An investigation into the relationship between perceived control,attitude variability and the consumption of two common foods

The study reported here takes its lead from the literatures which emphasize the importance of attitude variability and the role of perceived control over action. Within-person variability and perceptions of control are investigated in the context of people's attitudes towards the consumption of two common foods. The role of attitude ambivalence is also examined. The findings indicate that higher attitude variability is associated with weaker relationships between the components of the theory of reasoned action and that attitude variability is negatively related to perceived control. Moreover, perceived control is shown to be related to different sorts of control problem for different behaviours. It is advocated that a more in-depth assessment of attitude variability and the perceived control construct is merited and that recent calls for more serious examination of attitude ambivalence are well-founded.     

Misremembering a familiar object: Mnemonic illusion,not drawing bias

It was reported by Jones (1990) that the design of British coins is systematically misremembered. Although the Queen's head in fact faces right, most people draw it facing left. It is possible, however, that the origin of this phenomenon does not reside in memory but instead in a leftward drawing bias. Two experiments of the three reported here tested this hypothesis. In Experiment 1, British participants attempted to recall the direction of the Queen's head but responded verbally instead of pictorially. The results were similar to those of Jones and thus contradict the hypothesis that misremembering of the Queen's head is caused by a leftward drawing bias. In Experiment 2, Canadian participants attempted to draw a Canadian coin. Leftward misremembering was not observed in this case. Thus the hypothesized importance of a leftward drawing bias was again not supported. Instead, the results provided support for the schema explanation of the Queen's Head memory illusion proposed by Jones. The results of Experiment 3, which compared memory for British coins and stamps, further bolstered this conclusion.     

The usefulness of the Western Aphasia Battery for differential diagnosis of Alzheimer dementia and focal stroke syndromes: preliminary evidence.

We assessed the usefulness of the Western Aphasia Battery for distinguishing the language disturbances caused by Alzheimer dementia (AD) from those caused by stroke. Using discriminant function analyses, the multiple variable "aphasia quotient--reading quotient--writing quotient" classified 29 (72.5%) of the 40 patients correctly. These 29 patients included 8 of 10 patients with left hemisphere infarction and fluent aphasia; 6 of 10 with AD; 5 of 10 patients with right hemisphere infarction; and all 10 of the neurologically normal control subjects. The patients with AD and those with right hemisphere stroke were the most difficult to classify using the aphasia battery.     

Effects of chronic variable stress and antidepressant drugs on behavioral inactivity during an uncontrollable stress: interaction between both treatments.

Rats submitted to a chronic variable stress regime exhibited more inactivity during inescapable shock as compared with unstressed rats. Besides, chronic treatments with desipramine, imipramine, clomipramine, or phenelzine reduce the amount of inactivity exhibited during this aversive experience. Furthermore, the combination of both chronic treatments--stress and antidepressants--resulted in a potentiation of the antidepressant effect alone. This higher antidepressant efficacy may result from the interaction of the neural mechanisms triggered by chronic stress exposure and antidepressant drugs.     

The relationship between research and design of AIDS prevention program

The global threat of AIDS requires massive public educational campaigns that employ social and behavioral sciences such as psychology, sociology, and anthropology because sexual behavior possesses a social dimension. Research is concerned with what stimulates behavioral change, what are the prerequisites of learned behavior, and what enables personal control over the environment and future. Educational programs designing strategies for AIDS prevention require social and behavioral science content and input. Interdisciplinary provides general principles with psychological, social, and cultural aspects of human behavior. Without knowledge about psychological processes (thinking, perception, speech, aspects of personality, and interactive behavior) and social processes (economic conditions, social networks, and resources) which are implicated in health problems and also in AIDS, these educational programs cannot produce credible results. These programs and their subsequent implementation require their application in practice in a systemic and consistent fashion. Evaluations are also needed to make sure that the applied processes for behavioral change conform to methodological criteria that ensure their effectiveness. These types of studies are more complex than pure AIDS research which is aimed at finding a cure.     

Representation by counsel: Right or obligation?

Since the Supreme Court's decision in Faretta v. California (1975), courts have generally permitted defendants to represent themselves, as long as they are competent to do so. The problem lies in the definition of competency to waive counsel, which has been vaguely defined by the courts. Little is known about the frequency of, or reasons for, attempts to waive counsel, about the process of forensic evaluation of such competency, and about the success of such attempts. The authors briefly review the case law on competency to waive representation, report on a longitudinal prospective study of these issues in a population of defendants referred to an inpatient forensic facility for evaluation of all types of competency related to their criminal prosecutions, and discuss the significance of the issue for forensic clinicians. A key question for courts, lawyers, and clinicians is whether a competency evaluation can be invoked to overcome a defendant's constitutional rights to self-representation and bail.     

Spatial cognition and neighborhood use: the relationship in older adults.

Measures of spatial cognition, neighborhood knowledge, and neighborhood use from the research described by Walsh, Krauss, and Regnier (1981) were examined to determine if laboratory tests of spatial cognition were significant predictors of older adults' use of their neighborhoods. The overall results show that laboratory-based measures of spatial cognition and subjects' knowledge of their neighborhoods are both significant predictors of their use of neighborhood goods and services. The ability to learn and remember the location and orientation of objects, when contextual cues were not provided at test, was more predictive of the participants' neighborhood use than either the participants' number of years in the neighborhood or their mobility. Spatial memory as measured by the Educational Testing Service Building Memory task predicted neighborhood knowledge, which was predictive of neighborhood use.     

Mood and memories of parental rearing styles: A comparison of mood effects on questionnaire-cued and free recall of autobiographical memories

The relationship between memories of childhood experiences (e.g., adverse parenting) and adult depression often found raises questions of interpretation. On the one hand, both laboratory studies and clinicians' experiences suggest that subjects in a depressed mood frequently show a negative bias in perceptions and memories. Negative childhood memories in depressed persons might, therefore, be interpreted as epiphenomena of depressed mood instead of etiological factors. On the other hand, memories of childhood experiences seem remarkably stable across changes in depressed mood, especially when memories are elicited by means of standardized questionnaires. In the mood and memory literature several explanations for this stability are offered. For one thing, highly structured cues to elicit memories (such as in questionnaires) are hypothesized to be less susceptible to mood bias than unstructured memory cues (such as in free recall procedures). On the other hand, resource allocation theorists suggest that childhood memories, being well established and rehearsed, are relatively impervious to mood bias no matter how they are elicited. In this study we examined whether different methods of eliciting childhood memories (i.e., free recall and questionnaire-cued) are differentially susceptible to mood bias. To this aim, we used a mood induction procedure to induce depressed, neutral, and elated mood and assessed childhood memories both before and after the mood induction using both questionnaires and free recall to elicit memories. Results suggested that memories elicited by means of free recall as well as by means of questionnaire-cued recall were susceptible to depressed and elated mood bias. The implications for research addressing the link between childhood experiences and depression are discussed.