Predicting environmental learning from spatial abilities: An indirect route

Relationships among spatial abilities, as assessed by a battery of psychometric tests and experimental tasks, and environmental learning, as assessed by a series of macrospatial tasks, were examined in two studies using confirmatory factor analysis with directional paths. The initial study indicated the utility of a five-factor model, one (general spatial ability) derived from psychometric tests, two (spatial-sequential memory and spatial perspective-taking latency) from experimental tasks, and two (topological knowledge and Euclidean direction knowledge) from measures of environmental learning. The best fitting path model further indicated that the spatial-sequential memory factor mediated the relationship between general spatial ability and topological knowledge, and that perspective-taking latency mediated the relationship between general spatial ability and Euclidean direction knowledge. The second study confirmed the five-factor path model using a different participant sample and environmental setting. The only failure to replicate involved the path between perspective-taking latency in the lab and Euclidean direction knowledge in the environment. Results indicate that the relationship between basic spatial abilities and environmental learning is significantly mediated by cognitive processes that can be assessed using laboratory tasks.     

The impact of the transition to high school on the self-system and perceived social context of poor urban youth

Examined the effects of the normative school transition to senior high school (n=330) on the self-system and perceived school and peer social contexts of poor, black (n=83), European American (n=115), Latino (n=105), and Asian American (n=27) youth in the public school systems of three Eastern urban cities. The only negative effect of the school transition on the self-system was a decline in grade point average (GPA). Concurrently, the school transition was perceived to be associated with changes in the school and peer contexts. Across the transition, students reported increased disengagement from school (i.e., increased social support and extracurricular involvement) and increased engagement with peers (i.e., decreased daily hassles and increased involvement). These changes in the school and peer microsystems, like the changes in the self-system, were also common across race/ethnicity and gender. In addition, transition-associated school changes, and in particular changes in daily academic demands/hassles and involvement in school activities, were associated with changes in the academic dimensions of the self-system (i.e., academic efficacy expectations and GPA). Results and implications for preventive intervention are discussed within a developmental mismatch framework. This research was supported in part by grants from the National Institute of Mental Health (MH43084) and the Carnegie Corporation (B4850) awarded to Edward Seidman, J. Lawrence Aber, LaRue Allen, and Christina Mitchell. We express our appreciation to the children and schools whose cooperation made this study possible.     

Cortical localization of finger spelling and oral language: A case study

Finger spelling of letters and words was mapped by means of the cortical stimulation procedure in a hearing patient undergoing a left dominant anterior temporal lobe resection for relief of a seizure disorder. Finger spelling was disrupted at five sites: three overlapping with one or more oral language functions at sites in the classical posterior language area, two relating only to finger spelling in the anterior temporal region. Following the resection which included these latter sites, both short- and long-term postoperative deficits in finger spelling are described. Implications for the organization of manually based communication behavior in the left hemisphere are discussed.     

Gait characteristics of children during free ascent climbing performances

The purpose of this study was to examine the characteristics of children's climbing performances with an emphasis placed on determining the appropriate dimensions of climbing apparatus as shown by the gait patterns adopted by the users. Seventy-two male and female children were selected and assigned to one of eight groups according to their age. The population comprised children whose ages ranged between 1.5 and 5.5 years with groups designated every 6 months (total eight groups). Each subject performed three trials consisting of an ascent of a 1.83 X 1.83 m climbing structure. The wooden climbing frame incorporated a regular matrix of handholds/footholds with a between rung difference of 0.15 meters. On command, the subjects climbed from a target area centered at the bottom of the frame to the top where the parent or guardian was located to offer encouragement. all trials were filmed using one 16 mm motion-picture camera. A large mirror placed in the field of vision permitted the recording of both the rear and lateral views. The temporal and displacement characteristics of a representative gait cycle for each subject were analyzed. The results provided little evidence to indicate either an age related or overall preferred consistent climbing gait. However, the most common method of ascent (38.92%) involved an order of peripheral segment movement of the right leg followed by right arm then left leg followed by left arm. A statistical analysis utilizing analysis of variance procedures with Newman Keuls post-hoc evaluation (p<0.05) conducted on the temporal characteristics of a gait cycle during a trial by each subject revealed: (1) that both the absolute contact and airborne times for the upper and lower limb segments were greater for the subjects between 1.5 and 2.5 years than for the subjects between 4.5 and 5.5 years, (2) that there existed an age dependent systematic decrease in the relative contact times for the lower limb segments, (3) that the age dependent decreases in the absolute lower limb airborne times were relatively greater than the corresponding decreases in the contact times with a significant linear trend being recorded. While the preferred horizontal spacing was found to be approximately 0.15 meters for all subjects, the preferred inclined spacing between consecutive handholds/footholds was found to be age dependent.     

Selection Criteria for Family Therapy

The patient selection criteria for most modalities of psychotherapy have not yet been clearly articulated. This paper presents a decision-tree model outlining the factors that incline a clinician to perform a family evaluation, then to decide upon family treatment instead of another form of therapy, and finally to settle upon the particular duration and intensity of family treatment. We have compiled screening criteria, based on research and clinical opinion, to be applied in the utilization review of the decisions made at each of these steps. This method can be used to evaluate the appropriateness of care and render decision-making explicit and accountable; it may also have considerable value in training and research.     

Checkerboard-specific color aftereffects: A failure to find effects of perceptual organization

Two experiments investigated the effects of differing perceptual organizations of reversible figures on McCollough aftereffects. Experiment 1 used colored checkerboard inducing stimuli and achromatic grating test stimuli. While some subjects tended to organize the checkerboards into rows and/or columns and others to organize them into obliques, these variations did not result in differences in aftereffect direction or magnitude. Experiment 2 induced an aftereffect with colored gratings and tested with checkerboards, gratings, and a reversible concentric octagon pattern. Perceptual organization had no effect on results for checkerboards, but was related to aftereffect strength for the octagon pattern. Indirect evidence suggests that, in the latter case, differences in aftereffect strength may have influenced the perceived organization, rather than vice versa. Finally, regardless of the specific organization perceived, spontaneous viewing of all test stimuli produced stronger aftereffects than were found when subjects reorganized the pattern. This may have resulted from a viewing strategy associated with reorganization, since similarly small aftereffects were found when subjects concentrated their attention on a single pattern element.