Adaptation of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-IV (WISC-IV) for Vietnam

Intelligence testing is used for many purposes including identification of children for proper educational placement (e.g., children with learning disabilities, or intellectually gifted students), and to guide education by identifying cognitive strengths and weaknesses so that teachers can adapt their instructional style to students’ specific learning styles. Most of the research involving intelligence tests has been conducted in highly developed Western countries Yet the need for intelligence testing is as or even more important in developing countries. The present study, conducted through the Vietnam National University Clinical Psychology CRISP Center, focused on the cultural adaptation of the WISC-IV intelligence test for Vietnam. We report on (a) the adaptation process including the translation, cultural analysis and modifications involved in adaptation, (b) present results of two pilot studies, and (c) describe collection of the standardization sample and results of analyses with the standardization sample, with the goal of sharing our experience with other researchers who may be involved in or interested in adapting or developing IQ tests for non-Western, non-English speaking cultures.     

The self in action effects: selective attenuation of self-generated sounds

The immediate experience of self-agency, that is, the experience of generating and controlling our actions, is thought to be a key aspect of selfhood. It has been suggested that this experience is intimately linked to internal motor signals associated with the ongoing actions. These signals should lead to an attenuation of the sensory consequences of one’s own actions and thereby allow classifying them as self-generated. The discovery of shared representations of actions between self and other, however, challenges this idea and suggests similar attenuation of one’s own and other’s sensory action effects.Here, we tested these assumptions by comparing sensory attenuation of self-generated and observed sensory effects. More specifically, we compared the loudness perception of sounds that were either self-generated, generated by another person or a computer. In two experiments, we found a reduced perception of loudness intensity specifically related to self-generation. Furthermore, the perception of sounds generated by another person and a computer did not differ from each other. These findings indicate that one’s own agentive influence upon the outside world has a special perceptual quality which distinguishes it from any sort of external influence, including human and non-human sources. This suggests that a real sense of self-agency is not a socially shared but rather a unique and private experience.     

The Effects of Instructions on Mothers’ Ratings of Child Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Symptoms

We examined whether instructional materials describing how to rate child ADHD symptoms would improve the accuracy of mothers’ ratings of ADHD symptoms presented in standard child behavior stimuli, and whether instructions would be equally effective across a range of maternal depressive symptoms and family incomes. A community sample of 100 mothers with 5 to 12 year old sons were randomly assigned to either receive or not receive the instructions. All mothers watched standard video recordings of boys displaying nonproblem behavior, ADHD symptoms, ADHD plus oppositional behaviors, or ADHD plus anxious behaviors, and then rated the ADHD symptoms of the boys in the videos. These ratings were compared to ratings of the boys’ ADHD symptoms made by objective coders. Results indicated an interaction such that the instructional materials improved the agreement between mothers’ and coders’ ratings, but only for mothers at lower family income levels. The instructional materials improved all mothers’ open-ended responses regarding knowledge of ADHD. All mothers rated more ADHD symptoms in boys with comorbid oppositional or anxious behaviors, and this effect was not reduced by the instructional materials. The potential utility of these instructions to improve the accuracy of ratings of child ADHD symptoms is explored.     

The relationship between history of violent and criminal behavior and recognition of facial expression of emotions in men with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder

Social psychological research underscores the relation between aggression and emotion. Specifically, regulating negative affect requires the ability to appraise restraint‐producing cues, such as facial signs of anger, fear and other emotions. Individuals diagnosed with major mental disorders are more likely to have engaged in violent behavior than mentally healthy members of the same communities. We examined whether violent and criminal behavior in men with schizophrenia is related to emotion recognition abilities. Forty‐one men with schizophrenia underwent a computerized emotion discrimination test presenting mild and extreme intensities of happy, sad, angry, fearful and neutral faces, balanced for gender and ethnicity. History of violence was assessed by the Life History of Aggression Scale and official records of arrests. Psychopathology was rated using the Positive and Negative Symptom Scale. Criminal behavior was associated with poor emotion recognition, especially for fearful and angry facial expressions. History of aggression was also associated with more severe positive symptoms and less severe negative symptoms. These findings suggest that misinterpretation of social cues such as angry and fearful expression may lead to a failure in socialization and adaptive behavior in response to emotional situation, which may result in a higher number of criminal arrests. Aggr. Behav. 32:1–8, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

