Psychotherapy and the twelve step approach for substance abusers: The limits of integration.

Argues that while there is potential for successful blending of 12-step approaches and psychotherapies for chemical dependency at the level of helping strategies/techniques, some basic differences in values and philosophy will make it impossible to ever fully integrate the 2 approaches without compromising one or the other approach. Some of the differences between the 2 approaches involve leadership (indigenous vs professional), individual control (increasing vs decreasing), and spirituality (enhanced vs decreased). Given that psychotherapy and the 12-step approach must remain largely independent, a model for interactions based on mutual respect, independent control, and cooperation is suggested. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Building Bridges to Material Properties in General Chemistry Laboratories: A Model for Integration Across Disciplines

Many engineering students enter and exit general chemistry courses with little appreciation of chemistry's relevance to other fields. At WPI many of these students go on to take introductory materials science and arrive with poor attitudes about chemistry and little retention of key concepts, but then become more engaged as they discover connections to engineering applications. Consequently, instructors in chemistry and mechanical engineering collaborated to augment general chemistry laboratories with explicit “bridges” to material properties and applications. Evaluation results showed that while students' attitudes toward chemistry were unaffected by bridging, particular aspects of the students' lab experience were enhanced to a statistically significant degree. Similar cross‐disciplinary collaborations might be considered elsewhere as a means of helping students find meaning and integrate subject matter, in a manner that is more feasible than large‐scale course or curriculum restructuring.     

Working memory in mild Alzheimer's disease and early Parkinson's disease.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD) impair working memory (WM). It is unclear, however, whether the deficits seen early in the course of these diseases are similar. To address this issue, the authors compared the performance of 22 patients with mild AD, 20 patients with early PD and without dementia, and 112 control participants on tests of inhibition, short-term memory, and 2 commonly administered tests of WM. The results suggest that although mild AD and early PD both impair WM, the deficits may be related to the interruption of different processes that contribute to WM performance. Early PD disrupted inhibitory processes, whereas mild AD did not. The WM deficits seen in patients with AD may be secondary to deficits in other cognitive capacities, including semantic memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Normality and impairment following profound early institutional deprivation: A longitudinal follow-up into early adolescence.

Longitudinal analyses on normal versus impaired functioning across 7 domains were conducted in children who had experienced profound institutional deprivation up to the age of 42 months and were adopted from Romania into U.K. families. Comparisons were made with noninstitutionalized children adopted from Romania and with nondeprived within-U.K. adoptees placed before the age of 6 months. Specifically, the validity of the assessment, the degree of continuity and change in levels of functioning from 6 to 11 years, and the factors in the pre- and postadoption environment accounting for heterogeneity in outcome were examined. Pervasive impairment was significantly raised in children experiencing institutional deprivation for ≥6 months of life, with a minority within this group showing no impairment. There was no additional significant effect of duration of deprivation beyond the 6-month cutoff, and few other predictors explained outcome. The pattern of normality/impairment was mainly established by 6 years of age, with considerable continuity at the individual level between 6 and 11 years. The findings are discussed in terms of the possibility of a sensitive period for development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Color Grouping in Space and Time: Evidence From Negative Color-Based Carryover Effects in Preview Search.

Five experiments addressed the role of color grouping in preview search (D. G. Watson & G. W. Humphreys, 1997). Experiment 1 used opposite color ratios of distractors in preview and second search displays, creating equal numbers of distractors in each color group in the final display. There was selective slowing for new targets carrying the majority color of the old items. This effect held when there was no bias in the preview and only the second search set had an uneven color ratio (Experiment 2). In Experiment 3, participants had foreknowledge of the target color, and effects were shown over and above those due to color biases. Experiment 4 demonstrated negative color carryover even when previews changed color. Experiment 5 showed reduced color carryover effects when previews were presented more briefly. Collectively, the results provide evidence for inhibitory carryover effects in preview search based on feature grouping. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Peer-tutoring: Applied behavior analysis working in the classroom.

Schools often use peer-tutoring as a corrective program for students who are experiencing difficulties academically. Given appropriate behavioral structure, peer-tutoring can become a powerful classwide instructional intervention. An historical perspective on the use of students as teachers for their peers is given in this selective literature review. Also, information on the efficacy of considering behavioral function and structure and data addressing ecobehavioral variables to establish a productive learning environment are provided. The authors emphasize infusing peer-tutoring programs with applied behavior analysis techniques to increase the academic success of large numbers of students cost effectively. Peer-tutoring programs are considered to be a way for applied behavior analysts to gain greater access to American school learning environments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Global shape cannot be attended without object identification.

Tested whether the global shape of objects can be processed without accessing semantic or identity information. Ss judged which of 2 fragmented forms had the same global shape as a reference stimulus. Matching stimuli could be physically identical, semantically related, or unrelated. The reference stimulus and nonmatching (distractor) form could be semantically related or unrelated. Similarity effects in the related condition were unconfounded with matches nameable and nonnameable forms. For nameable forms, related matching forms facilitated performance; a related distractor disrupted performance. Semantic interference was eliminated when nameable distractors were replaced with nonnameable partners; semantic similarity effects on matching were eliminated with a nonnameable reference stimulus and with inverted targets and distractors. Access to information concerning global shape does not normally occur without object identification. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Working memory and articulation rate in children with spastic diplegic cerebral palsy.

A. D. Baddeley, N. Thomson, and M. Buchanan (1975) suggested that articulatory rehearsal rate determines the amount of verbal material that can be maintained in working memory. In the current study, 12 children with spastic diplegic cerebral palsy (SDCP) and 38 normal children were tested on measures of articulation rate and memory span for 1-, 2-, and 3-syllable words. Across all conditions, articulation rate for the SDCP group was significantly slower than for the normal group; nonetheless, memory span was equivalent for both groups. This finding implies that covert rehearsal proceeded normally for the SDCP group, in spite of decrements in speech rate. Thus, the relationship between overt and covert rehearsal rates differs for children with SDCP compared with normal children. Findings from the current study further suggest that normal speech rates are not necessary for development of normal covert rehearsal rates. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)