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Biomedical subjects

M J Mendelson

Publications and source records attributed to M J Mendelson.

14 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

Body-esteem scale for adolescents and adults.

Body esteem (BE) refers to self-evaluations of one's body or appearance. This article outlines a BE questionnaire for adolescents and adults that has 3 subscales: BE-Appearance (general feelings about appearance), BE-Weight (weight satisfaction), and BE-Attribution (evaluations attributed to others about one's body and appearance). The subscales have high internal consistency and 3-month test-retest reliability. Females scored lower than males on BE-Weight and BE-Appearance. BE-Weight was the only subscale uniquely related to weight, especially in females, with heavy individuals tending to be dissatisfied with their weight. BE-Appearance was the only subscale that consistently predicted self-esteem. BE-Appearance and BE-Weight covaried more with Neeman and Harter's (1986) Appearance subscale than with other self-esteem subscales; BE-Attribution covaried more with social self-esteem subscales than did BE-Appearance and BE-Weight.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1985

Circulating immune complexes and B lymphocytes in diabetic patients with and without microangiopathy.

Circulating immune complexes (CIC) were evaluated in 57 diabetic patients: 28 were insulin-dependent (IDD) and 29 were non insulin-dependent (NIDD) subdivided according to the presence or absence of microangiopathy. The following techniques were used: 1) binding to human red blood cells through C3b complement fraction and posterior radioimmunoassay with 125I labeled anti human IgG (HRBC RIA test); and 2) CIC precipitation with 3.5% polyethylenglycol (PEG test). The percentage of circulating B lymphocytes was evaluated simultaneously in the same patients, using a) direct immunofluorescence techniques (surface IgC cells) and b) cells with complement C3b fraction receptors (EAC rosettes). Twenty normal donors were studied simultaneously as controls. Our results showed that CIC levels were significantly higher in both groups of patients when compared to normal controls. Values for IDD and NIDD were 48.55 +/- 5.97 and 34.68 +/- 3.08 microgram/ml, respectively, for HRBC RIA test and 0.53 +/- 0.07 and 0.41 +/- 0.04 O.D., respectively, for PEG test, while control values were 26.63 +/- 2.12 microgram/ml for HRBC RIA test and 0.26 +/- 0.03 O.D. for PEG test. IDD patients with microangiopathy presented higher CIC levels as measured by HRBC RIA test than IDD without microvascular complications, while no difference was found within the NIDD group. An increase in the proportion of cells bearing surface IgG was observed in IDD and NIDD patients when compared to controls. By contrast, no difference was observed when EAC rosettes-forming cells were evaluated.

Antigen-Antibody Complex↗
PubMed1984

Attention to quantitative and configural properties of abstract visual patterns by children and adults.

Students in grades 2, 4, 6, and college sorted abstract visual patterns that varied both in amount of contour and in the type of visual organization (unstructured, simple symmetries, multiple symmetries, and rotational organization). The subjects were told to put the patterns into rows so that all the patterns in a row were "alike in some way," with no limits placed either on the number of rows or on the number of patterns in a row. Second graders sorted mainly on the basis of amount of contour and less so with reference to multiple types of visual organization. Fourth and sixth graders used contour as a sorting criterion less than second graders; moreover, they sorted with reference to all types of visual structure. As a group, college students sorted exclusively on the basis of structure. The data were taken as evidence that children attend to both amount of contour and visual organization, but that attention to visual structure increases with age.

Adult↗
PubMed1983

Attentional inertia at four and seven months?

Anderson showed that, for TV watchers as young as 12 months, the probability of maintaining a look increases as the look progresses. Based on this finding, he hypothesized a previously unreported process, "attentional inertia," that he considered the conceptual obverse of habituation. Since the existence of such a process would profoundly affect theories of infant attention, the present research tested for evidence of attentional inertia in babies younger than 12 months. Data from 1 group of 7-month-olds and 3 groups of 4-month-olds who participated in previous studies were reexamined here. The main analysis involved the conditional probability of a look surpassing t sec given that the look had already surpassed t -- 3 sec. The conditional probabilities varied as a function of time similarly for the 4 groups: the first 6 sec but subsequently increased (supposedly evidence of attentional inertia). The increase, however, was attributable to 1 of 2 computational artifacts that were understandable in terms of habituation. Thus, no evidence of attentional inertia was found in these infants.

Attention↗
PubMed1982

Auditory-visual transfer in four-month-old infants.

