Peer Tutoring: Teaching Students with Learning Disabilities to Deliver Time Delay Instruction

This study evaluated the effectiveness of a peer-mediated constant time delay procedure for teaching written spelling to fourth- and fifth-grade students identified as learning disabled. The six peer tutors (each with learning disabilities) taught each other to produce the written spelling for 15 five- to eight-letter words using a 3-s delay and a visual model prompt. A multiple probe design across behaviors (word sets) was used to evaluate the procedure. Data were collected on the number of sessions to criterion, trials to criterion, number and percent of errors, and direct instructional time. The classroom teacher prepared students to serve as tutors using a describe-model-guided practice-feedback sequence. Pre- and post-measures were conducted of generalization of the tutoring procedure as well as observational learning by the tutors. Results indicated that (a) peer tutors reliably implemented the time delay procedure, and (b) the tutor-implemented time delay procedure was effective in teaching written spelling to students identified as learning disabled.     

Localizing Localization: The Role of Working Memory in Auditory Localization

It is unclear from current accounts of working memory which, if any, of its components might be involved in our ability to specify the location of a sound source. A series of studies were performed to assess the degree of interference in localization of broadband noise, by a concurrent articulatory suppression (articulatory loop—Experiment 1), serial recall (phonological store and articulatory loop—Experiment 2), and Paced Visual Serial Addition Test (central executive—Experiment 3). No significant disruption of auditory localization was revealed by the first two experiments, ruling out a role for the phonological loop in auditory localization. In Experiment 3, a large degree of error was exhibited in localization, when performed concurrently with the addition task, indicating a requirement for central resources. This suggestion is confirmed by comparison of localization performance across all three studies, which demonstrates a clear deterioration in performance as the demand of concurrent tasks on central resources increases. Finally, concurrent localization was shown to disrupt the primacy portion of the serial position curve, as well as performance on the Paced Visual Serial Addition Test.     

Attachment Style,Assertive Communication,and Safer-Sex Behavior1

This research tested the proposition that the effect of attachment security on safer-sex practice may be mediated by communication patterns. One hundred eighty-five undergraduate students completed questionnaire measures of attachment, assertiveness, and attitudes to communication about AIDS. Eight weeks later, they reported on their practice of safer sex in the period since the first testing session. Hierarchical regressions showed that at Step I, anxiety about relationships (a measure of insecure attachment) was associated with less safer-sex practice, for all outcome measures. Attitudes to communication about AIDS added to the prediction of general reports of safer-sex practice: in line with the mediational model, anxiety about relationships became unimportant as a predictor when communication variables were included. Communication variables failed to add to the prediction of safer sex on the most recent encounter, and both anxiety about relationships and attitudes to communication about AIDS predicted condom use. Some gender differences in patterns of prediction were noted. The results are discussed in terms of attachment style and its links with the negotiation of sexual practice and relationship issues.     

INCREASING ENGAGEMENT IN DAILY ACTIVITIES BY OLDER ADULTS WITH DEMENTIA

This study analyzed the effects of nursing assistants' use of prompts and praise to increase the engagement of older adults with dementia in daily living activities. The multiple baseline design across morning and afternoon work shifts showed consistent increases in engagement by each of the 5 residents during the intervention. These results suggest that increasing prompts and praise by nursing assistants may, in turn, increase the rate of engagement of older adults with dementia.     

At-Risk Urban High School Students' Commitment to Career Choices

The purpose of this study was to examine the commitment to career choices process for at-risk urban high school students. Data from 189 at-risk urban high school students were sampled. Results indicated that students' level of commitment to their career choices was related to their vocational identity, their need for occupational information, their perceived barriers to occupational goals, and the number of occupations they considered. The tendency to foreclose was related to the adherence to career myths. Implications and limitations for career theory, research, and practice are addressed.     

Feminism, Psychoanalysis, and Family Therapy: Reflections on Telos

Two of the most significant developments in family therapy since 1980 are the emergence of the feminist critique, and the rediscovery of psychoanalysis as a conceptual source for family therapy. The author has been working to combine the contributions of both feminism and psychoanalysis (particularly object relations therapy) and offers case examples of her clinical work. Telos – an often overlooked aspect of theory – is argued to be the locus of the feminist difference. A call is made for dialogue between feminists and psychoanalytic thinkers within family therapy.     

