Failure to replicate a QTL association between a DNA marker identified by EST00083 and IQ

In a paper published in this journal, a possible QTL association was reported between general cognitive ability and a marker, identified by an expressed sequence tag, EST00083 (Skuder et al., 1995). In two small samples, the frequency of the common allele of this DNA marker, which was shown to be in the threonine transfer RNA gene in mitochondrial DNA, was significantly greater in a high-IQ group than in a low-IQ group. As part of the ongoing IQ QTL Project (Plomin et al., 1995), we have attempted to replicate this QTL association. First, we found that the QTL association remained significant when we compared 51 high- and 51 -average IQ subjects, drawn in part from the samples used in the previous report. However, when we examined the association in new samples of 40 extremely high-IQ subjects and 50 average-IQ subjects, the association did not replicate. This underlies the need for replication in case-control studies of allelic association.     

A Solution-Focused Intervention With Recovering,Alcohol-Dependent,Single Parent Mothers and Their Children*

Described is a practical approach that encourages recovering, alcohol-dependent, single parent mothers and their children to use existing strengths and resources to promote healthy family dynamics.     

Alcohol First Use and Attitudes Among Young Children

We describe the attitudes and first use of alcohol by children, grades 3-6, who participated in the Bogalusa Heart Study, 1993-94. Questionnaire data reflected that more than one-third of the children had experimented with alcohol at the time of the study. The dominant environmental factor in experimentation was family modeling, and the dominant personal factor was curiosity, regardless of race, gender, or grade. Most children believed that alcohol use can lead to accidents, that drinking has negative social consequences, and that alcohol use hurts only if done to excess. Indications are that young children generally have negative attitudes regarding alcohol use, and that public and family alcohol education efforts need to be more specific about deleterious effects of even low levels of alcohol use in the young.     

Ineffective discipline and conduct problems in males: Association, late adolescent outcomes, and prevention

In the current study, social learning theory and findings on the association of ineffective parental discipline and childhood conduct problems was reviewed In addition, the association of ineffective discipline in childhood to arrests and academic achievement in adolescence was tested. The reviewed studies were multi-agent, multimethod passive longitudinal, prevention, and clinical studies conducted at the Oregon Social Learning Center (OSLC). Measurement of childhood discipline included observational data. Analyses predicting to adolescent outcomes were conducted for the Oregon Youth Study sample of approximately 200 males at risk for delinquency. The finding of an association between ineffective discipline and childhood conduct problems was replicated in three OSLC studies. Ineffective discipline at Grade 4, controlling for Grade 4 antisocial behavior, was found to predict to a more serious juvenile arrest record (two or more arrests) and to failure to enter higher education. Prevention efforts need to be directed toward promoting effective discipline skills, especially in parents of young children. Effective discipline includes such skills as structuring situations, redirecting child behavior, encouragement, and also consistent use of a mild to moderate consequence such as time out or privilege loss.     

The effect of background familiarity in visual search: An analysis of underlying factors

The speed and accuracy of visual target search are strongly dependent on the familiarity of the background through which the search proceeds. Search through unfamiliar elements is much more difficult than search through familiar ones. This effect of background familiarity is examined in a series of three experiments. Experiment 1 suggests that the effect is not attributable to an inherently slow classification of individually unfamiliar nontargets. Experiments 2 and 3 investigate three aspects of multicharacter processing potentially sensitive to background familiarity. The results suggest that the background familiarity effect is most parsimoniously viewed as the result of slow or inaccurate segmentation of features extracted from adjacent characters. Mechanisms linking the familiarity of the background with the efficiency of character segregation are discussed in closing.     

Word length effects are not due to proactive interference.

In immediate serial recall short words are better recalled than long words. The word length effect has become pivotal in the development of short-term memory models. The current research tests one explanation of the word length effect; that it is related to proactive interference (PI). We report two experiments in which the relationship is directly tested. In the first experiment we show that word length effects can be observed over the first few trials in an experiment and that the effect shows itself primarily in the number of omissions made. In the second experiment we simultaneously test for PI and word length effects. Strong word length effects were present but there was little evidence for PI influencing either overall levels of recall or the word length effect. In short, no empirical support was found for PI as an explanation of the word length effect.     

An Approach to Teaching Ethics Courses in Human Services and Counseling

This article presents multiple facets of a team approach to teaching and facilitating an ethics course for undergraduate human services students and a graduate ethics course for students majoring in counseling. Starting with general points, this article describes a specific, week‐to‐week approach to a 1‐semester course, concluding with sample student evaluative comments and an experienced professor/author's processing of the experience of preparing and teaching this course for many years.