Review of Human developmental neuropsychology.

Reviews the book, Human developmental neuropsychology by Otfried Spreen, David Tupper, Anthony Risser, Holly Tuokko, and Dorothy Edgell (1984). The authors accepted a formidable challenge when they undertook this volume. The goals were first to review developmental psychology, pediatric neurology, and developmental neurobiology and, second, to integrate the information from these fields, attempting to make it understandable for the nonspecialist. They succeeded at the first and failed at the second. As a survey and catalogue of information, the book is truly impressive. It summarizes some 1600 references from very diverse fields and includes many goldmines of little-known material for the specialist. The volume is worth the price for this alone and I expect to use it often as a reference source. Finally, the book will serve as a good companion to Gaddes' book, Learning Disabilities and Brain Function. What is most important about this combination is that both books are from the psychology department at the University of Victoria and serve to underscore the fact that this department is developing into an important center for neuropsychological study in Canada. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Studies in neuropsychology: Selected papers of Arthur Benton.

Reviews the book, Studies in neuropsychology: Selected lepers of Arthur Benton by E. Costa and O. Spreen. This current volume stands as a monument to the contribution that Benton has made to the field of neuropsychology since his resignation from the Civilian Conservation Corp in 1936. This volume contains 29 articles by Benton and his many colleagues, one of which is a hitherto unpublished work on aphasia. These articles span the years 1956-84 and remind those of us who are familiar only with a few of Benton's most seminal papers of the breadth of his interests, which range from classical medical history to the experimental technology of the present. What better compliment for a book than to say that it has whetted one's appetite for more by the same author. In all, I believe that the editors are to be congratulated for providing an important source book for students in the field of neuropsychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Editor's note.

The editor thanks Dr. Spreen for the correction detailed in his letter (see record 2007-02141-045). Dr. Arthur notes in reply that there was some communication breakdown concerning the 40 staff as "staff, other department" under the rubric psychology staff. Dr. Arthur also requests that the survey acknowledge with thanks the contribution to the analysis of Bonnie Hazell and Margaret Lines. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Should extended disability be an exclusion criterion for tertiary rehabilitation? Socioeconomic outcomes of early versus late functional restoration in compensation spinal disorders

STUDY DESIGN: A prospective cohort design with two groups of patients representing short-term or long-term disability (n = 497) who were selected from a larger cohort (n = 938) of consecutively treated spinal disorder patients with chronic compensation injuries. OBJECTIVES: To prospectively evaluate the impact of length of spinal disability on socioeconomic outcomes of medically directed rehabilitation. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: Despite an increasing tendency of managed care organizations to limit rehabilitation services for disabled workers with chronic spinal disorders, there has been a surprising lack of prospective research evaluating the impact of length of disability on objective socioeconomic treatment outcomes. Although only approximately 10% of all patients with spinal disorders are disabled beyond 4 months, they account for nearly 80% of all workers' compensation expenditures. Little is known about whether relatively early intervention improves outcomes after chronicity has been established or whether any predictors distinguish between these groups. METHODS: Two comparison groups of functional restoration tertiary treatment graduates were identified from the same community referral pool. The "long-term disabled" group involved a minimum of 18 months of disability (n = 252). This group was compared with a "short-term disabled" group (n = 245), no more than 8 months since injury, but chronic based on a minimum of 4 months after injury. The long-term disabled group showed significantly higher rates of pretreatment surgery than the short-term disabled group (P < 0.001). All patients were evaluated prospectively with specific physical, psychological, and occupational measurements. They also underwent a structured interview 1 year after treatment evaluating work status, health care use, and recurrent injury. RESULTS: The short-term disabled group showed statistically higher return to work (P < 0.001) and work retention (P < 0.05) relative to the long-term disabled group. However, health care use and recurrent lost time injury claims were low in both groups and did not differ significantly. No predictors of outcome were found among the prospectively collected physical performance or psychosocial variables. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that early tertiary nonoperative care, once patients with chronic spinal disorders are identified as having potentially high-cost chronic pain and disability, is efficacious in achieving goals of better work return and work retention. Such early rehabilitation may also prevent significant indemnity expense, as well as some late surgical interventions sought by progressively more desperate patients. However, individuals with long-term disability achieve respectable work return and retention rates, while faring no worse on other socioeconomic outcomes that represent major "cost drivers" to the workers' compensation system. Early intervention is not a panacea or a necessary condition for the successful rehabilitation of workers with disabling chronic spinal disorders.     

