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PubMed1995

Interpersonal problem solving and information processing in schizophrenia.

Cognitive models of interpersonal problem solving have been proposed for, but infrequently tested on, samples of schizophrenia subjects. This study undertook to examine the relationships between the receiving, processing, and sending skills that comprise one model of interpersonal problem solving with information processing and social cue perception. Twenty-six patients with a DSM-III-R diagnosis of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder completed measures of interpersonal problem solving, social cue perception, visual vigilance, verbal memory, conceptual flexibility, and psychiatric symptoms. Significant and robust relationships were found between sensitivity to social cues and receiving, processing, and sending skills. Only recognition and recall memory, of the various other information-processing measures, were found to be related to any of the three problem-solving skills. Associations between problem solving and cognitive deficits did not seem to be attributable to psychiatric symptoms. Implications of these findings for understanding and remediating the problem-solving deficits of schizophrenia patients are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Attentional deficits in head-injured children: an information processing analysis.

Attentional problems of closed head-injured (CHI) children were examined using an information processing (IP) approach. Based on Sternberg's (1969) additive factor method (AFM), the study examined attentional processes in terms of four stages and their corresponding task variables. A visual-spatial choice reaction-time task was undertaken with two groups of CHI children (severe and mild to moderate) and corresponding matched control groups. Results indicated that for this task both the CHI and the normal children exhibited a similar mode of linear, sequential information processing. It was found that the severe group was impaired not only in terms of slowed motor execution but also in terms of response selection. This group showed no impairment on the feature extraction, stimulus identification, and motor adjustment stages of processing. No evidence of impairment on any of the stages was found for the mild group. The utility of the AFM and implications of these findings are discussed with reference to CHI children and to neuropsychological assessment and rehabilitation.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1976

Information processing of visually presented picture and word stimuli by young hearing-impaired and normal-hearing children.

Eleven hearing-impaired children and 11 normal-hearing children (mean = four years 11 months) were visually presented familiar items in either picture or word form. Subjects were asked to recognize the stimuli they had seen from cue cards consisting of pictures or words. They were then asked to recall the sequence of stimuli by arranging the cue cards selected. The hearing-impaired group and normal-hearing subjects performed differently with the picture/picture (P/P) and word/word (W/W) modes in the recognition phase. The hearing impaired performed equally well with both modes (P/P and W/W), while the normal hearing did significantly better on the P/P mode. Furthermore, the normal-hearing group showed no difference in processing like modes (P/P and W/W) when compared to unlike modes (W/P and P/W). In contrast, the hearing-impaired subjects did better on like modes. The results were interpreted, in part, as supporting the position that young normal-hearing children dual code their visual information better than hearing-impaired children.

Child↗
PubMed2006

Higher cortical deficits influence attentional processing in dementia with Lewy bodies, relative to patients with dementia of the Alzheimer's type and controls.

BACKGROUND: Attentional dysfunction is believed to be a prominent and distinguishing neuropsychological feature of dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB); yet, the specific nature of the attentional deficit and factors that can potentially influence attentional processing in DLB have not been fully defined. AIMS: To clarify the nature of the attentional deficit in early-stage DLB relative to patients with early-stage dementia of the Alzheimer's type (DAT) and elderly controls, and examine the effect of task complexity and type of cognitive load on attentional processing in DLB. METHODS: Attentional impairment and fluctuating attention were investigated in three groups of subjects--patients with clinical features of early probable DLB (n = 20), a group with early probable DAT (n = 19) and healthy elderly controls (n = 20)--using an experimental computerised reaction time paradigm. RESULTS: Patients with DLB showed greater attentional impairment and fluctuations in attention relative to patients with DAT and elderly controls. The attentional deficit was generalised in nature but increased in magnitude as greater demands were placed on attentional selectivity. Attentional deficits in DLB were most pronounced under task conditions that required more active recruitment of executive control and visuospatial cognitive processes. CONCLUSIONS: Attentional deficits in DLB are widespread and encompass all aspects of attentional function. Deficits in higher cortical function influence the degree of attentional impairment and fluctuating attention, suggesting that attentional processing in DLB is mediated by interacting cortical and subcortical mechanisms. These findings serve to clarify the nature of the attentional deficit in DLB and have potentially important ramifications for our understanding of the neurocognitive underpinnings of fluctuations.

Aged↗
PubMed1976

How did you guess? Or, what do multiple-choice questions measure?

Multiple-choice questions classified as requiring problem-solving skills have been interpreted as measuring problem-solving skills within students, with the implicit hypothesis that questions needing an increasingly complex intellectual process should present increasing difficulty to the student. This hypothesis was tested in a 150-question paper taken by 721 students in seven Australian medical schools. No correlation was observed between difficulty and assigned process. Consequently, the question-answering process was explored with a group of final-year students. Anecdotal recall by students gave heavy weight to knowledge rather than problem solving in answering these questions. Assignment of the 150 questions to the classification by three teachers and six students showed their congruence to be a little above random probability.

