Acceptance of Labels for Behavioral Response-Reduction Procedures and the Users of Those Procedures

The Psychological Record - The acceptability of labels for behavioral response-reduction procedures and the users of those procedures was evaluated. Introductory psychology students read a lesson...     

Age differences in memory performance and memory ratings as measured in a sample survey

Age differences in memory performance were studied in a probability sample of a cross-section of 1,491 adults living in the Detroit metropolitan area, with an oversample of those age 60 and older. Both a recall and a recognition measure were adapted to the survey context by querying respondents about the nature of the questions asked in an immediately preceding interview. Subjective memory assessment was also measured, using global memory ratings performed by the respondent, his or her spouse, and the interviewer. A clear, age-related decline in memory performance was found in this population sample. Subjective memory assessment also declined across age groups, but the relation was weaker. On the basis of multiple regression analyses of the recognition measure and the respondent's self-rated memory, which were judged to have the best measurement qualities, a substantial part of these age differences can be accounted for by differences in sociodemographic composition between age groups, by cognitive functioning and physical health.     

Effects of uncertainty on melodic

In three experiments, musically trained and untrained adults listened to three repetitions of a 5-note melodic sequence followed by a final melody with either the same tune as those preceding it or differing in one position by one semitone. In Experiment 1, ability to recognize the final sequence was examined as a function of redundancy at the levels of musical structurein a sequence, contour complexity of transpositions in a trial, and trial context in a session. Within a sequence, tones were related as the major or augmented triad; within a trial, the four sequences began on successively higher notes (simple macrocontour) or on randomly selected notes (complex macrocontour); and within a session, trials were either blocked (all major or all augmented) or mixed (major and augmented randomly selected). Performance was superior for major melodies, for systematic transpositions within a trial (simple macrocontours), for blocked trials, and for musically trained listeners. In Experiment 2, we examined further the effect of macrocontour. Performance on simple macrocontours exceeded that on complex, and excluded the possibility that repetition of the 20-note sequences provided the entire benefit of systematic transposition in Experiment 1. The effect of musical structure (major/augmented) was also replicated. In Experiment 3, listeners provided structure ratings of ascending 20-note sequences fromExperiment 2. Ratings onsame trials were higher than those on correspondingdifferent trials, in contrast to performance scores for augmentedsame anddifferent trials in previous experiments. The concept of functional uncertainty was proposed to account for recognition difficulties on augmented same trials. The significant effects of redundancy on all the levels examined confirm the utility of the information-processing framework for thestudy of melodic sequence perception.     

The communication disorder in dialysis dementia: A case report

The communication disorder in dialysis dementia is an integral feature of the syndrome. This report describes the communication disorder in a 67-year-old man over a period of 4 months from his admission to the hospital to his death. In the early stage of the syndrome, the most prominent feature was a speech problem, the characteristics of which may vary among cases. In the middle stage, it was difficult to distinguish among aphemia, aphasia, or a combination of dysarthria and confusional state. The severity of the problems in these stages was temporally related to the dialysis treatments. The final stage was characterized by constant mutism and was unrelated to the dialysis treatments. Death occurred 10 months after the communication problems emerged. Communication studies of dialysis dementia patients may offer a systematic method to monitor the course of the syndrome, its response to therapeutic trials, and a clinical model for the study of communication disorders in general.     

Acquisition of probabilities in anticipatory appraisals of stress

Processes involved in predicting stressor events were examined from the perspective of ‘associative memory models’. Subjects were exposed to alphabetic letters which supposedly represented electrical resistors used in audio equipment, in the guise of marketing research. Each letter presentation was followed either by a burst of aversive white noise, signifying ‘resistor failure’ during a brief surge of current, or by a green light, signifying ‘resistor effectiveness’. After a programmed series of presentations, subjects were asked to make several judgments about each resistor; analyses of these judgments focused on the comparative influence exerted by the alternate stimulus events. Regardless of the type of judgment (e.g. probability of future noise, frequency of earlier silent outcomes, and so on), the determining stimulus property was the cumulative frequency of earlier aversive outcomes. Moreover, the dominance of this property was not altered by manipulations designed to elevate the salience of equally relevant benign outcomes. Results were discussed with reference to models of categorical memory and predictive confidence. Circumstances under which stress predictions may be especially inaccurate were considered, as were implications of the present findings for studies of differences in categorical-frequency memory processes associated with ‘depresed mood’.     

Paid work,child care,and housework: A national survey of high school seniors' preferences for sharing responsibilities between husband and wife

A large national sample of high school seniors rated their preferences for the allocation of work and family duties within their own prospective marriages. The results indicate that many seniors favor half-time or full-time work for wives without children. On the other hand, the majority prefer that the mother of preschool children stay home, although half-time work is acceptable to many. Respondents who are male or White or did not have a working mother themselves are somewhat more conservative on these issues. Virtually all seniors view less than full-time employment by the husband as unacceptable. With regard to child care and housework, most seniors prefer equal sharing between the spouses. A comparison of four senior classes reveals a slight trend from 1976 to 1979 toward increased sharing of duties.     

Family perception of interpersonal behavior as a predictor in eating disorders: a prospective, six-year followup study

This study assessed family perception patterns of interpersonal behavior in families with a daughter diagnosed with an eating disorder 6 years after treatment that used a prospective design. Family perception patterns of patients found to have a poor outcome at followup (n = 15) were compared with patients with a good outcome (n = 23), as well as a control group (n = 36). Using the system of multiple level observation of groups (SYMLOG), all 238 family members evaluated themselves and each other. The index patients with a poor outcome perceived themselves as friendlier and more positive than they were perceived by their families. In comparison to parents of daughters with a good outcome and the control group, parents of daughters in the poor outcome group perceived themselves to be less friendly than their partners perceived them to be. A rigid polarization of the perception of the index patient by family members and a discrepancy in this perception between the index patient and the rest of the family were found to be indicative of a poor prognosis. Implications for treatment based on family perception patterns of interpersonal behavior are discussed.     

DRG-Vergütung und Kosten stationärer integrierter psychosomatischer Behandlung

Ohne ZusammenfassungDie Autoren M. Rose und R. Lohmann zeichnen für den Beitrag als gleichberechtigte Erstautoren.