Age differences in visual search for compound patterns: Long- versus short-range grouping.

Visual search for compound patterns was examined in observers aged 6, 8, 10, and 22 years. The main question was whether age-related improvement in search rate (response time slope over number of items) was different for patterns defined by short- versus long-range spatial relations. Perceptual access to each type of relation was varied by using elements of same contrast (easy to access) or mixed contrast (hard to access). The results showed large improvements with age in search rate for long-range targets; search rate for short-range targets was fairly constant across age. This pattern held regardless of whether perceptual access to a target was easy or hard, supporting the hypothesis that different processes are involved in perceptual grouping at these two levels. The results also point to important links between ontogenic and microgenic change in perception (H. Werner, 1948, 1957). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Early withdrawal from mental health treatment: Implications for psychotherapy practice.

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 46(2) of Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training (see record 2009-08897-009). The fourth author’s name was mistakenly left out of the author byline and table of contents. The correct author listing for this article is presented in the erratum.] Despite more than 50 years of research on client attrition from therapy, obstacles to the delivery and success of treatments remain poorly understood, and effective methods to engage and retain clients in therapy are lacking. This article offers a review of the literature on attrition, highlighting the methodological challenges in effectively addressing the complex nature of this problem. Current interventions for reducing attrition are reviewed, and recommendations for implementing these interventions into psychotherapy practice are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Expertise and category-based induction.

The authors examined inductive reasoning among experts in a domain. Three types of tree experts (landscapers, taxonomists, and parks maintenance personnel) completed 3 reasoning tasks. In Experiment 1, participants inferred which of 2 novel diseases would affect "more other kinds of trees" and provided justifications for their choices. In Experiment 2, the authors used modified instructions and asked which disease would be more likely to affect "all trees." In Experiment 3, the conclusion category was eliminated altogether, and participants were asked to generate a list of other affected trees. Among these populations, typicality and diversity effects were weak to nonexistent. Instead, experts' reasoning was influenced by "local" coverage (extension of the property to members of the same folk family) and causal-ecological factors. The authors concluded that domain knowledge leads to the use of a variety of reasoning strategies not captured by current models of category-based induction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Early prospective studies of the high school dropout.

A limited number of empirical studies conducted between 1950 and 1970 used longitudinal designs to examine the relations between psychological characteristics of students and subsequent high school dropout. Five prospective studies demonstrated that modest but significant relations existed between completing high school and measures of personality gathered in the seventh, eighth or ninth grades. Stronger relations were found in three early studies that examined the link between sociometric measures gathered in late elementary school and high school graduation 6 or 7 years later. Results clarified some methodological requirements for useful research on school completion and suggested that social and emotional variables explain some of the variance in school dropout that is independent of academic performance. Implications are drawn for effective school dropout research, policies, and practices at the local, state, and national levels. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Probabilistic Behavior of Water-Quality Loads

A theoretical model is introduced for describing the mechanistic and probabilistic structure of observations of streamflow Q, concentration C, and constituent loads L. The model has application to many water-quality management problems including load estimation, water-quality monitoring network design and total maximum daily load assessment. The statistical behavior of streamflow, concentration, and load is described and expressions are derived for the coefficient of variation of daily concentrations and loads assuming a bivariate lognormal model. The model provides a first-order approximation to continuous empirical observations of C, Q, and L from four watersheds in the Great Lakes Region. The utility of the model is demonstrated by quantifying the amount of “spurious” correlation between load and discharge, by documenting factors which influence bias in water-quality load estimates and those which give rise to increased/decreased variability in water-quality loads and concentrations.     

An examination of the efficacy of conjoint behavioral consultation with diverse clients.

This study explored the efficacy of conjoint behavioral consultation (CBC) by assessing objective outcomes and social validity with a sample of students with and without diversity. Diversity characteristics that were investigated included ethnicity, socioeconomic status, family composition, maternal education level, and language spoken in the home. Behavioral change, goal attainment, acceptability, satisfaction, and perceptions of efficacy of the CBC model were measured with 125 students representing varying levels of diversity, and 192 target behaviors. Data were collected across 8 years of a federally funded training program across two states. Findings indicated that CBC-mediated interventions yielded generally high effect sizes regardless of the presence of diversity or the number of diverse characteristics exhibited. Social validity measures also yielded very favorable results, suggesting that participants (teachers and family members, including those who experienced some form of diversity) found the procedures positive. Implications for research and practice are presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

When tactical pronouncements of change become real change: The case of reciprocal persuasion.

In 3 experiments, Ss' public statements of attitude change conformed to the norm of reciprocity, in that the most change on a topic was accorded to a persuader who had yielded to the S's earlier persuasive attempt on a prior topic, and the least such change was accorded to a persuader who had resisted the S's persuasive attempt. This tendency was unaffected by perceptions of the persuader's likability and intelligence, personal relevance of the topic, and strength of the arguments. Private change matched the pattern of public change only when the arguments Ss received were strong, and Ss could (mistakenly) attribute much of their reciprocation-induced change to the cogency of the arguments. Implications are discussed for the internalization of socially desirable conduct. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)