Impaired Performance on a Dual Memory Systems Task Among Dyslexics

B. Jones, J. Pall, G. Minsavage, & J.M. Coffin
King’s College

To determine if dyslexia could impair learning and memory in a dual memory task, participants were simultaneously tested on a cerebellar-dependent task, eyeblink classical conditioning (EBCC) in the delay paradigm, and a verbal memory task (recall of a list of 25 unrelated words).  Following the session, participants were tested on immediate recall and then recognition of the target words.  EBCC data were assessed and stored for later comparisons.  Following a 48 hour interval, all subjects were retested on EBCC, and asked to recall the list of words presented in the first test session.  Results were then compared to normal controls.  It was expected that word recall would be significantly impaired.  However, dyslexics performed significantly below the performances of controls in both tasks.  None of the experimental participants reached the criterion of 8/9 CRs in the EBCC task.  The data suggest that dyslexics may have difficulty with initial acquisition of implicit memory tasks like EBCC, which may be due to alterations in cerebellar circuitry.

Leadership and Democracy: An Evolutionary Perspective

William J. Jones
University of Scranton

“They are in you and in me; they created us, body and mind; and their preservation is the ultimate rationale for our existence…Now they go by the name of genes, and we are their survival machines.”  As Dawkins points out in the Selfish Gene, behavior is influenced by our genetic ancestry.  Such a concept should necessarily force social scientists to reexamine traditional models of thought.  A more complete understanding of behavior requires a bridge between the physical and social world.  This view opens up the possibility that our social realm is interacting with evolved psychological mechanisms.  Hence, the observer may come to realize that even choosing a leader interrelates not just with the social of now but also with millions of years of evolved behavioral selection.

Predicting Scholastic Performance Using Personality Characteristics

Boyce Jubilan, Patricia Long, & James Whitaker
Allentown College of St. Francis de Sales

The Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) is designed to measure college student’s academic potential, but not personality.  Freshman students were administered a Motivation Rating Scale and Rotter’s Locus of Control.  Results show a significant inverse correlation between motivation and midterm grade point average (mid-GPA); and SAT scores and mid-GPA.  No significant correlation was found between locus and SAT score; motivation and SAT score; and locus and mid-GPA.

Videogame Usage vs. Active Exercise and Their Effect on Blood Chemistry

Deirdre Kasper, Sarah Welsh, & Catherine Chambliss, PH.D.
Ursinus College

College students are devoting increasing amounts of time to videogame activities and less to exercise.  Video game participation, especially playing sports or action games, simulates involvement in aggressive situations.  This may activate the fight-or-flight response in players.  This response has been associated with blood chemistry changes (such as elevated triglyceride and free-fatty acid levels) possibly linked to cardiac risks.  College students who play these games excessively may, therefore, place themselves at greater risk for developing cardiovascular problems.  Since active exercise seems to neutralize some of these problematic blood chemistry changes, those videogame players who remain physically active should attenuate their risk.
This investigation explored the relationship between videogame usage, active exercise, television viewing, and measures of blood pressure.  Twenty males ages 18-22 and three females ages 19-20 were given a questionnaire to measure their videogame and television usage and exercise patterns.  Smoking habits were also assessed as this can have detrimental effects on their health possibly resulting in elevated blood pressure.  Their blood pressure was taken by one of the experimenters while the subject was sitting, at rest.
Both diastolic and systolic blood pressures were lower among participants in the low videogame usage group than among those in the medium and high usage groups.  This pilot investigation suggests the need for additional research exploring the possible detrimental effects of high levels of videogame usage using a larger, more representative sample.

High School Peer Helping: A Program Evaluation

Lisa Kilgariff, Mindy Solomon, Mary Zanotti, & Catherine Chambliss, Ph.D.
Ursinus College

Peer helpers can act as liaisons to high school guidance departments by identifying problems, making appropriate referrals, and encouraging others to obtain professional help if necessary.  An active program can help ensure that in the future students are better prepared to handle conflicts that arise within marriage, career, and family.  The purpose of the present study was to assess the problems most troubling to adolescents today as perceived by the trained peer helpers.  In addition, the perceived effectiveness of the peer helper training program was evaluated.  It was hypothesized that the major problems faced by students in the high school would fall into the broad categories of family, friends, and stress.  It was also expected that the peer helpers would view their training as preparing them well to handle the problems presented by their classmates.  To investigate these hypotheses, a self-report questionnaire was designed to evaluate how frequently peer helpers were approached for help with various problems and the peer helpers’ perceptions of the effectiveness of the training they received before assuming their responsibilities.  For interpretive purposes, the components of the Presenting Problem Scale were divided into three categories: general problems, specific problems, and academic problems.  Of all the presenting problems, discussion of friendships was found to be the most prevalent.  World issues were rarely broached.  The majority of academic problems brought to natural helpers dealt with grades and goals.  The Training Satisfaction Scale scores indicated that helpers evaluated their preparations positively.

