Book review

Published in 1989, 585 pages, $180; Available from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, 345 East 47th St., Publication Sales Department, New York, NY 10017.     

Aging and everyday memory: A cross-cultural study.

Performance on computer-simulated, everyday memory tasks was found to deteriorate with age in 434 Belgian (aged 14–88 yrs) and 434 American Ss matched on gender and age. This age-related memory decline was reasonably consistent across samples. Difficulties in cross-cultural research and the advantages of ecologically valid measurement instruments are discussed. Instruments included a grocery list selective reminding test, the Wechsler Memory Scale, the Benton Visual Retention Test, and the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Neue Entwicklungen beim Hohlkatoden‐Gasflusssputtern. New Developments in Hollow Cathode Gas Flow Sputtering

The gas flow sputter technique was invented a few years ago particularly for the inexpensive fabrication of sophisticated ceramic layers. Meanwhile, it has matured and become increasingly powerful. Today it is on the verge of being applied in industrial fabrication processes. The present article gives an overview over the method, its characteristics and the numerous applications.     

Age effects in coding tasks: Componential analysis and test of the sensory deficit hypothesis.

Multiple forms of a symbol-digit substitution task were used to provide a componential analysis of age differences in coding task performance. The results demonstrated age differences in feature encoding, memory, and visual search. A 2nd experiment was conducted with young adults to investigate a sensory deficit as a locus of age differences. The spatial contrast sensitivity deficit of older adults was simulated on forms by applying a digital filter. Persons in the age-simulated contrast condition performed worse than those in the normal contrast condition. The stimulus degradation effect was linked to visual search speed. The study illustrates the utility of componential analysis and offers direct support for the hypothesis that sensory deficits affect performance on tasks used to assess intelligence (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age-related slowing and the time course of semantic priming in visual word identification.

Investigated, in 4 experiments, the time course of semantic priming effects during 2 forms of visual word identification, lexical decision and pronunciation. On each trial, a target letter string was preceded by a single-word priming context. The effects of varying the stimulus onset asynchrony between the prime and the target indicated that the time course of semantic priming was equivalent for young and older adults. There were no consistent differences between lexical decision and pronunciation in the time course of semantic priming. The age differences associated with response selection were greater than would be predicted by generalized age-related slowing. The semantic priming effects were also inconsistent with a generalized slowing model, but the reliability of these effects was substantially lower than the reliability of the other task-related variables. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A New Method for Comparing Orthonasal and Retronasal Olfaction.

Odors seem to be perceived differently when presented ortho- or retronasally. In this study, stimuli of controlled concentration and duration were applied in either the anterior nasal cavity or epipharynx by means of air-dilution olfactometry. Stimulus concentration was monitored in the olfactory cleft. In Experiment 1, odor thresholds to a food (chocolate) and a nonfood (lavender) odor were lower for orthonasal, compared with retronasal, stimulation. In Experiment 2, intensity ratings to suprathreshold odor concentrations were significantly higher for orthonasal than for retronasal stimulation with hydro- hydrogen sulfide, but not phenyl ethyl alcohol. Accordingly, amplitudes and latencies of olfactory event-related gen potentials to retronasal stimuli were found to be smaller and prolonged, respectively. This indicates differential processing of olfactory stimuli presented through the retronasal or orthonasal routes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Refactoring and converting a TTCN-2 test suite

When deploying TTCN-3 at Nokia, we converted two TTCN-2 test systems to TTCN-3. We explain to which extend we have been able to do the conversion automatically. The conversion tool used provided a syntactically and semantically correct conversion of the TTCN-2 code. We define some improvements made on the tool to increase readability and maintainability of the resulting code. We cover aspects of converting also the non-TTCN-2 parts and describe the experiences we made as a set of lessons learnt.     

Credibility and applicability of virtual reality models in design and construction

In this paper, we present the findings from an extensive study of the use of virtual reality (VR) models in large construction projects. The study includes two parts: The first part presents a quantitative questionnaire designed to investigate how VR models are experienced and assessed by the workforce at a building site. The second part includes a qualitative field survey of how VR models can be applied and accepted by professionals in the design and planning process of a large pelletizing plant. Through mainly studying persons who had little or no experience with advanced information technology (IT), we hoped to reveal the attitudes of the average person working at a construction site rather than of an IT expert. In summary, the study shows that the VR models in both projects have been very useful and well accepted by the users. Today’s information flow is, from a general point of view, considered to be insufficient and the hypothesis is that using VR models in the construction process have the potential to minimize waste of resources and improve the final result.