Memory and awareness in a patient with multiple personality disorder

We studied an individual with multiple personality disorder in whom each of several personalities claimed to have no direct awareness of the others and to be unable to consciously remember the experiences of other personalities. A broad selection of implicit and explicit memory tests was used to determine the extent to which one personality had access to knowledge acquired by another and the circumstances in which that knowledge would be expressed. The implicit assessment of memory was a necessary but not sufficient condition for demonstrating interpersonality access. The degree of compartmentalization of knowledge in this patient depended largely on whether the interpretation of presented information was likely to differ across personalities.     

Behavioral assessment of methylphenidate in a child with frontal lobe damage

The assessment and management of inattentive, hyperactive, and impulsive behavior in a 6-year-old girl who experienced frontal lobe damage are described. A multimodel approach combining medical, educational, and behavioral techniques to assess hyperactive behavior, optimal medication level, and medication and psychotherapeutic effectiveness is described. The results of the study suggest that in similar cases, children and adolescents manifesting these behaviors should be given a trial of stimulant medication in a controlled environment to assess if such therapy is indicated. Additional support is given for the increasing need for detanté and cooperation with health-care professionals.     

A set theoretic analysis of group interactions

Prior to the statistical treatment of experimentally derived data the experimenter must obtain the data. In many studies in psychology, the content of group interactions is obtained by a data coding scheme. Coding schemes are shown to possess hierarchical structures and can be characterized by a hierarchy of fields. Three examples of coding schemes as hierarchies of fields are given. Techniques for extracting numbers from the set are presented. Problems associated with the improper assignment of elements of a data coding scheme to a theoretical structure are examined. The main result is that there will be errors in assignment of data to theory unless the structure of the data coding scheme is identical with that structure which is relevant to the theory being tested. Whenever the structures are not equal, the results are hard to interpret. In fact, any size of assignment error can be obtained. Since these errors precede the usual statistical treatment of data, it would appear that reported empirical findings are only valid when there exists no assignment errors.This research was sponsored by N.S.F. Grant GS-1944.     

The information theoretic entropy function as a total expected participation index for communication network experiments

This paper shows how the concept of an incidence matrix of communications can be used to define the entropy of a finite scheme. The properties of the entropy function are examined and the function is found to be best interpreted as a total expected participation index. Data is presented showing the relationship between structural centrality and the new total expected participation index. In general, as the network becomes more centralized the smaller the value of the participation index and as the network becomes more structurally decentralized the greater the participation index.This research was supported in part by Ford Foundation Grant 1-40055 to the Graduate School of Industrial Administration at Carnegie Institute of Technology for Research in Organizational Behavior.The author wishes to acknowledge the aid of Terry B. Marbach in the preparation of data.     

The effect of urbanization on innovation in spotted hyenas

Animal Cognition - Urbanization represents a dramatic form of evolutionary novelty in the landscapes inhabited by many extant animals. The Cognitive Buffer Hypothesis suggests that innovation, the...     

Post-event misinformation effects in a language-trained chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes)

Animal Cognition - Errors of source monitoring are widespread human memory challenges, and our memories are subject to distortion upon the presentation of subsequent misinformation. Less is known...     

Psychosocial Treatment Strategies in the MTA Study: Rationale, Methods, and Critical Issues in Design and Implementation

The Collaborative Multimodal Treatment Study of Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), the MTA, is the first multisite, cooperative agreement treatment study of children, and the largest psychiatric/psychological treatment trial ever conducted by the National Institute of Mental Health. It examines the effectiveness of Medication vs. Psychosocial treatment vs. their combination for treatment of ADHD and compares these experimental arms to each other and to routine community care. In a parallel group design, 579 (male and female) ADHD children, aged 7–9 years, 11 months, were randomly assigned to one of the four experimental arms, and then received 14 months of prescribed treatment (or community care) with periodic reassessments. After delineating the theoretical and empirical rationales for Psychosocial treatment of ADHD, we describe the MTA's Psychosocial Treatment strategy applied to all children in two of the four experimental arms (Psychosocial treatment alone; Combined treatment). Psychosocial treatment consisted of three major components: a Parent Training component, a two-part School Intervention component, and a child treatment component anchored in an intensive Summer Treatment Program. Components were selected based on evidence of treatment efficacy and because they address comprehensive symptom targets, settings, comorbidities, and functional domains. We delineate key conceptual and logistical issues faced by clinical researchers in design and implementation of Psychosocial research with examples of how these issues were addressed in the MTA study.Deceased     

Family Processes and Treatment Outcome in the MTA: Negative/Ineffective Parenting Practices in Relation to Multimodal Treatment

To elucidate processes underlying therapeutic change in a large-scale randomized clinical trial, we examined whether alterations in self-reported parenting practices were associated with the effects of behavioral, medication, or combination treatments on teacher-reported outcomes (disruptive behavior, social skills, internalizing symptoms) in children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Participants were 579 children with Combined-type ADHD, aged 7–9.9 years, in the Multimodal Treatment Study of Children with ADHD (MTA). We uncovered 2 second-order factors of parenting practices, entitled Positive Involvement and Negative/Ineffective Discipline. Although Positive Involvement was not associated with amelioration of the school-based outcome measures, reductions in Negative/Ineffective Discipline mediated improvement in children's social skills at school. For families showing the greatest reductions in Negative/Ineffective Discipline, effects of combined medication plus behavioral treatment were pronounced in relation to regular community care. Furthermore, only in combination treatment (and not in behavioral treatment alone) was decreased Negative/Ineffective Discipline associated with reduction in children's disruptive behavior at school. Here, children in families receiving combination treatment who showed the greatest reductions in Negative/Ineffective Discipline had teacher-reported disruptive behavior that was essentially normalized. Overall, the success of combination treatment for important school-related outcomes appears related to reductions in negative and ineffective parenting practices at home; we discuss problems in interpreting the temporal sequencing of such process-outcome linkages and the means by which multimodal treatment may be mediated by psychosocial processes related to parenting.