An awareness approach to the covert symptoms of stuttering

Speech-language clinicians working with the confirmed stuttering client are often faced with the clinical management of the covert symptoms of stuttering in addition to the more observable and measurable overt symptoms. The authors report the successful use of awareness techniques to exaggerate the subjective experience of these covert symptoms and encourage the use of these techniques as an adjunct to the counseling and desensitization procedures traditionally employed. A transcribed clinical management session in which several awareness techniques are used to aid the client in an introspective examination of “anticipation of stuttering,” is analyzed in order to reach some specific recommendations for using awareness techniques in the clinical management of the covert symptoms of stuttering.     

Reliability and validity of the revised fear survey schedule for children (FSSC-R)

In this study, the validation of a Revised Fear Survey Schedule for Children (FSSC-R) is detailed. Psychometric properties of the scale are reported for two normal samples and one clinical sample of school-phobic children. Initial analyses indicate that the FSSC-R possesses high internal consistency, high test-retest reliability and acceptable stability over time. Further, it adequately discriminates between normal and clinical samples, has acceptable convergent and discriminant validity and possesses a meaningful factor structure. The potential clinical utility of the scale is discussed, and important social and developmental issues affecting the development and expression of fear in children are addressed.     

A preliminary report on the nature of interactions in a mental-handicap institution

A preliminary analysis of the reactions by staff and other residents to the behaviour of mentally-handicapped people living in a medium-sized institution is presented. The subjects' behaviour was categorized as appropriate, inappropriate or neutral according to culturally-normative criteria. It was found that, for the majority of time there was no reaction to the subjects' behaviour by staff or by other residents. The implications of utilizing culturally-normative criteria for categorizing behaviour are discussed. It is proposed that this type of analysis is potentially useful for understanding the nature of interactions in institutions.     

The role of marking when reward is delayed

Two-choice spatial discrimination by rats is enhanced if a salient stimulus marker occurs immediately after every choice response and again after a delay interval (Lieberman, McIntosh & Thomas, 1979). Three experiments further explore this effect. Experiment 1 found that the second marker is unnecessary. Experiment 2 found that a marker presented before a response is as effective as one presented after. Both effects could be explained in terms of markers focusing attention on subsequent cues. Experiment 3, however, found that markers after choice enhance learning even when no discriminative cues are present following the marker. Markers thus appear to initiate both a backward search through memory and attention to subsequent events; both processes help to identify events that might be related to the unexpected marking stimulus.     

Voice-onset time as a clue to the nature of Broca speech errors

Blumstein, Cooper, Goodglass, Statlender, and Gottleib (Brain and Language, 9, 153–170 (1980)) attempt to determine by an examination of the VOTs of aphasic speakers whether Broca's aphasics make phonemic substitutions in addition to their well-known phonetic errors. There are a number of problems with this study, mostly due to an apparent failure to fully appreciate the fact that VOT is a cover term for several acoustic features. It is suggested that VOT measurement in any given position in a word cannot solve this problem and that future studies should include glottographic observations as well as VOT measurements made in all positions in the word.     

Correlates of sexual interest among elderly men

Interview data were collected from 46 English elderly men (age 70 to 94 years) relating to attitudes, psychological traits, and life satisfaction. Sexual interest was not related to life satisfaction or marital status but was significantly correlated with measures of emotional expressivity, personal identity, as well as regrets about the past. Findings are discussed in terms of Erikson's later stages of ego development.     

Growth coping,work satisfaction and turnover: A longitudinal study

A longitudinal organizational field study examined work satisfaction and employee growth coping as joint predictors of turnover. Three employee categories were examined: 1) No Turnover, 2) turnover within the same occupational field (Intraoccupational Turnover), and 3) turnover to a new occupational field (Interoccupational Turnover). Work satisfaction was moderate in the first two groups and low in the third group. As predicted, a specific strategy of employee coping, growth, was lowest in the first group, moderate in the second group, and highest in the third group. Through the use of linear discriminant analysis, 66.4% of the employees were correctly classified into No Turnover, Intraoccupational Turnover, and Interoccupational Turnover groups based only on information regarding work satisfaction and growth coping. The first squared canonical correlation was found to equal .30, far surpassing the modest work satisfaction/turnover correlations found in all previous studies.The authors wish to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful comments.     

A computerized infrared monitor for following movement in aquatic animals

Reliable monitoring of the movement of small aquatic animals presents some unique problems. In the case of the larval salamander, the animal may be less than an inch long and move in sporadic short bursts. A device is described that utilizes infrared emitters and wide-band sensors inter-faced to a computer for monitoring location and movement of animals between light and dark environments over extended periods of time. The system employs a multiplexed digital input, is inexpensive, and can be easily expanded to deal with a range of monitoring problems that may occur with a wide range of both aquatic and terrestrial species.