The effect of the repeated presentation of a standard interval on the reproduction of the standard

The Langley Porter Neuropsychiatrie Institute, San Francisco, California 94122 Eleven human Ss (five male and six female) reproduced intervals of 1, 2, and 3 sec delimited by clicks after the standard intervals had been repeated one, three, or five times. The absolute error of reproduction decreased with increasing repetition of the standard for intervals of 2 and 3 sec. The effect was more pronounced with increasing duration among female Ss.     

Saving psychological Solipsism

I am indebted to both Lynne Rudder Baker and George Graham for helpful, critical correspondence on an earlier draft of this paper. John Pollock and Keith Lehrer generously commented on that same draft. Conversations with Alvin Goldman, Joseph Tolliver and Juanita Simpson have been helpful on the matter of narrow content. None of these philosophers is liable for those of my mistakes that have resisted instruction.     

The effect of autonomy on counterfactual thinking about controllable events

We investigated the role of autonomy in counterfactual thinking in two experiments. Autonomy emphasises intrinsic motivation and reduced preoccupation with external outcomes. Experiment 1 demonstrated that autonomy influences both the number and content of counterfactual thoughts, particularly for individuals performing a task rather than reading about someone else performing a task. Experiment 2 investigated the performance improving effects of counterfactual thinking, while considering the role of autonomy. Individuals higher in autonomy were more likely to focus on undoing controllable aspects of their behaviour compared to individuals lower in autonomy. Controllable (versus uncontrollable) counterfactual thoughts were associated with greater performance improvement on a subsequent task. Self-regulatory traits such as autonomy may be important in the types of counterfactual thoughts that people generate. We discuss the mechanisms by which autonomy may exert an influence on counterfactual thinking and consider the implications of the findings for the functional theory of counterfactual thought.     

Caring for Bereaved Families: Self-Efficacy in the Donation Request Process

Motivated by an organ shortage, a primary objective of professionals involved with organ and tissue donation is to identify and modify key factors that facilitate or impede family consent. Procedural factors associated with the donation request process have been highlighted as target areas for change. Several studies have demonstrated that family consent rates increase when specific procedural knowledge and skills are incorporated into agency protocols and health care professionals become proficient with these procedures. Thus, training of these professionals heavily emphasizes development of procedural competencies, with relatively little time allocated to fostering affective helping skills or competencies. Given the lack of attention to affective competencies, this study was designed to examine perceived procedural and affective self-efficacy among health care professionals receiving training as designated requestors. Findings suggest trained requestors report greater confidence in their ability to perform procedural tasks associated with the donation request process than in their ability to manage affective or emotion-laden issues related to the process.     

Distortions of perceived length in the frontoparallel plane: tests of perspective theories

The perceived length of a line segment in a frontoparallel plane is sometimes affected by the presence of other line segments in the visual field. Perspective theories attribute such interactions to size-constancy scaling: The configuration of line segments present in the visual field includes depth cues that trigger size scaling of each line segment. In three experiments, we test this claim for a range of simple configurations composed of two line segments joined at a point. These configurations include the inverted T configuration of the bisection illusion, as well as the L configuration of the horizontal-vertical illusion. We conclude that the available depth cues, even when supplemented by known biases in perspective interpretations, do not account for observed distortions in judgments of relative length.     

Chronic low back pain and depression in a sample of veterans

The relationship between chronic low back pain and scores on depression was examined in a sample of 31 veterans who completed a depression inventory. Analysis indicated that those with chronic low back pain scored significantly higher on depression than those without.     

College Student High-Risk Drinking as a Maladaptive Serious Leisure Hobby

The role of occupational therapy in community child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) multidisciplinary teams is not well documented. This qualitative study investigated the perception of occupational therapy practice held by community CAMHS workers in the Perth, Australia, metropolitan region. Eight mental health community CAMHS professionals took part in semi-structured interviews. Three themes emerged which included team membership, the nature of the work, and the team and occupational therapy. This article focuses on the third theme. Findings suggest a limited understanding of the scope of occupational therapy practice. Implications for occupational therapy in CAMHS are discussed.