Luria-nebraska neuropsychological battery: High rates of false positives for geriatirc subjects

This study examined false positive rates obtained for two normal adult age groups, using three different methods for interpreting performances on the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery (LNNB). Among normal subjects ages 18 to 30 and ages 65 to 85, false positive rates were found to range from 3.9% to 7.7% for younger subjects and 13.5% to 32.7% for older subjects. Significant differences were found between the proportion of false positives in each age group on each method of interpretation. A lack of agreement was found between the three different methods of interpretation concerningwhich subjects should be classified as impaired. Further analysis was performed by dividing older subjects into two groups, ages 65 to 70 and over 70. False positive rates for subjects over age 70 were found to range from 20.7% to 41.4%. Significant differences were also found between the proportion of false positives in each of these two groups.     

'Limits to therapy and counselling': Deconstructing a professional ideology

The rapidity with which therapy, as discourse and as clinical—professional practice, has become established in contemporary culture is subjected to a searching deconstructive critique. Specifically, it is argued that therapy's pretensions to being a legitimate professional, clinical practice are not only highly questionable, but actually constitute a self-serving and ethically questionable ideology. The 'scientific' status of therapy as a modernist enterprise is argued to be fundamentally undermined by new-paradigm epistemologies. It is further argued that, in its professionalised, commodified form, therapy can become routinely and intrinsically abusive to the extent that it self—fulfillingly constructs a framework which then serves to guarantee its own legitimacy within a discursive 'regime of truth'. Parker's important work on discourse and power is drawn upon to illustrate these radical arguments, and to make the case for an approach to therapy which is ongoingly and processually deconstructive of its 'professional' ideologies and clinical practices, if the kinds of dangers outlined are to be avoided. Such deconstruction would also include an ongoing and explicit interrogation of 'therapy' as an historically specific, evolving and, it is submitted, transitory cultural practice. Deep and honest ethical reflection is needed on the nature of therapy, and on the possibility of developing more healthily appropriate socio-cultural forms for helping people with their 'difficulties of living'.     

Relation of work and retirement to health and well-being in older age.

Patterns of labor-force participation were studied with a broad array of indicators of physical and psychological well-being. The sheer amount of work--whether people work and, if so, how many hours they work--shows little relationship to health and well-being. Drawing on scattered existing research and theory, it is hypothesized and found that persons whose patterns of labor-force participation (or nonparticipation) reflect their personal preference report higher levels of physical and psychological well-being than do those whose level of labor-force involvement is constrained by other factors. The results do not differ by gender, age (65 years and older vs. 55-64 years), or occupation (professional vs. clerical or sales vs. blue-collar workers). Data are from 1,339 respondents 55 years of age or older in the Americans' Changing Lives Survey, a large national, cross-sectional survey of Americans 25 years of age and older with an oversample of those 60 years of age and older, and are analyzed by ordinary least squares multiple regression.     

Octave generalization and the identification of distorted melodies

Four familiar melodies were distorted in such a way that certain harmonic information was maintained. These melodies and their nondistorted versions were randomly presented to three groups of musically untrained subjects. There were, thus, undistorted melodies which were equal in all ways except the frequencies of the constituent tones, three conditions in which only the octave was maintained, and three other harmonic control conditions in which only the perfect fifth, fourth, and major third were maintained. The melodic sequences were presented to each group using a different tonal waveform for each group: sine wave, rectangular wave, and sawtooth wave. An analysis of variance revealed that the octave distortions were significantly more recognizable than the control conditions. Furthermore, waveform significantly influenced identification of melodies. It was proposed that octave generalization was a major factor in the identification of the distorted octave sequences.     

Repetition of cues in children's oddity learning and transfer

The hypothesis that repetition of specific cues interferes with oddity learning was directly tested by comparing two groups of preschool (3 to 5 years of age) children, one with repeated cues and the other with new cues on every trial. Repetition of cues retarded oddity learning confirming previous speculation based on error analyses. Performance on postsolution transfer trials with repeated cues was not affected by conditions of acquisition. Significant age effects were found in oddity acquisition, while there was only weak evidence for agerelated performance differences on transfer trials. Transfer performance on trials with repetition of cues was not related to whether or not the children were informed of such repetition. The results were related to theories of oddity acquisition and transfer.     

Mathematics beliefs and achievement of elementary school students in Japan and the United States: results from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study

Student self-beliefs are significantly related to several types of academic achievement. In addition, results from international assessments have indicated that students in Japan have typically scored above international averages (D. L. Kelly, I. V. S. Mullis, & M. O. Martin, 2000). In this study, the author examined relationships between mathematics beliefs and achievement of elementary school-aged students in the United States and Japan. The students had participated in the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS; A. E. Beaton et al., 1996). The author examined several self-beliefs and used variance estimation techniques for complex sampling designs. The author identified a number of significant relationships between self-beliefs and mathematics achievement. Students who attributed success in mathematics to controllable factors (e.g., hard work, studying at home) showed higher test scores whereas students who attributed success in mathematics at school to external factors (e.g., good luck) tended to earn lower mathematics test scores. These results extend the findings of previous research results because the author examined large national samples of students in cross-cultural settings as part of a comprehensive international assessment.     

Volunteers serving victims of sexual assault

Rape crisis volunteers who provide direct-care services to victims of sexual assault are a much-understudied group. Volunteers provide a crucial role in support of nonprofit rape crisis centers, and factors influencing their continued service are an important consideration for decision makers. In the present study, the authors examined--among volunteers providing hospital and crisis-line advocacy to victims of sexual assault--the training, service self-efficacy, social support, and experiences with victim blaming as correlates with overall satisfaction, affective commitment, and the intent to remain. Overall satisfaction and affective commitment were positively related to the intent to stay. Additionally, the perceived value of training was positively related to overall satisfaction and the intent to remain.     

NAV: A tool for producing presentation quality animations of graphical cognitive model dynamics

Computational models of cognition often exhibit complex dynamics that are difficult to discern without the use of visualization tools. Current tools often provide insight only to the modeling expert, however, and they provide limited functionality for communicating model dynamics to the nonexpert, as is needed during scientific presentations and in educational settings. We present NAV, the Node Activity Visualizer, an easy-to-use and portable software tool that interactively transforms the output of cognitive modeling simulators into presentation quality animations of model performance. nt]mis|The members of the Vanderbilt University Computational Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory for their helpful comments.     

Counseling Thai Americans: An Emerging Need

This article identifies the unique issues of Thai Americans as a cultural minority in the United States. The authors propose ways of understanding and responding to Thai American clients and recommend strategies for working more effectively with these clients.