Using Technology to Enhance Adult Learning in the Counselor Education Classroom

The authors present a study that used a conceptual framework of adult learning and differentiated learning styles with graduate students in a counselor education classroom. Students in a hybrid course had higher midterm, group proposal, and posttest scores than did students in a face‐to‐face course taught by the same professor.     

Developmental changes in the responses of preterm infants to a painful stressor

The purpose of this investigation was to examine longitudinally gestational age and developmental differences in preterm infants' self-regulatory abilities in response to a painful stressor, as well as associations between behavioral and cardiovascular responses. Participants included 49 healthy premature infants. Behavioral and cardiovascular responses to a heel stick blood draw were compared between infants of 28-31 and 32-34 weeks' gestation age at birth. Both gestational age groups displayed behavioral and cardiovascular indications of stress in response to the blood draw. However, both shortly after birth and several weeks later, infants born at younger gestational ages (28-31 weeks) were more physiologically reactive. Evidence that the behavioral stress responses of 28-31 weeks' gestation age group preterm infants do not reflect their physiological responses suggests that evaluation of preterm infants' experiences and risk require assessments of both physiology and behavior. The greater stress vulnerability of the 28-31 weeks' gestation group relative to the 32-34 weeks' gestation group and the implications of this for subsequent development are discussed.     

Identity in Action: Predictors of Feminist Self-Identification and Collective Action

The present study sought to explore how women's life experiences influenced their beliefs, and how those beliefs in turn influenced feminist self-identification. Additionally, we sought to determine whether feminist self-identification led to increased collective action on behalf of women. Female participants (N?=?282) from two US college campuses and online listservs completed an online survey assessing feminist self-identification, collective action, and life experiences. Conservative, liberal, and radical beliefs were assessed as were evaluations of feminists. A structural equation model was used to explore these relationships; life experiences were found to influence women's beliefs, which in turn influenced feminist self-identification, which influenced collective action. We found that life experiences may serve as a catalyst for both feminist self-identification and collective action.     

Audience-contingent variation in action demonstrations for humans and computers

People may exhibit two kinds of modifications when demonstrating action for others: modifications to facilitate bottom-up, or sensory-based processing; and modifications to facilitate top-down, or knowledge-based processing. The current study examined actors' production of such modifications in action demonstrations for audiences that differed in their capacity for intentional reasoning. Actors' demonstrations of complex actions for a non-anthropomorphic computer system and for people (adult and toddler) were compared. Evidence was found for greater highlighting of top-down modifications in the demonstrations for the human audiences versus the computer audience. Conversely, participants highlighted simple perceptual modifications for the computer audience, producing more punctuated and wider ranging motions. This study suggests that people consider differences in their audiences when demonstrating action.     

Addressing Classism,Ableism, and Heterosexism in Counselor Education

As the counseling profession charts its future course, issues related to classism, ableism, and heterosexism remain fully incorporated within the multicultural/social justice curriculum. The authors define each of these forms of oppression, explicate their intersections with race, and summarize the resulting implications for counseling education and training.     

Food cravings consume limited cognitive resources

Using Tiffany's (1990) cognitive model of drug use and craving as a theoretical basis, the present experiments investigated whether cravings for food expend limited cognitive resources. Cognitive performance was assessed by simple reaction time (Experiment 1) and an established measure of working memory capacity, the operation span task (Experiment 2). In each experiment, female undergraduate students were randomly assigned to a craving or control condition. Participants in the craving condition abstained from eating chocolate for 24 hours prior to testing and performed the cognitive task in the presence of chocolate, a manipulation that successfully elicited chocolate cravings. In both experiments, there was no main effect of craving condition on cognition, but there was a significant interaction between condition and trait chocolate craving. In support of Tiffany's model, our results show that habitual food cravers direct limited cognitive resources to craving-related cues, at the cost of competing cognitive demands. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved).     

Measuring Latinos' perceptions of depression: a confirmatory factor analysis of the Illness Perception Questionnaire

This study examined the psychometric properties of the Revised Illness Perception Questionnaire adapted for a clinical sample of low-income Latinos suffering from depression. Participants (N = 339) were recruited from public primary care centers. Their average age was 49.73 years and the majority was foreign born females of either Mexican or Central American descent. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to test the factor structure of this measure. Construct and discriminant validity and internal consistency were evaluated. After the elimination of three items because of low factor loadings (< .40) and the specification of seven error covariances, a revised model composed of 24 items had adequate goodness-of-fit indices and factor loadings, supporting construct validity. Each of the subscales reported satisfactory internal consistency. Intercorrelations between the 5 illness perception factors provided initial support for the discriminant validity of these factors in the context of depression. The establishment of the psychometric properties of this adapted measure will pave the way for future studies examining the role illness perceptions play in the help seeking and management of depression among Latinos.     

Lack of a close confidant: prevalence and correlates in a medically underserved primary care sample

The present study examined prevalence of lack of a close confidant in a medically underserved primary care sample, and evaluated demographic, medical, and psychological correlates of patients' deficits in close, personal contact. Adult patients (n = 413) reported on confidant status and symptoms of depression and anxiety. Sociodemographic and medical information were obtained through chart review. One-quarter of patients endorsed lack of a close confidant. Past month anxiety and depression symptoms, but not medical status, were associated with unmet socioemotional needs. Implications for primary healthcare interventions are discussed.     

CONCURRENT RESURGENCE AND BEHAVIORAL HISTORY

The contribution of past experiences to concurrent resurgence was investigated in three experiments. In Experiment 1, resurgence was related to the length of reinforcement history as well as the reinforcement schedule that previously maintained responding. Specifically, more resurgence occurred when key pecks had been reinforced on a variable-interval 1-min schedule than a variable-interval 6-min schedule, but this effect may have been due either to the differential reinforcement rates or differential response rates under the two schedules. When reinforcement rates were similar (Experiment 2), there was more resurgence of high-rate than low-rate responding. When response rates were similar (Experiment 3), resurgence was not related systematically to prior reinforcement rates. Taken together, these three experimental tests of concurrent resurgence illustrate that prior response rates are better predictors of resurgence than are prior reinforcement rates.     

The effect of appropriate and inappropriate stimulus color on odor discrimination

Color can strongly affect participants' self-report of an odor's qualities. In Experiment 1, we examined whether color influences a more objective measure of odor quality, discrimination. Odor pairs, presented in their appropriate color (e.g., strawberry and cherry in red water), an inappropriate color (e.g., strawberry and cherry in green water), or uncolored water were presented for discrimination. Participants made significantly more errors when odors were discriminated in an inappropriate color. In Experiment 2, the same design was utilized, but with an articulatory suppression task (AST), to examine whether the effect of color was mediated by identification or by a more direct effect on the percept. Here, the AST significantly improved discrimination for the inappropriate color condition, relative to Experiment 1. Although color does affect a more objective measure of odor quality, this is mediated by conceptual, rather than perceptual, means.