Lightness matching for different visual routes through a compound scene

Left and right halves of a visual display were covered with inducing fields (IFs) of different lightnesses. S’s monocular gaze moved over an irreversible route from a neutral Munsell target to a CO series through either the left- or right-side IFs. For the 16 Ss there were 8 different IFs, varying from light to dark. For each of three different gray targets Munsell CO choices varied directly with the lightness of the IFs through which the gaze was routed rather than with the lightness of the total presented display. A replication with modifications is also reported.     

Family preservation using multisystemic treatment: Long-term follow-up to a clinical trial with serious juvenile offenders

In a randomized clinical trial, multisystemic family preservation was shown to significantly reduce rates of criminal activity and incarceration in a sample of 84 serious juvenile offenders and their multi-need families. In the current study, archival records were searched for re-arrest an average of 2.4 years post-referral. Survival analysis showed that youths who received multisystemic family preservation were less likely to be re-arrested than were youths who had received usual services. Such results represent the first controlled demonstration that family preservation, when delivered via a clearly specified treatment model, has lasting effects with serious juvenile offenders. Implications for family preservation and juvenile justice research are discussed.     

Grading the ‘cultural literacy’ project

The essay examines the argument advanced by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., for instituting ‘cultural literacy’ as a fundamental priority of schools. A number of confusions and equivocations in Hirsch's reasoning are identified, and the propensity of his project to indoctrinate is exposed. Among the features of Hirsch's argument shown to be troubling are his shifting construal of ‘language’, his inconsistency about the requirements of cultural literacy, and his uncritical relation to traditional images of the American past and present. The upshot is to raise the question why Hirsch's project has elicited wide support and praise.     

Referenzsemantik in der Partnermodellierung

How can we explain that an assertion on something perceived can be understood in the same manner by somebody who cannot perceive that scene? This problem bases the interest in computational linguistics in how listener modeling could possibly be harmonized with reference semantics. Mental images substituting real perception appear as a way out. The architecture of the listener model has to be adapted to the creation and use of such pictorial data structures. Furthermore, the relation between the latter and a verbal (i. e., propositional) representation must be understood. The resulting architecture of a listener model with reference semantics can be employed to solve communicational problems from three general classes in a better way, as is demonstrated by an example implementation.     

The relationship between father absence and children's social problem solving competencies

Predictions of deficits in children's social problem-solving competencies due to early and continuing father absence were investigated. To test these predictions, equal numbers of father-present and father-absent third graders matched on a number of variables were assessed on measures of social problem-solving performance. In Phase 2 of the study, half of the children from the father-absent category received a 15 week intervention programme which was conducted by adult male trainers to provide structured practice in social problem solving. Results demonstrated that father-absent treatment subjects, compared to father-absent control subjects, improved their social problem-solving skills significantly. Despite improvement due to intervention, social problem-solving scores for father-absent treatment subjects were still below those for father-present control subjects. Educational and developmental implications of the findings were discussed.