Behavioral and cardiovascular responses to interpersonal challenges among male offspring of essential hypertensives.

Behavioral, cardiovascular, and self-report measures of cognitive and affective responses to 2 interpersonal challenges were examined among 20 men with a positive (FH+) and 20 with a negative (FH–) family history of hypertension. Heart rate (HR) and blood pressure (BP) were measured throughout the laboratory session; Ss were requested to self-report positive and negative conditions, state anger, and state anxiety that occurred during interactions with a male and female confederate. Behavioral responses to interpersonal tasks were videotaped, coded, and categorized into 4 major groupings (positive verbal, positive nonverbal, negative verbal, and negative nonverbal). FH+ individuals exhibited significantly higher resting HR and systolic BP reactivity to both interactions than FH– counterparts. Analyses of behavioral responses for both interactions revealed significantly more negative verbal and nonverbal behavior and less positive nonverbal behavior among FH+ as compared with FH– Ss. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Verbal and visuospatial recall by younger and older subjects: Use of matched tasks.

In this study, 18 older (over age 65, M?=?75.61 years) and 18 younger (below age 40 and over age 17, M?=?26.44 years) healthy volunteers were tested on verbal and visuospatial recall. Tasks were matched on discriminating power. Older Ss performed worse than younger Ss on both tasks. The older Ss also showed a larger deficit in visuospatial than in verbal recall, relative to the younger Ss. These results are consistent with the theory of aging according to which verbal tasks are more resistant to deterioration than are nonverbal tasks. A psychological explanation based on lifetime experience with verbal material is preferred over the physiological explanation advocating faster aging of the right hemisphere. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Nonverbal indicants of comprehension and noncomprehension in children.

Examined nonverbal indicants of comprehension and noncomprehension in young listeners in the context of referential communication. Relationships between Ss' verbal and nonverbal behavior were also examined. 90 Ss at 4, 6, 8, and 10 yrs of age served as listeners. An adult speaker produced messages of varying informational adequacy. Analyses of videotape records revealed that Ss at each of the 4 ages exhibited markedly different nonverbal behavior in response to informative as compared to uninformative messages. In the absence of verbal responding, Ss at all ages showed more hand movement and longer reaction times when messages were uninformative. Preschoolers made more eye contact with the speaker when the message was uninformative, but their amount of body movement was unaffected; the reverse was true for kindergartners and 2nd graders. The data also reveal that when verbal responding was initiated, it was simply added onto the already established patterns of nonverbal behavior; no evidence was found for the hypothesis that verbal responding replaces or substitutes for nonverbal responses. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Functional organization of the right nondominant cortex: Evidence from electrical stimulation.

Studied discrete functional localization for visuo-perceptual, spatial, and nonverbal memory tasks in conjunction with focal electrical stimulation of the exposed right-dominant cortex during awake craniotomies in 22 patients. Results provide evidence for discrete functional localization in the right, nondominant hemisphere. Performance on each task was significantly impaired in association with stimulation of some, but not all, sites in comparison with performance on nonstimulation control trials. There was, generally, a strong dissociation of sites involved in separate functions across individual Ss. Contrary to the notion of diffuse functional organization in the nondominant hemisphere, visuospatial functions in the right hemisphere appear to be as discretely localized as verbal functions in the left hemisphere. Language and language-related functions of naming, reading, short-term verbal memory, nonverbal oral-facial movement, and phonemic identification were assessed in a subgroup of 10 Ss in conjunction with right nondominant cortical stimulation. In right-handed Ss, no disruptions of these tasks were seen with stimulation of sites outside the right face motor cortex itself. In 2 case studies, there was evidence for right cortical involvement in the mediation of 2 nonphonetic symbol-based language systems: Japanese Kanji and Fortran. (French abstract) (72 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Motivating autistic children.

