The development of emotional concepts in autism

Forty-one high-functioning individuals with autism between the ages of 7 and 36 and an age and intelligence matched comparison group were investigated in their ability to recognized emotions in photographs. A colour identification task served as control condition. The autistic group was significantly impaired on the emotions task only. There was no substantial difference between groups in the structures underlying their emotional concepts (pleasantness and arousal). However, there is a trend for the autistic group to rely on other strategies in the recognition of emotions than the comparison group. These strategies may be insufficient in the appreciation of facial expressions.     

Prospects for a cognitive neuropsychology of autism: Hobson's choice.

A. M. Leslie (see record 1988-13495-001) proposed a new, metarepresentational model for the cognition of pretense. This model identified a cognitive component necessary for the normal development of a "theory of mind." In this article, the relation of the child's early affective sensitivities to this component is considered. Early affective sensitivities seem to be cognitively distinct from the metarepresentational component. Childhood autism provides an interesting opportunity to study this problem. Three theoretical possibilities for the pathogenesis of this condition are presented: (a) a basic affective disorder as proposed by R. P. Hobson (see record 1990-14380-001), (b) a basic affective disorder and a basic cognitive disorder jointly, and (c) a basic cognitive disorder. There is little evidence for Option a, and a growing body of evidence supports Option c. Option b is sidelined for the time being on grounds of parsimony. Leslie's original theoretical proposals are revised, and some resulting implications are presented for the future investigation of the cognitive neuropsychology of autism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The influence of mood on categorization: A cognitive flexibility interpretation.

Three experiments test the hypothesis that positive mood facilitates cognitive flexibility in categorization. Study 1 used a sorting task and found that positive mood subjects in relation to subjects in other mood states, formed fewer (broader) categories when focusing on similarities among exemplars and more (narrower) categories when focusing on differences. Study 2 used a within-subject design and assessed more direct measures of flexibility. Study 2 found that compared with neutral mood subjects, positive mood subjects (a) perceived a greater number of both similarities and differences between items, (b) accessed more distinct types of similarities and differences, and (c) listed more novel and creative similarities and differences. Study 3 demonstrated that these effects occur for both positive (mood-congruent) and neutral stimuli and identified intrinsic interest in the task as a possible mediating factor. The implications of these findings for understanding the effects of mood on cognitive organization and processing are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stimulus overselectivity in autism: A review of research.

Reviews a series of investigations that suggest that autistic children show "stimulus overselectivity," a response to only a limited number of cues in their environment, and discusses how such overselectivity may relate to several of the behavioral deficits in autism. These include failure to develop normal language or social behavior, failure to generalize newly acquired behavior to new stimulus situations, failure to learn from traditional teaching techniques that use prompts, and a general difficulty in learning new behaviors. Several studies that suggest possible remedial procedures are discussed, and the concept of stimulus overselectivity is related to the literature on attentional or response deficits in adult schizophrenia, mental retardation, learning disabilities, and autism. (2? p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Early childhood autism and structural therapy: Outcome after 3 years.

Examined the effect of 3 yrs of structural therapy on 21 inpatient cases of early childhood autism (ECA). Treatment resulted in the discharge of 12 patients. Details of treatment procedure, therapeutic progress, and their effects on diagnostic and prognostic conceptualizations are presented. Comparisons are made among previous reports of attempted treatment of ECA, as well as the results of 2 other treatment units in the same setting. Results support the hypothesis that the high stimulation, physically intrusive, gamelike, novelty filled, and developmentally oriented treatment approach of structural therapy is capable of producing a significant improvement in cases of ECA. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The influence of experimental design: The example of the Brown-Peterson paradigm.

The results that are found in an experiment may depend upon whether the independent variable is manipulated in a between-subjects or a within-subjects fashion. This is illustrated here using the Brown-Peterson short-term memory distractor paradigm. The traditional finding of rapid memory loss as a function of retention interval was found only when retention interval was manipulated within subjects. No effect of retention interval was found when retention interval was manipulated between subjects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developmental stability of the relative influence of genes and environment on specific cognitive abilities during childhood.

