Concreteness effects on memory: When and why?

Two experiments with 194 university students studied the effects of concreteness and relatedness of noun pairs on free recall, cued recall, and memory integration. Dual-coding theory (DCT) implies that concreteness and relatedness should have independent and additive effects on memory performance, whereas relational-distinctiveness processing theory implies that the 2 variables should interact. Their effects proved to be statistically independent in cued-recall and memory integration tests in both studies. In free recall, the effects were independent in Exp 1 and interactive over subjects, but not over items in Exp 2. Results were most consistent with the DCT and, regarding integration, with the hypothesis that strong verbal relations are necessary for integrative recall of abstract pairs, whereas high imagery is sufficient for integrative recall of concrete pairs. The hypothesis resolves a long-standing issue concerning memory integration of abstract language. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Case study of the process and outcome of career counseling.

The process and outcome of a career counseling case was studied. Across the course of the 7 sessions, the 43-yr-old client attained her career goals and increased both her career exploration and her exploration stress. She decreased exploration stress, maintained other changes, and crystallized her career goals by the 18-mo follow-up. Compared with her behavior in personal counseling, this counselor mostly used intentions of support, insight, and feelings but gave more information and set limits in career counseling. On the basis of 5 analyses, the most helpful counselor intentions were give information, support, clarify, feelings, insight, change, reinforce change, challenge, and relationship. The helpful ingredients of career counseling are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Primary prevention of eating disorders.

Eating disorders have increased dramatically over the past two decades, but the primary prevention of these disorders has received little attention. This article summarizes our current understanding of anorexia nervosa and bulimia and offers some suggestions for the primary prevention of these disorders at the individual, family, and community levels. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conditioned side effects induced by cancer chemotherapy: Prevention through behavioral treatment.

Cancer patients receiving chemotherapy often experience nausea and vomiting that develop as a result of classical conditioning. In order to determine whether this nausea and vomiting could be delayed or prevented, 24 cancer patients were randomized either to a group that received progressive muscle relaxation training (PMRT) plus guided imagery (GI), or to a no-treatment control group. Relaxation training sessions were held before the initiation of chemotherapy and during the first three chemotherapy treatments. Results indicated that patients receiving PMRT and GI had significantly less nausea and vomiting and significantly lower blood pressures, pulse rates, and dysphoria, especially anxiety, than did control patients. Nurse observations corroborated patient reports. These data suggest that early training in PMRT and GI can reduce and perhaps prevent the development of conditioned nausea and vomiting, and can alleviate high anxiety levels in cancer patients who receive emetogenic chemotherapy. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The concept of God in the psychological formation of females.

We use theory and research to argue that a cultural concept of God profoundly influences female psychological development. God, as the most mythologically and historically significant transitional object, influences the developmental path of an object representation of God, the related self-representation, and the child's future relationship to a larger cultural arena of human living. We use a clinical case example to illustrate how a positive transference and an alternative concept of God mutually influence the elaboration of a God representation derived from a maternal imago, which in turn frees the patient to explore her early object representations. We close by stressing that a culture's myths and symbols, particularly the culture's God concept, have theoretical and clinical relevance in the psychological development of the individual. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Focus supervision: Management format for supervision practices.

Although supervision practices have received some attention from clinicians and researchers, they have also created new challenges for clinical practicum supervisors and coordinators. Because graduate-level trainees have learned more about supervision, they expect more from their supervisors; conversely, supervisors have sought limits on their comprehensive roles. This article outlines a supervision model consisting of 2 tiers: general and focus supervision. General supervision covers the global range of clinical cases, whereas in focus supervision, trainees address specific clinical skills and topics. The process of designing and implementing this model is described. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stability of Omeprazole Solutions at Various ph Values as Determined by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography

A stability-indicating HPLC assay method for the quantitation of omeprazole has been developed. The developed method was used to study the effect of pH on the stability of omeprazole and to quantify the drug in capsules. The excipients present in the capsules did not interfere with the assay procedure. The pH-rate profile curve indicated that the maximum stability was at pH 11. Below pH 7.8, the decomposition was very fast. The decomposition constants have a direct relationship with the H+ concentrations of the solutions.     

An intelligent tutoring system for the Dijkstra-Gries methodology

The paper describes the design and implementation of an intelligent tutoring system for the Dijkstra-Gries programming methodology as defined by Gries (1981) in “The Science of Programming”. The first part of the paper identifies the requirements of intelligent tutoring systems in general and those of the methodology in particular. It shows the suitability of the Smalltalk environment for developing expandable intelligent systems and the compatibility of Smalltalk's object-oriented paradigm with the Gries methodology's goal/plan approach to programming. We then describe how these requirements are met: an overview of the system's support of the methodology and the modules that enable the system to respond intelligently. As an example, a reusable tutorial part is presented, first from a student's perspective, then from an author's perspective. Finally the results of an evaluation of the system drawn from actual student experience are presented     

Naturalistic action impairment in closed head injury.

The authors sought to determine whether errors of action committed by patients with closed head injury (CHI) would conform to predictions derived from frontal lobe theories. In Study 1, 30 CHI patients and 18 normal controls performed routine activities, such as wrapping a present, under conditions of graded complexity. CHI patients committed more errors even on the simplest condition; but, except for a higher proportion of omitted actions, their error profile was very similar to that of controls. Study 2 involved a subset of patients whose performance in Study 1 was within normal limits. When these high functioning patients were asked to perform the routine tasks under still more taxing conditions, they, too, committed errors in excess of the control group. Accounts based on frontal mechanisms have a difficult time explaining the overall pattern of findings. An alternative based on limited-capacity resources is suggested. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Early ischemia-induced alterations of the outer mitochondrial membrane and the intermembrane space: a potential cause for altered energy transfer in cardiac muscle?

Our aim was to carefully analyse the time-dependent changes that affect the mitochondrial function of myocardial cells during and after an ischemic episode. To this end, variables characterizing mitochondrial function have been evaluated on myocardial samples from isolated rat hearts subjected to different conditions of ischemia. The technique of permeabilized fibers was used in order to evaluate the mitochondrial function whilst retaining intracellular structure. The earliest alteration that could be detected was a decrease in the stimulatory effect of creatine on mitochondrial respiration. This alteration became more pronounced as the severity (or duration) of the ischemia increased. Afterwards, a significant decrease in the apparent Km of mitochondrial respiration for ADP also appeared, followed by a diminution of the maximal respiration rate which was partly restored by adding cytochrome c. Finally, for the most severe conditions of ischemia, the basal respiratory rate also increased. These observations are indicative of a sequence of alterations affecting first the intermembrane space, then the outer mitochondrial membrane, and finally the inner membrane. The discussion is focused on the very early alterations, that could not be detected using the conventional techniques of isolated mitochondria. We postulate that these alterations to the intermembrane space and outer mitochondrial membrane can induce disturbances both in the channelling of energy from the mitochondria, and on the signalling towards the mitochondria. The potential consequences on the regulation of the production of energy (ATP, PC) by the mitochondria are evoked.