Emotional disturbances and their interaction with neuropsychological deficits

The interaction and relationships between neuropsychological tests (which are principally oriented to intellectual and cognitive abilities) and tests of personality and emotional status are complex, but nevertheless important in the clinical assessment of brain-damaged persons. Are indications of emotional disturbances to be expected as a direct consequence of brain damage? If so, how can the indications of emotional disturbances be differentiated from results obtained with psychiatrically disturbed (non-brain-damaged) subjects? Some authors have presumed that emotional disturbances, such as depression, acute anxiety, etc., in their own right cause impaired performances on neuropsychological tests, whereas other authors have proposed that brain damage predisposes the individual to demonstrate evidence of emotional disturbances. If emotional disturbances cause impairment on neuropsychological tests, why is it that so many emotionally disturbed persons without brain damage tend to perform normally on neuropsychological tests? This review of relevant publications considers (1) different general approaches to these questions and their implications for neuropsychology, (2) evidence of differential sensitivity to brain damage of neuropsychological and emotional instruments, (3) the sensitivity and specificity of self-assessments and complaints of head-injured subjects, (4) MMPI findings among head-injured subjects and in interaction with neuropsychological measurements, and (5) principles and guidelines that may be of value in clinical application of findings reported in the literature.     

Gender orientation and the Bem Sex Role Inventory: A psychological construct revisited

In 1973, Constantinople revolutionized the conceptualization of male and female sex roles when she advanced that masculinity and femininity were not opposite ends of a unidimensional continuum but rather independent constructs. This gave rise to androgyny theory, which advanced that individuals could be both masculine and feminine, and that in fact, the most healthy gender orientation was one containing elements of both. Nearly two decades after the development of the androgyny theory and the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI), one of its most popular measures, it seems prudent to reexamine the androgyny construct and its measurement. This paper does just that. Within the context of a predominantly middle-class, Caucasian population, this study uses factor analysis, reliability estimates, and measures of population agreement to assess the continuing validity and reliability of the BSRI and androgyny theory. While reinforcing the reliability of the BSRI, results raise both methodological and conceptual questions regarding the BSRI and the operationalization of androgyny.     

Temporal factors in the discrimination of coherent motion

When observers view the relative movements of a pair of bars defined by the difference of spatial Gaussian functions (DOGs), they can accurately discriminate coherent movements over a range of temporal frequencies and temporal asynchronies. Of particular interest is the fact that performance accuracy is maintained even when the two bars differ in spatial-frequency content and contrast. On each trial, observers viewed two brief presentation intervals in which a pair of vertically oriented DOGs moved randomly back and forth within a restricted range. During one observation interval, both elements moved in the same direction and by the same magnitude (correlated), and in the other interval, the movements were independent (uncorrelated). Temporal asynchronies were introduced by delaying the displacement of the right bar relative to that of the left bar in each interval. Observers were able to discriminate correlated versus uncorrelated movements up to a 45–60-msec temporal delay between the two elements’ relative displacements. If motion processing is accomplished by mechanisms operating over multiple spatial and temporal scales, the visual system’s tolerance of temporal delays among correlated signals may facilitate their space-time integration, thereby capitalizing on the perceptual utility of coherent-motion information for image segmentation and interpolating surface structure from the movements of spatially separated features.     

Romantic Ideals,Fear of Negative Implications,and the Practice of Safe Sex1

The present study examined how young heterosexuals’ beliefs about the power of condom use to destroy their romantic ideals and to lead to negative implications affected both their intentions and their actual behavior of using and discussing the use of condoms with sexual partners. The extra predictive power gained from considering these beliefs, in addition to subjects’ beliefs concerning whether condoms reduced their risk of contracting HIV, was examined within the context of Fishbein and Ajzen's (1975) theory of reasoned action. One-hundred-and-two sexually active heterosexual students participated in the study. At the first wave of data collection, beliefs concerning the potential of condoms to reduce risk, to destroy romance, and to lead to negative implications were assessed, as were norms and intentions. Measures of actual behavior were obtained three months later for both regular and casual/new partners. The results of the study indicated that norms and beliefs concerning the risk-reduction effects of condom use were the primary predictors of intentions to use condoms. Subjects’ beliefs concerning whether condoms destroyed their romantic ideals or led to negative implications did not influence their intentions with casual/new partners, although emotional concerns played a minor role in determining intentions with regular partners. In contrast, these emotional concerns had a major impact in determining actual behavior for all partner types. Although intentions partially predicted behavior, beliefs about reducing risk, destroying romance and fear of negative implications had strong and direct influences on behavior, especially in the case of casual/new partners. Additional analyses revealed gender differences in the determinants of behavior. Females, in contrast to males, were less able to act in accord with their attitudes about using condoms to reduce their risk of contracting HIV, and were also less able to act in conformity with their subjective norms with less well-known partners. Although both males and females were similarly affected by more emotional concerns with new and/or casual partners, gender differences occurred in how these emotional factors affected behavior with regular partners. Implications of the finding that behavior is determined to a large extent by more emotional concerns that are not factored in ahead of time when formulating intent are discussed.