AN ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECTS OF MULTIPLE SETTING EVENTS ON THE SOCIAL BEHAVIOR OF PRESCHOOL CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL NEEDS

We examined the effects of four combinations of setting events on the social interactions of 7 preschool children with social delays. In Study 1, the status of the teacher, activity materials, and peer varied across conditions. In Study 2, the status of the teacher and materials varied across conditions. Within the combinations of setting events, we also examined teacher behavior. Teacher presence and absence was varied in both studies. The type and rate of teacher prompting were varied in Study 2. The four combinations of setting events produced different rates of social behavior by the children with social delays. The optimal combination of setting events for promoting peer interaction and reducing teacher—child interaction included teacher absence from the activity, a limited number and form of materials, and children paired with a socially skilled partner.     

Prediction of early social and academic adjustment of children from the inner city

Investigated predictors of five measures of early school adjustment for an ethnically diverse cohort of 683 inner-city kindergartners and first graders. Data from 2 consecutive years were collected from teachers, school records, and children. A multiple-regression preduction model significantly explained children's competence behavior, problem behavior, reading achievement, mathematics achievement, and school absences. Prior adjustment and sociodemographic factors explained a majority of the variance in adjustment. Perceived quality of parent involvement was signifcantly related (in the expected direction) to all five outcomes. Exposure to life events was significantly associated in the expected direction with competence behavior, problem behavior, and school absences but not with reading and mathematics achievement. Together, parent involvement and life-event variables explained as much as 12% of the variance in adjustment independent of sociodemographic and prior adjustment factors. The role of family and school factors in the adjustment of children at risk is discussed [corrected].     

Quantitative and qualitative analyses of clock drawings in Alzheimer's and Huntington's disease.

Although visuoconstructive impairment has been reported in both Alzheimer's (DAT) and Huntington's (HD) disease, there is little knowledge concerning how this cognitive deficit differs quantitatively and qualitatively in these two progressive dementias. To address this issue, the present study compared performances on the Clock Drawing Test (CDT: command and copy) of 25 DAT patients, 25 equally demented HD patients, and 25 elderly normal controls (NC). In the command condition, both patients groups were significantly impaired compared to the NC group. Although there was no significant difference between DAT and HD patients' total quantitative scores, a qualitative error analysis revealed a number of dissociations between the two patient groups. Graphic difficulties, very common in HD patients, were virtually absent in DAT patients; in contrast, conceptual errors were almost exclusively seen in DAT patients and were related to the severity of their dementia. Perseveration and "stimulus-bound" responses were also more frequent in DAT patients, and both groups made visuospatial errors. In the copy condition, the DAT, but not the HD, patients evidenced a marked improvement in performance. These results indicate that while both DAT and HD patients have significant visuoconstructive difficulties even in the early stages of their disorders, the specific cognitive processes underlying their quantitative impairments are quite different. It is possible that the DAT patients' conceptual errors are yet another indicator of the deterioration of their semantic knowledge.     

Memory with and without awareness: performance and electrophysiological evidence of savings.

Event-related potentials (ERPs) recorded on the scalp were shown to be sensitive indicators of the strength of a memory trace on both implicit and explicit tests of memory. In explicit recognition tests, the amplitude of a positive potential identified as P300 was larger for "old" than for "new" words regardless of whether the subject categorized the items correctly. This effect, however, was statistically reliable only when the recognition memory (d') was relatively high. In contrast to ERPs, the reaction times in explicit recognition were sensitive to accuracy but not to repetition. In implicit tests, lexical decisions to repeated words were faster than to newly presented words. The magnitude of the repetition effect varied neither with elapsed time since the last repetition nor with the number of previous repetitions. In contrast, the P300 elicited by the same words were sensitive to both lag and recency of repetition, suggesting that they were influenced by the episodic memory strength of the items.     

The Personal and Social Worries of Adolescents in Northern Ireland: Results of a Survey

The aim of this study was to ascertain the self-perceived social and personal concerns of adolescents attending educational institutions in Northern Ireland. 446 questionnaires from 15-18-year-old students at ten institutions were analysed in order to determine the frequency with which respondents reported worrying about the following broad areas: school, choosing a job, finding a job, home, starting work, opposite-sex relationships, personal issues, and relating to others. The effects of variables such as gender, age and nature of educational institution attended were also examined. The results indicated that most frequent worry was reported about finding and choosing employment, personal issues and opposite-sex relationships. Gender, age and religious affiliation of school attended exerted major effects. Implications for those involved in working with adolescents within educational contexts are discussed.     

Dominance,sex, and leader emergence

A 3×2×2 incomplete factorial design was employed to test the effects of sex, dominance, and their interaction on leader emergence. The factors included dominance distribution (high/high, high/low, middle/middle), sex (male-female), and dyad composition (mixed sex-same sex). The subjects were all Caucasians and were pretested on the California Psychological Inventory Dominance Scale. The data revealed that dominance was a predictor of leader emergence in same-sex conditions where high-dominant individuals assumed the role of leader in much greater proportions than their low-dominant partners. In mixed-sex dyads, sex appeared to be a more potent predictor with males becoming leaders at levels greater than would be suspected given dominance levels.     

PARADIGMS OF BELIEF, THEORY AND METATHEORY

Abstract. My account of the recent turnabout in the treatment of mental states in science and its basis in a modified concept of causal determinism and my claim that this opens the way for beliefs and values consistent with science are here reaffirmed in response to perceived weaknesses and "inherent incompleteness." Contested issues are reviewed to better clarify the main thesis. An inherent weakness in respect to deep spiritual needs is recognized and tentative remedial measures explored.     

Spatial cognition and neighborhood use: the relationship in older adults.

Measures of spatial cognition, neighborhood knowledge, and neighborhood use from the research described by Walsh, Krauss, and Regnier (1981) were examined to determine if laboratory tests of spatial cognition were significant predictors of older adults' use of their neighborhoods. The overall results show that laboratory-based measures of spatial cognition and subjects' knowledge of their neighborhoods are both significant predictors of their use of neighborhood goods and services. The ability to learn and remember the location and orientation of objects, when contextual cues were not provided at test, was more predictive of the participants' neighborhood use than either the participants' number of years in the neighborhood or their mobility. Spatial memory as measured by the Educational Testing Service Building Memory task predicted neighborhood knowledge, which was predictive of neighborhood use.     

Age-related differences in three tests of visual imagery.

Adult age differences were explored on 3 short tests of the ability to generate and manipulate mental images. Age-related decrements were found in all 3 tests and were especially marked on the Clock Test. The tests are all reliable, as shown by test-retest reliability coefficients. Correlations also revealed that the Brooks Letter Test and the East-West Test appear to tap one common underlying ability, whereas the Clock Test measured a somewhat different ability. The East-West and Clock tests, in particular, may provide rapid and easily administered assessments of age-related changes in aspects of mental imagery.     

Crime and the elderly: a review of British and American research

Research into the victims of crime is of fairly recent origin and has been centred in America. However, a review of research into the experience of the elderly as the victims of crime, and their anxiety about crime, reveals a paradox. Numerous studies show that while the elderly are less likely to be the victims of crime than are the other age groups, they are among those who exhibit most anxiety over crime. The research is discussed in the context of theories of why the elderly appear as a low-risk group and in terms of an attempt to explain the paradox.