Attitude↗
PubMed1994

Effects of level of processing on implicit and explicit tasks.

The series of experiments presented in this article replicate the interaction that B. H. Challis and D. R. Brodbeck (1992) reported between list design (blocked or mixed) and level of processing for word fragment completion: The advantage for semantically processed words over shallowly processed words was greater when the conditions were blocked than when they were mixed on the study list. A similar interaction was found for perceptual identification (a data-driven implicit task) and priming in general knowledge questions (a conceptually driven implicit task). However, both data-driven and conceptually driven explicit tasks failed to reveal such a pattern.

Humans↗
PubMed2002

Processing emotional information in Alzheimer's disease: effects on memory performance and neurophysiological correlates.

BACKGROUND: There is some impairment of the ability of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) to perceive emotions, but this ability seems relatively preserved compared to the impairment of other cognitive domains. Few studies have focused on the link between emotional processing and other cognitive functions, such as memory or attention. OBJECTIVE: This study was designed to investigate whether the emotional content of a text can influence memory in patients affected by AD and whether this effect is related to attentional processes as measured by event-related potentials (ERP). METHODS: All subjects were administered neuropsychological tests and a logical memory test including emotional and nonemotional material. ERP were recorded during an attention task. RESULTS: AD patients had better immediate recall of sad and, to a lesser extent, happy stories than of neutral stories. This difference also affected multiple choice recognition and identification (immediate and delayed) of emotional content. The amplitude of both P300 and mismatch negativity was significantly decreased in the group as a whole. There was no correlation between P300 parameters and performance on the memory tasks, whatever their emotional content. CONCLUSIONS: The results show relatively preserved emotional processing in patients with AD and suggest that the emotional content of a context can influence memory performance. We found no evidence that this effect is mediated by attention as measured by ERP.

Aged↗
PubMed1994

[Effects of probabilistic judgments on negative moods].

Theory and research on the effects of mood on cognition have shown that persons in a negative mood tend toward analytic effortful processing strategies, whereas individuals in a positive mood prefer simplifying heuristic strategies. A review of the literature shows that (a) mainly the influence of mood on cognition and social behavior (e.g., persuasion) has been investigated; and (b) achievements in memory and cognitive tasks were of central concern (Abele, 1991; Schwarz, Bless & Bohner, 1991). With this background, and based on propositional network models of human information processing, the present study investigates influences in the opposite direction, i.e., the effect of cognitive style on feeling states. The compatibility thesis (Otto & Schmitz, 1993), which postulates that an interaction of feeling state and information processing style is necessary for the continuation of a mood state, is generalized to negative feeling states (anxiety) and analytic information processing style (probabilistic judgments). Equivalent emotional states and cognitive productions have to go together to sustain the mood states. In a 2 x 2 x 4 mixed design, 76 male and female students from introductory classes in psychology served as subjects. Using a 15-minute mood induction procedure (autobiographical recollection methodology), a negative, anxiety-prone, or neutral feeling state was elicited in half of the participants. During the next 10 minutes half of each group worked on a list of future life events (Weinstein, 1980), either with the instruction to rate the chances of the items (probabilistic judgments) or with the instruction to rate the items' general applicability (control condition). Repeated sampling of a measurement repetition factor served as a baseline assessment and as a manipulation check, along with measurements of the feeling states while completing the task. The feeling states were assessed by means of a multifactor instrument (Eigenschaftswörterliste; Janke & Debus, 1978). The results support the generalization of the compatibility thesis to negative feeling states (anxiety). Only the group in which a negative feeling state and a probabilistic processing style interacted reported a negative mood and anxious state throughout the task completion. Neither the induced negative (anxious) mood nor the probabilistic judgments alone could sustain a negative feeling state. Moods seem to be best conceivable as a combination of genuine emotional elements (feeling states) and cognitive elements (probabilistic judgments in the case of anxiety).

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Stress and blood circulation in man].

This paper presents the results of studying stress effects on the heart, systemic circulation and cerebral circulation by various methods (ECG, Doppler technique, isotopes, etc). Patterns of circulation changes in response to mental stresses have been identified and variations in circulation regulation as a function of stress enhancement have been revealed. Cerebral circulation changes produced by heavy mental work under stressful conditions are described (increase of blood flow velocity in carotid arteries and of tone of cerebral arteries of large and medium caliber, change in reactivity of anastomoses between branches of the internal and external carotid arteries, patterns of increase and decrease of blood flow in the gray matter of the brain cortex). During prolonged bed rest the type of stressor changes in blood circulation becomes modified and susceptibility to hypertensive states developed. In the course of stressor reactions circulation parameters vary substantially. In this situation changes in systemic circulation are closely related to emotional responses and those in cerebral circulation--to adaptive processes supporting mental activities.

