Neuropsychology and imaging.

Introduces this special of issue of Neuropsychology, the theme of which is Neuropsychology and Imaging. The question for neuropsychology is no longer how to locate the lesions, but, rather, how to consistently relate neuropsychological dysfunctionings with the image of the lesion. Both questions are easier to answer when lesions are better circumscribed. Answers are more difficult in the presence of multiple, diffuse, or subcortical lesions. In order to address the more difficult questions, this issue includes papers by Levin and High, Wilson et al., Wiednann et al., and Jernigan and Butters which are devoted to challenging clinical diseases (head injury, Alzheimer's, and Huntington's) where lesions and dysfunctionings are not consistently defined. Interestingly, some disease-related correlations emerge from these papers, and SPECT data are viewed as well. Correlating neuropsychological and imaging measurements is both unbounded and restrained. Papers in this special issue on Neuropsychology and Imaging highlight this, and the issues and concerns for future investigations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The Neuropsychology of Development: A Symposium.

Reviews the book, The Neuropsychology of Development: A Symposium edited by Robert L. Isaacson (see record 1970-11849-000). According to the preface of this slim volume, the papers contained within were given at a symposium entitled "The Neuropsychology of Development," the third of five symposia held at the Psychology Department of The University of Michigan, in 1967, to honour that University's sesquicentenary. The papers are said to be "original works undertaken especially for the symposium and [they] contain many previously unpublished data and interpretations; the ideas expressed here are sometimes at odds with traditional views of the effects of physiological processes underlying development." As far as content is concerned, we run immediately into that hardy perennial of symposia--relevance of the papers to each other. This reviewer cannot see the point of publishing concurrently relatively incompatible material. The fact that each paper can be related to neuropsychology and that they were each given at the same symposium is insufficient reason for publishing them between the same hard covers at such a high price. However, each of these papers is very worthwhile material for the audiences for which they are intended. the standard of the papers in this symposium is very high. This is not just a book of readings but a scholarly collection that should be in every university library. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Neuropsychology, genetic liability, and psychotic symptoms in those at high risk of schizophrenia.

Neuropsychological assessments were compared among individuals at enhanced genetic risk of schizophrenia (n=157) and controls (n=34). The relationship between cognitive impairments and the presence of psychotic symptoms and measures of genetic risk was explored in the high-risk subjects. Neuropsychological differences were identified in many areas of function and were not accounted for by the presence of psychotic symptoms. Genetic liability was not associated with neuropsychological performance or with psychotic symptoms, but exploratory analysis showed some tests were associated with both liability measures. These results suggest that what is inherited is not the disorder itself but a state of vulnerability manifested by neuropsychological impairment, occurring in many more individuals than are predicted to develop the disorder. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Introduction to the special section on cognitive processes and psychotherapy.

Theoretical models featuring cognitive processes have played a fundamental role in advancing knowledge of psychopathology and its treatment and have emphasized the importance of cognition in psychotherapy. Recognition of the importance of cognition in psychotherapy has led to a number of questions that are addressed by the articles in this special section of the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. Cognitive therapy is well represented in the articles in this special section, but therapeutic procedures that do not represent typical cognitive therapy are also examined. The articles in this special section focus on homework in the modification of cognition, cognition in the treatment of anxiety in adults and in children, change in depressive cognitions in children, cognition and rapid change in the treatment of depression, and the role of cognition in the treatment and prevention of depression that is recurrent. Examination of these types of questions holds the possibility of advances in existing treatments and the possibility of innovations in new treatments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Book review: Cognitive Rehabilitation: An Integrative Neuropsychological Approach.

Review of book McKay Moore Sohlberg and Catherine A. Mateer, Cognitive Rehabilitation: An Integrative Neuropsychological Approach. New York: The Guilford Press, 2001, 512 pp., ISBN 1-57230-613-0. Reviewed by Gail Eskes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Neuropsychology and Computerized Axial Tomography: Further Comments.