An Examination of the Joint Effects of Affective Experiences and Job Beliefs on Job Satisfaction and Variations in Affective Experiences over Time

This study investigated the joint influences of episodic levels of pleasant mood at work and beliefs about one's job on judgments of job satisfaction, as well as examining the prediction of the patterns of affective states over time. Twenty-four managerial workers completed a diary during work hours which required them to report their mood state at four different times during the workday. The diaries were completed for 16 workdays. At a separate time they completed a measure of overall satisfaction, a Valence-Instrumentality-Expectancy (VIE) measure of beliefs about the job and two dispositional variables, dispositional happiness and affect intensity. Results showed that average levels of pleasant mood over the 16 days and VIE beliefs about the job made significant and independent contributions to the prediction of overall job satisfaction and did so over and above the contribution of dispositional happiness. Results also indicated that individual differences in affective intensity predicted the variability of pleasant mood over time as well as mean levels of mood activation. Finally, spectral analyses applied to the series of mood observations showed that the variability over time in the series of mood observations showed two definite cycles, one corresponding to a daily cycle and one corresponding to a two-period oscillation in mood. Results are discussed in terms of the joint influences of affective experiences and job beliefs on job attitudes and the importance of studying affect over time independent of job satisfaction. Copyright 1999 Academic Press.     

A Prospective Analysis of Near-Death Experiences in Cardiac Arrest Patients

The objective of this study was to assess prospectively the frequency of near-death experiences (NDEs) in patients suffering a cardiac arrest, to characterize these experiences, and to assess their impact on psychosocial and spiritual attitudes. We prospectively evaluated all patients who suffered a cardiac arrest at Barnes-Jewish Hospital from April 1991 through February 1994, excluding those in the surgical intensive care unit, using a scale designed to specify criteria for NDEs, a recorded interview regarding the experience, an experience rating form, and a follow-up questionnaire regarding psychosocial attitudinal life changes. Of the 174 patients who suffered a cardiac arrest, 55 patients survived, of whom 30 patients were interviewable. Of those 30 patients interviewed, seven (23 percent) had a NDE, and four others (13 percent) reported an NDE during a prior life-threatening illness. The experiences were most frequently characterized by ineffability, peacefulness, painlessness, lack of fear, detachment from the body, and no sense of time or space. Significant differences were noted in the follow-up psychosocial assessment between patients who experienced an NDE and those who did not with regard to personal understanding of life and self, attitudes toward others, and changes in social customs and religious/spiritual beliefs. Of importance, patients reported it was beneficial to receive psychosocial support before hospital discharge after having an NDE. The results suggest that NDEs are fairly common in cardiac arrest survivors. The experiences consisted of a number of core characteristics and changed psychological, social, and spiritual awareness over both the short and long term.     

Rule learning by cotton-top tamarins

Previous work suggests that human infants are capable of rapidly generalizing patterns that have been characterized as abstract algebraic rules (Science 283 (1999) 77), a process that may play a pivotal role in language acquisition. Here we explore whether this capacity is uniquely human and evolved specifically for the computational problems associated with language, or whether this mechanism is shared with other species, and therefore evolved for problems other than language. We used the same materials and methods that were originally employed in tests of human infants to assess whether cotton-top tamarin monkeys can extract abstract algebraic rules. Specifically, we habituated subjects to sequences of consonant-vowel syllables that followed one of two patterns, AAB (e.g. wi wi di) or ABB (le we we). Following habituation, we presented subjects with two novel test items, one with the same pattern as that presented during habituation and one with a different pattern. Like human infants, tamarins were more likely to dishabituate to the test item with a different pattern. We conclude that the capacity to generalize rule-like patterns, at least at the level demonstrated, did not evolve specifically for language acquisition, though it remains possible that infants might use such rules during language acquisition.     

Associations between anxiety and marital adjustment

Cognitive-behavioral theories of marital functioning and contextual models of close relationships highlight the importance of proximal affect states such as anxiety in couple functioning. Despite these assertions, research examining the role of state anxiety is lacking in the literature on intimate relationships. In this study, the authors examined state anxiety and marital adjustment in a sample of 45 couples. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that husbands' Time 1 anxiety can predict their own and their wives' subsequent reports of marital adjustment. Wives' Time 1 anxiety did not predict their own or their husbands' subsequent reports of marital adjustment. In this study, the authors focused on the role of husband anxiety in marital adjustment and on implications for further study of the contextual model of close relationships.