Excesses of the normalization concept.

Comments on S. Landesman and E. C. Butterfield's (see record 1988-01920-001) review of the normalization/deinstitutionalization controversy in the mental retardation field. It is argued that by basing their position on the rules of evidence, the published literature, and rational inference, the authors were unable to give a full account of the ideologues who currently dominate the extremes of the controversy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Definitely not a breeze: Extending an operant model of effective supervision to teams.

To identify what leaders ought to do to orchestrate optimal team performance, an expanded model of effective supervision was tested in a setting combining realism, control, and clear-cut outcomes. The components of the empirically based operant model—monitoring and consequences—were extended to tasks requiring the integration of team efforts. A sailboat regatta was arranged, with series standings as the primary measure of supervisory effectiveness. Using the Operant Supervisory Team Taxonomy and Index, trained observers recorded skippers' (N?=?19) actions. As predicted, racing success correlated significantly (p?r?=?–.51 and –.47, respectively) during the actual races. The relationship between the model's two critical behaviors and an unfiltered measure of effectiveness has implications for the group and leadership literatures as well as for management practices. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A consciousness-sampling analysis of test anxiety and performance.

To evaluate cognitive-interference, reassertion, and reaction-to-performance models of test anxiety, 82 university students completed the Test Anxiety Scale, provided state measures of anxiety just before and after a course examination, described their preparation for the test, and reported thought content and state anxiety up to 6 times during the test. Test Anxiety Scale scores were predictive of pre- and posttest state anxiety but not performance or problem-solving thought frequency during the test. Thought content was significantly but weakly correlated with performance, which was well correlated with posttest state anxiety but not with pretest anxiety. Pretest state anxiety was virtually uncorrelated with posttest state anxiety, with the correlations gradually declining during the test. Question-answering thought content correlated inversely with anxiety during the test. There was no group for whom anxiety appeared to facilitate performance. Preparation correlated only with performance. Results appear inconsistent with a cognitive-interference interpretation of test anxiety and suggest that, in the naturalistic setting used, anxiety is more clearly an effect than a cause of poor performance. (39 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Short Communication: application of a surrogate material in assessing the impact of porosity on re‐ignition of wood‐based materials

Re‐ignition behaviour of charred solid fuels after extinction by water is studied. In this communication the effect of material porosity on re‐ignition is investigated. A surrogate ceramic material is used so as to separate the pyrolysis and combustion processes from those associated with heat transfer. Experimental data are reported for different sample thickness and porosity, and varying heat flux and water application time. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Long-term stability and intercorrelations of cognitive abilities in older persons.

This project studied the intercorrelations and long-term stabilities of standard Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale—Revised (WAIS—R), Wechsler Memory Scale—Revised (WMS—R), and Auditory–Verbal Learning Test (AVLT) summary indexes. It also reports similar data on the recently published Mayo Cognitive Factor Scales (MCFS), which are derivative indexes for the combined administrations of these 3 tests. These analyses challenge 2 assumptions that most psychologists make when interpreting adult cognitive tests: (a) that for cognitively normal people, performance in one cognitive domain correlates well with and predicts functioning in other cognitive domains, and (b) that in the absence of pathology, cognition is stable. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relating laboratory and outdoor exposure of coatings: II

The effect of relative humidity (RH) from ≪1% to 90% on the photodegradation and quantum efficiency for a partially-methylated melamine acrylic coating exposed to UV/50°C condition has been investigated. The UV source is supplied by two 1000 W Xenon arc solar simulators and the relative humidities are provided by specially designed humidity generators, which control relative humidity in the 0 to 90% range to within <3% of the measured values. Radiation absorbed in the coating and degradation of the films are measured by UV-visible and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopies, respectively. The degradation at a particular RH/UV condition consists of four different modes: reactions taken place during post curing, hydrolysis due to water in the film at a particular RH, photodegradation, and moisture-enhanced photodegradation. Total degradation, hydrolysis, and moisture-enhanced photodegradation increase with increasing RH. At low relative humidities, photodegradation is an important degradation mode but hydrolysis dominates the degradation at high RH levels. Moisture in the film is found to increase the quantum efficiency of acrylic melamine coating photodegradation. 100 Bureau Dr., Stop 8621, Gaithersburg, MD 20899.     

Doping properties of selected impurities in Hg1−x Cdx Te

The doping properties of selected impurities in Hg_1-x Cd_x Te have been determined. Primary emphasis is on elements from Groups IB and IIIA, expected to substitute on the metal sublattice, and on elements from Groups VA and VIIA, expected to substitute on the Te sublattice. In addition, the behavior of some elements from Group IV as well as behavior of Li has been determined. Impurities were introduced into Hg_1-x Cd_x Te either by diffusion or during crystal growth. Cu, Ag and Li are fast diffusing acceptors, Ga is a fast diffusing donor, Al and Si are donors which require high diffusion temperature to effect diffusion, P and As are slowly diffusing acceptors and Br is a slowly diffusing donor. Sn appears to be inactive. In general, impurities substituted on the metal sublattice are rapid diffusers while those substituted on Te sites are slow diffueers. Supported in part by the Air Force Materials Laboratory, WPAFB, Ohio.     

Associative tolerance to nicotine analgesia in the rat: Tail-flick and hot-plate tests.

Previous assessments of associative nicotine tolerance may have confounded associative effects with novelty-induced stress effects, instrumental learning effects, or both. That is, subjects were tested in novel environments, allowed to practice the test response, or both during the tolerance development phase. In the first study, 32 male Sprague-Dawley rats were injected with various doses of nicotine and tested for nociception in the tail-flick and hot-plate tests to assess nicotine's analgesic effects. In the second study, 35 rats received nicotine explicitly paired or unpaired with a distinctive test context. All animals were equally preexposed to the test environment, and none had the opportunity to practice the test response. Paired rats developed greater nicotine tolerance than unpaired rats. This context-dependent (associative) tolerance effect was found with both tail-flick and hot-plate tests. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reestimating Zajonc's confluence effects on the SAT.

In response to the article by R. B. Zajonc (see record 1987-02628-001) on the confluence model and prediction of national Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores, the present authors reestimate Zajonc's model using their estimates of proportion of high school seniors taking the SAT. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Nontidal wetland mapping in South Carolina using airborne multispectral scanner data

High resolution multispectral scanner (MSS) imagery of Savannah River nontidal wetlands were analyzed to identify 1) useful spectral bands for discriminating among National Wetland Inventory classes, 2) where the classes cluster in n-dimensional feature space, and 3) what wetland classification accuracies can be expected. Spectral measurements in the green (0.55–0.60 μm), red (0.65–0.70 μm), and near-infrared wavelengths (0.70–0.79 μm and 0.92–1.10 μm) provided the most useful information. Emergent marsh (both persistent and nonpersistent), scrub-shrub, mixed deciduous swamp forest, and mixed deciduous upland forest were found to cluster in somewhat predictable regions of 2- and 3-dimensional feature space. The overall classification accuracy of the Steel Creek delta study area was 83% and was assessed by comparing the remote sensing derived thematic map with 1325 linear meters of transects sampled in situ. These results suggest that high resolution aircraft MSS data can provide detailed vegetation type information for mapping both thermally affected and rejuvenating nontidal wetland in the South Carolina Savannah River Swamp System.