The use of paraprofessionals in crisis intervention

Single-session crisis services by paraprofessionals (graduate students and community volunteers) in the emergency room of a community hospital were offered to 293 clients. These clients were followed-up 6 to 12 months after their last contact and asked about: (1) the effectiveness of the service, (2) their use of referrals, (3) the major source of change in their crisis situation, and (4) their rating of improvement for their presenting problem. There were 104 clients who completed the follow-up. The results support the interpretation that timely intervention by paraprofessionals may have long-lasting results in specific problem areas. A model emphasizing the use of service deliverers as researchers is proposed.     

Effects of manipulating incentive visibility during the baiting phase of delayed-response problems

Rhesus monkeys were given 960 delayed response (DR) problems. The incentive was either visible or not visible during the baiting phase of each problem, and a 0-, 5-, 10-, or 20-sec intraproblem delay was imposed. Performance was substantially better when the incentive could be seen during the baiting phase. When the incentive was visible during baiting, at all stages of training performance decreased as a function of increased chance levels after short delays, and the rate of improvement with training was comparable after each of the four intraproblem delays. When the incentive was not visible during the baiting phase, an inverse relationship between performance and delay duration became evident only during the later stages of training. On the initial problems performance was at chance levels, and although improvement with training was evident, the rate of this improvement was inversely related to delay duration. The findings were interpreted in terms of Fletcher's orienting response analysis of DR performance.     

Stimulus averaging and the context for judgment

Loudness judgments of stimulus sets composed of four bursts of noise were analyzed for two types of contextual effects: between-set and within-set. Experiment I demonstrated between-set effects for these four-component stimuli; they were shown to be similar to those found in previous work with single stimuli. Experiment 2 tested an averaging model for within-set contextual effects. The results were inconsistent with the model. One interpretation is that there are within-set effects and that these are caused by shifts in the effective range of stimuli. Alternative interpretations attribute the apparent contextual effects either to an averaging of physical values or to an inappropriate scale of judgment.