Describes hierarchical multiple regression (HMR) model for analysis of cross-sectional data to examine developmental changes in the relative influence of genes and environment. The HMR model is advocated because it provides a test of significance for age changes without the loss of information and statistical power that results when continuous variables, such as age, are assigned to categories. This model was applied to 9 tests of specific cognitive abilities that were administered to 54 identical and 33 same-sex fraternal twin pairs whose ages ranged from 5 to 11 yrs. Results indicate that familial influences as well as the relative mixture of genetic and environmental influences on specific cognitive abilities remain stable during this fast-moving developmental era. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cues and clues to differential diagnosis in childhood autism.

There has been considerable disagreement as to the nature of autism. Since the problem has not yet been clearly defined, etiology remains nebulous, and treatment varies among therapists. An attempt is made to develop a definition of autism by drawing from a variety of reliable sources describing the disorder, and, with reference to these sources, some diagnostic procedures that seem to be effective are discussed. This suggested diagnostic assessment is based on observation, history taking, and a limited use of treatment technique. Diagnostic intervention in the form of intrusion and interaction is most instrumental in reaching diagnostic decisions. When tested in such areas as tactile, kinesthetic, and spatial intrusion, nonautistic children respond in a manner widely disparate from autistic children. No one single manifestation of an autisticlike response is a sufficient diagnostic clue; rather, there is a whole set of reactions upon which a clinical judgment rests. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effect of instruction on the cognitive structure of statistical and psychometric concepts.

Administered a questionnaire made up of pairs of concepts to be judged for similarity to 39 graduate students before and after they had taken a course on educational testing and measurement. The judgment of all possible pairs of 13 concepts was analyzed using an individual differences model for multidimensional scaling. Instruction produced a more highly organized and smaller cognitive structure than had existed previously. This result appeared to be due, at least in part, to the fact that many concept pairs were judged to be more dissimilar after the course than before. (French summary) (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Anorexia nervosa and autism spectrum disorders: Guided investigation of social cognitive endophenotypes.

Death by suicide occurs in a disproportionate percentage of individuals with anorexia nervosa (AN), with a standardized mortality ratio indicating a 57-fold greater risk of death from suicide relative to an age-matched cohort. Longitudinal studies indicate impaired social functioning increases risk for fatal outcomes, while social impairment persists following recovery. Study of social cognition in AN may elucidate impaired processes that may influence therapeutic efficacy. Symptoms of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are overrepresented in those who evidence a chronic course. Relative to that in AN, social information processing in ASD is well characterized and may inform systematic study in AN. This article (a) reviews impaired interpersonal processes in AN, (b) compares the phenotype of AN with that of ASD, (c) highlights deficits of social cognitive disturbance in ASD relative to AN, and (d) proposes a new framework to understand the interaction of individuals with AN with their social context. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The cognitive mediational paradigm for research on counseling.

Argues that knowledge about counseling effects will not advance until researchers in counseling conduct investigations that obtain reasonably direct data about specific cognitive operations of counselors and clients in ecologically valid counseling contexts, and relate these cognitive data to interactive behavioral data and counseling outcomes. A theory of cognitive processing in counseling is presented, and a research paradigm is described that considers cognitive processes and attempts to link such processes to the interactive behaviors of counselors and clients and to client learning outcomes. Some of the methodological and conceptual issues related to the operationalization of this cognitive mediational paradigm are considered, and a few illustrative research programs are described. (67 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Beyond citation counts: Developing research profiles.

Evaluated the research contributions of individuals in 35 Canadian psychology departments in terms of journal publications and Social Sciences Citation Index counts in 1975. The advantages and limitations of assessing scholarship by this method are discussed. A weighted publication index and productivity index are proposed. (14 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of sensory factors in cognitive aging research.

Performance on complex, cognitive tasks often is sensitive to low-level sensory and perceptual factors. These relations are particularly important for cognitive aging researchers because aging is associated with a variety of changes in sensory and perceptual function. In this article, the author first selectively outlines some relations between task performance and sensory function. Next, the author summarizes age-related changes in visual function and the implications of these changes for task performance, using the digit-symbol subtest of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Test as an example. Then the author offers some reasons why age-related sensory decline may not be important to all cognitive tasks. Finally, several recommendations are offered for cognitive gerontologists who want to minimize the risk that the age differences they observe are sensory in nature. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The future of testing: A research agenda for cognitive psychology and psychometrics.

