Toupee or not toupee? The role of instructional set,centrality, and relevance in change blindness

The influence of instructional set, centrality, and relevance on change blindness was examined. In a one-shot paradigm, participants reported alterations of items across pairs of driving scenes under two different instructional conditions. Alterations involved either relocations or disappearances of the same items and included driving-relevant and driving-irrelevant alterations to items of central and marginal interest. Three main findings emerged: Centrality was not a function of driving relevance/meaningfulness, disappearances of central interest items were identified significantly more often than positional changes to them, and instructions highlighting the importance of the task to driving attenuated change blindness. The possible role of a simple listing strategy in mediating successful identification of alterations is discussed. Together, the findings demonstrate that cognitive factors play an important role in change blindness.     

Strengthening Creative Problem-Solving within Upper-Elementary Science Education

This intervention study examined the effectiveness of instructional support tailored toward two techniques (i.e., random associations and constraint identification) to strengthen children's creative problem-solving skills within upper-elementary science education. Five inquiry-based science lessons with ample opportunity for creative problem-solving (i.e., divergent and convergent thinking) were provided. Children were assigned to a condition with instructional support (n = 107) or without (n = 134). Domain-general and specific measures of divergent and convergent thinking were included, and reading comprehension as well as mathematical ability were taken into account. Repeated measures multivariate analyses of covariance revealed how all children improved in terms of domain-general convergent thinking, with a larger increase for children who performed better in mathematics. This shows a promising premise for future research focusing on the domain generality of convergent thinking and for the potential of transfer across domains. No additional improvement based on instructional support was found and children did not improve in terms of divergent thinking. The constraint identification and random associations technique might not be suitable for elementary school children, yet future research is necessary to validate such claims. Meanwhile, teachers could possibly support convergent thinking by simply providing exercises for divergent and convergent thinking.     

Disturbances of consciousness in dementia with Lewy bodies associated with alteration in nicotinic receptor binding in the temporal cortex

Disturbances of consciousness, including fluctuations in attention and awareness, are a common and clinically important symptom in dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). In the present study we investigate potential mechanisms of such disturbances of consciousness (DOC) in a clinicopathological study evaluating specific components of the cholinergic system. [3H]Epibatidine binding to the high-affinity nicotinic receptor in the temporal cortex (Brodmann's areas 20 and 36) differentiated DLB cases with and without DOC, being 62-66% higher in those with DOC (F=4.5,p=.025). The were no differences between DLB patients with or without DOC in 125I-labeled alpha-bungaratoxin binding to the low-affinity nicotinic receptor, [3H]pirenzepine binding to the muscarinic M1 receptor, or in choline acetyltransferase activity. These findings provide support for the hypothesis that cholinergic activity is an important neural correlate if consciousness and suggest a mechanism of DOC in DLB involving alterations in the nicotinic receptor, composed of predominantly alpha4 and beta2 subunits.     

Group counselling by telephone

Six women who responded independently to a television programme about cancer were brought together through the medium of teleconferencing. The life of the group is described. The outcome confirmed the facilitators' belief that the medium is an excellent means of providing short-term process work. It helps to reduce the isolation that many people with cancer speak of, particularly after they have completed any treatment and are not regularly attending hospital. Further, it is a cost-effective and time-effective way of bringing people together.     

A COMPARISON OF THREE METHODS FOR ELIMINATING DISRUPTIVE LUNCHROOM BEHAVIOR1,2

Three methods of controlling disruptive lunchroom behaviors of elementary school children were compared: basic modification procedures, basic modification procedures plus punishment essays, and basic modification procedures plus mediation essays. During an in-service workshop, six paraprofessional lunch aides received training in these methods to modify three classes of disruptive lunchroom behaviors. They then applied the methods in a counter-balanced design. Fourth- and fifth-grade elementary school pupils were observers and made reliability counts of the target misbehaviors under the various methods. Results indicated that during the periods when aides had been directed to use basic modification procedures plus mediation essays, target misbehaviors were almost totally eliminated and occurred significandy less often than during the periods when they had been directed to use basic modification procedures alone or basic modification procedures plus punishment essays.     

Selective phonemic and semantic coding in short-term recall

Probed recall of targets from six-word sequences containing either phonemically similar, semantically similar, or control (i.e., unrelated phonemically and semantically) stimuli was compared under two conditions of encoding. For the semantic encoding condition, in which all cues provided category information about targets to be recalled, semantic similarity interference effects and phonemic similarity facilitation effects were demonstrated. In the phonemic encoding condition, in which all targets were cued by words which rhymed with them, only phonemic similarity interference effects were found. These results were taken to provide further evidence contradictory to the coding-based dichotomization of primary and secondary memory, and to reflect the importance of selective coding strategies induced by task requirements as determinants of interference effects in short-term recall.     

EMPLOYMENT SERVICES FOR YOUTH

Youth unemployment has remained a social and economic problem for over a quarter of a century. Experience in the U.S. Employment Service and in schools and other agencies in the community indicates that special advocates, i.e., youth employment specialists, are needed to work with youth and employers if young people are to get their full share of the job opportunities and are to achieve maximum utilization of their talents as new entrants into the labor market.     

Temperature reinforcement for visual discrimination training in baby chicks

A fully automated training apparatus, using thermoregulation as performance incentive, was constructed to train baby chicks on visual discrimination and reversal problems. In the base condition, the S is bathed in cold air in a small training cubicle. Two stimuli are back-projected onto two display windows according to a pseudorandom balanced schedule. A peck at the positive stimulus gives convective as well as radiant heat reward with adjustable temperature and duration. A peck at the negative stimulus merely advances the program to the next trial. Permanent printout records give trial-to-trial information on response choice and latency. Performance data of 64 Ss are reported.