Multiple memory systems are unnecessary to account for infant memory development: An ecological model.

How the memory of adults evolves from the memory abilities of infants is a central problem in cognitive development. The popular solution holds that the multiple memory systems of adults mature at different rates during infancy. The early-maturing system (implicit or nondeclarative memory) functions automatically from birth, whereas the late-maturing system (explicit or declarative memory) functions intentionally, with awareness, from late in the first year. Data are presented from research on deferred imitation, sensory preconditioning, potentiation, and context for which this solution cannot account and present an alternative model that eschews the need for multiple memory systems. The ecological model of infant memory development (N. E. Spear, 1984) holds that members of all species are perfectly adapted to their niche at each point in ontogeny and exhibit effective, evolutionarily selected solutions to whatever challenges each new niche poses. Because adults and infants occupy different niches, what they perceive, learn, and remember about the same event differs, but their raw capacity to learn and remember does not. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sequentiality and structure in a cognitive model of college student development.

The challenge of explaining cognitive and attitudinal changes in college students has been approached developmentally in a sequential model detailing changes in students' views of knowledge and authority. In the present study, the scalability and structural unity of comprehension of ideas from 8 positions in the sequence were examined. 28 students were asked to reformulate short statements representing these positions as applied to 5 different topics. Correct reformulation of the ideas presented in 4 of the 5 items at each level was used as an index of comprehension of that level. Scalogram analysis yielded significant coefficients of reproducibility (.97) and scalability (.71). Intercorrelations between scale scores on the 5 topics were performed; factor analysis revealed a 1st factor, degree of relevance to school, and a 2nd factor affected by the degree of abstractness of the topic. The model has implications for the planning of educational experiences for college age students (and perhaps younger groups, also), as well as for understanding the processes by which formal operational abilities are brought to bear on nonscientific problems. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An in vitro model for evaluating neural stimulating electrodes

A model for in vitro evaluation of materials for use as neural stimulation electrodes is developed. Critical areas of concern in developing an in vitro test model discussed include: selection of environment, choice of material, design of stimulating equipment, and analytical procedures used to evaluate materials response. A method of providing quantitative analysis of materials response to stimulation conditions is presented. Evaluation techniques involve the use of scanning electron microscopy, x-ray spectroscopy, atomic absorption spectrometry, and potentiographic and dielectric analysis of the test electrodes. A diagnostics matrix is presented which assigns a scale factor to quantify the relative corrosion response of the candidate materials. The corrosion response of Pt electrodes is evaluated in terms of scale factors assigned through use of the diagnostics matrix.     

Information variability and reliability effects in evaluating student performance.

In 3 experiments with 72 undergraduates, Ss were asked to evaluate student performance based on 2 sources of information differing in variability. In Exp I the relative variability of test scores and paper grades assigned to a given student had no effect on the weighting of information, and evaluations were based on averaging the 2 types of information. In Exps II–III the weighting of test scores was compared for a highly variable grader and a less variable grader. Differential weighting occurred only when instructions linked variability to reliability. It is concluded that evaluators can assign less weight to a source of information perceived to be less reliable but they will not ordinarily use relative variability of scores as an index of reliability. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Graduate student professional development.

Professional development (PD) has become an integral element of professional practice and training within psychology and related fields, yet the construct has not been conceptually well defined. Psychology graduate students (N?=?593) were surveyed to assess PD across 3 primary areas: "What is PD for you? Is this fostered by your program? and In which areas would you like more?" Students endorsed numerous items as being part of PD, with only 3 elements of PD fostered by graduate programs (statistics and research, theories or behavior, ethics). Multivariate analyses of variance revealed some differences between clinical/counseling and research/academic students on the factors across 2 of the primary areas. A conceptual definition of PD is offered, with recommendations for graduate students and educators to identify PD needs and evaluate whether those needs are being met. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An empirical test of a model of nontraditional student adjustment.

Predictors and consequences of psychological adjustment were examined by testing a model of nontraditional student adjustment. The empirical model, developed from prior conceptual work (J. P. Bean and B. S. Metzner, 1985), featured developmentally relevant factors, such as family support and career-related academic variables. Results supported the feasibility of the model. Academic and noncollege environmental variables were predictive of institutional commitment and an absence of psychological distress, which in turn predicted intended continuance in school. Implications of the results were related to the special academic and personal needs of nontraditional students. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive niches: An ecological model of strategy selection.

