Development of a standardized measure to predict employee productivity

The London House Employment Productivity Index (EPI-3) is a broad-based personality-oriented measure designed to predict successful employees. This paper focuses on the development and validation of the EPI-3 Dependability, Drug Avoidance, Interpersonal Cooperation, Safety, Validity, and overall Productivity scales. Three validation studies are reviewed. The first is a predictive study using 1,236 subjects from the retail industry. The second predictive study involved 167 subjects from a large discount retail chain. The final concurrent study involved 247 college students employed in various companies. All studies documented the validity of the EPI-3 as a pre-employment selection instrument. This paper also reviews adverse impact research, utility of the instrument for selection and ethical concerns when implementing this type of selection instrument.     

Replication of nonvocal system for teaching nonreaders to read in an adult training centre

An attempt was made to replicate a study to evaluate a system used by Kuntz, et al. in 1978 to teach children with mental handicaps to read. The original study was done in a children's hospital training centre with children who had considerable communication difficulties, whereas the present study was undertaken with adults with mental handicaps in an adult training centre. In the UK, adult training centres are currently at the centre of service provision by Social Services for the instruction of adults with mental handicaps, providing both a sheltered workshop and a practical educational situation. Nine out of 33 nonreaders completed the programme so the success rate was well short of that of the original study.     

Men,shame and antisocial behavior: A psychodynamic perspective

This paper discusses the psychosocial factors that contribute to male antisocial behavior. The role of shame and related affects is emphasized. Compensatory defenses associated with these affects are also described. Developmental concepts are reviewed in the light of recent research. Finally, some of the issues involved in doing psychotherapy with this population are discussed, with an emphasis on the value of group therapy.Parts of this paper were presented at the second annual conference onCulture, Race and Ethnicity in Group and Family Therapy which was sponsored by the Eastern Group Psychotherapy Society and New York University and was held in New York City, March 20–22, 1987.     

Effects of awareness and motor involvement on autonomic conditioning in chronic schizophrenics

Chronic schizophrenics under neuroleptic medication were compared with normals, matched for age and education, in two conditioning experiments. Both experiments employed a differential paradigm with long conditional stimulus-unconditional stimulus (CS-UCS) intervals. Skin resistance (SR) and finger pulse or heart rate (HR) were recorded. In Experiment 1, half of the subjects were trained in categorizing the to-be conditional stimuli. In a further step, half of the subjects were informed about the CS-UCS contingency. The UCS was an electric shock. Information improved discrimination of SR responses only of normals, and discrimination training had no effect at all on autonomic responses. In Experiment 2, only electrodermal responders were included. Each subject was tested in two sessions, using a loud tone as UCS in one, and a reaction time signal in the other. Again, half of the subjects were informed about the contingency. Information improved discrimination of SR responses of both diagnostic groups. Decelerations of HR following CS onset showed informed schizophrenics to discriminate better with the loud tone UCS than with the reaction time signal. General autonomic responsivity seems to determine not only discriminative conditioning of schizophrenic patients but also the reports of awareness and the effects of manipulations of awareness. However, when subjects are matched for electrodermal responsivity and are equivalent in terms of SR response conditioning, patients react to information about the contingency with enhanced HR deceleration to the CSs, possibly reflecting a heightened sensitivity of the cardiovascular system.     

APL functions for interactive data analysis: Principal components analysis

APL functions to support principal components analysis are presented: a general-purpose function to obtain eigen values and eigen vectors, a more specialized function to convert these into the results commonly given by principal components analysis, and a user interface function that accesses filed data, offers flexibility in data selection, and produces labeled output. A brief introduction to the logic and uses of principal components analysis is included. General-purpose support functions to simplify file use and to increase the range of options available to the user are also provided.     

APL functions for interactive data analysis: Graphics and labels

APL functions designed to provide labeled plots and histograms are described. Support functions that augment a data file with necessary information to label output and to maintain a common plotting scale are also described. APL code and illustrative output are presented.     

Binocular interaction of orientation and spatial frequency channels: Evoked potentials and observer sensitivity

The interaction between size and orientation feature processing in the human visual system was investigated. Both observer sensitivity (d’ss) and the visual evoked potential (VEP) to test gratings flashed to one eye were investigated as a function of the nature of a continuously presented suppressing grating viewed either by that same eye or the opposite eye. The test and suppressing gratings were varied both in bar width (9′ss vs. 36′ss) and orientation (vertical vs. horizontal). The continuous grating intra- and interocularly suppressed the monocular VEPs to the flashed grating, the specificity of the suppression depending on the latency at which VEP amplitude was measured. VEP amplitude measured at early latencies (100–125 msec) was suppressed primarily when the flashed and continuous gratings were the same orientation, regardless of size. Starting at about 200 msec, and thereafter, VEP amplitudes were suppressed when the continuous bars were either the same orientationor size as the flashed bars. Late latencies, starting at 220 msec, and thereafter, were suppressed primarily when the bars in the two gratings were the same orientation and size. The reduction in observer sensitivity (d′ss) paralleled the changes found in the late VEP measures. These effects were evident under both the intraocular and interocular suppressing conditions. This pattern of VEP suppression, measured across eight points in the VEP waveform, was interpreted as indicating the existence of a sequence of channels that are specific first to a particular grating orientation, then to either a particular grating spatial frequency or orientation, and finally to the conjunction of a particular orientation and spatial frequency. Both sequential and parallel feature processing appears to take place in the human visual cortex, with grating orientation being encoded earlier than grating size.     

Nine Critical Questions About Selective College Admissions

The misgivings of college faculty, college administrators, and high school counselors about selective admissions are focused on 9 issues. Data relevant to those issues reveal that: (1) prediction of grades is sufficiently accurate to be useful; (2) prediction equations from one year are sound for use in the immediately succeeding years; (3) predictions of first-year grades are related to performance over the 2-year period at a junior college and the 4-year career at a senior college; (4) there may need to be separate prediction procedures for widely different majors, such as science and nonscience; (5) accurate predictions can be made before the student has completed high school; (6) the nonacademic courses students take do not reduce prediction accuracy; (7) introduction of selectivity has not been found to decrease diversity in educational opportunity; (8) grading practices in an institution will tend to fluctuate with the degree of selectivity; and (9) procedures are available to set admissions cutoffs, to provide students with sound counseling information, and to provide a second chance for those who do net meet minimum admissions standards.