Jacinthe J Baribeau-Braun

Historique des divers systemes de classification des sciences du 17eme siecle a nos jours, l'accent etant mis sur le probleme du statut scientifique de la psychologie, et presentation d'un resume critique du systeme circulaire de classification des sciences propose par Piaget ainsi que du systeme triangulaire de Kedrov

Postmortem histology, brain imaging, and four previously published case reports based on untimed behavioral tests suggest the possibility of frequent callosal disconnection following closed head injury (CHI). No group study has evaluated the frequency of occurrence of this syndrome in CHI using untimed behavioral measures of interhemispheric transfer. The present study consisted of an evaluation of interhemispheric transfer in 43

This article analyzes the epistemological and logical foundations of Kohlberg’s cognitive-developmental theory of moral development. Kohlberg’s understanding of dialectics is criticized and an attempt is made to introduce a dialectical materialist outlook on moral development. Philosophical tendencies in the cognitive-developmental theory of moral development such as apriorism, absolutism and formalism are unfavorably contrasted with the dialectical categories of historicism, double interactionism and reflection. In logic and epistemology the cognitive-developmental theory is shown to be based on a subjective idealist orientation.Copyright © 1978 S. Karger AG, Basel

ALARGE NUMBER of neuropsychological deficits have been reported to be associated with alcoholism. Most of the data is indicative of slightly more right hemisphere dysfunction than left. Nonverbal deficits are reported to be more frequently reversible following abstinence in alcoholics than verbal ones.Electroencephalographic studies converge in implicating the right hemisphere more than the left in brain electrical abnormalities in alcoholics. Few of the above reported studies however included considerations of the possible partial hereditary determination of the deficits observed. There is mounting evidence of strain differences in animal responses to alcohol. Electroencephalographic studies of young people at high familial risk for alcoholism have demonstrated abnormalities, primarily of the right hemisphere. Neuropsychological, biochemical, genetic, and various clinical methods have also yielded evidence of at least occasional and partial hereditary determination in alcoholism. Several of such studies reported more right than left cerebral abnormality. A limitation of the above studies was that the criterion for establishing familial risk for alcoholism usually consisted of determining the existence of one alcoholic biological parent. In the present study, an attempt was made to investigate individuals at very high familial risk for alcoholism. None of the studies reviewed included anevaluation of the interactions between familial risk, gender, and the experimentally manipulated consumption of alcohol in the determination of abnormal perceptual and cognitive performance.

Although several affective impairments have been demonstrated to occur following closed-head injury (CHI), deficits of the communicative function of language, particularly sentenial and suprasentential pragmatic aspects, have been suggested, but not demonstrated, to occur. This study compared 31 normals and 31 severely closed-head injured patients matched for age, sex and education. The dependent measures consisted of a facial test of emotion (FTE) and a contextual test of emotion (CTE). The former task consisted of 36 slides representing facial expressions of the six emotions demonstrated by Ekman and colleagues to be transcultural, namely, job, sadness, fear, anger, surprise and disgust. The subject was required to name the appropriate emotion for each slide. The latter task consisted of correctly identifying the appropriate emotion for each of 36 brief verbal narratives representing contexts connotative of the same six transcultural emotions. The CHI patients were impaired overall on the FTE but not the CTE. However, the ability to identify anger was significantly impaired on both tasks when considered in isolation from the other emotions. It was concluded that a processing deficit of primary emotional material, particularly anger, does exist following CHI, but that this deficit is not necessarily independent of task and/or modality parameters. It was also concluded that evidence of a pragmatic deficit of the language function following CHI remains to be provided at this time.

A large number of different components of the auditory evoked potential can be recorded from the human scalp using averaging techniques. It is now possible to evaluate with such evoked potential measurements the functioning of the entire human auditory system from the hair cell receptors to the association areas of cortex. This multiplicity of evoked potential components is important clinically since any one component measurement may be the most appropriate for a certain subject at a certain time, and also because the replication of objective audiological findings using more than one testing method allows greater confidence in the results. As well as providing an accurate means of determining the extent of a hearing loss, evoked potential studies can also provide information concerning the type and location of such a defect.