How do people select among different strategies to accomplish a given task? Across disciplines, the strategy selection problem represents a major challenge. We propose a quantitative model that predicts how selection emerges through the interplay among strategies, cognitive capacities, and the environment. This interplay carves out for each strategy a cognitive niche, that is, a limited number of situations in which the strategy can be applied, simplifying strategy selection. To illustrate our proposal, we consider selection in the context of 2 theories: the simple heuristics framework and the ACT–R (adaptive control of thought—rational) architecture of cognition. From the heuristics framework, we adopt the thesis that people make decisions by selecting from a repertoire of simple decision strategies that exploit regularities in the environment and draw on cognitive capacities, such as memory and time perception. ACT–R provides a quantitative theory of how these capacities adapt to the environment. In 14 simulations and 10 experiments, we consider the choice between strategies that operate on the accessibility of memories and those that depend on elaborate knowledge about the world. Based on Internet statistics, our model quantitatively predicts people's familiarity with and knowledge of real-world objects, the distributional characteristics of the associated speed of memory retrieval, and the cognitive niches of classic decision strategies, including those of the fluency, recognition, integration, lexicographic, and sequential-sampling heuristics. In doing so, the model specifies when people will be able to apply different strategies and how accurate, fast, and effortless people's decisions will be. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

An event count model for studying health services utilization

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this article is to first conceptualize health services utilization behavior as event counts. Based on this concept and behavioral theory, the author presents the Generalized Event Count model as an alternative modeling tool for studying health services utilization. This model is theory driven and is consistent with behavioral assumptions. METHODS: In presenting the Generalized Event Count model, the author first examines its model assumptions to see whether they conform to elements of behavior theory, assumptions of health services utilization, and the distribution assumption of the nature of the data. To demonstrate the Generalized Event Count model, the author applied this model to an empirical ambulatory care utilization data set from a 1988 household interview of Chinese-Americans in Boston's inner-city community. RESULTS: The Generalized Event Count model analysis suggested that the regular source of medical care and the use of Chinese medicine were strong predictors of physician visits for this population. Further, the Generalized Event Count model was able to test that most of the ambulatory visits within an individual were correlated. CONCLUSIONS: Compared with other models, the Generalized Event Count model is more consistent with health services utilization behavioral assumptions. Moreover, it makes an efficient use of information from the utilization data for model estimation. This model has the potential of having broad applications in studying various types of health services utilization, especially for analyzing cross-sectional utilization data.     

Development of a bilingual interpreter program: An alternative model for Spanish-speaking services.

Traces the development and growth of an innovative program designed to help English-speaking therapists evaluate and treat Spanish-speaking patients. Difficulties and successes encountered in implementing a bilingual interpreter program are described. Specific issues examined include the roles of language proficiency, language recall, and language distortion; the role of psychological education; and transference problems in a triadic interaction. It is argued that the training and use of bilingual interpreters is an effective and feasible alternative model for providing Spanish-speaking services. (12 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Assessing raters' policies in evaluating proposed services for transporting the physically handicapped.

Used the methods of retranslation and policy capturing to assess evaluations of proposed transportation services for the physically handicapped. Study 1, with 52 undergraduates, employed scale retranslation procedures to develop the experimental stimuli. In Study 2, 102 Ss participated in a 2?×?2?×?2 design in which they were classified according to their occupation (college student vs Department of Transportation employee), the amount of thought (i.e., salience) they had given to the problem of transporting the physically handicapped, and whether or not the costs of the transportation services were presented to them. The dependent variable was an acceptability rating for supplemental bus equipment used to transport the handicapped. ANOVA revealed that occupational classification and salience exhibited significant effects on the acceptability ratings. The college students were more liberal raters than the employees. Results are discussed in the context of policy-capturing research as a means of identifying social preferences for policy formation. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Talent and its development: An emergenic and epigenetic model.

Although superior performance in games, sports, science, and the arts is often ascribed to talent, the hypothesized phenomenon may not be fully understood unless it is conceived as a multidimensional and multiplicative developmental process. This point is elaborated in the form of a 2-part emergenic–epigenetic model. The emergenic part treats domain specificity, profile heterogeneity, cross-sectional distributions and predictability, familial heritability, and domain complexity. The epigenetic part treats early versus late bloomers, early signs, cross-sectional distribution across the life span, talent loss and shifts in talent domain, and longitudinal predictability. Besides explaining the available cross-sectional and longitudinal data, the resulting model has critical implications for how best to investigate the development of exceptional performance in all talent domains. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The natural development of a graduate student.

Drawing on the developmental theories of Shirley and Piaget, the question is raised as to whether there is a place for stage theory in the development of the graduate student - a natural educational progression for each student, beginning at entrance to university and ending in his thirties. Such a progression of stages is outlined, roughly balanced again chronological age and academic degree and proposed as a matter of research interest. Practical aspects are noted. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evaluating the impact of receiving university-based counseling services on student retention.

