Cognitive addition and multiplication: Evidence for a single memory network

In an experiment using verification task procedures, 100 subjects responded to simple and complex problems of addition and multiplication. Identical structural parameters were found to model reaction time accurately to both addition and multiplication problems. Slope estimates for a memory network parameter did not differ significantly between simple and complex problems within an operation or between addition and multiplication problems. Both complex addition and complex multiplication problems were processed columnwise, with column sums or products being retrieved from an interrated memory network. The two types of complex problems included similar processes for carrying and for encoding of single digits, and both were self-terminated when an error in the units column was encountered. Addition and multiplication facts appear to be retrieved from a single interrelated memory network. A conceptual model for this interrelated network is discussed.     

Measuring the stop point of rapid smoking

A method and an apparatus are described for measuring the point at which subjects elect to stop smoking when cigarette smoke is delivered more rapidly than in typical smoking. The device allows either the subject or the experimenter to control the volume of smoke and the interval between puffs. The device delivers reliable quantities of particulate matter from cigarette smoke. Subjects retested a week apart exhibited consistent stopping points.     

Personality and Mate Preferences: Five Factors In Mate Selection and Marital Satisfaction

ABSTRACT Although personality characteristics figure prominently in what people want in a mate, little is known about precisely which personality characteristics are most important, whether men and women differ in their personality preferences, whether individual women or men differ in what they want, and whether individuals actually get what they want. To explore these issues, two parallel studies were conducted, one using a sample of dating couples (N= 118) and one using a sample of married couples (N= 216). The five-factor model, operationalized in adjectival form, was used to assess personality characteristics via three data sources—self-report, partner report, and independent interviewer reports. Participants evaluated on a parallel 40-item instrument their preferences for the ideal personality characteristics of their mates. Results were consistent across both studies. Women expressed a greater preference than men for a wide array of socially desirable personality traits. Individuals differed in which characteristics they desired, preferring mates who were similar to themselves and actually obtaining mates who embodied what they desired. Finally, the personality characteristics of one's partner significantly predicted marital and sexual dissatisfaction, most notably when the partner was lower on Agreeableness, Emotional Stability, and Intellect-Openness than desired.     

Race bias in diagnosis and treatment of juvenile offenders: Findings and suggestions

There is evidence that Black juvenile delinquents have received biased differential treatment in mental health care systems. Research shows that the White juvenile offender often is assessed as having a psychological problem while the Black juvenile offender is more often seen as exhibiting behavior characteristic of his culture and more often than not receives inadequate psychological counseling. This article integrates information on juvenile delinquency, interracial diagnosis, and cross-cultural understanding. It is hoped the information will aid the forensic psychological professional to better understand culturally different children and youth as well as examine his or her own cache of cultural baggage which may interfere with the appropriate assessment and treatment of Black juvenile offenders.     

CONTINGENT OBSERVATION: AN EFFECTIVE AND ACCEPTABLE PROCEDURE FOR REDUCING DISRUPTIVE BEHAVIOR OF YOUNG CHILDREN IN A GROUP SETTING1

Since a major task of childhood is learning to get along in a group without disrupting other children's activities, caregivers need explicit guidelines for gentle but effective procedures for dealing with disruptive behaviors in child-care settings. In a day-care center for normal 1- and 2-yr-old children, an effort was made to develop a procedure that appeared sufficiently humane and educational to be acceptable to parents and daycare workers, and yet effective in reducing disruptive play behaviors. Caregivers used the occasion of disruptive behavior to instruct the child in appropriate alternatives, then had the child sit on the periphery and observe the appropriate social behavior of the other children, “sit and watch”, for a brief period before inviting him or her to rejoin the play activities. The effectiveness of this procedure was compared with a method commonly recommended for use with young children: instructing the child, then distracting or redirecting the child to an alternative toy or activity. Contingent observation, combining instruction with a brief timeout (from being a participant in an activity to becoming an observer of the activity), proved considerably more effective in maintaining low levels of disruptions and was considered by caregivers and parents to be an appropriate and socially acceptable method of dealing with young children's disruptive behaviors. Therefore, contingent observation can be recommended for general use in day-care programs for young children.