A pool of 1,086 words with unique two-letter fragments

Cognitive psychology is finding increasing use for the word fragment completion test, in which words have to be completed from a subset of their letters (e.g.,horizon from --r-z--). Researchers often try to restrict their fragments to those that can be completed with only one word, but this is difficult to do and probably never has been achieved. To help resolve this problem, a list is provided of 1,086 three- to eight-letter words, each of which is uniquely specified by a two-letter fragment, where uniqueness is defined on the basis of two sizable word collections.     

Emotional and autonomic responses to visual traumatic stimuli

A fine-grain analysis of autonomic responses are presented with the purpose of extending the conclusions from a previously published paper (Christianson & Nilsson, 1984) on emotional and memorial responses to traumatic visual stimuli. Control subjects were presented with a series of 18 slides of neutral faces, whereas the experimental subjects were presented with six slides of horrible facial injuries in positions 7–12, interspersed between six slides of neutral faces in the beginning, and six slides of neutral faces at the end of the series. The time course of heart rate (HR) and skin conductance (SC) during stimulus presentation was recorded. These data showed an initial pattern of increase in SC, but not in HR. This pattern was subsequently replaced by a combined increase in both SC and HR. The results are discrepant to previous work and are interpreted as effects of not informing the subjects about the gruesome slides to be presented.     

Empirical support for a Type A belief system

Much of the research on Type A behavior has focused on overt manifestations of the pattern; consequently, the underlying psychological dimensions are poorly understood (Matthews, 1982). Price (1982) has proposed an elaborate, but empirically unvalidated, model suggesting that a specific set of beliefs underlies the Type A behavior pattern. A series of experiments was conducted to test the validity of Price's model and to develop a device for assessing these beliefs. The internal consistency and test-retest reliability of this measure were .94 and .84, respectively. Significant positive correlations were found with traditional measures of Type A behavior as well as various facets of anger and anxiety. Finally, subjects who endorsed a high degree of Type A beliefs set significantly higher performance standards and were less likely to achieve these standards than their low-scoring counterparts. Results are discussed with regard to the theoretical construct of Type A as well as their implications for future research and treatment.This research is an extension of a study presented at the 92nd meeting of the American Psychological Association, Toronto, Canada, August 1984Special thanks to to Drs. James A. Blumenthal, Martin T. Gipson, Abby C. King, and Ellie T. Sturgis for their helpful comments in the preparation of this article.     

Prospective assessment of late-luteal phase dysphoric disorder

This investigation evaluated a method for the prospective assessment of the symptoms of premenstrual syndrome (PMS). The American Psychiatric Association has proposed a diagnostic category for PMS in the DSM-III-R entitled late-luteal phase dysphoric disorder (LLDD). The criteria for this disorder include prospective documentation of at least two symptomatic cycles. Two groups of women were studied, one group that met the DSM-III-R diagnostic criteria for LLDD and a comparison group that did not. Subjects recorded symptoms related to PMS for two menstrual cycles. A clinically significant worsening of symptoms was defined as a symptom increase during the premenstruum of greater than one standard deviation above normal. These effect sizes were then used to determine if the subject met the DSM-III-R criteria for prospective confirmation. Data analysis showed that although the LLDD group showed evidence for PMS in several symptom groups, only a minority (31%) met the requirement of prospective confirmation of significant PMS symptoms for the two cycles recorded. These results were discussed in terms of the need for prospective behavioral assessment of LLDD and the implications of these findings for past and future research.Portions of this paper were derived from the master's thesis of the first author.     

Evaluation of long term effects of phonemic awareness training in kinderarten: Illustrations of some methodological problems in evaluation research

The long-term effects of phonemic awareness training in kindergarten were evaluated by studying various aspects of reading, spelling, and oral phonological skills in school. In the kindergarten-part of the study 95 children divided into three experimental and two control groups took part. One year later 83 of them were identified and tested in school. The children who participated in the phonemic training program seemed to have benefited from it to some extent. At least they improved their scores on phonemic synthesis tests in school. Some children in the middle and high range of pretest performance seem to have avoided a risk for reading failure to a greater extent than the corresponding children in the control groups. It is suggested that phonemic training contributes to the development of accurate concepts of reading in the preschool child and makes the child less confused when confronted with formal reading instruction in school. Great variances, ceiling effects, and group heterogeneity created many difficulties in evaluating the training effects. The various methodological problems implied in evaluation research with nonequivalent control group design were analysed and illustrated with data from the present research.     

Do Animals See Colors? An Anthropoccentrist's Guide to Animals,The Color Blind,and Far Away

Philosophical Studies -     

Manualized Treatment of Panic Disorder in a Medical Setting: Two Illustrative Case Studies

People who experience panic attacks (PAs) typically present to medical settings, concerned that their symptoms signify a life-threatening condition. Despite the efficacy of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for panic disorder (PD), medical practitioners seldom provide this type of treatment. Physicians may lack the time or expertise to impart such behavioral medicine interventions, while patients may find group or individual CBT too costly even when available. Researchers have begun investigating manualized CBT as a cost-effective alternative when traditional forms of this intervention are prohibited. This article describes two case studies in which women presenting to a medical clinic with PD were treated with 6 weeks of manualized CBT after pharmacotherapy was unsuccessful or unpalatable. Both patients exhibited reductions in panic and depressive symptomatology over baseline levels, along with increases in self-efficacy regarding their ability to manage future PAs. Improvements were maintained over 12 months, supporting continued use of manualized CBT as a supplement or alternative to pharmacological methods of treating PD in the medical setting.     

Validation of self-ideal body size discrepancy as a measure of body dissatisfaction

Recently, body dissatisfaction has been conceptualized as the discrepancy between self and ideal body size estimates. This study evaluated the validity of this conceptualization using three methods for estimating actual and ideal body size: (a) the Body Image Assessment, (b) the Body Image Testing System, and (c) the Body Image Detection Device. The three body image assessment procedures were concurrently administered to a sample of 110 women diagnosed: bulimia nervosa (n=18),obese (n=34),and non-eating disorder (n=58).The Eating Disorder Inventory Body Dissatisfaction scale was also used to measure body dissatisfaction. Measures of self-ideal body size discrepancy were found to correlate more highly with measures of body dissatisfaction than were measures of current body size perception, ideal body size, body size estimation accuracy, or indices based on actual body size. Estimation of both current and ideal body size were found to significantly predict overall body dissatisfaction; thus, both self and ideal body size measures were found to be significant components in determining body size dissatisfaction. These data were interpreted as supportive of the conceptualization of body dissatisfaction as the discrepancy between self and ideal body size estimates.