Memory for a dialectical and a nondialectical prose passage in young and older adults

Age differences in adults' processing of a dialectical or nondialectical prose passage were explored. Twenty young and 20 older adults read a dialectical or mechanistic passage and were tested for free recall and recognition after a 30-min delay (filled with vocabulary and paradigm belief scale). Older (vs. young) adults had significantly lower formistic and mechanistic scores and showed greater relative preference for relativistic and dialectical beliefs (paradigm scale). There were no age differences in amount of free recall or number of correct responses (hits) on recognition, but older adults produced more spontaneous dialectical distortions in recall of the mechanistic passage and more paradigm-congruent false alarms on recognition. There was also a move from absolute toward dialectical thinking on the paradigm scale and, among males, on the recognition measure. Dialectical scores (paradigm scale) were positively correlated, and mechanistic scores negatively correlated, with number of dialectical distortions on free recall (mechanistic passage), while dialectical scores were positively correlated with number of dialectical false alarms (dialectical passage).     

Adult urinary incontinence: Assessment,intervention, and the role of clinical health psychology in program development

Urinary incontinence (UI) is a disorder receiving little attention from clinical health psychologists. This paper establishes the importance of addressing the issue of UI within the clinical and research practices of clinical health psychologists. Over 10 million Americans suffer from loss of bladder control. Incontinence affects over half of older individuals in long-term care institutions, about one-third of hospitalized elderly, and up to 30% of Americans over the age of 60 living at home. Because of social stigma and misconceptions attached to urinary incontinence, it is estimated that less than half of those affected see a physician about their condition. Since UI is generally associated with medical, social, psychological, and economic consequences, a multidisciplinary perspective is important because these factors are integral in the selection of appropriate treatment. Definitions of UI, its incidence and costs, and brief reviews of treatment and management techniques are presented. Psychological sequelae and treatments are presented as a foundation for developing further treatment and research approaches. Guidelines for collaboration and consultation by clinical health psychologists with medical professionals in the area of UI are also discussed.     

Development and yearning: Cognitive aspects of spiritual development

Spirituality is important to humans but gets little attention in experimental studies of life span cognitive development. One way to integrate such studies is to examine cognitive aspects of spiritual development using complex postformal Piagetian models. Four possible points of interface within postformal models are: developmental stages; elements of emotion and will; multiperson cognition; and forms taken by the processes used. Testable hypotheses are outlined and some possible difficulties to be expected within such research are discussed.     

Reminiscences in honor of Erik Erikson: Contributions to psychotherapeutic method and configurations of human potential

In this essay, I offer some reminiscences of Erik Erikson. While he is best known for his work on stages of development across the life span, I focus here on his lesser known, but significant contributions to the psychotherapeutic method with children, adolescents, and adults, respectively.     

Characterizing adult cognitive development

A paradigm of adult cognitive development is elaborated that is derived from concepts inherent in the study of consistency and change during the adult years. It is argued that the antecedents and consequences of adult cognition are substantially different from those that pertain to earlier growth-oriented developmental periods and to later decline-oriented periods. Adult cognition and its development are characterized in terms of adaptive competencies in specific domains, elasticity of function within selected domains, and knowledge encapsulation. Another major characteristic of adult development is that knowledge and computation are integrated or encapsulated with experience and use. It is suggested that these characteristics serve to distinguish adult cognitive development from the discontinuous emerging properties of earlier cognitive development and from the general deficiencies of cognitive function that are characteristic of very late life.     

A typical interaction behaviour between fathers and toddlers: Teasing

The purpose of this article is threefold. First, it presents teasing behaviours towards the infant through the notion of ‘expectancy violation’, and defines what parental teasing may consist of. Secondly, the paper summarizes empirical data which show that teasing concerns more paternal than maternal behaviours. Thirdly, we speculate about a positive impact of this kind of typical paternal behaviour on cognitive and social development, as it introduces novelty and ambiguity, which must be processed, as well as negotiation of a struggle.     

The Adams and Reis observations revisited

This experiment was designed as a replication of the Adams and Reis (1971, 1974) experiments, which posited a direct relationship between frequency of stuttering and the number of “off-on” laryngeal adjustments during speech. Twenty adult stutterers read two prose passages equivalent in length, word length, and semantic content. The first passage contained a normal distribution of syllable-initial voiced and voiceless consonants whereas the second contained only voiced phonemes. The results demonstrated significantly greater stuttering during reading of the all-voiced passage (P?0.05). These results did not confirm the earlier observations of Adams and Reis and mitigate the hypothesized relationships between stuttering frequency and “off-on” laryngeal adjustments.     

Stuttering following brain damage

This paper describes the neurological, language, and speech status of seven brain-damaged patients with symptoms of cortical stuttering. We compare data from our seven patients to data presented on other brain-damaged stutterers, review theories of cortical stuttering's etiology, advance alternative hypotheses about mechanisms underlying such dy sfluencies, and compare cortical stuttering to stuttering in childhood.     

The role of the perioral reflex in lip motor control for speech.

The analysis of spinal and brainstem reflexes has been shown to be a useful method of quantifying the various inputs to motoneuron pools involved in voluntary motor control. This work is selectively reviewed as a background to a discussion of the role of the perioral reflex in lip motor control for speech. Data on the sensorimotor innervation of the lips and the static and dynamic properties of the perioral reflex are presented in support of the notions that (1) perioral reflex analysis provides a viable technique for analyzing brainstem excitability changes underlying lip muscle contraction for speech, and (2) the perioral reflex loop is an important functional element in lip motor control for speech.