bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Aversive and compensatory classical conditioning with diazepam as conditional stimulus
Authors: FLATEN MAGNE ARVE , GRÅWE ROLF W. , DAHL CARL B. , HAUG TROND
Published: May 2008

The purpose of the first experiment was to investigate whether diazepam could acquire anxiogenic properties by signalling an aversive event. Rats were trained in an operant chamber in the pentylenetetrazol (PTZ) model of anxiety. Thereafter the animals were divided into groups that received classical diazepam conditioning (Group 1), and conditioning of diazepam + tone (Group 2). In the test phase diazepam was injected prior to placement in the operant chamber. Group 2 selected the PTZ‐appropriate lever more often than the other groups, indicating that the tone induced anxiety, and diazepam did not. Tones and shock may therefore be more easily associated than diazepam and shock. The second experiment investigated this. Rats were trained the same way as in the first experiment. Thereafter the experimental group received injections of a small dose of diazepam prior to a second injection of a large dose of diazepam. The hypothesis was that a compensatory anxiogenic conditional response to diazepam's anxiolytic effect should be elicited by the small dose. There were no differences between the groups in lever selection, indicating that a compensatory anxiogenic response was not elicited.
A Norwegian translation of the Plutchik questionnaire for psychological defense
Authors: ENDRESEN INGER M.
Published: May 2008

The reliability and validity of the Norwegian translation of Plutchik's Life Style Index (LSI) have been tested in a material of 704 individuals, 471 men and 233 women. The results showed low internal consistency for most of the subscales (Alpha ranging from 0.43 to 0.68). Several of the scales were also significantly correlated. Factor analyses showed that some of them loaded on common factors, indicating low specificity of the scales. Further, the validity of the test was not confirmed.
Script activation in lipreading
Authors: SAMUELSSON STEFAN , RÖNNBERG JERKER
Published: May 2008

In three experiments the roles of script, basic and low‐level contexts in lipreading (Abbott et al., 1985) were studied. Three scripts were used: a restaurant, a railway station, and a clothing store. Presence or absence of script headers constituted a between‐subjects factor. Basic and low‐level context, as well as test‐sentences (referring to basic and low‐level of abstraction), were within‐subjects factors. Also, different kinds of working memory tests were employed to assess potentially important information‐processing skills for lipreading. The results show that (a) lipreaders benefit from a compatibility between context level and sentence type, (b) the directions of inferences were asymmetric such that the basic context prevented inferences at the low‐level of abstraction, but not vice versa, (c) low‐level context in general was most useful for skilled lipreaders in the script group, (d) skilled lipreaders in the non‐script group took most advantage of basic level sentences, and (e) working memory capacity did not prove to be important for lipreading skill. Guessing and pure lipreading control experiments established that each of these potentially confounding factors, only accounted for about 5% of the lipreading performance, and thus, can not explain the obtained interactive effects between visual information conveyed by lip movements and context. Theorizing departing from prototypicality vs. script accounts of inference‐making was critically evaluated, and a predictive script activation mechanism, relevant to lipreading skill, was suggested.
Reliability and construct validity of a Swedish social attitude scale for children
Authors: NILSSON INGRID , EKEHAMMAR BO
Published: May 2008

The aim was to construct a social attitude scale for children and to assess its reliability and construct validity, employing a sample of 226 children, aged 8–15, from schools within metropolitan Stockholm. The results showed the precision, test‐retest reliability and internal consistency for the total scale to be moderate among younger subjects (8, 10 and 12 years) and acceptable among older ones (14 and 15 years). Confirmatory factor analyses revealed different factor structures for the various age groups. Only two factors were identified for the 8 year olds, while three, four, and five factors were obtained for the 10, 12, 14, and 15 year old subjects, respectively. The factors were, in consecutive order of appearance, Religion, Punitiveness, Ethnocentrism, Political‐economic conservatism, and Environmental issues. Implications for attitude measurement among children and directions for further research on structural aspects of attitudes are discussed.
Parental divorce as a factor in children's perception of human relationships: An analysis of human movement responses in the Rorschach test
Authors: SPIGELMAN GABRIELLA , SPIGELMAN AMI
Published: May 2008

The subjects were 108 Swedish children between 10 and 12 years old, who constituted a divorce and a non‐divorce group of 27 girls and 27 boys each. Roschach Tests were administered individually and human movement responses were analysed. Non‐divorce children perceived more cooperative and fewer hostile interactions than the divorce children. Responses containing figures engaged in hostile interaction were most common among divorce girls, whereas the divorce boys had difficulties in perceiving any interaction whatsoever. The different effect of parental divorce on the ability of girls and boys to develop satisfactory social relationships is discussed.
A methodological note concerning long‐term effect of treatment
Authors: LUND THORLEIF
Published: May 2008

