Classifying pictures and words: Implications for the dual-coding hypothesis

In deciding that two items come from the same category, subjects were delayed if the items were presented as a word and a picture, as compared with two words or two pictures. Subjects were not delayed if the items were not to be compared. Hence, the delay appears to occur during the retrieval and comparison of know ledge about the items, not during their perceptual analysis. The results suggest that there are two distinct codes involved in the categorization of words and pictures, rather than a single code.     

The development of attitudes toward dialect in Italian children

In the Italian public school system, local dialects are explicitly discouraged and children are pressured to master standard Italian. In this study, 95 southern Italian children were given a series of tasks to determine their level of dialect production and their attitudes toward their local dialect. Production of dialect decreases sharply from the first to the third grade, but then tends to stabilize, with a slight increase in dialect use by fourth and fifth grade boys. Hence the schools have not been entirely successful in eradicating dialect. However, attitude measures indicate that by the third grade children prefer Italian over the dialect at close to the 100% level. The schools have placed many children in a conflict situation, in which they have learned negative attitudes toward their own code but cannot completely master standard Italian. Sex differences may be related to a tendency to view dialect as more masculine. Implications of this study for bidialectical school programs in Italy and the United States are discussed.     

The effect of Russian versus Hebrew instructions on the reaction to social pressure of Russian-born Israeli children

An experiment on the role of the language of instruction in mediating responses to social pressure was conducted with a sample of 41 Russian-born adolescents who had recently immigrated to Israel. The subjects were asked to respond to a series of conflict situations in which they were told that either the experimenters, their own parents, or their peers would see their answers. Instructions were given once in Russian and once in Hebrew. Contrary to the principal hypothesis, when subjected to pressure from adults the children gave more conventional moral responses under Hebrew than under Russian instructions. The result was interpreted as reflecting the tendency to respond more moralistically to the language of authority, which, for the emigréchildren, shifted from Russian to Hebrew. Regardless of the language of administration, the scores for the emigréchildren fell between those for Soviet and Israeli youngsters, but they were closer to the latter. Within the sample, the longer a child lived in one or the other society, the more his response to social pressure resembled the modal reaction of children in that society. Children from families who had or had not spoken Yiddish in the home showed marked differences in response, with the former resembling the Israeli and the latter the typical Soviet reaction. The results were interpreted as reflecting the capacity of children to adapt to conflicting socialization settings both within and across cultures.     

Effects of expectancies of different reward magnitudes in transfer from noncontingent pairings to instrumental performance

In two experiments, rats received noncontingent pairings of two stimuli with food reward, one paired with small reward and the other with large reward, and received bar press training with large reward or with small reward. When the noncontingent stimuli (NS) were presented for test during subsequent rewarded bar pressing and during early extinction of bar pressing, responding for each group was faster in the presence of the NS which was paired with the same reward magnitude that group received in bar press training than to the NS which had been paired with a different reward magnitude. As extinction progressed, all groups responded more slowly in the presence of the NS which had been paired with the large reward than in the presence of the NS which had been paired with small reward. These results were interpreted as indicating that responding in the presence of an NS depends on: (i) whether the reward expectancy elicited by the NS has been conditioned to the instrumental response, and (ii) the relationship between the reward expected in the presence of the NS and that received in test.     

Referrals to school psychologists: A national survey

School psychologists serving a national, systematic sample of public elementary and secondary schools were surveyed regarding recent referrals. Most referrals were initiated by school staff members (75% of referrals), and the majority occured initially through formal mechanisms (55% of referrals). Most informal requests for assistance or information eventually became, or were thought likely to become, formal referrals. In 92% of cases, the referral agent's initial communication with the psychologist included some designation of what the pupil was doing or not doing that was viewed as problematic. Poor academic performance was of primary concern in 52% of referrals and social/emotional problems in 31%. More boys were referred than girls, and one-half of referrals from the elementary grades involved pupils in grades K-2. Frequency of referral and reason for referral were not independent of pupil's grade or sex. Reason for referral was independent of time of year (October vs. May) and geographical region.     

I Can Stomach That! Fearlessness About Death Predicts Attenuated Facial Electromyography Activity in Response to Death‐Related Images

Objective measures of suicide risk can convey life‐saving information to clinicians, but few such measures exist. This study examined an objective measure of fearlessness about death (FAD), testing whether FAD relates to self‐reported and physiological aversion to death. Females (n = 87) reported FAD and disgust sensitivity, and facial electromyography was used to measure physiological facial responses consistent with disgust while viewing death‐related images. FAD predicted attenuated expression of physiological death aversion, even when controlling for self‐reported death‐related disgust sensitivity. Diminished physiological aversion to death‐related stimuli holds promise as an objective measure of FAD and suicide risk.     

Assisting Older Women in Combatting Ageist Stereotypes and Improving Attitudes Toward Aging

Ageism is a pervasive force in society that poses a significant threat to the well-being of older women. This article integrates theory, research and practice in an examination of ageism as it relates to therapy with older women. The authors review common stereotypes of older women, and discuss the pervasiveness of these stereotypes using a terror management explanatory framework. Particular attention is also paid to the effects of ageist stereotypes on older women, with especial emphasis on stereotype threat and self-stereotyping concepts. The authors argue that geriatric rehabilitation settings may enhance vulnerability to these negative effects. Finally, strategies for older women to combat ageist stereotypes and develop positive attitudes toward aging are discussed. Implications for therapeutic practice to help older women maintain a satisfying quality of life, despite these stereotypes, are presented throughout the article. The authors recommend interventions embedded in feminist theory, positive psychology, and humanistic and cognitive–behavioral therapies.