4-month-old infants were presented a 60-sec recording of a syllable repeated in either a regular or an irregular rhythm. The rhythms contained the same time intervals, but the pattern of the intervals differed. Following the sound, the infants were shown a 90-sec silent film of a puppet opening and closing its mouth, either in the familiar rhythm or in a novel rhythm. Infants receiving the regular sound watched the film more than infants receiving the irregular sound, a finding that was explained in terms of a transmodal "positive contrast" effect. More important, infants who saw the puppet move in a novel rhythm watched the film longer (measured in total looking and mean look) than infants who saw it move in a familiar rhythm. This is the first demonstration of auditory-visual transfer of temporal information in infants as young as 4 months.

Auditory Perception↗
PubMed1979

Influence of six types of visual structure on complexity judgments in children and adults.

Individuals at five grade levels (kindergarten, Grade 2, Grade 4, Grade 6, and college) made pair-comparison judgments of visual complexity. The influence of the presence or absence of six types of visual structure (double symmetry, vertical symmetry, horizontal symmetry, diagonal symmetry, checkerboard organization, and rotational organization) and of amount of contour were examined. Two general developmental trends were revealed: First, the age at which visual structure initially affected complexity judgments varied with the type of structure, independent of amount of contour, within the range of contour values used. Second, there was a uniform increase in the effect of structure on complexity judgments between the fourth and sixth grades. These results are discussed in relation to possible mechanisms of visual pattern encoding and complexity judgment.

Adult↗
PubMed1976

The relation between audition and vision in the human newborn.

Four studies were conducted to investigate the relation between audition and vision in the human newborn. In all four studies visual activity was recorded with infrared corneal-reflection technqiues in 1- to 4-day-old infants. Study 1 concerned the effects of sound at midline on scanning in darkness and in a lit but formless field. In the dark compared to light, newborns maintained better eye control, centralized fixations, scanned with smaller eye movements, scanned less dispersely, and were wider-eyed. In a blank field, sound caused newborns to maintain better eye control, centralize fixations, scan with small eye movements, constrain fixations, and be wider-eyed than in silence. Sound had little effect on scanning in the dark beyond constraining fixations. Study 2 concerned the effects of sound at midline on scanning vertical and horizontal edges. Visual activity was different for the two visual stimuli. While viewing a vertical rather than a horizontal edge, newborns maintained better eye control and fixated closer to the position of the vertical edge. Newborns crossed the position of the horizontal edge when that edge was present. Sound affected scanning in general, centralizing fixations for newborns not already looking centrally, but sound did not affect the frequency of edge crossing. Study 3 concerned the effects of laterally presented sound on scanning spatially consonant or dissonant vertical bars. The major finding was that infants were sensitive to the spatial property of sound. Infants shifted fixations first toward and then gradually away from sound. Study 4 was an attempt to determine whether there is an effort constraint on the simultaneous functioning of auditory and visual systems. The effects of two differentially salient sounds on scanning two differentially salient visual stimuli were examined. Although the results appeared to support the idea of an effort constraint, the data were accounted for parsimoniously in terms of the spatial influence of sound of scanning. The data on visual activity were discussed in terms of the presence of inherent information-acquisition routines in the newborn. It was concluded that sound influences visual epistemic behavior even at birth.

Auditory Perception↗
PubMed1975

The relation between nonnutritive sucking and visual information processing in the human newborn.

This paper considers the relation between visual information processing and the burst-pause pattern of nonnutritive sucking in the human infant. Sucking and visual scanning activity were investigated in 2 independent studies. The results did not support the view that sucking is affected by ongoing processing activity. It is argued that previously reported effects of processing on sucking reflect a phasic component of the orientation reaction (OR) to stimuli, not a sustained processing of those stimuli. Additionally, no existing evidence supports the idea that the components of the natural burst-pause pattern of sucking differentially affect information processing in the human newborn.

Eye Movements↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Mothers' moods and social support when a second child is born.

PROBLEM: The relationship between mothers' different mood states and dimensions of support; the influence of antepartum and postpartum support on mood states as a function of stress and time. SUBJECTS: Married mothers (N = 50) expecting a second child when their firstborn was between 28-54 months old; 90% Caucasian; ages 24-40 years. Average education: 13 years. METHOD: A short-term longitudinal correlational study to determine second-time mothers' moods relative to dimensions of support, stress, and timing of support. Instruments used: Profile of Mood States, Norbeck Social Support Questionnaire, Situation-Specific Support Scale, and the Crockenberg Stress Checklist. FINDINGS: Depressed, angry, and/or tired mothers reported inappropriate amounts of support and dissatisfaction with support received. CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING: Different types of support serve different functions before and after birth. Support must "fit" mothers' needs and is most effective if given when needed because of the limited "carry over" effect. Listening carefully to mothers describe their feelings enables nurses to determine support wanted or needed.

Adult↗