The long‐term effect of treatment is defined as the score change produced directly and indirectly by the treatment during and after the treatment interval. Various instances of combinations of short‐term effects, attained during the treatment interval, and of long‐term effects are presented. Designs for measuring the short‐term and long‐term effects are sketched, and suggestions are given for distinguishing between these effects in six representative cases. A multiple‐occasion measurement of the long‐term effect is recommended.
Facial reactions to facial expressions in subjects high and low in public speaking fear
Authors: DIMBERG ULF , CHRISTMANSON LEIF
Published: May 2008

This study investigated whether subjects high and low in public speaking fear react with different facial electromyographic (EMG) activities when exposed to negative and positive social stimuli. A High‐fear and Low‐fear group were selected by help of a questionnaire and were exposed to slides of angry and happy faces while facial‐EMG from the corrugator and zygomatic muscle regions were measured. The subjects also rated the stimuli on different emotional dimensions.

Consistent with earlier research it was found that Low fear subjects reacted with increased corrugator activity to angry faces and increased zygomatic activity to happy faces. The High fear group, on the other hand, did not distinguish between angry and happy faces. Rating data indicated that the High fear group perceived angry faces as being emotionally more negative.

The present results are consistent with earlier studies, indicating that the facial‐EMG technique is sensitive to detect differential responding among clinical interesting groups, such as people suffering from social fears.
School performance and IQ‐test scores at age 13 as related to birth weight and gestational age
Authors: LAGERSTRÖM MONICA , BREMME KATARINA , ENEROTH PETER , MAGNUSSON DAVID
Published: May 2008

The cohort in the present longitudinal research program consisted of 873 children in an entire school grade, in a Swedish community. The present results showed a main effect of birth weight; low birth weight (LBW) children had lower school performance and intelligence‐test (IQ) scores at age 13 than did normal birth weight (NBW) children irrespective of parental SES. Second, there was no significant main effect of gestational age (GA) on scholastic performance and IQ‐test scores. Third, there was a significant main effect of the combination of birth weight and GA on scholastic performance and IQ‐test scores. The LBW children born at term (38–40 pregnancy weeks; pw) had significantly lower scores and school grades as compared to the control group while the LBW children born with short gestational age (34–37 pw) and with very short gestational age (<34 pw) had significantly lower scores and marks in fewer areas of academic attainment.
Effects of day care and maternal teaching on child educability
Authors: HARTMANN ELLEN
Published: May 2008

Two groups of matched mother‐child pairs, aday caresample (N= 38) and ahome rearedsample (N= 38) participated in a study testing mothers for degree of decentred teaching and children for degree of decentred educability. The children were seven years old. Mother and child were tested in separate settings, thus preventing interdependency among scores. The study used a matched‐pair design with control of five background variables: age of the child, mother's educational level, mother's occupational status, family SES level, and type of family. The results showed strong positive effects of both day care experience and maternal teaching on child educability. Day care experience improved the educability of children independent of the mother's teaching strategy and gender of the child.
Maturity of personality and family communication
Authors: WICHSTRØM LARS , HOLTE ARNE
Published: May 2008

The psychodynamic and the communication/systemic perspectives are commonly considered as two entirely different approaches to psychopathology. The current study is an effort to bridge these opposing perspectives empirically. Maturity of personality, measured according to psychoanalytic principles by the Consensus Couples Rorschach, and relationship control in family communication, as measured by a new coding system (RCC) in an observational study, were related. The results indicate that low level of maturity is associated with egocentric and self‐disqualifying communication in situations of conflict, but not in situations involving no or moderate conflict. Additionally, mature wives were prone to react to situations involving perceptual conflict by communicating dominantly, whereas immature wives communicated in more submissive ways. Reversely, the more mature the husbands were, the more they displayed a submissive style of communicating when in conflict.
Maternal adjustment during pregnancy and the infant's first year
Authors: MOTHANDER PIA RISHOLM
Published: May 2008

The study aimed at establishing the predictive validity of clinical observations and interview data collected during late pregnancy. 40 pregnant women from a Swedish non‐risk population were interviewed about psychological and somatic well‐being, significant relationships and delivery expectations. Pregnancy adjustment was also assessed by the maternal health clinic midwife. After the birth of the child, the mothers were interviewed in the delivery hospital and during home visits when the infants were 2 and 6 weeks, and 4, 8 and 12 months old. The results showed that pregnancy adjustment, as assessed by the mothers themselves, acted as a significant predictor of the early maternal adjustment and the adjustment towards the end of the infant's first year. The midwives' assessments significantly predicted maternal adjustment towards the end of the first year. Pregnancy data did not correlate with maternal delivery experiences.
The impact of consonant clusters on preschool children's phonemic awareness: A comparison between readers and nonreaders
Authors: ARNQVIST ANDERS
Published: May 2008