Comments on the original article "Implications of computerized axial tomography for clinical neuropsychology" by Danny Wedding and Howard Gudeman (see record 1981-08364-001), which reviewed the implications of computerized axial tomography (CAT) for clinical neuropsychology. A major change anticipated by Wedding and Gudeman is that the role in neuropsychology of localizing central nervous system lesions will become obsolete, as this function will be supplanted by the CAT scan technique. This suggests that the emergence of CAT may have a deleterious effect on the utilization of neuropsychologic (NP) techniques, particularly the utilization of NP evaluation in the diagnostic process. The current authors feel that this issue merits further discussion, and that some clarification and extension of the Wedding and Gudeman article is in order. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Testing covariates of Type 2 diabetes-cognition associations in older adults: Moderating or mediating effects?

Objective: The general goal of this study was to advance our understanding of Type 2 diabetes (T2D)-cognition relationships in older adults by linking and testing comprehensive sets of potential moderators, potential mediators, and multiple cognitive outcomes. Method: We identified in the literature 13 health-related (but T2D-distal) potential covariates, representing four informal domains (i.e., biological vitality, personal affect, subjective health, lifestyle activities). Cross-sectional data from the Victoria Longitudinal Study (age range = 53–90 years; n = 41 T2D and n = 458 control participants) were used. We first examined whether any of the 13 potential covariates influenced T2D-cognition associations, as measured by a comprehensive neuropsychological battery (15 measures). Next, using standard regression-based moderator and mediator analyses, we systematically tested whether the identified covariates would significantly alter observed T2D-cognition relationships. Results: Six potential covariates were found to be sensitive to T2D associations with performance on seven cognitive measures. Three factors (systolic blood pressure, gait-balance composite, subjective health) were significant mediators. Each mediated multiple cognitive outcomes, especially measures of neurocognitive speed, executive functioning, and episodic memory. Conclusions: Our findings offer a relatively comprehensive perspective of T2D-related cognitive deficits, comorbidities, and modulating influences. The implications for future research reach across several fields of study and application. These include (1) neuropsychological research on neural and biological bases of T2D-related cognitive decline, (2) clinical research on intervention and treatment strategies, and (3) larger-scale longitudinal studies examining the potential multilateral and dynamic relationships among T2D status, related comorbidities, and cognitive outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Robust and conventional neuropsychological norms: Diagnosis and prediction of age-related cognitive decline.

The aim of the study was to compare the performance of Robust and Conventional neuropsychological norms in predicting clinical decline among healthy adults and in mild cognitive impairment (MCI). The authors developed Robust baseline cross sectional and longitudinal change norms from 113 healthy participants retaining a normal diagnosis for at least 4 years. Baseline Conventional norms were separately created for 256 similar healthy participants without follow-up. Conventional and Robust norms were tested in an independent cohort of longitudinally studied healthy (n=223), MCI (n=136), and Alzheimer's disease (AD, n=162) participants; 84 healthy participants declined to MCI or AD (NL→DEC), and 44 MCI declined to AD (MCI→AD). Compared to Conventional norms, baseline Robust norms correctly identified a higher proportion of NL→DEC with impairment in delayed memory and attention-language domains. Both norms predicted decline from MCI→AD. Change norms for delayed memory and attention-language significantly incremented baseline classification accuracies. These findings indicate that Robust norms improve identification of healthy individuals who will decline and may be useful for selecting at-risk participants for research studies and early interventions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A brain for all functions, revisited.

Reviews the book, Higher Cortical Functions in Man, 2nd edition, by Aleksandr Romanovich Luria (1980). In the original work published 15 years ago, A. R. Luria (1902-1977) described his investigations of behavioural changes caused by damage to the brain and, based on long clinical experience, his metatheoretical views of neuropsychology. The second, revised edition presents the same thematic content in three major sections (neuroanatomy, effects of localized lesions, and testing of sensory, motor and higher mental processes, respectively). As a survey of behavioural consequences of cerebral injury, this treatise remains among the most exhaustive of its kind. Luria's neuropsychological examinations attempt to determine the behavioural impairments and to isolate particular underlying functions which, when defective, cause the disturbance. In general, the revised edition expands on the author's theories, clinical findings and methodology, but does not clarify the related issues any more than did the original book. The wealth of clinical observations and the complexity of behaviours considered make this a remarkable overview of impairments after insult to the nervous system. As a document intended to provide the link between psychology and the functions of the brain, however, it may, upon close scrutiny of its methodological and theoretical mortar, begin to resemble a house of cards. Even if it should collapse, what an edifice! (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Music cognition and performance: An introduction.

