Papers by Frederick Coolidge
Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, 1978
Patients with left hemisphere disease have been noted to be depressed while those with right hemi... more Patients with left hemisphere disease have been noted to be depressed while those with right hemisphere disease appear indifferent. While patients with left hemisphere disease frequently have a greater cognitive deficit, patients with right hemisphere disease have difficulty in expressing affectively intoned speech. The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) can demonstrate underlying affective experience and is not dependent on affectively intoned speech. The purpose of this study was to determine whether a difference in affective moods, as assessed by the MMPI, was related to laterality of lesion in patients matched for severity of cognitive and motor dysfunction. Seven of the 16 subjects with left hemisphere dysfunction and none of the eight subjects with right hemisphere dysfunction showed an elevation on the depression scale. This observation not only confirms previous clinical observations but also demonstrates that these asymmetries cannot be ascribed completely to hemisphere-related differences in cognitive deficits or expressive abilities.
Behavior Modification, 2002
Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 2007
This study investigated personality and neurobehavioral differences between 16 children with Aspe... more This study investigated personality and neurobehavioral differences between 16 children with Asperger’s Disorder, 15 children with High-Functioning Autism (HFA), and 31 controls, all ranging in age from 5–17 years, M age = 10.7 years, SD = 3.0. Parents rated their children’s behaviors on a 44-item autistic symptoms survey and on the 200-item Coolidge Personality and Neuropsychological Inventory (Coolidge, Thede, Stewart, & Segal (2002a). The Coolidge Personality and Neuropsychological Inventory for Children (CPNI): Preliminary psychometric characteristics. Behavior Modification, 26, 550–566). The results indicated that the two clinical samples were significantly elevated on the Executive Function Deficits scale and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) scale compared to controls. There were more similarities than differences between the two clinical samples on the personality scales, although the Asperger’s group scored significantly on the two scales with anxiety components.
Journal of Human Evolution, 2004
Cognitive neuropsychology, cognitive anthropology, and cognitive archaeology are combined to yiel... more Cognitive neuropsychology, cognitive anthropology, and cognitive archaeology are combined to yield a picture of Neandertal cognition in which expert performance via long-term working memory is the centerpiece of problem solving. This component of Neandertal cognition appears to have been modern in scope. However, Neandertals' working memory capacity, which is the ability to hold a variety of information in active attention, may not have been as large as that of modern humans. This characteristic helps us understand features of the archaeological record, such as the rarity of innovation, and allows us to make empirically based speculations about Neandertal personality.
Death Studies, 2004
Despite a burgeoning literature on some aspects of elder suicide, little is known about the speci... more Despite a burgeoning literature on some aspects of elder suicide, little is known about the specific attitudes that older people hold about suicide. The present study examined attitudes toward suicide and suicidal risk among 96 younger and 79 older adults. Participants completed the Suicide Opinion Questionnaire and the Suicide Risk Scale. Regarding suicidal risk, younger adults scored significantly higher than older adults. Regarding attitudes, older adults scored significantly higher than younger adults on 7 of 15 subscales, indicating that for older adults, suicide was more acceptable, more strongly related to a lack of religious conviction, more lethal, more normal, more irreversible or permanent, more strongly related to demographics, and more strongly related to individual aspects. An implication is that older adults hold both adaptive and maladaptive attitudes about suicide that may be useful in providing a social and cultural context to the study, prevention, and treatment of elder suicide.
Child Abuse & Neglect, 2007
Objective: This study examines the relationship between parental self-confidence, warmth, and inv... more Objective: This study examines the relationship between parental self-confidence, warmth, and involvement, and corporal punishment in families of children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Method: The diagnosis of ADHD was established through clinical interviews with the parents, children, and teachers, according the criteria in DSM-IV-TR. This diagnosis was also established by having the parents complete the Conners' Parent Rating Scale, and the teachers complete the Conners' Teacher Rating Scale. Two groups of Iranian parents, one group with children who have ADHD (N = 130) and a control group (N = 120), completed questionnaires measuring parental self-confidence and parenting styles. Results: Parents of children with ADHD were found to have lower self-confidence and less warmth and involvement with their children, and used corporal punishment significantly more than the parents of control children.
