An assessment of daily production and significance of thyroidal secretion of 3, 3'', 5''-triiodothyronine (reverse T3) in man

The present study was designed to determine if frequency of repetitive photic stimulation could affect the response rate of an operant upon which such stimulation was made contingent. To test this hypothesis, we trained retarded and autistic children, equated for mental age, to pull a lever to obtain photic stimulation of different frequencies. It was found that (a) response rates of autistic children were related to the frequency of stimulation, while retarded children showed no such consistency. (b) The two groups did not differ in the average duration of time they engaged in stereotypies. (c) During a subsequent extinction session, two autistic children ceased responding, but one of two retarded children did not. (d) Noncontingent photic stimulation suppressed a food-motivated operant in one autistic child. These results were interpreted as evidence for frequency-dependent properties of repetitive visual feedback in autistic children. In addition, support was given to the position that performance deficits in autistic children correlating with the occurrence of stereotypies result from competition of different sources of reinforcement.     

Interpretation of facial expressions of affect in children with learning disabilities with verbal or nonverbal deficits

The ability to identify facial expressions of happiness, sadness, anger, surprise,fear, and disgust was studied in 48 nondisabled children and 76 children with learning disabilities aged 9 through 12. On the basis of their performance on the Rey Auditory-Verbal Learning Test and the Benton Visual Retention Test, the LD group was divided into three subgroups: those with verbal deficits (VD), nonverbal deficits (NVD), and both verbal and nonverbal (BD) deficits. The measure of ability to interpret facial expressions of affect was a shortened version of Ekman and Friesen's Pictures of Facial Affect. Overall, the nondisabled group had better interpretive ability than the three learning disabled groups and the VD group had better ability than the NVD and BD groups. Although the identification level of the nondisabled group differed from that of the VD group only for surprise, it was superior to that of the NVD and BD groups for four of the six emotions. Happiness was the easiest to identify, and the remaining emotions in ascending order of difficulty were anger, surprise, sadness, fear, and disgust. Older subjects did better than younger ones only for fear and disgust, and boys and girls did not differ in interpretive ability. These findings are discussed in terms of the need to take note of the heterogeneity of the learning disabled population and the particular vulnerability to social imperception of children with nonverbal deficits.     

A novel fission yeast gene, kms1+, is required for the formation of meiotic prophase-specific nuclear architecture

From archival records, we assessed outcomes achieved by preschoolers with both severe mental retardation and autistic features: (a) an experimental group (n = 11), which received intensive behavioral treatment, and (b) a comparison group (n = 10), which received minimal treatment. At intake (mean CA = 3.08 years), the groups did not differ significantly on any variable. At follow-up children in the experimental group obtained a higher mean IQ and evinced more expressive speech than did those in the comparison group. Behavior problems diminished in both groups. Results indicate that intensively treated children achieved clinically meaningful gains relative to the comparison group but remained quite delayed.     

Learning set acquisition in autistic children.

Compared the performance of 19 autistic 5-13 yr olds (mean MA: 4 yrs, 3 mo) on an object discrimination learning set task with that of MA and IQ matched control groups of normal and retarded Ss. All but 2 of the autistic Ss acquired a learning set. About 1/2 of the Ss in each control group also acquired a learning set. However, the mean number of problems to criterion was similar for both the autistic and control groups of Ss who acquired a learning set. It is suggested that the superior performance of autistic Ss on a task which is believed to be related to MA indicates that the MA of these children may be higher than that which is usually obtained with standard measuring techniques. Results provided somewhat equivocal evidence for a relation between MA, IQ, and learning set formation in the normal and retarded Ss. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A second look at second-order belief attribution in autism

Compared the performance of autistic and mentally retarded subjects, all of whom had passed a standard first-order test of false belief, on a new second-order belief task. 12 autistic and 12 mentally retarded subjects, matched on verbal mental age (assessed by PPVT and a sentence comprehension subtest of the CELF) and full-scale IQ were given two trials of a second-order reasoning task which was significantly shorter and less complex than the standard task used in all previous research. The majority of subjects in both groups passed the new task, and were able to give appropriate justifications to their responses. No group differences were found in performance on the control or test questions. Findings are interpreted as evidence for the role of information processing factors rather than conceptual factors in performance on higher order theory of mind tasks.     

