Decision strategies and visual-field asymmetries in same-different judgments of word meaning

The accuracy with which observers judged whether two words belonged to the same semantic category was determined from a detection-theoretic analysis ofsame-different judgments. In Experiment 1, one word was presented centrally and the other word in either the left visual field (LVF) or the right visual field (RVF); in Experiment 2, both words were presented to either the LVF or the RVF. In order to obtain receiver-operating characteristics (ROCs) of performance, observers were asked to rate their confidence that the two words belonged to the same semantic category. Two models of the decision strategy were fitted to the obtained characteristics: a differencing model, in which the decision variable was the difference between the two observations; and an optimal model, in which each observation was judged in relation to a criterion. In both experiments, the optimal model provided a better fit than the differencing model to the obtained characteristics. Maximum-likelihood estimates of both the criterion-free parameter,d′, and the area under the operating characteristic,p(A), were greater for words presented in the RVF than for those presented in the LVF.     

Patterns of mother-infant interaction and attachment: A cluster-analytic approach

This study examined stability and change in patterns of mother-infant interaction between 5 and 10 months and their relation to attachment security at 18 months. Cluster analysis was used to identify patterns of dyadic interaction. There was significant, but not substantial, stability in cluster membership from 5 to 10 months. For females, being in the most optimal cluster at 5 months related to subsequent attachment security, regardless of the 10-month pattern of interaction. For males, who were significantly more likely to be insecure than females, insecure attachment was predicted by negative change from 5 to 10 months (moving from a more optimal to a less optimal cluster).     

THE RELATIONSHIP OF GENDER AND ETHNICITY TO SELF-SILENCING AND DEPRESSION AMONG COLLEGE STUDENTS

This study expands on the initial work with the Silencing the Self Scale (STSS; Jack, 1991) by presenting data using a more diverse, nonclinical sample. Included were both men and women ( n = 604) who were African American, Asian, Caucasian, and Hispanic. It was expected that women would be more self-silencing than men, and that there would be ethnic differences. There were three principal findings: (a) men were more self-silencing than were women on the STSS; (b) there was a main effect for ethnicity on the STSS, with Asians expressing the highest levels of self-silencing; and (c) there was a positive correlation between self-silencing and depression for all ethnic/gender groups.     

DOUBLE DISSOCIATION BETWEEN MEMORY SYSTEMS UNDERLYING EXPLICIT AND IMPLICIT MEMORY IN THE HUMAN BRAIN

Abstract— Amnesic patients have impaired explicit memory that is evident in poor recall and recognition of words, yet can have intact implicit memory for words as measured by repetition priming, the enhanced efficiency for reprocessing those word's. The dissociation between explicit and implicit memory for words is a fundamental characteristic of normal cognition that could reflect two different functional architectures of the human brain two separate processing systems or two levels of operation of a single system with implicit memory less demanding of that system. We present a patient who has a lesion in the right occipital lobe and who showed intact explicit and impaired implicit memory for words. The deficit was specific to visual priming. The double dissociation between explicit and implicit visual memory for words indicates that separate processing systems mediate these two forms of memory, and that a memory system in right occipital cortex mediates implicit visual memory for words.     

The earth summit and the promotion of environmentally sound industrial innovation in developing countries

