Concept comparisons, essay examinations, and conceptual knowledge.

Investigated the concept comparison task as a means of assessing knowledge of concept interrelationships. The task involves making a comparative judgment in the form of a rating on each pair of a set of concept labels. In the present study, the judgment involved the strength of relationship between members of pairs of concepts. The relationship between performance on the concept comparison task and essay test performance was examined. Exp I, with 64 undergraduates, considered the relationship between 3 types of essay questions (definition, application, and comparison) and measures derived from the concept comparison task. Materials used for the concept comparison task and essay tests were taken from the perception component of an introductory psychology course. A canonical correlation analysis indicated a fairly strong relationship between essay performance and performance on the concept comparison task. Regression analysis was used to investigate specific aspects of the relationship. Exp II used 67 different Ss and a different set of concepts (memory). It is concluded that the concept comparison task does assess conceptual knowledge in a nontrivial way. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Toward the use of self-control in behavior modification.

Analyzes the concept of self-control in terms of a 2-stage process: general cognitive set and specific self-controlling responses. The incorporation of the cognitive set into a fuller understanding of behavior modification is emphasized. The set labeled commitment to change is viewed as an important motivational and mediating component in self-directed or therapist-guided therapy programs. A number of characteristics of this set are posited, and the problems of measuring such a commitment are discussed. Several programs describing techniques oriented to commitment are briefly reviewed. The cognitive set analysis seems especially important for discovering factors contributing to the frequent relapse following treatment for addictions. (20 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Is the icon's worth apples and oranges? Some fruitful thoughts on Loftus, Duncan, and Gehrig (1992).

Iconic memory, initially a unitary concept, was later reclassified into a multidimensional concept comprising several distinct processing events associated with the perception of brief stimuli. With respect to partial-report performance, multidimensionality was demanded by 2 findings: the interstimulus interval (ISI) effect (a progressive decrement in performance as the ISI is increased), and the inverse-duration effect (a progressive decrement in performance as stimulus duration is increased). G. R. Loftus et al (see record 1992-33933-001) suggested that both effects may be explained by a single set of principles. It is shown that given a stimulus of long duration their model may be made to account for either the ISI effect or the inverse duration effect, but not both. It is concluded that a unidimensional concept of the icon cannot account for this and similar evidence and is inconsistent with the outcomes of neuroanatomical and neurophysiological studies of visual functioning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The conceptualization of meaning in illness

The focus of this paper is the development of a conceptualization of meaning within the context of serious illness. It is based on a symbolic interactionist perspective, with the significance of the concept of meaning for the process of adaptation being a primary point of discussion. Meaning, as it is defined here, refers to the perceived nature of the relationship between the individual and his/her world that is developed within the context of specific events. It is comprised of two inextricably linked dimensions: meaning that pertains to one's identity and how that is affected by the event of the illness, and meaning which pertains to perceived characteristics of the event and to the social circumstances that surround it. Interviews with 38 persons living with the stress of cancer provide qualitative data that illustrate the concept as it is set forth in this paper. Four specific domains relevant to symbolic interactionism were explored in these interviews: (1) the individual's response to the illness; (2) changes that occurred relative to identify as a consequence of the illness; (3) the impact of cancer on the individual's relationship to the social world; (4) anticipated effects of the illness on the individual's future. Clinical implications of specific aspects of meaning are discussed.     

How selective is acculturation? Broadening our perspective.

Responds to the comments by C. Killian (see record 2011-02175-013) on the current authors' original article, "Rethinking the concept of acculturation: Implications for theory and research" (see record 2010-08987-001). Killian has focused on issues of selective acculturation—specifically, the ability of individuals and families to direct their own (and their children’s) acculturative trajectories. Let us start by saying that we fully agree with Killian that some dimensions of acculturation are selective in some contexts. Yes, parents do encourage adolescents to gravitate toward specific aspects of their cultural heritage and to avoid specific aspects of the receiving cultural context, and vice versa, with respect to these cultural domains. Uma?a-Taylor, Bhanot, and Shin (2006) referred to this phenomenon as familial ethnic socialization. Uma?a-Taylor et al. have found familial ethnic socialization to promote identifications with one’s heritage culture—and we have found in our own research (Schwartz, Zamboanga, Rodriguez, & Wang, 2007) that parental socialization is closely related to all three dimensions of heritage- cultural identity. However, in our research, parents’ socialization attempts appear less effective in shaping youths’ acquisition or rejection of American cultural practices, values, and identifications. Why this is the case is a matter of debate, but the presence of the heritage culture in the home does help to increase the likelihood that children and adolescents will retain or adopt it. However, this is not necessarily a guarantee, as we note immediately below. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Filial maturity. A view of developmental psychology on the relations between adult children and their weak aged parents