The personality and family-interaction characteristics of parents of autistic children.

49 parents of autistic children (aged 2.1–9.75 yrs) generally scored in the normal range on the MMPI, and their scores did not differ from normative data on families with only normal children. Ss exhibited the same level of marital happiness on the Dyadic Adjustment Scale as a normative group of happily married couples and showed considerably better marital adjustment than a normative group of divorced couples. Ss did not differ by more than one standard deviation from normal families when assessing interpersonal relationships among family members on the Family Environment Scale. Biological and stepparents of autistic children showed essentially identical results on all of the measures used. Ss showed no higher level of general stress compared to established normative data, although the periodic occurrence of situation-specific stresses remains plausible. Results are all counter to the concept of any general psychological characteristics for parents of autistic children with respect to either a parental cause of the disorder or with respect to a general stress reaction to the disorder. (63 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age-related changes in verbal and nonverbal memory during early childhood.

In the present experiment, age-related changes in verbal and nonverbal memory performance by 2- to 4-year-old children were assessed. All children participated in the same unique event, and their memory of that event was assessed after a 24-hr delay. Overall, children's performance on each memory measure increased as a function of age. Furthermore, children's performance on both the verbal and nonverbal memory tests was related to their language ability; children with more advanced language skills reported more during the verbal interview and exhibited superior nonverbal memory relative to children with less advanced language skills. Finally, children's verbal recall of the event lagged behind both their nonverbal recall and their general verbal skill. It is hypothesized that despite large strides in language acquisition, preschool-age children continue to rely primarily on nonverbal representations of past events. The findings have important implications for the phenomenon of childhood amnesia. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Intertrial interval duration and learning in autistic children

This study investigated the influence of intertrial interval duration on the performance of autistic children during teaching situations. The children were taught under the same conditions existing in their regular programs, except that the length of time between trials was systematically manipulated. With both multiple baseline and repeated reversal designs, two lengths of intertrial interval were employed; short intervals with the SD for any given trial presented approximately one second following the reinforcer for the previous trial versus long intervals with the SD presented four or more seconds following the reinforcer for the previous trial. The results showed that: (1) the short intertrial intervals always produced higher levels of correct responding than the long intervals; and (2) there were improving trends in performance and rapid acquisition with the short intertrial intervals, in contrast to minimal or no change with the long intervals. The results are discussed in terms of utilizing information about child and task characteristics in terms of selecting optimal intervals. The data suggest that manipulations made between trials have a large influence on autistic children's learning.     

Differential calculation abilities in young children from middle- and low-income families.

Examined the performance of 42 middle- and 42 low-income kindergarten children on arithmetic calculations presented in a nonverbal format as well as in 3 different verbal formats. On the nonverbal task, the child was shown an initial set of disks, which was then hidden with a cover. The set was transformed by adding or removing disks. After the transformation, the child's task was to construct an array of disks that contained the same number of disks as in the final hidden set. A significant interaction between income level and task format was obtained. Although middle-income children performed better than low-income children on each of the verbal calculation tasks, the 2 income groups did not differ in performance on the nonverbal calculation task. The findings suggest that the nonverbal task format is less sensitive to socioeconomic variation than are the verbal task formats. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conditioned suppression of the proboscis-extension response in young, middle-aged, and old Drosophila melanogaster flies: Acquisition and extinction.

Young (7 days old), middle-aged (30 days old), and old (50 days old) Drosophila melanogaster males were used in an inhibitory conditioning of the proboscis-extension response. Two reinforcement schedules were applied, constant vs. partial. Partial reinforcement increased the number of trials needed to reach the learning criterion to the same extent in all age groups. Young flies needed fewer trials to reach the criterion than both middle-aged and old flies, which did not differ from each other. Extinction was delayed in the partial reinforcement groups by the same amount in all age groups. The slowest rate of extinction was observed in the old group and the fastest for the middle-aged flies. The results are discussed in connection with hypotheses that consider extinction an index either of behavioral rigidity or of strength of the initial learning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive and language skills in autistic, mentally retarded, and normal children.

