Information processing during saccadic eye movements

Saccadic eye movements are made at least 100,000 times each day. It is well known that sensitivity to visual input is suppressed during saccades; recent evidence suggests that some kinds of information processing are suppressed as well. Suppression during saccades implies that processing occurs discretely (during eye fixations only), rather than continuously (during both fixations and saccades). We examined this issue in the context of the Posner and Snyder (1975) primed letter-matching task. We found that a prime viewed in one fixation had a larger influence on targets viewed in a second fixation when a long rather than a short saccade separated the two fixations. This result demonstrates that at least some information processing occurs during saccades.     

Stability of memory for colour in context.

Memory for colours presented in isolation was compared with that for colours presented as part of a clip-art image or as part of a non-meaningful, Mondrian-like image. The area under the Receiver Operating Characteristic for deciding that two colours, presented at different delay intervals, were the same or different provided an index of memory for colour. The provision of a context reduced the decay of memory, regardless of whether the context was meaningful (clip-art images) or non-meaningful (Mondrian-like images). The result was seen as a generalisation of the auditory phenomenon of profile analysis, in which memory for the amplitude of a single component of a complex sound is more stable than that for the component in isolation.     

Social Anxiety in Children with Anxiety Disorders: Relation with Social and Emotional Functioning

Investigated the psychometric properties of the Social Anxiety Scale for children-Revised (SASC-R) as well as relations between social anxiety and children's social and emotional functioning. Participants were a clinic sample of children, ages 6–11 with anxiety disorders (N = 154) who completed the SASC-R. For a subset of these children, parent ratings of social skills, and self-ratings of perceived competence and peer interactions were also obtained. Factor analysis of the SASC-R supported the original three-factor solution and internal consistencies were in the acceptable range. Among children with simple phobia, scores on the SASC-R differentiated those with and without a comorbid social-based anxiety disorder. Social anxiety was also associated with impairments in social and emotional functioning. Specifically, highly socially anxious children reported low levels of social acceptance and global self-esteem and more negative peer interactions. Girls with high levels of social anxiety were also rated by parents as having poor social skills, particularly in the areas of assertive and responsible social behavior.     

Training the supervisor: Integrating a family of origin approach

The replication of intergenerational patterns is considered here within the supervisor-family therapist-and family system, and the proposal of integrating a family of origin approach into the training of supervisors is presented. To become aware of the relation of one's own family of origin issues and their potential impact within the supervision and treatment can effectively improve intervention approaches, benefitting the supervisor, the therapist and the family in treatment. Being considerate of the training needs and levels of supervisors is an important component when integrating family of origin work into the training.     

Process and detection in fraud and deceit

There has been considerable interest recently in scientific misconduct. Although much has been written and discussed about specific cases, very little, if any, research has been carried out on the process of fraud. An understanding of this aspect can contribute much to methods of detection and lead to recommendations for preventing misconduct and for implementation of appropriate sanctions where fraud has been detected and proved. In this article I initiate a study of the process of fraud using a series of case studies. Hypotheses are generated by methods pioneered by Peirce and most recently developed and thoroughly discussed by Glaser and Strauss under the name of grounded theory. Some illustrations of what can be learned from such studies are included.     

Noncognitive factors in high-road/low-road learning: I. Modes of abstraction in adulthood

Since the termscognition andcognitive are broadly used but not clearly defined, it may be helpful to clarify what is meant bynoncognitive factors. In cognitive science, the termscognition andcognitive generally describe mental processes that are informational insofar as they carry information about the organism's own body and the material world. Thus defined, there are three sorts of noncognitive organismic factors important in adult learning:affective processes, self-developmental processes, andhardware factors (i.e., noninformational, purely organismic constraints such as mental capacity/working memory limitations, gestaltist field factors, etc.). In this series of papers, we attempt to show how these noncognitive factors interact with cognitive factors to facilitate adult learning. We outline and give reference to a dialectical constructivist (neoPiagetian) model of the psychological organism that integrates noncognitive with cognitive factors and that can serve to explicate the findings of the literature and to process/task analyze adult learning. An important aim is the integration of the findings of decline and regression from the cognitive literature with the findings regarding the increase in self-directedness reported by adult education theorists. This is explicated through a process-analytic account of the will, particularly as it pertains to noncognitive factors. In Part II, we continue our explication of a dialectical model of the ego and conclude with a discussion of modes of learning/instruction in adulthood.     

Utilization of college students to improve inner-city school children's academic behavior

A program using college students as tutor/counselors with low-achieving, inner-city, junior high school students is described and evaluated. The college students, who were primarily ethnic minorities, played a multifaceted role as tutors, counselors, and role models of academic achievement. The evaluation assessed program effects across groups (program versus control), two schools and two program administrations, using analysis of covariance. Results supported positive program impact in the students using teacher ratings of classwork effort, quality, and attitude, and in the students' self-reported attitudes toward education, educational aspirations, and expectations.     

The appreciation of antonymic contrasts in aphasia

To secure information on the ability of aphasic patients to comprehend antonymic relations, the kinds of confusions typically made, and the extent to which antonymic sensitivity depends upon mode of presentation and task demands, three linguistic and nonlinguistic tests were administered to aphasic patients, right hemisphere-damaged patients, and non-neurological controls. Although difficulty with antonymous relations was found among all the organic patients, the kinds of problems evidenced and the relative profile of difficulties differed across populations. Among the principal findings were the generally preserved sensitivity to antonymy found among anterior (particularly Broca's) aphasics; a surprising insensitivity to antonymy and a preference for synonyms, found among right hemisphere patients, particularly on the nonlinguistic tasks; a relative preservation of sensitivity to antonymy on nonlinguistic tasks, coupled with a loss of such sensitivity on linguistic tasks, found among posterior (particularly Wernicke's) aphasics; a proclivity toward stereotypical correct responses among the organic patients; and an absolutely worse performance by right hemisphere patients on tasks involving antonymic relations in pictures and abstract designs.