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Biomedical subjects

A B Summerfield

Publications and source records attributed to A B Summerfield.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

Preliminary evaluation of a low cost videoconferencing system for teaching in clinical psychiatry.

The use of a digitized low cost videoconferencing system (LCVC) for the teaching of clinical medical students on clinical attachment to a psychiatric ward is described. This work was performed as part of the Telemed project which is evaluating the use of the LCVC in a range of tasks in clinical psychiatry. Any move towards greater reliance on communications technology in psychiatry should take account of the requirements of clinical teaching. The case presentation was used as a teaching paradigm in a controlled study comparing teaching face-to-face with teaching mediated via the LCVC. A questionnaire was developed for student evaluation of the case presentation. General user responses to the LCVC are reported. No significant differences were found between the conditions. User responses were favourable, suggesting that remote interactive teaching via the LCVC warrants further investigation.

Costs and Cost Analysis

Cultural differences in interpersonal responses to depressives' nonverbal behaviour.

The Social Impression and Interpersonal Attraction of British depressed patients was rated by British and German subjects on the basis of the patients' video-recorded nonverbal behaviour. Depressives were rated negatively by all subjects. Males in both cultural groups agreed in their ratings of depressives but German females expressed a more negative attitude than British females. This is attributed to cultural differences in sex-appropriate interactive behaviour. The importance of studying the expression of depression and its meaning within a particular cultural context is indicated and the role of cultural differences in interactive behaviour is discussed with respect to intercultural assessment and treatment of depression.

Adolescent

Orality and smoking.

This study was designed to investigate the relation of orality and smoking, smoking motivation and anticipatory pleasure in smoking. Ninety-seven male and female subjects completed questionnaires designed to elicit information about their motivation and behaviour. Results indicated that difficulty in stopping smoking was positively related to three non-nutriment oral preoccupations. Smoking for psychological as opposed to social reasons was positively related to two-nutriment oral preoccupations. Anticipation of pleasure in smoking before becoming a smoker was negatively related to nutriment orality, positively related to smoking because of a craving, and, for females only, positively to one type of non-nutriment orality. The results are discussed in relation to the role of oral ingestion and the reaction of the central nervous system to the drug.

Adult

Errors in decoding tone of voice during dyadic interaction.

Predictions derived from evidence on projection, behavioural assimilation and attribution theory suggest differing ways in which one individual may perceive another's tone of voice in dyadic interaction. Pairs of male subjects undertook a competitive or cooperative counting task. One member of each pair was instructed that he could best influence the dyad's performance by the use of an angry or pleased tone of voice. The results indicate that while subjects in the cooperative condition tended to attribute their own tone of voice to their (neutral) partner, competitive subjects attributed a discrepant or neutral tone. The findings are interpreted in terms of attribution theory. Implications for studies of non-verbal communication are discussed.

Adult

Effects of communication content on speech behavior of depressives.

Depressed patients were interviewed at two different severity levels in the course of their illness about both problematic and neutral topics, and their speech behavior was analyzed in terms of speech activity and silences. Lowered speech activity and increased silences occurred at higher severity levels and also during problematic communication content, suggesting the mediation of cognitive factors as postulated by Beck's cognitive model of depression.

Adult