Blood Circulation↗
PubMed1996

Organization of information in memory and the performance appraisal process: evidence from the field.

No studies dealing with cognitive processes in performance appraisal have been conducted in field settings, raising questions about the usefulness of this research for practice. The field experiments described here, conducted in 2 organizations, were designed to evaluate interventions that laboratory research has suggested enable raters to better organize performance information in memory: structured diary keeping and structured recall. After these interventions, raters had more positive reactions to the appraisal process, were better able to recall performance information, and produced ratings that were less elevated and better able to discriminate between and within rates. The implications of these results for practice and for cognitive research in performance appraisal are discussed, along with the limitations of these studies and the problems with criteria for evaluating ratings in the field.

Adult↗
PubMed2000

The effects of retention intervals on self- and proxy reports of purchases.

Two studies explored underlying differences between self- and proxy reports and determining whether proxy reporters process and retrieve information the same way self-reporters do. In both studies, participants recorded their own and a target person's incidental purchases for two weeks and then returned, either immediately or one-week after the diary-keeping period, for two recall tests. These tests pertained to self- and proxy purchases. The reported items were scored against the recorded ones. In Study 1, the data indicate that proxies tend to recall more typical events than do self-reporters immediately following the diary-keeping period. However, after a delay of one week, both proxy and self-reporters tended to report typical items. These findings suggest that, at least initially, self- and proxy reporters process the information differently but that after one week they process it similarly. Study 2 employed a method that was identical to that of Study 1 except that participants were given a recognition test. The verbal protocols from the recognition test indicate that participants used different strategies to determine who made the purchase. Whereas participants focused on perceptual details surrounding the event when identifying their own purchases, proxies engaged in various strategies to identify their spouses' purchases.

Adult↗
PubMed2001

Semantic processing of open- and closed-class words: an event-related potentials study.

Previous research on open- and closed-class words has revealed the existence of several differences in the processing of these types of vocabulary. In this paper the processing of open- and closed-class words was compared by means of an early electrical brain response, recognition potential (RP), which indexes semantic processing and originates from basal extrastriate areas. The effects of word frequency on closed-class words were also investigated. For these purposes, open- and closed-class words, among other stimuli, were presented by means of the rapid stream stimulation procedure. Results showed that there were no significant differences when comparing the RP evoked by open- and closed-class words in the left hemisphere. However, in the right hemisphere this situation changed: the RP evoked by open- and closed-class words did differ. Moreover, there were no differences between the RP evoked by closed-class words and pseudowords. These patterns of results suggest that the semantic processing of closed-class words shares some aspects with the processing of open-class words, despite the existence of some differences. Thus, whereas the semantic processing of open-class words recruits brain areas of both hemispheres, the semantic processing of closed-class words is left-lateralized. A second purpose of this work is to study word-frequency effects on closed-class words. Our results show the insensitivity of closed-class words to word-frequency effects.

Adult↗
PubMed1993

[Changes in positive mood states by analytic and creative information processing].

Reviews concerning research on the influence of mood on behavior show (a) that mainly the influence of mood on behavior was investigated and (b) that achievements in memory and cognitive tasks were of central concern (Fiedler, 1988; Isen, 1987). Social behavior was analyzed as a function of these factors. Recent reviews restrict themselves to positive feeling states. Summarizing, Fiedler (1988) describes the information processing style in positive feeling states as "loosening" to capture its qualitative aspects. This study investigates the opposite direction of influence, i.e. the effect of cognitive style on positive feeling states. This study restricts itself to positive feeling states. The compatibility thesis which postulates a necessary interaction of feeling state and information processing style is tested. Equivalent states and productions have to go together to generate the mood effects. In a 2 x 2 x 5 mixed design 70 female students (non-psychologists) served as subjects. Using a 20-minute mood induction procedure (autobiographical recollection methodology) a positive or neutral feeling state was elicited in half of the participants. During the next 10 minutes half of each group worked either on a verbal creativity test (Schoppe, 1975) or on an intelligence test (Amthauer, 1973) to establish an creative or analytic style of information processing. Repeated sampling of a measurement repetition factor served as baseline assessments, manipulation checks, and measurements of the feeling states during the task completion of the creativity or intelligence test. The feeling states were assessed by means of a short version (BSK-1982) of the "Eigenschaftswörterliste" (Janke & Debus, 1978). The results confirm the compatibility thesis. Only the group in which a positive feeling state and a creative processing style interact reported a positive mood throughout the task completion. Unexpectedly, a slight deterioration of mood was found in the group with a neutral feeling state and analytic reasoning, suggesting that the neutral mood induction might in fact, elicit a mild negative feeling state and that the compatibility thesis might, also be applicable to the field of negative emotions.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

[Cognitive and emotional feeling states and controllability: effects on judgment contents and processing style].

