The intrusiveness of familiar nontarget information

Two experiments required subjects to attend to one of two binaurally presented passages and, at the same time, perform a visual reaction time (RT) task. Mean RT measured the capacity expended on selective listening: Longer RTs imply greater capacity expenditure. The relative familiarity of target and nontarget passages and the cue by which they could be differentiated (sensory vs. semantic) were manipulated. The target passages were defined by the experimenter in Experiment 1 but chosen by the subjects in Experiment 2. Both experiments showed that expenditure of capacity increased from sensory to semantic selection and increased with non-target familiarity only for semantic selection. The data were interpreted in terms of a multi-mode theory of attention.     

The influence of a career group experience on the vocational maturity of college students

The effects of a career group experience on the vocational maturity of theoretically grouped college freshmen and sophomores were investigated using Super's Career Development Inventory as the dependent measure. The dimensions of consistency/inconsistency and differentiation/nondifferentiation, as identified utilizing Holland's Vocational Preference Inventory, were investigated along with the dimensions of treatment/nontreatment and interaction effects. Predictions related to change in vocational maturity as a result of treatment were made for each dimension. The analysis sample was a group of 68 volunteer freshman and sophomore college students. Results indicated that students did significantly increase their vocational maturity as a result of the group experience. Furthermore, it was found, as predicted, that within experimental groups inconsistent and nondifferentiated students improved significantly more on some vocational maturity measures than consistent or differentiated students. Students who were both inconsistent and nondifferentiated showed consistently greater increases on virtually all vocational maturity measures than all other theoretical groups.     

The functions of phonology in the acquisition of reading: Lexical and sentence processing

It has been claimed (V. Coltheart, Laxon, Rickard, & Elton, 1988) that learners as well as skilled readers use phonology for multiple functions in reading-for-meaning tasks. This claim was examined using lexical decision and sentence evaluation tasks. It was found in the first experiment that the type of instruction learners had received determined whether there was prelexical use of phonology in responding to items out of sentence context. Type of instruction had no effect when the items were in context. In the second experiment, performances on a homophone sentence evaluation task and a homophone semantic decision task, which excluded sentence processing, were examined. The results suggest that phonology served the function of access to lexical meanings in addition to any function in postlexical sentence processing. The obtained relationships between relative frequencies of the presented and unpresented homophone mates and item accuracy on these tasks were inconsistent with exclusive use of “direct access” but consistent with access of lexical meanings via phonology and application of a “spelling-check” procedure when multiple homophonic meanings are activated.     

Norman C. Gysbers: A Proponent of Comprehensive School Guidance Programs

Norman C. Gysbers has been a major contributor to the field of counseling and guidance for more than 30 years, not only through scholarship, but also through leadership. Gysbers is best known for his work in comprehensive school guidance and for his many national leadership positions. In this article, he discusses both his life and the evolution of counseling and school guidance programs.