Developing an efficient clinical information system for a comprehensive psychiatric institute: I. Principles,design, and organization

The principles, design considerations, and components of a clinical information system intended to support and enhance the patient care, educational, and research missions of a comprehensive psychiatric institute are presented. Major characteristics of the system are its emphases on efficiency, simplicity, and intensive user involvement throughout the development of the system.     

Intrusion patterns in rapid serial visual presentation tasks with two response dimensions

A rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) paradigm using both one and two response dimensions was used to test parallel processing models of stimulus dimensions. Fifty subjects were asked to report the identity and/or color of a target uppercase word inserted in a series of lowercase words. The results produced a predominance of posttarget intrusions for color responses and a predominance of pretarget intrusions for identity responses. The requirement of a response to a second dimension impaired hit rates but did not change the pattern of intrusions. An examination of the distributions of intrusions in each response dimension as a function of the response given to the other dimension showed an unexpectedly high percentage of simultaneous hits, a moderate covariation between both responses, and the same patterns of intrusions when compared with the general distributions. While these results seem to be compatible with parallel models of processing for stimulus dimensions, two modifications to this model are suggested. First, the processing of response dimension(s) needs some attentional resources. Second, provision for a mixed model is indicated, which would include trials where no illusory conjunctions are formed.     

Neighborhood frequency effects and letter visibility in visual word recognition

Two experiments are described that measured lexical decision latencies and errors to five-letter French words with a single higher frequency orthographic neighbor and control words with no higher frequency neighbors. The higher frequency neighbor differed from the stimulus word by either the second letter (e.g.,astre-autre) or the fourth letter (chope-chose). Neighborhood frequency effects were found to interact with this factor, and significant interference was observed only tochope-type words. The effects of neighborhood frequency were also found to interact with the position of initial fixation in the stimulus word (either the second letter or the fourth letter). Interference was greatly reduced when the initial fixation was on the critical disambiguating letter (i.e., the letterp inchope). Moreover, word recognition was improved when subjects initially fixated the second letter relative to when they initially fixated the fourth letter of a five-letter word, but this second-letter advantage practically disappeared when the stimulus differed from a more frequent word by its fourth letter. The results are interpreted in terms of the interaction between visual and lexical factors in visual word recognition.     

Phoneme monitoring and lexical processing: Evidence for associative context effects

In this paper, we propose a new version of the phoneme monitoring task that is well-suited for the study of lexical processing. The generalized phoneme monitoring (GPM) task, in which subjects detect target phonemes appearing anywhere in the test words, was shown to be sensitive to associative context effects. In Experiment 1, using the standard phoneme monitoring procedure in which subjects detect only word-initial targets, no effect of associative context was obtained. In contrast, clear context effects were observed in Experiment 2, which used the GPM task. Subjects responded faster to word-initial and word-medial targets when the target-bearing words were preceded by an associatively related word than when preceded by an unrelated one. The differential effect of context in the two versions of the phoneme monitoring task was interpreted with reference to task demands and their role in directing selective attention. Experiment 3 showed that the size of the context effect was unaffected by the proportion of related words in the experiment, suggesting that the observed effects were not due to subject strategies.     

Response to commentaries on “A neurobiological model for near-death experiences”

This work has received financial support from FONDECYT (Project 1111-88). The authors also acknowledge the helpful comments of Dr. Bruce Cassels.     

韦氏成人智力量表中国修订本与原量表(WAIS和WAIS-R)因素分析的比较研究

本文用主成分分析法对韦氏成人智力量表中国修订本(WAIS-RC)的城市与农村两个常模以及WAIS和WAIS-R进行因素分析,发现这三套测验都负荷较高的g因子;常识,领悟,相似性和词汇测验负荷较高的A(言语理解)因子,填图,木块图,图片排列和物体拼凑测验负荷较高的B(知觉组织)因子,而数字广度,算术和数字符号测验负荷较高的C(记忆/集中注意)因子。因子模型是极相似的,这说明WAIS-RC具有较好的结构效度,保持了原量表的功能。同时,所建立的因子模型也为使用者在使用测验和分析解释结果时提供了有用的参考资料。     

学前和初小儿童智能筛查——图片词汇测试法

美国L.M.Dunn 1965年修改发表的皮勃迪图片词汇测试(PeabodyPicture Vocabulary Test简称PPVT)目前仍是美国智力不足协会(AAMD)所介绍的常用智能测试方法之一。本文参考PPVT制订出适合我国城市学前期与小学初期儿童的图片词汇测试;在上海市区进行标准化;制订了智龄量表、智商和百分位数量表。本测试再测信度r=0.945,二测试者间信度r=0.913。奇偶信度r=0.945,测试标准误σ=4.5。本方法与“学前儿童能力筛查五十项”,“画人试验”,“WPPSI”总智商、语言智商、操作智商,语文成绩,算术成绩的效度相关分别为:r=0.478,r=0.466,r=0.590,r=0.531,r=0.427,r=0.652,r=0.609。本测试制订以来已经数千人次应用,证明是一种简便易行,省时经济,准确性较好,且能进行集体测试的学前及小学初期儿童一般智能(generalintelligence)的筛查方法(Screening test)。     

自闭症谱系障碍社交动机理论：机制及干预探索

自闭症谱系障碍(Autism Spectrum Disorder, ASD)表现为社会交往困难以及重复刻板兴趣或行为。社交动机理论提出ASD个体是由于社交动机缺乏导致的社交障碍。目前该理论缺乏理论元素及结构关系的系统论证, 及基于此理论的低龄ASD儿童群体的研究证据。本研究拟采用心理实验法、眼动及近红外脑成像技术, 探索低龄ASD儿童早期社交奖赏、社交定向异常眼动标记及眶额叶脑区活动的神经机制。此外, 通过音乐奖赏强化学习的干预方式改善该理论的核心元素(社交奖赏), 观测能否改善ASD儿童的社交动机。本研究的开展有望对该理论进行系统验证, 并形成改善社交行为的潜在干预方案。