Time-interval acquisition on a 6502-based microcomputer

A versatile machine language subroutine and accompanying interface circuitry enable a 6502-based computer to collect time intervals between data events that can be represented by voltage transients. Intervals within the range of 150 microsec to 13.98 min can be collected with a resolution of ±25 microsec. Electrical interface circuitry includes signal conditioning and optical isolation and also allows user-specification of threshold levels on the data line. The machine language software timing routine and sequential interval handler include a 24-bit interval timer, a 16-bit interval counter, user-specified number and length of acquisition periods, and an out-of-memory tester. Although presented for implementation on the Apple II series of microcomputers, the transportability of the routine to other 6502-based machines is addressed.     

Gait patterns during free choice ladder ascents

Twenty two male subjects each performed five climbing trials of a portable straight ladder. Each subject was instructed to ascend the ladder at a “comfortable” pace using only the rungs for support. For the first, third and fifth trials, the temporal and movement characteristics of the performances were recorded using capacitive touch sensors mounted on each of the rungs and high-speed cinematographical techniques. The results revealed little evidence to suggest a preferred climbing gait. The two most commonly utilized methods of ascent for all trials were the lateral and four-beat lateral gaits. Only 31.8% of the subjects adopted the same gait pattern during each of the three trials. The temporal characteristics of each gait pattern showed a relatively longer time for each segment contact phase than for the corresponding airborne phase. The shortest average period was found for the four-beat diagonal gait followed, in order, by the lateral, diagonal and four beat lateral gaits. Variability measures assumed the same ranking in reverse order with the four-beat diagonal gait producing the most variable period times.     

Acknowledgement

Four experiments examined the effects of noise on semantic memory. The first was a replication of a study by Eysenck, in which subjects had to retrieve words beginning with particular letters which were also instances of specified categories (e.g. Fruit-A). Whereas Eysenck had found that both noise and activation level of the individual interacted with the dominance of the category instance possible, the present study failed to repeat the findings.The remaining experiments used a paper-and-pencil modification of Eysenck's technique; the second and third were successful in showing interactions of dominance and noise, but in opposite directions. The two experiments differed only in the previous experience of the subjects. In a fourth experiment, the same materials were presented in a different sequence, mixing dominant and non-dominant instances. The interaction then disappeared again.These experiments therefore suggest that the effect of noise on memory is not a uniform and mechanical exaggeration of dominance, but depends on the retrieval strategies being employed by the particular subject.     

Thirteen Years: An Editor's Valedictory

The essay that follows is in two parts. The first is a valediction; the second attempts to use some recent events at the Journal as a text for discussion of the current state of the field of family therapy.     

TRAINING FAMILY THERAPISTS: AN EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS

This study implemented and evaluated a training program (a written manual, videotaped models, rehearsal, role plays, and performance feedback) designed to teach five subjects the skills to become effective family therapists. The study examined the therapists' use of three target behaviors: instructing, informing, and praising. The therapists, each paired with a parent and a preschool-aged child (2 1/2–4 1/2 yr old), were trained in the clinic to use, and to teach to the parents, several behavioral skills (e.g., praising, planned ignoring, and time-out) relevant to teaching children compliance to parental instructions. A multiple-baseline design across triads (therapist/parent/child) demonstrated that after the training program was instituted, the therapists increased their rates of instructing, praising, and informing the parents; all parents increased attention to compliance, decreased attention to noncompliance, and increased rates of praise to their children; and all children increased their compliance and decreased their noncompliance.     

Vocational maturity in adulthood: Toward turning a model into a measure

It is postulated that adult vocational maturity needs to be assessed because of the changing developmental tasks encountered during the course of a career. Vocational maturity having been found to be multidimensional, existing undimensional inventories of adult vocational maturity are considered of limited although demonstrated validity. Relevant theories of adult vocational development and adjustment are reviewed. Super's proposed adult vocational maturity model is examined for the promise that it offers and for the problems that arise in developing a multidimensional measure of vocational maturity. A way of surmounting these problems is proposed as a basis for work now being undertaken.     

Cognitive styles in the development of medical careers

Recent research has shown that academic choice and achievement may be partly a function of the student's standing on the field-dependence-independence cognitive-style dimension. The results of two longitudinal studies suggest that information about field dependence-independence may be of value for student guidance in the medical setting. The first, a study of college undergraduates who early expressed an interest in medicine, showed that these cognitive styles play a discernible role in determining who will eventually enter medical school. The second, a study of medical students, showed that field-dependent and field-independent students subsequently tend to choose different medical specialties. These results are consistent with cognitive-style theory, which proposes that field-independent people will choose vocations that require cognitive restructuring skills, whereas field-dependent people will choose vocations that require greater social-interpersonal involvement.