Computer-Assisted Careers Guidance Systems as Decision Support Systems

'Decision support systems' are computer systems which are aimed at improving decisions made by managers. An examination of the literature on decision support systems suggests that there are similarities between these systems and computer-aided careers guidance systems. These similarities —and differences -are explored, and a number of ways in which each approach might learn from the other are suggested.     

The group-as-a-whole approach in Foulksian group analytic psychotherapy

The group analytic group-as-a-whole approach of Foulkes privileges the concept of the group matrix. The term matrix is a metaphor for the network of all individual mental processes, the psychological medium in which they meet, communicate, and interact. The developing group matrix acts both as a container and as a holding environment for the psychic processes of the individual members in the group context. The concept of coherency is evoked to describe the process of the developing capacity of a group to be therapeutic. The concept of coherency is applied both to conscious and to unconscious mental process.     

Better Candidates Fly Fewer Training Hours: Another Time Testing Pays Off

The relationship between Pilot Candidate Selection Method (PCSM) scores and the number of flying training hours required to complete United States Air Force Undergraduate Pilot Training (UPT) was investigated on a sample of 1,082 graduates. This was done to demonstrate that ability testing has real world correlates and that cost savings accrued as a result of ability testing. The criterion ‘extra flying hours’ was computed by subtracting each student's cumulative flying hours from the sample mean. The correlations (corrected for range restriction) between PCSM scores and primary and advanced flying training extra hours were ?0.206 and ?0.270, respectively. Demonstrating that UPT graduates with higher PCSM scores required fewer flying hours to complete training facilitates the estimation of the cost avoidance achieved by ability tests.     

The effect of instruction with relational and item-specific elaborative strategies on young children's organization and free recall

One hundred and sixty second-grade children were assigned on the basis of a free recall pretest to four instruction conditions and were given a series of lists of pictures for free recall. For three groups, the instructions were directed at encoding either (a) list organizational information, (b) item-specific semantic information, or (c) organizational and individual item information, while the fourth group constituted a “No-training” control with standard free recall instructions. The subjects received either related or unrelated lists during the training phase and related or unrelated lists during two post-tests, immediately following and 1 week after training. For both types of lists, instructions emphasizing list organization were more effective than those emphasizing item-specific elaboration. Subjects given individual item elaborative instructions showed levels of recall which were comparable to those of the control subjects. While the combined effect of organizational and individual item processing did not exceed the performance produced by organizational instructions alone, the degree of generalization was greater for subjects processing both kinds of information, especially when subjects received related lists during training.     

Low accuracy in judgments of others' psychological well-being as seen from a phenomenological perspective

The generally low degree of agreement between self-ratings on personality traits and ratings by others may be interpreted from the viewpoint that self-reports reflect people's experience of themselves but not necessarily their behaviors. A detailed analysis of self and other ratings on subjective well-being as a central dimension of human experience is consistent with this phenomenological view. Ratings of well-being were not significantly correlated with rated behaviors either in self-ratings or in ratings by others. Screening subjects in terms of avowed consistency and observability on a trait did not improve self-other agreement for well-being, nor did it replicate the individual trait effects reported by Kenrick and Stringfield (1980). Judgments by others were found to have poor interjudge reliability and to reflect biases associated with projection of own well-being and a halo effect organized around the subject's perceived friendliness or likability. It was demonstrated that pooling the judgments of several observers should not and does not lead to accurate prediction of the phenomenal personality, and that accuracy may generally depend on the level of self-disclosure.     

REFLECTIONS ON THE FIRST TWENTY YEARS OFCASIRAS: A PERSONAL REVIEW

Abstract. The history of CASIRAS and of Zygon is not only anintellectual history but a personal history-a history of humanencounter with hopes and disappointments, dreams and conces-sions. Notwithstanding, it is the story of an ambitious enterprisewith significant achievements and genuine promise of continuedcontributions to this important inquiry.     

A comparison of simple correction and functional feedback in schema learning

The role of knowledge of results (KR) in a schematic concept formation task was clarified by manipulating the specificity of information provided during feedback. Ss learned to discriminate between pairs of random forms from two schema families. Verbal correction was compared with a functional KR procedure in which the schema prototypes were superimposed over test stimuli. In no case did verbal correction improve learning in comparison with functional KR. Differences in acquisition persisted in a retention test.