Optic aphasia, optic apraxia, and loss of dreaming

A 47-year-old man with a left temporo-occipital infarct in the area of the posterior cerebral artery is presented. The neuropsychological examination did not reveal aphasia or gross mental deficits. The patient presented with alexia without agraphia, color agnosia, but few visual perceptual deficits. The main impairment was in confrontation naming; he was incapable of naming objects and pictures, not from lack of recognition (excluding visual agnosia) but from lack of access to the appropriate word (optic aphasia). The patient also exhibited a deficit in the evocation of gesture from the visual presentation of an object (optic apraxia) and a difficulty in "conjuring up" visual images of objects (impaired visual imagery) and loss of dreams. The fundamental deficit of this patient is tentatively explained in terms of visuoverbal and visuogestural disconnection and a deficit of mental imagery.     

The role of consumer ethical beliefs in product‐harm crises

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the consumer reaction during a product‐harm crisis by examining the interdependencies that exist among their ethical beliefs as consumers, their attributions of blame, their feelings of anger and finally their purchase intentions towards the affected company. To test the five research hypotheses, a questionnaire containing a hypothetical crisis scenario of a fictitious company was distributed to 277 consumers. Respondents were asked to read the scenario and answer questions regarding their attribution of responsibility to the company, their feelings of anger and their purchase intentions. In order to investigate consumers' ethical beliefs, a Consumer Ethics Scale was also included in the questionnaire. Structural equation modelling revealed a significant, positive correlation between attributions of blame, anger and ethical beliefs. Moreover, anger negatively affects purchase intentions, whereas the attribution of blame was not found to be significantly connected to purchase intentions. In spite of the rational connection between ethics and crisis, there is lack of research correlating these two concepts. Based on this gap in the literature, the current research attempts to connect ethical beliefs with consumer reactions and emotions during product‐harm crises. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

‘How Can I Feel for Others When I Myself Am Beaten?’ The Impact of the Armed Conflict on Women in Israel

This research presents an initial documentation of Israeli women’s sense of insecurity during the Second Intifada (2001–2005). Drawing on feminist security theory and the intersectional approach to gender, we hypothesized that women’s familiar tendency to develop high levels of stress following political violence would be related to previous sexual and domestic victimization, to economic distress and ethnic discrimination among minority women, and to the cultural role of care workers among women of all socio-economic backgrounds. A sample of 552 women self-completed a cluster of questionnaires addressing a broad array of topics, and results confirmed most of the research hypotheses. The discussion highlights the multiple articulations of gender, militarism, and security and their possible implications for policies of conflict resolution.     

Inventories based on Roe and Holland yield similar results

Holland (1973) classified all occupations into six occupational fields: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising and Conventional. Roe (1956) classified occupations into Service, Business, Organization, Technology, Outdoor, Science, General Cultural, and Arts and Entertainment fields. Two hundred seventeen Israeli ninth-grade students answered two interest inventories, one based on Holland's classification and one on Roe's classification. By means of a Smallest Space Analysis (SSA-I), a two-dimensional configuration was found. In this configuration the hypothesized parallel fields appear adjacent to one another and the general shape resembles the structure found earlier for each classification system separately. The findings indicate the possibility of incorporating results based on either classification. Some practical applications of the findings are discussed.     

Relationship with people as the underlying dimension for Roe's classification of occupations

One hundred eleven subjects were asked to indicate how much relationship with people is involved in 48 occupational titles. The results support Roe's (1956) classification of occupations: differences within occupational fields were found to be smaller than differences between occupational fields (F = 8.53, P < .01). The homogeneity of Arts and Entertainment is discussed.     

Perception of sweetness and bitterness in different vehicles

In the present study, we investigated taste-taste, taste-vehicle, and simultaneous taste-vehicle-taste mixtures. Subjects made estimates of the sweetness and bitterness of 27 stimuli. Sucrose (292, 585, and 1170 mM), caffeine (13, 26, and 52 mM), and binary mixtures of low (292-13 mM), middle (585-26 mM), and high (1170-52 mM) levels of both components were dispersed in water, carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) 1% w/v, and gelatin 6% w/v. The sweetness and bitterness of the sucrose-vehicle-caffeine combinations were significantly weaker than the respective sucrose-vehicle and caffeine-vehicle combinations. The emerged mutual suppressive effects were asymmetrical and persisted when both tastants were presented in CMC and gelatin. Moreover, the increase in vehicle consistency and the simultaneous addition of another taste reduced the perceived intensity of a taste either presented alone or dissolved in water. For both sweetness and bitterness, the total taste suppression observed was always significant.     

Girls' soccer performance and motivation: games vs technique approach

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of the Technique and Games approaches on girls' soccer performance and motivation. The Technique approach focuses on technique instruction using drills, whereas the Games approach places emphasis on tactic instruction with modified games. 37 girls, 12 to 13 years old, were taught 15 soccer lessons by the Technique approach and 35 girls by the Games approach. At the beginning and at the end of the research soccer matches were videotaped and evaluated by Oslin, Mitchell, and Griffin's Game Performance Assessment Instrument. Girls' motivation was assessed on the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory. The Games group had significantly better scores after training on tactical behaviour and intrinsic motivation than the Technique group. There were no significant differences in skill execution between groups trained under the two approaches. Considering the importance of intrinsic motivation for a lifelong, physically active lifestyle, researchers could focus study on the approaches and girls' motivation.     

Escalation behavior in domains related and unrelated to decision makers' academic background

Based on Staw and Ross's (1987) analysis of escalation behavior it was hypothesized that (a) those who are involved with projects related to their academic background will tend to persist in a losing course of action and to judge the situation as reversible more than those who have to make decisions in areas unrelated to their specialty; (b) providing information that the loss is irreversible will decrease the tendency to invest additional resources. A secondary goal of the study was to examine whether there would be any difference in sunk cost decisions when the resource invested is financial as compared to time. Using a 2 × 2 × 2 factorial design, a total of 296 students were given eight different scenarios in which relatedness of decision subject-matter to academic background, reversibility of the situation, and type of resources (time or money) were the independent variables, and commitment to a course of action was the dependent variable. The results confirmed the hypotheses. No significant main effect for type of resources (time vs. money) was found. Theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed.The authors thank Dr. Michael Hoffman for his valuable contribution in preparing this paper.     

Patients’ Attitudes Towards Disclosure of Genetic Test Results to Family Members: The Impact of Patients’ Sociodemographic Background and Counseling Experience

Many factors predict the intention to disclose genetic information to relatives. The article examines the impact of patients’ socio-demographic factors on their intention to disclose genetic testing results to their relatives. Data were collected in eight genetic clinics in Israel. Patients were requested to fill in a questionnaire after counseling. A convenience sample of 564 participants who visited these clinics was collected for a response rate of 85 %. Of them, 282 participants came for susceptibility testing for hereditary cancers (cancer group), and 282 for genetic screening tests (prenatal group). In the cancer group, being secular and having more years of education correlated positively with the intention to disclose test results to relatives. In the prenatal group, being married and female correlated positively with the intention to disclose. In the cancer group, being religious and with less years of education correlated positively with the view that the clinician should deliver the results to the family. In the prenatal group, being male and unmarried correlated positively with this belief. In both groups, being of young age correlated with the perception that genetic information is private. Varied sociodemographic factors affect the intention to inform family members. Thus, knowing the social background of patients will shed light on people’s attitudes to genetic information and will help clinicians provide effective counseling in discussions with patients about the implications of test results for relatives.