With this article we would like to contribute to the elaboration and clarification of the concept of filial maturity. We first roughly outline how the concept has been used during the past 30 years to describe the nature and quality of the adult child-parent relationship. The concept is analysed in more detail. We argue that filial maturity can be placed in a developmental psychological perspective. This means that it has to be conceived as a specific maturity in the filial role and that some arguments can be given to explain the developmental psychological character of the concept. In view of the theoretical and clinical applicability of the construct we prefer to consider filial maturity as a non-age-graded developmental task within the context of filial care of adult children for their aged parents. Within this context of parent care we propose a (new) definition of the concept and differentiate it from other related constructs. Our definition highlights three important dimensions which refer to the way the adult children engage in the relationship with their parents: (a) they behave in an empathetic and responsive way in the intergenerational relationship, without role-reversal, (b) they take care of their aged parents without loosing their own autonomy, and (c) they respect their parents in their autonomy and enduring parental role.     

Effects of a definition and a varying number of examples and nonexamples on concept attainment.

134 4th-grade children read experimental lessons, each of which presented one of the following: a concept definition, a rational set of examples and nonexamples of the concept, the definition and a rational set, or the definition and 3 different rational sets. Control Ss read placebo material. Each experimental group performed significantly better than the control, and Ss reading a lesson with a definition and 3 rational sets performed significantly better than those who received only a definition. The combined use of rational sets of concept instances and of a concept definition was validated as a powerful controllable variable in instructional material that is designed to facilitate concept attainment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Specific exemplar retention and prototype abstraction in young and old adults.

Examined the effects of age differences in retention of information about specific concept members on 40 older adults' (mean age 72.3 yrs) and 40 younger adults' (mean age 20.6 yrs) ability to abstract central tendency information. The mean Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale—Revised (WAIS—R) Vocabulary scaled score for the young adults was significantly lower than that of the older adults. Ss were presented with a series of visual patterns that were organized around a prototype and were then presented with these same patterns plus a set of new patterns varying in prototype similarity in a recognition test. It was found that young Ss retained more information about specific acquisition set exemplars, which resulted in slightly different recognition responses for new patterns. However, the recognition behavior of both young and older Ss appeared to be governed by the same rules. It is suggested that the organization of conceptual information does not change with age but that the poorer retention of specific item information in older adults may result in a less complete representation. (14 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dynamics of protein-protein docking: cytochrome c and cytochrome c peroxidase revisited

The dynamics of the docking step in the electron transfer reaction between yeast cytochrome c peroxidase and iso-1-cytochrome c has been studied using the Brownian dynamics method. In particular we have calculated the bimolecular rate constant at which a specific complex, the xray crystalline complex, can form in solution by translational and rotational diffusion in a field of force. Complexation criteria have been assessed based on the simultaneous alignment of three atom-atom contacts, as well as alternative criteria. The proteins are able to align one or two contacts at remarkably high rates, in fact, at rates approaching the diffusion-controlled limit for two spheres reactive over their entire surfaces. Three contacts may align, and hence the specific complex may dock, at rates on the order of 10(8) M(-1) s(-1), which is quite representative of the experimental association rate constant for ET-competent complex(es). The formation of the specific complex is strongly influenced by the favorable electrostatic interaction between these proteins. It is striking that a specific protein-protein complex can form within one order of magnitude as fast as two spherical proteins can touch at any orientation. It remains plausible that the high ET tunneling rate in this system can take place through a single highly favorable specific complex using a single high efficiency pathway. Still the contribution from a nonspecific set of complexes is not ruled out, particularly considering the marginal reproduction of the ionic strength dependence in the formation of the xray complex.     

Network representation of a child's dinosaur knowledge.

A 4-yr-old male's knowledge of 40 dinosaurs was elicited from 2 tasks. The data gathered from these knowledge-production protocols were used to map 2 interrelated semantic networks of dinosaurs, viewed as concept nodes connected by links. The 2 mappings corresponded to 2 sets of dinosaurs (20 each), partitioned on the basis of external criteria: mother's subjective judgment of the S's knowledge of each dinosaur and the frequency of mention in the S's dinosaur books. Comparisons of the structure of the 2 mappings were based on 3 attributes: (a) number of links, (b) strength of links, and (c) the internal cohesion of the network in terms of higher-order groupings and specific patterns of interlinkages. The validity of the differential structures of the 2 mappings was verified by the corresponding differential memory performance. The better structured set of dinosaurs was more easily remembered and retained by the S over a year than the less structured set of dinosaurs. (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review essay: Narcissism and the interpersonal self.

