Neuropsychological deficits of memory and spatial perception have been associated with substance abuse. The present study assessed the degree to which verbal abstraction is impaired in substance abusers because this function typically is reduced in diffuse cerebral disorders. Test scores of 100 consecutively admitted substance‐abusing patients indicated that performance on the Similarities test of the WAIS was actually higher than Vocabulary scores. This finding was replicated with the WAIS‐R on a second sample of 100 patients who demonstrated impaired memory and psychomotor speed. These findings indicated that verbal abstraction was unimpaired in two large samples of poly‐substance abusers. Further, the superiority of Similarities over Vocabulary scores suggests that in poly‐substance abusers, Similarities scores may be a better index of premorbid intellectual competence than the more typically used Vocabulary scores.

This study explored the sequential communication patterns of maritally distressed couples. The findings confirmed the presence of negative and nonnegative (positive and neutral combined) reciprocity. The results indicated that partners tend to respond negatively if their spouses have just spoken about the partners or the relationship and that wives are more likely to respond negatively than husbands, regardless of how positive or negative the communication was. Analyses demonstrated that the speaker's gender, the positive/negative nature of the message, the focus, and the delivery skill of the message did not affect the empathic nature of the partner's subsequent response. Correlational findings reveal that partners are happier when negative statements are expressed subjectively but positive statements are expressed more declaratively and emphatically.Marital communication has been found to be the most frequent complaint in distressed marriages (Birchler, 1979;Geiss & O'Leary, 1981) and is considered by marital therapists to be the most damaging relationship problem that couples experience (Geiss & O'Leary, 1981). Furthermore, among couples planning marriage, measures of their communication prior to marriage predict their marital satisfaction 3 and 5 years after marriage (Markman, 1979(Markman, , 1981. As a result, considerable research has been conducted on the precise nature of communication in marriage, and communications skills training is incorporated as an element of almost any marital treatment program (Jacobson & Margolin, 1979).Behavioral researchers typically have evaluated communication from two perspectives.

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