The roles of contour and luminance distribution in determining perceived centers within shapes

Two sources of visual information that likely could be employed by the perceptual system in locating the centers of bounded shapes—boundary configuration and luminance distribution—have been perfectly confounded in every study thus far aimed at investigating perceived centters. Observers, using either a revolving or stationary x-y plotter, made judgments on the location of centers within either revolving or stationary shapes of both uniform and varied luminance distributions. Results indicate that the location of perceived centers depended predominantly upon boundary contour and was affected by the distribution of luminance within these edges to a much lesser degree.     

Marriages of two clergy-persons

Defines a clergy couple as a married couple, each person ordained or licensed, and each employed by the church. Gives current statistics on the number of clergy couples in eleven denominations. Decribes how it works in practice in a variety of arrangements. Lists the advantages for a congregation and for the couple. Describes some problem areas for some couples. Lists some characteristics of a successful clergy couple ministry. Asserts that clergy couples are a growing phenomenon and concludes that it is a legitimate, viable option for ministry.Editor's Note: This article, as submitted, carried the title Clergy Couples. This term, as the readers soon will discover, is used to describe what I, and others, have described as two-clergy couples, or two-clergy marriages. The term clergy couple has been widely used in the past (since at least 1951) to describe any marriage involving a clergy member, and it is so used in four of the five articles in this issue.I am aware that in 1978 the Ohio Consultation for two-clergy couples firmly claimed the title clergy couple with the intent of changing the earlier usage. Only the future will determine which usage will ultimately win general acceptance.In order to avoid confusion, however, I decided to change the title of this article; but within the article itself, the original terminology of the authors remains unchanged.Ralph L. Detrick has shared employment, parenting and homemaking with his wife, Mary, for the last seven years. Both are employed by the Church of the Brethren with responsibilities for Life Cycle Ministry, Youth/Young Adult Ministry and Person Awareness in Elgin, Illinois.     

An investigation of two measures of career indecision

The present study compared two recent scales developed to measure career indecision, the Career Decision Scale and the Vocational Decision-Making Difficulty Scale. The subjects were 857 male and female undergraduates. The scales were factor analyzed, the total scores were correlated, and the factor structures were examined for similarities and differences. Test-retest correlations were performed on the items, the total scores, and the factor scores of both measures. Subjects who were satisfied with their career choices were compared with subjects who were unsure, dissatisfied, or undecided about their career choices using the items, total scores, and factor scores. The results are discussed along with the implications for the future development of the scales.     

An analysis of passive memory in normal and mentally retarded persons

The differential short-term retention of normal and mentally retarded persons is often attributed to differences in strategic functioning. There is, however, evidence for memory differences between these groups on tasks which minimize cognitive strategies. Many of the passive memory studies have been plagued with methodological and interpretative difficulties. The present experiment was an attempt to avoid these problems and clarify the possibility of passive memory differences.It was necessary to equate initial learning and control for rehearsal to compare the passive memory of normal and retarded persons across short, rehearsal-free intevals. The retention intervals were filled with a tonal detection task intended to prevent rehearsal.CA matched normal and retarded adolescents were required to recall sequences of consonants after periods of 0,9, and 27 sec. of tonal detection. These subjects also performed the detection task without the recall requirement over the same intervals. Subjects were classified as rehearsers and nonrehearsers, depending upon variations in their tonal detection accuracy, or response times across the two conditions. The main result was that normal and retarded nonrehearsers showed equal forgetting over the retention intervals.     

Effects of imaginal exposure to feared disasters in obsessive-compulsive checkers

The combined effects of imaginal exposure to feared catastrophes and in vivo exposure to external stimuli were compared with the effects of in vivo exposure alone in 15 obsessive-compulsives with checking rituals. The first group received 90 min of uninterrupted exposure in imagination, which concentrated mainly on disastrous consequences, followed by 30 min of exposure in vivo to stimuli-situations which triggered rituals. The second group was given 2 hr of exposure in vivo only. Both groups were prevented from performing rituals. Treatment consisted of 10 daily sessions within a 2 week period.Assessments were conducted before and after treatment and at follow-up ranging from 3 months to 2.5 yr with a mean of 11 months. At post-treatment both groups improved considerably and did not differ. But at follow-up those who received imaginal and in vivo exposure maintained their gains, whereas the group who were treated by exposure in vivo alone evidenced partial relapse on four of the six dependent measures. The results tend to indicate that a closer match between a patient's internal fear model and the content of exposure enhances long term treatment efficacy.     

