Degree of consistent training: Improvements in search performance and automatic process development

Previous research has shown substantial improvements in detection performance when subjects consistently detect a subset of stimuli. In contrast, in conditions in which stimuli appear as both targets and distractors, there is little performance improvement with practice. The present experiments examine how varying degrees of consistency determine the improvement of detection accuracy with extended practice. The degree of consistency was varied by manipulating the frequency with which a letter was a distractor while holding the number of occurrences as a target constant. The experiments utilized a multiple-frame target-detection search paradigm in which subjects were to detect single-letter targets in a series of rapidly presented letters on four channels. Experiments showed that detection performance improvement with practice was a monotonic function of the degree of consistency, decreasing to zero as the target-to-distractor ratio increased from 10:0 to 10:20. As consistency decreased, detection performance asymptoted earlier and at a lower level. A dual-task experiment examined subjects’ ability to perform the previously trained search task as a secondary task. Results showed that the previous targetto-distractor consistency had a marked effect on resource sensitivity of the detection task. The general issues of consistency in the development of skilled performance and in the development of automatic processing are discussed.     

Some correlates of women's Self-Image and Stereotypes of Femininity

An expanded version of the Gordon Self-Image and Stereotypes of Femininity scale was administered to a sample of 362 female nursing personnel. Factor structure of the scale was found to closely approximate that of the Gordon sample. Numerous significant relationships of self-image dimensions to affective responses, experienced role stresses, demographic measures, and personality indices were isolated. However, perceptions of males' image, doctors' image, and own image of a feminine woman were generally unrelated to these measures. Further, examination of discrepancies between self-image dimensions and self and others' stereotypes of a feminine woman along these dimensions did not aid in explaining variance in affective responses or experienced role stresses. Implications of the findings are discussed and suggestions for future research are presented.     

Increasing Career Center Accessibility for the Blind

To improve career planning services for visually impaired persons, the career center at Florida State University developed a self-directed program. This article describes strategies for making career information materials and resources more accessible to the blind.     

A common representational system governed by Weber's law: nonverbal numerical similarity judgments in 6-year-olds and rhesus macaques

This study compared nonverbal numerical processing in 6-year-olds with that in nonhuman animals using a numerical bisection task. In the study, 16 children were trained on a delayed match-to-sample paradigm to match exemplars of two anchor numerosities. Children were then required to indicate whether a sample intermediate to the anchor values was closer to the small anchor value or the large anchor value. For two sets of anchor values with the same ratio, the probability of choosing the larger anchor value increased systematically with sample number, and the psychometric functions superimposed when plotted on a logarithmic scale. The psychometric functions produced by the children also superimposed with the psychometric functions produced by rhesus monkeys in an analogous previous experiment. These examples of superimposition demonstrate that nonverbal number representations, even in children who have acquired the verbal counting system, are modulated by Weber's law.     

Internet access and use among homeless and indigent drug users in Long Beach, California.

There has been a growing interest in using the Internet to access a variety of populations for prevention education and health care. It is not clear that this is viable for homeless and other marginalized populations. The purpose of this study was to describe Internet access and use among a sample of homeless and indigent drug users. A brief questionnaire was developed to assess computer ownership, use, email, and Internet access and use. Participants were recruited through a community-based human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevention program. 265 participants completed the questionnaire. While 55% had ever used a computer in their lifetime, only 25% had ever owned a computer, 24% had ever had their own email account, 33% had access to a working computer in the last 30 days, 10% had sent or received email in the last 30 days, and 19% had surfed or accessed information on the Internet in the last 30 days. Logistic regression predicting lifetime use of a computer showed predictive factors of having completed high school (Odds Ratio [OR] = 4.5; 95% Confidence Interval [CI] = 2.41, 8.38) and number of days used amphetamines in the last 30 days, per 5 days of use (OR = 1.64; 95% CI = 1.18, 2.27). Inversely related were age, per 5 years of age (OR = 0.78; 95% CI = 0.65, 0.93) and number of days used marijuana in the last 30 days, per 5 days of use (OR = 0.97; 95% CI = 0.76, 0.99). Very low access and usage suggest that Internet-based public health education models be reexamined for this population. The association with amphetamine use may indicate a facilitating effect of amphetamine by heightening awareness and increasing wakefulness.     

HISTORICAL ASPECTS OF MINDFULNESS AND SELF-ACCEPTANCE IN PSYCHOTHERAPY

We describe some of the historical conditions that made possible Kabat-Zinn’s [(1990). Full catastrophe living: Using the wisdom of your body and mind to face stress, pain, and illness. New York: Delacorte] very successful use of mindfulness in his stress management program. The ground had been prepared by the nonjudgmental acceptance of people and symptoms by Humanistic psychotherapists, and by the increasing assimilation of Buddhist ideas into Western psychology and psychotherapy. In addition the word “mindfulness,” as the translation of the Pali sati, came to refer to both the manualized practice that provides the evidence for its efficacy in the hands of Kabat-Zinn and others, and the more complex process of clear comprehension and recollection that is described in his more discursive writings, and is similar to Ellen Langer’s use of “mindfulness” in her book of that name.