A multi-purpose logic module for behavioral experiments

A notational system has been developed that can be used to describe most reinforcement schedules or other sequential procedures by appropriately interconnecting the basic notational units. The notational language has been applied in the past to develop a user-oriented computer program for behavioral experiments. The present paper describes a digital logic module designed to be isomorphic with the basic unit of the notational language, thus permitting rapid programming of new experiments directly from the notational system. The major advantage of the new module is that it requires no electronic sophistication on the part of the user, since the one module serves as the basic unit of all experiments.     

Intention and outcome: key components of causal structure facilitating mapping in children's analogical transfer.

The consequences of two key features of causal structure in source stories, intention and positive outcome, for analogical transfer were examined in kindergarten and second graders. In Experiment 1, children received either structure-complete, structure-incomplete, or irrelevant source stories. Structure-incomplete stories lacked either the intention to solve a problem (a goal-directed component), evidence of a successful consequence (an outcome-related component), or both as part of the solution activity described in source stories. Evidence for transfer was obtained for second graders when a goal-directed component, and to a lesser extent, an outcome-related component were connected to the solution action in source stories. Differences among conditions for kindergartners were less evident, although they revealed a pattern of performance similar to the second graders. A second experiment was conducted to determine whether memory and an orientation to use the source story information might account for these findings. Efforts to ensure memory for and hints to use information in the source stories, however, did not benefit solution transfer when intention and positive outcome were absent. These results suggest that a complete causal structure, including goal and outcome, in source stories augments transfer in young children by promoting mapping of the analogical relationship between source stories and the target problem.     

Outstanding problems: Replies to ZiF critics

Answers set the stage for new questions. Reconfigured terrains require new maps. We endedReconceptions with the words constructionalism always has plenty to do. The papers in this volume prove our point. They raise issues and disclose avenues that merit further investigation. In what follows, I venture some brief replies that answer objections and indicate areas that deserve further study.     

Undesirable life-events and depression in young adolescents

We compared the relationship between individual undesirable life-events and comprehensive life-event factors, as well as major depression in adolescents. Students in four public suburban middle schools were screened for depressive symptomatology and life-events by a self-administered questionnaire. Seven of 21 individual events (parents' divorce, parental job loss, problems between parents, problems between the adolescent and his/her parents, failing a grade in school, school suspension, death of a close friend) and three of six life-event factors (conflict/disappointment, marital discord, maladjustment) were significantly related to depression in univariate models. A multivariate examination of the individual events was difficult to interpret, but examination of the event factors found maladjustment and conflict/disappointment significant. Analyses using the undesirable life-event factors provided a clearer picture of the relationships investigated by grouping related events into a more manageable number of independent categories. Specific combinations of life-events suggest stronger associations with adolescent depression than others. Clinicians may identify youths at risk for depression when specific combinations of undesirable life-events occur.     

Sex and age difference in adolescents' value judgements of historically important events: theory, stereotypes and data

The extent to which younger and older adolescents differed in their value judgments of historically important events was examined. Subjects were asked to list the ten most important events that happened in or to the U.S. since 1990. The subjects' choices were analyzed as a function of sex, age, political and religious orientation, and family size. In addition, 100 undergraduates were asked to serve as judges and predict which categories would be cited more frequently by males and which by females. Results indicated that the judges' predictions did not match the data. Age was a much better predictor of value judgments than sex. Further, several additional differences in value judgments were revealed that would have been missed had only the variables of sex and age been included in the analyses.     

Effects of systemic glucose injection on the development of amygdala kindling in rats.

The effects of systemic glucose administration on the development of electric amygdaloid kindling seizures were examined in Wistar rats. Daily intraperitoneal injections of glucose 100 mg/kg, 20 min prior to each amygdaloid stimulation did affect the rate of kindling development in comparison with the saline-injected group. The number of stimulations required to reach stage 5 was lower in animals treated with glucose. The facilitation of kindling development found in glucose-treated rats is related to a specific decrease in the number of stimulations needed to evolve from stage 2 to stage 3. These results indicate that systemic glucose administration facilitates amygdaloid kindling in rats.     

Toward an expanded vision of clinical ethics education: from the individual to the institution

This paper advances a new paradigm in clinical ethics education that not only emphasizes development of individual clinicians' skills, but also focuses on the institutional context within which health care professionals work. This approach has been applied to the goal of improving the care provided to critically and terminally ill adults. The model has been adopted by about thirty hospitals and nursing homes; additional institutions will soon join the program, entitled Decisions Near the End of Life. Here, we describe the history and rationale for this approach, its goals, pedagogical assumptions, and design.     

The architect as person: a Rorschach image

Analysis of the Rorschachs of 40 eminent male architects collected in 1959 revealed a highly consistent personality profile. The picture that emerges is of a person who appears to be ambitious, highly sensitive, intellectually and emotionally energetic, and reasonably well adjusted socially. His thinking is well oriented in reality. He prefers large scale conceptualizing to mundane 'concerns. There is evidence of conflict, tension, and a concern with emotional control. Feminine and exhibitionistic interests are exceptionally high and sources of inspiration appear to reside in unresolved sexual conflicts. The attitude toward the world is positive. The eminent male American architect at the turn of the Sixties believed in his own ability to create a truly superior environment. His conscious concerns were with creation rather than with self-confrontation.