Modality effects: Do they fall on deaf ears?

The present study tests the assumption of the PAS theory of echoic memory (Greene & Crowder, 1984) that the representation of acoustic features is necessary in producing modality effects. Performance by deaf subjects was compared to hearing subjects on serial and free-recall tasks with vocalizing and non-vocalizing conditions. For the serial tasks, typical modality and acoustic similarity effects were observed with hearing subjects, and no such effects were found with deaf subjects. However, for the free-recall task, modality effects were found for both deaf and hearing subjects. It is unlikely that phonological coding resulting from gestural cues mediates the modality effect, as phonological confusion errors for deaf and hearing subjects did not correlate with the size of this effect.     

THE EFFECTS OF TEXT ADAPTATION ON RATED APPEAL AND DIFFICULTY

This study was designed to investigate how low‐achieving readers rate high‐interest low vocabulary adaptations and their original story versions for difficulty and appeal. Five hundred and seventy‐six Title 1 junior and senior high school students were assigned randomly to read and rate one of eight story versions (three original versions and five adaptations). Significant differences in difficulty and appeal ratings were found across the eight story versions. Adaptations were rated as being easier than original stories. Generally, changes in length and readability did not affect appeal. The one exception to this finding was a story adaptation that also had a substantial content modification. The quality of a story was found to be the important factor affecting appeal.     

Testing a model of pain appraisal and coping in children with chronic abdominal pain.

This prospective study of children with recurrent abdominal pain (N=133; ages 8--15 years) used path analysis to examine relations among dispositional pain beliefs and coping styles, cognitions and behavior related to a specific pain episode, and short- and long-term outcomes. Children believing they could not reduce or accept pain appraised their episode-specific coping ability as low and reported passive coping behavior. Dispositional passive coping had direct effects on both episode-specific passive coping and long-term symptoms and disability. Accommodative coping (acceptance and self-encouragement) was associated with reduced episode-specific distress, which itself predicted reduced depressive symptoms 3 months later. Results suggest that coping-skill interventions for children with chronic pain should target reductions in passive coping and consider the potential benefits of accommodative coping strategies.