Preschool children's ability to segment and blend real words and nonsense words, with and without consonant clusters was investigated in two experiments. In the first experiment, preschool children's ability to segment real words into phonemes was examined. Readers performed better than nonreaders on a phoneme counting task and words containing consonant clusters were harder to segment compared to words without consonant clusters. In experiment two, the ability to segment and blend nonsense words was investigated. Nonreaders had significantly more difficulty with nonsense words compared to readers in both a phoneme synthesis and a phoneme analysis task. A two‐way interaction between reading level and word type showed that nonsense words containing consonant clusters were particularly difficult for nonreaders. The results were discussed in relation to theories suggesting that syllables consist of an onset and a rime.
Who caused it? Interpersonal causal inferences in young children
Authors: VIKAN ARNE , SKEVIK HELENE
Published: May 2008

Three experiments were designed to test 4‐ and 6‐year‐old children's causal inferences in interpersonal settings where emotions (glad, angry, and sad) were effect responses. The results showed that emotion and orientation (towards or away from) were central cues, and that sex and age also were used to some extent. Cues related to regularity philosophic notions (e.g. David Hume), such as contiguity in time and space, and time order of cause and effect were little used by comparison. The results raise questions about the basic role attributed to regularity cues both by philosophers and psychologists, and suggest a multiple cue contribution rather than a basic cue generaluation approach to causal cognition development.
Women's yielding to social group pressure as a function of alcohol and type of pressure
Authors: GUSTAFSON ROLAND
Published: May 2008

Thirty‐six women participated in an experiment exploring whether alcohol intoxication facilitates yielding to social persuasive information. Subjects were randomly assigned to either an Alcohol, a Placebo, or a Control Group. The alcohol dose was 1.0 ml of 100% alcohol/kg body weight. Subjects first estimated the length of a line and were then given faked feedback from either a male or a female peer reference group. This procedure was repeated 60 times. Analyses indicated that the Placebo group yielded more often than the Alcohol group irrespective of type of feedback. A measure of locus of control indicated no significant mean differences as a function of alcohol group but correlations between externality and yielding were strong for placebo subjects, that is, externally oriented placebo subjects yielded more than internally oriented placebo subjects. This was discussed in terms of feelings of uneasiness caused by the discrepancy between feelings of intoxication and information about drink content.
A qualitative aspect of learning‐sensitive open field ambulation in mice
Authors: KVIST S. BEATRICE M. , SELANDER RITVA‐KAJSA
Published: May 2008

Maze training was shown to affect qualitative aspects of the learning‐sensitive open‐field (OF) ambulation in male Swiss albino mice. The changes in thigmotactic (wall‐seeking) behaviour were most pronounced when significant signs of learning occurred, usually on the third day of training. Also daily changes in thigmotaxis from before to after training were found. Mice not subjected to maze training exhibited a different thigmotactic pattern of behaviour. The present series of experiments indicated that separate starting‐points (centre or wall) influenced the thigmotactic behaviour as opposed to the shape of the OF (circular or square).
Swedish norms for completion of word stems and unique word fragments
Authors: OLOFSSON ULRICH , NYBERG LARS
Published: May 2008

Swedish norms for completion of word stems and single‐solution word fragments, with few or many letters specified, were obtained from Swedish students. Comparisons were made for completion rates between stems and fragments that were possible to complete with the same word. As expected, completion rates for fragments were generally superior to those of word stems since the word stems allowed alternative completions. Adding one letter to the word stems and fragments resulted in a significant increase in the probability of completion, for both stems and fragments. A stepwise regression analysis was conducted in order to partial out factors determining the completion probability for fragments. The ratio of specified letters to blank characters, and the familiarity of the solution was found to be the most important factors. Finally, the effect of number of given letters in the word stem on the number of generated words per stem was studied. The mean number of words generated per stem was found to be equal for both two‐ and three‐letter word stems.
Self‐reported change in health behaviour after a mass media‐based health education campaign
Authors: SØGAARD ANNE JOHANNE , FØNNEBØ VINJAR
Published: May 2008

A comprehensive short‐term fund‐raising campaign, was launched in 1987 by a health charity organization in cooperation with the only Norwegian TV‐channel covering the whole country. The campaign which was extensively announced on TV and other media and which involved large proportions of the population, finished up with a six hour TV‐show on the fund‐raising day. Because a considerable amount of information on prevention of heart disease was presented in connection with the campaign, it is presently evaluated as a nationwide health education campaign. Twenty‐two per cent of the population reported changes in one or more habits in connection with the campaign (one third of them took more exercise, while one quarter reduced/quit their smoking). Health behaviour change among family/friends, reported new knowledge of health and worry created by the campaign, were the factors most clearly associated with self‐reported behaviour change. The paper discusses the magnitude of the effects of the campaign in relation to the study design, and the importance of social environment and fear arousal on health behaviour.
Evaluating young children's cognitive capacities through computer versus hand drawings
Authors: OLSEN JOHN
Published: May 2008

