358,534 nonwords: The ARC Nonword Database

The authors present a model of the phonotactic and orthographic constraints of Australian and Standard Southern British English monosyllables. This model is used as the basis for a web-based psycholinguistic resource, the ARC Nonword Database, which contains 358,534 monosyllabic nonwords--48,534 pseudohomophones and 310,000 non-pseudohomophonic nonwords. Items can be selected from the ARC Nonword Database on the basis of a wide variety of properties known or suspected to be of theoretical importance for the investigation of reading.     

Comorbid Substance Use and Anxiety Disorders in Adolescents

To explore the coexistence of substance use disorders and anxiety disorders in adolescents, we assessed adolescents presenting for treatment to an inpatient substance abuse treatment facility (SUH), an inpatient psychiatric treatment facility (IPH), and a community-based psychiatric facility (CMHC) for comorbid substance use and psychiatric diagnoses. Thirty subjects from each facility (N=90) were interviewed using the revised Child Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia (K-SADS) and the Structured Clinical Interview DSM-III-R (SCID-R) for substance use diagnoses. Overall, comorbidity (anxiety and substance use disorders) prevalence was 67% (20/30) of adolescents in the SUH group, 33% (10/30) of the CMHC adolescents, and 33% (10/30) of the IPH adolescents. Alcohol and marijuana were the most frequently abused substances. Anxiety disorders commonly coexist with substance use disorders in adolescents. Early identification and treatment of anxiety disorders may in fact prevent substance abuse in this population.     

Teaching Different Tasks Using Different Stimuli in a Heterogeneous Small Group

The effectiveness of a simultaneous prompting procedure was evaluated in a heterogeneous small group using different tasks and different stimuli for each student. Participants included four middle school students whose functioning levels ranged from typically developing to moderate and severe disabilities. A multiple probe design across behaviors and replicated across students was used. Observational learning maintenance, and generalization also were assessed. Results indicate that the procedure was successful in teaching all four students their targeted stimuli as well as some of the non-targeted stimuli (i.e., observational learning). Students maintained and generalized their information with a high degree of accuracy. Limitations of the study and future research implications are discussed.     

Whammies and double whammies: The effect of length on nonword reading

In the work presented here, the length effect in nonword reading aloud was investigated in order to assess whether that effect is driven by the number of letters in a string or by the number of graphemes in a string. Simulation work with the Dual-Route Cascaded (DRC) model (e.g., Coltheart, Curtis, Atkins, & Haller, 1993; Coltheart & Rastle, 1994) uncovered a surprising finding regarding the length effect; the same result was obtained in an experiment with human subjects. The results are discussed in terms of the DRC model, with particular reference to serial processing and interphoneme inhibition, two properties critical to understanding the effect reported here.     

Role of monoamines in the control by hormones of sexual receptivity in the female rat.

The involvement of indole- and catecholamines in the hormonal regulation of sexual receptivity has been investigated in ovariectomized female rats. Drugs that reduce 5-hydroxytryptamine, dopamine, and adrenaline or increase noradrenaline neurotransmission tended to facilitate the occurrence of estrous behavior in estrogen-treated females, and drugs having opposite effects tended to inhibit receptivity induced by estrogen and progesterone. Estrogen decreased noradrenaline turnover in cortex and brain stem; progesterone enhanced this effect in brain stem but prevented it in cortex. Both hormones tended to block noradrenaline uptake in hypothalamus in vitro. In a schedule used to induce receptivity, estrogen accelerated serotonin turnover, an effect prevented by progesterone. Thus a number of monoamines may be involved in the control by hormones of estrous behavior. Furthermore, hormones affect both amine turnover and uptake mechanisms.     

Temporal delay,type of forewarning,and resistance to influence

Previous researchers have manipulated forewarning by providing premessage information about the topic and position of the upcoming communication, or the communicator's persuasive intent. Subjects in the present experiment were force-warned either 10 min prior to the communication, or just before the message began of the speaker's topic and position, persuasive intent, or topic only. As hypothesized, forewarning of the communicator's persuasive intent inhibited persuasion regardless of the length of the delay period, but forewarning of the topic and position required a delay in order to confer resistance to subsequent persuasion, suggesting that although both manipulations have been called “forewarning they may lead to reduced persuasion through different mechanisms. Foreknowledge of the source's topic, but not his position also increased resistance to persuasion when followed by a delay period. The results were discussed in terms of both cognitive and motivational mechanisms that may underly the persuasion inhibiting effects of forewarning.