A simple encoding and recording system for small group observation

A simple and inexpensive system for coding and recording interaction patterns in small groups is described. It consists of a keyboard and a standard tape recorder, and it is capable of storing sequential data using up to 36 codes. Its main application is in the study of speaker-target patterns, but it can also be used in encoding up to 12 behavioral codes, or six speakers and 6 codes. The keyboard costs less than $200 and is used with conventional tape recorders and minicomputers available at most research sites.     

Correlation of Frostig visual perception scores and verbal IQs among epileptic children

In a large study of the visual-perceptual deficits of epileptic children both Frostig's Developmental Test of Visual Perception and the verbal part of the German version of the WISC were administered. All WISC subtests correlated significantly with the Frostig Perceptual Quotients. Verbal IQs correlated significantly with scaled scores of all the Frostig subtests. From the results of this pilot study it was suggested that intellectual abilities of epileptic children as measured by the verbal WISC and visual perception as measured by the Frostig are both influenced by the same contingencies.     

A CULTURAL DIFFERENCE IN VISUAL MEMORY: ON LE VOIT,ON NE LE VOIT PLUS

Further to the debate between Kearins (1978) and Drinkwater (1978), visual memory skills of Aboriginal and white Australian children were examined using Drinkwater's version of Kim's game with desert Aboriginal and rural white children. Older children remembered more than younger ones, and Aboriginal children recalled more natural objects than white children. There was no difference between the groups in recall of manufactured objects, nor between recall of manufactured and natural objects within each group. Aboriginal children remembered significantly more objects overall than white children when the task was first administered. On a second occasion, after a procedure designed to orient children towards the use of predominantly visual rather than verbal memorising strategies, there was no significant difference between the groups.     

The effects of reward on tutor's behaviors in a cross-age tutoring context

Utilizing a cross-age tutoring context, this study examined the effects of reward on the teaching behaviors of the tutor, the tutor's subsequent motivation to continue to teach during a free choice period, and the social interaction between a tutor and a tutee. Third-grade boys and girls (n = 96) who exhibited a positive reinforcement style were asked to teach six addition problems to a first-grade boy or girl (n = 96). The children were randomly assigned to pairs and to one of the three reward conditions. In the performance-contingent reward condition, the tutors were promised a toy if the first-grader learned all of the arithmetic problems. In the noncontingent reward condition, the tutors were promised a toy for teaching the first-grader. In the no reward condition, the tutors taught the first-grader without promise of a toy. The results indicated that the social interaction was rated lower for the children in the performance-contingent group and that the tutors in this group spent less time teaching during the free choice period. However, neither the tutor's teaching style nor the tutee's post-test performance was adversely affected by the reward.     

Artistic style and personality in creative painters

The present study attempted to demonstrate a correspondence between artistic style and the personality of the creator. Personality style, defined as a cognitive-affective system of defenses and controls, was identified for 20 renowned painters through an analysis of their individual Rorschach protocols. Their creative work was classified independently by a jury of 4 persons (one art critic; two eminent painters and the junior author) into stylistic categories similar to those elaborated by the senior author for the Rorschach. The overall correspondence achieved was statistically significant (.72, p < .01), with individual correlations ranging from .75 to .86 (p < .01).     

The intuitive personologist revisited: A critique of dialectical person perception

A critical examination of dialectical person perception as advanced by Lamiell, Foss, Trierweiler, and Leffel, (1983) reveals some important problems both in its empirical basis and in the underlying model of the intuitive personologist. The present article discusses these problems and suggests some alternative conceptions of the intuitive personologist.     

Discrimination and generalization by rats of temporal stimuli lasting for minutes

In three experiments, rats learned to respond differentially to reinforced and nonreinforced trials when the length of the intertrial interval (ITI) predicted the trial outcome (reinforcement or nonreinforcement). Rats in control groups, for whom the length of the ITI did not predict the outcome, did not show differential performance on nonreinforced and reinforced trials. Generalization gradients obtained following discrimination training were comparable to those obtained following discrimination training with other types of discriminative stimuli. That is, groups which had shown differential performance in discrimination training yielded generalization gradients with fastest speeds at the previously reinforced ITIs, slowest speeds at the previously nonreinforced ITIs, and intermediate speeds at ITIs of intermediate length. Control groups yielded flat gradients across all ITIs tested. These effects were shown for relative time discrimination (short time = reinforcement, long time = nonreinforcement, or the reverse) and also for an absolute time discrimination (long and short time = reinforcement, middle time = nonreinforcement or the reverse). This method was effective for time duration measured in minutes rather than seconds, as is more commonly the case.     

Personal meaning as therapy: The roots and branches of Frankl's psychology

In recent years, Victor E. Frankl, the Viennese psychiatrist who is the founder of what has come to be known as the Third Viennese School of Psychology — Freud and Adler constituting the founders of the other two schools — has emerged as the leading proponent in psychotherapeutic circles of the centrality of the experience of “meaning” in mental health.” The goal of human life, argues Frankl, is to find meaning and order in the world for “me” personally and “us” collectively — both as an individual and a social sense of purpose and orderliness of the inner and outer environment. This paper attempts to identify—within the framework of the Jewish mystical tradition — the sources and origins of Frankl's scientific constructs in psychotherapy, and their manifestations in psychoreligious therapeutics.