Irrelevant speech and serial recall: Implications for theories of attention and working memory

Irrelevant speech markedly impairs serial recall of visually presented lists, even though the person is asked to ignore the speech. In this, the first major review of the phenomenon, we conclude that (i) the effect occurs in memory rather than at encoding; (ii) within memory, the disruption occurs as a result of a confluence of information at the phonological rather than at the articulatory stage of coding; (iii) speech does not have privileged access to memory, since its disruptive effects may be attenuated by habituation; and (iv) disruption occurs as a result of the changing state of the auditory channel, not as had previously been thought the phonological similarity of visual and auditory streams, and is particularly sensitive to pitch changes in both speech and non-speech stimuli. These conclusions are discussed in the light of two complementary theoretical constructs: a cascading filter system responsible for the access of speech to memory and a system of coding within memory sensitive to changing state of the stream responsible for disruption of serial order. Recommendations are made also for empirical work to refine these constructs.     

DO PUBLIC SCHOOLS TEACH SECULAR HUMANISM? WHY WE MAY NEVER KNOW

Members of the New Right regularly charge that public schools teach secular humanism. This alleged teaching of secular humanism is held responsible for varied social ills and is perceived as a violation of constitutional prohibitions against the advocacy of one set of religious beliefs over others. Although New Right attacks may be perceived as political tactics, the author explores them as empirical claims that schools are in fact teaching secular humanism. Currently, there is no persuasive body of research supporting the New Right allegations. The author questions whether or not such research could be designed and concludes that it could but, for various reasons, is unlikely ever to be enacted.     

A Counseling Paradox: Do Preservice Counselors Need Employment Counseling?

Data from this study identified a significant discrepancy between preservice counselors' perceptions of their career opportunities and actual placement data.     

Behavioral Marriage Therapy: II. Empirical Perspective

Two recent published reviews of research on behavioral marriage therapy stimulated us to supplement these accounts with additional relevant data. First, we place research on behavioral couples therapy in the broader context of outcome research on nonbehavioral marital therapy. We then summarize the results of 23 studies of behavioral couples therapy not included in these previous reviews and conclude that these additional data on controlled and comparative studies do little to enhance the current empirical status of the efficacy of behavioral marriage therapy and in no case do they establish the superiority of social learning approaches. It is concluded that an open mind to all sources of data on the efficacy of marital therapy is needed if the field is to make meaningful advances.     

Psychology and "ordinary language"—a critique of Smedslund

This article takes up methodological issues of the kind raised by Jan Smedslund in earlier issues of this journal, concerning the status of psychological enquiry as a discipline. Arguments are presented which aim to show that Smedslund has failed to establish the thesis that all generally valid theoretical statements in psychology are explications of conceptual relationships embedded in ordinary language, i.e., analytic statements. Some specific examples of what Smedslund takes to be "ordinary language theorems" are examined. Doubts are expressed concerning the validity of the proof procedure Smedslund employs in the "demonstration" of a number of his alleged theorems. Finally, it is argued that the results produced by the situation-bound and culture-bound empirical research of the psychologist need not be viewed as "arbitrary" in Smedslund's sense of that term.