Generality of persistence: The role of stimulus and response factors in persistence to punishment

Previous research has shown that intermittent punishment of a response increases its persistence to continuous punishment and that intermittent punishment training in one situation produces persistence to continuous punishment in other situations. Experiment 1 showed that as long as the instrumental response and punishing stimulus were held constant from intermittent to continuous punishment marked differences between these situations had no decremental effect on persistence. Experiment 2 showed that intermittent punishment training of one response resulted in substantial persistence to continuous punishment of a different and apparently incompatible response and that such response change had no more than a marginal effect on persistence. The results were seen as requiring some revision to the traditional conditioning-model interpretation of persistence to punishment.     

Temperature sensitivity: One subjective continuum or two?

An experiment is reported on the effect of six consecutive days of exposure to distortions of binaural time and intensity cues on the localization function for tones of 350, 1000, and 4000 Hz. Tests were conducted under “free-field” conditions. The changes in auditory spatial orientation indicate that adjustments to binaurally distorted temporal and intensive cues can occur. Reorientation does not appear to depend upon the existence of veridical auditory cues.     

Good continuation affects visual detection

This research shows that the principle of good continuation can predict forced-choice de-tection of an element imbedded in a briefly presented visual array. The present experiments show the configurational effect in a manner that is difficult for feature-analytic theories to explain. The research adds good continuation to good form as Gestalt-like organizational principles affecting detection performance, and it shows the necessity for including organiza-tional principles in a theory of visual detection.     

Accuracy and speed strategies in scanning active memory

The effect of speed and accuracy payoff on performance in a short-term memory scanning task was investigated under two conditions of familiarity of material and two conditions of payoff. Memory sets and probes were either drawn from a small well learned pool of words (thefamiliar set) or were sampled without replacement from a very large pool of words (theinfinite set). Under both payoffs the infinite memory sets were searched at a faster rate than the familiar sets. The speed payoff reduced the constant component of latencies and, contrary to previous findings, increased the rate of memory search for both sets. Errors increased from about 1% with accuracy payoff to 19% with speed payoff. Under speed payoff most of the errors were false positives for the familiar set and false negatives for the infinite set. Several models of the task were considered, but none proved entirely satisfactory.     

Duration of unemployment and psychological well-being in young men and women

Previous research has typically failed to support the plausible expectation that lower psychological well-being accompanies longer unemployment. Two cohorts of recent school-leavers were interviewed over two years, and five data sets were available for investigation. Measures of both psychological distress and self-esteem were found to be uncorrelated with duration of unemployment for young men. For young women no relationships with self-esteem were observed, and in one cohort longer female unemployment was associated with lower distress. This was shown to be due to women's withdrawal from the labour market because of pregnancy and child care. It is suggested that the expected association between duration and well-being may be restricted to older samples and longer periods out of work.     

A role for clinical psychology in health care and policy concerning the physical environment

Some persons adversely react to specific environments, while others are impervious or actually thrive. Medical attention often overlooks such sensitivities to the physical environment. Such sensitivities, including phobias and seasonal affectivity, fall within clinical psychology's purview. A theoretical/clinical approach called the Synchronous Systems Model, which defines and uses individual differences in people and in settings, could serve medical health care and policy. When specific people are matched appropriately with specific treatments within the most propitious settings, cost effectiveness and medical efficacy rise. Such documented accountability could make clinical psychologists central to triage of medical services as well as health care policy in these days of the shrinking health care dollar. The Synchronous Systems Model provides theory, supportive data, and clinical assessment devices to strengthen clinical psychology's role in medical settings.     

Challenges to the Career Development of Urban Racial and Ethnic Minority Youth: Implications for Vocational Intervention

Urban racial and ethnic minority youth experience a variety of internal and external challenges to their career development. This article discusses several potential barriers to successful career attainment experienced by racial and ethnic minority youth and identifies a series of recommendations that vocational counselors may wish to consider in addressing the career development needs of this population.