Quality in the content and use of information and communications technology in guidance

Problems relating to standards of quality in computer-based guidance, including the Internet, are examined. Particular stress is laid on the need for integration of these resources into a supportive context, while acknowledging that this may not always mean traditional one-to-one counselling by a guidance specialist. The value of preliminary diagnosis of needs is highlighted, together with some principles of design in the content and use of computer-based guidance and relevant websites.     

Images of midlife development among young,middle-aged,and older adults

This study examined patterns of perceived change across adulthood in a sample of 121 young (M age=19.8 years), middle-aged (M age=47.9 years) and older (M age=74.6 years) adults. Subjects rated amount of stress in life domains, salience of life course issues, and nature of personal attributes for young, middle-aged, and older targets. Seven prototypical patterns of perceived change were found. Midlife was seen as a period with many responsibilities, increased stress in several domains, and little time for leisure, but also as a peak in competence, ability to handle stress, sense of control, productivity, and social responsibility. The findings are discussed in terms of losses, which were seen primarily in the physical realm, and gains, which were mainly seen in the psychological and social realms.     

Acoustic determinants of perceptual center (P-center) location

Morton, Marcus, and Frankish (1976) defined “perceptual center,” or “P-center,” as a neutral term to describe that which is regular in a perceptually regular sequence of speech sounds. This paper describes a paradigm for the determination of P-center location and the effect of various acoustic parameters on empirically determined P-center locations. It is shown that P-center location is affected by both initial consonant duration and, secondarily, subsequent vowel and consonant duration. A simple two-parameter model involving the duration of the whole stimulus is developed and gives good performance in predicting P-center location. The application of this model to continuous speech is demonstrated. It is suggested that there is little value in attempting to determine any single acoustic or articulatory correlate of P-center location, or in attempting to define P-center location absolutely in time. Rather, these results indicate that P-centers are a property of the whole stimulus and reflect properties of both the production and perception of speech.     

Motivational Readiness,Self-Efficacy and Decision-Making for Exercise1

Exercise has important health benefits, but a large proportion of the population is physically inactive. We examined the prevalence of stages of readiness to exercise and their relationship to self-efficacy and to the costs and benefits of exercising in samples of 1093 employees in and around Providence, Rhode Island, and 801 employees in Adelaide, Australia. In both samples, 40.6% of respondents had not yet begun to take action (not thinking about starting to exercise or thinking about it but not doing it), while 59.4% were at some phase of action (exercising some, starting to exercise regularly, exercising regularly). Scores on self-efficacy items and cost-and-benefit items significantly differentiated employees at extreme stages. In contrast with those who exercised regularly, employees who had not yet begun to exercise had little confidence in their ability to exercise and saw exercising as having nearly as many costs as it had benefits. There is the potential to enhance the impact of exercise interventions by targeting them so as to address factors related to these different stages of readiness to exercise.     

The attachments of children in foster care.

Subjects for this research were 52 foster children (mean ages 7 years, 11 months) and their natural and foster parents. Case history files provided information concerning reasons for placing the children in foster care. Foster parents completed the Parent/Child Reunion Inventory (Marcus, 1988) measuring the "quality of reunion behavior" following separation. Foster mothers also completed the Child Behavior Checklist (Achenbach & Edelbrock, 1983), and measures of adult empathy were collected from both foster parents. Foster care workers rated the quality and intensity of attachment between the child and all parents. Finally, foster children were interviewed concerning their social supports, perception of affection from adults, and the quality of their relationships with adults and friends. Results showed that behavior and school achievement problems were predictable from measures of the quality of attachment with parents. The mean number of behavior problems of foster children were found to be midway between clinical and nonclinical norm groups. Children's perceptions of friends' behavior and degree of control over friends were related to their adjustment. Case history variables were also related to behavior problems and attachment.     

Regional brain activity in dyslexic and control children during reading tasks: Visual probe event-related potentials

Event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited by task-irrelevant visual stimuli were recorded from 34 control and 32 dyslexic 10- to 12-year-old boys while they performed silent and oral reading at two levels of difficulty. All subjects were extensively screened for neurological problems, IQ, and sensory acuity. Specific features of the ERPs were affected in amplitude and latency by the experimental variables: group membership, oral vs. silent reading, difficulty level, and recording site (within and between hemispheres). A specific effect of difficulty on the central and parietal ERP was seen in the dyslexics but not the controls. Different patterns of asymmetry were found for the two groups in silent vs. oral reading at midtemporal placements. A marked asymmetry (R > L) was found at the midtemporal region for both groups.     

Judgemental adjustment of initial forecasts: Its effectiveness and biases

Managers are often required to integrate their own forecasts with statistical forecasts. The studies reported in this paper examine the efficacy of allowing people to adjust their own forecasts in the light of statistical forecasts that are provided to them. Three experimental studies varied the reliability of the statistical forecasts and examined the performance of people over time. Issues of the form of the feedback and the use of decision support were also examined. The results unequivocally suggest that the effectiveness of judgemental adjustment depended on the statistical model's reliability and seasonally of time series. However, people had considerable difficulty placing less weight on their own forecasts (compared to the statistical forecasts) and this behaviour became more pronounced over time. Even provision of decision support did not improve performance at the task.     

Effects of differential negative reinforcement on disruption and compliance

We examined the effects on compliance of two types of differential negative reinforcement (DNR) with a 5-year-old girl with a history of severe disruption. During DNR (communication), escape from instructional trials was provided contingent on a communicative behavior. During DNR (compliance), escape was provided contingent on compliance. Both interventions decreased inappropriate behavior and increased appropriate behavior. However, during DNR (communication), compliance rarely occurred.     

The operant control of vocalization in the dog

Control over the vocal responses of three dogs was established using operant-conditioning procedures. Several points of interest were observed in the data. First, fixed-ratio schedules of reinforcement generated a vocal response topography which was similar in detail to that of a “motor” bar-nosing response. Second, vocal responding was brought under the control of external visual stimuli as a result of differential reinforcement. Third, good stimulus control was maintained on a multiple schedule containing a vocal-response component and a bar-response component. Fourth, the stimulus control on the multiple schedule transferred with minimal disruption to a chain schedule requiring a sequence of 10 bar responses followed by 10 vocal responses. Fifth, because vocal and bar responses are not mutually exclusive, concurrent responding tended to develop on the chain schedule.

These results were discussed with reference to the advisability of applying the terms operant and respondent to unconditioned behavior, and, particularly, to unconditioned verbal behavior.