Acoustic analysis in the differentiation of Parkinson's disease and major depression

In its early stages, Parkinson's disease (P.D.) may be difficult to distinguish from major depression (M.D.) leading to inappropriate management. Both illnesses are characterized by psychomotor retardation. The neurovegetative symptoms used to diagnose M.D. are not specific and in P.D. may be due to the physical illness itself. Currently, differentiation of the two disorders relies on subjective clinical observation. Improved diagnostic accuracy based on more objective data is needed. To this end, this study used computerized acoustic analysis to contrast speech patterns in P.D. and M.D. The sample consisted of 30 P.D. patients without depression or dementia, 30 patients with uncomplicated M.D., and 31 normal controls, each 60 years of age or over. Of the acoustic variables studied, M.D. patients had significantly reduced rates of speech compared with P.D. patients. The data suggest that this temporal measure of speech may be useful in the differentiation of P.D. and M.D.     

Clinical research on behavioral activation as treatment for post‐traumatic stress disorder: A brief review and meta‐analysis

Behavioral activation (BA), an effective treatment for depression, has recently been receiving attention as a possible intervention for PTSD. BA interventions could be particularly useful in treating underserved populations (i.e., individuals with lower socioeconomic status). A literature search was conducted, which identified seven outcome studies that examined the effectiveness of stand‐alone BA treatment for individuals with PTSD. All studies identified for this brief review demonstrated clinically significant reductions in PTSD symptoms using BA as an intervention. A meta‐analysis of these few studies revealed a nonsignificant effect (Cohen's d = 0.713, p = .512) despite reporting an average symptom reduction of 25.8%. Other studies utilizing BA treatment for PTSD do so in tandem with other interventions and were excluded from analysis. This brief review summarizes the literature on the use of BA as a stand‐alone treatment for PTSD and suggests that future research seek to confirm the usefulness of BA as a potential treatment modality for mental health‐care providers treating individuals with PTSD.     

Due process model of procedural justice in performance appraisal: promotion versus termination scenarios

In a laboratory study, 318 student participants (148 male, 169 female, and one who did not report sex; M age 25.0, SD = 6.0) in introductory organizational behavior classes responded to scenarios in which performance appraisal resulted in either employee promotion or termination. Each scenario had varying levels of three procedural justice criteria for performance appraisal. For both promotion and termination outcomes, analysis showed that, as the number of criteria increased, perceptions of procedural fairness increased. A comparison between the two outcomes showed that perceptions of fairness were significantly stronger for the promotion outcome than for termination.     

Response Speed and Accuracy During Anticipatory Stress

Response speed and accuracy of 48 general aviation pilots were determined under condition of anticipatory physical threat stress (APTS). Variables included unpleasantness of the event (electrical shock), proximity of the event, and relationship of Ss’ performance to the occurrence of the event. The data support inclusion of these variables in Wherry’s model of APTS. Ss who believed they could avoid the shock by an adequate performance were able to maintain or improve that performance while the performance of Ss who perceived the shock as inevitable was deteriorating. Two possible modifications of the APTS model were discussed: (1) weighting APTS determiners according to their effectiveness in generating anticipatory stress, (2) recognizing the interaction of the APTS variables with S’s personality structure.     

Dissecting the genetic architecture of human personality

The first candidate gene studies of human personality promised much but, in the fifteen years since their publication, have delivered little in the way of clear evidence for the contribution of specific genetic variants to observed variation in personality traits. This is most likely due to the very small effects conferred by individual loci. The advent of genome-wide association studies has brought growing awareness that high levels of statistical stringency, very large sample sizes, and independent replication will be minimum requirements for future genetic studies of personality. At the same time, evidence from other fields indicates that the genetic architecture of personality is likely to consist of the combined effect of many hundreds, if not thousands, of small effect loci.     

Auditory event perception: The source—perception loop for posture in human gait

There is a small but growing literature on the perception of natural acoustic events, but few attempts have been made to investigate complex sounds not systematically controlled within a laboratory setting. The present study investigates listeners’ ability to make judgments about the posture (upright—stooped) of the walker who generated acoustic stimuli contrasted on each trial. We use a comprehensive three-stage approach to event perception, in which we develop a solid understanding of the source event and its sound properties, as well as the relationships between these two event stages. Developing this understanding helps both to identify the limitations of common statistical procedures and to develop effective new procedures for investigating not only the two information stages above, but also the decision strategies employed by listeners in making source judgments from sound. The result is a comprehensive, ultimately logical, but not necessarily expected picture of both the source—sound—perception loop and the utility of alternative research tools.     

Glucose enhancement of face recognition is unaffected by alterations of face features

Glucose improves memory on a variety of tasks has been well established in both the animal and human literature. Of particular relevance to the present experiment is the finding that administration of glucose improves face recognition performance in both healthy, young adults and in Alzheimer's patients. This experiment attempted to expand on these findings to determine if glucose-enhanced performance for face recognition is specific to certain face features (e.g., nose, eyes, or hair). In a between subjects experiment that tested healthy, young adults, a pre-training administration of glucose (50 g) was shown to improve face recognition performance relative to placebo (27.3mg saccharin); however, the significant improvement on the task was not specific to a particular feature. This result suggests that glucose did not enhance memory for individual face features, but rather enhanced overall memory for face stimuli.     

Decision frame and procedural justice: interactive effects on perceptions of distributive justice

This work examined the effect of procedural justice and item frame on responses to positively and negatively worded survey items. Under conditions of low procedural justice, there is a significant difference in the rating of distributive justice items positively and negatively framed, but not when procedural justice is high. Implications for decision frame theory and biasing of responses to survey items are considered.