Contextual effects on metaphor comprehension in reading

Subjects read target sentences preceded by either short or long context that induced either a metaphoric or a literal target reading. As had been found by Ortony, Schallert, Reynolds, and Antos (1978), metaphoric targets were comprehended about as quickly as literals when context was long, but more slowly than literals when context was short. The latter result may have been due to the failure of computing a conceptual relationship between short context and metaphoric target; targets unrelated to prior context took as long to comprehend as metaphoric targets. Another experiment showed that metaphorically expressed targets were read more quickly when they followed metaphorically expressed context than when they followed literal context, but literal targets were read quickest when they followed literal context. These results are discussed within a schema framework and within a “process priming” hypothesis.     

Use of didactic training and feedback to improve quality and acceptability of progress notes written by direct-care staff on a psychiatric inpatient unit

Writing progress notes represent a critical activity of practicing clinicians in a variety of settings. They provide a way for medical practitioners, insurance companies, and others to communicate in a timely fashion regarding ongoing clinical care. Previous research showed that intervention components like didactic training, using note templates, and feedback improved the quality of progress notes. At least two questions remain despite several studies already addressing progress note writing. First, previous research most often used multiple intervention components to improve progress notes. Thus, the relative impact of two common components of interventions, such as didactic training and feedback, is unclear. Second, previous research has not evaluated the acceptability of improved progress notes for the practitioners that actually utilize them. Thus, the purpose of the current study evaluated the components of didactic training and feedback on improved progress note writing for four direct staff employed by a psychiatric inpatient unit. A second purpose of this study was to evaluate the acceptability of the training procedures by both (a) the direct-care staff participating in this study and (b) four members of the psychiatric treatment team that used direct-care staff progress notes to inform their clinical care. Results showed that feedback was necessary to improve the accuracy of progress notes for three of four participants. The direct-care staff reported the training procedures as acceptable and the treatment team noted improvements in the quality of the progress notes after intervention. These data will be discussed in terms of ways to arrange effective training programs to improve direct-care staff's progress notes.     

Use them or lose them: Are manipulatives needed to assess numeracy and geometry performance in preschool?

In two studies, we investigated whether using three-dimensional (3D) manipulatives during assessment aided performance on a variety of preschool mathematics tasks compared to pictorial representations. On measures of children's understanding of counting and cardinality (n = 103), there was no difference in performance between manipulatives and pictures, with Bayes factors suggesting moderate evidence in favor of the null hypothesis. On a measure of children's shape identification (n = 93), there was no difference in performance between objects and pictures, with Bayes factors suggesting moderate evidence in favor of the null hypothesis. These results suggest flexibility in the materials that can be used during assessment. Pictures, or 2D renderings of 3D objects, which can be easily printed and reproduced, may be sufficient for assessing counting and shape knowledge without the need for more cumbersome concrete manipulatives.     

Testing the dopamine overdose hypothesis in action control: A study in people with Parkinson's disease

Prior work on patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) has shown that the administration of dopaminergic medication in the early to intermediate stages of PD benefits (motor) functions associated with the dopamine-depleted dorsal striatal circuitry but may ‘overdose’ and interfere with (cognitive) functions associated with the relatively intact ventral striatal circuitry. The present study aimed to elucidate this so-called dopamine overdose hypothesis for the action control domain. Using a within-subject design in a sample of 13 people with PD, we evaluated the effect of dopaminergic medication on two cognitive processes underlying goal-directed behaviour, namely action selection and initiation through event binding and conflict adaptation. We also investigated whether individual differences in the magnitude of medication effects were associated across these processes. Results showed no indications that dopaminergic medication affects action selection and initiation or conflict adaptation in PD patients. Additionally, we observed no correlations between both cognitive processes nor between individual differences in medication effects. Our findings do not support the notion that dopaminergic medication modulates action control processes, suggesting that the dopamine overdose hypothesis may only apply to a specific set of cognitive processes and should potentially be refined.     

Prevention of delinquency: Current status and issues

In the present review, we summarize the extant literature in the field of delinquency prevention. We do not provide a recounting of whether specific programs have or have not been effective but, rather, attempt to judge the overall utility of programs to prevent delinquency in its various forms and among various definable groups. Specifically, we organize our review of programs according to the characteristics of the targeted population, differentiating programs for universal, selected, or indicated populations. Within each population type, we further distinguish programs according to designated intervention context, relying on a biopsychosocial model that specifies four levels of influence on risk for delinquency: individual, close interpersonal relationships, proximal social settings, and societal macrosystems. At each level, we identify a number of effective intervention strategies and highlight those that are based on relevant risk factor research. As we note, the effectiveness of some approaches depends on the specific population, although, in general, multicomponent, multilevel programs appear to have the most substantial effects.     

The being that knew too much

International Journal for Philosophy of Religion -     

Helping Coworkers and Helping the Organization: The Role of Support Perceptions,Exchange Ideology,and Conscientiousness1

This study examined 2 types of organizational citizenship behaviors: those that benefit the organization, and those that benefit one's coworkers. Parallel hypotheses were developed that predicted that support perceptions (both organizational and individual) would predict their respective type of citizenship behavior, and that exchange ideology (also both organizational and individual) would moderate this relation. The contributions of conscientiousness and empathy were also explored for their potential incremental value. Existing measures of perceived organizational support and exchange ideology were used to develop two new measures to assess perceived coworker support and individual exchange ideology. Results from a diverse sample support the importance of support perceptions as well as the moderating role of organizational exchange ideology. With respect to the 2 personality variables, conscientiousness played a significant role, but empathy did not. Implications for citizenship research and practice are discussed.     

Optimal scaling by alternating length-constrained nonnegative least squares, with application to distance-based analysis

An important feature of distance-based principal components analysis, is that the variables can be optimally transformed. For monotone spline transformation, a nonnegative least-squares problem with a length constraint has to be solved in each iteration. As an alternative algorithm to Lawson and Hanson (1974), we propose the Alternating Length-Constrained Non-Negative Least-Squares (ALC-NNLS) algorithm, which minimizes the nonnegative least-squares loss function over the parameters under a length constraint, by alternatingly minimizing over one parameter while keeping the others fixed. Several properties of the new algorithm are discussed. A Monte Carlo study is presented which shows that for most cases in distance-based principal components analysis, ALC-NNLS performs as good as the method of Lawson and Hanson or sometimes even better in terms of the quality of the solution. Supported by The Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) by grant nr. 030-56403 for the “PIONEER” project “Subject Oriented Multivariate Analysis” to the third author. We would like to thank the anonymous referees for their valuable remarks that have improved the quality of this paper.