Spontaneous private speech and performance on a delayed match-to-sample task

Spontaneous private speech samples were obtained from 65 kindergarten children (mean age 70.3 months) from one suburban (n = 36) and one city (n = 29) school as they worked alone on a delayed match-to-sample (DMS) task with three levels of difficulty (2, 10, and 30 sec delays). As expected increases in DMS delay intervals produced decreased performance and increases in private speech. The expected increased positive relationship between task relevant private speech and performance for longer delays was found in city children but not suburban children. Since mean IQ scores were significantly different for the two groups this variable was further examined in post hoc analyses and discussed along with socio-economic status as possible explanations for the observed school-sample differences. A within-subject comparison for all children showed the percentage of speaking trials correct at 30-sec delay to be significantly greater than the percentage of nonspeaking trials correct. The effect of one experimenter modeled trial on a subsequent 10 trials at 30-sec delay was to increase speech and performance and to show a stronger relationship between speech and performance than for premodeling trials. These exploratory findings with a relatively simple two color matching task suggest further explorations of spontaneous private speech as a way of studying internalization of self regulatory cognitive strategies.     

On Counseling Men

Counselors need to be aware of the characteristics of men, the qualities of men in counseling, and the pressures on the contemporary man. This article considers some of the expectations and qualities of men in general and in the counseling relationship in particular. The influence of these qualities and expectations on the interaction between client and counselor is examined. Suggestions are made to improve the effectiveness of the counseling process.     

Nicotine as a psychoactive drug

Nicotine is a paradoxical drug in that it both stimulates and depresses functions. It affects the central nervous system, the peripheral nervous system, the cardiovascular, the skeletal, and the gastrointestinal systems. Its psychoactive effects and drug dependency potential as well as some therapeutic approaches to smoking cessation have been reviewed here. More research information is needed for professionals working with those who want to quit smoking.     

The Protective Effect of Neighbourhood Collective Efficacy On Family Violence and Youth Antisocial Behaviour in Two South Korean Prospective Longitudinal Cohorts

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - Neighbourhood collective efficacy has been proposed as a protective factor against family violence and youth antisocial behaviour. However, little...     

The design,development, and implementation of a microprocessor-based ECG analysis system

This paper describes the research effort to design, develop, and implement a microprocessor-based ECG data acquisition, reduction, and analysis system for operation in real-time. This unit can be attached to three-channel ECG carts and provide an immediate on-site analysis. The basic design and development efforts include (1) the data acquisition, reduction, and matrix assembly, (2) ECG arrhythmia, P-wave, and axis analysis, (3) ECG contour analysis, and (4) a real-time three-channel data acquisition unit. Decision tables are used in the analysis. The implementation of these projects into a small microprocessor-based unit coupled to a three-channel recorder is now in progress. This system, coupled with a small printer, will provide immediate on-site ECG analysis for most cardiovascular dysfunctions.     

Prediction of Suicide Intent in Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginal Adolescent Inpatients: A Research Note

The relationship among depressive symptoms, anxiety, hopelessness, and suicidal intent was explored in a group of 77 adolescents who had been hospitalized after attempting suicide. Regression analyses indicated that hopelessness was the only significant predictor of suicide intent in Caucasian patients, and depressed mood was the only significant predictor in the Aboriginal group. Clinicians should be aware that measures of hopelessness may be of limited value in assessing suicidal risk in Aboriginal adolescents.     

Prosodic form and parsing commitments

This paper examines the question of whether there are effects of prosody on the syntactic parsing of temporarily ambiguous sentences containing complement verbs. It reports the results of five experiments employing cross-modal response tasks where the visually presented target word was either an appropriate or an inappropriate continuation in terms of the prosodic form of the preceeding auditory sentence fragment. Two experiments employing cross-modal naming only showed indications of sensitivity to syntactic and appropriateness manipulations when coupled with a simultaneous appropriateness judgment task. In contrast, the experiments employing cross-modal lexical decision showed greater sensitivity to syntactic and appropriateness effects. However, while the results from these studies replicated our earlier auditory parsing results and provided support for the suggestion that there are differences in visual and auditory parsing processes and for a constituent-based, minimal commitment type auditory parser, none of the studies demonstrated an effect of prosodic form on the parsing process.