Discusses social and educational demands of the present and future and examines current research in cognitive and developmental psychology that can influence the development of new psychometric methodology. Research on the diagnosis of performance regularities at different levels of learning and development should contribute to assessment measures that provide information useful for instructional decision and guidance. Investigation of the structure and cognitive processes of highly competent performers in various knowledge domains is beginning to suggest techniques for assessing the attainment of increasingly complex levels of skill and understanding. Research on information processing models of aptitude measures and self-monitoring skills is providing an understanding of the abilities for learning tested by intelligence and aptitude tests. Understanding of how these abilities are acquired is a prerequisite to facilitating their acquisition. It is concluded that these advances in the study of cognition should contribute to redressing social concerns about testing and assessment in education. (59 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Emotional reactions to dramatic film stimuli: The influence of cognitive and emotional empathy.

The idea that empathy may best be considered a multidimensional construct, consisting of both cognitive and emotional facets, has recently been gaining in popularity. To date, however, little research explicitly based on such a view has been carried out. We conducted the present experiment to explore the different influences of cognitive and emotional empathy on two types of responses to dramatic stimuli: positive and negative emotional reactions. Consistent with a multidimensional view of empathy, the two types of empathy exhibited different effects; positive emotional reactions were affected primarily by cognitive empathy, and negative emotional reactions were most heavily influenced by emotional empathy. The results are discussed in terms of their relevance to a multidimensional approach to the study of empathic responding. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The development of cognitive and academic abilities: Growth curves from an early childhood educational experiment.

In the Abecedarian Project, a prospective randomized trial, the effects of early educational intervention on patterns of cognitive and academic development among poor, minority children were examined. Participants in the follow-up were 104 of the original 111 participants in the study (98% African American). Early treatment was full-time, high-quality, educational child care from infancy to age 5. Cognitive test scores collected between the ages of 3 and 21 years and academic test scores from 8 to 21 years were analyzed. Treated children, on average, attained higher scores on both cognitive and academic tests, with moderate to large treatment effect sizes observed through age 21. Preschool cognitive gains accounted for a substantial portion of treatment differences in the development of reading and math skills. Intensive early childhood education can have long-lasting effects on cognitive and academic development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The efficacy of cognitive behavior therapies: A quantitative review of the research evidence.

Assessed the effectiveness of cognitive behavior therapies in a review of 48 studies of adolescents and adults that compared cognitive behavioral therapy with some form of control group. Analyses indicated that cognitive behavior therapies were superior to no treatment; however, there was no firm evidence that these therapies were superior to other psychotherapies. Analyses failed to find cognitive behavior therapies emphasizing behavioral techniques to be more effective than primarily cognitive approaches. Also, the efficacy of cognitive behavior therapies appeared relatively uniform across diagnostic categories and equally effective when administered in a group or individual format. There was no evidence that sex or age of patient, experience of therapist or even duration of therapy were related to treatment effects. (54 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Genetic stability of cognitive development from childhood to adulthood.

Genetic stability from infancy to adulthood has been proposed to account for observed parent–child resemblance in cognitive test scores in the Colorado Adoption Project. Although genetic variance increases dramatically from infancy to adulthood, results of preliminary analyses suggested that the genetic influences on cognitive ability in infancy and in adulthood may be highly correlated. To assess genetic stability more rigorously, a path model of genetic and family environmental transmission was fitted to general cognitive ability data from adoptive and nonadoptive families in which children were tested at 1, 2, 3, and 4 years of age, as well as to published twin correlations. Longitudinal genetic correlations from infancy and early childhood to adulthood were modeled explicitly, as were the effects of phenotypic assortative mating on both parent–child and twin resemblance. In general, results of the present study suggest significant and substantial genetic stability from 2, 3, and 4 years of age to adulthood. (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)