Using the Observer to analyze learning in virtual worlds

In this study, we describe and analyze the ways in which high school students explored a virtual solar system (VSS). VSS is a nonimmersive virtual environment that affords visual manipulations of space by altering its frame of reference. The Observer software was used to code and analyze the participants’ real-time free-exploration task. Two basic behaviors were identified across participants: establishing several home bases, and shifting between a still mode and a dynamic mode. Moreover, three overall exploration patterns emerged: thebutterfly pattern represents a superficial mode of learning; thebee pattern represents an in-depth mode of studying the various celestial objects; and theeagle pattern represents a global approach of studying the complex system. This virtual reality environment promises to provide a setting in which to further study consistent patterns and individual differences in exploration strategies.     

Homelessness

The author, acknowledging the reality of homeless persons in most communities, explores the meanings and dynamics of homelessness, and the need to recognize the variety of participants needing to be recognized in appreciating the complexity of this segment of society. He raises the issue of how pastoral caregivers become involved in providing authentic care to this sub-culture and offers examples from his own experiences as a volunteer chaplain in the Salvation Army Corps.     

The influence of language exposure on lexical and syntactic language processing

Previous literature has argued that proficient bilingual speakers often demonstrate monolingual-equivalent structural processing of language (e.g., the processing of structural ambiguities; Frenck-Mestre, 2002). In this paper, we explore this thesis further via on-line examination of the processing of syntactically complex structures with three populations: those who classify as monolingual native English speaker (MNES), those who classify as non-native English speakers (NNES), and those who calssify as bilingual native English speakers (BNES). On-line measures of processing of object-relative constructions demonstrated that both NNES and BNES have different patterns of performance as compared to MNES. Further, NNES and BNES speakers perform differently from one another in such processing. The study also examines the activation of lexical information in biasing contexts, and suggests that different processes are at work in the different type of bilinguals examined here. The nature of these differences and the implications for developing sensitive models of on-line language comprehension are developed and discussed.     

Gender Differences in Managers' Conceptions and Perceptions of Commitment to the Organization

This study explored the effect of gender on managers' conceptions and perceptions of those behaviors seen as demonstrating commitment to the organization. Three major findings are reported: (1) female managers and male managers with families evaluated traditional commitment behaviors as less indicative of commitment than their single male counterparts; (2) managers' conceptions of behaviors indicative of commitment conformed to the views of the majority gender within their work-group; and (3) managers' perceptions of commitment were not affected by gender-based in-group biases.     

Are semantic errors actually semantic?: Evidence from alzheimer's disease

Patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) produce a high rate of semantic errors when naming to confrontation. This is considered to be one of the many consequences of their semantic memory deficit. However, it has been shown, in aphasic patients with focal lesions, that semantic errors could arise from impairment to any one of the levels in the naming process. To check this hypothesis in AD, we assessed in 15 patients the capacity to name and access semantic knowledge (by multiple-choice probe questions) about 14 objects presented successively in the visual, tactile, auditory, and verbal modalities. In the visual naming task, 33 errors were recorded: 26 (78.8%) were semantic and 7 (21.2%) were unrelated errors. Of the 26 semantic errors, 8 were related to a deficit of the semantic knowledge related to the item and 17 to a deficit in the retrieval of the phonological form of the word. One was associated with a deficit of access to semantic knowledge in the visual modality. The 7 unrelated errors were associated with a loss of semantic knowledge for 4 and deficit of access to the phonological form for 3. In conclusion, this study shows that semantic errors do not systematically reflect a deficit of semantic knowledge in Alzheimer's disease. It also seems that unrelated errors are more frequently related to semantic deficits than semantic errors in this population.     

Stress and recurrent miscarriage

Our current understanding into the role of stress in unexplained recurrent miscarriages comes from two different research strategies. The majority of research has examined the role of psychological support within this patient population. This support has been provided in a number of ways ranging from weekly interviews with a psychiatrist or gynaecologist and or visual re-assurance in the form of ultrasound scans. A comparison of psychological support with an absence of such intervention has found differences in successful pregnancy outcome varying from as great as 84 versus 26%, respectively. It has been assumed that psychological support reduces the miscarriage rate by reducing “stress”within this patient population. In addition it provides indirect support for a role of stress in the aetiology of unexplained recurrent miscarriage. Other studies have attempted to directly assess the effect of personality characteristics on miscarriage rate; these studies have yielded conflicting results.The mechanism by which stress may be causal in the aetiology of unexplained recurrent miscarriage has not been examined in humans. Animal studies, however, have found that psychological distress can alter immune parameters that may be intricately involved with implantation. These parameters include an elevation of the “abortive” cytokine TNF-a and a reduction in the “anti-abortive” cytokine TGF-P2. Cells that are involved in the release of TNF-a at the feto-maternal interface include T cells, macrophages and mast cells.Mechanisms through which stress may act on these cells are explored and an integrated model is postulated.     

As We Forgive—Case History of a Burglary

In 1979, Pastoral Psychology published the first of a series of articles I wrote based on non-risk-free research. The last was The Extra Mile—Case History of a Homicide (1993) and in it a point was stressed: Ministers who practice psychotherapy will profit prophetically if pastoral theology accepts the responsibility to (1) articulate contemporary ultimateconcerns, (2) clarify healthy avenues for compensation, and (3) tell stories about the hopeful revelations of God's providence in a broken world. As We Forgive is also a case study—wrapped in a novella—and it illustrates these three ingredients with an emphasis on spiritual self-awareness and thereality of Providence.     

Myth and Therapy

In the context of psychology, myth takes on a therapeutic aspect that moves it beyond the negative connotations of common usage to a position of religious significance.