The fertility related behavior of Mexican American adolescents

Data from a clinic sample of pregnant adolescents are analyzed for differences in fertility related variables between Mexican American and non Mexican. The independent variables are birthplace, ethnicity, and exposure to United States culture of Mexican and non Mexican adolescents. The dependent variables are talking about sex, pregnancy, birth control, hearing about birth control, and use of birth control. The data support the hypothesis that in the process of acculturation the fertility related behavior of immigrant Mexican adolescent females is affected by the indigenous United States Mexican culture rather than by United States Anglo culture. Implications for delivery of services are discussed. The delivery of fertility related services should take into account the cultural preferences of Mexican women, and should not involve coercion from legal or medical authorities. While liberation of Mexican American women, and accompanying changes in childbearing patterns may be desirable, these efforts should originate within the Mexican American community. Data is presented in tables on selected sample and subsample characteristics and compares fertility behaviors across ethnic groups, including Anglo, Black, US non-Mexican, and US Mexican.     

Cognitive flexibility-rigidity, repetition effects, and memory

This experiment examined the role of cognitive flexibility-rigidity in memory. On the basis of several personality tests, subjects were classified as flexible, intermediate, or rigid, using a postexperimental blocking procedure. All subjects were given a perceptual grouping task, which masks the meaningful structure of the material. Subjects have the option of discovering the more meaningful structure consisting of word pairs, or alternatively, processing less meaningful chunks of letters. Results were that flexible subjects recalled substantially more items than intermediate and rigid subjects, in that order. In addition, subjects given different (varied) groupings of the letter chunks recalled substantially more than subjects given repeated presentations of the same grouping structure. Transfer tests indicated that subjects acquired different coding strategies under varied and constant input. Repetitious input led subjects to adopt inefficient strategies in processing the material to be remembered, whereas varied input led subjects to adopt efficient encoding strategies.     

Cortical involvement in the semantic processing of coarticulated speech cues

Auditory evoked responses (AER) were recorded from scalp locations over the left and right temporal regions in response to CVC words and nonsense syllables. Various components of the AER were found to vary systematically with changes in stimulus meaning. One such component reflected subcortical involvement in semantic processing. Other components reflected changes in voicing and place of articulation as well as hemisphere differences.     

Stress Prevention and Management: A Workshop Approach

This article presents a theoretical rationale for a workshop on stress prevention and management and describes the “Stress and the Classroom Teacher” workshop as an approach that has applicability in various counseling settings, including those outside the educational field. The goals of this workshop include reducing participants' sense of isolation, increasing their self-awareness of the causes and effects of distress, identifying job-related successes and strengths, and formulating a tenative plan and action steps to prevent or alleviate the distress: workshop activities are outlined. Several conclusions are drawn regarding the value and significance of this intervention mold.     

The Forgotten Facilitators: Human Relations Training for Support Personnel

Lamb and Rapin's (1976) ecological model for categorizing and evaluating student development services emphasizes the total environment of the student service as critical to the students' receptivity to and ultimate success in counseling. The adjunct role of the support staff in the creation and maintenance of a generally positive milieu is often assumed or ignored. To remedy this situation, a staff development program was implemented to (a) provide recognition of the support personnel's necessary involvement in and contribution to the division's mission, (b) develop human relations skills, and (c) facilitate increased understanding and communication between the professional staff and the support staff.     

The effects of delayed auditory feedback on the overt behaviors of stutterers

This study investigated the differential effect of delayed auditory feedback (DAF) upon general (e.g., repetitions) and specific (e.g., repetitions of initial, medial, and final syllables) overt types of dysfluent behaviors. Ten moderate to severe stutterers performed an oral reading task under both NDAF and DAF (200 msec). DAF resulted in a significant increase in the total number of dysfluencies but had a differential effect upon certain general and specific behaviors. Blocks decreased significantly, prolongations increased significantly, and repetitions and interjections did not change significantly in frequency of occurence. To a limited extent, DAF had a differential effect on specific behaviors. All specific prolongation behaviors increased significantly while only one specific block behavior (ddelays in starting words) decreased. The authors discuss these results in terms of the vocal changes that occurred under DAF and speculate as to their importance in establishing fluency. DAF is viewed as promoting prolongations and prolongations are viewed as inhibiting excessive stoppages of the breathstream, thus promoting fluency (e.g., delays in starting words).     

Peripheral information extraction: A developmental examination of reading processes

Three experiments examining the information extraction processes are presented. In Experiments I and II, adults and children were presented paragraphs to read and search for specified targets, respectively. Two types of typographical (spatial) manipulations were used: case of the letters within the paragraphs was as normally experienced, or in alternating upper and lower case letters. Spacing between words was either as normal, filled with a neutral symbol, or absent. The response measures were reading and search speed in words per minute. Sensitivity to case (word shape) and space (word boundary) increased as a function of experience and was different for reading compared with search. In Experiment III subjects were asked to judge whether briefly presented pairs of letters were the same or different. Retinal (spatial) location was varied from trial to trial; dependent measure was reaction time. Results showed a developmental progression in response time with complex interactions. Theoretical interpretations of these data are discussed in support of the initial stage of Hochberg's peripheral to cognitive search guidance model.