Enhancing Training Efficiency and Effectiveness Through the Use of Dyad Training

The authors examined the effect of inserting observation practice and undirected dialog into the rest interval between practice trials on the learning of a complex task (stabilometer). Training protocols in which learners practice in pairs (dyads) result in increases in learning efficiency, but the critical issue is the effect on learning effectiveness. Three groups of participants (n = 12 in each group) practiced maintaining their balance on a stabilometer. One group practiced individually, and the other 2 groups practiced in dyads in which 1 performer practiced the task while the other observed. In the dyad-alternate condition, participants alternated between physical, observational, and dialog practice on each trial, whereas in the dyad-control condition, subjects completed all trials on 1 form of practice (either physical or observational practice) before engaging in the other form. The results indicated that the dyad-alternate group initially performed more poorly but quickly overtook the individual group, and the performance advantage of the dyad-alternate group was maintained on the delayed retention test. When the different forms of practice were performed consecutively, as in the dyad-control group, acquisition and retention performance was generally poorer than when they were alternated. Those results suggest that one can combine the benefits of physical practice, observation, and dialog between learners in an interactive way to produce an effective and efficient learning protocol.     

Ethnicity, sleep duration, and sleep satisfaction

Analysis of responses of 1100 students from four ethnic groups to questions about the quantity and quality of their sleep indicated that ethnicity was modestly but significantly related.     

The Relevance of Multiculturalism for Aging

Though multiculturalists focus on race and minority status, issues of central importance to the aged, multiculturalism has not infiltrated the gerontology literature. However, since the so-called natural stages of life are cultural formations, each one a valuable creation, the topic of aging would certainly benefit from a connection to multiculturalism and its critique of the demands of assimilation.     

Relative Value Units: Using the New “Currency” for Measuring Clinical Productivity in a Productivity/Incentive Plan

This paper presents an overview of a productivity/incentive plan for faculty in an academic medicine center's department of behavioral medicine and psychiatry. The model utilizes the Resource-Based Relative Value Scale (RBRVS) for its measurement of clinical productivity. The paper provides an introduction to RBRVS terminology and how the RBRVS system was developed. The productivity/incentive plan developed for the Department of Behavioral Medicine and Psychiatry, West Virginia University School of Medicine, Morgantown, is described. The advantages and limitations of utilizing Relative Value Units (RVUs) in a productivity model are discussed. The paper may provide helpful insights to those charged with developing productivity/incentive plans at other academic health science centers.     

A Model of Psychological Distress for Mothers of Children with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

We functionally defined and tested a model of psychological distress for mothers of children diagnosed with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). This operationalized model includes three latent constructs which are hypothesized to influence mother's psychological symptomatology: Parenting Stress, Parent Characteristics, and Environment Characteristics. Structural equation modeling was used to reformulate and test the measurement models and the overall model. Data supported a model with some empirically-based model revisions founded on both comparisons of best fit and by an examination of statistical modification indices. The final model maintained the Parenting Stress and Parental Characteristics constructs, but replaced independent environmental variables with a more generalized construct of life stress.     

Is heaven a possible world?

International Journal for Philosophy of Religion -