Frame multiplicity and policy fiascoes: Limits to explanation

The dynamics of intractability, frame multiplicity and intense controversy not only characterize policy formation struggles, as described by Schön and Rein, but also affect the evaluation of policies and government action. Policy analysts play an important part in the politics of policy evaluation. This article demonstrates that they tend to produce very different explanations for controversial, failing policies. Such differing explanations imply different causal attributions, different allocations of blame, and different lessons for future policy-making. Such differences are not random occurrences; they are embedded in the analytical frames that evaluators use to reconstruct policy processes and to explain their outcomes. It is shown that at least three deep-rooted frames can be reconstructed: fiascoes as failures of public problem solving, fiascoes as institutional imbalances, and fiascoes as system artefacts. One of the great epistemological challenges is how to deal with multiple analytical frames. The final part of the article discusses various strategies.     

EFFECT OF GROUP PERFORMANCE ON SUBSEQUENT INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE:

Abstract— Does group discussion and deliberation on one issue or task influence the members' decisions or opinions on other issues? In contrast to past research looking solely at changes in responses to the same item discussed by the group, this study examined whether group interaction results in members changing the way they make judgments on related items in the future. The results show that group discussion and consensus on one set of judgments led to a significant convergence of judgmental strategies that extended to a related (but different) set of judgments the members made later as individuals.     

Direct comparisons between residential and community students on school performance measures in a public school setting

The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the school performance of residential youth who attended a public school setting. Direct comparisons were made between the residential youth and students in the community on a number of school measures. Results from a multivariate analysis of covariance indicated that the residential students had significantly lower grades, participated in significantly fewer extracurricular activities, and exhibited more problematic behaviors such as tardies and absences. These findings were consistent with previous research which found that many residential youth have a number of behavioral, social, and academic difficulties that interfere with school functioning. A number of recommendations were made regarding educational placement for residential youth.     

Stereotyped movement disorder in an adult following acquired brain injury: Effect of environmental stimulation

In the present study, a naturalistic functional analysis procedure was used to assess the effect of environmental stimulation on the stereotypic behavior (body rocking) of an adult whose stereotypy appeared to be induced by an acquired brain injury. Environmental stimulation, operationalized in terms of both physical and social characteristics, resulted in only minimal changes in the occurrence of body rocking. Body rocking occurred in excess of 50% of the observations in all environmental stimulation conditions and in a naturally occurring baseline condition. To our knowledge, this is the first published report of a functional analysis of stereotypy associated with acquired brain injury.     

Case study: Examining the relationship between self-initiations of an individual with disabilities and directive behavior of staff persons in a residential setting

This case study examines the relationship between self-initiations of an adult woman with severe disabilities and the directive behavior of staff persons in a community residential setting. Hypotheses generated from functional assessment procedures indicated that (a) Susan's low self-initiations were very likely related to high directive behavior of staff persons, and (b) infrequent problem behaviors during the morning routine were maintained by escape from repeated staff demands. An intervention was implemented to enable Susan to increase self-initiation in choice and sequence of activities and simultaneously decrease staff directives. Results and discussion focus on the need for a contextual approach for addressing problematic situations and an affirmation of the effectiveness of the positive behavioral support technology for increasing adaptive behaviors in individuals with severe disabilities.     

Functional Aspects of Recollective Experience in Face Recognition

This article describes two experiments on awareness in recognition memory for novel faces. Two kinds of awareness, recollective experience and feelings of familiarity in the absence of recollective experience, were measured by "remember" and "know" responses. Experiment 1 showed that "remember" but not "know" responses were reduced by divided attention at study. Experiment 2 showed that massed versus spaced repetition of faces in the study list had the opposite effects on "remember" and "know" responses. Massed repetition increased "know" responses and reduced "remember" responses. Spaced repetition increased "remember" responses and reduced "know" responses. The results of both experiments replicate previous findings from the verbal domain in the domain of face recognition, and hence they increase the ecological validity of this experiential approach to memory and awareness and the generality of its database. These findings are discussed from a rehearsal perspective on factors influencing the two states of awareness and in relation to the alternative "process dissociation" procedure.     

Are microsaccades responsible for the gap effect?

Extinguishing a fixation point shortly before, or concurrently with, the onset of a peripheral visual target reduces the latency of saccades to that target. Saslow (1967) hypothesized that thisgap effect might occur because fixation point offsets reduce the incidence of corrective microsaccades with an associated saccadic refractory period. In the present study, a robust gap effect was obtained. However, using a Purkinje image eyetracker with 1 arcmin of resolution, we found that fixation point offsets had no effect on the occurrence of microsaccades and that the occurrence of microsaccades had no impact on the magnitude of the gap effect. Microsaccades therefore do not appear to play any part in the production of the gap effect.     

Effects of surface texture on weight perception when lifting objects with a precision grip

In this paper, we show that, when lifting an object using a precision grip with the distal pads of the thumb and index finger at its sides, the perceived weight depends on the object’s surface texture. The smoother the surface texture, the greater the perceived weight. We suggest that a smoother object is judged to be heavier because the grip force, normal to the surface, required to prevent it from slipping is greater. The possibility of there being an influence of surface texture per se is excluded by a second experiment that employed a variant of the precision grip in which the thumb supports the weight of the object from underneath. With the grip oriented in this way, there is no need to match grip force to surface texture and, under these conditions, there is no effect of surface texture on weight perception. In the first two experiments, the test and comparison weights were lifted successively by the same hand. In a third experiment, the effect of surface texture was replicated for sequential lifts made with separate hands. Thus, the effect is not restricted to comparisons made with the same hand.