabei wird ebenfalls versucht, den unterschiedlichen Sicherungs- und Behandlungsbedürfnissen der verschiedenen Patientengruppen durch ein differenziertes, wissenschaftlich fundiertes Behandlungsangebot gerecht zu werden. In diesem Beitrag werden die Errungenschaften in der Behandlung psychisch gest?rter Straft?ter beschrieben und es wird erl?utert, inwieweit die Panikmache von Politik und Medien die gemachten Fortschritte zu untergraben droht.      

Laboratory instruments in the history of psychology

The importance of laboratory instruments as sources for the writing of the history of psychology is stressed, and illustrated through the use of examples where their study has been profitable. Most importantly, the role of the Hipp chronoscope in the reaction-time experiment is discussed, and the importance of various changes introduced into its design by James McKeen Cattell is shown. A photograph, first exhibited by the Department of Psychology of Clark University at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago is included, and further illustrates the importance of these instruments to historians.