On assessing verbal stimulus hierarchies1

Typical word-association procedures result in verbal response hierarchies for a specific stimulus word. The problem of assessing corresponding stimulus hierarchies is discussed Three approaches are entertained: obtaining associations to all of the words in the dictionary, clerical cross-indexing of existing response-hierarchy data, and obtaining backward associations which are then used in forward association. A comparison of data obtainable by the last two methods is presented.     

Treatment recommendations for mentally disordered offenders: More than roulette?

Clinical judgments on the treatability and prognosis of mentally disordered offeenders (MDO) may strongly influence legal dispositions and the availability of treatment resources. This study examined 1,238 discharge summaries for MDOs referred for court assessments. Psychiatrists evidenced marked variability in how often they recommended treatment and how frequently they judged patients to have a poor prognosis. Two logit analyses suggested that diagnosis and consultation by other clinicians were associated with (a) treatment recommendations (i.e., Axis I diagnosis and social work consultations) and (b) prognosis (i.e., Axis II diagnosis and psychology consultations).     

General slowing alone cannot explain age-related search effects: reply to Cerella (1991)

Cerella (1991) has argued that the performance of older adults in the Fisk and Rogers (1991) study is a linear function of the performance of younger adults that is independent of task-specific cognitive requirements. We demonstrate that this is not the case. First, we show that the scatter plot analyses used by Cerella can hide the very task-specific age-related slowing they were designed to reveal. Second, we demonstrate that the percentage of variance explained by such analyses can be misleading. Third, we show that there are reliable differences across tasks in the parameters relating younger and older adults' performance. Finally, we argue that the general, task-independent proportionate slowing that Cerella suggested explains so much of the variance in age-related performance is actually an average slowing that is a function of a relatively small task-independent and a relatively large task-dependent factor.     

Using the microcomputer as a visual aid in the statistics classroom

A microcomputer running a spreadsheet program makes an excellent visual aid for demonstrating statistical concepts and procedures. Some advantages of this setup over traditional visual aids are described. Several statistical demonstrations that I have found to work well are presented.     

Manual performance in the cold with gloves and bare hands

Previous research aimed at quantifying and reducing the decrements encountered in performing manual tasks in cold weather has not described the relationships between task characteristics and cold-induced impairments. The amount of decrement and, often times, the optimal means for reducing the decrement, appear to be task-specific. The research reported here is one in a series of studies formulated to explore those relationships. The strategy is to use tasks from the battery developed by Fleishman (1967) to measure the factorially 'pure' abilities needed to perform all manual tasks. 24 U.S. Marines performed this battery of nine tasks across a range of cold temperatures. To determine if the decrement due to wearing gloves might be less than the decrement due to cold hands as the air temperature decreased, performance on the battery of tasks was measured with and without gloves. Only three of the tasks (abilities) were affected by cold temperatures, and the amount of decrement increased as the air temperature decreased. Three tasks deteriorated due to wearing of gloves, two of those affected by cold and one other. Temperature affected performance independently of the glove effect. Half of the subjects did not complete bare-handed testing at -18 degrees C (approximately 20 min.), indicating this is the lower end of the temperature range in which bare-handed performance for more than a few minutes is practical.     

The concept of the fully functioning person

Conclusion Here then is my theoretical model of the person who emerges from therapy—a person functioning freely in all the fullness of his organismic potentialities; a person who is dependable in being realistic, self-enhancing, socialized and appropriate in his behavior; a creative person, whose specific formings of behavior are not easily predictable; a person who is ever changing, ever developing, always discovering himself and the newness in himself in each succeeding moment of time. This is the person who in an imperfect way actually emerges from the experience of safety and freedom in a therapeutic experience, and this is the person whom I have tried to describe for you in pure form.My purpose has not been to convince you of the correctness of this view. Indeed I would have to confess that I have written this paper primarily for my own satisfaction, to clarify the thoughts which have been stirring in me. But if this presentation causes you to formulate your view of the person who emerges from therapy, or enables you to point out flaws in my own thinking which I have not yet seen, or arouses in you the desire to put to objective test either this picture or one which you paint for yourself, then it will have fully served both its primary and its secondary purpose.Reprinted by permission from Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, Vol. 1, No. 1, August, 1963.