A general framework for defining evoked potential paradigms

We have developed a framework for defining a range of evoked potential paradigms through the completion of screen forms rather than through the modification of program code. Within this framework, an experimenter can specify stimulus events and their timing, randomization of different stimuli, collection of responses, rejection of artifacts, and detection of peaks within the averaged waveforms. Printed copies of the screen forms and of timing diagrams derived from them can later be incorporated into the documentation of the experiment.     

School psychology: Its educational and societal connections

School psychology can be viewed either as a pragmatic response to the pressing and immediate needs of the schools ore as an outgrowth of ideological and technological forces in society. This paper argues that beliefs more than needs shaped the history of the profession. School psychology emereged because professional educators held psychological beliefs (and because a psychological testing technology was available to turn those beliefs into practice). Thus, adherence to psychological and developmental principles made age-grading and appropriate response to the sudden influx of large numbers of new students into the schools, and the acceptance of child-centered educational theories led logically to the study of individual children's needs, especially of those who were atypical. Both educators and psychologists subscribed, at least in principle, to the mainstream social ideology of individualism. School psychology became a means for translating such national values (e.g., individualism) and educational principles (e.g., individualized instruction) into school practice.     

The Role of Psychological Characteristics in the Relation Between Socioeconomic Status and Perceived Health1

Separate analyses of United States and Finnish samples demonstrate a graded (almost linear) relation between socioeconomic status (SES) and risk of poor perceived health. In both studies, positive psychological factors (greater social support; less anger, depression, and perceived stress) and beneficial health practices (nonsmoking; drinking and exercising moderately) were associated with both higher levels of SES and better self-reported health. Psychological and health practice variables were both able to account for some of the SES and poor health gradient. However, contrary to expectations, these factors did not play a more important role in explaining decreased risk at the middle and highest levels of SES, and instead may be most important at lowest levels.     

Activity-Dependent Activation of TrkB Neurotrophin Receptors in the Adult CNS

In this paper we have investigated the hypothesis that neural activity causes rapid activation of TrkB neurotrophin receptors in the adult mammalian CNS. These studies demonstrate that kainic acid-induced seizures led to a rapid and transient activation of TrkB receptors in the cortex. Subcellular fractionation demonstrated that these activated Trk receptors were preferentially enriched in the synaptosomal membrane fraction that also contained postsynaptic glutamate receptors. The fast activation of synaptic TrkB receptors could be duplicated in isolated cortical synaptosomes with KCl, presumably as a consequence of depolarization-induced BDNF release. Importantly, TrkB activation was also observed following pharmacological activation of brain-stem noradrenergic neurons, which synthesize and anterogradely transport BDNF; treatment with yohimbine led to activation of cortical TrkB receptors within 30 min. Pharmacological blockade of the postsynaptic α1-adrenergic receptors with prazosin only partially inhibited this effect, suggesting that the TrkB activation was partially due to a direct effect on postsynaptic cortical neurons. Together, these data support the hypothesis that activity causes release of BDNF from presynaptic terminals, resulting in a rapid activation of postsynaptic TrkB receptors. This activity-dependent TrkB activation could play a major role in morphological growth and remodelling in both the developing and mature nervous systems.     

Story processing in right-hemisphere brain-damaged patients.

The understanding of stories requires sensitivity to structural aspects of narrative, the emotional content conveyed by the narrative, and the interaction between structural and emotional facets of the story. Right-hemisphere-damaged (RHD) and normal control subjects performed a number of different analytic tasks which probed their competence at story comprehension. Results revealed that RHD subjects perform at a level comparable to that of normal controls with stories that follow a canonical form and that they show few difficulties with structural aspects of narrative. Contrary to expectation, they are strongly influenced by the "interest" level of a story and by other factors that tap emotional sensitivity. Findings are discussed in terms of the processing and arousal mechanisms which may give rise to the observed pattern of difficulties in RHD patients.     

The relationship between advertisement variables and applicant responses to newspaper recruitment advertisements

The relationship between recruitment advertisement variables and applicant response rate was investigated. Three hundred and fifty companies were surveyed about applicant responses to their classified advertisements. One hundred and thirty-three surveys were completed and sent back for a return rate of 38%. The results of this study indicate that advertisements which include variables to enhance the physical features of the advertisement: such as white space, size, border, and graphics—are positively related to the quantity of an applicant pool.     

Gradients of attraction as a function of the fit between social setting and stimulus person characteristics: Studies of the differentiation of attitude

Two experiments compared three alternative hypotheses concerning differences in attraction to a person across interaction settings: A compartmentalization hypothesis assumes that a person's (A's) intimate and nonintimate characteristics only affect attraction to him in intimate and nonintimate interactions, respectively, and that there is no generalization of attraction across levels of intimacy. An intimacy dominance hypothesis assumes that a person's intimacy-related characteristics determine attraction to him at all levels of interaction. Finally, an intimacy threshold hypothesis assumes that a person's intimacy-related characteristics become increasingly relevant to attraction as the intimacy of interaction increases, but that these characteristics need not influence attraction at nonintimate levels of interaction. Experiment 1 supported the compartmentalization hypothesis. Attraction to a formal teacher decreased as the intimacy of the anticipated setting increased, while attraction to an informal teacher increased with increasing setting intimacy. In Experiment 2, agreement on intimate topics promoted liking for a peer while no effect was found for agreement on superficial topics. This effect only emerged for intimate interaction settings, supporting the intimacy threshold hypothesis. High positive correlations between distance preference and attraction were obtained in Experiment 1, while analogous data obtained in Experiment 2 had less clear implications.