Training school psychologists in neuropsychological assessment: Current practices and trends

Directors of school psychology programs at the Master's, sixth-year and doctoral levels were surveyed as to their program's degree of emphasis in neuropsychological screening and assessment. Despite variability according to program level, directors identified a need for training in these areas. This was particularly evident at the doctoral level, where greater flexibility exists in designing a student's program of studies. The results of this survey support the notion that training in neuropsychological screening and assessment techniques is appropriate in the preparation of specialists in the area of school psychology.     

Reactions to objective self-awareness

In order to determine reactions to objective self-awareness, 96 female undergraduates received either positive or negative feedback on a “creativity” task prior to being given an opportunity to write a response to a visual cue. Half of the subjects were made objectively self-aware, via a mirror, during the visual cue task; half were not. In addition, half of the subjects were led to believe that the visual cue task was highly related to creativity, while half learned that the task was low in relevance. A “longer the response, the better” standard of correctness was established for all subjects. As predicted, the results indicated that when made objectively self-aware, subjects who received negative feedback wrote more in response to the visual cue than did those who received positive feedback, a difference which was not obtained for the subjectively self-aware subjects. The task relevance manipulation also produced a significant main effect. A similar pattern of results was obtained on a measure of the time spent on the task. The implications of the results for objective self-awareness theory are considered.     

The holophrastic hypothesis: Conceptual and empirical issues

A conceptual distinction is drawn between a structural and a functional version of the holophrastic hypothesis. The structural version of this hypothesis views the single-word utterances of children as implicit expressions of either syntactic or semantic structural relations, while the functional version views each of these utterances as consisting of a single lexical item which is used for a particular communicative function. The arguments which have been proposed in favour of these two versions of the hypothesis are critically examined in the light of the empirical evidence which is currently available. It is concluded that this evidence only supports the functional version of the holophrastic hypothesis, there being no evidence available to support the interpretation of children's single-word utterances as implicit expressions of either syntactic or semantic relations.     

Children's comprehension of presupposed information: Logical and pragmatic inferences to speaker belief

This study explored the ability of young children (5 and 8 years old) to make presuppositional inferences to a speaker's belief in uttering a sentence. Presuppositional information is the information a speaker believes to be common between himself and the hearer. The information is cued by a speaker either logically, by the use of specific lexical items, or pragmatically, by the use of an utterance in violation of conventional rules of conversation. Comprehension of the information may require a reading of the context of utterance. Kindergarten and thirdgrade children and adults were read paragraphs containing both logical and pragmatic presuppositional information, as well as a sentence that could be treated in a logical or a pragmatic manner depending on the context of utterance. The results showed that both groups of children and the adults could make presuppositional inferences to a speaker's belief, and that the responses of the children and adults were context sensitive.     

Is there a monotonic criterion for measures of vocational maturity in college students?

Career development has been expected to proceed in a continuous fashion. Tests of vocational maturity, then, are expected to show higher scores with increases in grade level or meet a monotonic criterion (Crites, J. O. Psychological Monographs, 1965, 79, 25–41). Data collected with the Career Development Inventory (Super, D. E., et al. Career Development Inventory Preliminary Manual. Unpublished test manual, 1972.) by its authors showed systematic increases in scores for eighth-, tenth-, and twelfth-grade-level students. For this study, college-level students were partitioned into two groups, career-specific and social sciences and humanities based on the findings of A. S. Bisconti and I. L. Gomberg (The Hard to Place Majority. Bethlehem, Pa.: College Placement Council, 1975.) and they were administered the college version of the CDI. Scores failed to show systematic increases with college-grade level for either group. Both the findings and related theoretical positions of Ginzberg and Super provide evidence that the process of career development may be discontinuous in the post high school years. Data gathered for this study may help advance the notion that career development in college students is discontinuous and call into question the application of the monotonic criterion to tests of vocational maturity at the college level.     

Intraindividual differences dimensions of mood change during pregnancy identified in five P-technique factor analyses

Daily-self-ratings of mood and state were obtained for approximately 120 days of observation from five pregnant subjects. Measurements were based on a total pool of 75 adjectives culled from the literature to represent eight dimensions of affect established in primarily cross-sectional studies. The data were analyzed in a P-technique factor analysis context to determine both the extent to which interindividual differences and intraindividual variability concepts were interchangeable and how general such intraindividual variability concepts were among different subjects. Although evidence was found that subjects construe many adjectives differently, for dimensions such as Energy, Well Being, Fatigue, and Concentration, the data indicate that cross-sectionally and longitudinally based personality concepts exhibit a fair degree of convergence.     

Extraversion and neuroticism in orienting reflex dishabituation

The present study examined the effects of extraversion (E) and neuroticism (N) as individual difference dimensions and of stimulus intensity on electrodermal orienting response habituation, test response, and dishabituation. Subjects were 162 college students selected from a screening sample of 860 as representing extreme groups of high, medium, and low E crossing with high, medium, and low N. Subjects in all nine resulting groups were habituated to criterion on auditory stimuli of 60, 80, and 100 db. A novel (test) stimulus and a dishabituating standard stimulus followed criteron habituation at each intensity. Results indicated that response amplitude for initial, test, and dishabituation responses was a direct function and that habituation rate (trials-to-criterion) was an inverse function of stimulus intensity. Extraverts habituated more rapidly than introverts at high intensity and gave smaller test and dishabituation responses. Some results differed when regression coefficients defined habituation rate and when first stimulus intensities alone were examined. Correlations among initial, test, and dishabituation responses and between each of these and the two measures of habituation rate are also reported. Results were interpreted as partially supportive of Eysenck's theory.     

The structure of infant intelligence: An historical overview

An historical overview of investigations that were concerned with delineating the structure and composition of infant intellectual activity is presented. The events which both preceded and culminated in the conceptualization of infant intelligence as a unitary trait, or factor, are traced. Thereafter, recent studies are reviewed which have guided contemporary investigators to contend that infant intellectual activity is comprised of varied sets of relatively independent abilities and factors. Several conclusions are made concerning the points of view which various investigators have held regarding the structure of infant intelligence.