Young normal and handicapped children, aged 3 to 6 years, were taught to draw a scene of a house, garden and a sky with a computer drawing program that uses icons and is operated by a mouse. The drawings were rated by a team of experts on a 7‐category scale. The children's computer‐ and hand‐ produced drawings were compared with one another and with results on cognitive, visual and fine motor tests. The computer drawing program made it possible for the children to accurately draw closed shapes, to get instant feedback on the adequacy of the drawing, and to make corrections with ease. It was hypothesized that these features would compensate for the young children's limitations in such cognitive skills, as memory, concentration, planning and accomplishment, as well as their weak motor skills. In addition, it was hypothesized that traditional cognitive ratings of hand drawings may underestimate young children's intellectual ability, because drawing by hand demands motor skills and memory, concentration and planning skills that are more developed than that actually shown by young children. To test the latter hypothesis, the children completed a training program in using a computer to make drawings. The results show that cognitive processes such as planning, analysis and synthesis can be investigated by means of a computer drawing program in a way not possible using traditional pencil and paper drawings. It can be said that the method used here made it possible to measure cognitive abilities “under the floor” of what is ordinarily possible by means of traditionally hand drawings.
On structural models for analyzing change
Authors: RAYKOV TENKO
Published: May 2008

The recommendation to base the analysis of multi‐wave data upon explicit models for change is advocated. Several univariate and multivariate models are described, which emerge from an interaction between the classical test theory and the structural equation modeling approach. The resulting structural models for analyzing change reflect in some of their parameters substantively interesting aspects of intra‐ and interindividual change in follow‐up studies. The models are viewed as an alternative to an ANOVA‐based analysis of longitudinal data, and are illustrated on data from a cognitive intervention study of old adults (Bakes et al, 1986). The approach presents a useful means of analyzing change over time, and is applicable for purposes of (latent) growth curve analysis when analysis of variance assumptions are violated (e.g., Schaie & Hertzog, 1982; Morrison, 1976).
Struggling with self: The personal projects of students seeking psychological counselling
Authors: SALMELA‐ARO KATARIINA
Published: May 2008

Personal projects can be described as self‐articulated goals and related sequences of actions. In order to investigate what kind of personal projects people with psychological problems have, and how they work on them, 28 counselling client students, 44 students of psychology, and 45 students of technology completed a Finnish version of Little's (1987) Personal Project Inventory. The results showed that the clients scored lower on project accomplishment than other groups. Their personal projects were frequently self‐related, while those of the technology students were often task‐related. The higher their sense of coherence, self‐esteem, mental health and life satisfaction, the more subjects expected to accomplish their projects, the more frequently they described task‐related projects, the less negative affect they reported, and the less frequently they described self‐related projects. These results suggest that psychologically distressed individuals struggle with self‐related projects and have problems in accomplishing their projects.
Enacted and nonenacted encoding of social actions
Authors: ARAR LJILJANA , NILSSON LARS‐GÖRAN , MOLANDER BO
Published: May 2008

Previous research has demonstrated that recall of enacted verbal commands is superior to recall of the same commands without enactment. The experiment reported explored whether the same effect would hold true in a social context as opposed to the non‐social context used in previous research. The results demonstrated that this is indeed the case. Enacted verbal commands are better recalled than commands that are encoded verbally and better than commands that are encoded by means of observing them being performed. It was also demonstrated that items rated as having positive emotional value were better recalled than items rated as negative or neutral. This was true for enacted as well as for nonenacted commands. It is concluded that there is no basic difference between memory of commands enacted in the social context and memory of commands enacted in a non‐social context. We discuss the data in relation to current theory of memory of actions.
Recognition of partial regularity in words and sentences
Authors: JARVELLA ROBERT J. , WENNSTEDT OLA
Published: May 2008

The involvement of morphological representations in reading Swedish and Dutch was explored using a lexical decision task and a sentence continuation task. In Experiment 1, letter strings were studied which were composed of a root and derivational suffix, a nonroot and suffix, a root and nonsuffix, or a nonroot and nonsuffix. Latencies in identifying nonword items increased as the letter strings became morphologically regular. In Experiment 2, subjects chose among pairs of continuations to a sentence. One choice offered at a given point was acceptable in context, while the other was acceptable, or contained an inappropriate stem, an inappropriate inflection, or both together. The latency to choose a correct continuation increased as the foil offered became morphologically appropriate. The results show that use of morphemic representations in reading as reported by Caramazza et al. (1988) extends from the identification of single morphs to the integration of information across phrases.
Forms, uses and functions of children's favourite objects
Authors: JONSSON CARL‐OTTO , REIMBLADH‐TAUBE GUNNEL , SJÖSWÄRD EVA
Published: May 2008

In this study, the notion of a favourite object is used as a heuristic concept for things that children are occupied with and absorbed by. According to earlier studies, favourite objects can be grouped into four categories: forerunners of transitional objects, primary and secondary transitional objects, and favourite toys. This initial classification was compared to results of cluster analyses of characteristics of favourite objects among 32 preschool and 30 primary school children, corroborating the initial classification and specifying the typology. The distribution of types of objects was different for the two groups of children, but was not dependent on age within groups or, for the preschool children, on mental development. These results indicate that changes of favourite objects with mental maturation are slow.

