Probability learning and Piagetian probability conceptions in children 5 to 12 years old

This study focused on the relations between performance on a three-choice probability-learning task and conceptions of probability as outlined by Piaget concerning mixture, normal distribution, random selection, odds estimation, and permutations. The probability-learning task and four Piagetian tasks were administered randomly to 100 male and 100 female, middle SES, average IQ children in three age groups (5 to 6, 8 to 9, and 11 to 12 years old) from different schools. Half the children were from Middle Eastern backgrounds, and half were from European or American backgrounds. As predicted, developmental level of probability thinking was related to performance on the probability-learning task. The more advanced the child's probability thinking, the higher his or her level of maximization and hypothesis formulation and testing and the lower his or her level of systematically patterned responses. The results suggest that the probability-learning and Piagetian tasks assess similar cognitive skills and that performance on the probability-learning task reflects a variety of probability concepts.     

A controlled comparative investigation of psychological treatments for chronic sleep-onset insomnia

A sample of physician-referred chronic insomniacs was randomly allocated to either progressive relaxation, stimulus control, paradoxical intention, placebo or no treatment conditions. Treatment process and outcome were investigated in terms of mean and standard deviation (night to night variability) measures of sleep pattern and sleep quality. Only active treatments were associated with significant improvement, but the nature of treatment gains varied. In particular, stimulus control improved sleep pattern, whereas relaxation affected perception of sleep quality. All improvements were maintained at 17 month follow-up. Results are discussed with reference to previous research and guidelines are given for clinical practice.     

Adolescent suicide attempters presenting to a pediatric facility

This study profiles the characteristics of adolescent suicide attempters and the treatment they received in a pediatric emergency room (ER). A retrospective chart review of 4,072 adolescents seen in the ER at a children's hospital (CH) from July 1984 to June 1985 was undertaken. Twenty-seven adolescents who had deliberately injured themselves were identified. The average age was 14 years 7 months (range 11-19 years). Fifty-two percent of the patients were white and 78% were female. Ingestion was the most common method (78%), followed by attempted hanging (11%), and wrist laceration (7%). After evaluation by a pediatrician in the ER, 30% of the patients were treated and released, 11% were transferred directly to a psychiatric hospital, and 59% were admitted to the CH, with an average hospital stay of 1.88 days. Once hospitalized, consultations from psychiatry (81%), social service (50%), psychology (19%), and neurology (6%) were obtained. At the time of discharge from either the ER or CH, the patients had a variety of plans for ongoing care, with 52% being referred to outpatient counseling, 37% being transferred to a psychiatric hospital, and 11% having no documented plan for ongoing care. These results demonstrate that the evaluation of suicidal adolescents cared for in a pediatric facility may be episodic and suggest the need for a comprehensive program to approach the problem.     

Anxiety in adolescence and its significance for psychoanalysis

The theme of this paper is the well-known resistance of adolescents to participate in analytic treatment and analysts' reservations about treating adolescents, which is perhaps less well known. Several reasons are discussed: For adolescents, the revival of separational and fusional anxieties during the process of individuation as well as resistance to the analytic setting are held responsible; analysts may lack sufficient awareness of their own adolescence and its resulting anxieties to be able to confront this developmental period. In addition, there are countertransference anxieties that are triggered and kept alive by the behavior of the juvenile patient. The different types of analyst anxieties as well as those of the adolescent under analysis are explained and their significance in the process of individuation and the course of therapy is noted.     

Students' preferences for male or female counselors for social and educational problems

Fifty-eight male and 66 female junior high school students were examined to determine their preferences for sex of counselor under personal/social and educational hypothetical counseling situations. Girls demonstrated a definite same-sex preference for both counseling situations, while boys preferred male counselors for personal/social counseling and had opposite-sex preferences for educational counseling. Implications of the findings are discussed in light of earlier contradictory results from research on college students.     

How dreams are told: secondary revision--the critic, the editor, and the plagiarist

Secondary revision is a highly provocative concept arising out of Freud's attempts to explain the construction of dreams, but it remains relatively ill-defined. It includes three related, yet by no means identical aspects of the process by which the dream acquires its more or less final form during the experiencing, the remembering, and the telling. It represents one of the most interesting hypotheses dealing with the fluid world between sleeping and waking, a field which still presents us with a host of unanswered questions. Secondary revision not only reflects the higher levels of the dreamer's mental functioning superimposed on his biological substructure, but it also operates as a sensitive indicator of the cultural factors which have helped mold his personality. These factors include both the subculture of the analytic situation and the impact of society in the larger sense. I make reference to individual dreamers in analysis and to the world of dreams recorded in the past from our own and other cultures.     

Developmental psychopathology. Current research, issues, and directions

Developmental psychopathology refers to the study of clinical dysfunction in the context of maturational and developmental processes. Although the field encompasses the entire life span, the present focus is on childhood. Special characteristics make the study of childhood dysfunction somewhat unique, including the emergence, evolution, and attenuation of seemingly problematic behaviors over the course of development; the manner in which children are referred for clinical evaluation; and complexities in identifying the appropriate foci for clinical intervention. Notwithstanding these obstacles, recent work has advanced considerably in diagnosis, assessment, and treatment of childhood disorders. The present article highlights recent advances in these areas and promising extensions in current research. Many advances have relied heavily on the extension of paradigms developed in research with adults. Additional research is needed that draws on and integrates conceptual and empirical work from developmental psychology.     

The changing face of visual persistence

In three experiments, the effect of target luminance on estimates of visual persistence was determined on a popular successive-field task. Even though the experiments differed from each other only in terms of minor changes in stimulus conditions, very different effects were obtained across the three experiments. The different findings were attributed to the often overlooked roles of masking and target degradation on tasks of persistence. Implications for the numerous contradictory findings in the persistence literature are discussed, and the current popularity of the successive-field task is questioned.