Obituary: Ernest R. Hilgard (1904--2001).

Memorializes Ernest R. Hilgard who wrote the influential texts Conditioning and Learning (1940, with D. Marquis), Theories of Learning (1948), Introduction to Psychology (1953) and Divided Consciousness (1977). He is well known for his work in the area of hypnosis and hypnotic analgesia. He helped establish the Stanford Laboratory for the Study of Hypnosis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Some considerations on the reliability and validity of the Alcohol Expectancy Questionnaire for Adolescents.

Reviews the material presented in the S. A. Brown et al (see record 1988-28300-001) report on the reliability and validity of the Alcohol Expectancy Questionnaire for Adolescents (AEQ-A). Data are presented that suggest that the reliability and validity of the AEQ-A remain to be fully established. A preliminary outline of a potential theoretical direction is provided that applies Rotter's Social Learning Theory (J. B. Rotter, 1954 and 1982) as a framework for future work with alcohol-related expectancies and other cognitive-behavioral research on alcohol. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Vocational evaluation, work adjustment, and independent living for severely disabled people.

Reviews the book, Vocational evaluation, work adjustment, and independent living for severely disabled people by Robert A. Lassiter, Martha Hughes Lassiter, Richard E. Hardy, J. William Underwood, and John G. Cull (1983). This book is composed of 31 short chapters, apparently divided into four separate sections. In just over 400 pages, vocational evaluation, work adjustment, and independent living for severely disabled people are examined. The title of this book leads the reader to assume that vocational evaluation, work adjustment, and independent living will be examined as three equally important but separate and distinct topics. In fact, what is presented is a process, moving from vocational evaluation to work adjustment and finally to independent living. While there is adequate connection between vocational evaluation and work adjustment, and between work adjustment and independent living, there is none between vocational evaluation and independent living. On the whole, this book provides an adequate examination of vocational evaluation, work adjustment, and independent living for the severely disabled. It suffers, however, from those problems that plague so many edited works—lack of continuity, consistency, and central focus. An introductory chapter longer than 2? pages and a concluding chapter by the editors would have gone a long way to provide those aspects that are lacking. While clearly not a text for classroom use, this book will more appropriately be used to examine the "common sense goals that all three areas now possess." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Human rights and animal welfare.

Argues for the right of incurably ill or disabled persons to hope for cures or relief from suffering through research using animals. The author, a disabled person himself, is offended that disabled and intractably ill persons and their families, who stand to gain the most by such research, have been ignored in the antivivisection debate. The author notes that disabled persons must speak out for work that affects potential cures or alleviation of suffering; he looks for a compromise that emphasizes human rights while including animal welfare. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Fact-retrieval automatization and math problem solving by learning disabled, attention-disordered, and normal adolescents.

Learning disabled, attention-disordered, and normal adolescents were assessed with 2 performance measures and 3 behavioral measures, recorded while the Ss worked on math problems. Differences were found between the combined experimental and comparison groups in retrieval speed for each operation, but not in accuracy. Off-task attention contributed to the slower speeds of Ss only during multiplication. Rapid fact retrieval was the only significant predictor of the number of correct answers to word problems. Because of the statistical and procedural controls used (IQ, reading skill, and initial math ability), experimental vs control group differences in problem solving were demonstrated only for specific types of word problems. Overall, these findings support theoretical predictions that attention-disordered and learning disabled children have difficulty with repetitive stimuli, which contributes to basic- and advanced-level math deficits. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of In defense of human consciousness.