Reviews summarizing experiments on the interaction of emotional and cognitive processes generally conclude that moods or feelings influence memory, decision-making, and learning processes. The congruency effects observed concern the content or quality of cognition involved as well as the style of information processing. This experiment aimed to further differentiate the conditions of the congruency effects. Therefore, with a 3-factorial design, the influence of (1) positive and negative feelings, (2) a detached and vivid mode of experiencing, and (3) cognitive control on two aspects of probability estimates concerning future events were investigated. 194 female and male subjects (M = 22.58, SD = 4.85 years of age) participated. The feeling states were induced by an autobiographical recollection procedure, and the modality and control conditions were manipulated by means of instructions. 3-way interactions for the content and style of judgments as dependent variables support the expected mood-congruency effects. Three factors quality these effects. First, the mood-congruity effect as described in the literature can be interpreted as being composed of two different parts, a strong emotional and a weak cognitive mood-congruency effect, the latter being an artifact, if real emotion-cognition relationships are concerned. Second, the influence of feelings on information processing style can only be replicated under conditions of "hot" cognition, and so is a truly emotional phenomenon. Third, the interactions of mood, control, and modality point towards different control strategies being implicit in various feeling states. Positive mood is ruled by "compensation" control, whereas negative mood states are governed by "congruency" control if future life events are evaluated.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2002

Naive causal understanding of valenced behaviors and its implications for social information processing.

People bring to bear on their understanding of others' behaviors naive theories of the causes of valenced behaviors. Generally, positive behaviors are understood to be caused by social demands, whereas negative behaviors are understood to be caused by people's dispositions. Various research findings are reviewed in support of the idea that people possess such naive theories. The analysis is extended to establish how these sense-making tendencies affect the manner in which people approach and process information about others. A second set of studies is reviewed in support of these implications for person perception. Comparisons to other models of social inference are considered, implications of the frame-work are examined, and the framework is situated within a general model of the attribution process.

Behavior↗
PubMed1995

Social information processing by aggressive and nonaggressive men with mental retardation.

The social information-processing skills of 16 aggressive and 19 nonaggressive men with borderline to moderate mental retardation were examined in light of some of the steps described in Dodge's social information-processing model (Dodge, Pettit, McClaskey, & Brown, 1986). Contrary to expectations based on Dodge et al.'s findings with children who did not have mental retardation, aggressive and nonaggressive groups did not differ in their ability to generate multiple solutions or in their ability to provide appropriate responses. Similar to Dodge et al.'s findings, however, subjects in the aggressive group generated significantly more aggressive solutions and tended more often to give an aggressive response first than did the nonaggressive subjects. Preliminary implication for treatment were offered.

Aggression↗
PubMed1994

Salience, set size, and illusory correlation: making moderate assumptions about extreme targets.

Salient persons and objects are often evaluated more extremely than other targets. Our study integrated research on illusory correlation, set size, and salience and explored when and why these salience effects occur. The results indicate that the tendency to evaluate salient targets more extremely is attenuated when the number of targets present in the judgmental context is low or when considerable time is available to process the relevant evidence. These illusory correlations are also less likely to form when the descriptions of the targets are moderate as opposed to extreme. The findings reveal that people tend to learn much about salient targets, but they are often left to making assumptions about nonsalient targets. An illusory correlation often forms because the salient target is recognized to have extreme qualities, whereas nonsalient targets are erroneously assumed to have more moderate qualities.

Attention↗
PubMed1993

The psychological unconscious and the self.

Documentation of implicit expressions of memory in head-injured, mentally ill and normal individuals has offered a new perspective on the problem of unconscious influence on conscious experience, thought and action. The phenomenon of implicit memory is described and used as a basis to develop an analogous concept of implicit perception. In both cases the person shows the effects of current or past events, even though these events are not accessible to phenomenal awareness. There is collateral evidence for the emotional unconscious: emotional states can serve as evidence of implicit perception or memory, and there is evidence of desynchrony between the subjective experience of emotion, which can be identified with consciousness, and the effects of emotional responses on physiology and overt behaviour. Theoretical approaches to the psychological unconscious include a connectionist approach, which affords a limited role for conscious processing in mental life; a neuropsychological approach, involving the disconnection of a module serving consciousness from the rest of the cognitive system; and a psychological approach, which emphasizes the central role in conscious awareness of mental representations of the self as the agent or experiencer of events.

Cognition↗