Reminder-induced recovery from blocking as a function of the number of compound trials

Conditioned lick suppression in rats was employed to examine changes in the associative status of a blocked stimulus as a function of the number of compound stimulus conditioning trials. In each of two experiments, prior tone-footshock pairings produced similar blocking of conditioned responding to the light element of a tone-light compound when either two or six compound trials were used. In experiment 1, two exposures to the light alone in a dissimilar context during the retention interval, i.e., a reminder treatment, resulted in a restoration of responding to the light which was complete and similar for animals receiving two or six compound trials. This indicated that latent acquisition with respect to the blocked stimulus was largely complete after two compound trials. Because of a potential ceiling effect for reminder-induced recovery from blocking, Experiment 2 employed an attenuated reminder (one light exposure). This reminder reversed the blocking when six, but not when two, compound trials were used. These results suggest that, after latent acquisition to the blocked stimulus is complete, the blocked stimulus continues to be processed during additional compound stimulus conditioning trials, with a consequent latent facilitation of retrieval of associations to the blocked stimulus.     

Participatory Research's Contribution to a Conceptualization of Empowerment1

Empowerment has emerged in recent years as a popular strategy for addressing social issues. A potential intervention approach for applied researchers interested in studying empowerment is participatory research (PR). PR is a theory and intervention approach for involving oppressed people in the study of and solutions to social problems. It is a strategy that works to transform social structure to benefit oppressed people. This article examines PR's contribution to a conceptualization of empowerment on both a theoretical and applied level. First, PR literature and its conceptualization of empowerment are described. Following this, PR is proposed as an intervention approach for applied researchers interested in studying empowerment. A case study involving the formation of a Homeless Persons Union is provided as an example of applied PR.     

Heart rate—QT relationships during baroreceptor stimulation with diminished autonomic influence on the ventricles

The shortening of the QT interval of the electrocardiogram coincident with acceleration of heart rate and vice versa has been accepted for many years as evidence that the action potential duration and hence QT are necessarily dependant on heart rate. Exceptions to this rule have been attributed to the intervention of counteracting autonomic effects. In order to test this assumption, 26 conscious dogs divided into three groups were tested during baroreceptor stimulation by a bolus injection of phenylephrine. Seventeen dogs had been used in earlier studies in which they had undergone an experimental anterior myocardial infarction with apparent full recovery. A group of those dogs underwent beta-adrenergic blockade by intravenous atenolol 30 min prior to the baroreceptor activation. To test the intactness of the baroreceptor responses in the previously infarcted dogs, a third group of nine dogs that had had no prior myocardial infarction was included. All dogs were adapted to the laboratory environment and were not sedated during experiments. Simultaneous recordings of RR, QT interval, and phasic arterial pressure were made in all dogs before and during baroreceptor stimulation. In the normal group, and the previously infarcted group that received no atenolol, baroreceptor stimulation elicited a small (8/msec), but significant prolongation of the QT associated with a nearly 50% reduction in heart rate. The QT interval of the atenolol-treated dogs, although significantly more prolonged before stimulation, remained unchanged during the reflex. The data indicate that withdrawal of ventricular sympathetic tone may prolong the QT interval, thereby confirming the role of sympathetic innervation in the control of QT. This inference was strengthened by the complete absence of change of QT after atenolol block and the absence of any detectable influence of vagal activity on ventricular repolarization during the reflex. Therefore, in what appeared to be the absence of evidence of autonomic influence, no inverse relationship between heart rate and QT was observed.     

A computer-automated laboratory for studying complex perception-action skills

In this paper, we describe a computer-based laboratory for collecting and analyzing real-time performance and eye-movement data by using video game-like tasks. These tasks assess skills that require the integration of varying numbers of perception and action components. Customized hardware and software are described for configuring tasks, collecting data, reconstructing performance, and organizing, editing, and reducing data. General design considerations are emphasized for solving several of the problems encountered in constructing a real-time data collection system. The paper concludes with examples of data that illustrate the system’s usefulness for studying complex perception-action skills.