Patterns of discrimination in hiring job applicants with disabilities: The role of disability type, job complexity, and public contact.

Objective: To evaluate the effects of disability type, job complexity, and public contact on hiring decisions. Design and Participants: An Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA; 1990) fact sheet and matched resumes with vocational and medical histories including chronic mental illness, developmental disability, closed head injury, and back injury were provided to 295 undergraduate business-related majors, who rated the applicants' suitability for 2 job positions and work shifts. Results: Findings indicated disparities in ratings of employability as a function of disability type. Paired comparisons yielded complementary findings, with effects of disability type and Disability Type × Job Complexity, but no effects of public contact. Conclusions: Stereotyping and discrimination in employment decisions apparently persist, more than 10 years after the ADA. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evaluation of linguistic variations by college students with and without head injuries.

Evaluated the impact of spoken language on listeners by examining the effects of prior head injury, speech register, and active vs passive listening among 56 head-injured (HI) and 55 non-HI undergraduates. Ss rated the degree to which they liked the speaker and also the extent to which groups of negative and positive adjectives described the speaker. There were no differences between HI and non-HI Ss in how much they liked speakers using the normal register, but non-HI Ss liked the motherese speakers more than did HI Ss. Raters liked motherese speakers less when addressed directly than when they were not being directly addressed. Regardless of listener perspective, HI Ss liked motherese speakers less and rated them more negatively than non-HI Ss. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A paradigm of experimentally induced mild hyperthyroidism: effects on nitrogen balance, body composition, and energy expenditure in healthy young men

OBJECTIVE: To conceptualize, with fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC), the early cellular events occurring in and around fresh autogenous and allogenic bone grafts during the first 40 postimplantation days. STUDY DESIGN: Forty-eight cases of bone grafts were studied by FNAC at serial intervals of 10, 20, 30 and 40 postimplantation days. Twenty patients were recipients of autogenous grafts, 16 received 0.6N HCI partially decalcified allogenic bone implants, and 4 received combined autogenous and allogenic bone grafts (included in the allograft group). There were eight control cases of closed fracture shaft femur, which were managed conservatively. RESULTS: The initial cellular responses in autogenous grafts, allografts and controls appear to be a part of the nonspecific reparative process followed by a more specific phase, with a steady increase in relative lymphocyte count from the 20th day onwards. Osteogenesis, as judged by osteoblasts and osteoclasts, was also comparable. CONCLUSION: Partially decalcified allografts appear to be a good substitute for autogenous bone grafts in clinical practice when adequate autogenous material is not available. FNAC is a good technique for studying bone graft responses without interfering with graft uptake. It is helpful in the early detection of subclinical infection or any other pathology at the graft site.     

Reconstructive memory bias in recall of neuropsychological symptomatology

Several hypotheses have been advanced in recent years to understand difficulties in agrammatic patients. Some of them are of a structural kind, as the deficiency is said to lie in some of the linguistic system components. Others are of a functional type, as it is stated that the problem of these patients lies in the loss of processing capacity. Using the existence of a syntactic type of structure in Spanish, that active sentences do not follow the canonical S-V-O order, we will try to prove in this article whether agrammatic patients' problems are due to memory span loss or to one of the syntactic process mechanisms. To this end, the performances of three groups of patients are contrasted. Agrammatic, anomic, and normal Spanish speakers are given several tasks of sentence-picture matching and tests of memory span. Results show that agrammatic patients have specific difficulties processing certain syntactical structures; however, their memory deficiencies are not more pronounced than in other patients. It can be concluded, therefore, that the deficiencies of agrammatic patients are of a structural character rather than due to memory span loss.     

Verbal interactions with individuals presenting with and without physical disability.

Examined actual language behavior directed toward individuals with and without apparent disabilities in a standardized but naturalistic setting. Four experimenters (2 male and 2 female) requested directions to the bookstore from a total of 160 college students on a university campus. Each experimenter portrayed a student with a disability using a wheelchair and a student without a disability. Conversations were surreptitiously recorded, and verbal interaction patterns were analyzed. Significant differences were observed on all dependent variables, word counts, frequency of interrogatives, and use of locator words. Findings suggest that individuals with a disability are addressed differently than those without disabilities, and provide limited behavioral replication of research documenting differential responses of college students to persons with and without disabilities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relationships of working memory, secondary memory, and general fluid intelligence: Working memory is special.

Recent efforts have been made to elucidate the commonly observed link between working memory and reasoning ability. The results have been inconsistent, with some work suggesting that the emphasis placed on retrieval from secondary memory by working memory tests is the driving force behind this association (Mogle, Lovett, Stawski, & Sliwinski, 2008), whereas other research suggests retrieval from secondary memory is only partly responsible for the observed link between working memory and reasoning (Unsworth & Engle, 2006, 2007). In the present study, we investigated the relationship between processing speed, working memory, secondary memory, primary memory, and fluid intelligence. Although our findings show that all constructs are significantly correlated with fluid intelligence, working memory—but not secondary memory—accounts for significant unique variance in fluid intelligence. Our data support predictions made by Unsworth and Engle (2006, 2007) and suggest that the combined need for maintenance and retrieval processes present in working memory tests makes them special in their prediction of higher order cognition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Publication counts and scholastic productivity: Comment on Howard, Cole, and Maxwell.

Argues that the study of research productivity by G. S. Howard et al (see record 1988-09385-001) replicated the failure of W. M. Cox and V. Catt (see record 1978-21651-001) to use a representative sample by selecting only in-house American Psychological Association (APA) journals and ignoring some journals published by specific APA divisions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A survey of common misconceptions about epilepsy.

Administered a survey questionnaire to 202 Ss of varying age, educational, occupational, racial, and gender background to determine the most common misconceptions about epilepsy relative to causes, initiators of seizures, first aid, personal characteristics, everyday activities, and treatment. Responses were dichotimized into categories of true and false, and the Ss' source of information was reported. ANOVAs indicated that public knowledge about the causes of epilepsy was limited. Educational information regarding first aid for seizures and treatment was needed. Specific knowledge deficiencies and some stigmatizing still persisted, and younger members of the general populations were the least informed. College graduates, white collar workers, and postgraduate students are the most informed. The data obtained can be used to design enlightening educational programs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)