Introduction to Psychology
Guidelines for Current Directions in Psychological Science summaries
Directions: Below are the guidelines you are to use for the Current Direction Assignments. Please type your answers—use single spacing in the area provided. Some of these questions will require that you think about and process the readings rather than simply reiterate what you read. All questions should be answered with complete sentences, rather than a list or a phrase.
I. Name: Callie McDonough
II. Title of Article: Structural and Functional Brain Abnormalities in Schizophrenia
III. Briefly state the main idea of this article:
This article discusses that schizophrenia is associated with changes in the structure of brain systems involved with working and declarative memory. Imagining techniques suggest that it disrupts neural connectivity.
IV. What are two important facts that the author uses to support the main idea? (A fact should be considered a statement that can be supported by verifiable data or other facts.)
One important fact is that “the magnitude of surface contraction in prefrontal regions, reflecting underlying reductions in gray matter, was higher in patients”. Another is that “disruptions in white matter integrity have been implicated in schizophrenia”.
V. Give at least one opinion the author includes concerning the information presented in the article. (An opinion should be considered a statement of a person's feelings or impressions, or something not yet supported by data. Indications of opinion are words like "may be," "possibly," and "suggests.")
“Given that this is the same time period most associated with the onset of psychosis, deficiencies in white matter development may have a special importance. “
VI. Relate something that you learned from the article to something you've learned from this class (during lectures or from the textbook). Be