Do pictorial mnemonic text-learning aids give students something worth writing about?

In 2 experiments, college students read a historical passage on aspects of human intelligence. Students were randomly assigned to 2 different instructional conditions to process the passage: mnemonic, where keywords for intelligence theorists' surnames and line drawings linking the theorists and their contributions were provided, and free study, where participants were given summary paragraphs and were instructed to use their own preferred study methods. In both experiments, mnemonic participants remembered more names and contributions than did free-study participants: (a) on immediate and 1-week delayed matching tasks and (b) in written essays, with no compensating decrement in the essays' structural coherence. The findings illustrate that mnemonic techniques are useful in improving both students' memory for and application of central textual information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Use of a structured investigative protocol enhances young children's responses to free-recall prompts in the course of forensic interviews.

One hundred alleged victims of child sexual abuse (ages 4–12 years; M?=?8.1 years) were interviewed by police investigators about their alleged experiences. Half of the children were interviewed using the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development's structured interview protocol, whereas the other children—matched with respect to their age, relationship with the alleged perpetrator, and seriousness of the alleged offenses—were interviewed using standard interview practices. Protocol-guided interviews elicited more information using open-ended prompts and less information using option-posing and suggestive questions than did standard interviews; there were no age differences in the amount of information provided in response to open-ended invitations. In 89% of the protocol interviews, children made their preliminary allegations in response to open-ended prompts, compared with 36% in the standard interviews. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory: Development and validation of a short version.

This article reports on the development of a revised version of the Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory (OCI; E. B. Foa, M. J. Kozak, P. Salkovskis, M. E. Coles, & N. Amir, 1998), a psychometrically sound, theoretically driven, self-report measure. The revised OCI (OCI-R) improves on the parent version in 3 ways: It eliminates the redundant frequency scale, simplifies the scoring of the subscales, and reduces overlap across subscales. The reliability and validity of the OCI-R were examined in 215 patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), 243 patients with other anxiety disorders, and 677 nonanxious individuals. The OCI-R, which contains 18 items and 6 subscales, has retained excellent psychometric properties. The OCI-R and its subscales differentiated well between individuals with and without OCD. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses demonstrated the usefulness of the OCI-R as a diagnostic tool for screening patients with OCD, utilizing empirically derived cutscores. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

When Is the Ball Going to Hit the Ground? Duration Estimates, Eye Movements, and Mental Imagery of Object Motion.

Performance in 2 versions of a computer-animated task was compared. Participants either indicated the time of arrival of a target that rolled off a horizontal surface and fell--hidden from view--onto a landing point (production task) or judged flight time on a rating scale (judgment task). As predicted, performance was significantly better in the production task (Experiment 1), in which imagery of object motion probably replaced reasoning processes. Participants who exhibited eye movements suggesting mental tracking performed particularly well in the production task (Experimenl 2). There was, however, no decrement in performance when participants were asked to fixate the point where the target disappeared. For motion duration estimations, eye movements seem to be only a by-product of mental tracking. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age differences in young children's responses to open-ended invitations in the course of forensic interviews.

To elucidate age differences in responses to free-recall prompts (i.e., invitations and cued invitations) and focused recognition prompts (i.e., option-posing and suggestive utterances), the authors examined 130 forensic interviews of 4- to 8-year-old alleged victims of sexual abuse. There were age differences in the total number of details elicited as well as in the number of details elicited using each of the different types of prompts, especially invitations. More details were elicited from older than from younger children in response to all types of prompts, but there were no age differences in the proportion of details (about 50%) elicited using invitations. Cued invitations elicited 18% of the total details, and the number of details elicited using cued invitations increased with age. Action-based cues consistently elicited more details than other types of cues. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

驱动发白光二极管的电压/电流变换器电路

有时候人们需要用一节1.5V电池来驱动一只白色发光二极管(LED).令人遗憾的是,白色LED的正向电压为3～4V.所以,必须使用一个DC/DC变换器才能用一节电池驱动白色LED .利用图1所示的简单电路,仅用几只元件就可驱动一只白色LED或两只串接的绿色LED.该电路是一种电压/电流变换器,它能把电池电压变换成流过LED的电流.     

Toward a developmental psychology of Sehnsucht (life longings): The optimal (utopian) life.

The topic of an optimal or utopian life has received much attention across the humanities and the arts but not in psychology. The German concept of Sehnsucht captures individual and collective thoughts and feelings about one's optimal or utopian life. Sehnsucht (life longings; LLs) is defined as an intense desire for alternative states and realizations of life. Presenting a first effort at capturing this phenomenon, the authors conceptualize LLs as composed of 6 interrelated core characteristics: (a) utopian conceptions of ideal development; (b) sense of incompleteness and imperfection of life; (c) conjoint time focus on the past, present, and future; (d) ambivalent (bittersweet) emotions; (e) reflection and evaluation of one's life; and (f) symbolic richness. Self-report data from 299 adults (19-81 years) support the postulated structure and support predictions regarding the functional role of Sehnsucht. Having LLs was evaluated as providing direction to development and helping to manage life's incompleteness. At the same time, the frequent and intense experience of LLs was associated with lower well-being. When LLs were perceived as controllable, however, this negative association disappeared. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Patientenverfügungen aus Patientensicht

Definition of the problem: Advance directives are more and more discussed in public. Still, we don’t know much about patients attitudes concerning these tools. Methods and results: Between March 2002 and August 2003 the research project “Patients as partners—Tumour patients and their participation at medical decisions” carried out a survey of 272 palliativ tumour patients. The patients were asked for their attitude towards advance directives and for their wishes for participation at medical decisions. A total of 30% of the patients did not know what an advance directive is, amongst them significantly more patients with lower education degrees; 11% had already concluded an advance directive, 22% said, they probably wanted to conclude and 30% did not want to conclude an advance directive in the future. We found a statistically significant connection between the conclusion of an advance directive and the wish for more autonomy in medical decisions. The attitude towards advance directives and the wish for a shared decision-making (sdm) have no statistically significant connection. Conclusion: Patients with advance directives have a stronger need for communication and feed back. This should be sensitively considered by doctors. Information about advance directives stronger consider people with lower education degrees.     

Lipids and antioxidants in groats and hulls of Swedish oats (Avena sativa L)

Concentrations and compositions of total lipids (TL), fatty acids, tocopherols and tocotrienols, avenanthramides and free hydroxycinnamic acids were determined in groats and hulls from single samples of seven Swedish oat cultivars. Total antioxidant capacity (TAC) was measured using the radical 1,1‐diphenyl‐2‐picrylhydrazyl as substrate. Results were evaluated by principal component analysis. Consistent differences in value of the variables analysed in groats and hulls were found, groats having higher concentrations of all compounds analysed except free cinnamic acids. Concentrations of E‐vitamers (especially tocotrienols) were high in both groat and hull samples with high TL. Avenanthramides were high in hull samples with high TL, but this was not found in groats. Free cinnamic acids did not follow TL in either groats or hulls. TAC was generally higher in groats than in hulls. The within‐group variation in TAC was less pronounced than that in chemical composition, especially in groats. The results did not suggest any strong relationship between TAC and individual antioxidants. © 2002 Society of Chemical Industry