A Multitrait-multimethod examination of Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) and Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI)

Recently, certain Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) and Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI) scales have seen increasing usage for the measurement of DSM-III personality disorders. The current study sought to identify the convergent and discriminant validity of these two sets of scales for this purpose. In general, the results indicated significant convergence across the two instruments. However, better convergent validity was found for scales representing those DSM-III disorders which are most consistent with the typology upon which the MCMI was based. In particular, convergent and discriminant validity results were poorest for Compulsive, Antisocial, and Passive-Aggressive personality scales.     

Maternal perception of maladjustment in clinic-referred children: An extension of earlier research

The purpose of the present study was to extend earlier research examining predictors of maternal perceptions of maladjustment in clinic-referred children. Forty-five mothers and their clinic-referred children served as subjects. Maternal perceptions of child maladjustment were measured by the Parent Attitude Test. Maternal depression, marital adjustment, and family socioeconomic status were determined by the Beck Depression Inventory, Locke Marital Adjustment Test, and Myers and Bean index of social status, respectively. Child compliance and child deviant behavior (other than noncompliance) were obtained in home observations collected by independent observers. The results indicated that maternal depression was the best predictor of maternal perception of children. The remaining variables failed to contribute to the multiple regression analyses. Separate analyses also were performed on males and females and different predictor variables emerged for the two groups.The research reported in this study was supported by NIMH Grant 34193.     

关于幼儿嗅、味、动、触摸感觉道记忆的研究

记忆在幼儿心理的发展过程中,具有极为重要的作用。幼儿知识的掌握,语言的学习,技巧的培养,以至个性的形成,都与记忆活动密切联系。国内外关于幼儿记忆的研究,主要限于有意与无意识记,机械与意义识记,形象与语词记忆等方面,很少从不同感觉道输入信息来进行比较。有的实验虽然涉及到不同感觉道的记忆,但被试者都是7岁以上的儿童,如斯梅德利(Smedley)和三岛、横尾等人的研究。为了全面了解幼儿的记忆发展水平,我们设计了关于幼儿不同感觉道记忆的实验研究,试图通过对幼儿各个感觉道输入信息来全面测查幼儿的视觉、听觉、味觉、嗅觉、动觉和触摸党的记忆水平,了解其发展规律及特点,以便为幼儿记忆的理论研究提供实验数据,为幼儿教育提供心理学依据。     

Affordances after spinal cord injury

Spinal cord injury can cause cognitive impairments even when no cerebral lesion is appreciable. As patients are forced to explore the environment in a non-canonical position (i.e., seated on a wheelchair), a modified relation with space can explain motor-related cognitive differences compared to non-injured individuals. Peripersonal space is encoded in motor terms, that is, in relation to the representation of action abilities and is strictly related to the affordance of reachability. In turn, affordances, the action possibilities suggested by relevant properties of the environment, are related to the perceiver's peripersonal space and motor abilities. One might suppose that these motor-related cognitive abilities are compromised when an individual loses the ability to move. We shed light on this issue in 10 patients with paraplegia and 20 matched controls. All have been administered an affordances-related reachability judgement task adapted from Costantini, Ambrosini, Tieri, Sinigaglia, and Committeri (2010, Experimental Brain Research, 207, 95) and neuropsychological tests. Our findings demonstrate that patients and controls show the same level of accuracy in estimating the location of their peripersonal space boundaries, but only controls show the typical overestimation of reaching range. Secondly, patients show a higher variability in their judgements than controls. Importantly, this finding is related to the patients’ ability to perform everyday tasks. Finally, patients are not faster in making their judgements on reachability in peripersonal space, while controls are. Our results suggest that not moving freely or as usual in the environment impact decoding of action-related properties even when the upper limbs are not compromised.     

动、静态视觉信息在真实世界视觉搜索中的作用

真实环境中的视觉搜索是人和动物赖以生存的重要能力。目前的视觉搜索研究多使用静态的观察者和静止的二维搜索对象, 侧重于探究注意在搜索中的作用; 现有的视觉搜索理论模型主要概括了影响搜索的自上而下的注意因素, 而将自下而上影响因素简单归结为影像显著性, 然而在真实环境中, 观察者或搜索对象是可以运动的, 搜索时可利用的视觉信息包括动态光流和静态影像结构信息。已有的视觉识别研究发现这两种信息相结合可以使观察者准确持久地识别场景、事件和三维结构。在现有视觉搜索理论模型中引入两种视觉信息可以较好还原真实环境中的搜索任务。我们提出研究构想和实验方案,探究利用动、静态视觉信息的视觉搜索过程, 从而完善现有的视觉搜索模型。我们认为充分利用环境信息可以提高搜索效率, 且在视觉搜索训练和智能搜索设计等方面有重要的应用价值。