Interpersonal approaches to the concept of a core self are explored in a review of Narcissism and the interpersonal self (John Fiscalini and Alan Grey, Editors) (see record 1993-97836-000). The role of self as system and self as identity--both the interpersonal, adaptive self and the personal, core self--is used to understand the evolution of the Interpersonal School and its varied approaches to narcissism. A formulation integrating subjectively and objectively based models is proposed whereby the "core" self may be understood as the totality and integrity between internal, personal self and reflected, interpersonal self. Narcissism involves an alienation of the reflected self from the inner self, which leads to a particular set of dynamics to regulate self-esteem. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Development of the concept of truth-functional negation": Correction to Kim.

Reports an error in "Development of the concept of truth-functional negation" by Kyung Kim (Developmental Psychology, 1985[May], Vol 21[3], 462-472). In the article, several key words were omitted from the last sentence of the Method section on page 464, column 2, third paragraph. The corrected sentence is included in the erratum. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 1985-25108-001.) Studied the development of the concept of truth-functional negation in 2 experiments, using 36 English-speaking children (aged 3-6 yrs) and 10 Korean-speaking children (aged 4-5 yrs) as Ss. In Exp I, English-speaking Ss were given a sentence-variation task in which the following 4 sentence types were used to describe 36 pictures of common items: true affirmative, false affirmative, true negative (TN), and false negative. The results show that a majority of Ss under 5 yrs had difficulty with negative sentences, particularly TN sentences, indicating a lack of explicit understanding of truth-functional negation as defined in logic. In Exp II, a cross-linguistic replication of Exp I was attempted with Korean-speaking Ss. Despite some cross-linguistic differences in the negation system, the Korean-speaking Ss showed essentially the same pattern of results, suggesting that the development in question proceeds within the general limit set by the general cognitive development. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Accuracy of 94 anaesthetic agent vaporizers in clinical use

Using the Brüel & Kjaer Anaesthetic Gas Monitor type 1304, we have monitored the output of 94 anaesthetic agent vaporizers (Fluotec 3:58, Enfluratec 3:24, Isotec 3:12), in seven departments of anaesthesia, at different dial settings and flow rates. The range of output, for one type of vaporizer and dial setting (flow: 6 litre min-1) was largest with the Fluotec 3 (0.85-1.55% when dial set to 1%) and smallest with the Isotec 3 (0.85-1.15% when dial set to 1%). In determining the number of vaporizers with unacceptable inaccuracy, we applied acceptance limits of +/- 15% relative on each vaporizer and each dial setting. Using a flow of oxygen 6 litre min-1 17% of Fluotec 3.8% of Isotec 3 and 71% of Enfluratec 3 vaporizers had outputs outside those limits. Even when some specific conditions (vaporizers giving output beyond the limits at any two or more dial settings; output beyond the limits in the clinically relevant range (0.5-2%)) were added, a substantial number of vaporizers did not perform within the limits. We found a significantly greater accuracy of the vaporizers after 3-monthly calibration checks (P < 0.05) compared with vaporizers undergoing service and calibration only annually. Using a questionnaire, we found that fewer than 30% of the anaesthetists using the vaporizers would accept aberrance beyond +/- 10% relative of the dial setting.     

Children's perception of death as a defensive process.

Investigated whether the distortion in the concept of death shown by latency-age children reflects a general limitation in cognitive functioning or a specific expression of cognitive failure due to a defensive process against anxiety. 27 suicidal, aggressive, and normal 10–12 yr olds were administered the subtest of similarities from the WISC, a questionnaire to assess the concept of death, and a questionnaire to assess the concept of life. A distortion in the concept of death was defined as an attribution of life to the state of death. There was no significant correlation between the ability for abstract thinking and distortions in the concept of death, whereas there was a significantly positive correlation between the ability for abstract thinking and scores on the questionnaire about the concept of life. Suicidal Ss showed distortion in the death concept more frequently than the other group, but they showed no inferiority in their ability for abstract thinking. Results favor the assumption that distortions in the death concept are specific and, therefore, can be attributed to a defensive process. (9 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Familiarité des concepts vivant et non vivant en fonction de l'age et du genre.