The softness of the material of primary and secondary transitional objects and the preference for objects that could be kept close to the body suggest that the comforting character of these favourite objects has its root in the child's self‐soothing actions with the object.
Adaptation of the Alcohol Expectancy Questionnaire (AEQ‐A): A short version for use among 13‐year‐olds in Norway
Authors: AAS HENRIK
Published: May 2008

An adaptation of a Norwegian modified short version of Christiansen & Goldman's Alcohol Expectancy Questionnaire for Adolescents (AEQ‐A) was examined in this survey. Subjects were 924 Norwegian seventh graders, with an average age of 13.3 years. From the original 90 items, 27 items representing all seven original scales were used in this study. Factor analysis did not create any preferred new factor solution compared to Christiansen & Goldman's original factors. Internal consistency of the seven AEQ‐A scales ranged from 0.37 to 0.72 on Cronbach's alpha. All seven AEQ‐A scales correlated significantly with self‐reported alcohol use as was expected, and this study also replicated the relative importance of the social enhancement scale. This was the first study using AEQ‐A in a non‐English‐speaking culture. The generalizability of alcohol outcome expectancies was strongly supported.

The present study indicates that the Norwegian version of AEQ‐A possesses a level of concurrent validity and internal reliability that is acceptable compared to the original scales, and can serve as a useful instrument in behavioral research on alcohol use among Norwegian adolescents in the years to come.
Calibration of sensory and cognitive judgments: Two different accounts
Authors: WINMAN ANDERS , JUSLIN PETER
Published: May 2008

The purpose of this study was to test predictions of two recent theories of realism of confidence. Ecological approaches to realism of confidence in one's general knowledge (Gigerenzer et al., 1991; Juslin, in press a; Björkman, in press) predict good calibration or, in the case of poor cognitive adjustment, overconfidence, within the cognitive domain. The subjective distance theory of confidence in sensory discriminations (Björkman et al., 1992) predicts a pervasive underconfidence bias for sensory discriminations. Empirical data are reported showing that: (a) Calibration for sensory judgments is considerably poorer than calibration for well adapted cognitive judgements, a difference that can be entirely traced to underconfidence in the sensory domain. (b) While an initial overconfidence bias in the cognitive domain is removed by outcome feedback, the bias observed in sensory discriminations is unaffected even by a prolonged feedback session. It is suggested that the nature of confidence in sensory discriminations is different from the nature of confidence in cognitive judgments.
Health behavior, knowledge and attitudes among Swedish university students
Authors: NÄSLUND GÖREL K. , FREDRIKSON MATS
Published: May 2008

A range of health behaviors was related to beliefs concerning health practices and health knowledge. A questionnaire dealing with health‐related practices, health beliefs and knowledge of health risk factors was answered by 166 male and 179 female students aged 18–30 years at Stockholm University. Female students reported engaging in better health behavior than males. Beliefs about the importance of health behaviors were closely related to their frequency of occurrence. There was only a weak relationship between health behaviors and knowledge of specific health matters. It is concluded that health attitudes rather than health knowledge determine health behavior.
New morbidity‐problems and peer relations in a sample of Swedish primary school children: A follow‐up from the first to third grade
Authors: RYDELL ANN‐MARGRET
Published: May 2008

The stability in the new morbidity‐problem domains motor skills, reading/writing ability, behavioral–psychological–social function and concentration ability in school, and the stability of peer status and peer preferences as well as relationships between peer status and problems among boys and girls was studied in a sample of 81 Swedish primary school children. The children were rated by teachers and made peer nominations six months after school start, and in the third grade.

There was considerable stability in problems, while the stability in peer status was modest. There were marked gender differences. Boys in contrast to girls improved in motor skills from the first to the third grade, and boys had more concentration problems and multiple problems than girls in both grade 1 and 3. In the first grade, low peer acceptance in boys was accompanied by low motor skill. In the third grade, low peer acceptance in boys was accompanied by deficient concentration ability and externalizing problems. For girls, few relationships between low peer acceptance and problems emerged. Various explanations for these findings are discussed.
The development of risk acceptance and moral valuation
Authors: SJÖBERG LENNART , TORELL GUNILLA
Published: May 2008