Compared the sensorimotor skills and play behaviors of 16 normal 16–25 mo old children, 16 mentally retarded children (CA 32–80 mo, MA 17–38 mo), and 16 autistic children (CA 39–74 mo, MA 18–38 mo) to identify deficits in object knowledge specific to autism. There were no differences in sensorimotor skills between the 3 groups except that the autistic Ss were deficient in the capacity to imitate gestures and vocalizations. Autistic Ss showed less diverse functional play, particularly directed toward dolls, and less symbolic play both spontaneously and after cuing. Although functional and symbolic play and the ability to imitate were correlated with receptive language for all 3 groups, sensorimotor skills were associated with receptive language only for the normal and the mentally retarded groups. The observation that autism involves deficits in certain cognitive concepts and not others suggests that representational thought may be manifested in 2 systems, only one of which is impaired in the autistic child. Another hypothesis is that the cognitive deficits manifested by autistic children may be related to their impaired social development, because all the areas of cognitive deficit involve significant social components. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Strategic processing and episodic memory impairment in obsessive compulsive disorder.

There is evidence that nonverbal memory problems in obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) are mediated by impaired strategic processing. Although many studies have found verbal memory to be normal in OCD, these studies did not use tests designed to stress organizational strategies. This study examined verbal and nonverbal memory performance in 33 OCD patients and 30 normal control participants with the Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Test and the California Verbal Learning Test. OCD patients were impaired on verbal and nonverbal measures of organizational strategy and free recall. Multiple regression modeling indicated that free recall problems in OCD were mediated by impaired organizational strategies used during learning trials. Therefore, verbal and nonverbal episodic memory deficits in OCD are affected by impaired strategic processing. Results are consistent with neurobiological models proposing frontal-striatal system dysfunction in OCD. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Simultaneous communication with autistic and other severely dysfunctional nonverbal children

Despite its widespread application, the teaching of speech does not appear to be effective with all autistic and other severely dysfunctional, nonverbal children. A body of recent evidence points to the peculiarities in the information processing of these children and to the importance of gestures as aids or alternatives to speech. The present study reports on the use of simultaneous communication (gestures plus speech) with five such children. The fact that four of the five children showed marked gains in their ability to communicate over a 5-week period raises some theoretical and methodological issues pertinent to the treatment of autistic and autistic-like children and to our general understanding of the processes involved in nonverbal communication.     

Adjustment of adult–child instruction according to child's age and task.

32 mothers taught their 6- or 8-yr-old children 1 of 2 laboratory classification tasks resembling a home or school activity. It was expected that dyads would compensate for the perceived difficulty of the school task for the younger children by providing greater assistance to this group than to the other 3 groups. The instructional interaction was coded in terms of amount of directives, open-ended questions, and nonverbal instruction provided by the mother; involvement of the child; and reviewing for the learning test. Following the instruction, children were tested on learning of the organization of items. MANOVA showed that the younger children in the school task did receive more instruction than those in the 3 other groups. This modification of instruction was accompanied by slightly better performance on the learning task by the younger children in the school task than by children in the other 3 groups. Results illustrate the interactional nature of instruction and learning, by which assistance with cognitive tasks is tailored to the perceived needs of the children in the particular problem context. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The intelligence test performance of Maori children: A cross cultural study.

Maori children and New Zealand children were given the SRA form of Thurstone's Test of Primary Mental Abilities and a special nonverbal test battery. The Maori groups did worse than the control on the nonverbal test than on the PMA. This findings raises some doubt on the effectiveness of nonverbal tests for the evaluation of mental ability of culturally handicapped groups. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Swelling-induced activation of Na+,K+,2Cl- cotransport in C6 glioma cells: kinetic properties and intracellular signalling mechanisms

Thirty-six children with autism, 24 children with learning difficulties (matched with the autistic group for sentence comprehension), and 41 normally-developing preschoolers were given two simple tasks: a hand-game requiring inhibitory control, and a delayed-reward situation tapping metacognitive awareness of strategies for coping with the delay period. For both clinical groups, performance on the two tasks was correlated, even when the effect of comprehension level was partialled out. However, no such correlation was observed for the preschoolers, once age was taken into account. The results are discussed in terms of potential links between executive-function and mental-state awareness.     

Cognitive functioning and academic achievement in children with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM).

