Children's sensitivity to traffic hazard in peripheral vision

Although children and adults have poorer peripheral vision than foveal vision there is contradictory evidence about the developmental changes that occur in peripheral sensitivity. Previous research on detections of traffic hazard has not, however, provided any evidence that peripheral vision is implicated in the particualr vulnerability of children to pedestrain accidents. In the absence of differences in peripheral detections it was hypothesized that children may nevertheless be less efficient than adults in utilizing information presented in the periphery. Road traffic scenes depicting vehicles in potentially hazardous and non-hazardous positions for road crossings were presented to adults and to childre, aged 7, 9, and 11. Results confirmed that children were relatively no poorer than adults at hazard detection in peripheral vision than in foveal vision, but indicated that they were marginally poorer at utilizing information presented in the periphery, as measured by a vehicle recognition test. Against expectd developmental trends 9-year-olds were as fast as adults at hazard detection, but no different from the other groups of children in recognition performance. Evidence that information detected and assimilated in peripheral vision does not contribute to the high pedestrian accident rates of children comes from the absence of any sex differences favouring girls. Since girls have considerably lower accident rates than boys, it would have been expected that both their detection and recognition performance would have been higher.     

Optimism,perceived control over stress,and coping

To examine the ability of the expectancy-based personality dimensions dispositional optimism and perceived control over stress to predict the ways in which people characteristically attempt to cope with stress, 420 undergraduate students completed the Life Orientation Test (LOT; Scheier and Carver, 1985), a measure of perceived control over stress, and the dispositional version of the COPE Inventory (Carver, Scheier and Weintraub, 1989). The results revealed a modest but reliable positive correlation between optimism and the perceived control measure. Principal-components analysis of the COPE revealed a factor structure which was generally in accord with prior research. Optimism was positively correlated with active coping and positive reinterpretation, and negatively correlated with focusing on and venting of emotion. Perceived control over stress was negatively correlated with behavioural disengagement. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

Minor miracles or logical process? Therapeutic interventions and techniques

This paper highlights the construction of Therapeutic Interventions. The ideas presented here, many in the form of techniques, are intended to provide therapists–experienced and not so experienced–with a new focus for problems that are frequently seen in general family therapy practice.
A detailed format has been included on how the author routinely goes about constructing interventions.     

Phonological transformations in Spanish-speaking aphasics

Thirty-seven aphasic patients whose native language is Spanish were divided into four groups: (1) Broca's, (2) Wernicke's, (3) Conduction, and (4) Anomia. Phonological errors produced on repetition and object-naming tasks were analyzed in terms of type of transformation and degree of similarity between target and errors in terms of shared distinctive features. Segmental transformations were of the following types: (1) pure substitution, (2) pure addition, (3) deletion, (4) reduplicative addition (doublet creation)—anticipatory (right to left) or perseverative (left to right), (5) reduplicative substitution (doublet creation)—anticipatory or perseverative, and (6) mutual exchanges. Pure substitutions were the most prevalent, exchanges, the least. Some error types were found to differentiate significantly between aphasic populations. We suggest that different mechanisms may underlie the same error type for different aphasic populations.     

The Scan-Copier Mechanism and the Positional Level of Language Production: Evidence from Phonemic Paraphasia

In this paper I argue that phonemic paraphasia in the fluent aphasias is best characterized as a computational disruption in the processes that map the Functional Level onto the Positional Level of the model of sentence production developed by Merrill Garrett. I claim that a scan-copying mechanism of the sort proposed by Shattuck-Hufnagel operates among the computations leading to the Positional Level and that mechanism, when it derails, gives rise to the production of phonemic level errors in the language of fluent aphasies with posterior left cerebral lesions. I then argue that phonetic level errors in non-fluent, verbal apraxia cannot be handled by the scan-copier, nor can they be accounted for at the Positional Level.     

Special Section Epilogue: A Call to Action

The purpose of this article is to offer specific recommendations and a call to action for counselors who engage in social justice work. Recommendations regarding the philosophical, ethical, spiritual, and religious aspects of social justice work are emphasized in this call to action based on articles presented in this special section.     

In the World of Persons: The Personhood Debate in the Analects and Zhuangzi

This article is an examination of a debate between Confucians and Zhuangists surrounding the notion of moral personhood as understood in the early Confucian tradition. This debate takes place across texts??most importantly in the Confucian challenge of Analects 18.5-7 and the Zhuangist response of the Renjianshi chapter of the Zhuangzi. In better understanding the disagreement between these two schools, we can come to a clearer picture of the notion of personhood at stake. The Zhuangist reaction to the Confucian position on personhood helps to demonstrate that the Confucians held a conception of the person as communally constructed. Such a view, I argue, can be of great use in contemporary debates surrounding agency, moral responsibility, and moral development. After offering an outline of the Confucian position, I consider various Zhuangist objections both in the Analects and Renjianshi chapter, before considering what I take to be convincing Confucian responses to the Zhuangist objections.     

Petitioning the King: The Case of Provincial Printers in Eighteenth-Century France

This essay studies an argumentative practice in eighteenth-century France by exploring the persuasiveness of some petitions to obtain printer licences. Those who wanted to enter the printing business in eighteenth-century France had to obtain licences from the King to do so. The French government had established limits to the number of printers it would permit to operate in the realm; hence, there was competition for any vacancy that became open. Thus, the context is that of trained printers in provincial towns, most of them with their own printing equipment, applying to the government in Paris for the highly valued licences to run printing businesses. We examine a small number of the original petitions and give an account of their persuasive capacity by (a) noticing the narrative character of the letters and (b) distinguishing between propositional and affective attitudes. Our view is that a reconstruction of the petitions as reasonable persuasive discourse is possible when it is noticed how the two kinds of attitudes can be combined to promote the same end.