With the end of the cold war, issues of environment and economic development are assuming greater international salience. By the 1970s, environmental degradation was becoming pervasive, with growing global effects. Increasingly, global and emergent globalized problems are forcing environmental interdependence on the world. Transboundary threats cannot be addressed unilaterally by any single country or group of countries. The global environmental agenda is reviving the North-South debate and rejuvenating the Third World coalition in international fora. The encouragement of environmentally sustainable forms of industrialization in the South requires expanded and improved international cooperation. However, the North’s greater resources and greater responsibility in causing global environmental degradation require its continuing involvement in the search for solutions, including ones applicable to newly industrializing countries. In June 1992, the largest intergovernmental conference ever held was convened in Rio de Janeiro to address these issues: the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED, or the Earth Summit). It produced a consensus action plan of about 700 pages: Agenda 21. Agenda 21 presents massive challenges for international cooperation as well as for national and private actors and scientific and technical institutions. It reflects a complex configuration of demands for institutional arrangements that support environmentally sustainable technical and socioeconomic change. One of the most consistent of the Agenda 21 themes, and one of the most intractable issues, concerns “access to technology.” This can be as straightforward as diagnosing and improving the efficiency of a production process in a small manufacturing firm, or as complex as engineering a technological revolution in which production and consumption take place with virtually no material or energy loss to the environment. The selection of entry points for action is a critical strategic problem as well as an important operational issue. In this paper I identify and describe new initiatives intended to improve the environmental performance of industry in the South, and find that they largely aim to promote incremental industrial innovation through international technology transfer and diffusion. This strategy raises many questions about how to promote effective technology transfer and diffusion. This is a revised version of a paper prepared for the ORSTOM/UNESCO Conference “20th Century Science: Beyond the Metropolis,” Paris, 19–23 Sept. 1994.     

Counseling applications of RET in a Chinese cultural context

To explore the potential of Rational Emotive Therapy (RET) with clients of Chinese background, a brief review is conducted with respect to parallels between RET philosophy and some key components of Chinese culture and ways in which Chinese think. Arguments are advanced as to why RET is particularly suitable for use within a Chinese cultural context. Issues involved in using RET with Chinese clients are addressed including the appreciation many Chinese have for the logical and rational aspects of RET, the most appropriate type of client-counselor relationship to facilitate RET therapeutic progress, appropriate ways to dispute, and some cautionary words on the use of “emotive methods”. Areas where the RET counselor needs to be particularly sensitive to the cultural background of the client are highlighted. Charles P. Chen holds a master's degree in educational counseling and is currently a Ph.D. student and instructor in the Department of Counselling Psychology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. His interests include cross-cultural and multi-cultural counseling, career counseling, and group counseling.     

Primary health care for women: What is it and who provides it?

Recent federal policy has highlighted historically underrecognized women's health issues. Women comprise the majority of the population, especially the elderly. Women's health care needs, utilization patterns, and outcomes vary from those of men, and often among each other. Primary health care services for women are multidisciplinary and emphasize prevention, education, and early intervention as well as treatment. Psychologists and other primary health care providers can collaborate to provide their services in a cost-effective manner that optimizes quality of care and comprehensive health care.     

Consciousness: A neurobiological approach

Consciousness and the disorders of consciousness can be more fully understood once they are integrated with the neurobiology of mental events. After a review of animal and human research, we found several anatomical structures in the central nervous system are required for consciousness. Identification of the critical structures, however, depends on what is meant by consciousness. In the general sense of mental responsivity, the reticular activating system must be intact. Consciousness has also been defined as the awareness of the sights, sounds, and feelings of everyday experience. In this sense, the system of sensory inputs and outputs of the anterior temporal cortex, amygdala, and the hippocampus must be functional. There is no neural evidence for “higher” consciousness.     

Truth-ratios,process, task,and knowledge

In this paper, I delineate two major problems facing reliabilist approaches in epistemology. I argue that Alvin Goodman's (1986) position fails to solve either problem. I then suggest an alternative reliabilist approach that ties truth-ratio assessments to particular, well-specified cognitive tasks. I claim that a well-specified cognitive task is an empirical hypothesis about a system that involves the specification of input and output types and nomic correlations (including statistical correlations) that underlie the system's performance. On my approach, one characterizes processes by reference to the system's dispositions across the situations consistent with the task. Characterization is best understood as revealing a strategy or a set of strategies for generating outputs from inputs relying on certain nomic correlations associated with the task.     

Accreditation Standards for University and College Counseling Centers

The accreditation standards outlined in the article are used by the International Association of Counseling Services, Inc., as the basis for the formal accreditation of college and university counseling programs throughout the United States and Canada. They reflect the program elements and practice standards that are deemed essential in a counseling center that provides high-quality services to students.