What we say we do: results of the 1997 UK Association of Family Therapy Members Survey

This study represents the first UK national survey of family therapists and systemic practitioners. The aim was to provide demographic information of systemic practitioners/family therapists and also to describe their clinical practice. The sampling frame used was the UK Association of Family Therapy membership list and all members were sent a postal questionnaire. The response rate was 33% with 495 out of 1500 questionnaires returned. Among the major findings were: systemic practitioners/family therapists are most likely to work for an NHS trust, to use family therapy techniques/systemic ideas predominantly, and to treat a broad range of client issues. They are also most likely to work with families, and therapy is relatively short term (five to eight sessions) regardless of whether they treat families, couples or individuals. Most family therapists/systemic practitioners use some measure of outcome, although frequently this will be feedback from clients. Supervision is sought by the majority of AFT members. In spite of some methodological limitations, the study provides interesting insights into the training and practice of UK family therapists and systemic practitioners which appears to differ in some respects from our American colleagues. It also provides a baseline for future surveys, making it possible to describe the developments of family therapy and systemic practice in this country.     

Perceptual organization and focused attention: The role of objects and proximity in visual processing

The influence of the Gestalt grouping principles of similarity, closure, and proximity on the size of the response-compatibility effect was examined in a focused attention task. In three studies, subjects responded to a centrally located target and attempted to ignore adjacent distractors. The distractors, which served as targets on other trials, could be compatible, incompatible, or neutral with respect to the response of the target. In addition, the distractors and the target could be embedded in the same object, presented in the same color, presented on different objects, or presented in different colors. The typical response-compatibility effect (B. A. Eriksen & C. W. Eriksen, 1974) was found when the target and distractors were embedded in the same object or presented in the same color. Performance was poorer when the target was surrounded by response-incompatible distractors than when it was surrounded by response-compatible distractors. However, the response-compatibility effect was eliminated-w-hen. the target and distractors were embedded in different objects, even when the distance between the items was less than.25° of visual angle. Furthermore, the response-compatibility effect was of intermediate size when the distractors were not grouped strongly with the target or with neutral flankers. The results are discussed in terms of space- and object-based models of visual attention.     

Effects of stress on recall

Subjects in experimental conditions were exposed to a traumatic autopsy colour slide (labelled either as of New York Police Department (NYPD) or MGM studio origin) embedded in a neutral series of travel scenes, while control subjects saw a neutral target. Subjects in the high-stress condition showed a significant decrease in memory for neutral slides which followed the NYPD-labelled traumatic stimulus (p < 0.001). Results support evidence in the eyewitness memory field which indicate reduced recall under elevated levels of stress.     

Primary Femininity and Female Genital Anxiety

The American Journal of Psychoanalysis -     

Object-based visual selective attention and perceptual organization

We report the results of four experiments that were conducted to examine both the representations that provide candidate entities available for object-based attentional selection and the influence of bottom-up factors (i.e., geometric and surface characteristics of objects) and top-down factors (i.e., context and expectancies) on the selection process. Subjects performed the same task in each of the experiments. They were asked to determine whether two target properties, a bent end and an open end of a wrench, appeared in a brief display of two wrenches. In each experiment, the target properties could occur on a single wrench or one property could occur on each of two wrenches. The question of central interest was whether a same-object effect (faster and/or more accurate performance when the target properties appeared on one vs. two wrenches) would be observed in different experimental conditions. Several interesting results were obtained. First, depending on the geometric (i.e., concave discontinuities on object contours) and surface characteristics (i.e., homogeneous regions of color and texture) of the stimuli, attention was preferentially directed to one of three representational levels, as indicated by the presence or absence of the same-object effect. Second, although geometric and surface characteristics defined the candidate objects available for attentional selection, top-down factors were quite influential in determining which representational level would be selected. Third, the results suggest that uniform connectedness plays an important role in defining the entities available for attention selection. These results are discussed in terms of the manner in which attention selects objects in the visual environment.     

The Relationship Between Health and Human Services and the Personal Goal-Directed Activities of Persons Living with AIDS

This study evaluates the relationship between the social climate from different services and the personal goal-directed activities of 224 individuals with AIDS. The study's results supported the main hypothesis that recipient and participatory service involvement uniquely influence personal goal-directed activities, even after considering individuals with AIDS' physical symptoms, psychological distress, income, and recruitment site. Income and involvement with participatory services were both positively related to the amount of personal goal-directed activity. Longitudinal analyses suggest that personal initiative contributes to the subsequent amount of personal goal-directed activities a person pursues. These results suggest further examination of factors contributing to the selection of different service types and of the processes underlying the relationship between participatory services and positive outcomes for clients with AIDS.     

Application of the Generalized Matching Law for Description of Student Behavior in the Classroom

Matching law and theory have applied implications for classroom instruction and student behavior. The Generalized Matching Law (GML) is examined in this exploratory study to assess its utility for quantitatively describing student behavior in the classroom. Data were collected using computer-based observational software. Time-lag sequential analysis was used to identify specific teacher behaviors following specific student behaviors as estimates of reinforcement. Derived rates of student and teacher behaviors were analyzed in a linear regression of the natural logarithmic form of the GML. On average, the GML described over 70% of the variance in two students' behavior in a first-grade regular education classroom. Discussion addresses the potential utility of the GML for observation and intervention in the classroom.     

Offset transients modulate attentional capture by sudden onsets

Recent research with visual search tasks has suggested that stimuli which appear as sudden onsets (new objects) have attentional priority over stimuli that are created by removing segments of premasks (non-onset stimuli). Attentional capture by sudden onsets occurs despite the fact that the appearance of these new objects predicts neither the identity nor the location of the target in the visual search task. In three experiments, we examined the extent to which attentional capture by sudden onsets could be modulated by offset transients used to create non-onset objects. To that end, we systematically manipulated the ratio of non-onset to onset stimuli in the display (display ratio) as well as the ratio of offset to onset segments between the stimulus types (stimulus ratio). Increases in either the stimulus ratio or the display ratio resulted in increases in the visual search slopes for the onset targets. These results suggest that the ability of sudden onsets (new objects) to capture attention is influenced by stimulusdriven factors, such as environmental change. Interestingly, the results also indicated that goal-directed or purposeful search for sudden-onset (new-object) targets was relatively uninfluenced by the amount of change in the visual display. Therefore, it would appear that environmental change has differential effects on goal-directed and stimulus-driven search. These results are discussed in terms of their implications for our understanding of attentional capture.