Benefits of interhemispheric collaboration can be eliminated by mixing stimulus formats that involve different cortical access routes

Previous studies indicate that the benefits of dividing an information processing load across both cerebral hemispheres outweigh the costs of interhemispheric transfer as tasks become more difficult or cognitively complex. This is demonstrated as better performance when two stimuli to be compared are presented one to each visual field and hemisphere than when both stimuli are presented to the same single hemisphere (an across-hemisphere advantage). Two experiments indicate that this finding does not generalize to complex tasks that require matching numeric quantities represented by two very different visual formats whose processing involves somewhat different cortical areas: digits and dice-like dot patterns. In fact, mixing these stimulus formats consistently produces a within-hemisphere advantage. We propose that, when two simultaneously presented stimuli are presented in sufficiently different visual formats, identification of the two stimuli may take place in parallel, via different cortical access routes and with little or no interference, even when they are presented to the same cerebral hemisphere.     

A Parish Pastor Responds To Ted Peters

Abstract : The competing claims of atheism, pluralism, and Islam have all penetrated to the parish level in various degrees. The author describes her parish experience, examines Peters's recommendations, and offers an additional recommendation of her own: collaboration when appropriate.     

Future Issues in Pediatric Psychology: Delphic Survey

Using a Delphic poll procedure, we surveyed pediatric psychologists who were established in either clinical practice or empirical research in pediatric psychology. Three rounds of expert responses were logically combined in order to identify domains of importance to the future of pediatric psychology and to determine to what extent research and clinical aims concur. Overall, researchers and clinicians did not differ in the types of issues deemed important to the field. The top three domains for the next decade are concerned with pediatric psychology's ability to demonstrate viability, to integrate psychologists into primary care settings, and to demonstrate need for changes in reimbursement systems within managed care. Implications of the ten priority issues are discussed.     

Infertility: Couples' experiences and the use of counselling in treatment centres

Abstract

Infertility can have profound effects on couples, who may spend years in an increasingly stressful quest for conception; by law, counselling must be offered to those undergoing licensed treatments. This study found that such couples relied on their own partnership as their main resource for managing stress. Predominantly the partnership was organized in a psychological division of labour -the woman experiencing emotional pain, the man supporting and seeking positive solutions. Normally a functional joint defence, this could become a dysfunctional split under excessive stress. Where counselling was offered directly, with a couple approach, couples who took it up were enabled to re-establish their own defences more adaptively. However, where access to counselling was by clinical referral - often of a distressed woman partner alone - the couple approach was more difficult to apply though apparently no less relevant. The counsellor-clinician partnership could mirror the ‘division of labour’, with a similar tendency towards dysfunctional splitting under stress.     

Academic Achievement Probes

Academic instruction continues to be an important componenet of curriculum for students with mild mental retardation, although relatively little recent research has been reported on basic skills assessment and programming. In the current study, students in elementary EMR programs were administered a series of two academic probes in spelling and in two computational skill areas in arithmetic to determine their stability of performance and thus the reliability of the measures, indicating that these academic probes were reliable assessment tools. Implications for the use of such curriculum-based measures with handicapped students are discussed.     

Training District Personnel as Peer Consultants and Inservice Leaders: Implementation and Evaluation of a Training Program

For several years, Furman University has offered training for special educators to develop skills as peer inservice providers and as peer consultants to general education personnel. By means of a personnel preparation grant, School Initiated Teacher Education (SITE) Outreach, 61 special education teachers, speech therapists, and curriculum specialists have been involved in a series of three graduate level courses designed to address development of skills in inservice content and presentation and peer consultation. Evaluation data were collected to determine the impact of the training program, perceived benefits to the participants, and the receptiveness of the participating school districts in terms of the incorporation of peer inservice and consultation activities into the ongoing instructional program.     

Getting Everybody Involved

Abstract

This paper describes a creative approach for training counselor and counselor educators that provides collaborative interactions among students and faculty in several university training programs. Structured around a problem-solving activity and self-reflection questionnaires, undergraduate teachers-in-training were given an opportunity to receive one-to-one consultative counseling from the master's level counselors-in-training, who in turn received structured problem-solving supervision from the doctoral level students. Finally, the doctoral level students received faculty support to facilitate the development of their supervisory skills. The goal of this training approach is to provide students at all three levels with experiences similar to those they will encounter as professionals following graduation from the university, but within the context of scaffolding from faculty and more advanced students.     

Promoting Healthy Partnerships

ABSTRACT

This article offers practical suggestions for partnering with theological schools and libraries in developing countries. Drawing upon his own experiences, and those of others, the author, a theological librarian and consultant, guides readers through the perilous enterprises of international partnerships and foreign aid projects.     

Sharing Knowledge and Shared Care

Summary

This concluding article presents the main themes that emerged from this volume within a multidimensional, multidisciplinary integrative framework conceptualizing the consequences of the trauma of terrorism and informing optimal prevention and intervention methods. It reviews short- and long-term findings of the effects of terrorism on adults, children, families, communities, and societies and makes numerous research recommendations. Viewing terrorism as psychological warfare against the community, it advances community-based, culturally congruent interventions, with a public mental health approach, in an ongoing, integrated network of services promoting community and individual resilience, specialized training, international collaboration, and continued dialogue concerning the role of the media.     

Adolescent mental health: the role of youth and college pastors

The present study investigates the gatekeeping role of youth and college pastors, specifically exploring their psychological training, perceptions, attitudes, and interactions concerning adolescent congregants' mental illness. Texas youth and college pastors were anonymously surveyed regarding referral patterns, mental health interventions and contact, adolescent mental health perceptions, and means of collaboration. While the sample reported actively working with numerous adolescent mental health issues, the majority did not feel qualified to work with significant psychopathology. Despite this, they reported using various intervention methods, with the most common being initial counselling followed by a referral. Although the sample frequently referred to other professionals, they described many perceived barriers in collaborating with others in the mental health field. Overall, a positive role exists for youth and college pastors in adolescent mental health; however, tensions and conflicts between pastors and mental health professionals hinder the usefulness of these unique gatekeepers. Implications and recommendations for mental health professionals are highlighted.