Evaluating Rehabilitation Caseload Management Skills Through Computer Simulations

In this article the authors report on the development and validation of a computer-based rehabilitation caseload management simulation as a teaching and evaluation tool in counselor education. The computer simulation was administered to 18 rehabilitation students and 18 rehabilitation counselors. Their performance on the simulation was evaluated using six caseload management performance indicators. These performance indicators, derived from the computer simulation, were found to be effective in differentiating the student group from the experienced counselor group using discriminant analysis. Implications for the use of computer simulations in rehabilitation counselor education and future research directions are discussed.     

Component Skills as Predictors of Chinese Reading Proficiency in Primary School Children

This study was designed to examine the relevance of some cognitive skills to Chinese reading and to identify those that distinguish readers of different proficiency levels. Third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade children were given two sets of tests, the Chinese Reading Proficiency Test and five component skill tests. Skills in word recognition and in comprehension were examined through tasks measuring component detection, lexical coding, memory for gist, knowledge of syntax, and use of context. Subjects' responses on the knowledge of syntax task and the lexical coding task were found to be most effective in predicting reading proficiency of the third graders, but not the fourth- and fifth-grade children. Instead, use of context task was the best predictor of the older children's reading proficiency.     

Acculturation, peer relations, and delinquent behavior of Chinese-Canadian youth

Studies have reported that youth of Chinese descent in North America tend to have lower rates of delinquency. Some investigators have attributed this phenomenon to the restraining effects of Chinese culture. In this study, acculturation, peer relations, and delinquency were examined in a sample of Chinese-Canadian youth. The results revealed that adherence to Chinese culture was related to lower delinquency, whereas the opposite was true for North American acculturation. It was found that association with delinquent peers was positively related and attachment to peers negatively related to delinquency, as predicted by differential association and control theories, respectively. Moreover, acculturation was positively related to association with delinquent peers and attachment to peers. However, there was the unexpected finding that association with Chinese peers was positively related to delinquency. These seemingly contradictory findings demonstrate the dilemma experienced by Chinese youth in North America.     

Sex differences on the MMPI-2 substance abuse scales in psychiatric inpatients.

Sex differences on the MMPI-2 addiction scales (MacAndrew Alcoholism Scale-Revised, Addiction Acknowledgement Scale, Addiction Potential Scale) and their ability to distinguish between substance-abusing and nonabusing psychiatric inpatients were examined. Men obtained higher mean raw scores than women on the MacAndrew Alcoholism Scale-Revised and the Addiction Acknowledgement Scale, and substance abusers scored higher on all three scales. Even relatively low cutoff scores, however, on the MacAndrew Alcoholism Scale-Revised resulted in false negative rates of 37 to 39%. The results support the utility of the MMPI-2 substance abuse scales; however, lower cutoff scores should be used with women and within a psychiatric population.     

On A Semantic Interpretation Of Kant's Concept Of Number

What is central to the progression of a sequence is the idea of succession, which is fundamentally a temporal notion. In Kant's ontology numbers are not objects but rules (schemata) for representing the magnitude of a quantum. The magnitude of a discrete quantum 11...11 is determined by a counting procedure, an operation which can be understood as a mapping from the ordinals to the cardinals. All empirical models for numbers isomorphic to 11...11 must conform to the transcendental determination of time-order. Kant's transcendental model for number entails a procedural semantics in which the semantic value of the number-concept is defined in terms of temporal procedures. A number is constructible if and only if it can be schematized in a procedural form. This representability condition explains how an arbitrarily large number is representable and why Kant thinks that arithmetical statements are synthetic and not analytic.     

