Representational momentum and the flash‐lag effect

Representational momentum (RM) is a distortion where the final orientation of a moving object is misremembered as further along its trajectory. Experiments reported here examine RM when an additional object was flashed just as the moving object disappeared. When the task was to judge the flashed object, participants reported that the flash appeared to lag behind (flash‐lag effect; FLE). When the task was to judge the moving object, larger forward distortions for the moving object were found when the flash was present, despite previous evidence that the FLE depends on the moving object's continued presence. The results suggest that some part of the FLE depends upon what precedes the flash. In addition, equivalent RM was observed for implied and smoothly animated events, a possible limit to the velocity effect for RM was found, and larger positive distortions were found for downward rotations.     

Counseling with Elementary School Children: An Experimental Study

An attempt was made to assess results of counseling with fourth-grade students, using sociometric status as the criterion. A sociometric device was administered to four fourth-grade classrooms. Students of low sociometric status were randomly assigned by classrooms to one of three treatment conditions: (1) counseling, (2) teacher guidance, and (3) control. When treatment conditions were compared, the evidence seemed to indicate significant differences in the relative frequency with which subjects increased or decreased in sociometric status, that the differences favored the counseling condition, and that these differences persisted over a period of seven months. The possibility of a temporary teacher influence on the sociometric criterion was indicated.     

Some Concomitants of Underachievement at the Elementary School Level

This study compared a group of fourth-grade underachieves with a control group in the areas of peer relationships and measured personality variables. The underachievers were identified by predicting their grade-point average (GPA) from their WISC Verbal Scale IQ score by use of a prediction equation. If the predicted GPA was .8 standard error of estimate above their obtained GPA, the student was identified as an underachiever. This resulted in the identification of 84 male and 34 female underachievers. The results of the investigation indicated that regardless of sex, underachievers are selected less frequently by their peers and have a lower level of personality adjustment.     

Representational momentum for rotations in depth: effects of shadings and axis

Representational momentum is a positive memory distortion for an object's final position following the presentation of an implied event (J.J. Freyd, 1987). Positive memory distortions occur when observers accept test positions beyond the final presented position, or forward along the implied trajectory, as the same more readily than positions behind the final position. Four experiments explored implied events depicting rotations about various depth axes in shaded and silhouette conditions. Positive memory distortions were observed for all depth rotations under certain shading conditions, with some differences in the size of the distortion between axes. No directional effects (e.g., right vs. left) were observed. The overall positive memory distortions observed for depth rotations contrasted with the negative distortions previously observed for translation motion in depth (T.L. Hubbard, 1995 ).     

The next exclusion debate: assessing technology, ethics, and intellectual disability after the Human Genome Project

Recent scientific discoveries have made it much easier to test prenatally for various genetic disabilities, such as Down syndrome. However, while many observers have heralded such "advances" for their effectiveness in detecting certain conditions, others have argued that they perpetuate discrimination by preventing the birth of children with disabilities. This article examines the ethical and social implications of the Human Genome Project for individuals with intellectual disabilities and their families. It details the critique of prenatal testing articulated by many disability rights activists as well as scholarly and professional responses to that critique. A review of the pertinent research literature includes perspectives of genetic professionals, ethicists, disability studies scholars, parents of children with disabilities, and disabled individuals themselves. Finally, the article explores how future research endeavors, policies, and practices may more effectively integrate and respect the positions of these various stakeholders.     

Parallels between remembering and predicting an object's location

Three experiments explore effects of rotational axis and velocity on observers' predictions regarding an object's future position, and begin to explore connections between this extrapolation task and representational momentum (RM). In general, observers accept as "correct" positions that are behind the correct extrapolated location, as shown in previous work (Cooper & Munger, 1993; Finke & Shyi, 1998). These prediction distortions are in the opposite direction of typical RM memory distortions, suggesting that these tasks are unrelated. However, new effects of axis for the extrapolation task are reported which parallel axis effects previously observed for RM and mental rotation tasks. Specifically, participants make larger negative distortion errors for axes of rotation that are not coincident with the viewer's coordinate system, as if these paths of rotation are harder to extrapolate. Effects of velocity and axis are examined for RM and extrapolation tasks, and the overall pattern of distortions supports a link. In particular, participants who misremember the location of an object as further along the implied path of motion also accept as "correct" positions relatively further along the extrapolated path of motion, suggesting that these apparently opposite types of errors are indeed related.     

EMPLOYABILITY DEVELOPMENT TEAMS: THE CONCEPT

This paper, the first of a series of articles in this issue of the Journal of Employment Counseling dealing with Employability Development Team research of Munger, Johnson, Hemmeter, Lewis, Otto, Smith, Stockton, and Werner (1972) provides an introduction to the background and philosophy of the team concept, the nature of the population served, and the related reports which follow.