The relationship between acceptability of risks and moral valuation of risky activities was investigated in children, 10–16 years old. It was found that all age groups exhibited a strong correlation between the two dimensions of risky activities. Older children were more tolerant of risk taking than younger children. Individual actions were judged in a more lenient manner than collective actions. Girls tended to be more morally condemning towards risk taking, but the youngest girls were not less prone to accept risks than boys. General measures of moral development according to Piaget and Kohlberg were not associated with perceived acceptability of risk or the judged morality of risky activities but relations were found between risk taking and assertiveness and perceived freedom, which were the most important factors in accounting for risk and morality attitudes.
The role of generation in recognition
Authors: GLASS ARNOLD L.
Published: May 2008

In contrast to the widely accepted opinion, a negatively accelerated RT function was obtained with varied mapping of stimuli to responses in Sternberg's (1966) recognition task when the task was designed to reduce proactive inhibition. These results are similar to the results obtained in the distractor task. Those aspects of the distractor task that proactively inhibit recall of the trigram are also necessary to produce a linear RT function in the recognition task. Hence, the varied‐set procedure only results in a linear RT function when the memory sets on successive trials contain similar items, but not when successive trials contain different kinds of items, e.g., digits versus letters. Also, once subjects have been trained on the fixed‐set procedure to produce a negatively accelerated RT function, the training transfers completely and immediately to entirely new sets of targets and distractors. The results of both tasks, as well as other retrieval tasks, can be explained by a model containing a single comparison process and an optional serial generation process which is invoked to increase the discriminability of the memory set from distractors.
Swedish translations of the Suicide Probability Scale, Perceived Social Support from Friends and Family Scales, and the Scale for Interpersonal Behavior: A reliability analysis
Authors: ESKIN MEHMET
Published: May 2008

The Suicide Probability Scale (SPS), the Perceived Social Support (PSS) from Friends (PSS‐Fr) and Family (PSS‐Fa) scales, and the Scale for Interpersonal Behavior (SIB) were translated into Swedish and their reliability was estimated in a university student sample. The reliability coefficients indicated that both subscales and the total scales of the SPS, PSS, and SIB possess highly adequate reliabilities. The intercorrelations among the subscales and between the subscales and the total scales were found to be highly significant. The results of the study supported the use of SPS, PSS‐Fr and PSS‐Fa, and the SIB as reliable methods for assessing suicide risk, perceived social support from friends and family, and assertive behavior.
Defense mechanisms in alcoholics attending outpatient treatment. Results from the MCT‐test (Meta‐Contrast Technique)
Authors: ÖJEHAGEN AGNETA , SMITH GUDMUND J. W.
Published: May 2008

Defensive strategies were studied in 72 alcoholics participating in outpatient treatment by using, before the treatment started, the Meta‐Contrast Technique, MCT, a percept‐genetic method. Alcoholics had less often adaptive strategies than controls. A lack of adaptive defense strategies was related to a more impaired psychic status, more psychological benefits from drinking, and more psychiatric symptoms but not to severity of alcoholism or results of psychometric tests (intellectual level, field‐dependence, spatial performance). It does not seem inconceivable that the MCT could be used as a diagnostic tool in treatment planning.
Effects of thematic and lexical priming on readers' eye movements
Authors: HYÖNÄ JUKKA
Published: May 2008

The study was inspired by Ehrlich & Rayner (1981). In the study semantic context effects were investigated during on‐line discourse processing. Readers' eye movements were registered to see whether words that were semantically closely related to the global theme of the text were read faster than words that did not have any apparent semantic link to the discourse theme. In addition, lexical priming was examined by presenting an identity prime earlier in the text. The results showed that non‐thematic words were regressed to more often than thematic words. Regressions were typically initiated after reaching a clause or sentence boundary. Regressions were thus assumed to be made in order to integrate non‐thematic words into the previous context. Modest negative correlations were found between word's fixation time and its relative predictability. No effects of lexical priming were observed. It was concluded that moderately constraining discourse contexts produce negligible effects on word recognition.
On the relation between demographic variables and neuropsychological test performance
Authors: MORTENSEN ERIK LYKKE , GADE ANDERS
Published: May 2008

This paper reports a study of the relation between demographic variables and neuropsychological test performance in a sample of 141 normal subjects. A preliminary analysis demonstrated the importance of age, educational level, sex, and Verbal IQ for the prediction of neuropsychological test performance. The main study is a detailed analysis of the relation between these four variables and neuropsychological test performance. The results are presented in the form of standardized regression coefficients and are discussed in relation to the problem of predicting expected premorbid performance in neuropsychological tests.
Conditioned nausea after cancer chemotherapy and autonomic nervous system conditionability
Authors: FREDRIKSON MATS , HURSTI TIMO , SALMI PETER , BÖRJESON SUSSANNE , FÜRST CARL‐JOHAN , PETERSON CURT , STEINECK GUNNAR
Published: May 2008

