Theoretical and applied inputs in mental health center research

Successful implementation of projects in mental health centers aimed at meeting programmatic needs and exploring theoretical issues encounter a number of difficulties. These include time, staffing and funding. While researchers may be interested in complex theoretical questions, agencies require data collected quickly, at minimum cost, and utilizing limited personnel. This paper discusses a model for conducting significant theoretical and applied research in mental health centers. A project undertaken in a mental health center is described to illustrate the model.     

Form recognition: Individual strategies in multivariate cue utilization

Twenty-five Ss were each presented 1,250 trials in a form-recognition task requiring S to find a form among 25 other forms on each trial. Fifty different eight-sided randomly derived polygons were used as stimuli, each presented in 25 different problems. Factors based on physical measures of the stimuli were correlated with observed latencies using multiple regression to assess cue-utilization strategies, while beta-weight profiles and intercorrelations of the Ss’ predicted latencies were used as indices of individual differences. Multiple correlations of physical-factor scores with observed latencies accounted for a significant proportion of the variance for all Ss, while between-S correlations of predicted latencies were never below .90. By all criteria employed, use of stimulus information was highly consistent among Ss. Replication of the experiment for one S revealed good reliability and nearly identical strategies.     

Black Women and White Women: Do Perceptions of Childhood Family Environment Differ?

INTRODUCTION: Few studies have examined racial differences in perceptions of childhood. Little is known about how Blacks perceive their own families, particularly the family environment that they experienced in childhood. METHODS: A community sample of 290 women (55% White, 45% Black) from two-parent families, heterogeneous in age and social class, was examined using a self-administered questionnaire, including the Family Environment Scale (FES), followed by a focused interview. Siblings were used as collateral informants. RESULTS: The psychometric properties of the FES showed remarkably little variation by race: The internal scale reliability, correlations between scales, and factor structures were quite similar. Although both White and Black women reported good childhood family environments, Black women when compared with White women rated their families of origin as more cohesive, organized, and expressive, and lower in conflict. Sibling responses corroborated these findings. DISCUSSION: This study addresses a gap in the research literature and provides important evidence of strengths in Black family relationships as reported by a community sample of women. The psychometric properties of the FES, found to be strong for families of both races, lends support to our findings and those of other researchers who have used this measure.     

Revisiting the Roles of Literacy Coaches: Does Reality Match Research?

This study surveyed 104 school-based elementary literacy coaches to explore their perceptions of their roles as coaches. These perceptions were then examined relative to the Standards for Reading Professionals—Revised 2010, developed by the International Reading Association. Overall, coaches reported the majority of the tasks they carried out as coaches were tasks they believed should be part of the role of a coach. They most highly valued tasks that allowed them to interact with and support teachers, ultimately leading to improved student achievement. Coaches also indicated a lack of clarity about their role in supporting the standards related to diversity.     

A systematic review of enhanced resurgence paradigms

Following successful treatment in which problem behavior is reduced, it may reemerge as a function of changes in contextual stimuli or the worsening of reinforcement conditions for an alternative response. Although understudied, preliminary research suggests that simultaneous changes in contextual stimuli and reinforcement conditions may represent particularly exigent treatment challenges that create the condition for additive or superadditive relapse. The purpose of the present review was to systematically examine the relapse literature involving simultaneous changes in contextual stimuli and reinforcement conditions in relapse tests and experimental preparations arranged to evaluate their effect on response recovery. We identified 16 empirical articles spanning 27 experiments. Although all experiments included at least one condition that experienced a change in contextual stimuli and worsening of alternative reinforcement conditions, only two experiments included the comparison conditions needed to precisely evaluate additive and superadditive relapse. Our findings establish the preclinical generality of relapse effects associated with simultaneous changes to reinforcement conditions and contextual stimuli across a range of subjects, schedule arrangements, response topographies, reinforcers, and types of contextual changes. We make several recommendations for future research based on our findings from this nascent and clinically relevant subdomain of the relapse literature.     

The effect of sleep deprivation on signal detection parameters

Twelve subjects performed a high signal rate vigilance task, once after a night's sleep, and once after a night without sleep. Raw scores were transformed into the signal detection parameters, d' and β. After sleep deprivation, detection performance was significantly impaired. This was reflected in a fall of d', whereas β was not significantly altered. Analysing the control data alone for comparison with other vigilance studies revealed a decrement in % signals detected and d', and an increase in β from the first to the second half of the test.     

The effects of autobiographical elaboration on noun recall

Four experiments demonstrate that autobiographical elaboration is a rich and powerful encoding process. Autobiographical elaboration was induced by using a modified free-association procedure. Subjects were presented stimulus words and were instructed to think of a personal experience that the words reminded them of and to date the remembered experience on a 7-point temporal-category scale (i.e., minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, never). Unexpected free recall of the stimulus words showed a recency effect (Experiments 1, 3, and 4), autobiographical orienting produced better noun recall than either a semantic or a structural orienting task (Experiments 2 and 3), and the recency effect observed in Experiments 1, 3, and 4 appears to have been due to differences in autobiographical elaboration (Experiment 4).     

In Praise of Clutter as a Necessary Part of The Feminist Perspective

A comment on Susan Wendell's paper “Oppression and Victimization; Choice and Responsibility” that appeared in Hypatia 5(3).     

Notice and consent: The school's responsibility to inform parents

Parental involvement in planning and placement for 20 children initially referred for special education is described in light of the PL 94-142 requirements for informed parental consent. The pattern of notification and parental involvement in the planning and placement team in four elementary schools is described, and the level of parental understanding for four components of the special education decision (eligibility, placement, program goals, and review date) is examined. Comparisons indicate that parent's versions of each decision component were clear and accurate no more than 50% of the time for any of the four components, even though parents were present at the team meeting where these decisions were rendered. The highest accuracy in parental reports was for the placement decision, while unclear or erroneous versions of decisions regarding eligibility, program goals, and review date were even more frequent. Results are interpreted in light of the amount of change demanded of local school systems to insure that parents are giving informed consent for special education planning and placement decisions.