Explicating Those "Troublesome" Texts of the Creeds: The Promise of Realistic Fiction

Understanding what appear to be outdated creedal commitments can be enhanced by reading "realistic fiction." The creedal "conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary" is dramatically underscored by showing how a birth can be salvific in a sterile society as portrayed in The Children of Men by P.D. James. "The Resurrection of the Body" is underscored by miraculous healings after death in Graham Greene's The End of the Affair.     

Type D Personality and Chronic Pain: Construct and Concurrent Validity of the DS14

A body of research has demonstrated that the Type D personality is a risk factor among cardiac patients. Previous studies validating the Type D Scale (DS14) across other clinical groups have not included chronic pain patients in their samples. The purpose of this study was to investigate the construct and concurrent validity of the DS14 using the MMPI-2. The DS14 and its two component subscales demonstrated strong internal consistency among chronic pain patients. The two subscales of the DS14 were found to be related to similar clinical scales on the MMPI-2, and significant differences were found in the MMPI-2 profiles of individuals with and without the Type D personality. Considerations for clinical practice and research are discussed.     

Stochastic transitivity and the unidimensional control of choice

A concurrent-chains paradigm was used to test three models of preference for schedules of reinforcement. Each model assumes choice to be a monotonic function of values on a single dimension (“simple scalability”). For choices involving variable-interval and fixed-interval schedules, this dimension is assumed to be an harmonic average of the interreinforcement intervals; for choices involving fixedinterval and fixed-ratio schedules, the dimension is the time to reinforcement irrespective of response rate; for choices involving different combinations of rate and duration of reinforcement, the dimension is the rate of “reinforcement-time”, or the product of the two parameters. Each model implies a strong form of transitivity (“functional equivalence”), which held for half the subjects (that half exclusively sensitive to the reinforcement variable specified by the model). An alternative unidimensional model which implies a weaker form of transitivity (“weak binary utility model”) was consistent with the preferences of all subjects. This model states that a single factor controls the direction of preferences but not necessarily the exact choice probability, as simple scalability assumes.     

The occurrence of paraphasias in the spontaneous speech of children with an acquired aphasia

Two children with an acquired aphasia were observed during the recovery process. In the spontaneous speech, paraphasias belonging to different categories, such as neologisms, verbal paraphasias, and literal paraphasias, were found. Especially with regard to neologisms the time of investigation was very important. In addition, one child with a phonemic jargon aphasia and one child with a fluent aphasia and empty speech were observed. These observations implicate a modification of the current clinical picture of childhood aphasia. Some aspects are discussed in relation to adult aphasia.     

Stuttering theory,research, and therapy: A five-year retrospective and look ahead

This article reviews events in stuttering theory, research, and therapy that have transpired during the past 5 years. After the retrospective review, current work in the area of stuttering is examined. This analysis of the past and present was conducted in an effort to give clearer direction to future efforts to understand the disorder, and to study and treat it more effectively.     

The Boston Naming Test: Norm data and cue utilization in a sample of normal 6- and 7-year-old children

The object-naming abilities of 83 normal children were examined using the Boston Naming Test developed by E. Kaplan, H. Goodglass, and S. Weintraub (1976, The Boston Naming Test (experimental edition), unpublished test, Veterans Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts). There is currently a lack of available norms for this instrument, especially for populations of younger children. Cue utilization in this sample is explored and attention is focused upon possible gender differences in naming performance and cue strategies. Seven summary scores derived from the test are presented in this report. Results indicate that the Boston Naming Test can discriminate within a normal population sample of young children and provides a relatively normal distribution for six of seven derived scores. Boys were found to have a significantly greater number of items correctly named but no gender differences in cue utilization were evident. A major proportion of the children in this sample of 6- and 7-year-olds used phonological cues almost exclusively, rather than semantic cues also provided. Cue use was not related to age or spontaneously given responses, and none of the children were found to be highly proficient at using both types of cues.     

Agrammatism in a case-inflected language: Comprehension of agent-object relations

Yugoslav agrammatic aphasics and normal control subjects were tested for comprehension of agent-object relations in a series of simple Serbo-Croatian sentences consisting of two nouns (N) and a transitive action verb (V). The availability of nominative and accusative case inflections and a semantic contrast was systematically varied across sentences. Sentences were also varied with respect to the two sequences NVN and VNN. An analysis of subjects' agent-object assignments yielded the following results: While Broca's aphasics did show some sensitivity to case inflections, their ability to process such cues was greatly impaired relative to normal subjects, for whom morphological cues were almost completely deterministic. To a lesser degree, Broca's aphasics were impaired in their ability to employ a strategy of “choose the first noun as agent” when case inflections and semantic contrasts were not available. While Broca's aphasics showed no impairment in their ability to exploit semantic contrasts for agent-object assignment, there was no absolute compensatory increase in the degree to which they relied on semantic cues. Differences in word sequence had no effect on agent-object assignment in Broca's aphasics. Finally, Broca's aphasics frequently responded unsystematically when cues to agent-object relations occurred in isolation or in competition with one another, but when there was a convergence of cues their performance approached that of normal subjects. This result was interpreted in terms of an accessing hypothesis.     

Altered patterns of word associations in dementia and aphasia

The word associations of 38 demented, 17 aphasic, and 22 normal subjects were studied. Both normal and brain-injured subjects appear to make judgments about the grammatical class of the word stimulus. Certain stimulus words (especially nouns and adjectives) elicit paradigmatic responses whereas other words (especially verbs and adverbs) elicit syntagmatic responses. The mechanism producing syntagmatic responses seems relatively resistant to deterioration in dementia or aphasia. However, in dementia the mechanism that generates paradigmatic responses becomes progressively less efficient (possibly due to a loss of semantic markers) and consequently more random (idiosyncratic) responses emerge. Perseverative responses, inhibited in normal subjects, are more prevalent in dementia. Anomic aphasics show a pattern of word associations similar to that of subjects with mild dementia. Broca's aphasics, while making fewer paradigmatic associations than normals, retain enough self-monitoring mechanisms so that few idiosyncratic and perseverative responses are made while more null responses occur. Wernicke's aphasics show a marked shift away from a paradigmatic word association strategy, possibly due to an inability to access semantic markers or a true loss of these markers. Metalinguistic deficits (i.e., a failure to adopt an appropriate strategy) may also contribute to this shift away from paradigmatic associations. Furthermore, a disruption of self-monitoring mechanisms in Wernicke's aphasia leads to an increase in perseverative and idiosyncratic responses.     

Event-related potentials in phonological matching tasks

Two experiments investigated Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) in matching tasks. In Experiment 1 subjects judged, in separate conditions, whether two words rhymed or were written in the same case. The CNV developing between the two words was larger in the latter task compared to the former at the right temporal site. In the rhyme judgment task, an increased late negativity differentiated the ERPs to nonrhyming words from those that rhymed with the previously presented word. This difference was maximal at the midline and over the right hemisphere. Experiment 2 further investigated ERPs in the rhyme judgment task, increasing memory demands with an extended interstimulus interval (ISI) and varying the number of items subjects had to hold in memory during this period (one vs. three). Irrespective of memory load, CNVs during the ISI were more negative from the left hemisphere, and the ERPs to the rhyming and nonrhyming words showed the same differences as in Experiment 1. The CNV asymmetries are interpreted as being associated with the engagement of lateralized short-term memory processes. The rhyme/nonrhyme differences are possibly related to the “N400” component elicited by semantically incongruous words. Possible reasons for their scalp distribution are discussed.