This study assessed the personality variables of introversion/extraversion (Eysenck, 1968) state anxiety and attentional set in relation to the augmenting/reducing effect of the auditory event-related potentials (ERP) in ten normal and ten schizophrenic subjects. The two groups were matched for sex, age (30 ) , education (13 years) , excluding hearing deficits, neurological disorders and drug abuse. The experiment manipulated stimulus intensities (35, 40, 45, 50, and 55 dB SL) , stimulus channels (ears) , and selective attention sets (focussed attention, inattention) in a binaural li stening task with randomized sequences of standard (p =.8) and target tones (p =.2). Augmenting and reducing on Nl00-N200 in relation to attention states appeared c learly in the results obtained with normal controls. Augmenting intensities significantly affected latencies of components in normal subjects. The attentional dysfunction o bserved in schizophrenicsis discussed in relation to the absence of augmenting effects on ERP amplitudes, to anxiety states and other individual differences.

Recent neurophysiological findings indicated that abstinent and non-abstinent chronic alcoholics (Begleiter 1979; Kissin and Begleiter 1983) and young biological sons of alcoholic fathers (Begleiter et a!. 1984) not exposed to alcohol share similar abnor­ malities of the P300 component of the visual event-related potentials (ERPs). Although the neurophysiological abnormalities observed in chronic alcoholics are presumed to be alcohol-related effects, it was suggested that some of these deficits perhaps anteced­ ed the onset of alcohol abuse. Sons of alcoholic fathers are empirically at high risk for alcoholism (Goodwin 1981) even when they are separated from their biological parents soon after birth (Cadoret and Garth 1978). However, P300 abnormalities characterize also many types of psychiatric and personality disorders and are associated with anxie­ ty and attentional disturbances (for reviews, Begleiter 1979; Baribeau 1986). Such in­ fluences probably interact with the genetic mechanisms and with pattern of drinking behavior to predispose individuals towards alcoholism. The present study attempted to assess the effects of 'family history' (defined as the frequency of first-and second­ degree alcoholic relatives) and 'drinking behavior' respectively by comparing high-risk (HR) and low-risk (LR) males subcategorized into 'light' and 'social' drinkers.

A large number of different components of the auditory evoked potential can be recorded from the human scalp using averaging techniques. It is now possible to evaluate with such evoked potential measurements the functioning of the entire human auditory system from the hair cell receptors to the association areas of cortex. This multiplicity of evoked potential components is important clinically since any one component measurement may be the most appropriate for a certain subject at a certain time, and also because the replication of objective audiological findings using more than one testing method allows greater confidence in the results. As well as providing an accurate means of determining the extent of a hearing loss, evoked potential studies can also provide information concerning the type and location of such a defect.

Clinical, demographic and psychosocial items of information were gathered on two samples of 41 single admission cases and 42 readmissions among a population of psychogeriatric patients. Discrominant function analysis indicated that different variables are predictive of readmission for females and males. A discriminant classification procedure demonstrated that contact with family, age and level of education are significant predictors of readmission (93% classification success) for males in the sample, while different factors, community involvement, type of treatment and follow-up, do not attain significance for women.

Coprrighr e l98l b\ TIe Sùrt't\ fl)r P\\ch()ph\ §L)lo{ical R.'scar §h. Inc Neuroanatolllical and Phy sioltlgical Foundatious of E xtraversion \i.1. ls. \o..1 PflnlcJrilL SA Kes:rErH Il. CrNtPseLL. Pst.cltophysiolggr,-§t,r'rlol. .l,lRC ,lppliett Pslc/rolorlL'rtit. Cunùrid3,e. Ettglartd J rcts rsr B.rRt sr r L-BR, U. ^. î1:rll;:,,i;::), ABSTRACT Two auditory bqainstem evgked potential stu$ies were carried out to investigate the roie of sensory-influences, independent offactors such as atténtion and arousal, in groups varying in extraversion. Iç the first experiment, the iate of stimulus presentation was either 11, 41 or 81 clickÿsec, stimulus intensity being held constant at 70dB above the threshold of a normal young adult sample. Neither the latency nor the amplitude of any of the brainstem components significantly differed among lhe introverted, ambiverted or extraverted groups for any rate of presentation. In the second experiment, repetition rate was either 41 or 8l clicks/sec and intensiÿ established at 20, 30, 50 and 70 dB. Peak V showed a highly consistent and significant increase in 1atency and decrease in amplitude with decreasing intensity. Again, however, no inter-group differences were found. The results suggest that Nl-P2 effects that have been found at higher levels of the brain are probably not due to parallel changes in the periphery or the brainstem. The possibiliÿ that non-sensorv factors , such as attenüon and motivation, might have accounted for these cortical differences is also discussed'