Reviews the book, In defense of human consciousness by Joseph F. Rychlak (see record 1997-08615-000). Rychlak makes a case for the reality of consciousness, a state of awareness that allows for the weighing of opposites, the introspective framing of intentions, and the making of choices from amongst alternatives. Drawing upon decades of work in Logical Learning Theory, Rychlak argues that the contemporary notion that human agency and responsibility are in some sense illusory is not without serious flaws and open to significant objection. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Disability, work and social policy—Models for social welfare (Springer series on social work, vol. 2).

Reviews the book, Disability, work and social policy—Models for social welfare (Springer series on social work, vol. 2) by Aliki Coudroglou and Dennis L. Poole (1984). This book is dedicated "to the people of PUSH for their determination and courageous example." PUSH, or "People United for Self-Help," was established in 1970 in Phoenix, Arizona. The book addresses rationally and at times with understandable emotion the social and moral problems of caring for disabled persons; it describes the merits of and need for an advocacy organization like PUSH; and it offers a mainstreaming model that conceivably might provide "occupational opportunity for all disabled workers in the least restrictive environment." While most students of social work, rehabilitation, policy science, sociology, and even psychology or medicine would profit from reading this book, it is not clear as to the audience for which it was written or the role it should play in graduate curricula. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Definitions of learning disabilities in Canadian provinces and territories.

Canadian definitions of learning disabilities (LD) traditionally have varied interprovincially, and the authors have compiled current provincial and territorial policy information related to LD. Special education definitions of LD are summarized, and an overview of funding mechanisms for special education services for students with LD is provided. In the majority of provincial and territorial policies, the concept of LD as a discrepancy between intelligence test scores and achievement has been retained from previous policies as a defining feature. Seven provinces have adopted either the official version or part of the Learning Disabilities Association of Canada (2002) LD definition, which characterises LD as a cognitive processing disorder or condition with processing deficits. The use of IQ scores and the vague conceptualization of processing disorder are major difficulties with the current definitions. These findings of policy definitions of LD with more detailed identification criteria contrast with current noncategorical provincial funding mechanisms for learning disabled students. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of "To Laugh: To Play: To Learn."

Reviews the film, To Laugh: To Play: To Learn produced by the Canadian Educational and Psychological Consultants Ltd. To Laugh: To Play: To Learn is a series of two 30 minute color films on the diagnosis and treatment of Learning Disabilities. The first film in the series, "An Introduction to Learning Disabilities" is well organized, interesting and has a certain charm. The film contains a substantial body of knowledge which could provide the basis for several hours of lecture or discussion. The film is a useful and charming approach to learning disabilities, but to gain the greatest value from it, the commentator should have some first-hand experience of clinical neuropsychology and learning disabled children. The second film in the series, "There is a Way," attempts to examine a number of common problems of children with learning disabilities. It begins with a demonstration of a learning machine for teaching arithmetic and moves on to perceptual discrimination, a demonstration of several remedial procedures, the use of medication for hyperactivity, the emotional and social development of the child, learning games, and interviews with two teenagers who had been successfully helped to circumvent or resolve their learning problems. While all of these topics are important, their discussion in a 30 minute film is necessarily brief and sometimes superficial. In spite of this, the film should be useful in presenting the ideas and problems for group or class discussion. Like the first film, it is given considerable diversity by a large number of short interviews and demonstrations with a variety of people and children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Aging and lineup performance at long retention intervals: Effects of metamemory and context reinstatement.

Young (18–30 years) and older (62–79 years) adults (N?=?96) engaged in a 20-min live interaction with the future target in a lineup task. One month later, participants were interviewed about the events in the prior encounter (with or without context reinstatement), and then they saw a target-present (TP) or target-absent (TA) lineup. The lineup was followed by the Benton Face Recognition Test (A. Benton, A. Sivan, K. Hamsher, N. Varney, & O. Spreen, 1994), which correlated positively with accuracy in TP, especially for young adults. False identification in TA was associated with (a) higher scores on a memory self-efficacy scale and (b) higher recall of information about the initial event, although only for seniors. Results suggested that age-related increases in false identification generalize to ecologically valid conditions and that seniors' performance on lineups is negatively related to verbal recall as well as to self-reports of satisfactory experiences with memory in life. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Disability and work: risk assessment

Recent parliamentary debate has brought the rights of disabled people back into the spotlight of media attention. In the workplace, the occupational health nurse (OHN) is uniquely placed to make a positive contribution to the achievement of equal opportunities for people with disabilities. The author describes a risk assessment approach to the occupational health and safety of disabled persons and their employers. Such approaches can help to ensure that the work skills of all employees are used to maximum potential.     

