Effect of click rate and delay on breakdown of the precedence effect

The precedence effect was tested as a function of echo-click delay and click rate after an abrupt switch in location between leading and lagging clicks. Click trains at three rates, 1/sec, 2/sec, and 4/sec, with delays ranging between 2 and 20 msec, were presented to subjects in an anechoic chamber. Duration of the click train after the switch in location was 12 sec, and echo click perceptibility was assessed throughout this period. The number of echo clicks heard was an increasing monotonic function of delay. The subjects reported a "fade-out" of echo clicks after a set number of clicks at each delay, regardless of rate. This result was interpreted as a buildup in inhibition of echoes produced by the ongoing click train. Suppression of echoes was stronger when the leading click originated from the right side than from the left side.     

Initial experiences with cognitive therapy of schizophrenic patients

Based on earlier experiences of various groups of authors, we developed and modified a programme of cognitive therapy for schizophrenic patients. The aim of the application of the therapeutic programme to subacute patients was to decrease subjectively perceptible basic disorders and to improve the functions of performance. The present results and experiences with 4 groups consisting of a total of 31 patients encourage us to continue applying cognitive procedures of therapy. Problems of the ascertainment of measuring values and fundamental questions of therapeutic efficacy are discussed.     

Normal cerebrospinal fluid findings in spinal tumors--an analysis of 503 cases

Till now almost nothing has been published about normal liquor findings in spinal cord tumours. Out of 503 cases there were normal findings of total proteins and cells in 30 cases (6 per cent). A connection with the severity of the compression-syndrome was not evident. Nevertheless liquor examinations are important in diseases of the medulla spinalis. This is especially useful in the differential diagnostical demarcation of inflammable spinal cord diseases, accompanying reactions or bleedings into the spinal channel.     

Effects of preshot routine on free-throw shooting

The effect of prohibiting the use of a preshot routine on free-throw shooting in competitive situations was investigated. 25 male high school basketball players were instructed to attempt 50 free throws alternating in blocks of 10 between the use of their preshot routine and shooting without it. To make the situation competitive, subjects were run in groups of five and their performance was recorded on a large easel placed to the side of the free-throw line. A significantly larger number of baskets were made in the preshot routine condition than without the routine. A competitive situation led to a greater decrement in baskets than had been reported in 1986 by Lobmeyer and Wassermen during noncompetitive free-throw shooting.     

Helping the child with cancer: what school personnel want to know

As more children with cancer survive, the importance of facilitating school reintegration as a part of maximizing the quality of life has become evident. Workshops have been presented to school personnel to acquaint them with the issues facing cancer patients and their families, but there are gaps in our knowledge of what school personnel really need or want to know. In this study, 18 teachers of children with cancer and 15 teachers with no prior contact with students with cancer completed a questionnaire designed to assess needs, beliefs, and priorities with regard to working with cancer patients in the classroom. Significant findings included: (a) a consensus that a certain core of information about medical/psychological issues would be useful, and presentation of such information by psychologists and medical personnel working with such families would be optimal; (b) teachers having cancer patients as students were less likely to see the adaptation of siblings as an important issue; (c) teachers associated working with a student with cancer with less stress and demands on their time than predictable from previous studies; and (d) cancer patients as a whole were rated as having fewer behavioral, emotional, and learning problems than randomly selected students without a major illness, suggesting a "halo effect" or contradiction of some literature. Preliminary findings are detailed and implications are discussed for those attempting to help teachers facilitate students' adjustment to school following diagnosis and treatment of cancer.     

Objective and simulated stimulation: an empirical study of the effect of indirect suggestion on motor behavior

In an experimental investigation it is demonstrated that motor behavior-in contrast to the opinion forwarded in the literature-is not only elicitable by means of direct persuasion, but also to a great extend by mere indirect suggestion, (feigning of stimuli). A differential investigation of these effects provided evidence that reactions to feigned stimuli are highly person specific and relatively homogenous concerning the respective instruments whereas objective stimuli lead to reactions relatively specific for the respective instrument applied. The findings are interpreted as an analog on to placebo-effects in the area of motor behavior. Their extend may be seen as an argument for a stronger concern with subjective reaction tendencies in this field.     

Timed magnitude comparisons of numerical and nonnumerical expressions of uncertainty

Two experiments involving paired comparisons of numerical and nonnumerical expressions of uncertainty are reported. Subjects were timed under two opposing sets of instructions ("choose higher probability" vs. "choose lower probability"). Numerical comparisons were consistently faster and easier than their nonnumerical counterparts. Consistent distance and congruity effects were obtained, illustrating that both numerical and nonnumerical expressions of uncertainty contain subjective magnitude information, and suggesting that similar processes are employed in manipulating and comparing numerical and verbal terms. To account for the general pattern of results obtained, Holyoak's reference point model (1978) was generalized by explicitly including the vagueness of the nonnumerical expressions. This generalized model is based on the notion that probability expressions can be represented by membership functions (Wallsten, Budescu, Rapoport, Zwick, & Forsyth, 1986) from which measures of location for each word, and measures of overlap for each pair can be derived. A good level of fit was obtained for this model at the individual level.     

Contributions of a supportive work environment to parents' well-being and orientation to work

Examined the joint and unique contributions of informal social support in the workplace and formal, family-responsive benefits and policies provided by employers to the job-related attitudes and personal well-being of employed parents with a young child. Eighty married men, 169 married women, and 72 single women with a preschool child completed a survey concerning social support from co-workers and supervisor, utilization of family-responsive benefits and policies, readiness to leave the employer for additional benefits, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, role strain, and health symptoms. Among the findings: (a) Fathers and mothers expressed equal levels of job satisfaction and organizational commitment, but mothers reported more role strain and health symptoms; (b) nearly 48% of married women's organizational commitment was accounted for by measures of support in the workplace; (c) informal social support at work was significantly more important to men's well-being than that of women; and (d) formal, family-responsive policies appeared more consequential for the prediction of women's role strain, perhaps because of women's greater responsibility for adjusting work life to meet the demands of family roles.     

Altering memory through recall: The effects of cue-guided retrieval processing

Three experiments were designed to investigate the influence of initial recall on memory by assessing delayed recall after different immediate cued-recall tests. In all experiments, subjects performed semantic and phonemic encoding tasks on a word list. The subjects then received a cued-recall test that cued the target using the same word as the context word in the encoding task, a test that cued the target with a word from the same level at which the target was encoded, a test that cued the target with a cue from a different level at which the target was encoded, or no immediate-recall test. One day later, the subjects performed a final cued-recall test in which the type of cue (semantic or phonemic) was varied. Consistently, delayed recall was facilitated primarily when the cue on the immediate test was from the same level as the cue on the delayed test. This pattern of facilitation suggests that immediate cued-recall produces an elaboration of an existing memory representation that is closely tied to the type of cue used on the immediate test.     

Supportive and problematic social interactions: A social network analysis

Assessed the number of sources of supportive and problematic social interactions in the total social network as well as the number who were the sources of consistently supportive or problematic interactions in a sample of 2nd year medical students. Number of problematic interaction sources was hypothesized to be more predictive of psychological and physical well-being than number of supportive interaction sources. Results showed that total supportive and total problematic interaction sources were equally predictive of life satisfaction. The presence of at least one individual who is a consistent source of problematic interactions was most predictive of lower life satisfaction. Results indicate the importance of studying both supportive and problematic social interactions. They also suggest that interactions with individuals that are consistently problematic may negatively impact upon well-being.