Controlling puff volume without disrupting smoking topography

In studies of the behavioral and physiological effects of cigarette smoking, it is of critical importance to keep the dose of nicotine as constant as possible. This is difficult with smoking, because when the nicotine delivery of a cigarette is increased or reduced, smokers tend to compensate by modifying their smoke intake. In a laboratory study, it is relatively easy to control the number of cigarettes and the number of puffs taken, but it is more difficult to control the volume of each puff. Various procedures have been developed to control puff volume, but they have a disadvantage of disrupting the normal topography of smoking. We have developed an apparatus for delivering fixed volumes of smoke that has given consistent tar and nicotine values needed in studies of the behavioral and physiological effects of cigarette smoking. This method has the distinct advantage of allowing the subject to inhale the smoke in a normal fashion, with a draw resistance comparable to that of a cigarette. The device is inexpensive and easy to make.     

Infantile omnipotence and grandiosity

A distinction is made between infantile omnipotence and grandiosity. The retention of the former is considered necessary for health and the latter is considered pathological. The former is described as feeling comfortable though it can also be perceived both subjectively and objectively as irrational. The latter is viewed as ultimately distressing, though it can be subjectively experienced as necessary. Grandiosity is seen as a defense against repressed omnipotence. The repression of omnipotence appears to be caused by parents who are threatened by its power. Ways of making the distinction between omnipotence and grandiosity are discussed. Means of treatment and clinical examples are given.     

Roles for the Black pastor in preventive medicine

In recent years, a new role for Black pastors has emerged. As agents of health-related social and behavioral change, Black ministers have taken active roles in preventive medicine at the tertiary, secondary, and primary levels of prevention, succeeding despite resistance by some physicians. The literature detailing these new health-related pastoral roles is reviewed, with special reference to the place of the Black Church in health care and to the place of the Black pastor in the Black experience. It is concluded that Black ministers are ideal people to take part in planning, promoting, and delivering preventive health care in the Black community.The author wishes to acknowledge Dr. John W. Hatch of the University of North Carolina School of Public Health, who supervised the preparation of an annotated bibliography upon which this paper is based.     

Task parameters affecting the efficacy of a visual imagery learning strategy in younger and older children

Second- and sixth-grade children were presented a list of paired associates (concrete nouns) either at a faster (6-second) or a slower (12-second) presentation rate, under either an instruction to generate an interactive image for the pairs or a no strategy, control instruction. The list was composed of two pair types: easy-to-imaginally relate and difficult-to-imaginally relate pairs, as determined from a prior norming study. At the faster presentation rate, 2nd graders were able to benefit from the imagery strategy with easy pairs, but not with difficult pairs. At the slower rate, however, they applied the imagery strategy equally well to both pair types. Older children benefited from the imagery strategy with both pair types at both rates.     

Image tracing: An analysis of its effectiveness in children's pictorial discrimination learning

Previous research has shown that requiring children to trace from memory the correct member of a pictorial discrimination pair markedly facilitates performance. The experiment reported here offers support for a presumed component of this learning strategy, namely, “memory imagery.” In particular, subjects who traced directly on top of the correct picture did not perform as well as those who traced it from memory. Various theoretical explanations of the image-tracing phenomenon are considered, including depth of processing, dual coding, and frequency.