Backward-masking functions for two schizophrenic groups were compared with the masking functions for two control groups (college students and nonschizophrenic psychiatric patients). Masking functions were obtained for both singleletter and eight-letter visual displays. The procedure involved a forced-choice letter recognition method analogous to signal detection methodology. Both schizophrenic groups produced longer masking functions, under all conditions, than the two control groups whose functions were highly similar. Consistent with "attention" theories of schizophrenia, results indicated that some deficit occurs in schizophrenia at a very early stage of information processing in the visual system.1 This paper is based on a doctoral dissertation by the first author under the direction of the second and third authors. The authors are indebted to the Veteran's Administration Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio, for allowing the use of its patients for subjects.2 Requests for reprints should be sent to Dennis
Two studies were conducted to examine the relationship
of acculturation to neuropsychological test performance
among (1) medically healthy, neurologically normal African
Americans (N = 170); and (2) HIV positive (HIV+)
subgroups of African Americans and Whites (Ns
= 20) matched on age, education, sex, and HIV disease stage.
Acculturation was measured through self report for all
participants, and linguistic behavior (Black English use)
was assessed in a subset of medically healthy individuals
(N = 25). After controlling for the effects of
age, education, and sex, medically healthy African Americans
who reported less acculturation obtained lower scores on
the WAIS–R Information subtest and the Boston Naming
Test than did more acculturated individuals. Black English
use was associated with poor performance on Trails B and
the WAIS–R Information subtest. HIV+ African Americans
scored significantly lower than their HIV+ White counterparts
on the Category Test, Trails B, WAIS–R Block Design
and Vocabulary subtests, and the learning components of
the Story and Figure Memory Tests. However, after accounting
for acculturation, ethnic group differences on all measures
but Story Learning became nonsignificant. These results
suggest that there are cultural differences within ethnic
groups that relate to neuropsychological test performance,
and that accounting for acculturation may improve the diagnostic
accuracy of certain neuropsychological tests. (JINS,
1998, 4, 291–302.)
Mediation of child custody disputes is mandated in several states. Investigators have averred that victims of domestic violence (DV) are greatly disadvantaged in mediation. The present study empirically evaluated outcomes and found that mediators failed to recognize and report DV in 56.9% of the DV cases. The court's screening form failed to indicate DV in at least 14.7% of the violent cases. Mediation resulted in poor outcomes for DV victims in terms of protections, such as supervised visitation and protected child exchanges. Mediator capacity to focus on the child's best interest was called into question. Child custody mediation should not be mandated in cases of DV.
Three groups of hospitalized adolescents (schizophrenics, schizotypal personalities, and borderline personality adolescent adjustment reactions) with 10 subjects in each group were compared for their ability to identify masked and unmasked stimuli. Results revealed that the schizophrenic group required longer minimum exposure durations for criterion identification of unmasked stimuli than the other two groups (p < .01). Under conditions of visual backward masking, however, schizotypal personalities as well as schizophrenics showed a relative deficit. Results supported Heston's notion that schizophrenia spectrum disorders may be different degrees of expression of the same underlying defect. Previous results with visual backward masking in adults were also extended to adolescents. The findings were consistent with a slow information processing hypothesis for schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Theoretical implications of this hypothesis are discussed.
Schizophrenics were compared to schizoaffective, bipolar, and nonpsychotic depressed patients in a visual masking paradigm in which an informational target stimulus was followed at varying intervals by a noninformational masking stimulus. In limiting the availability of the sensory signal provided by the target stimulus, the mask was used to probe how information from the environment enters and is processed by the central nervous system. The use of the masking paradigm was originally based on the hypothesis that thought disorder is a result of a more primary dysfunction in the processes that precede and result in thought. Results confirmed previous findings of a performance deficit in the schizophrenics when compared to nonpsychotic controls. Schizoaffective and bipolar patients also showed evidence of impaired processing, however. Results were interpreted in terms of a trait/state formulation in which impaired information processing is seen as a fundamental trait of schizophrenia spectrum disorders and as a state that can covary with psychotic illness in general. A unifying concept centers on the effects of psychopathological conditions on an individual's processing resources that results in either underprovision or overprovision of information from sensory input to complex cognitive operations dependent on the cerebral cortex. Findings from a variety of paradigms are consistent with those of the masking paradigm in revealing that the processing deficits of schizophrenics are time dependent and occur in the 500 ms following stimulus input.
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