The lack of a stable order of preference for disabilities: A response to Richardson and Ronald.

Questions conclusions reached by S. A. Richardson and L. Ronald (see record 1982-09638-001) using data obtained in a series of experiments performed during the period 1961–1977 by Richardson and his colleagues, who used the Picture Ranking Task to elicit a preference order for several types of disabilities. The data were interpreted as indicating that there is a stable order of preference for handicaps, that this order of preference is not influenced by contact with disabled persons, and that disabled children show the same order of preference as nondisabled children. In view of findings from the literature, it is concluded that the interpretations obtained through the use of the Picture Ranking Task are, at best, applicable only to data obtained using this task and should not be generalized. (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dynamic assessment of cognitive and affective factors contributing to learning difficulties in adults: A case study approach.

Increased attention to the cognitive and learning difficulties of adults has meant that some adults with primary emotional problems are being diagnosed as learning disabled; this in turn impedes the provision of appropriate counseling interventions and promotes inappropriate vocational placement. Traditional test instruments are inadequate for determining the presence and nature of the learning problems that adults are experiencing. Three case studies are presented to demonstrate the efficacy of Feuerstein's Learning Potential Assessment Device (LPAD) to discriminate among cognitive and affective variables that may be contributing to adults' learning difficulties. There follows a critical discussion focusing on the key characteristics of the LPAD that were instrumental in identifying the factors contributing to the 3 clients' learning difficulties. The four areas of focus are (a) the content-free nature of tests, (b) the examiner–examinee interaction, (c) the change in orientation to the process rather than the end product, and (d) modifications in test interpretation. Implications for counselors assessing adults with learning difficulties in academic and vocational settings are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personal reflections on physically disabled women and dependency.

Discusses the double burden of dependency for disabled women who not only meet society's traditional sex role expectations by being economically and emotionally dependent but who also are, as a result of their disability, physically dependent. Components of the disabled role, reinforced by the expectations of the female role, are highlighted and the depression and negative feelings of self-worth of disabled women are underscored. Political action, such as participation in the disabled rights movement is considered to be one way for disabled women to attain a sense of competence, control, and meaning. (3 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Independent living for physically disabled people.

Reviews the book, Independent living for physically disabled people by Nancy M. Crewe, Irving Kenneth Zola, and Associates (1983). As stated by the authors, one of their goals in writing this text is to bring together a substantial portion of the rapidly growing body of independent living (IL) knowledge, some of which is relatively inaccessible. More importantly, the authors state their wish to present this knowledge in a way that will communicate the challenge and promise of the IL movement to their intended audience, whom they identify as professionals and students already in the field and in closely related fields, as well as disabled individuals. Generally speaking, this book succeeds in meeting its authors' stated objectives. A particularly important reason for this success may be the fact that the book presents the reader with a comprehensive view of the IL movement from a variety of vantage points—historical and cultural, urban and rural, domestic and international, disabled and nondisabled—as well as from numerous professional standpoints. Independent Living for Physically Disabled People is a well-organized and clearly written text that satisfactorily articulates the growing visibility of the IL movement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developmental norms for the Sentence Repetition Test.

Developmental norms for the Sentence Repetition Test were obtained from 1,081 3–12 yr olds in British Columbia. Although such norms have been published previously by O. Spreen and A. L. Benton (1963), the present study used a substantially larger number of children in each age group. Unlike previous reports, norms were developed for children in the preschool and elementary school years. (2 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)