Discusses the effects of insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) on cognitive and academic functioning in children. IDDM children may have lower intellectual functioning, but their performance is usually average. Early age of disease onset, severe hypoglycemia, and diabetic ketoacidosis are the disease risk factors for lower IQ scores. Boys with IDDM are at greater risk for learning problems than girls, and both acute and chronic metabolic abnormalities may relate to poorer cognitive functioning. The high-risk children need periodic monitoring of their academic achievement, and may require special intervention. Intensive preschool or early intervention programs may be especially beneficial for those under the age of 5. An abbreviated Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children—Revised (WISC—R) or WISC-III may be used for evaluating children with IDDM, as prorated performance or full scale IQ scores may not act as traditional measures of nonverbal intelligence in such children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Construct validity of material-specific memory measures following unilateral temporal lobe ablations.

Material-specific memory test performance of 18 left (LTL), and 11 right (RTL), unilateral temporal lobectomy patients was assessed pre- and 1 wk postsurgery. The Selective Reminding Test (H. Buschke and P. A. Fuld; see record 1975-07695-001) and the Serial Digit Learning Test (A. L. Benton et al, 1983) were the verbal, and the Complex Figure Test and the Form Sequence Learning Test (K. Hamster et al, 1983) were the nonverbal, learning measures. Following surgery, LTLs showed significant reductions on both verbal memory tests, but no significant decline was observed in RTLs on the nonverbal memory measures' summary scores. Results suggest that Selective Reminding and Serial Digit Learning tests are sensitive to left temporal lesions but that Complex Figure and Form Sequence Learning tests, and by extension other nonverbal learning tests, should be interpreted cautiously with respect to unilateral temporal lobe dysfunction. Reasons for the difficulty in finding "pure" measures of visual learning are discussed, and suggestions for future nonverbal memory test development are presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Role of the striatum, cerebellum and frontal lobes in the automatization of a repeated visuomotor sequence of movements

Recently, Doyon et al. [20] demonstrated that lesions to both the striatum and to the cerebellum in humans produce a similar deficit in the learning of a repeated visuomotor sequence, which occurs late in the acquisition process. We now report the results of two experiments that were designed to examine whether this impairment was due to a lack of automatization of the repeating sequence of finger movements by using a dual-task paradigm and by testing for long-term retention of this skill. In Experiment 1, the performance of groups of patients with Parkinson's disease, or with damage to the cerebellum or to the frontal lobes, was compared to that of matched control subjects on the Repeated Sequence Test (primary task) and the Brooks' Matrices Test (secondary task). These two tests were administered concomitantly in both early and late learning phases of the visuomotor sequence. Overall, the groups did not differ in their ability to execute the primary task. By contrast, in accordance with the predictions, patients in Stages 2-3 of Parkinson's disease or with a cerebellar lesion failed to reveal the expected increase in performance on the secondary task seen with learning, suggesting that the latter groups of patients did not have access to the same level of residual cognitive resources to complete the matrices compared to controls. In Experiment 2, the same groups of patients and control subjects were retested again 10-18 months later. They were given four blocks of 100 trials each of the repeating sequence task, followed by a questionnaire and a self-generation task that measured their declarative knowledge of that sequence. The results revealed a long-term retention impairment only in patients who changed from Stage I to Stage II of the disease (suggesting further striatal degeneration) during the one-year interval, or who had a cerebellar lesion. By contrast, performance of the three clinical groups did not differ from controls on declarative memory tests. These findings suggest that both the striatum and the cerebellum participate to the automatization process during the late (slow) learning stage of a sequence of finger movements and that these structures also play a role in the neuronal mechanism subserving long-term retention of such a motor sequence behavior.     

Negativism in verbal and nonverbal responses of autistic children.

Studied negativism in 9 autistic, 9 behavior-disturbed, and 9 normal 5-12 yr olds in 3 different stimulus conditions (verbal requests for verbal responses, verbal requests for nonverbal responses, and nonverbal requests for nonverbal responses). Each condition included 2 tasks, which were requested 15 consecutive times. Ss demonstrated that they could perform the tasks before testing, and their responses were scored according to the similarity between the response and the request. Results demonstrate that the autistic and behavior-disturbed Ss responded similarly, except when requests required verbal responses, in which case the autistic Ss were much more negative. Results suggest applications to diagnostic and therapeutic interventions. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)