Steps Toward an Ecology of Writing in Digital Environments: A 21st-Century Walk Through van Gogh's Bedroom

This study examined how exposure to a computer-generated, avatar-based environment influences student composition of an essay in response to a writing prompt. Drawing on the distinctions between firsthand and secondhand experiences, this article sketches an ecological model of writing that attempts to explain why students exposed to an avatar-based environment wrote first-person essays in the present tense, whereas students exposed to a comparable web page-based environment wrote third-person essays in the past tense.     

A comparison of binary and rating techniques in the signal detection analysis of recognition memory

Forty-eight subjects were run on a recognition memory task employing low, medium, or high meaningfulness (m) CVC items and utilizing either a binary (yes—no) or rating response technique. Significant differences were obtained between levels of m with higher m items resulting in larger d' values. The interaction term was also significant reflecting a large difference between the binary-rating techniques with high meaningfulness items. The results indicate that the binary and rating techniques do not reveal identical findings in the analysis of recognition memory data and that the frequent use of the rating technique by researchers in the analysis of memory data may not be appropriate.     

Relational responses in tests of transposition with Rhesus monkeys

Three adult Rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta), one with nonrelated discrimination learning experience and two experimentally naive, were trained to discriminate between two simultaneously presented stimuli differing only in height. After exceeding the learning criteria on a VR 4 reinforcement schedule and considerable overtraining, subjects were tested for transposition. Both upward and downward and near and far tests were administered to determine the effects of distance from the original training pair on the amount of transposition. In these tests, each of the 24 stimulus pairs contained one or more novel stimuli. Training trials were interpolated to avoid extinction effects and measures were taken to avoid motivational deficits or differential rewards during testing. All three subjects responded relationally at far as well as near distances from the original training pair. Stimulus generalization, on the basis of increments of association, was found to be an inferior explanation for these data. Slight decrements on far tests can be better explained in terms of the learning-performance distinction.     

Local and global mechanisms of one- and two-dimensional orientation illusions

One-dimensional (1-D) orientation illusions induced on a test grating by a tilted and-surrounding 1-D inducing grating have a well-known angular function that exhibits both repulsion and attraction effects. Two-dimensional (2-D) orientation illusions are those induced on a test grating by 2-D image modulation, such as a pair of superimposed inducing gratings at different orientations, usually orthogonal (a plaid). Given the known angular functions induced by the plaid component gratings, two hypotheses were developed that predicted different plaid-induced illusion functions. Hypothesis 1 states that the 1-D component-induced effects simply add linearly; Hypothesis 2 states that there is an additional mechanism that responds to the virtual axes of mirror symmetry of the plaid and adds to the effect. The data of two experiments were consistent with the predictions from the second hypothesis but not the first. Possible neural substrates of mechanisms that extract axes of symmetry are discussed; it is suggested that such global symmetry axes may underlie the perceived orientation of complex shapes.     

Preattentive and cognitive effects on perceptual completion at the blind spot

Our findings indicate that preattentive processes, such as the filling in of homogeneously colored areas, discrete dots, or bars across the blind spot, take into account both the color and the form that stimulate the retina around the optic disk. Perceptual completion of the “junction” of two opposite colors facing each other on opposite sides of the blind spot was resolved by simultaneous segregation of the two colors at the location of a filled-in perpendicular line that suggested a boundary separating the two colors. Orientation preference and relative salience of one color versus the other determined which color was perceptually completed in a forced-choice situation that involved perceptual completion at the intersection of a cross formed by bars of opposite colors. A 1-min exposure to these stimuli presented an ambiguous situation for perceptual completion of either color within the blind spot, and resulted in a perceptual “flip-flop” from one color to the other, much like the phenomenon that occurs in figure reversal. Instructions to speed up this reversal process led to a fivefold reduction in latency to first reversal.     

Effects of a school-based cognitive-behavioral intervention for ADHD children

Two variations of school-based cognitive-behavioral training (CBT) program were compared to each other and to a waiting-list control condition in the treatment of children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The experimental interventions included a multicomponent condition that provided coordinated training programs for parents, teachers, and children and a teacher-only condition that offered training for classroom teachers only. Evaluation of outcome occurred at pre-intervention, post-intervention and at 6-week followup periods. Depedent measures included classroom behavior observations, teacher ratings of child behavior, child self-report, and teacher ratings of adjustment. The multicomponent CBT condition was significantly better than the other conditions at improving observed off-task/disruptive behavior at post-test. This improvement was maintained at followup, although treatment condition differences were no longer significant. There were no treatment condition differences on any other measures at postintervention or followup. It was concluded that the intervention had minimal short-term effects on the ADHD children. The results are discussed within the context of several methodological limitations of the study which serve as proposals for continued research in this area.The authors gratefully acknowledge the support and assistance of the faculty and staff at Echo Park, Cedar Park and Westview Elementary Schools (Rosemount, MN, Independent School District), and the parents and children who participated in this study. The authors would also like to extent special thanks to the principals of these schools, Mr. Robert Keaton, Mr. William Mack and Mr. Marvin Skinner, and the school psychologists servicing these schools, Ms. Sheila Peterson, Ms. Ann O'Brien, and Mr. Mark Kaloski, for their commitment and service to children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.     

Family work with victims and offenders in a secure unit

Two examples of family therapy in a secure unit for violent mentally ill offenders are described. The model used incorporated ideas from reparation schemes for victims and offenders in addition to an emphasis on the circumstances of the offence.     

Increasing and decreasing motor and cognitive output: a model of general action and inaction goals

General action and inaction goals can influence the amount of motor or cognitive output irrespective of the type of behavior in question, with the same stimuli producing trivial and important motor and cognitive manifestations normally viewed as parts of different systems. A series of experiments examined the effects of instilling general action and inaction goals using word primes, such as "action" and "rest." The first 5 experiments showed that the same stimuli influenced motor output, such as doodling on a piece of paper and eating, as well as cognitive output, such as recall and problem solving. The last 2 experiments supported the prediction that these diverse effects can result from the instigation of general action and inaction goals. Specifically, these last 2 studies confirmed that participants were motivated to achieve active or inactive states and that attaining them decreased the effects of the primes on behavior.     

Psychological plausibility of the theory of probabilistic mental models and the fast and frugal heuristics

The theory of probabilistic mental models (PMM; G. Gigerenzer, U. Hoffrage, & H. Kleinb?lting, 1991) has had a major influence on the field of judgment and decision making, with the most recent important modifications to PMM theory being the identification of several fast and frugal heuristics (G. Gigerenzer & D. G. Goldstein, 1996). These heuristics were purported to provide psychologically plausible cognitive process models that describe a variety of judgment behavior. In this article, the authors evaluate the psychological plausibility of the assumptions upon which PMM were built and, consequently, the psychological plausibility of several of the fast and frugal heuristics. The authors argue that many of PMM theory's assumptions are questionable, given available data, and that fast and frugal heuristics are, in fact, psychologically implausible.