This work presents the rates of subjective familiarity assessed for 120 concepts belonging to the living (animals, fruits, vegetables) and nonliving (vehicles, clothes, tools) domains according to the age and gender. At the same time as the construction of a set of concept norms contributing to the French study of the evolution of the conceptual organization in normal and pathological ageing, we test the assumption of an interaction between gender and category. The results stress the importance to distinguish the concepts according to these factors in the construction of experimental tasks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Mental Health" reconsidered: A special case of the problem of values in psychology.

"If we understand 'mental health' not as an unsatisfactory and vague theoretical concept but as a reasonably adequate rubric or label for an evaluative psychological perspective on personality… we can go about our business without wasting our efforts on the search for concensus on a unique set of mental health criteria when concensus is not to be had… . What is to be avoided is the surreptitious advocacy of values disguised under presumptive scientific auspices. The lists of psychological desiderata that psychologists have continued to propose, each reflecting the value commitments of its proponent, have this drawback." From Psyc Abstracts 36:02:2IR99S. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Categories of novelty and states of uncertainty": Correction.

Reports an error in "Categories of novelty and states of uncertainty" by Jerome Kagan (Review of General Psychology, 2009[Dec], Vol 13[4], 290-301). In this article, there is a printed error in Table 1. Table 1 should have the label “Expected” over the first set of columns titled Desired and Aversive and the label “Unexpected” over the second pair of columns. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2009-23090-002.) The concept of novelty has acquired a large number of diverse referents over the past quarter-century as a result of new methods that permit measurement of a variety of biological and behavioral reactions to novel incentives in both humans and animals. As a result, the term has acquired varied meanings. This analysis of novelty makes four claims. First, the specific state of uncertainty that a novel event creates depends on its origin. Second, unexpected events that alter the immediate stimulus surround (called stimulus novelty) should be distinguished from those that are inconsistent with an agent’s long term knowledge (called conceptual novelty). Third, the critical features that render an event novel can vary with the agent’s intention to classify or to act on an object and the balance between these two frames changes with development. Finally, the state of uncertainty created when an agent must choose one response from two or more alternatives differs from the states provoked by stimulus and conceptual novelty. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Identification of a novel dual angiotensin II/vasopressin receptor

The development and patterning of the Drosophila wing relies on interactions between cell populations that have the anteroposterior (AP) axis and dorsoventral (DV) axis of the wing imaginal disc as frames of reference [1-3]. Each of these cell populations gives rise to a compartment - a group of cells that have their fates restricted by cell lineage - within which cells acquire specific identities through the expression of 'selector' genes [1,2,4]. The genes engrailed (en) and invected (inv), for example, label cells in the posterior compartment and mediate a set of cell interactions that direct the patterning and growth of the wing along the AP axis [1,2,4]. A similar situation has been proposed to exist across the DV axis, along with apterous (ap) as a dorsal selector gene [5], mediating cell interactions by regulating the expression of Serrate (Ser) [6] [7] and fringe (fng) [8]. In ap mutants, the wing is lost [5] [9], and here we report that this phenotype can be rescued by ectopic expression of either Ser or fng and that, surprisingly, the resulting wings have both dorsal and ventral cell fates.     

Reprocessing text: Indirect measures of word and message level processes.

In three experiments we examined word- and text-level transfer after different reading experiences. Experiment 1 showed that facilitation in the later perceptual identification of a word occurs when that word was orginally read as part of a word set, but not when it was read as part of a meaningful text. Further, the word-to-word transfer effect exhibited the hallmarks of data-driven processing. Experiments 2 and 3 showed that transfer at the text level occurs when the reprocessing measure involves the entire text, rather than words taken from the text. This text reprocessing effect also exhibited data-driven indicators and was indifferent to the subjects' reading strategies. It was specific to the text originally read, with no generalization to texts of the same structure. The results, discussed in terms of P. A. Kolers' (see record 1976-00491-001) views of skilled reading, suggest caution in interpreting transfer measures when the original and reprocessing tasks are at different linguistic levels. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Major depressive disorder in older adolescents: prevalence, risk factors, and clinical implications

In this article we summarize our current understanding of depression in older (14-18 years old) adolescents based on our program of research (the Oregon Adolescent Depression Project). Specifically, we address the following factors regarding adolescent depression: (a) phenomenology (e.g., occurrence of specific symptoms, gender and age effects, community versus clinic samples); (b) epidemiology (e.g., prevalence, incidence, duration, onset age); (c) comorbidity with other mental and physical disorders; (d) psychosocial characteristics associated with being, becoming, and having been depressed; (e) recommended methods of assessment and screening; and (f) the efficacy of a treatment intervention developed for adolescent depression, the Adolescent Coping With Depression course. We conclude by providing a set of summary statements and recommendations for clinicians.