The counselor: who? what?

The author examines the criticisms of counselors which center on such factors as age, sex, race, and elitism. Areas of confusion regarding the functions of the counselor are related to the teacher-counselor issue, the professional functions of the counselor, and the basic purpose of counseling. The counselor is seen primarily as doing psychological counseling with individuals and groups, rather than teaching or advising.     

Visual information processing of sequentially presented inputs: III. Further effects of list length and interstimulus interval values on sub-span storage and retrieval mechanisms

Two experiments were carried out, employing a computer-based cathode-ray tube display system, to study further the effects of sub-span Hst length, i.e., two, three, four, and five decimal digits, and relatively small interstimulus interval (ISI) values, i.e., 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100 msec, on visual information processing, storage, and retrieval mechanisms. The results of the first experiment confirmed the compttcated intenctions found in two earlier studies between Hst length and ISI values, but with much smaller ISI values than employed preriousfy. The results of the second experiment, in which unequal ISI values were employed within the same length input string, showed little effect resulting from this parameter, but it was suggested that a wider distribution of different ISI values within the same length input string would produce very strong effects.     

The semiautomatic Wisconsin general test apparatus

A semiautomatic version of the Wisconsin General Test Apparatus is described along with circuitry. Comparison data are provided for the semiautomatic and manual WGTA obtained under comparable procedures and conditions. Response latencies are given for go/no-go object discrimination problems and subsequent retention tests.     

Recognition assessed by D' and by a non-parametric alternative (the A-index) as a function of the number of choices

Freedom from restrictive assumptions and ease of psychological interpretation are two basic criteria for a satisfactory measure of recognition performance. The A-index (Brown, 1965a) comes close to fulfilling these criteria. It is based on the proportion of wrong choices rejected in a multi-choice test as revealed by the number of choices required to select the correct choice. It can be transformed into the d' measure of signal detection theory (SDT) if the standard assumptions of this theory hold, but not in general. Two experiments on the recognition of words-in-noise are described. In the first there were 3, 5, 8 or 16 choices. They were typed on a card which was displayed to the listener during the presentation of a word. On both measures 5-, 8- and 16-choice recognition did not differ significantly, while 3-choice recognition was slightly, but significantly, superior. The second experiment concerned the effect of delaying the display of the card until 2 sec. after presentation. No evidence for an effect was obtained. In both experiments, there was suggestive but not conclusive evidence that the d' measure tended to overestimate recognition efficiency.     

Interaction of fear effects with habit strength

Four groups of rats received 0, 3, 6 or 9 days of overtraining after having reached stable performance on a continuous reinforcement bar pressing schedule. Half the subjects in each group had previously been designated emotionally reactive or non-reactive in terms of defecation rates in an open-field test. Following training, there were four test days in which bar pressing in each group was examined in the presence or absence of white noise. The major findings were that, in both the reactive and non-reactive groups, white noise produced a fear reaction which significantly depressed bar pressing at low levels of habit strength while having an energizing effect at higher levels. The results were interpreted as supporting Bardach's (1960) hypothesis that anxiety introduced early in practice is more disruptive than when introduced late in practice.