The Effects of Age Cohorts on Voice Recognition: Earwitness Reliability in Relation to Age Specificity

Amy M. Kohut
Elizabethtown College

Murray and Cort (1971) have theorized that school children may be better at identifying the voices of their peers because they are in contact with each other during long periods of a school day.  This experiment investigated whether or not age cohorts have an effect on voice recognition and age estimation.  Thirty students and ten professors from Elizabethtown College were presented with taped voices taken from three age groups (ages 17-19, 33-61, and 73-87).  For each age division there was one male and one female voice presented.  Each tape that was presented contained six voice identification trials where the participants listened to a target voice and then were asked to identify that particular voice from an array of four other voices.  Additionally, the individuals were asked to estimate the age of the targeted speaker.  Results indicated that while both the students and professors were equally accurate at identifying the voices, a main effect was found  to support greater ability of the students to estimate the ages of the speakers.

Advice to Psychology Majors: Analysis of 101 Letters to Incoming Freshman From Graduating Seniors

Paul M. Krebs, Meghan M. Perry, Carole S. Slotterback, and John C. Norcross
University of Scranton

Research has steadfastly identified peers as the most salient and credible sources of information to adolescents and young adults.  Graduating psychology majors enrolled in a senior seminar authored 101 letters to incoming psychology freshman in order to supply them with recommendations regarding the collegiate experience.  These 101 letters were independently coded by two raters and quantitatively analyzed.  The letters were commonly positive in tone (68% rated positive; 27% neutral or balanced; 5% negative).  Prevailing advice centered on becoming involved in student organizations, cultivating study skills, securing research experience, and living college to its fullest.  Superordinate categorization revealed that about one-half of the advice addressed the psychology program and one-quarter addressed personal and individual life.  Evaluative data demonstrated favorable reactions to the assignment by both the senior authors and the freshman recipients: 91% of seniors and 88% of freshman rated the educational effectiveness of the letters as medium to high.  Both groups also opined that the practice of letters to incoming freshman should continue in the future (0% no; 14% maybe; 86% yes).  The results served as feedback to students enrolled in the senior seminar as well as the freshman seminar and will be disseminated in the Psychology Handbook and future workshops.  Further pedagogical and advising uses of these results are discussed.

Conducting Psychotherapy with Psychotherapists: Preliminary Findings

Elizabeth K. Kurzawa, John C. Norcross, & Jesse D. Geller*
University of Scranton & *Yale University

Between 65% and 85% of American mental health professionals have undergone personal therapy or analysis themselves.  Several research studies in the past decade have examined the therapist-patient experiences of receiving personal therapy, such as their treatment outcomes, therapist selection criteria, and lasting lessons (e.g., Grunebaum, 1983; Norcross, 1988; Pope & Tabachnik 1994).  However, empirical research has not yet investigated therapists' experiences in conducting treatment with fellow psychotherapists.

The objective of this study was to secure data on psychologists’ experiences in conducting psychotherapy with mental health professionals. A five-page questionnaire was sent to 1,500 randomly selected members and fellows of the American Psychological Association’s (APA) Division of Psychotherapy. This poster presents preliminary results on selected portions of the larger study, specifically the prevalence of treating fellow psychotherapists, type of psychotherapist patients, satisfactions and stressors of conducting such psychotherapy, and advice for fellow psychotherapists to help them with other psychotherapists.

Results are based on the initial 229 psychologists returning the questionnaire. Approximately 38% were female, and 96% were Caucasian/White. The average age of the respondents was 54 years old (SD = 10 years). Highest academic degrees were 4% EdD, 4% PsyD and 91% PhD. Predominant theoretical orientations of the psychologists were psychodynamic (21%), eclectic (20%), cognitive (17%), and interpersonal (8%).

