Instructional Practices in Fifth-through Eighth-grade Science Classrooms of a Selected Seventh-day Adventist Conference

This investigation focused on instructional practices within fifth- through eighth-grade science classes of selected Seventh-day Adventist schools. Teachers reported regular use of discussion, student projects, and tests or quizzes. Most respondents said they did not feel prepared or had “never heard of” inquiry, the learning cycle, or constructivism. Over half the respondents felt discussion, student-projects, and hands-on laboratory work were effective instructional practices in science classrooms. Learning cycle and constructivism were described by most respondents as “not at all” effective; many respondents had “never heard of” these same two instructional approaches.     

Effects of Fatigue and Laterality on Fractionated Reaction Time

Surface EMG enabled fractionation of a simple hand grip total reaction time into peripheral and central processing components (motor time and premotor time, respectively). Changes in reaction time components were investigated in 12 female intercollegiate swimmers (bilateral athletes) and 12 female intercollegiate tennis players (unilateral athletes) following a 48% strength decrement induced by serial maximal voluntary isometric contractions (5 sec in duration). Despite significantly greater strength in the dominant arm than in the nondominant arm, there was no difference in fatigue effects between arms. Fatigue increased the premotor component of reaction time significantly, and indirectly the total reaction time, but the motor time remained essentially constant regardless of the type of previous athletic training. This indicated that fatigue impaired central nervous system or myoneural-junction operations rather than the intramuscular ability to initiate force.     

Early Adolescents' Values About Their Pets

The essays of adolescent boys and girls (N = 354) explaining their decisions to save a pet in the event of a fire were examined by content analysis for the adolescents' underlying value orientations. Hedonistic utility, a moral value characteristic of the second of Kohlberg's (1976) moral development stages, was the primary value underlying adolescents' choices.     

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Nightmares and Sleep Disturbance in Iraq War Veterans: A Feasible and Promising Treatment Combination

A substantial proportion of returnees from the Iraq war have significant psychological symptoms related to war zone exposure, including high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), nightmares, and sleep disturbances. This pilot investigation examined the feasibility and efficacy of a promising cognitive-behavioral treatment (CBT) for nightmares, Imagery Rehearsal, combined with CBT for insomnia. Seven veterans completed treatment and showed promising pre-post effects regarding nightmare frequency, sleep quality, and PTSD. This report further examined the content of participants' nightmares, changes made during treatment, and potentially important modifying variables of treatment outcome. Those with redeployment fears, guilt due to perpetration issues, or traumatic brain injuries may receive some but not full benefits of the treatment.     

Understanding provoked overt recognition in prosopagnosia

Prosopagnosic patients are unable to recognize overtly the faces of familiar people. However, under specific experimental conditions, overt recognition of faces has been induced in some prosopagnosics. This phenomenon of provoked overt recognition has proved challenging for current theories of face recognition. We first describe clinical demonstrations of provoked overt recognition, before highlighting some critical features that any satisfactory explanation of the phenomenon must accommodate. An account of provoked overt recognition is then put forward, couched within the framework of Burton, Bruce, and Johnston's (1990) IAC model of face recognition. This theory is tested by running computer simulations with the model. Finally, the present explanation of provoked overt recognition is scrutinized to discover whether it has implications for rehabilitation work with prosopagnosic patients.     

When sex isn't special: Priming onto a sex decision

Recognition of famous faces is speeded by prior exposure. This repetition priming has been shown for familiarity judgements (familiar/unfamiliar), semantic judgements (British/American), and naming. However, no benefit of priming has been found onto a sex judgement made to an image of a face. The absence of priming is normally explained by appealing to the fact that sex judgements can be made to a face without needing to access memory for that person, and that priming has its effects within the memory system. Here we ask subjects to make sex judgements to famous people's surnames (e.g., Tyson, Geldof), a task that requires them to access their memories for people. Under these conditions we observe the normal pattern of priming. We argue that structural, rather than episodic models of processing fit the data most naturally.     

Getting to know you: How we learn new faces

Previous work has shown an advantage for matching the internal features of familiar faces in contrast to an advantage for the external features of unfamiliar faces. In the current experiment, we tracked this shift towards an internal feature advantage as subjects were familiarized with a set of initially unfamiliar faces. They were asked to learn a set of 24 faces from video images and complete a face matching task on 3 consecutive days. Half of the faces were learned from moving images while the others were learned from static images to determine whether movement was necessary to produce the internal advantage found when matching familiar faces. We found that by the end of the 3 days, performance on the internal features had improved and was equivalent to performance on the external features. In contrast, matching of the external features remained at a relatively constant level across the experiment. Faces were learned equally well from moving and static images suggesting that movement is not necessary to promote learning of the internal features.     

Sawyer's review of artists all

This study explored the extent to which ideational behavior (IB; Runco, Plucker, &; Lim, 2000–2001), an indicator of creativity, is related to established individual differences in personality traits (Five Factor Model or FFM; Costa &; McCrae, 1992 Costa , P. T. , &; McCrae , R. R. ( 1992 ). Revised NEO Personality Inventory and NEO Five-Factor Inventory Professional Manual . Odessa , FL : Psychological Assessment Resources . [Google Scholar]), fluid (gf) and intelligence (IQ). A total of 158 (112 female) college students from British and American universities took part in this study. Bivariate correlations showed that IB was significantly associated with Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness (negatively), and gf. Hierarchical regression analysis showed personality to be a better predictor of IB than was intelligence. Cognitive ability measures only accounted for 4% of the variance in IB, whereas the Big Five superfactors explained an additional 22% of the variance (with gender explaining a further 3%). Furthermore, selected personality facets of Openness to Experience, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness, explained the largest amount of variance in IB, namely 35%. Results are discussed with regard to the theoretical implications of the taxonomic place of IB in the wider realm of individual differences constructs.     

The Impact of Induced Stress Upon Selective Attention in Multiple Object Tracking

The ability to filter distracting information and selectively attend to relevant information is critical to effective performance on the battlefield. In addition to the cognitive processing burden imposed upon modern warfighters, the effects of stress upon cognition and action must also be accounted for in evaluating individual warfighting capabilities. The current study examines the relationship between stress and cognition by measuring performance on a multiple object tracking (MOT) task after exposure to stress-inducing photographs. Postexposure performance revealed significant decrements in MOT accuracy relative to a nonstressed control group. Implications are discussed regarding the impact of stress on attentional selection for operational scenarios where it is difficult to distinguish friendly individuals from those with hostile intentions, as well as for the development of technology for command, control, communications (computers), and intelligence (C4I) systems.     

A Structural Equation Analysis of the Wide Range Assessment of Memory and Learning in a Clinical Sample

A maximum likelihood confirmatory factor analysis was performed by applying LISREL VII to the Wide Range Assessment of Memory and Learning (WRAML) in a clinical sample (N = 271). Analyses were designed to determine which of 10 hypothesized oblique factor solutions could best explain memory as measured by the WRAML. Competing latent variable models were identified in previous studies and monographs on memory. Findings supported a three-factor model including Verbal Memory, Visual Memory, and Attention/Concentration factors. Our results are consistent with previous studies suggesting that attention is an important component of memory as measured by the WRAML. This study replicates previous research in which the Learning Index was not empirically supported.