The academic records of 562 students who had requested counseling for personal concerns during a l-year period were examined after a 2-year interval to determine academic outcome. Analyses showed that students receiving counseling enjoyed a retention advantage relative to noncounseled students. Results of a probit analysis showed a positive, negatively accelerating dose–response relationship between number of counseling sessions and student retention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A model for training psychologists to provide services for children and adolescents.

Background and rationale for a comprehensive model of training for psychologists to provide services to children and adolescents are outlined. Eleven integrated aspects of training are described with respect to training topics, justification for the training, and ways to implement the training. The model described address the need for guidance in training specialists in psychologically based mental health services for children, adolescents, and their families. Practitioners can use this model to assess their own backgrounds, knowledge, and skills in working with these populations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A model for teaching and evaluating brief psychotherapy with children and their families.

A pilot study with 5 children (aged 7–22 yrs) and 5 therapists with 1–3 yrs of supervised clinical experience demonstrated the feasibility of teaching a method of planned time-limited therapy with children and their families to relatively inexperienced therapists in a clinical setting. Significant features of the therapy, which consisted of 10–22 sessions over a 16-wk period, included a focus on client-suggested goals; an emphasis on skills deficits rather than pathology; and some techniques from structural family therapy and from educational, behavioral, and cognitive interventions. Reasons for the success of the present therapy method are considered. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development of a system for categorizing client reactions to therapist interventions.

We developed a measure of client reactions to therapist interventions. The 21 categories of the measure were divided into 14 positive and 7 negative reactions, which differed significantly from each other on client helpfulness ratings. Preliminary validity data indicated that therapist intentions were related to client reactions more for successful cases than unsuccessful cases, pretreatment symptomatology was highly predictive of which reactions the clients reported, there were some predictable changes in reactions across time in treatment, and within-case correlations of reactions with client-rated session depth and smoothness indicated some similarities across cases. We discuss the case-specific nature of client reactions, methodological issues, and the need for greater therapist awareness of client reactions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A method for evaluating alternative recruiting-selection strategies: The CAPER model.

Proposes a model for managers of personnel systems who justifiably demand an estimate of the payoff, in dollars, which can be expected to result from the implementation of a proposed selection program. The Cost of Attaining Personnel Requirements (CAPER) model determines an optimal recruiting-selection strategy. Specifically the model provides the personnel manager with the information necessary to minimize the estimated total cost of recruiting, selecting, inducting, and training a sufficient number of persons to meet a specified quota of satisfactory personnel. Application of the CAPER model to a personnel recruiting-selection problem is illustrated, and the advantages and limitations of the model are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An ecological view of cigarette smoking.

Considers the social, biological, and physical inputs, mediating systems, and behavioral outputs of smoking in an ecological model. Implications of this model in understanding changes in smoking patterns are discussed. Experimental data is presented in an analysis of some determinants of the decision to stop smoking. Findings indicate that the individual stops smoking, not out of fear of consequences (e.g., lung cancer), but because of expectations of benefits: the decision to stop is based on subjectively expected utility. Attempts to change utilities have been inconclusive but do tend to indicate the importance of smoking patterns and that, for many individuals, smoking is an important source of ego strength. It is suggested that within Western society cigarettes are a major source for the fulfillment of the dominant values of achieving and doing. The need to change the society's as well as the individual's view of the utility of smoking is discussed. (27 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of carers in evaluating mental health services for older people

OBJECTIVES: To examine, using the published literature and local service experience, the contributions that carers can make to the development and evaluation of specialist mental health services for the elderly. METHODS: MEDLINE search for relevant papers about carers and the elderly, especially with mental disorders; review of recent experience of service planning, implementation and evaluation in the Cambridge area. RESULTS: Increased emphasis on the role of carers in recent literature, extending into acknowledgement of the carer perspective in official publications; few papers on the role of carers specifically in evaluating services, with only one study looking solely at an old age psychiatry service. CONCLUSIONS: There is considerable scope for involving carers in the development and evaluation of services, though there are also some potential concerns, not least that carers and users may have different perspectives. These issues are discussed, along with possible future developments, such as the need for a standardized assessment of carer satisfaction.     

Perception of case conduct as a means of evaluating school psychological services.

Developed a 40-item questionnaire to survey the opinions of all possible recipients of school psychological services in a small rural school system (N?=?39). Questionnaire items were grouped into 6 broad categories (personal/professional qualities of the consultant, teacher involvement, assessment, written communication, parents, students). Results are discussed in terms of respondent satisfaction by category. The questionnaire should be useful for stimulating ideas for in-service training, as a reflection of the degree of satisfaction with the consultative process, and as an overall guide for improving consultative services. (7 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)