Word-type effects in word-stem priming: evidence for semantic processing in the perceptual representation system?

While a presemantic Perceptual Representation System is believed to mediate implicit memory tasks such as word-stem priming, clinical studies suggest semantic information can be processed during priming. To clarify the nature of this system, we investigated word-type effects in word-stem priming in a nonclinical sample of 41 undergraduates who rated the pleasantness of threatening and nonthreatening words, performed implicit and explicit memory tasks, and completed measures of mood state. More nonthreatening words were primed and scores on the Beck Depression Inventory were negatively correlated with production of nonthreatening words. During cued recall, more threatening than nonthreatening words were remembered and ratings of state anxiety were negatively correlated with recall of nonthreatening words. Our findings support the contention that semantic information is processed during priming and that mood congruent biases also operate. These results may call for a reconceptualization of the Perceptual Representation System.

Word stem priming in unilateral stroke patients: word type and laterality effects.

We explored word type and lesion laterality effects in visual word stem completion priming. Participants were 24 stroke patients (12 left, 12 right) and 11 non-brain damaged, medical controls. Participants studied 32 threatening and 32 nonthreatening words and completed cued recall and word stem priming tasks (Mathews, Mogg, May, & Eysenck, 1989). Stroke groups had lower cued recall than controls and the right hemisphere damaged group was lower in cued recall than the left. Word type did not affect cued recall. Groups were comparable in word stem priming, and there was a word type effect such that more nonthreatening than threatening words were produced. No laterality effects were found in word stem priming. Implications for models of how words are processed during word stem priming are discussed.

Locus of control and self-esteem in depressed, low-income African-American women.

Depressed, schizophrenic, and well low-income, African-American women were studied in an effort to extend previous hypotheses of the association between depression and the two personality constructs of low self-esteem and externality to this population. Subjects were 113 low income African-American women including 26 who had been diagnosed as depressed, 54 diagnosed as schizophrenic, and 33 well women. Locus of control was measured with the Adult Nowicki-Strickland Internal-External Control Scale (Nowicki & Duke, 1974). Self-esteem was measured with the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965). Contrary to predictions, a diagnosis of schizophrenia, but not depression, was associated with more external locus of control. For self-esteem, severity of disturbance, rather than diagnosis, seemed to be of primary importance. Also, lower self-esteem scores were correlated significantly with higher levels of externality for both depressed and schizophrenic women but not for well controls. The present study indicates that self-esteem and locus of control are related to depression differently in low socio-economic status (SES) African-American women than in previously studied middle SES depressed whites. The findings emphasize the need for more normative studies to clarify the complex relations among SES, race, emotional disturbance, self-esteem, and locus of control.

Assessing levels of adaptive functioning: the Role Functioning Scale.

This paper reports data on reliability and validity of the Role Functioning Scale (RFS) a measure of level of functioning of adults in four domains. Psychometric properties were tested on an inner city sample of 112 psychiatrically disturbed and well, predominantly African-American, low-income mothers of young children. The RFS has good interitem, test-retest, and interrater reliability. The four scales and global RFS Index discriminated accurately between well and disturbed subjects. The Global RFS Index was significantly correlated with self-esteem and degree of disturbance. Individual scales demonstrated predicted relationships with quality of child-rearing and other independent behavioral indices. Results are discussed in terms of the unique information provided by the RFS and its potential contribution to treatment planning.

Self and observer predictions of memory performance in a brain-damaged sample.

The present study examined the ability of 23 brain-damaged patients and outside observers (i.e., close friends or relatives) to predict the patients' performance on standard clinical tests of memory. Several tests of verbal and nonverbal memory were specifically described in a questionnaire and subjects were asked to estimate upcoming performance. Individual subject factors were correlated with overall prediction accuracy and specific predictions were correlated with memory performance across each test. Individual differences, including memory ability, did not significantly influence the findings consistent with the view that memory and metamemory reflect independent variables. Although correlations obtained from the outside observers overall were higher and more often statistically significant, both patients and observers often made comparable predictions of the patients' task performance suggesting brain-damaged patients have some ability to make accurate self-assessments.

Discrimination of facial expressions of emotion by depressed subjects.

A frequent complaint of depressed people concerns their poor interpersonal relationships. Yet, although nonverbal cues are considered of primary importance in interpersonal communication, the major theories of depression focus little attention on nonverbal social perception. The present study investigated the ability of depressed, disturbed control, and normal American adults to make rapid discriminations of facial emotion. We predicted and found that depressed subjects were slower than normal subjects in facial emotion discrimination but were not slower in word category discrimination. These findings suggest that current theories of depression may need to address difficulties with nonverbal information processing. There were also no significant differences between depressed and disturbed control subjects, suggesting that the unique social-behavioral consequences of depression have yet to be identified.