A major problem encountered in the field of autism is the children's characteristic lack of motivation. This problem is especially apparent when autistic children attempt to complete learning tasks. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of correct vs incorrect task completion on children's motivation to respond to such tasks. Ss were 3 autistic children aged 6 yrs 1 mo, 11 yrs 11 mo, and 12 yrs 3 mo. Results demonstrate that when Ss worked on tasks at which they were typically incorrect, their motivation for those tasks decreased to extremely low levels. However, designing treatment procedures to prompt Ss to keep responding until they completed the tasks correctly served to increase Ss' motivation to respond to those tasks. The implications of these findings are that (a) autistic children's learning handicaps (which typically lead to low levels of correct responding) may result in few or inconsistent rewards for attempting to respond at all, thus decreasing the children's motivation; and (b) treatment procedures designed to keep the children responding until they complete a task correctly may result in coincidental reinforcement for perseverance, increasing the children's motivation to respond to those tasks. Results are discussed in relation to the literature on learned helplessness. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mother–child interactional style in abuse, neglect, and control groups: Naturalistic observations in the home.

Examined mother–child interactional patterns in an urban environment. Three groups of mothers (n?=?12/group) were included in the study: (a) Ss with a known history of child abuse, (b) Ss with a known history of child neglect, and (c) Ss with no known history of child maltreatment. Ss and their children were observed in their homes on 3 consecutive days for 90 min each day. Interactions were described via a coding system of 11 major interactional patterns; dependent variables included verbal and nonverbal behaviors as well as measures of total interaction. Results indicate that the groups differed on several variables. Dysfunctional Ss showed significantly fewer positive behaviors than did the controls on verbal and nonverbal measures. Also, the abusive Ss showed significantly higher rates of verbal and physical aggression; the neglectful mothers had the lowest overall rates of interaction. The maltreated children also exhibited fewer positive behaviors and more aggressive behaviors. Results are discussed in terms of current theories of child maltreatment and of the treatment of dysfunctional families. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Explanations for visual cue primacy in judgments of honesty and deceit.

Examined the validity of the distraction hypothesis (Maier & Thurber, 1968). Ss were undergraduate students who watched a videotaped interview and rated the veracity of an actress who played the role of a college student. Study 1 disconfirmed the distraction hypothesis. Ss relied on nonverbal cues to make judgments of veracity, but the presence of nonverbal cues did not distract Ss from processing verbal content. Study 2 tested an alternate explanation, the situational familiarity hypothesis. Study 2 found that judgments in familiar situations were influenced primarily by verbal content cues, whereas those in unfamiliar situations were influenced by both verbal and nonverbal cues. Findings indicate that situational factors influence information processing and affect the relative importance of verbal and nonverbal cues in judgments of veracity. Generalizability of prior deception research is questioned. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of general anesthetics on memory functions in man.

H. Jackson's concepts of nervous functions, implying that anesthetics first obliterate more recently developed functions, were applied to interpreting the effects of low concentrations of anesthetics on mnemonic functions in 4 experiments with 27 young adult males. It was proposed that there should be concentrations at which anesthetics affect verbal memory, sparing nonverbal visual memory, and Ss should show more acoustic than semantic confusions in long-term memory. These hypotheses were confirmed in Ss inhaling very low anesthetic concentrations and in Ss recovering from inhalation of high anesthetic concentrations. Nonverbal acoustic memory was also impaired, but not as much as verbal memory. At relatively higher concentrations, long-term registration of verbal material was abolished, leaving only short-term capacities. The data also provide independent evidence for separation of verbal and nonverbal memory and for acoustic processing of visually presented verbal material. (25 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Longitudinal and cross-sectional age effects in nonverbal decoding skill and style.