Introduces this issue of the Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology as focusing on musical cognition and performance. There are a series of articles reporting on explorations of various aspects of the cognitive processing of music. Other articles focus on different aspects of the perceptual and cognitive processing of music. Also represented in this special issue is work looking at the emotional aspect of musical behaviour. Finally, this special issue contains two series of experiments related to musical performance, each, interestingly enough, with a developmental slant. Overall, the articles in this special issue provide insight into how it is that people perceive and produce complex auditory information, and are suggestive about what research in musical cognition can say about psychological processing in general. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Explanation and cognition.

Reviews the book, Explanation and cognition by Frank C. Keil and Robert A. Wilson (see record 2000-05066-000). The essays in this book address five basic questions about explanation as a large and natural part of our cognitive lives: (1) How do explanatory capacities develop, (2) are there kinds of explanation, (3) do explanations correspond to domains of knowledge, (4) why do we seek explanations and what do they accomplish, and (5) how central are causes to explanation? The volume’s various authors also introduce and explore a number of emerging perspectives on explanation from computer science, linguistics, and anthropology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The evolution of intergroup bias: Perceptions and attitudes in rhesus macaques.

Social psychologists have learned a great deal about the nature of intergroup conflict and the attitudinal and cognitive processes that enable it. Less is known about where these processes come from in the first place. In particular, do our strategies for dealing with other groups emerge in the absence of human-specific experiences? One profitable way to answer this question has involved administering tests that are conceptual equivalents of those used with adult humans in other species, thereby exploring the continuity or discontinuity of psychological processes. We examined intergroup preferences in a nonhuman species, the rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta). We found the first evidence that a nonhuman species automatically distinguishes the faces of members of its own social group from those in other groups and displays greater vigilance toward outgroup members (Experiments 1–3). In addition, we observed that macaques spontaneously associate novel objects with specific social groups and display greater vigilance to objects associated with outgroup members (Experiments 4–5). Finally, we developed a looking time procedure—the Looking Time Implicit Association Test, which resembles the Implicit Association Test (Greenwald & Banaji, 1995)—and we discovered that macaques, like humans, automatically evaluate ingroup members positively and outgroup members negatively (Experiments 6–7). These field studies represent the first controlled experiments to examine the presence of intergroup attitudes in a nonhuman species. As such, these studies suggest that the architecture of the mind that enables the formation of these biases may be rooted in phylogenetically ancient mechanisms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Thinking about oneself and others: The relational-interdependent self-construal and social cognition.

These studies focus on the relational-interdependent self-construal's association with implicit or indirect cognitive processes. In the relational-interdependent self-construal, the self is defined largely in terms of close relationships, resulting in variation in self-related processes. In Studies 1 and 2, the relational self-construal was associated with positive implicit evaluations of relational concepts and with tightly organized cognitive networks of relational terms. Studies 3 and 4 demonstrated that this self-construal was associated with memory for and implicit organization of relational information. In Studies 5 and 6, the relational self-construal was positively related to the degree to which participants described themselves and a friend similarly. The implications of the relational self-construal for theories of relationship cognition and for other self-related cognitive processes are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A mechanistic account of striatal dopamine function in human cognition: Psychopharmacological studies with cabergoline and haloperidol.

