Developing Standard Recommendations (Guidelines) for Genetic Counseling Practice: A Process of the National Society of Genetic Counselors

The National Society of Genetic Counselors (NSGC) supports the development of practice recommendations (guidelines) in the field of genetic counseling. This paper reviews the basic components of NSGC genetic counseling practice recommendations as well as the process for formal adoption of such documents, as approved by the Board of Directors of the NSGC.     

Gerard Manley Hopkins on Planet Earth

Nineteenth-century Jesuit priest and poet, Gerd Manley Hopkins (1844–89), produced poems on natural themes which were not only revolutionary for their structure and style but also disctinctive and forward-looking for their treatment of the environment. In these poems, he presents nature as intrinsically (rather than instrumentally) valuable, God as concerned with the salvation not only of humans but of the environment, and humankind as responsible noy only for polluting the Earth but for participating in its salvation. Christian poets of the twenty-first century need to hees and follow Hopkin's example.     

Facilitation and Retardation of Flavour Aversion Conditioning Following prior Exposure to the CS

Two sets of experiments on flavour aversion conditioning in rats examined the effects of the following factors: the nature of the flavour serving as the conditioned stimulus (CS), which was either a compound of monsodium glutamate, sucrose and quinine, or an elemental flavour, either sucrose or dilute acid; the amount of the CS rats consumed on a single conditioning trial-4 ml or 1 ml; and whether rats had been pre-exposed to the CS before this conditioning trial. There were three main findings. First, conditioning to an elemental CS was unaffected by the amount consumed on the conditioning trial, but conditioning to 1 ml of the compound CS was poorer than to 4 ml. Second, pre-exposure produced a latent inhibition effect if the CS was an elemental flavour, or if rats were allowed to drink 4 ml of the compound solution on their conditioning trial. But, third, pre-exposure facilitated conditioning in rats given only 1 ml of the compound solution as their CS.     

EFFECTS OF IMMEDIATE SELF-CORRECTION,DELAYED SELF-CORRECTION,AND NO CORRECTION ON THE ACQUISITION AND MAINTENANCE OF MULTIPLICATION FACTS BY A FOURTH-GRADE STUDENT WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES

This study compared the effects of immediate self-correction, delayed self-correction, and no correction on the acquisition and maintenance of multiplication facts by a fourth-grade student with learning disabilities. Data from daily and maintenance tests indicated that both correct response rate and accuracy were higher when self-correction was immediate rather than delayed or absent.     

Why are there eccentricity effects in visual search? Visual and attentional hypotheses

In standard visual search experiments, observers search for a target item among distracting items. The locations of target items are generally random within the display and ignored as a factor in data analysis. Previous work has shown that targets presented near fixation are, in fact, found more efficiently than are targets presented at more peripheral locations. This paper proposes that the primary cause of this “eccentricity effect” (Carrasco, Evert, Chang, & Katz, 1995) is an attentional bias that allocates attention preferentially to central items. The first four experiments dealt with the possibility that visual, and not attentional, factors underlie the eccentricity effect. They showed that the eccentricity effect cannot be accounted for by the peripheral reduction in visual sensitivity, peripheral crowding, or cortical magnification. Experiment 5 tested the attention allocation model and also showed that RT X set size effects can be independent of eccentricity effects. Experiment 6 showed that the effective set size in a search task depends, in part, on the eccentricity of the target because observers search from fixation outward.     

Prehension movements and perceived object depth structure

This study asked the question, “Will the motor pattern to a perceived two-dimensional (2-D) object differ from that same object when it is perceived as three dimensional (3-D)?” Subjects were required to reach and grasp an apple that could appear to be 2-D or 3-D. Two experimental sessions were conducted. In Condition A, the apple was initially perceived to be 2-D, but, for 20% of trials, it suddenly shifted to a 3-D apple at movement onset. In Condition B, the apple was initially perceived to be 3-D, but, for 20% of trials, it suddenly shifted to a 2-D silhouette of the same apple. For control trials, subjects grasped the perceived 2-D apple as if it were a disc (82%), and they grasped the 3-D apple, as they would a normal apple, with a whole-hand grasp (86%). For Condition A perturbed trials, there was a rapid change from a 2-D precision grip to a 3-D whole-hand prehension, whereas the converse was true for the opposite perturbation. Peak acceleration was anticipated for Condition A perturbed trials but not for Condition B perturbed trials. These results indicate that the motor patterns we use in interacting with an object are strongly influenced by the way we perceive the object in real time, and that object affordances, such as dimension, can override the influence exerted by existing representations.