Children's binary prediction of partially learnable sequences followed by an all-correct procedure

Six groups of 20 subjects each were run individually in a binary prediction situation with each alternative occurring equally often. Two age groups were employed; subjects were either in second or sixth grades. For one-third of the subjects at each age level, the events occurred in runs of either two or six; another third observed events which occurred in runs of either five or six; the other subjects received a random sequence of events. All subjects then received an additional 50 trials in which every prediction was correct. The results indicated some sensitivity to run length characteristics. Fewer errors of all types were made in the prediction of 5–6 sequences. The verbal reports and all-correct trial protocols revealed that at least the sixth graders employed some simple run length structure rules, although many instances of runs other than those presented in training occurred, showing much processing error. The results were discussed in terms of a general limited-capacity model of information-processing.     

Gender and Infertility: A Relational Approach to Counseling Women

Much of the research on infertility reinforces differing effects for women and men, with women reporting more serious repercussions medically, psychologically, and socially. However, the unique counseling needs of infertile women have not been addressed through traditional counseling theory. The Relational Model (J. V. Jordan, 1995) of women's development is a theory that explains women's development in a context of relationships, specifically relationships that promote growth for self and others. This model is applied to counseling women who are experiencing infertility, and a case presentation is provided to illustrate the approach.     

Ethical Guidelines for Counselors Working With Older Adults

Counselors working with older adults may encounter situations that are not directly addressed by the ethical standards of the American Counseling Association (1995). After an extensive review of the literature, the Standards Committee of the Association for Adult Development and Aging (1998) identified 3 areas of concern: older adults with cognitive impairments, older adults who are the victims of abuse, and older adults with a terminal illness. This article examines the unique needs of older adults with these concerns and proposes guidelines for counselors working with such clients.     

The Wheel of Wellness Counseling for Wellness: A Holistic Model for Treatment Planning

A holistic model of wellness and prevention over the life span was presented by T. J. Sweeney and J. M. Witmer (1991) and J. M. Witmer and T. J. Sweeney (1992). Recent advances in research and theory related to wellness support modifications of the original model. The foundation for the model is examined, research related to each component is explored, and implications for use of the model as a basis for counseling interventions are presented.     

A note on the standard length of a test

This paper describes a relationship between the variance-covariance matrix of test items and Woodbury's concept of the standard length of a test. An index of item-test relationship is described in standard length terms. The sum of these indices for the items in a test is equal to the square of Jackson's coefficient of sensitivity.     

A Comparison of Latent Inhibition and Learned Irrelevance Pre-Exposure Effects in Rabbit and Human Eyeblink Conditioning

The learning of an association between a CS and a US can be retarded by unreinforced presentations of the CS alone (termed latent inhibition or LI) or by un-correlated presentations of the CS and US (termed learned irrelevance or LIRR). In rabbit eyeblink conditioning, there have been some recent failures to replicate LI. LIRR has been hypothesized as producing a stronger retardation effect than LI based on both empirical studies and computational models. In the work presented here, we examined the relative strength of LI and LIRR in eyeblink conditioning in rabbits and humans. In both species, a number of preexposure trials sufficient to produce LIRR failed to produce LI (Experiments 1 & 3). Doubling the number of CS pre-exposures did produce LI in rabbits (Experiment 2), but not in humans (Experiment 4). LI was demonstrated in humans only after manipulations including an increased inter-trial interval or ITI (Experiment 5). Overall, it appears that LIRR is a more easily producible pre-exposure retardation effect than LI for eyeblink conditioning in both rabbits and humans. Several theoretical mechanisms for LI including the conditioned attention theory, stimulus compression, novelty, and the switching theory are discussed as possible explanations for the differences between LIRR and LI. Overall, future work involving testing the neural substrates of pre-exposure effects may benefit from the use of LIRR rather than LI.     

Paying the meter: Effect of metrical similarity on word lengthening

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review - Language has a rhythmic structure, but little is known about the mechanisms that underlie how it is planned. Traditional models of language production assume...     

Repressive coping and cardiovascular reactivity to novel and recurrent stress

Background and objectives: Repressors tend to report less negative emotion and to describe challenges as less stressful, yet tend to exhibit higher rates of cardiovascular disease. While repressive coping has been shown to be associated with exaggerated physiological reactivity to novel stress, we sought to establish if elevated responses persisted across repeated exposure.

Design and methods: In a sample of 86 healthy female adults, a verbal-autonomic response dissociation index of repressive coping was computed. Participants were exposed to two consecutive stress tasks, with analyses based on comparisons of consecutive stress responses.

Results: Analysis of covariance demonstrated significant differences across the study on diastolic blood pressure and cardiac output, as a function of repressive coping. Repressors showed elevated reactions to both stress tasks; however, cardiac output responses to the second task were more muted indicating that repressive coping was associated with successful adaptation to recurrent stress. Nevertheless, repressive copers maintained an exaggerated cardiovascular responses to recurrent stress.

Conclusions: The present study identifies that repressive coping may be associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease development through elevated cardiovascular reactions to both novel and recurrent stress.