Frequency judgements: the problem of defining a perceptual event

In four experiments the conditions under which frequency judgments reflect the relative frequency of complex perceptual events were explored. Subjects viewed a series of 4 x 4 grids each containing seven items, which were letters and numbers in one of four typefaces. Later judgments of the relative frequency with which particular letters appeared in particular typefaces were unaffected by a warning about an upcoming frequency judgment task, but were affected by both the time available for processing the stimuli and the nature of the cover task subjects engaged in while viewing the grids. Frequency judgments were poor when exposure durations were less than 2 s and when the cover task directed subjects' attention merely to the locations of the items within the grids. Frequency judgments improved when the cover task directed subjects' attention to the identity of the stimuli, especially to the conjunction of letter and typeface. The results suggest that frequency estimation of complex stimuli may be possible only for stimuli that have been processed as phenomenal objects.     

Context effects in visual word recognition: Lexical relatedness and syntactic context

In three experiments, we investigated how associative word-word priming effects in German depend on different types of syntactic context in which the related words are embedded. The associative relation always concerned a verb as prime and a noun as target. Prime word and target word were embedded in visually presented strings of words that formed either a correct sentence, a scrambled list of words, or a sentence in which the target noun and the preceding definite article disagreed in syntactic gender. In contrast to previous studies (O’Seaghdha, 1989; Simpson, Peterson, Casteel, & Burgess, 1989), associative priming effects were not only obtained in correct sentences but also in scrambled word lists. Associative priming, however, was not obtained when the definite article and the target noun disagreed in syntactic gender. The latter finding suggests that a rather local violation of syntactic coherence reduces or eliminates word-word priming effects. The results are discussed in the context of related work on the effect of gender dis-/agreement between a syntactic context and a target noun.     

Understanding Families of Adults With Cancer: Combining the Clinical Course of Cancer and Stages of Family Development

Since the 1970s, counseling professionals have recommended that cancer be regarded as an illness that affects the entire family. This article combines research on understanding the impact of cancer on the family that relates both to the clinical course of cancer and to the developmental stages of the family system. The combination of these 2 dimensions provides counselors with a template for (a) understanding the current literature regarding cancer's impact on the family, (b) helping counselors formulate intervention strategies for the families of cancer patients, and (c) recognizing future directions for research regarding the needs of family members of cancer patients.     

Learning to Teach: The Acquisition and Maintenance of Teaching Skills

We reviewed 49 studies which used direct observation procedures to provide data on the effects of pre-service and inservice training in practical classroom teaching behaviors and skills. We found stronger effects for training packages which included classroom practice with performance feedback. The research provided conflicting evidence regarding the value of modeling, role-play, cueing systems, and contingency management components in practical skills training. The weakest training effects were those produced by microteaching, Minicourse, and protocol training packages. Twenty of the evaluations also provided follow-up data but the design of these studies did not permit any conclusions to be drawn regarding the training conditions which are necessary for the maintenance of newly acquired classroom teaching skills. We concluded that identification of the training conditions which are necessary for the maintenance of new teaching skills will require more thoughtful conceptualizations of maintenance and its measurement, and more carefully designed component analyses of those factors suggested by basic research as being necessary for maintenance.     

Genetic Counselors' Judgments of Patient Concerns: Concordance and Consequences

The aims of this prospective study were to determine (a) the concordance between patient concerns and genetic counselors' judgments of these concerns, (b) the predictors of patient and counselor judgments, and (c) the relationship between concordance and patient outcomes. Patients' and counselors' views were sought before and after 131 routine genetic consultations. Before consultations, there was concordance about level of patient concern to within one point in 63% (82/131) of consultations and about type of patient concern in 60–84% of consultations. Lack of concordance in judging level and type of concern was associated with lower satisfaction with information and higher anxiety after the consultation. The biggest predictor of counselor judgment of concern was professional background: doctors judged patients to be more concerned than did nurses. Concordance of concern was predicted by counselors' experience in genetics: less experienced counselors overestimated patient concern. Future research needs to determine whether improving judgment of concern improves patient outcome.     

Two critical periods of protein and glycoprotein synthesis in memory consolidation for visual categorization learning in chicks

A protein synthesis inhibitor, anisomycin (ANI), and an inhibitor of glycoprotein synthesis, 2-deoxygalactose (2-D-gal), were used to investigate memory consolidation following visual categorization training in 2-day-old chicks. ANI (0.6 micromole/chick) and 2-D-gal (40 micromoles/chick) were injected intracerebrally at different time intervals from 1 hr before to 23 hr after the training. Retention was tested 24 hr post-training. Both ANI and 2-D-gal injections revealed two periods of memory sensitivity to pharmacological intervention. ANI impaired retention when injected from 5 min before to 30 min after the training or from 4 hr to 5 hr post-training, thus demonstrating that consolidation of long-term memory in this task requires two periods of protein synthesis. 2-D-Gal first produced an amnesia when it was injected in the interval from 5 min before to 5 min after the training. Injections made between 5 min and 5 hr post-training were without effect on the retention. The second period of memory impairment by 2-D-gal started at 5 hr post-training and lasted until 21 hr after the training. Administration of 2-D-gal made 23 hr after the training did not influence retention in the test at either 24 hr or 26 hr. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that two waves of protein and glycoprotein synthesis are necessary for the formation of long-term memory. The prolonged duration of performance impairment by 2-D-gal in the present task might reflect an extended memory consolidation period for a categorization form of learning.     

Judgments of differences and ratios of numerals

Each subject performed two tasks, dividing a line segment so that either (a) theratio of subjective lengths corresponded to the ratio of the magnitudes of two numerals or (b) thedifference in length was proportional to the numerical difference. Had subjects actually performed two operations on the same scale, the responses would have been nonmonotonically related. Instead, data for the two tasks were nearly identical and ordinally compatible with either a ratio or a subtractive model. The ratio model implied scale values for numerals that were a positively accelerated function of numerical value, inconsistent with previous results. With a nonlinear response function for graphic length, the subtractive model fit well, yielding scale values that were a negatively accelerated function of numerical value and a linear function of previously obtained scales. These results, together with other recent findings, suggest that subjects may perform the same operation in spite of instructions to judge “ratios” or “differences” and that this operation can be best represented by a subtractive model.