Self-evaluation and self-perception of student learning in person-centred counselling training within a higher education setting

This is an account of some of the learning experiences of mature students undertaking a Level 2 Diploma course in Person-Centred Counselling over four terms in a higher education establishment in England. The central question driving this research stemmed from a desire to understand the student experience of becoming professional. Therefore the question was that of qualitative inquiry: ‘What are the experiences of mature learners on person-centred counselling courses within higher education?’ This paper discusses students’ perceptions of training and the ways in which they evaluate their status as professionals.     

CAN SPATIAL TRAINING ERASE THE GENDER DIFFERENCES ON THE WATER-LEVEL TASK?

Spatial training has been only modestly effective at improving the performance of adolescents and adults on the water-level task. Based on previous findings with the task, a self-discovery training procedure was developed that involved having participants proceed from easier to more difficult problems along a dimension of increasingly greater competing perceptual cues. The training was effective in (a) eliminating the gender differences on the drawing task, and (b) significantly improving females' knowledge of the physical (invariance) principle, although not to the level of males. Training effects did not transfer to a related spatial task.     

The Multiculturally Responsive Versus the Multiculturally Reactive: A Study of Perceptions of Counselor Trainees

Findings suggest that the completion of or exposure to multicultural counseling coursework or literature does not necessarily indicate an acceptance of or valuing of multicultural counseling literature. Survey results of counselor trainees' observations and perceptions of peers whose perspectives on diversity differ are presented and discussed. Implications for training and supervision are addressed.     

Infants prefer higher-pitched singing

Female singers were recorded singing a song in a high and/or a low range. Infants preferred to listen to the higher-pitched versions, suggesting that infants' preference for infant-directed singing and speech is mediated in part by a preference for higher pitch.     

Perceptual evaluation of the speech before and after fluency shaping stuttering therapy

An often-cited criterion for assessing the effect of a stuttering therapy is the ability of the stutterers to produce normally fluent speech. Many modern stuttering therapies use special techniques that may produce stutter-free speech that does not sound completely normal. The present study investigates this problem in the framework of the Dutch adaptation of the Precision Fluency Shaping Program.

Pre-, post-, and -year follow-up therapy speech samples of 32 severe stutterers who were treated in a four-week intensive therapy are compared with comparable samples of 20 nonstutterers. For that aim the samples were rated on 14 bipolar scales by groups of about 20 listeners. The results show that the speech of the stutterers in all three conditions differs significantly from the speech of the nonstutterers. The pretherapy speech takes an extreme position on a Distorted Speech dimension, due to the large proportion of disfluencies. The posttherapy speech has extremely low scores on a Dynamics/Prosody dimension, a‘1 while the follow-up therapy speech differs from the normal speech on both dimensions, but now the distances are smaller. These results are discussed in relation to the severity of the stuttering problem in the group of treated stutterers. Finally, implications for future research on therapy evaluation are discussed.     

Prediction of environmental change: Wish-fulfillment revisited

Two experiments are reported which examine the relationship between a person's estimate of the likelihood of a future change in his environment and his assessment of its desirability. The first experiment showed a general tendency for probability and desirability ratings to be positively correlated. This correlation was higher when the desirability of a predicted change was seen, on average, as matching its probability of occurrence, e.g., if the change was seen as both desirable and probable rather than probable but undesirable. In the second experiment subjects wrote an essay arguing either that a predicted change was probable, improbable, desirable or undesirable. Arguing for desirability of the predicted change had as much effect on subjects' probability estimates as arguing for its probability; similarly, arguing for its probability had as much effect on desirability ratings as arguing for its desirability. These results are taken to imply that individuals may seek to achieve greater cognitive simplicity by treating probability and desirability as a single dimension.     

Limits to preference and the sensitivity of choice to rate and amount of food

Studies of choice holding food‐amount ratio constant while varying food‐rate ratio within sessions showed that local changes in preference depend on relative amount of food. The present study investigated whether sensitivity of choice to food‐rate ratio and sensitivity to food‐amount ratio are independent of one another when food‐rate ratios are varied across sessions and food‐amount ratios are varied within sessions. Food deliveries for rats’ presses on the left and right levers were scheduled according to three different food‐rate ratios of 1:1, 9:1, and 1:9; each food‐rate ratio lasted for 106 sessions and was arranged independently of seven food‐amount ratios (7:1, 6:2, 5:3, 4:4, 3:5, 2:6, and 1:7 food pellets) occurring within sessions in random sequence. Each amount ratio lasted for 10 food deliveries and was separated from another by a 60‐s blackout. Sensitivity to rate ratio was high (1.0) across food deliveries. Sensitivity to amount ratio was low when food rates were equal across alternatives, but was high when rate ratio and amount ratio opposed one another. When rate ratio and amount ratio went in the same direction, choice ratio reached an elevenfold limit which reduced sensitivity to approximately zero. We conclude that three factors affect sensitivity to amount: (1) the limit to preference, (2) the equal effect on preference of amounts greater than four pellets, and (3) the absence of differential effects of switches in amount in the equal‐rates (1:1) condition. Taken together, these findings indicate that rate and amount only sometimes combine independently as additive variables to determine preference when amount ratios vary frequently within sessions.