Personality and Individual Differences, 2001
Behavior Genetics, 2004
This study tested whether personality disorders may be the psychological manifestations of execut... more This study tested whether personality disorders may be the psychological manifestations of executive function deficits by examining their bivariate heritability in a community sample of 314 twins (ages 5–17 years; M age = 9.7; 96 monozygotic pairs and 61 dizygotic pairs). The parents of the twins completed the Coolidge Personality and Neuropsychological Inventory (Coolidge, 1998; Coolidge et al., 2002). Heritability was estimated by structural equation modeling. Executive function deficits and personality disorders were significantly heritable (executive function deficits, .77; 11 out of 12 personality disorders, median = .69). The proportion of the observed correlation attributable to heritable factors or bivariate heritability between executive function deficits and the personality disorder scales ranged from .27 for schizoid to .64 for histrionic. These findings may provide some insight as to why individuals diagnosed with specific personality disorders frequently exhibit chronic difficulties with everyday decisions, selective attention and inhibition, judgments, choices, planning, and flexibility.
Personality and Individual Differences, 2004
have argued that the division of economic labor by age and gender is a salient feature of the rec... more have argued that the division of economic labor by age and gender is a salient feature of the recent human condition, that it emerged relatively late in human evolutionary history, and that it is not typical of Neandertals. Their provocative analysis of the archaeological signature of modern humans invites several alternative interpretations. In the present paper, we postulate that age and gender divisions of economic labor may have been a consequence of mental simulations enabled by an enhancement of working memory capacity that enabled true episodic memories and autonoetic thinking.
Developmental Neuropsychology, 2000
The heritability and comorbidity of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) with conduct ... more The heritability and comorbidity of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) with conduct disorder (CD), oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), and executive function (EF) deficits were examined in 224 child twins (140 monozygotic and 84 dizygotic). The Coolidge Personality and Neuropsychological Inventory for Children (Coolidge, 1998), a standardized, 200-item, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.; American Psychiatric Association, 1994) aligned, parent-as-respondent inventory, assessed psychopathology. Structural equation model fitting revealed that the individual scale heritabilities were substantial: .82 for ADHD, .74 for CD, .61 for ODD, and .77 for EF deficits. The results of the multivariate twin analyses suggest that ADHD shares most of its genetic liability with CD, ODD, and EF deficits. Thus, the findings argue for a common biological risk underlying these commonly comorbid externalizing behavior problems and cognitive deficits. The residual genetic variance provides preliminary support for additional genetic influences underlying CD, ODD, and EF that are independent of ADHD.
Journal of Personality Assessment, 1992
Recursion is a topic of considerable controversy in linguistics, which stems from its varying def... more Recursion is a topic of considerable controversy in linguistics, which stems from its varying definitions and its key features, such as its universality, uniqueness to human language, and evolution. Currently, there appear to be at least two common senses of recursion: (1) embeddedness of phrases within other phrases, which entails keeping track of long-distance dependencies among phrases and (2) the specification of the computed output string itself, including meta-recursion, where recursion is both the recipe for an utterance and the overarching process that creates and executes the recipes. There are also at least two evolutionary scenarios for the adaptive value of recursion in human language. The gradualist position posits precursors, such as animal communication and protolanguages, and holds that the selective purpose of recursion was for communication. The saltationist position assumes no gradual development of recursion and posits that it evolved for reasons other than communication. In the latter view, some heritable event associated with a cognitive prerequisite of language, such as Theory of Mind or working memory capacity, allowed recursive utterances. Evolutionary adaptive reasons for recursive thoughts were also proffered, including diplomatic speech, perlocutionary acts, and prospective cognitions.
Uploads
Papers by Frederick Coolidge