Do children use similar processes to read and spell words?

The use of spelling-sound information in both reading and spelling was evaluated by having children read and spell nonwords and five types of words that differed in terms of their regularity for reading and spelling. The subjects were grade 3 children who had been psychometrically defined as good readers and good spellers (“good”), good readers and poor spellers (“mixed”), or poor readers and poor spellers (“poor”). Results indicated that all children attempted to use spelling-sound correspondences in both reading and spelling, although children in both the mixed and the poor groups had weaker knowledge of these correspondences and were less systematic in their use of them. Furthermore, even though the children in the mixed group had been matched with children in the good group on reading comprehension, the number and type of errors made by the mixed subjects on both the reading and spelling tasks were more similar to those of the poor subjects than to those of the good subjects.     

Ethical considerations in the use of computers in psychological testing and assessment

Ethical considerations in the use of computers in psychological testing and assessment are discussed. Particular attention is given to existing ethics and standards that provide guidance to users of computerized test interpretation and report-writing programs. Issues covering professional accountability and confidentiality are also discussed as they relate to computer-assisted assessment. Areas of appropriate use of computers in testing and assessment are suggested, including test scoring, the analysis of scores, and generating remedial recommendations. Findings are summarized and several guidelines are suggested for users of computers in testing and assessment.     

Seeking urgent pediatric treatment: factors contributing to frequency, delay, and appropriateness

The present study explored the factors that contribute to mothers' decisions to seek urgent medical attention for their children when symptoms are not of a traumatic nature. One hundred mothers seeking treatment for their children at a prepaid clinic completed a questionnaire eliciting their expectations regarding the course of their children's problems, seriousness of the problems, perceived responsibility for the symptoms, and extent to which a variety of factors contributed to their decisions to seek treatment. Demographic data and information about each child's symptoms and medical history were also obtained. Four major "reasons for seeking treatment" factors were identified: family history of the presenting complaint, worry regarding the symptoms, situational variables, and the extent of the child's illness behavior. The appropriateness of the visit, delay in seeking treatment, and frequency of mothers' use of the pediatric clinic were predicted by the nature of the presenting symptoms (particularly the presence of fever), the ages of the mother and child, and two of the reasons for seeking treatment factors (i.e., family history and child's illness behavior). The present study suggests that mothers pay more attention to presenting symptoms and to the children's behavior than to psychosocial stressors in deciding to seek urgent care.     

Using interactive computing to expand intelligence testing: A critique and prospectus

Microcomputers can serve as automated testing stations for use in psychometric assessment. There are economic advantages in conducting aptitude and intelligence testing with such stations. It is possible to improve the quality of cognitive assessment by extending the range of cognitive abilities to be assessed? Two types of extension are considered; modifying and expanding testing procedures for psychological functions that are components of conventional tests, and the extension oof testing to psychological functions not generally assessed by conventional intelligence or aptitude tests. Computerized presentations will make relatively little difference in our ways of testing verbal comprehension. Computer controlled testing could well extend the ways in which we evaluate spatial-visual reasoning and memory. The impact of testing on the evaluation of reasoning is unclear. Computer-controlled item presentation makes it possible to conceive of tests of learning and attention, neither of which are evaluated in most psychometric programs today. The psychological nature of the abilities being assessed raises problems in assessment that are not addressed by the fact oof computer-control. Some research questions are identified that ought to be explored before testing is extended into these fields. Computer-controlled evaluation could be extended to the assessment of criterion performance, either in the normal working situation or in a simulation of the workplace. While evaluation of this sort does raise social questions, it clearly presents an opportunity to obtain validation data for psychological assessment studies.     

Developmental changes in the attribution of dispositional features

It was hypothesized (1) that with age children would rely increasingly upon information about intention, rather than overt behavior, when attributing dispositional features to others; and (2) that, developmentally, “restricted” dispositional attributions (i.e., those that assume the operation of highly specific situation-response relationships) would precede “generalized” dispositional attributions (which assume the operation of a dispositional concept between broad classes of situations and responses). An experiment is reported that provides support for the first, though not the second, of these hypotheses.     

