Incorporating inferences in narrative representations: A study of how and why

Four experiments examined the conceptual organization of narrative passages and the extent to which these representations were explanatory in a variety of experimental tasks. The conceptual representation of a passage consisted of a graph of labeled nodes and labeled, directed arcs which were adopted from the Conceptual Dependency Theory. These representations included both explicitly stated information and inferences which had been empirically extracted by a question-answering procedure. Symbolic procedures for answering how- and why-questions were also delineated. The conceptual representations and the symbolic procedures that operate on these representations together accounted for 91% of the answers generated from question-answering protocols in Experiment 1, and also the rated quality of specific answers to specific questions in Experiment 2. Experiments 3 and 4 supported the hypothesis that structural properties of the representations can predict recall of explicitly stated nodes and verification ratings of inference nodes. The results provide encouraging support for the proposed graphic representations and also for the use of question-answering protocols in uncovering prose inferences.     

Management of a dying patient in group therapy

In the last few years there has been an increased interest in the psychosocial aspect as well as in the therapeutic needs of the dying patient. Although much has been written about the treatment of the dying patient, most of these works were done in the individual setting, either with out-patients or with hospitalized patients. However, relatively little attention has been paid to the treatment and management of the dying patient in a group therapy setting. In this paper the authors describe their experience in working with a dying patient in an ongoing therapy group. The effect on the group, on the individual patient and on the therapist are discussed. Moreover, the conflicting needs of the individual patients versus those of the remaining group members are discussed and compared to similar reports from the group therapy literature.     

How Important Is Vocational Success to the Overall Satisfaction of Immigrants?

An ex post facto experiment considered the influence of two main stages of the immigrant's career reconstruction (the preparatory career stage and the establishment stage) on the relationship between vocational achievement and overall satisfaction. The research used a sample of 83 immigrants, mostly of Eastern European origin. Satisfaction scores were correlated with objective measures of adjustment (governmental examination at retraining courses, promotion, and earnings at the job) and with tests measuring personality traits and values as the presumed moderators of the relationship. The results revealed two models of link between vocational achievement and satisfaction: Korman's consistency model and a dissonance model, each of them appearing in a different circumstantial setting. Spiritual need gratification was found to have a great influence on immigrant satisfaction, especially before establishment in a job was achieved. It allows then for satisfaction to appear also at objective vocational failure.     

Effects of food priming on instrumental acquisition and performance

Four experiments investigated the effects of a priming food reinforcement, given 0 or 75 sec pretrial, on runway performance of rats. The studies differed in the use of between-versus-within-subject designs, and by using food or water as the goal reinforcer. In Experiment 1, using food as the goal reward, subjects primed with food 0 sec pretrial conditioned slower than subjects primed 75 sec pretrial. In Experiment 2, using water as the goal reward, subjects primed with food 0 sec pretrial conditioned faster. These differences were evident on both prefed trials and on nonprefed test trials. Experiments 3 and 4 showed an opposite pattern of results when within-subject comparisons of 0- and 75-sec pretrial intervals were used: Food priming immediately pretrial facilitated food-rewarded running but inhibited water-rewarded running. The results suggest prefeeding has differential effects on acquisition and performance of instrumental behavior, and also depending upon the similarity of the priming and goal reinforcers.     

Use of the family adaptability and cohesion evaluation scales in child clinical research

Although the FACES has become a widely used instrument for assessing children's family relations, the possible linearity vs. curvilinearity of its cohesion and adaptability scales has been treated inconsistently by investigators. This study evaluated whether samples of adolescent repeat offenders, young adult prisoners, and adolescent nonoffenders were discriminated better by a linear or curvilinear treatment of the FACES scores. Between-groups comparisons showed that significant effects were observed for each of the three curvilinear measures (cohesion-curvilinear, adaptability-curvilinear, distance-from-center) and only one of the two linear measures (cohesionlinear). These findings support the superiority of a curvilinear treatment of the FACES. In light of these findings, it is suggested that investigators who use FACES evaluate the linearity of the scales and determine whether a linear or curvilinear treatment of the data produces more meaningful results.