Synesthesia: II. Psychophysical relations in the synesthesia of geometrically shaped taste and colored hearing

The psychophysical function in two synesthetic subjects, one with geometrically shaped taste and the other with colored hearing, is investigated. Each synesthete is compared with three control subjects. Pilot studies are used to construct appropriate response domains. Compared to controls, synesthetes give a restricted set of responses that are also asymmetric with respect to the range of choices available in various subsets of the response domain. A combination of absolute and relative effects is also distinctive of synesthetic percepts. It is concluded that synesthesia is a distinct phenomenon unlike ordinary mediated associations, and occupies an intermediate position in the range of simple to complex brain mechanisms.     

Dementia in Parkinson disease: A neuropsychological analysis

An extensive set of neuropsychological measures was administered to 60 Parkinson's disease patients and age-, sex-, and education-matched controls in order to investigate the nature and prevalence of the cognitive deficit in the disease. Parkinsonian patients performed significantly poorer on all measures with the exception of tests for apraxia and object recognition, and on a test of vocabulary knowledge. Discriminant analysis of the test data revealed that over 93% of patients are impaired relative to matched controls, but that assigning a prevalence rate for dementia in the disease may be difficult due to the continuous distribution of cognitive deficits.     

Recall failure following successful generation and recognition of responses by alcoholic Korsakoff patients

Amnesic Korsakoff patients and controls were presented with twelve words, each shown individually in the presence of a weak associate. They were then asked to freely associate to 12 other words that were strong associates of the to-be-remembered (TBR) words. The Korsakoff patients generated, and were able to recognize, as many of the TBR words as the controls. Yet, in spite of this recognition ability, these same patients were subsequently unable to recall the critical TBR words when the weak cues were again presented. A follow-up study found that the same recognition results could be obtained with Korsakoffs months after initial presentation suggesting that the patients might initially have “recognized” the most highly associated words simply because they represented the most probable choices. Intermediate association prompts failed to generate correct responses. It was hypothesized that the Korsakoff patients cannot restructure their semantic associative hierarchy during input in such a way as to become sensitized to other than the strongest associates as prompts during recall.     

Applying Behavioral Momentum Theory to Increase Compliance

ABSTRACT

Behavioral momentum has been used as a theory to create effective interventions to increase compliance with requests, including student compliance in schools. These interventions are based on delivering a series of high probability compliance request-response-reinforcement (RRR) trials at high rates just prior to providing a request for a response that has often resulted in noncompliance. In this article, a real example of a substitute teacher leading her class through the Hokey-Pokey is used to describe and clarify interventions based on behavioral momentum. Analysis of specific procedural variables that may impact the effectiveness of interventions based on behavioral momentum theory is provided to assist practitioners with development and implementation of these proce dures within educational contexts. Recommendations for future research on this innovative technology areprovided.     

La force normative du contrôle ordinal des contrats conclus par les médecins

Professional contracts concluded by physicians are specific. Indeed, these contracts must be compliant with ethical standards of the profession. As a professional authority, the College of physicians introduces obligations under which professionals have to stipulate several specific clauses and transmit their written contracts to the College, which controls their conformity. However, the normative power of these obligations is weak. To ensure the respect of ethical standards in professional contracts, soft law is more and more used by the College.     

The Creation of Ideals: A Question of the Energy-Distribution in the Personality Field

Semantic contrast occurs when Ss' ratings of the meaning of a word shift as a function of the context in which that word occurs. The current set of studies, using male and female undergraduates as Ss, was designed to determine the conditions necessary to produce semantic contrast. In Experiment 1 (N = 50), words referring to physical beauty and temperature were scaled and used to construct stimuli for subsequent experiments. In Experiment 2 (N = 72), contrast occurred with the temperature expressions with both a limited and extended response mode. However, no contrast effects occurred with either response mode for the expressions of beauty in Experiment 3 (N = 72). These findings suggest that the elaboration of information in semantic memory varies. To the extent that there is an elaborate representation, items will be resistant to contextual effects, while the meaning of less-elaborated items will be affected by the context in which they are experienced.     

哈佛医学院医学人文课程体系设置探析

哈佛医学院医学人文课程体系较为完整系统.以描述哈佛医学院必修课课程设置为主体,从基础医学教育阶段的职业导论、病人—医生Ⅰ与病人—医生Ⅱ、社会与人口科学相关课程以及医学探索四大类课程和临床见习与实习阶段的病人—医生Ⅲ、临床管理相关课程以及凯普斯课程三大类课程出发,分别对各门课程的主要内容、课时安排、教学方法、评价方式等进行阐述.并以介绍十六大类五十余门选修课的课程设置为补充,剖析哈佛医学院医学人文课程体系发展现状.提出改革必修课程、完善选修课程、促进医学人文教育与专业教育整合的几点建议.     

Behavior therapy for obesity: Booster sessions and long-term maintenance of weight loss

Following 8 weekly sessions of group behavioral self-control treatment, 75 obese women were assigned to one of five different maintenance conditions: (a) structured behavioral booster sessions held every two weeks; (b) structured behavioral booster sessions held every month; (c) unstructured nonspecific booster sessions held every two weeks; (d) unstructured nonspecific booster sessions held every month; and (e) a control group that received no booster sessions. Follow-ups were conducted at 3, 6, 9 and 12 month intervals. The study was completed in two replications. Results failed to show a significant effect of either booster session content or frequency. All groups continued to lose weight during the first three months of follow-up. Thereafter subjects in Replication 1 showed significant increases in weight over the next 9 months, whereas subjects in Replication 2 maintained their treatment-produced weight loss. The data do not support the view that booster sessions facilitate maintenance.     

Increasing achievement motivation and work productivity in a chronic psychiatric population

The major goal of this study was to determine if social reinforcement for behavior in a simulated work activity would increase achievement motivation, work interest, and simulated work activity production. Forty-five chronic psychiatric patients were randomly assigned to one of three groups: work sample with praise, work sample without praise, and a no-treatment control group. A 3 (between) × 2 (within) analysis of variance was run for each dependent measure, that is, achievement imagery, work interests, and simulated work production. The main effect for the interaction between trials and treatment was significant on each dependent measure. Follow-up Duncan Multiple Range Tests indicated that the praise group showed a significant improvement on each dependent measure, pre to post, as well as significantly greater improvement than the no-treatment control group and/or the work sample without praise group. These results are discussed in terms of the procedure used as a method for increasing motivation and in terms of possible generalization of results to other treatment situations.