Administered a videotaped nonverbal discrepancy test to children 9–15 yrs old. The test measured (a) decoding accuracy—the extent to which Ss were able to identify affects (positivity and dominance) from video (facial and body) cues and audio (content filtered and random spliced) cues; (b) discrepancy accuracy—the extent to which Ss recognized the degree of discrepancy between audio and video cues; and (c) video primacy—the extent to which Ss were more influenced by video than by audio cues. Older Ss benefited more than younger ones from the effects of retesting in their accuracy at decoding discrepant cues, especially for discrepant facial cues. All Ss showed significantly less video primacy after retesting, and older Ss displayed a trend for less body primacy after retesting. Older Ss showed less video primacy than younger ones in decoding extremely discrepant (as compared to slightly discrepant) audio and video nonverbal cues. Thus, although older children performed better than younger children at most nonverbal decoding tasks, the advantages of age were especially great for the decoding of the more discrepant channels. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Referential communication and reading performance in learning disabled children over a 3-year period.

Examined the ability of 30 learning disabled (LD) and 30 non-LD (NLD) 6- and 7-yr-olds to understand a sequence of instructions, communicate the steps in a sequence to others, and rephrase their verbal messages across a 3-yr period using a referential communication task. In order to perform the puzzle-box task correctly, Ss had to execute 6 steps in an invariant sequence. After Ss demonstrated a perfect nonverbal enactment of the sequence, they were asked to communicate all information about how to open the box to a puppet. Upon completion, the puppet feigned poor memory and asked the Ss to explain the step-by-step process again. Subsequently, the puppet requested that Ss rephrase their explanation of each step by either a verbal or nonverbal rephrase request. Results reveal that LD children differed from NLD peers consistently on referential communication over the 3-yr period in terms of listener competence and speaker competence. For LD Ss, the ability to produce competent verbal messages was highly related to reading comprehension both concurrently and 3 yrs later. By the 3rd yr, NLD Ss were better able to rephrase information, indicating a growing awareness of the speaker's responsibility in communication. Findings suggest that the communication measures studied play very different roles for LD and NLD Ss with regard to reading achievement. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Executive function in older adults: A structural equation modeling approach.

Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) were used to study the organization of executive functions in older adults. The four primary goals were to examine (a) whether executive functions were supported by one versus multiple underlying factors, (b) which underlying skill(s) predicted performance on complex executive function tasks, (c) whether performance on analogous verbal and nonverbal tasks was supported by separable underlying skills, and (d) how patterns of performance generally compared with those of young adults. A sample of 100 older adults completed 10 tasks, each designed to engage one of three control processes: mental set shifting (Shifting), information updating or monitoring (Updating), and inhibition of prepotent responses (Inhibition). CFA identified robust Shifting and Updating factors, but the Inhibition factor failed to emerge, and there was no evidence for verbal and nonverbal factors. SEM showed that Updating was the best predictor of performance on each of the complex tasks the authors assessed (the Tower of Hanoi and the Wisconsin Card Sort). Results are discussed in terms of insight for theories of cognitive aging and executive function. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Comparisons of the restricted association of chronic schizophrenic and normal control subjects.

Obtained 11 types of restricted associations and free associations from 24 chronic schizophrenics and 24 normal controls equated for age and education. The associations of schizophrenics were more variable than those of normal Ss, especially on tasks which most restricted the choice of responses. Agreement in responding between normal and schizophrenic Ss was markedly lower when compared with that between high- and low-creative Ss, or with 1-yr, test-retest data. Repetition of responses given to the same stimuli under different instructions was markedly higher for schizophrenic than normal Ss, and thus the degree of task and response differentiation was reduced. The restricted associations overlapped with free associations more markedly for schizophrenic than for normal Ss, but the general structure of a conceptual semantic space was about the same for both groups. It is argued that when explicit constraint in tasks of verbal associations is high, schizophrenic Ss, more than normals, impose a low degree of implicit constraint on their verbal behavior; when the external constraint is low, they increase their implicit constraint. (26 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of task and experimenter feedback on the self-reinforcement behavior of internals and externals.