The authors test a neurocomputational model of dopamine function in cognition by administering to healthy participants low doses of D? agents cabergoline and haloperidol. The model suggests that DA dynamically modulates the balance of Go and No-Go basal ganglia pathways during cognitive learning and performance. Cabergoline impaired, while haloperidol enhanced, Go learning from positive reinforcement, consistent with presynaptic drug effects. Cabergoline also caused an overall bias toward Go responding, consistent with postsynaptic action. These same effects extended to working memory and attentional domains, supporting the idea that the basal ganglia/dopamine system modulates the updating of prefrontal representations. Drug effects interacted with baseline working memory span in all tasks. Taken together, the results support a unified account of the role of dopamine in modulating cognitive processes that depend on the basal ganglia. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognition must be computational.

Reviews the book, Computation and Cognition: Toward A Foundation for Cognitive Science by Z. W. Pylyshyn (see record 1986-97211-000). The history of science provides many demonstrations of our intellectual debt to our tools: from Descartes forward, psychological theory has depended on metaphors based on the technology of the day. Computers are the currently exciting technology, and, from that fact alone, one might expect a book with the title Computation and Cognition to invite us to reshape psychological theory in image of the digital computer. That message is not what Pylyshyn has to sell. Instead, he examines computation at a theoretical level and shows that it involves three distinct levels of analysis: a physical, a symbolic, and a semantic level. He argues that to understand mental processes, one needs exactly the same three-level analysis, that is, cognition is computational. In spite of the book's faults, my opinion remains firmly positive: Computation and Cognition is an instant classic. It is a book which deserves to have a major influence on the shape of future work. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Cognition.

Reviews the book, Cognition by John G. Benjafield, et al. (2010). Cognition (4th ed.) provides a comprehensive introduction to cognitive psychology for undergraduate students and others who require an overview of the area. New in the fourth edition is a chapter on cognitive neuroscience. The reviewer only has one criticism of Benjafield et al.: Citations for published works in every chapter that also appeared in the third edition stop around 2007 or earlier (when the third edition was published). Cognition is a book that will appeal to those looking for a high-level, scholarly survey of cognitive psychology. It is this aspect of Cognition that sets it apart from most other textbooks that cover cognitive psychology. Yet, despite its scholarly approach, it remains an engaging text that makes the reader want to keep reading more: a delicate balance, but one that Benjafield et al. manage with aplomb. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Thomas K. Srull.

Presents an overview of the career of Thomas K. Srull and his contributions to the field of psychology. For theoretical, empirical and methodological contribution to knowledge about the cognitive underpinnings of social behavior and personality; for major advances in our understanding of the mental representations of individuals and groups, the cognitive processes that underlie their construction, and the use of these representations in making judgments; for ground-breaking research on the role of concept accessibility in the interpretation of social information; and for contributing to the interfaces among cognitive, social and personality psychology. His research, has provided important insights into the dynamics of social memory and the relation between memory and judgment. His areas of influence range from basic cognitive and social psychology to applied research in consumer behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Inaugural editorial for Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes.

When applying for the editorship of the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, I was asked for my “vision” for the Journal, which I have outlined here as an inaugural editorial. My vision is in essence conservative in that I shall take the core of my brief to be that of maintaining the conception of the Journal established by Allan Wagner over 30 years ago and maintained so admirably by the subsequent editors over the intervening decades. I see this conception as having two main components, the first relating to content and the second to procedures. As far as the content is concerned, the primary aim of the Journal is to publish reports of empirical research that use behavior to investigate the psychological processes mediating learning, memory, motivation, and other forms of cognition in animals as diverse as invertebrates and humans. The criterion for publication is that the experimental research addresses issues of significant theoretical import. Although I shall retain the option of publishing Brief Communications, I intend to maintain a very high criterion for these communications. The primary goal will remain that of publishing substantial reports of integrative research that produce closure on an issue or analysis rather than piecemeal work. As far as procedures are concerned, over the last three decades the Journal’s editorial and refereeing process has made an important contribution to the intellectual climate of the research area. I hope to maintain this tradition by resisting pressures to constrain and truncate the refereeing and editorial processes in service of reducing the feedback and publication lags. The Journal publishes papers that have a substantial and sustained impact and therefore can tolerate a reflective and thoughtful editorial process. It is these two features that have enabled the Journal to maintain its position as the premier archival journal in the field, and I take my prime duty to be that of maintaining this preeminent status. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)