This study compared the effects of low, medium, and high pretest anxiety levels on the social and nonsocial problem-solving performance of 45 boys with learning disabilities (LD) and 45 boys with no learning disabilities (NLD). Participants ranged from 9 to 11 years of age. Boys with LD reported significantly higher pretest trait and state anxiety on the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children than did NLD boys, and their perceived state anxiety escalated over the course of the problem-solving session. There were no pervasive effects of LD status on problem solving by itself, boys with LD being as effective in problem solving as NLD boys. However, means for task solution suggest a tendency for an interaction between group and anxiety level, which should be examined using a larger, well-defined sample and an unstructured task.

Elevated levels of prolonged grief were found in this population, suggesting a need for further research into young spousal grief. Young bereaved spouses may lack flexibility in reconstructing their view of the world as the death may invalidate their previously held world beliefs.

No abstract

This study explored whether body-image distortion is a function of difficulties with imagery or problems with judgment. 49 subjects were given the Modified Video Camera Technique to measure body-image distortion. Mental imagery was measured by a modified version of the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire and the Spatial Relations subtest of the Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-educational Battery. Visual recall was assessed on the Meier Art Judgment Test. Judgment bias was assessed by the Stunkard Silhouette Method and the shape and weight subscales of the Eating Disorder Examination. Subjects who distorted body-image scored significantly more poorly on mental imagery than those who did not distort. No differences were found between groups on visual memory recall or in judgment bias.

Two experiments were conducted to investigate young children's comprehension of pictorial representations. In the first experiment, children 3 to 6 years of age were asked to mimic the poses of children depicted in black and white photographs, to mimic the same poses depicted by a live model, and to describe the contents of the photographs. Experiment 2 replicated the first experiment with line drawings and a doll. The results indicated that performance was significantly better with the live model than with the photographs, drawings, or doll. A comparison among the three representational forms indicated that photographs were the most difficult to mimic and describe and that the doll was the least difficult to describe. The results are discussed with respect to the developing ability to interpret symbolic representations and the effects of media-specific characteristics.An important aspect of picture perception concerns the relationship between a picture and what it depicts. The psychological nature of this relationship has been considered extensively by Gibson (1971Gibson ( , 1979, who characterized the perception of pictures as the direct pick-up of informational invariants in the two-dimensional representations that correspond to their three-dimensional realworld referents (see also Hagen, 1974, and Kennedy, 1974 for reviews). The accounts of very young children's ability to recognize the information contained in pictures without instruction or prior experience lends credence to such an explanation, suggesting that picture perception is achieved directly with no additional learning or experience required