Abstracts and brief notices

Authors of significant articles published elsewhere are invited to submit offprints for abstracting or their own abstracts, which may be in English, French, or German. Special attention should be paid to work appearing in specialized or foreign journals. Guidelines for preparing abstracts are available on request.     

A background interference procedure to increase sensitivity of the Bender-Gestalt Test to organic brain disorder.

A study of the efficacy of a new technique, the background interference procedure (BIP), to measure visuomotor impairment. 30 brain-damaged psychiatric patients, 22 psychotic nonorganic patients, and 34 nonpsychotic, nonorganic psychiatric patients were compared on performance decrements on the Bender-Gestalt Test using standard paper and BIP paper and scored by the Pascal-Suttell method. The results indicated that the brain-damaged patients showed decrements in Bender performance under BIP compared to standard conditions whereas little or no change was shown by other patients. Tentative criteria for screening the brain-damaged among psychiatric patients were formulated and tested on a fresh sample of 65 patients. The results suggest that the BIP is highly sensitive to the effects of brain damage. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reassertion of the paradoxical power of tests of significance based on unreliable difference scores.

Points out that the negative relationship between power of tests of significance and the reliability of difference scores involves a continuous function in which zero reliability is the most extreme case. It is not necessary to assume zero true interaction in order to recognize a paradoxical increase in likelihood of significant treatment effects to be associated with low reliability of difference scores on which all calculations are based. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Down's Syndrome (mongolism): The heritable aspects.

Striking technological advances in the study of human chromosomes have revealed an excess of genetic material in the cells of patients with Down's syndrome. Both the trisomic and translation forms of mongolism are discussed, as is the assessment of morbidity risks in relatives of a given patient. The origin of the chromosomal abnormalities, and the mechanisms by which they generate the clinical picture of Down's syndrome, constitute questions for further research. When this etiological enigma is resolved optional management of patients and their relatives will depend, even more than at present, upon the active collaboration of psychologists and psychiatrists with human geneticists. (100 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Eleventh Hour.

Discusses the efforts of the APA Central Office to correct the image of psychology on the network television show The Eleventh Hour. The author objects to APA's policing the image of psychology in entertainment media (not news, nonfiction features, or documentaries). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Behavioral correlates of the Rorschach shading determinant.

To test Beck's interpretation of the Rorschach Y determinant, 10 Low Y and 10 High Y male psychiatric inpatients were obtained from 4 hospitals. The hypothesis that High Y Ss are more resigned and inhibited than Low Y Ss was tested with 2 kinds of data about the overt behavior of the sample: interviews with the Ss and interviews with 3 staff members having contacts with them. The Patient Interviews confirmed the hypothesis at the .05 level. The Staff Interviews differentiated the Ss in the predicted direction at the .05 level on small psychiatric wards but not on a large ward. 2 hypotheses about this inconsistency are presented for future investigation. Clinical interpretation of the shading determinant is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Synthesis of high pressure Cd2V2O7 and related compositions

Cd₂V₂O₇1bII has been prepared at about 80 kbars pressure. This new compound has a structure related to that of pyrochlore, but the symmetry is distorted from cubic to monoclinic. Solid solutions of the types Cd₂V_2?xNb_xO₇ and Cd_2?xA_xV₂O₇ (A = In or T1) were prepared at 58 kbars. Attempts to confirm previous reports of A¹⁺A³⁺V₂O₇ pyrochlores were unsuccessful.     

A new benzene-ethanol-water solvent system for TLC separation of aflatoxins

Gas liquid chromatography was used to determine the composition of the benzene-ethanol-water (BEW) solvent system frequently used in the separation of aflatoxins by thin layer chromatography. Investigation of a rapid procedure for preparing and using this solvent system led to the discovery of a new BEW solvent system with advantages for the routine determination of aflatoxins in roasted nut products, which consists of benzene-ethanol-water 40:6:3 for the trough solution and 4:27:20 for the bottom solution.