Two measures of relationship between Parts A and B of the Trail Making Test (TMT) were examined in a large, acute rehabilitation population (N = 497). A difference (B — A) and a ratio (B/A) score were calculated and compared to other neuropsychological measures. The difference score was found to be correlated highly with intelligence and severity of impairment and, to a lesser degree, with age, education, and memory functioning. The ratio measure was correlated moderately or showed no significant relationship with other variables. This finding supported the curvilinear nature of the relationship between the ratio measure and cerebral impairment, as suggested by Golden, Osmon, Moses, and Berg (1981). Both measures were examined for their ability to distinguish between right and left cerebral damage. Only a trend toward differentiating lateralized damage was found; the ratio measure and a geometric transformation of the ratio showed greater sensitivity than did the difference measure. Results are discussed in terms of the potential usefulness of TMT relationship measures in neuropsychological inference.

The Visual Spatial Learning Test (VSLT) is a visuospatial memory measure requiring little fine motor dexterity. A series of studies assessed the validity of the VSLT. The VSLT correlated moderately with other memory measures but was not correlated with verbal intelligence. Both exploratory and cross-validation factor analyses that included the VSLT identified 3 factors: (a) Visuospatial Memory loaded by VSLT measures, (b) General Intelligence/Attention, (c) Verbal Memory. Analysis of VSLT and Auditory Verbal Learning Test (AVLT) dala of temporal lobectomy patients found that right and left groups differed significantly for VSLT relative to AVLT performances in a manner consistent with the side of the temporal resection. VSLT performances showed expected decrements across the age span from 55 to 92 years in a group of neurologically and psychiatrically normal elderly adults. Results support the concurrent, construct, and discriminatory validity of the VSLT but also challenge distinctions between verbal and visuospatial memory.

Psychological functioning in 55 severely head-injured individuals was investigated in order to extend findings on the long-term nature of psychological sequelae after closed head injury. Results showed that head-injured subjects reported numerous psychological deficits many years post-injury, were psychologically distressed by their own report (Brief Symptom Inventory) and that of care-giving relatives (Katz Adjustment Scale--Relatives Version), and also exhibited a different pattern of coping from that of a normative group. A three-factor model of residual psychological complaints that contained a 'General Complaints' factor, a 'Somatization' factor and a 'Severity' factor was identified; this showed some similarity to a model proposed by van Zomeren and van den Burg (1985). Results indicate support for the 'coping hypothesis' of post-injury psychological deficits, although effects consistent with a 'gradations of severity' hypothesis were also present.

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In one of the few empirical studies of legal issues, Jagim, designed specifically for the conflict situation in question. These options Wittman, and Noll (1978) appraised mental health professionals' corresponded to five decision styles postulated by Janis and Mann (1977) knowledge of and attitudes toward issues of confidentiality, (unconflicted adherence, unconflicted change, defensive avoidance, hy-privilege, and third-party disclosure. Most participants conpervigilance, and vigilance). The 2 × 2 analyses of variance with curred on the professional obligation to keep client information repeated measures of these likelihood responses revealed significant main confidential, but fully half of the respondents misinterpreted effects for pressure and for legal guideline clarity for responses to conflict the concept of privilege. (Although privilege refers to the legal and significant interaction effects (pressure × clarity). In general, right of the professional to refuse to reveal confidential inforpressure tended to increase unconflicted change and hypervigilance and mation under certain circumstances, it is actually the client's to decrease unconflicted adherence. Clarity of legal guidelines had few right, and it may be waived by the client at any time.) A majority effects on decision responses. Consistent with Janis and Mann's theory, of the respondents favored disclosure to a third party in cases results showed that decision making was affected negatively by pressure of child abuse or duty to warn (as in the case of Tarasoff v. Regents but that participants relied little on legal guidelines in making responses of University of California, 1976). In a related study (Swoboda, to ethical conflict dilemmas. Elwork, Sales, & Levine, 1978), knowledge of and compliance with laws about child abuse reporting were examined. Results T he ways in which counselors react in ethical or legal showed that many mental health professionals were unfamiliar conflict situations have been studied frequently over the with both the privileged communication laws and the child abuse last decade. For example, Shertzer and Morris (1972) reporting regulations of their states. The authors noted that even examined counselors' ability to make ethical discriminations and when professionals are aware of the legal issues involved in concluded that they could choose appropriate ethical responses decision making, they may still choose to ignore them in favor when faced with a situation in which more than one plausible of their personal standards. behavioral alternative was available. In a subsequent study, Thus, counselors apparently do differ in their personal re-McMillan and Shertzer (1978) focused on counselor decision sponses to ethical conflicts, and the presence of clear legal guidemaking in conflicts between organizational and individual prior-lines may affect counselor behavior in such conflicts. Usually in ities and found that counselors turned to a personal (unwritten) these studies, the antecedents of counselor decisions were unrather t...