Utilization of context for word identification decisions in children

The use of context was investigated with subjects from fourth- and sixth-grade populations. A Word Boundary task was used that requires subjects to make word-identification decisions both with and without contextual information. Results indicated that context was utilized effectively by the sixth-grade students, while the fourth-grade students showed small context-use effects. These findings are consistent with performance models that emphasize the role of predictive behavior in language analysis.     

The influence of serial retention and theme identification paradigms on encoding

Half the subjects attempted to remember the order of presentation of stimulus lists of words; the other half tried to determine the theme of the words. Encoding features were evaluated with surprise recognition tests. Greater auditory encoding was obtained for the stimulus words in the serial retention condition than for the same words in the theme identification condition. Semantic encoding was only obtained in the theme identification condition. These results were discussed in terms of the flexibility of encoding strategies.     

Sex differences in college student-teacher interactions: Fact or fantasy?

On-site observations analyzing student-teacher interaction for 50 college classes, matched by level, subject, and teacher's sex, revealed no difference in number and type of interactions in which male and female students participated. In female-taught classes, style differences were found: Male students' interactions were characterized by more student-teacher exchanges than females' interactions. From student questionnaires, differences in office visitation patterns were revealed, showing an apparent relationship to sex: Female students visited more female than male instructors. However, closer examination showed the student's major to be the key variable influencing visitation patterns. Results point to the need for testing a variety of variables in addition to sex before drawing conclusions about sex-related behavior.Ordering of authors was determined alphabetically. A CETA special project grant from the King-Snohomish Manpower Consortium (P. Dee Boersma, principal investigator) funded the research. The authors thank the Institute for Environmental Studies for providing space.     

Burnout: A critical issue for the 1980s

The article surveys some of the recent literature on burnout and identifies the burnout syndrome as a critical issue for our times. What is burnout? Are there identifiable causes and characteristics of the phenomenon? Why does it seem to affect committed people in the helping professions? Five critical aspects of the problem are explored, namely, the difficulty of diagnosis, the relation between the existential situation and the person, the sheer weight of change, the increasing demands of ministry, and the narrow perception of leisure. Some approaches to the problem are presented. These are prevention, self-assessment, a new approach to change, re-evaluation of ministry, and creative leisure. The creative development of leisure is seen as the most inclusive and effective approach to this malady of dedicated people. In fact, leisure attitudes are essential for the growth of integrated, balanced, fully human, fully religious persons. The author suggests that the development of a spirituality of leisure may be the qualitative step needed to eradicate burnout and restore health and wholeness to committed persons.     

Event-related potential studies of cerebral specialization during reading : II. Studies of congenitally deaf adults

A number of methodological features were incorporated in a paradigm designed to maximize the likelihood of finding reliable event-related potential (ERP) signs of functional specializations between and within the cerebral hemispheres. Every subject was more accurate in identifying words presented to the right than to the left visual field. The morphology of the ERPs elicited by these words varied considerably as a function of electrode position both within and between the hemispheres. Amplitude asymmetries of ERP components recorded from occipital regions of the two hemispheres varied systematically with the position of the word in the visual field. On the other hand, ERPs from more anterior (temporal and frontal) regions displayed large asymmetries which were in the same direction regardless of the visual field of word presentation. The most prominent such asymmetry was in the negativity in the region 300–500 msec (N410) which was larger in the left than the right hemisphere in every subject. These results demonstrate that in this paradigm which demands specialized language processing ERPs are sensitive to aspects of cerebral organization both within and between the two hemispheres.     

Sex bias in the newspaper treatment of male-centered and female-centered news stories

Differences in the newspaper treatment of men and women were examined in two sets of news stories collected a year apart, in the fall of 1976 and 1977. In both samples, coverage of women was more likely to include mention of personal appearance, marital status, and spouse than was coverage of men. These differences could not be attributed to the greater number of men in the news, nor to differences in the sections of the newspaper where stories about men and stories about women were usually found. They were equally true of locally written and national wire-service stories.     

The use of a sequenced questioning paradigm to facilitate associative fluency in preschoolers

The intent of the study was to investigate the extent to which free play vs. sequenced questioning conditions facilitated preschoolers' associative fluency. Twenty-four children (12 boys and 12 girls, $\text{x}$ age of 50.7 months) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: free play, questions, control, in the first two conditions, children interacted with randomly chosen conventional objects. Children in all conditions were asked for novel uses for the conventional objects. Children in the sequenced questioning condition generated significantly more novel responses than children in the other two conditions (p < .002). No significant difference was observed between the play and control conditions. Implications for pedagogy are discussed. Teachers should pose the sequence of questions so as to enable children to explore their hypotheses.