Computer-based instruction and the practical aspects of memory

This article examines the relationship between basic memory research and computer-based instruction (CBI). The results of basic memory research have helped determine the current directions of computer-assisted instruction (CAI) research and development. These directions have included examining the utility of such learning systems for facilitating memory outcomes and developing CBI systems based on cognitive instructional principles. Examples of such systems include the emerging generation of hypermedia and artificial tutoring systems. Inconclusive results, however, have been found regarding CBI's effects on memroy phenomena. The CBI literature has thus not established the utility of any memory theory for naturally occurring phenomena. Several plausible reasons for this “null finding” are discussed.     

Follow-up survey of pregnancies with diagnoses of chromosomal abnormality

A small clinical survey was undertaken at East Carolina University School of Medicine to examine the factors which influenced the decisions of five families to continue pregnancies after a chromosomal abnormality was detected. Little has been published concerning the psychosocial effects after continuing pregnancies in which the fetus was diagnosed with a chromosome abnormality by amniocentesis. In order to identify the factors that influenced their decisions, an interview with each couple was undertaken using a 25-part questionnaire. This paper addresses the method of interviewing, case material, and background concerning each couple and the summary of the results.     

Sex role and dysphoric mood

This study was designed to examine the relation of sex-role type to dysphoric mood and to the manipulation of dysphoric affect. Initially, subjects completed a variety of measures yielding indices of dysphoria, anxiety, and hostility. Androgynous persons reported the least dysphoria, anxiety, and hostility. Subjects from the original sample who volunteered for the second part of the study were randomly assigned to the neutral or depression conditions of the Velten Mood Induction Procedure. Androgynous types again reported the least anxiety and dysphoria in the neutral type situation; however, when exposed to depressive stimuli, they showed the greatest increase in dysphoria. Masculine-typed persons showed virtually no change in mood. These results lend strong support to the association of sex-typing with depression in that the sex types were differentially susceptible to dysphoric mood. However, the results are contrary to the only other reported study of sex role and depression which successfully manipulated affect. Differences in methodology (learned helplessness versus mood induction) and the fact that the previous study forced subjects to lose control and fail may account for the differing results.     

Synergistic Psychotherapy: Post-Eclectic Forms of Therapy for Axis II

Today, it is economic forces that drive developments in psychotherapy. While most therapists are eclectics, eclecticism is not a theoretical orientation. However, practical eclecticism may be, the goals of science are nevertheless the development of ideas and models which integrate the discipline. Likewise, the personality construct is necessarily integrative, and thus specifically prescribes the form of therapies for the Axis II disorders, called potentiated pairings and catalytic sequences. These may be constructed from any of a number of functional and structural domains (e.g., behavioral acts, interpersonal conduct, self image) which parallel traditional perspectives on personality. Despite the promise of forms of therapy addressed to the whole person, and its failure to specify comparable and comprehensive diagnostic attributes across the domains in which the personality disorders are expressed.     

Right-left asymmetry in an eigenvector ranking procedure

A suggestion for the prioritization of alternatives using the Perron-Frobenius right eigenvector of a pairwise comparison matrix has recently been made by T. Saaty. We note that use of the left eigenvectors is equally justified (as long as order is reversed). The purpose of this note is to point out that the resultant prioritizations may disagree even when the comparisons are “nearly consistent.”