The Correlation of General Cognitive Ability and Psychomotor Tracking Tests

A study was conducted to investigate the nexus of cognitive and psychomotor tests as might be used for personnel selection and assessment. These two domains are frequently seen as independent. A multiple aptitude cognitive test battery and a psychomotor test battery were administered to 354 United States Air Force recruits. The average multiple correlation of the cognitive tests and each psychomotor score as a criterion was 0.34, corrected for range restriction. Confirmatory factor analyses disclosed general cognitive and general psychomotor factors, three lower-order psychomotor factors, and two lower-order cognitive factors. The general cognitive factor accounted for 39% of the variance and the general psychomotor factor accounted for 29% of the variance. Residualized, the lower-order factors accounted for between 10% and 3% of the variance. The average g saturations (loadings) of the cognitive and psychomotor tests were 0.82 and 0.34 respectively. An implication for personnel selection is that the incremental validity of psychomotor tracking tests beyond the validity of cognitive tests will be small due to the commonality of measurement. A further implication of findings is the need to study the validity of the general and specific psychomotor factors.     

CHOICE-MAKING TREATMENT OF YOUNG CHILDREN'S SEVERE BEHAVIOR PROBLEMS

The choice-making behavior of 5 young children with developmental disabilities who engaged in aberrant behavior was studied within a concurrent operants framework. Experimental analyses were conducted to identify reinforcers that maintained aberrant behavior, and functional communication training packages were implemented to teach the participants to gain reinforcement using mands. Next, a choice-making analysis, in which the participants chose one of two responses (either a mand or an alternative neutral response) to obtain different durations and qualities of reinforcement, was conducted. Finally, treatment packages involving choice making via manding were implemented to decrease inappropriate behavior and to increase mands. The results extended previous applications of choice making to severe behavior disorders and across behaviors maintained by positive and negative reinforcement.     

Lifelong Mild Bad Feelings: A Review and Solution to a Psychotherapeutic Enigma

A review indicates that (a) comparatively little is known about the common phenomenon of lifelong mild bad feelings, and (b) psychotherapy has generally overlooked an effective focus on this enigmatic feeling state. As an invitation for clinicians to provide more attention to this feeling state, a proposal is suggested toward one way of freeing a patient of lifelong mild bad feelings in the course of a session.     

Aggression Observation Scale for Group Psychotherapy

An observational scale to record aggressive behaviors, defenses, and interventions that occur during a psychotherapy group has been developed. Content and process items were included. The content items focus on the spoken material and are on a continuum of increasing group members' awareness of and responsibility for their anger. The process items are directed to underlying psychodynamic issues on a continuum from avoiding anger, to indirect and then expression of anger. Leader interventions (responses) are also included. The development of the scale, the Aggression Observation Scale for Group Psychotherapy (AOSGP), is described including pilot testing and reliability and validity findings.     

THE SEXUAL HARASSMENT OF MEN?

Recently the focus of sexual harassment research on the harassment of women by men has been challenged. Treatments of sexual harassment of men, however, have generally ignored power differentials between the genders. Our analysis predicts that behaviors identified as harassing by men stem from negotiations of gender in the workplace that challenge male dominance, whereas behaviors experienced by women as sexually harassing reinforce female subordinance. Consistent with our predictions, results indicated the following: men are considerably less threatened than women are by behaviors that women have found harassing; men find sexual coercion the most threatening form of harassment; men as well as women sexually harass men; and men identify behaviors as harassing that have not been identified for women. Results also showed signs of backlash among men against organizational measures that address sexual harassment and discrimination against women. Implications for psychological and legal definitions of sexual harassment of men are discussed.     

Employment rejection and acceptance letters and their unintended consequences on image,self-concept,and intentions

This paper demonstrates that the positiveness and negativeness of letters of acceptance and rejection from companies have an impact on company image, self-concept of recipient, and reported future intentions of potential recruits. The implication for employers writing letters of acceptance and rejection is that they should communicate with prospective recruits in a positive manner no matter what the letter's message. Positive rejection letters can mitigate effects of rejection and negative acceptance letters can impair the positiveness of acceptance.This research was partially supported by Grant #82037 from the Purdue Agricultural Research Station. Reprints should be addressed to Dr. Richard Feinberg, Department of Consumer Sciences and Retailing, Purdue University, 1262 Matthews Hall, West Lafayette, IN 47907-1262.     

Comparison of simultaneous prompting with and without error correction in teaching science vocabulary words to high school students with mild disabilities

This study compared the effectiveness and efficiency of simultaneous prompting with and without error correction during daily probe sessions in teaching science vocabulary words. The teacher presented the vocabulary word definitions as instructive feedback during training sessions. Five 16–17 year old students with disabilities participated in an adapted alternating treatments design that evaluated the simultaneous prompting strategy, error correction and instructive feedback. Instruction occurred in a group format using choral responding. The results indicate that (a) all students learned to read the vocabulary words, (b) simultaneous prompting with error correction was slightly more efficient for three of the five subjects in learning the targeted words, and four of the five students made fewer errors in this condition, (c) all students preferred simultaneous prompting with error correction over simultaneous prompting without error correction, (d) words mastered in both conditions generalized equally, (e) there were minimal differences between the two conditions in the collected maintenance data, and (e) students experienced only minimal improvement in their ability to define vocabulary words (instructive feedback). Discussion focuses on issues for further research and implications for instructional practice with simultaneous prompting, error correction and instructive feedback.     

Spiritualists,Aliens and UFOs: Extraterrestrials as spirit guides

One of the most striking innovations within contemporary North American Spiritualism is the adoption of extraterrestrials as spirit guides by some contemporary Spiritualists. It is here that the New Age fascination with extraterrestrials and UFOs has taken on a uniquely Spiritualist form. Extraterrestrials have come to represent for many Spiritualists the successful achievement of the ultimate Spiritualist goal: the union between spirituality and science. Extraterrestrials are seen as spiritually superior to us because their science exceeds our own; their ‘science’ is perceived superior because it incorporates recognition of spiritual ‘truth’. Consequently, within the North American Spiritualist context, the adoption of extraterrestrials as spirit guides can be seen both as a ‘rationalisation’ of Spiritualist belief through a strong idealisation of ‘science’, and as a critique of orthodox science for ignoring the ‘spiritual’ realm. For several of the Spiritualists with whom I worked, extraterrestrials have consequently become excellent choices for spirit guides.     

Reduction of the elevator illusion from continued hypergravity exposure and visual error-corrective feedback

Ten subjects served as their own controls in two conditions of continuous, centrifugally produced hypergravity (+2 Gz) and a 1-G control condition. Before and after exposure, open-loop measures were obtained of (1) motor control, (2) visual localization, and (3) hand-eye coordination. During exposure in the visual feedback/hypergravity condition, subjects received terminal visual error-corrective feedback from their target pointing, and in the no-visual feedback/hypergravity condition they pointed open loop. As expected, the motor control measures for both experimental conditions revealed very short lived underreaching (the muscle-loading effect) at the outset of hypergravity and an equally transient negative aftereffect on returning to 1 G. The substantial (approximately 17°) initial elevator illusion experienced in both hypergravity conditions declined over the course of the exposure period, whether or not visual feedback was provided. This effect was tentatively attributed to habituation of the otoliths. Visual feedback produced a smaller additional decrement and a postexposure negative aftereffect, possible evidence for visual recalibration. Surprisingly, the target-pointing error made during hypergravity in the no-visual-feedback condition was substantially less than that predicted by subjects’ elevator illusion. This finding calls into question the neural outflow model as a complete explanation of this illusion.