On average, 5% to 8% of psychologists’ psychotherapy caseload consisted of fellow mental health professionals. The professional disciplines of these mental health professionals were primarily psychologists (36%), social workers (29%), and counselors (21%). In terms of the career status of the treated therapists, 26% were trainees, 38% were in their early careers, and 29% were in their mid or late careers. Theoretical orientations of the treated therapists tended to be eclectic, behavioral, and psychoanalytic. Over 87% of the mental health professionals were voluntary self-referrals; only a few were mandatory (4%). The psychotherapy format was overwhelmingly individual therapy.

The most frequently nominated satisfactions of conducting psychotherapy with fellow psychotherapists were better clients, helping a therapist to become more effective, acknowledgement by peers, and contributing to the profession. The most frequently nominated stressors were activating therapist anxieties, more resistant to change, more critical clients, and boundary concerns. The most frequently nominated advice was to treat all patients equally and consistently, to maintain clear boundaries, and not overidentify or assume too much about the client.

The Relationship Between Gender, Type of Contribution and Type of Sport on Level of Competitiveness

Allison  Lucey
Elizabethtown College

Factors that may have an effect on an individual's level of competitiveness were examined; in particular, gender, type of sport (individual vs. team) and team rank (physical contribution of the team).  Students from Elizabethtown College were sampled including 139 athletes from the men's and women's basketball, soccer, and cross-country teams, plus the men's wrestling team.  A control group of 26 General Psychology students were also studied.  Ages of participants ranged from 17-22 with the majority being Caucasian and a small percentage African American.  The Sport Orientation Questionnaire (SOQ) (developed by Gill & Deeter, 1988) was administered to all participants to measure competitiveness, and a 10 question Likert scale developed for the purpose of this study was used to determine team identification and social ties (for athletes only).  Coaches ranked their players according to their physical contributions to the team while the other ratings were self-reports by the athletes and the students.  It was predicted that male athletes would rank as more competitive than females, members of team sports would be more competitive than individual sports, and athletes who were ranked higher by their coaches in physical ability would be more competitive than those ranked lower.  Also, athletes with strong social or team identification ties would show higher levels of competitiveness than those who did not.  Athletes, as a whole would also prove to be higher in competitive drives than the control group.  ANOVA results showed statistical significance in main effects for gender (males were more competitive than females), type of sport (team sports were more competitive than individual) and rank (higher ranked athletes were more competitive).  Also, athletes as a whole were significantly more competitive than their nonathletic peers.  Finally, main effects were present in athletes' level of team identification with gender and type of sport.  Results for team identification compared with rank and all social factors were found to be insignificant.  While causality could not be determined, factors relating to the levels of competitiveness were found in the three independent variables studied.

Time of Day and Appetizer Effects on Food Desire: Possible Influence of Circadian Rhythms

Steve Lukasik, Joanne Riolo, Christie Piedmont, Michael E. Oakes & Carole S. Slotterback
University of Scranton

Circadian rhythms govern body temperature, hormone levels, heart rate, and blood pressure.  With the vast amount of physiological aspects this 24 hour cycles controls, it should be wondered if it also influences our meal patterns.  The purpose of this study was to gain evidence about possible interactions between appetizer effects and time-of-day factors that influence general hunger patterns. One hundred and forty-nine undergraduate students (NFemale= 93 & NMale= 56) in introductory psychology classes at a medium-sized, Northeastern Pennsylvania (NEPA) university participated in this study.  The age range of the sample was from 18 to 45 (MAge= 19.83, s= 4.32). Results indicated that time of day influenced subjects' reporting of food desire across several measures:  participants tested in the morning reported more hunger and an increased desire to eat, compared to participants tested in the afternoon.  Those participants who completed the survey after eating candy were more hungry in the morning  compared to those in the afternoon. Our findings appear to be in agreement with those of De Castro (1986) who found that participants consumed larger meals around noontime and much less food in the mid to late afternoon.
 