There are marked individual differences in conditioned nausea after cancer chemotherapy. To examine if part of this variation is associated with individual differences in autonomic nervous system conditionability, the present study addressed whether patients with conditioned nausea acquired conditioned heart rate and electrodermal responses at a different rate than patients without conditioned nausea. Of 28 relapse‐free patients who had completed cisplatinum treatment for testicular cancer between 1981 and 1986, 10 reported persistent conditioned nausea, 8 extinguished conditioned nausea and 10 no conditioned nausea. These three groups were subjected to a differential conditioning paradigm with 8 sec pictorial stimuli (circles and triangles) serving as conditioned stimuli for an unconditioned electric shock while heart rate and electrodermal activity was monitored. There were 4 habituation, 8 acquisition and 8 extinction trials with each of the two cues. Analyses of variance using nausea status as the independent variable and physiological responses as the dependent lended some support to the notion that conditioned heart rate deceleration developed in response to the reinforced compared to the nonreinforced cue during acquisition in the two groups with persistent or extinguished conditioned nausea but not in the group with no conditioned nausea. In addition, patients that displayed good, as compared to poor heart rate conditionability during acquisition, were more likely to have persistent conditioned nausea, whereas those who showed poor heart rate conditioning mostly were those without conditioned nausea. Electrodermal variables revealed no systematic differences between groups. This tentatively supports that individual differences in parasympathetic but not sympathetic nervous system conditionability may be associated with individual differences in conditioned nausea resulting from cancer chemotherapy.
Deci and Ryan's cognitive evaluation theory of intrinsic motivation: A set of common sense theorems
Authors: KRISTJÁNSSON MAGNÚS
Published: May 2008

Cognitive evaluation theory as put forward by Deci and Ryan (1985) is examined. The theory, which deals with intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, has inspired considerable amount of empirical research in the last two decades. However, contrary to the mainstream view and that of its authors, it is argued here that the theory consists of necessary truths of common sense (folk) psychology, rather than contingent and empirically testable hypotheses. As such the theory spells out what must necessarily be the case in human motivation and the empirical evidence amassed to test its validity is irrelevant. Such testing should be abandoned if its purpose is to appraise the truth value of the theory's propositions. To empirically test necessary true propositions is not only redundant in such cases, but also a waste of time and resources.
Construct validity of the Swedish Enlistment Battery
Authors: CARLSTED BERIT , MÅRDBERG BERTIL
Published: May 2008

The construct validity of the Swedish Enlistment Battery (SEB) used for classification of conscripts according to intellectual capacity was examined. The covariance matrices of three samples of conscripts (N= 501, 1058 and 1057) were analysed in Study 1, testing the hypothesis of one general factor influencing all the four subtests and one residual factor General visualization (Gv′) influencing two of the subsets. The fit of such a model was good. In Study 2 seven reference tests were added to accomplish better definitions of the factors and also to be able to identify a crystallized intelligence (Gc′) factor. Subjects were 113 national servicemen. A general factor was identified, accounting for the dominating part of the total variance. Two factors orthogonal to the general factor were identified; one crystallized‐verbal (Gc′) and one general visualization (Gv′) factor, both accounting for a significant but low part of the total variance. More tests must be developed and brought into use in the Enlistment Battery in order to add to the variances in the Gv′ and Gc′ factors. This is a prerequisite for high determinacy and high differential predictive validities of the factors.
Non‐empirical and empirical components in the hypotheses of five social psychological experiments
Authors: SMEDSLUND JAN
Published: May 2008

Five studies published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology and selected without advance knowledge of their contents, were analyzed with respect to the epistemic and modal status of their hypotheses. It was found that the general hypotheses were a priori and noncontingent (necessarily true), whereas the local auxiliary hypotheses were empirical and contingent. Hence, the data were only relevant for the latter. It is conjectured that such pseudoempirical studies may abound in contemporary psychology. They remain undiscovered because researchers unreflectively believe that all propositions that can be related to data are empirical and that psychological terms need not be defined. Only when terms are defined and presuppositions (axioms) are stated, can one determine the epistemic and modal status of a given proposition, and, hence, whether or not a study is pseudoempirical.
Syntactic context effects on word recognition: A developmental study
Authors: HYÖNÄ JUKKA , LINDEMAN JOHANNA
Published: May 2008

In the present study, grammatical context effects on word recognition were examined among skilled and less skilled second and sixth grade readers. Of particular interest was how the word decoding ability may correlate with the grammatical context effect. For this purpose the rich case‐marking system of the Finnish language was exploited. Recognition latencies for sentence‐final nouns were measured as a function of their syntactic agreement with the preceding adjective. The naming and lexical decision tasks were used as critical measures.