Tested 24 internal and 24 external locus of control Ss on 3 verbal recognition memory tasks. Ss administered self-reinforcement for correct responses on the 1st and 3rd tasks, which had the same difficulty level. The 2nd task was either more or less difficult than the other 2 and was accompanied by E reinforcement. All Ss thus received external evaluation that had variable relevance to their self-evaluation. There were no differences in self-reinforcement base rate (reinforcement rate on the 1st task), but there were several significant and contrasting changes on the 3rd task. Internals attended to both task differences and external evaluation. Externals responded only to evaluation, apparently not attending to task factors. Results are discussed in terms of locus of control and in terms of self-reinforcement behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developmental changes in decoding discrepant and nondiscrepant nonverbal cues.

Examined developmental changes in responses to consistent and discrepant video and audio nonverbal cues. A videotaped Nonverbal Discrepancy Test was administered to 121 males and 129 females aged 9–15 yrs. The discrepancy test measured (a) decoding accuracy—the extent to which Ss are able to identify affects (positivity and dominance) from visual (facial and body) cues and audio (content-filtered and random-spliced) cues—and (b) video primacy—the extent to which Ss are more influenced by video (face or body) than by audio cues. Results show that older Ss were more accurate at decoding affects than were younger Ss, particularly dominance–submission cues. Video primacy increased with age for facial cues (but not for body cues) and for cues of positivity (but not for cues of dominance). Relative to males, younger females showed more video primacy and older females showed less video primacy, particularly for cues of dominance–submission. Relative to younger Ss, older Ss showed less video primacy in decoding extremely discrepant audio and video cues than in decoding moderately discrepant ones. The development of nonverbal sensitivity to video and audio cues is discussed. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex differences favoring women in verbal but not in visuospatial episodic memory.

Sex differences favoring women have been found in a number of studies of episodic memory. This study examined sex differences in verbal, nonverbal, and visuospatial episodic memory tasks. Results showed that although women performed at a higher level on a composite verbal and nonverbal episodic memory score, men performed at a higher level on a composite score of episodic memory tasks requiring visuospatial processing. Thus, men can use their superior visuospatial abilities to excel in highly visuospatial episodic memory tasks, whereas women seem to excel in episodic memory tasks in which a verbalization of the material is possible. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Proxemic behavior as a function of inconsistent verbal and nonverbal messages.

An analog study with 40 male and 40 female undergraduates examined the effects of inconsistencies between a counselor's verbal and nonverbal behaviors on client proxemic behavior and ratings of counselor genuineness. Nonverbal behaviors included eye contact, trunk lean, body orientation, and leg positioning. Verbal content reflected either high or low levels of empathic understanding. Ss role-played a standard complaint with a confederate male counselor who communicated either contradictory or consistent verbal and nonverbal messages. Results indicate that inconsistent messages were associated with greater interpersonal distances, especially when the nonverbal messages were negative and the verbal messages were positive. Inconsistent messages also resulted in lower ratings of counselor genuineness. Results support the client-centered definition of congruence and further add to the evidence that spacing behavior is a direct reflection of one's interpersonal attraction. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reading skill: Some adult comparisons.

Three groups of college readers were compared on several information-processing and language comprehension tasks that tap the cognitive components of reading. The groups were skilled readers with high verbal and nonverbal abilities, low-skilled readers with a disparity between verbal and nonverbal abilities, and low-skilled readers who were low in both verbal and nonverbal ability. Results confirm the importance of word processing and general language comprehension in distinguishing skilled from less skilled readers. Results also support the view that reading ability is best described as a continuous function and provide evidence of the reemergence of lower level processing skills in adults as a function of text difficulty. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Race differences on nonverbal analogy test performance as a function of verbal strategy training.

Hypothesized that the relatively poor performance of Black students on nominally nonverbal reasoning tests (A. R. Jensen's Level II) (see record 1974-24027-001) may be due to their failure to use verbal problem-solving strategies efficiently and spontaneously. 200 4th and 5th graders, both Black and White, showed no race differences on Level I ability (digit-span memory). Half of the Ss of each race were then trained to use a verbal strategy on nonverbal analogies. For Ss who received no special training there were significant race differences on the analogies test (p