Young Children's Perceptions of a Delay of Gratification Situation: Punishment and Reward Characteristics of Adult Authority Figures

Brandace McLachlan
Ursinus College

Delay of gratification is the length of time children are willing to wait to achieve a more valued, but delayed, outcome compared to a less valued, but immediately available, outcome.  Mischel and his colleagues' have interpreted children's ability to delay of gratification in terms of the children's free choice.
According to Mischel, children want the larger reward and will wait for it assuming the delay time is conceivable and the delayed reward is better than the immediate reward.  However, another interpretation is that children might understand delay of gratification as a punishment/ reward situation.  Because children are commonly disciplined with punishment, children may delay gratification partially due to their desire to gain rewards or avoid punishment.  The first purpose of the present study was to investigate whether or not young children perceived delay of gratification in terms of its punishment/reward characteristics.

Children's perceptions of adult's authority might be related to their perception of adults' ability to punish or reward.  Children have more history with their mothers, than their teachers, and would be able to better predict their mother's behavioral expectations.  The second purpose of this study was to determine if children's perceptions of delay situations varied with two different authorities, their mothers and their teachers.

Children, ages 4 through 9 years old, were read a scenario and were asked to make judgements about a hypothetical child undergoing a delay task.  Younger children perceived the delay situation more in terms of its punishment/reward characteristics than older children.  Children focused on the punishment/ reward characteristics of the teacher more than the mother.

Group Size, Expectations About Humor, and Humor Responses

Tisha G. Miller, Caryn M. Crane, Joshua L Hyatt, James E. Taylor, Erin T. Fortier, & Bernard C. Beins
Ithaca College

When people rate jokes for humor value, the responses indicate cognitive evaluation.  Such evaluation reflects only a limited aspect of reactions to humorous material.  In this study, participants listened to a set of 20 jokes, rating each one as to its humor value.  Some participants engaged in this task after engaging in a group puzzle solving task; other participants did so individually.  We also recorded their displays of mirth (e.g., laughing and smiling).  The results revealed that after a group bonding activity, participants' expectations about whether jokes were going to be funny affected their ratings; in contrast to several previous studies, individuals not in groups showed no effect based on expectations about the jokes.  When we asked participants in groups how likely they are to laugh out loud at jokes, there was a significant correlation between their mirth reactions and their tendency to say that they laughed.  No such correlation emerged for individuals.  Our results suggest that the presence of others can affect participants' ratings of jokes as well as their perceptions of their responses to jokes.  Building on previous research, we also concluded that the mere presence of others does not affect ratings of jokes.

Disruptive Effects of Implicit Learning on the Acquisition and Retention of Explicit Word Stimuli

G. Minsavage, M. Hatton, B. Jones, & J.M. Coffin
King’s College

To determine if concurrent presentation of information in two separate memory systems interferes with acquisition and retention in either system, participants were simultaneously tested on an explicit (verbal learning) and an implicit (eyeblink classical conditioning - EBCC) task.  The explicit task consisted of a list of 25 words, each presented for 500 ms, embedded in a silent movie, and presented on a TV screen.  The EBCC task was presented in a 400 ms delay format using a 500 ms tone CS and a 100 ms corneal aripuff US.  The ITI for both word presentation and CS-US trials varied between 20-30 s.  At the end of the session, each participant was tested for recall and recognition of the target words.  Following a 48-hour interval, participants were retested on EBCC while viewing a second silent movie without embedded verbal stimuli, and asked to recall the list of target words.  Participants in the dual task condition did not score significantly lower on the number of words recalled, as compared to controls in a single-task presentation.  Recognition of target stimuli was significantly different between groups.

Dominance of Vision and Proprioception as a Function of Age

Nanda Mitra
Elizabethtown College

Research has indicated that vision and proprioception are critical modalities in motor adaptation.  However, when conflicting information is sent to the brain from these two modalities then vision usually dominates proprioception (Guedon, 1998).   The purpose of this study was to discover whether age is a variable in determining the importance of vision over proprioception.  It may be that the failing vision among the elderly population triggers compensation and thus the ability to use proprioception becomes more refined.  Therefore the predicted outcome was that motor adaptation that is heavily dependent on vision will dominate in the youthful population and motor adaptation that is heavily dependent on proprioception will dominate in the elderly population.  Fifteen students from Elizabethtown College and fifteen senior citizens from Masonic homes participated in this study.  Each participant viewed pictures of lines approximately two feet in front of them and reproduced these line lengths using their index fingers.  In one condition vision was restricted and in the other vision was not.  Accuracy on length judgements was compared between the two groups.  The results supported the hypothesis.  The elderly population was more accurate in reproducing line lengths in the non-vision condition than the college population (F(2,28) p< .05).