PubMed · 13763771
The source did not provide an abstract. Follow the original record for more information.
Explore connections, maps & timelines
N T LOVELAND. 1961. Epileptic personality and cognitive functioning.. https://doi.org/10.1080/08853126.1961.10381007
Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.
KEEP EXPLORING
OBJECTIVES: The study investigated the effect of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) on cognitive processes in healthy, naturally postmenopausal women. METHOD: Participants were 64 volunteer postmenopausal women (27 in HRT, 37 in non-HRT group). Groups were matched for age, level of education and postmenopausal period. Duration of HRT was more than 12 months. Cognitive processes were measured through 44 scores obtained from Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised, Line Orientation Test, Cancellation Test and Raven Standard Progressive Matrices. All of these tests had been studied with respect to their psychometric properties in the Turkish culture [for review, Karakaş S. BILNOT battery: research and development of neuropsychological tests. Ankara, Turkey: Dizayn Ofset; 2004]. RESULTS: Multivariate analysis of variance was performed where HRT and estradiol level were predictive (independent) variables and test scores were predicted (dependent) variables. The studied variables did not have a significant effect on a broad spectrum of neuropsychological scores that measured immediate and delayed visual and verbal memory, visuospatial perception and orientation, sustained attention/vigilance, visual search and scan, impulsivity and response speed, executive functions and general intelligence. Logistic regression analysis demonstrated a prediction rate of 86.89% of HRT status; the model was, however, based on four scores whose scientific relevance could not at this point be ascertained. CONCLUSION: The research design of the present observational study applied control techniques to demographic (age, level of education), menopausal (length of menopausal period, duration of HRT), and hormonal variables. The cognitive changes that some studies found concerning the effect of replacement therapy could not be found when the potentially confounding variables were thus controlled.
Two experiments were carried out to investigate the processing of the empty category PRO and the time-course of this in Spanish. Eye movements were recorded while participants read sentences in which a matrix clause was followed by a subordinate infinitival clause, so that the subject or the object of the main clause could act as controller of PRO, and therefore as implicit grammatical subject of the infinitive. In Experiment 1, verb control information was manipulated: The matrix clause contained either subject-control verbs like prometer ('promise') or object-control verbs like forzar ('force'). In Experiment 2, the preposition that headed adverbial subordinate clauses was manipulated: Two different kinds of infinitival adverbial clauses were used, expressing purpose (preposition para) and reason (preposition por) and in which control information is primarily induced by the prepositions (para tends to trigger subject-control; por object-control). Experiment 1 showed that readers make immediate use of verb control information to recover the antecedent of the empty category PRO in Spanish obligatory control constructions. The data obtained in Experiment 2 suggest that during the processing of the empty category PRO in purpose vs. reason adverbial subordinate infinitival clauses the control information induced by the prepositions por vs. para is not initially used as a constraint to guide the selection of the nominal antecedent of PRO. In addition, both experiments showed that PRO antecedent selection is a very fast process and that, together with verb control information, recency played an important role. The results are discussed in terms of current psycholinguistic hypotheses about empty categories and in relation to formal linguistic hypotheses about PRO control. We argue that obligatory control ties (which are co-referential ties) are processed fast because they are launched from the same lexical platform that launches all fast syntactic connections (complements, as opposed to modifiers). In short, that such lexically-specified co-referential ties are regulated by linguistic form.
This article is a synopsis of the argument outlined in my book Madness explained: Psychosis and human nature, in which I describe a new paradigm (which might be called a 'complaint-orientated' approach) for understanding the psychotic disorders, the most disabling forms of psychiatric illness. Despite extensive efforts to study the genetics, pathophysiology and neuropsychology of the psychoses, replicable findings have been rare. I argue that this is because the phenomena concerned have been poorly defined. Since the end of the 19th century, research into the psychoses has been dominated by the system of classification first proposed by the German psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin, which assumes that the severe mental illnesses fall into discrete types such as 'schizophrenia' and 'manic depression', and that there is a clear dividing line between madness and normal functioning. However, Kraepelinian diagnoses fail all empirical tests of their validity. For example, they do not identify patients with common symptoms, with common aetiologies, who respond to specific treatments. I suggest that we therefore need to abandon psychiatric diagnoses altogether and must instead attempt to explain the specific complaints ('symptoms') that patients bring to our attention. These include hallucinations, delusional beliefs, thought and communication disorders, which are much more widely experienced than was previously thought (for example, about 10% of the population have experienced hallucinations). I show that recent psychological research has revealed much about the mechanisms underlying each of these complaints. For example, auditory hallucinations occur when the individual mistakes inner speech for an external stimulus, and delusions appear to be the product of abnormal inferential processes. The new approach has implications for aetiology. For example, researchers working within the Kraepelinian paradigm have often assumed that the psychoses are endogenous. However, there is compelling evidence that the risk of experiencing psychotic complaints is influenced by adverse environmental factors such as insecure attachment relations and exposure to sexual and other kinds of trauma. These associations are relatively easy to understand once the psychological mechanisms leading to specific complaints are known. When all of the psychotic complaints have been explained, there will be no 'schizophrenia' or 'manic depression' left behind awaiting explanation. The approach that I advocate is not only more scientific than the Kraepelinian approach, but also more humane. In contrast to the Kraepelinian approach, which has encouraged disrespect for patients' experiences, it encourages us to treat patients as rational agents and to take what they say seriously.