Peter H. Wolff

Ethnic Differences in Alcohol Sensitivity

Japanese, Taiwanese, and Koreans, after drinking amounts of alcohol that have no detectable effect on Caucasoids, respond with a marked facial flushing and mild to moderate symptoms of intoxication. Group differences are present at birth, and are probably related to variations in autonomic reactivity.

Nonmusicol Effects of the Kodaly Music Curriculum in Primary Grade Children

This study compares the performances of two matched groups of primary grade children on tasks of temporal and spatial abilities. One group received an intensive exposure to the Kodaly Music Training Program, while the other group did not. The results indicated that the music group performed more effectively on both temporal and spatial tasks than the non-music control group. Sex differences are also reported in which experimental group boys demonstrated a significantly better level of performance than control boys. Comparison with a second control group indicated that children receiving the Kodaly Music Program performed more effectively on reading tests than comparable groups of first graders not receiving this music instruction. This facilitative effect on reading performance was observed beyond the first grade level when the music program was continued.

ASSOCIATED MOVEMENTS AS A MEASURE OF DEVELOPMENTAL AGE

Fifty normal kindergarten and 50 first‐grade children were examined three times at six‐month intervals for synkineses to stress gaits and mirror movements to finger lifting, finger spreading, and timed motor maneuvers. Motor signs in the age‐sensitive range showed substantial individual differences between children of the same chronological age. The frequency of associated movements changed reliably in the expected direction over a 12‐month period, and within each domain of neutromotor function the individual motor signs conformed to a stable sequence of developmental stages. It is concluded that age‐appropriate motor signs for associated movements are a reliable measure of developmental age, in contrast to chronological age, among elementary‐school children.

Serial organization of motor skills in left- and right-handed adults

Abstract Normal right- and left-handed men and women were examined for their ability to tap in time to a metronome with the fingers of the left and right hands, and to tap simple rhythmic patterns repeatedly. The two handedness groups showed no manual asymmetry on the metronome entraining trials, but both tapped the rhythmic patterns with greater precision with the right hand than the left. Right-handed females tapped more precisely than other groups with the left hand but not with the right. The left hemisphere appears to be relatively specialized for the serial organization of fine motor movements in both left- and right-handers.

RATE VARIABLES AND AUTOMATIZED NAMING IN DEVELOPMENTAL DYSLEXIA

The rate variable in rapid automatized naming (RAN) was investigated in 50 adolescent and 40 adult students with developmental dyslexia, in matched normal controls, and in learning-disabled students without reading difficulties. Visual stimuli depicting familiar colors and common objects were presented in isolation at three film speeds and three exposure times. Film speed and exposure time contributed as independent variables to error rate; and dyslexic subjects of both age groups made significantly more naming errors than controls. Dyslexic subjects also responded with longer naming latencies than controls when the same RAN stimuli were presented in a continuous sequential mode as a matrix of rows and columns. Naming latencies in the sequential presentation were highly correlated with naming errors in the film version. The implications of reduced naming rates for nongraphological stimuli in developmental dyslexia are discussed.

Spatial and temporal processing in patients with Turner's syndrome.

Thirteen females with Turners syndrome were examined for spatial abilities and serial processing, and their performance was compared with that of normal females matched by age, intelligence, and socioeconomic class. Patients with Turners syndrome performed significantly poorer on tests of spatial ability than controls, but only on spatial tests requiring the integration of isolated elements as synthetic wholes or the remembering of spatial configurations which could not be verbally mediated. Patients also performed less well than controls on tasks of serial processing when the tasks could not be mediated verbally. It was concluded that patients with Turners syndrome may have a selective deficit in cortical junctions that are lateralized to the right cerebral hemisphere.

Impaired motor timing control in specific reading retardation

The temporal organizations of unimanual and coordinated bimanual finger tapping was compared between adolescent normal and retarded readers of above average intelligence. The same subjects were examined for speech articulation during the timed repetition of single syllables and syllable sequences. Retarded readers had substantially greater difficulty on tasks of interlimb coordination than on unimanual tapping and substantially greater difficulty rapidly sequencing syllable strings than repeating single syllables. An experimental manipulation of movement speed for both tasks indicated that the threshold at which movement speed degrades timing precision for coordinated action best characterizes the motor impairment of retarded readers.

Processing of Rapid Auditory Stimuli in School-Age Children Referred for Evaluation of Learning Disorders

Tallal hypothesized that reading disabled children have a domain-general deficit in processing rapidly occurring auditory stimuli that degrades speech perception, thereby limiting phonologic awareness and thus reading acquisition. She predicted they would be disproportionately affected by rapidly presented auditory stimuli. In this study, one hundred 7- to 11-year-old children with learning impairment (LI) and 243 non-learning impaired (NLI) children were evaluated on a two-tone auditory discrimination paradigm. LI committed more errors, but effects of timing were comparable. The same result was obtained for a subsample of good and poor readers. Task performance predicted reading, spelling, and calculation. Neural processes underlying perception of speech and other auditory stimuli may be less effective in poor readers; however, contrary to Tallals hypothesis, rate may not be specifically affected.

Sex differences in finger tapping: a developmental study

Abstract The development of serial order in a simple finger-tapping task was examined in normal school age boys and girls from 5 to 16 yr. Girls were consistently more accurate in adhering to the rate of an external entraining beat and in tapping to a steady rhythm. The right hand of all children was steadier than the left, and manual asymmetry for regularity of tapping was greater in girls than boys. The left hemisphere may be specialized for cortical functions controlling the serial organization of simple motor repetitions, and these functions mature earlier in girls than boys.

The Irrelevance of Infant Observations for Psychoanalysis

The current consensus among psychoanalysts holds that direct infant observations are one means for testing the developmental propositions of psychoanalytic theory; that the observations have already falsified some of the theorys basic propositions; and that they hold the key to a qualitatively different developmental theory of psychoanalysis. The consensus, although not universal, has motivated a wide range of research programs on early infancy, whose findings are commonly interpreted as disclosing psychoanalytic metapsychology and clinical theory in an entirely new light. This essay examines some of the assumptions that have motivated such investigations, as well as the research strategies by which the new versions of theory are promulgated. On the basis of these explorations it is concluded that psychoanalytically informed infant observations may be the source for new theories of social-emotional development, but that they are essentially irrelevant for psychoanalysis as a psychology of meanings, unconscious ideas, and hidden motives.