Distribution of reading time when questions are asked about a restricted category of text information.

43 undergraduates read a text either with or without inserted questions. Although there was no overall reading time difference between the question or no-question groups, Ss who received inserted questions spent more time on the parts of the text that contained information of the type needed to answer the questions. Question groups performed better, relative to controls, on posttest items that repeated inserted questions and also on new posttest items from the same categories as the inserted questions. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Emotion and Cognition in Arts Education

Claims are made by educators in the arts that we have some a priori function in training emotions or feelings. What do these claims amount to? If we are saying that simply to experience those emotions is good enough, then surely we are not giving our students a full and developed emotional education. If, however, it is possible to ascertain that emotions can enhance or even stimulate cognition then we have a solid, justifiable foundation upon which to base a search for ways of training the right emotions. This paper attempts to chart one thread of the argument: how is cognition born from emotions that are effected through creating or responding to the arts. The next stage would be to examine how that enhanced cognition can be beneficial, selecting the 'right' emotions and thus the 'right' cognition. Finally, it would then be possible to assess how to teach the arts to allow this to take place.     

Cultural and linguistic bias in mental health evaluations of deaf people.

Examines assessment issues related to deaf clients, focusing on cultural and linguistic bias. Reliability and validity problems encountered when administering intellectual and personality assessments to hearing-impaired Ss are discussed. Factors influencing psychological assessment are addressed, including inaccurate beliefs and problems with rapport, miscommunication, and using interpreters. It is recommended that research be conducted to refine the psychometric properties of assessment instruments used, that psychologists become more sophisticated about deaf culture, and that psychologists interested in working with deaf clients need to become more skilled in the use of sign language. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reversal learning and resistance to extinction: A review of the rat literature.

Observation of an overtraining reversal effect (ORE) seems to be favored by the use of exteroceptive discriminative stimuli while training on a position response most frequently results in no ORE or a reverse ORE. The review of this literature is preceded by reviews of the literature on resistance to extinction following varying amounts of 100% reinforcement, nondiscriminative training, varying amounts of 100% reinforcement, discrimination training, and reversal learning without overtraining. The data in the last 3 topics provide support for the distinction between exteroceptive stimuli and position response training and suggestions about the variables accounting for the differences in results obtained with the 2 training methods. (2 p. ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reversal learning and resistance to extinction: A supplementary report.

Several very recent and highly relevant articles provide substantiation for some hypotheses advanced in a previous review in an analysis of the overtraining reversal data. These same data permit the rejection of an hypothesis advanced by another reviewer to account for the results. It can now be shown fairly conclusively that amount of reward determines the direction of the ORE following position response training and that the variables affecting overtraining reversal data with exteroceptive discriminative stimuli remain unidentified. (16 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predictable and unpredictable shock stimulates gastric contractility and causes mucosal injury in rats.

The effects of tailshock on gastric contractility and lesions were investigated in rats exposed to 100 1-mA tailshocks while confined inside plastic tubes. A light preceded each shock in one group and was randomly presented with respect to shock in the other. Contractility of the corpus of the stomach was measured by means of chronically implanted extraluminal force transducers. Contractility was measured in 10-min blocks and analyzed by computer. Signaled (n?=?13) and unsignaled (n?=?17) shock stimulated high-amplitude gastric contractions in fasted rats, which continued for 2 hr after the shock session. Cumulative contractile activity (1.5-hr shock plus 2-hr rest) in shocked animals was twice that in restrained and unrestrained control animals (n?=?19, p?     

Adolescent development and public policy.

Emphasis by psychologists on the importance of early experience led policy makers in the 1960's and 1970's to concentrate public resources on compensatory educational programs for young, disadvantaged children. Research on the reversibility of early cognitive deficits and on the remediation of poor school achievement suggests that an expanded national investment in developing the cognitive competence of adolescents and young adults is warranted. Public policy should encourage schools, youth-serving agencies, business and industry, and the military to provide educational programs that stress general problem-solving abilities and basic academic skills alone. Demographic observations underscore the importance of such a policy for the strength of the nation. (3 p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex differences in referrals to a rehabilitation facility for the physically disabled: A research note.

Sex ratios for inpatient and outpatient referrals to a Department of Rehabilitation Medicine and to its psychological services were examined for six general diagnostic categories of injury and disease and compared with known proportions of males and females in the population in these categories. Of the diagnostic categories, only referrals of patients suffering from cerebral vascular accident (CVA) revealed sex ratios significantly different from population estimates. Problems in interpreting the statistics and in judging the adequacy of the estimated sex ratios, which may be confounded by differential age expectancies, were disclosed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Oxidation states in surface and buried coal from the Fording River Deposit

A suite of five representative samples from a freshly opened adit in the Fording River Coal Deposits, BC was taken at selected distances from the surface to the 45.7 m depth of the seam to provide material for studying the progress of coal oxidation under natural conditions. The ‘as-mined’ < 28 US mesh material from each sample was subjected to standard proximate, ultimate and free swelling index (FSI) analyses, followed by quantitative evaluation of surface oxidation states, using several techniques concurrently. Correlation of the results indicates a progressive decrease in oxidation from a very high level for the surface sample, with FSI 1, to a relatively low oxidation level for samples taken at 22.9 m and 45.7 m distances. Solvent extracts show a progressive decrease in the ratio of soluble aliphatic-to-aromatic compounds from surface to deep coal and in the amount of carboxylate groups. Oxidized coals require pretreatment with dilute acids in order to convert phenolate and carboxylate salts into phenols and carboxylic acids respectively; the analytical results for the latter are then increased by a factor of 4–6.