Effects of repetition and response deadline on associative recognition in young and older adults

The present study examined the joint effects of repetition and response deadline on associative recognition in older adults. Young and older adults studied lists of unrelated word pairs, half presented once (weak pairs) and half presented four times (strong pairs). Test lists contained old (intact) pairs, pairs consisting of old words that had been studied with other partners (rearranged lures), and unstudied pairs (new lures), and participants were asked to respond "old" only to intact pairs. In Experiment 1, participants were tested with both short and long deadlines. In Experiment 2, the tests were unpaced. In both experiments, repetition increased hit rates for young and older adults. Young adults tested with a long deadline showed reduced (Experiment 1) or invariant (Experiment 2) false alarms to rearranged lures when word pairs were studied more often. Young adults tested with a short deadline and older adults tested under all conditions had increased false alarm rates forstrong rearranged pairs. Implications of these results for theories of associative recognition and cognitive aging are explored.     

Self-instruction training following neurological injury

The teaching of cognitive strategies is a potentially effective intervention technique for some students with acquired neurological injuries; however, educators have only infrequently reported on the systematic application of cognitive strategies to the academic challenges of this population. This study represents such an attempt by investigating the effects of a self-instruction strategy on the academic performance of a student with acquired neurological damage. The intervention programme pertained to performing 2-digit by 1-digit multiplication problems and consisted of: (1) a six-step multiplication procedure; (2) self-instruction cues; and (3) procedural prompts. The intervention package resulted in improved performance on the multiplication task with levels being maintained despite fading of procedural prompts and self-instruction cues. Results are discussed in terms of implications for training and future research.     

Sorting out what's in a word from what's not: Evaluating Clark's Semantic Features Acquisition theory

The Semantic Features Acquisition theory of semantic development which is due to E. Clark (e.g., 1973b) is reviewed and evaluated against the recent experimental literature, with special reference to the acquisition of English antonyms. The review critically examines the three major ontogenetic principles of Clark's theory in light of numerous recent findings, many of which are at variance in some major way with predictions from the theory. In many instances, new data are available which call into question previous findings. A recurrent problem has been that children's comprehension task performance is confounded with their response biases which are specific to the linguistic and nonlinguistic contexts in which the lexical terms are presented. Methodological implications are discussed, with recommendations for employing the logic of converging operations.     

Attitudes of Catholic and Protestant clergy on euthanasia and abortion

This study analyzes the attitudes of a random sample of Cleveland clergy toward: (1) acceptance of euthanasia; (2) the establishment of legal guidelines; and (3) the similarity between euthanasia and abortion. Although the clergymen find active euthanasia highly unacceptable, they expressed a definite ranking in priority of the different circumstances under which passive euthanasia would be acceptable. The clergy tend to oppose legalizing euthanasis, and indicate their fear of potential abuses. More than their Protestant counterpart, Catholic clergy significantly oppose any statement linking euthanasia and abortion. Clergymen who define their role as purely spiritual in nature tend to express greater disapproval of the three issues.Dr. Lazerine obtained his Ph.D. from the same department. The writers gratefully acknowledge the support of the Office of Research Development at Bowling Green State University and the College of Arts and Sciences. This paper was originally presented at the American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, New York, August 1980.     

Measurement invariance,factor analysis and factorial invariance

Several concepts are introduced and defined: measurement invariance, structural bias, weak measurement invariance, strong factorial invariance, and strict factorial invariance. It is shown that factorial invariance has implications for (weak) measurement invariance. Definitions of fairness in employment/admissions testing and salary equity are provided and it is argued that strict factorial invariance is required for fairness/equity to exist. Implications for item and test bias are developed and it is argued that item or test bias probably depends on the existence of latent variables that are irrelevant to the primary goal of test constructers.Presidential address delivered at the Annual Meeting of the Psychometric Society in Berkeley, California, June 18–20, 1993.     

Comprehensive Counselling: One Pupil's Integration

A case-study is used to show how an eclectic approach towards counselling can be helpful in the integration of a child with special educational needs into a mainstream secondary school. The value of a problem-solving model which focuses on personal agency and self-help skills is demonstrated. In particular, the effectiveness of goal setting, feedback and modelling to change perceptions, increase self-responsibility and change behaviour is emphasised. Limitations of the school context, particularly the attitudes of some staff, on the effectiveness of the approach are outlined. It is concluded that comprehensive counselling, whilst taking the needs of the majority as a starting point, is equally a means of enabling those with 'special' needs to achieve true integration.     

Social identities and intergroup bias in immigrant and nonimmigrant children

Ethnic and American identity, as well as positivity and negativity toward multiple social groups, were assessed in 392 children attending 2nd or 4th grade in various New York City neighborhoods. Children from 5 ethnic groups were recruited, including White and Black Americans, as well as recent immigrants from China, the Dominican Republic, and the former Soviet Union. For ethnic minority children, greater positivity bias (evaluating one's ingroup more positively than outgroups) was predicted by immigrant status and ethnic identity, whereas negativity bias (evaluating outgroups more negatively than one's ingroup) was associated with increased age, immigrant status, and (among 4th graders only) ethnic identity. In addition, a more central American identity was associated with less intergroup bias among ethnic minority children.     

Contextual Career Counseling for Transitioning Military Veterans

Military culture is a unique subset of the United States, complete with its own language, writing style, norms, membership, rank structure, values, and laws (Harmon, 2007 ). Using contextual theory for career counseling, counselor educators can assist counselors‐in‐training in understanding the effects of the military environment on clients who are military veterans. This article includes a review of the literature and a call for research.     

Alternatives to switch-cost scoring in the task-switching paradigm: Their reliability and increased validity

In the task-switching paradigm, the latency switch-cost score—the difference in mean reaction time between switch and nonswitch trials—is the traditional measure of task-switching ability. However, this score does not reflect accuracy, where switch costs may also emerge. In two experiments that varied in response deadlines (unlimited vs. limited time), we evaluated the measurement properties of two traditional switch-cost scoring methods (the latency switch-cost score and the accuracy switch-cost score) and three alternatives (a rate residual score, a bin score, and an inverse efficiency score). Scores from the rate residual, bin score, and inverse efficiency methods had comparable reliability for latency switch-cost scores without response deadlines but were more reliable than latency switch-cost scores when higher error rates were induced with a response deadline. All three alternative scoring methods appropriately accounted for differences in accuracy switch costs when higher error rates were induced, whereas pure latency switch-cost scores did not. Critically, only the rate residual and bin score methods were more valid indicators of task-switching ability; they demonstrated stronger relationships with performance on an independent measure of executive functioning (the antisaccade analogue task), and they allowed the detection of larger effect sizes when examining within-task congruency effects. All of the three alternative scoring methods provide researchers with a better measure of task-switching ability than do traditional scoring methods, because they each simultaneously account for latency and accuracy costs. Overall, the three alternative scoring methods were all superior to the traditional latency switch-cost scoring method, but the strongest methods were the rate residual and bin score methods.