Using self-evaluation to improve difficult-to-read handwriting of secondary students

We used delayed multiple-baseline and multiple-probe techniques to assess the effects of self-evaluation training on the legibility of cursive handwriting. Five secondary special education students with difficult-to-read handwriting served as participants. All participants improved the legibility of their handwriting during self-evaluation training. A systematic withdrawal of the training package demonstrated maintenance of treatment effects. For the most part, the students' handwriting remained at least 90% legible to judges following the systematic withdrawal of the self-evaluation training.     

Protective factors and behavioral adjustment in preschool children of Iranian Martyrs

Out of 228 Iranian preschool Martyrs' children whose behaviour adjustment in the nursery settings was screened using the Preschool Behaviour Checklist, 12 well adjusted, zero scorers were compared with 8 poorly adjusted, high scorers. Using the parent's Behaviour Checklist, high scorers showed significantly more problems at home than zero scorers. On the Malaise Inventory, mothers of high scorers showed poorer mental health than mothers of zero scorers. Home observations showed that mother-child interaction was more aversive in high scorers than in zero scorers. More mothers of zero scorers had remarried.     

Visual influences on auditory pluck and bow judgments

In the McGurk effect, visual information specifying a speaker’s articulatory movements can influence auditory judgments of speech. In the present study, we attempted to find an analogue of the McGurk effect by using nonspeech stimuli—the discrepant audiovisual tokens of plucks and bows on a cello. The results of an initial experiment revealed that subjects’ auditory judgments were influenced significantly by the visual pluck and bow stimuli. However, a second experiment in which speech syllables were used demonstrated that the visual influence on consonants was significantly greater than the visual influence observed for pluck-bow stimuli. This result could be interpreted to suggest that the nonspeech visual influence was not a true McGurk effect. In a third experiment, visual stimuli consisting of the wordspluck andbow were found to have no influence over auditory pluck and bow judgments. This result could suggest that the nonspeech effects found in Experiment 1 were based on the audio and visual information’s having an ostensive lawful relation to the specified event. These results are discussed in terms of motor-theory, ecological, and FLMP approaches to speech perception.     

The role of spatial frequency in the processing of hierarchically organized stimuli

Can spatial frequency differences between local and global forms account for differences in the way different levels of structure are analyzed? We examined this question by having subjects identify local or global forms of hierarchical stimuli that had beencontrast balanced. Contrast balancing eliminates low spatial frequencies, so that both local and global forms must be identified on the basis of high spatial frequency information. Response times (RTs) to global (but not local) forms were slowed for contrast-balanced stimuli, suggesting that low spatial frequencies mediate the global RT advantage typically found. In contrast, interference between local and global forms was little affected by contrast balancing or by shifts of attention between local and global forms, suggesting that it does not result from inhibitory interactions between spatial frequency channels or from temporal precedence of low versus high spatial frequency information. Finally, shifts of attention between local and global forms were also little affected by contrast balancing, suggesting that they were not based on spatial frequency.     

The representational framework in perceptual theory

The representational stance in perceptual theory is described and its proper domain of application is examined. A decision rule for invoking representation is proposed but, although the rule is principled, its implementation is problematic. Despite the widespread appeaLof therepresentational stance, detailed working out of the position within perceptual theory is still needed.     

Transitional phenomena as evidenced in prayer

In this paper, we demonstrate that the study of prayer facilitates understanding of the deeply personal object related nature of religious experience. Within prayer, individuals enter the transitional sphere and meet their God representation. Both conscious and unconscious aspects of prayer can be made available through the use of a projective test developed by the authors, known as STARR: Spiritual Themes and Religious Responses test. The data obtained suggest the usefulness of Winnicottian concepts of transitional phenomena, playing, communicating, and capacity to be alone as a contemporary psychoanalytic framework for interpreting religious experience.     

VALIDATING PREDICTED ACTIVITY PREFERENCES OF INDIVIDUALS WITH SEVERE DISABILITIES

We examined the accuracy of 24 staff members' predictions of activities preferred by 14 individuals with severe disabilities. For each of 144 activities, staff members assigned a client preference rating of “likes a lot,” “likes,” or “dislikes.” Two activities from each category were randomly selected for each individual with disabilities. Pairs of selected activities were presented to the individuals, who were prompted to choose an activity. Staff members' activity preference ratings correctly predicted the choices made by the individuals with disabilities for 78% of the trials. The more divergent the preference ratings of the paired activities, the more likely staff members were to predict correctly the activity selected by a participant.     

The asymptotic posterior normality of the latent trait in an IRT model

It has long been part of the item response theory (IRT) folklore that under the usual empirical Bayes unidimensional IRT modeling approach, the posterior distribution of examinee ability given test response is approximately normal for a long test. Under very general and nonrestrictive nonparametric assumptions, we make this claim rigorous for a broad class of latent models.This research was partially supported by Office of Naval Research Cognitive and Neural Sciences Grant N0014-J-90-1940, 442-1548, National Science Foundation Mathematics Grant NSF-DMS-91-01436, and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications. We wish to thank Kumar Joag-dev and Zhiliang Ying for enlightening suggestions concerning the proof of the basic result.The authors wish to thank Kumar Joag-Dev, Brian Junker, Bert Green, Paul Holland, Robert Mislevy, and especially Zhiliang Ying for their useful comments and discussions.     

Three forms of stress in Cambodian adolescent refugees

Sixty-nine Cambodian adolescents and young adults were interviewed to determine their experience as children surviving the Pol Pot regime (1975–1979);their first-year experience of resettlement in this country; and their experience of stressful events during the past year. Current DSM-III-R diagnostic status was also determined. A strong relationship between earlier war trauma, resettlement strain, and symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was found. In contrast, the strongest relationship with depressive symptoms was found for recent stressful events. These results are discussed in light of current findings from stress and PTSD research.Dr. Clarke is Assistant Professor of Psychiatry in the Division of Child Psychiatry, Oregon Health Sciences University, Portland, Oregon. Dr. Sack is Director of the Division of Child Psychiatry and Principal Investigator of the Khmer Adolescent Project. Brian Goff is a Research Assistant.This project was supported by the National Institutes of Mental Health [NIMH] grant #5-RO1-MH42927-02, Dr. William H. Sack, M.D., Principal Investigator.     

Gender roles,computer attitudes,and dyadic computer interaction performance in college students

Females tend to score lower than males on measures of computer aptitude and attitudes. This study examined the potential effects of several mediating factors, sex of experimenter, sex of experimental partner, sex typing (Bem Sex Role Inventory score), and level of past experience, on a computer interaction task involving a dyad. College students, drawn from a primarily white college population, after completing paper-and-pencil measures assessing computer experience, computer attitudes, and gender roles, participated in a computer task involving drawing up to ten prescribed geometric patterns on a computer screen. Research assistants recorded the number of correctly completed patterns and videotaped participant interaction through a one-way mirror. Males reported experiencing more computer involvement than females. For males, past computer experience and masculinity were correlated with more positive computer attitude scores. For females, only past computer experience related to more positive computer attitude scores. Analyses of the computer interaction variable indicated that participants asked male research assistants significantly more questions than female research assistants. Several interaction effects were also found.A previous version of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of the Southwestern Psychological Association, New Orleans, April 1991.