An evaluation of a brief integrity test user orientation program

The purpose of this pilot study was to assess the effectiveness of a brief test user orientation program on increasing service station managers' familiarity with a few key employment testing issues, including their familiarity with theModel Guidelines for Preemployment Integrity Testing Programs. The obtained results reveal that even a brief orientation program was able to significantly increase the managers' stated degree of familiarity with testing issues.     

The influence of affect on self-focused attention: Conceptual and methodological issues

A number of investigators have suggested that affective states influence the focus of attention. One recent proposal is that negative moods increase self-focus. This review considers the evidence that bears on this hypothesis. Conceptual issues pertaining to the construct of self-focus are discussed first. Next, the various parameters that influence attentional focus are presented in order to provide a way of organizing the mood/selffocus literature. Studies that have used state measures of mood and self-focus are considered in this context. Methodological limitations of existing studies are discussed and directions for future work provided.     

Parent-tutoring procedures: Experimental analysis and validation of generalization in oral reading across passages,settings, and time

A study that involved parents as reading tutors was carried out at home during the summer with four elementary children, three with learning disabilities. One purpose was to determine the effects of tutoring in the basal reader on reading rates at home. Another purpose was to determine potential generalization effects as a result of parent tutoring on different academic tasks at home and, later at school, on different and similar tasks. A combination multiple-baseline and reversal design tested for replication and generalization effects. Increases in correct rates were noted for the targeted variables across conditions. The results indicated that parents tutoring with school basal texts during the summer produced marked increases in reading rates that generalized at home to different academic tasks and at school to different and similar tasks. This suggests that parents, when using specific tutoring procedures, can increase their children's academic skills.     

The putative role of free radicals in the loss of neuronal functioning in senescence

One of the hallmarks of the aging process is a loss of sensitivity in central neuronal receptors to agonist stimulation. This appears to be especially true in central (hippocampal, striatal) muscarinic cholinergic systems and in the striatal dopamine systems. For these two systems, any decline in their sensitivity can be of extreme importance in determining the behavioral capabilities of the organism. Decrements in the striatal dopamine system may be reflected as motor behavioral deficits, while the central cholinergic systems play a major role in the processing of memory through the activation of muscarinic receptors (mAChR). Declines in the function of these receptors appear to be at least partially responsible for the marked deterioration of cognitive function in normal aging and, more notably, in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Previous work has indicated only minimal success in improving performance in tasks that assess memory in senescent animals or humans with pharmacological agents which enhance cholinergic functioning. The present review describes research that indicates that two of the factors involved in this decline in receptor sensitivity include: (a) decreased receptor concentrations and (b) age-related decrements in signal transduction pathways. Studies are reviewed that indicate that the oxidative neural damage that occurs via kainic acid or ionizing radiation parallel those seen in aging. It is suggested that the common mechanism that may exist among all of the age-, disease-, excitatory amino acid- or radiation-induced deficits in neuronal transmission may involve free-radical-mediated alterations in membrane integrity through lipid peroxidation.     

Motion coherence and conjunction search: Implications for guided search theory

Feature integration theory has recently been revised with two proposals that visual conjunction search can be parallel under some circumstances—either because items with nontarget features are inhibited, or because items with target features are excited. We examined whether excitatory or inhibitory guidance controlled conjunction search for an X oscillating in one direction among Os oscillating in that direction and Xs oscillating in another. Search was affected by whether items oscillated in phase with each other, and it was exceptionally difficult when items with target motion moved out of phase with each otherand items with nontarget motion moved out of phase. The results suggest that conjunction search can be guided both by excitation of target features and by inhibition of nontarget features.     

Initial experiences with cognitive therapy of schizophrenic patients

Based on earlier experiences of various groups of authors, we developed and modified a programme of cognitive therapy for schizophrenic patients. The aim of the application of the therapeutic programme to subacute patients was to decrease subjectively perceptible basic disorders and to improve the functions of performance. The present results and experiences with 4 groups consisting of a total of 31 patients encourage us to continue applying cognitive procedures of therapy. Problems of the ascertainment of measuring values and fundamental questions of therapeutic efficacy are discussed.