The study showed a clear syntactic context effect for each of the four experimental groups. The magnitude of the observed syntactic effect was substantially larger compared to earlier results. Furthermore, the effect emerged both in naming and lexical decision. In naming, less skilled 2nd grade decoders were more affected by grammatical incongruency than their more competent peers, whereas in lexical decision the skilled 6th graders differed from other groups by showing a smaller syntactic effect. The results are discussed in the light of Stanovich's interactive‐compensatory model of word recognition.
Assessment of ‘subcortical dementia’ in patients with Huntington's disease, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis and AIDS by a neuropsychological screening battery
Authors: LUNDERVOLD ASTRI J. , KARLSEN NILS R. , REINVANG IVAR
Published: May 2008

Four diagnostic groups categorized as ‘subcortical dementia’ were studied using a neuropsychological screening battery. The specificity of the battery in disclosing characteristic patterns of impairment in subgroups within the category, and the correspondence between natural subgroups generated by an unsupervised statistical classification technique and the diagnostic labels were investigated. All cognitive affected subgroups demonstrated impairment on tests of sensomotor function, congnitive efficiency and/or memory, and were characterized in terms of severity of impairment as well as a progressive involvement of functional areas. The diagnostic groups were not evenly represented in all natural subgroups. Affected AIDS‐patients seemed to resemble patients with Huntington's disease more than the other diagnostic groups. The screening battery could give a general characterization of the pattern of ‘subcortical dementia’ and different levels of impairment, but more specific process‐oriented tasks are needed to contrast diagnostic groups within the concept of ‘subcortical dementia’.
The therapeutic alliance–A conceptual analysis
Authors: HOUGAARD ESBEN
Published: May 2008

The role and function of the therapeutic alliance in psychotherapy has increasingly been the focus of clinicians' and researchers' interests over the last decade. Alliance concepts have, however, been criticized for lack of conceptual clarity. The paper presents a generic model as a heuristic means for clarifying the conceptual meaning of the therapeutic alliance. The model distinguishes between the personal relationship aspect, and the collaborative, task‐related aspect of the alliance, with therapist, patient, and common contributions to each of these aspects. The model is compared to other alliance conceptualizations, and its implications for alliance theory and research are discussed. A content analysis of four widely used alliance scales in relation to the model shows the scales to represent conceptually different, yet overlapping constructs. It is argued that the componential nature of the therapeutic alliance will render difficult any interpretation of findings regarding the relationship between alliance and outcome in traditional process‐outcome research. More complex research strategies guided by theory are called for, if the therapeutic alliance should remain a vital field of research.
Color naming: A mapping in the IMCS of common color terms
Authors: SIVIK LARS , TAFT CHARLES
Published: May 2008

This study can be considered a follow‐up of the investigations of basic color terms by Berlin & Kay and others following their paradigm. It is complementary to these inasmuch as a different method was used for identifying focal areas and boundaries of common color categories, namely semantic differential scales and isosemantic mapping. Further, colors from the entire color space were studied. No comparisons were made between languages, this study being only concerned with the Swedish language. The purpose of this study was to provide a more thorough mapping of the “spread gradients” in various areas of the NCS color space of color categories as represented by the most common color terms.
The relation between sociopolitical cognition and attitude consistency and stability among young people in Sweden: What does the schema concept add?
Authors: ZAKRISSON INGRID
Published: May 2008

Earlier research has suggested cognitive processes to be important in the formation of social attitudes among young people. A question thus raised concerns the nature of these processes. Certain features of sociopolitical sophistication (schema‐wise information processing) can be isolated which have an impact on the way sociopolitical attitudes are expressed. The main purpose of this study was to operationalize these features in sociopolitical sophistication, and study their relations to attitude consistency and stability among young people. The sample consisted of 542 children and adolescents from metropolitan Stockholm. Results from factor analyses revealed (a) two factors in sociopolitical cognition, differentiation and integration, and (b) two factors in sociopolitical attitudes, consistency and stability. Correlation analyses displayed only a few relations, i.e. attitude consistency within the most narrow domains (self‐defined categories) seemed to decrease with increasing integration. In light of these results it is concluded that these young subjects certainly have cognitive structures for sociopolitical issues, although these structures are not necessarily hierarchically organized.
Mueller‐Lyer illusion and size estimation performance in schizophrenics compared to normal controls
Authors: RUND BJØRN RISHOVD , LANDRØ NILS INGE , ORBECK ANNE LILL , NYSVEEN GJERMUND
Published: May 2008

A size estimation (SE) paradigm and the Mueller‐Lyer (ML) illusion were used to examine perceptual disturbances in schizophrenics. 35 reliably diagnosed (DSM III‐R) schizophrenics were compared to 20 subjects with no history of psychiatric illness. Perceptual distortions found in previous studies of schizophrenics were only to a certain extent confirmed in the present results. More overestimators were found among the schizophrenics than among the normals on the SE task. The schizophrenics, first of all the chronic patients, also proved to be more prone to the Mueller‐Lyer illusion. A reason why the very clear differences between schizophrenics and normals found in previous examinations were not confirmed in the present study, might be that a reliable diagnostic instrument was for the first time used in this kind of study.