Leonard F. Salzman

Learning-disordered children's evoked potentials during sustained attention

Evoked potentials and performance of 19 learning-disordered (LD) and 19 normally achieving children were studied in two versions of the Continuous Performance Test (CPT). In both CPT procedures, LD children made more errors of omission and commission than did normal children. Evoked potential differences between groups were especially prominent in the more difficult BX version of the CPT. LD children displayed significantly smaller late positive components (LPC) of the evoked potential to critical stimuli in the task. There were no LPC differences between diagnostic groups for noncritical stimulus categories. The results suggest a deficit in behavioral and cortical indices of sustained attention among LD children.

Heart Rate and Cardiac Cycle Effects on Reaction Time

Reaction time stimuli were presented to subjects during epochs of ascending or descending heart rate and at different points in the cardiac cycle. Response latencies did not differ significantly as a function of phase in the cardiac cycle. Two experiments yielded conflicting results regarding the relationship between heart-rate change and reaction time. No relationships were found between reaction time and the heart beat immediately preceding the stimulus or with the beat during which the stimulus was presented. It is likely that these relationships suggested by Laceys hypothesis are weak or inconsistent.

Aftereffects of Delayed Auditory Feedback

This experiment was designed to test whether there are aftereffects on speech to delayed auditory feedback and whether the aftereffects, if any, are a function of the severity of disruption of speech under the feedback condition. Fifty-seven Ss, divided into three equal groups, were exposed to various combinations of delay time and intensity of feedback. Comparisons of pre- and post-sidetone responses revealed no evidence of aftereffects on speech. No relationship to induced severity of speech disruption was found.

Cognitive Functioning in Acute and Remitted Psychiatric Patients

Tests of vocabulary and abstraction administered to groups of schizophrenic and non-schizophrenic patients at time of hospital admission and at time of clinical remission and discharge home revealed some evidence of general cognitive impairment in both groups, with significant improvement by time of discharge, as well as evidence of continuing specific conceptual impairment among schizophrenics.

Studies in medical education: The role of cognitive and psychological characteristics as career choice correlates☆

Abstract This study tests the power of selected cognitive and psychological measures collected near the end of the second medical school year from 230 preclinical students to discriminate among 6 specialty career choices that they had made after medical school. Findings are presented in terms of predictive accuracy for the total study group, for each specialty choice, and for selected individuals. The data are discussed in terms of the dynamics of cognitive and psychological characteristics in specialty career choice and the potential predictive value of the methodology. However, the need for confirmation of its predictive accuracy is stressed.

Size of Bender Gestalt Drawings in Psychotic Depression

Comparisons of total area scores of Bender Gestalt drawings produced by 3 patient groups (16 psychotic depressives, 20 schizophrenics, and 16 hysterical character disorders) and 28 normals were nonsignificant, suggesting that there is no generally reduced productivity in depression.