APL functions for interactive data analysis: Preparation of data files

APL functions to support preparation of data files are presented: a function to manage the entry of raw data, functions to display the entered data in formats convenient for checking, a function to support correction of errors, a function to organize the data into tables and file them, and a user interface function that provides menu selection of the data preparation functions. General-purpose support functions to assist in file use and in menu selection are also provided.     

THE FACILITATIVE EFFECTS OF INCIDENTAL TEACHING ON PREPOSITION USE BY AUTISTIC CHILDREN

In a comparison of incidental teaching and traditional training procedures, three language-delayed autistic children were taught expressive use of prepositions to describe the location of preferred edibles and toys. Traditional highly structured training and incidental teaching procedures were used in a classroom setting, and generalization was assessed during free-play sessions. Results clearly indicate that incidental teaching promoted greater generalization and more spontaneous use of prepositions. These findings have important implications for language programming and teacher training, suggesting that incidental teaching should be included as a standard component of language development curricula for autistic and other developmentally delayed children.     

An investigation of cross-modality effects in implicit and explicit memory

Three experiments are reported which investigate the effects of study/test compatibility on implicit and explicit memory performance. In the first experiment subjects either named each visually presented target item, or generated each item from a close semantic associate. They were then given either a free recall test or a visual word-stem completion task. A generation effect was evident in the free recall data (generated items were better recalled than named items) and this pattern was reversed for word-stem completion. In the second experiment subjects again named or generated items and were then given an auditory word-stem completion task. Under these conditions, cross-modal priming was found both for named and for generated items, but the reverse generation effect, which was evident in Experiment 1 with word-stem completion, was eliminated. In the final experiment, subjects were asked to name the targets, read them silently, or read them under conditions of articulatory suppression, and were then given an auditory stem completion task. Significant cross-modal priming was observed under all three conditions. The strongest priming was found in the naming condition and the weakest in the suppression condition. The results are interpreted within the transfer appropriate processing framework.     

Working briefly with reluctant clients: child protective services as an example

Therapists and counsellors often are faced with reluctant clients and constraining circumstances. Such difficulties are especially prevalent and severe in casework in child protective services - the parents of abused or neglected children are all involuntary clients, case loads are large, and time is limited.
Drawing on experience in applying and modifying prior work at the Brief Therapy Center of MRI to work in child protective services of a Northern California county, this article suggests general principles for effective intervention in such difficult circumstances and illustrates these with specific case examples.
Since consideration of extreme conditions is often helpful in dealing with parallel but less extreme ones, the authors' aim and hope is that readers will find this article helpful not solely in child protective work but also in the much wider territory where similar obstacles to effective counselling also occur.     

Defining suicide: Importance and implications for Judaism

One of the more problematic situations in the Jewish tradition is seeing to the psychological needs of the family of a suicide. This is due to the legal statements found within the tradition, placing some restrictions on the funeral rite. As a result of this, the criteria for the suicide are to be well examined and understood to ensure proper pastoral care.     

Parental Meta-Emotion Philosophy in Families with Conduct-Problem Children: Links with Peer Relations

We addressed the question of whether mothers of conduct-problem (CP) children differ from mothers of non-CP children in their awareness and coaching of emotion, and also examined whether mother's awareness and coaching of emotion is associated with better peer relations in CP children. Meta-emotion philosophy, assessed through audio taped interviews, and preschool children's peer relations, observed in same-sex dyadic interaction with a close friend, were investigated in families with CP and non-CP children. Results indicated that mothers of CP children were less aware of their own emotions and less coaching of their children's emotions than mothers of non-CP children. Moderation analyses revealed that children's level of aggression moderated the relationship between mother's meta-emotion and children's peer play. For both aggressive and nonaggressive children, higher levels of mother awareness and coaching of emotion was associated with more positive and less negative peer play, although effects were stronger for families with nonaggressive children. These data suggest that both aggressive and nonaggressive children can benefit when parents are more aware and coaching of emotion. Implications for the development of an intervention program aimed at improving parental awareness and coaching of emotion is discussed.     

A double dissociation of implicit and explicit memory in younger and older adults

This study examined whether age-related differences in cognition influence later memory for irrelevant, or distracting, information. In Experiments 1 and 2, older adults had greater implicit memory for irrelevant information than younger adults did. When explicit memory was assessed, however, the pattern of results reversed: Younger adults performed better than older adults on an explicit memory test for the previously irrelevant information, and older adults performed less well than they had on the implicit test. Experiment 3 investigated whether this differential pattern was attributable to an age-related decline in encoding resources, by reducing the encoding resources of younger adults with a secondary task; their performance perfectly simulated the pattern shown by the older adults in the first two experiments. Both older and younger adults may remember irrelevant information, but they remember it in different ways because of age-related changes in how information is processed at encoding and utilized at retrieval.