Automatic processes require few attentional resources, but effortful processes use attentional capacity. Research on cognitive processing by depressed individuals is reviewed and the following is concluded: (a) Depression interferes with effortful processing. The degree of interference is determined by the degree of effortfulness of the task, the severity of depression, and the valence of the stimulus material to be processed. (b) Depression interferes only minimally with automatic processes. Hypothetical causal mechanisms for interference in effortful processes by depression, whether interference in effortful processing is unique to depression or characteristic of psychopathology in general, and whether negative automatic thoughts are associated with current depression or depression proneness are also addressed. The effortful-automatic perspective has implications for understanding depressive clinical features, treating depression, and conducting future research.

Automatic and effortful processing in depression.

Posterior parietal cortex has traditionally been considered to be a sensory association area in which higher-order processing and intermodal integration of incoming sensory information occurs. In this paper, evidence from clinical reports and from lesion and behavioral-electrophysiological experiments using monkeys is reviewed and discussed in relation to the overall functional organization of posterior parietal association cortex, and particularly with respect to a proposed posterior parietal mechanism concerned with the initiation and control of certain classes of eye and limb movements. Preliminary data from studies of the effects of posterior parietal lesions on oculomotor control in monkeys are reported.The behavioral effects of lesions of posterior parietal cortex in monkeys have been found to be similar to those which follow analogous damage of the minor hemisphere in humans, while behavioral-electrophysiological experiments have disclosed classes of neurons in this area which have functional properties closely related to the behavioral acts that are disrupted by lesions of the area. On the basis of current data from these areas of study, it is proposed that the sensory association model of posterior parietal function is inadequate to account for the complexities of the present evidence. Instead, it now appears that many diverse neural mechanisms are located in part in parietal cortex, that some of these mechanisms are involved in sensory processing and perceptual functions, but that others participate in motor control, and that still others are involved in attentional, motivational, or emotional processes. It is further proposed that the elementary units of these various neural mechanisms are distributed within posterior parietal cortex according to the columnar hypothesis of Mountcastle.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0140525X00006324

The functional organization of posterior parietal association cortex

Psychological deficit in depression.

1. Preliminary Measurement Considerations in Clinical Neuropsychology. 2. General and Theoretical Considerations in the Assessment of Reliabilty. 3. Practical and Methodological. 4. Elemental Considerations in Validity. 5. Validity as Applied to Neuropsychological Assessment. 6. The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised and Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-III. 7.The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised and Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-III. 8. Test of General Intelligence. 9. The Halstead-Reitan Neuropsychological Battery and Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery. 10. Benton's Neuropsychological Assessment. 11. The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. 12. The Rorschach Inkblots. 13. The Wechsler Memory Scale and its Revisions. 14. Tests of Memory. 15. Tests of Visual and Construction Function. 17. Tests of Higher Cognitive Function. 18. Screening Devices. 19. Tests of Aptitude and Achievement. 20. Methods for Evaluating the Validity of Test Scores. 21. The Assessment of Child Neuropsychological Function. Postscript. References.

Reliability and Validity in Neuropsychological Assessment

Clinical memory testing: A review.

A follow-up study of a patient with balint's syndrome

The modified word‐learning test: a cross‐validation study

Four of the subtests of the Williams Scale for the Measurement of Memory were examined with the object of establishing the equivalence of the three forms of the scale, the reliability of each subtest, the effects of age and intelligence on three of them, their independence of each other, and their validity in relation to (a) EEG tracings, and (b) two other psychological tests of memory disorder. The results suggest that the test of delayed recall and the word-learning test would be worth developing further in the clinical examination of dementia. A verdict on the value of the Rey-Davis test of non-verbal learning in the investigation of cerebral pathology must await the outcome of further research experience with this test.

Williams scale for the measurement of memory: test reliability and validity in a psychiatric population.

Clinical psychologists are often asked to help in the diagnosis of dementia, especially in the setting of depression in the older age groups The general problem here is that of differentiating the effects of senescence from the effects of dementia on various measures of cognitive functioning The measures used for this purpose may be regarded as measures of intelligence and as measures of learning To elucidate this problem two sets of data have been examined, one from a sample of seventy-six normally healthy old men and women living in the community, the other from a sample of ninety psychiatric patients, suspected to be suffering from a dementing illness The results suggest that the effects of age on various intelligence measures may generally be negative, as hypothesized, while the effects of dementia, as defined by abnormal EEG readings, cannot be inferred from any of the intelligence measures examined In the case of auditory verbal learning, again as predicted, the effects of age are insignificant; while the results of the learning task coincide with those of the EEG in predicting dementia

J. Graham White

Papers

A follow-up study of a patient with balint's syndrome

The modified word‐learning test: a cross‐validation study

Williams scale for the measurement of memory: test reliability and validity in a psychiatric population.

Some psychological correlates of age and dementia.

Teaching of psychiatry and the study of insight.