The borderline hypertensive rat (BHR): A new model for the study of environmental factors in the development of hypertension

While many studies have attempted to produce hypertension through the use of various environmental Stressors, few have succeeded in producing chronic elevations in blood pressure beyond levels considered to be borderline hypertensive (140–160 mm Hg systolic). The problem with most studies stems from the use of genetically normotensive animals and the selection of Stressors to which animals readily adapt. A new approach is suggested, which recognizes the role of genetics in human essential hypertension. Animals with one hypertensive parent do not develop spontaneous hypertension but show a more sensitive cardiovascular response to environmental Stressors than animals with normotensive parents. Preliminary studies revealed that animals with a mixed genetic history of hypertension develop spontaneous borderline hypertension. When subjected to shock-shock conflict, these borderline hypertensive rats (BHR) developed permanent hypertension that failed to abate even after a ten-week, shock-free recovery period. The hypertension was accompanied by elevated heart weight to body weight ratios and by significant cardiac pathology. Subsequent work has demonstrated that these animals also become hypertensive when fed a high-sodium diet. Finally, in a series of exercise studies, we found that BHRs subjected to a shock stressor were protected against stress-induced hypertension if they exercised daily. The potential of this model for studies of the mechanisms by which environmental variables produce permanent hypertension is discussed.     

Appetitive differential conditioning of the rabbit’s jaw movement response

Two experiments examined appetitive differential conditioning of the rabbit’s jaw movement response (JMR) in a two-phase procedure. The first phase entailed reinforced training with one conditioned stimulus (CS+), and the second phase involved intermixed presentations of CS+ and an unreinforced stimulus (CS?). In Experiment 1, CS+ was a 600-Hz tone, and CS-was either a 660-,1,000-, or 2,100-Hz tone. In Experiment 2, the magnitude of the water unconditioned stimulus (US) paired with CS+ was either 1, 3, or 9 ml. The experiments revealed that 1) the level of responding to CS-rose for several days and then declined over the remainder of training; 2) the physical similarity between CS+ and CS?directly affected the level of responding to CS?but had no discernable effect on the level of responding to CS+ ; and 3) US magnitude positively affected the level of responding to CS + and, to a lesser extent, CS?. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for Spence’s gradient interaction theory and Pavlov’s external inhibition hypothesis.     

An “outside-in” processing strategy in the perception of form

The discriminability of line segments in a number of different geometric forms was examined. The procedure used was to have one of the lines within a given form drawn thinner than the other lines. The location of the thin line varied randomly within the form, and subjects were required to detect its location. Three observations were made. First, outer line elements were discriminated more accurately than inner line elements. Second, the outer line advantage appeared to reflect an attentional strategy: By presenting inner and outer lines independently, and informing subjects in advance as to whether target lines would be in the inner or outer area of the form, the outer line advantage could be eliminated. Third, consonant with a global attentional strategy, and in opposition to any retinally tied, peripheral-to-central scanning process, an outer-line advantage was evident regardless of whether the fixation point was positioned within or outside the forms, or whether outer lines were more peripheral than inner lines.     

Short-term memory processes in counting

Four experiments examined the memory processes used to maintain location in a counting sequence. In Experiment 1, subjects who rapidly counted forward omitted many repeated-digit numbers (e.g., 77), as found previously with backward counting. Subjects in Experiment 2 counted backward with normal auditory feedback or with headphones through which white noise was channeled. In both cases, repeated-digit errors predominated, suggesting that the contents of short-term memory, rather than auditory sensory memory, are checked during counting. In Experiment 3, subjects silently wrote counting responses, and the omission errors resembled those in vocal counting. Repetition errors were also found and attributed to phonological recoding failures. Articulatory suppression in Experiment 4 greatly increased the number of repetition errors in the written counting task. A model of the counting process was proposed according to which subjects keep track of their location in the counting sequence by monitoring phonologically coded short-term memory representations of the numbers.