Reading with partial phonology: Developmental phonological dyslexia

Recent psycholinguistic investigations have advanced our understanding of the acquired dyslexias. Developmental analogues have been described to some of these disorders. A new case of developmental phonological dyslexia is described here. A.H. is an intelligent 10-year-old boy with no neurological abnormality. Reading and spelling are below age level. A.H. is poorer at reading words than nonwords. The majority of his errors are paralexias: visual, derivations, or visuosemantic. Spelling-to-sound regularity does not affect the ability to read aloud. A.H.'s reading performance is significantly impaired when words are presented typed in reverse order, thereby prohibiting global strategies. Spelling of nonwords is no better than reading of nonwords. Only one-fifth of spelling errors are phonologically valid. A.H. has imperfect development of both the phonological route to reading and the phonological route to spelling.A shortened version of this paper was presented at the European meeting of the International Neuropsychological Society, Lisbon, Portugal, June 1983.     

Attributional mediators of social inhibition and avoidance

People differ in the degree to which they become inhibited and avoidant when they feel socially anxious This study explored the hypothesis that characterological attributions for one's feelings of nervousness in social settings are related to social inhibition and avoidance In a preliminary study, the dimensions people use to explain their feelings of nervousness and relaxation were determined One hundred and twenty-five subjects then completed measures of social anxiousness, inhibition, and avoidance, and made attributions for feeling nervous and relaxed in 10 interpersonal scenarios As predicted, attributions of nervousness to characterological factors, such as ability and personality traits, correlated positively with social inhibition and avoidance Unexpectedly, behavioral attributions for nervousness also predicted inhibition and avoidance     

Workaholism,sex, and sex role stereotyping among female professionals

This paper examines the relationship between workaholism, sex, and sex role orientation among professionals. The sample consisted of 86 male and 106 female attorneys, physicians, and psychologists/therapists. Results indicated a significant relationship between sex and sex role stereotyping. Among females, workaholics were grouped exclusively in the sex role categories masculine and androgynous. Implications for counseling include increasing awareness of changing sex role attitudes among professional women and possible role conflict that can occur from integration of work and family.     

Morning and evening people: Examination of an identifying scale and of social- and self-perceptions of personality differences

An experiment was conducted aimed first at establishing the reliability and validity of a measure of individual differences in sleeping schedules. Two samples of subjects completed a questionnaire concerning their sleeping behavior which was scored according to the diurnal or nocturnal pattern of their responses. The scores were then used to classify subjects as morning people or evening people. Both the internal reliability and cross-time reliability of the scale were assessed and found to be high. In addition, three indices of construct validity, obtained 4 months after the administration of the scale, supported its validity. In a second part of the experiment, subjects classified as either morning or evening people rated themselves on a set of behavioral and personality dimensions. Another sample of subjects indicated their perceptions of morning people and evening people in general, along the same dimensions. It was found that subjects did have strong beliefs about personality and behavioral differences between morning people and evening people. However, the self-perceptions of the actual morning and evening people did not differ, thereby casting doubt on the validity of popular stereotypic perceptions about the two groups.     

Capuchin monkeys learn to use information equally well from individual exploration and social demonstration

Animal Cognition - The limited evidence of complex culture in non-human primates contrasts strikingly with human behaviour. This may be because non-human primates fail to use information acquired...     

Age differences in everyday memory: laboratory analogues of telephone number recall

Three experiments were conducted to examine age differences in memory for telephone numbers by adults ranging from 18 to 85 years of age. In the first 2 studies, using visual simultaneous presentation, age declines in immediate recall were evident on 10-digit numbers, but not on 3-digit numbers. With 7-digit numbers, the youngest group performed significantly better than the oldest (70-85 years) group. In the second study, more marked age declines occurred when subjects had to redial a number after a busy signal. The third experiment replicated the observed aging pattern with auditory sequential presentation. Also, chunked presentation of local telephone numbers resulted in high performance for old and young in sequential recall. The findings were discussed in relation to task processing demands and practical issues related to telephone number recall.     

Employment and Roles of Counselors in Employee Assistance Programs

The authors studied employment and roles of master's-level counselors in employee assistance programs (EAPs) and the services offered by different types of EAP organizations. The study focused on programs, workshops and seminars: assessment; counseling; consultation; and evaluation and marketing services offered by EAPs. Master's-level counselors were found to be similar to those with Master's of Social Work (MSW) degrees in employment rate and percentage of EAP staff. Both groups were the most frequently employed and constitute the greatest percentage of the professional mental health staff in EAPs. Also, counselors were found to be involved in all of the service areas studied within each type of EAP. Differences in counselors' roles among EAP types are discussed.     

Experimental Construct Validity of the Outcomes of Study Skills Training and Career Counseling as Treatments for the Retention of At-Risk Students

The authors evaluated the separate and combined effects of study skills training and career counseling on student retention. Participants who were at high risk for dropping out of college were randomly assigned to one of four treatment or control conditions. The study-skills-alone treatment had a significant impact on retention; all of these participants continued their enrollment in the following two semesters. Career-counseling-alone and a combined (study skills plus career counseling) treatment did not register significant effects. Participants who received the study-skills-alone treatment also achieved significantly greater academic success; 88% had grade point averages (GPAs) equal to or greater than 2.0, whereas most other treatment and control participants had GPAs lower than 2.0 and were placed on academic probation. Issues relevant to the construct validity of these changes are discussed.