Auditory event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded in a binaural listening task to assess selective attention before and after intensive cognitive rehabilitation (6 months) in 20 male patiens with severe traumatic closed head injuries. They were compared to 1.0 normal male controls and to 20 male head-injured patients who were selected from the same outpatient clinic and who did not receive the cognitive rehabiütation treatment. The three samples were group-matched for age (M = 30, range 1842)-ard education (M = 11 yearl, range 9-15). Subjects with hearing deficits and dnrg and alcohol abuse were excluded. The two patients' groups were comparable in terms of qrnptoms and neuropsychotogical battery results (reported in Braun et al., 1988). gOVo of the members of each of the three groups were right-handers with left cerebral dominance. The cognitive rehabiiitation programme consisted of two sessions of two hours of cognitive rehabilitation weekly in counterbalauced practice schedules for a period of six months using Bracey's standard video exercises (Bracey, 1983). They were designed to train attention in auditory, visuospatial, short-term memory and problem-solving tasks. The simple exercises involved basic stimulus-response reactions. The compiex ones involved choice RT tasks and non-speeded exercises with measured completion time. For a more detailed description of exercises, of '

J/ü TENNET VI 6. lvten performed the Kimura-typ€ sequencing task faster than women. This seems to contradict earlier reports by Kimura's laboratory in which women were reponed to be faster than mcn. Two cornmens seem appropriate. First. our task involved larger manipuianda and distance. which might tïvor suength. Second. more recent repons from Kjmura's lab no longerrepon female superiority. F(1,75) = 14.5,p < .0OOl, Effect size .16, Power (.05) .96+. Discussion. The most important results are those involving the O'Connors task. Both finger use and rweezer use requirc fine dexteriry but when the tweezlrs are used. finger size is no longer a facror. The fact that women performed bener than men when pcrforming üe rask with the fingen but no bener than men when penorming the task *'ith rhe r'à/eezers suggests that sex differences on the h:rdue and others nslq can be amibuted to crivial periphcrai factors and not some inherent suocrioriry of women in ftne motor tasks. This is further confirmed by rhe lack of scx differences on the Notched Peg Task whjch requires fine positioning movements. but which has pegs Iarge enough ro be grasprd by larger 6ngers-The finger rapping task mighr involve a strength element (aithough wirhin scxcs rhere is no correlation between strength of hand and speed of tapping). Finally, rhe resulrs on the Kimura-ryp*e sequencing task confirm eerlier findings in our laboratory and, togeüer with the more recent findings from Kimura's laboratory indicated that statements about female superioriry on simple repedtive sequencing tasks are not justified. There are some imponant implicetions of rhese indings. Some of the performance changes reconed bv r number of researchers during different stages of the femaie reproductive cycie gain strengrh beceuse of e double dissociation bctween fr.ne motor and sparial tasks. The former are said to be done bener during sases with high tèrnaie hormones ("tasks thvoring fen:aies") while the laner are said to be perbrmed bener during stages when females hormones are low ("usks favoring maies"). Flowever. the doubie dissociation along these lines fails apan wheu the tasks , said to be favoring females, during high esrogen phases do not. in ury meamngful sense. favor femaies. F-3. Musicai Experience and Auditorv P300 in a Dividec Attenrion îask),p,. J.eclsrxE B ^erae.nçT B ran y B eave-^r. .{.\DRE w Àixrrr. eNo Rogerr !t. Roru *),«,-,'' üitttruton'oy !{wnun lteurolnrstulot|',ud Leun4ts:r't'àrtirryy. Corttttrtiiu (Jnnerstry Recent inlestt!::.rtlon:i :ta\e demonsrr.:terl trgniri=fit Jitfe:encc: rn P-:IXJ :moii-Tf ,' ï î :i I ï' : fi *1, i i i"ï liï" ;îft 11.î i,, Ï;, :iîiï: I ,.l' :::

Schizotypal personality is argued to be part of the spectrum of schizophrenia-related disorders. While salient gender differences in the symptomatology of schizophrenics have been reported, datâ with regards to such differences in DSM-Ill defined schizotypal features are more limited. Right-handed male (N : 120) and lemale (N : I 37) university students completed the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ), a self-report instrument designed to tap all nine lealures of DSM-III-R schizotypal personality disorder. Results revealed thât males are significantly higher only on the Eccentric/Odd Behavior subscale, while females score higher on the Ideas of Reference. Odd Beliefs/Magical Thinking and Social Anxiety...