重复知盲:刺激呈现时间及作业对反应时的影响

本研究用汉字材料及反应时的数据来探讨重复知盲现象及有关机制。在实验一中,被试必须判断快速连续呈现的两个字究竟是否包含两个或是只有一个动物字。结果显示在７０毫秒时,有重复知盲现象（重复动物字组比非重复动物字组的反应时为长）;在１００毫秒时则无;另外,在２００毫秒时则有重复启动现象产生（重复动物字组比非重复动物字组的反应时为短）。实验二采用同样的材料及呈现方法,但被试只需要判断以７０毫秒呈现之实验材料中的第二个字是否动物字。结果发现类似重复启动的现象,这些结果显示,呈现时间与作业是决定重复刺激究竟造成知盲或启动效应的重要因素。本文另外还讨论本研究的方法与结果对了解重复刺激心理加工的可能贡献。     

Rat gestation during space flight: Outcomes for dams and their offspring born after return to earth

Sprague-Dawley rats were studied to learn whether gestation in the near-zero gravity, high radiation environment of space impacts selected mammalian postnatal events. Ten rats spent days nine to twenty of pregnancy aboard the space shuttle orbiterAtlantis (STS-66). Their movement, was studied shortly after return to Earth; subsequently, several of their offspring were cross-fostered and examined through postnatal day 81 (P81) for whole body growth and somatic motor development. Values for the flight animals were compared to ground-based control groups. Relative to controls, the pregnant flight rats showed a marked paucity of locomotion during the first few hours after returning to Earth. There was greater likelihood of perinatal morbidity for the offspring of flight dams when compared to the control groups. Whole body weight of surviving offspring, averaged for each group separately, showed typical sigmoidal growth curves when plotted against postnatal age. The flight group for our study had a larger ratio of female to male pups, and that was sufficient to account for the lower average daily weight gained by the flight animals when compared to the control groups. Walking was universally achieved by P13 and preceded eye opening which was complete in all pups by P17. Thus, both of these developmental horizons were attained on schedule in the flight as well as the control rats. Characteristic changes were observed in hind limb step length and gait width as the pups grew. These patterns occurred at the same time in each group of rats. Therefore, prenatal space flight from days nine to twenty of gestation did not interfere with the establishment of normal patterns for hind paw placement during walking.     

Hyperreactivity, muricide, and intraspecific aggression in the rat produced by infusion of local anesthetic into the lateral septum or surrounding areas

Intracranial infusions of a local anesthetic (lidocaine, 2%) were made bilaterally (4 microliter over 20 min) through permanently implanted cannulas ending in the lateral septum or adjacent areas. Increases in irritability and reactivity to the experimenter, muricide, and intermale aggression were produced by injections into the lateral septum and the region ventral to it. The increases in reactivity and interanimal aggresion occurred in varying degrees and were independent of one another, but intermale aggression occurred only in animals showing muricide. The most effective site for eliciting the entire spectrum of aggressive behaviors was the region ventral to the anterior septum. The region ventral to the posterior septum (medial preoptic area, anterior hypothalamic area, straia terminalis) was unique in that it tended to produce a high incidence of muricide, with only modest increases in reactivity. The lateral septum was moderately effective in producing the entire range of aggressive behaviors. No changes in behavior were noted with infusions into the medial septum or th medial forebrain bundle/lateral preoptic area ventrolateral to the septum. It is suggested that the hyperreactivity and irritability may be relat to hyperdefensiveness and that muricide and intermale aggression are points on a continuum of interanimal aggressiveness.     

White Racial Identity and Attitudes Toward People With Disabilities

This empirical study investigated the relationship between racial identity and attitudes toward people with disabilities. Results indicate that higher statuses of racial identity correlate positively while lower and more racist‐oriented statuses correlate negatively with attitudes toward people with disabilities. The study supports the notion that attitudes from cultural memberships associated with power can transfer from one domain (i.e., White/People of Color) to another domain (i.e., Abled/Disabled). Este estudio empírico investigó la relación entre la identidad y actitudes raciales hacia personas con incapacidades. Los resultados indican que las posiciones más altas de la identidad racial se pone en correlación positivamente mientras bajan y más posiciones racista‐orientados se pone en correlación negativamente con actitudes hacia personas con incapacidades. El estudio sostiene la noción que actitudes de asociaciones culturales asociadas con el poder pueden transferir de un dominio (es decir, los Blancos/Personas del Color) a otro dominio (es decir, Capacitados/Incapacitados).