An evaluation of criteria used by clinicians to infer pathology from figure drawings.

6 psychologists and 8 nonpsychologists were given a mixture of figure drawings made by 30 normal and 30 psychiatric adolescents and instructed to infer which drawings were by patients and to state the criteria used. All criteria were cross-validated on a new sample (N = 86). Valid criteria of pathology were "bizarre," "distorted," "incomplete," and "transparent." Valid criteria of normality were: "happy expression" and "nothing pathological." Many criteria used by clinicians led to inaccurate inferences. Nonpsychologists discriminated as well as psychologists (65% and 64% accuracy, respectively). An empirically based prediction formula discriminated with 79% accuracy on cross-validation. It is concluded that elimination of invalid criteria can lead to a sharpening of clinical judgment and more accuracy in evaluation of figure drawings. (59 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Enhanced anisotropic ordering and phase separation in lyotropic polysaccharide blends

²H n.m.r. spectroscopy is employed to characterize the mesomorphic behaviour of hydroxypropyl cellulose (HPC) in D₂O. This analysis is further extended to ternary solutions containing HPC and xanthan gum (XG). A compositional range over which addition of XG to HPC enhances single-phase anisotropic ordering is reported. Convoluted spectra representative of HPC-rich and XG-rich components are observed at some blend and solution concentrations, suggesting that phase separation occurs between these two lyotropic polysaccharides.     

Prognostic indicators for children in a psychiatric hospital.

In an effort to find prognostic indicators of improvement for a group of 34 hospitalized children, the relationship between improvement and initial test score was computed. A combination of rated improvement and improvement in Full Scale Wechsler IQ was used as the criterion of improvement. Initially high scores on the Goodenough Draw-A-Man, Wechsler Performance IQ, Similarities, and Picture Completion subtests were significantly related to subsequent improvement in the hospital setting. Initially low deviation scores on Digit Span and Comprehension relative to the other subtests were found related to subsequent improvement. It is concluded that children with a normal intellectual potential but incapacitated by anxiety or other acute emotional disturbances show the most improvement in a hospital setting. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)