Learning-disabled adults (N=145) participating in vocational rehabilitation were found to constitute a homogeneous group with severe deficits, exhibiting: low-average general intelligence; lower verbal than performance Intelligence Quotients; attention, reasoning, and auditory memory deficits; academic achievement at the fourth/fifth-grade level;…

Some experiments concerning concrete-operational Piagetian skills are discussed in light of the interbehavioral approach in order to highlight the interacting role of antecedent stimuli and the setting of events in complex cognitive behaviors. Conservation, class inclusion, and classification are considered. Implications for a theory of…

Findings of two experiments support the contention that children and adults are capable of using both hypothetical counter-exemplar reasoning and functionality to make definitional category judgments. Results are discussed in terms of Richards and Goldfarb's (1986) model of episodic memory and are related to other evidence that children possess…

Hearing-impaired speechreaders focus on visual characteristics of speech sounds, termed visemes. Determination of viseme groupings requires consideration of the sound's visible characteristics and articulatory differences of speakers. Coarticulation effects that modify viseme groups include vowel-context effects on consonant viseme groupings,…

Uses hierarchical cluster analysis to develop a typology of verbal aggression as experienced by undergraduate students. Reveals three broad domains of attack: group membership, personal failings, and relational failings. Demonstrates reliability, predictive validity, and content validity for the typology. Reveals that aggressive messages can be…

Representational competence develops as individuals learn that objects, events, and places can be represented in some form. Irving Siegel's studies of classification competencies showed that underprivileged children have difficulty sorting pictures into meaningful groupings. However, both privileged and underprivileged children construct…

Explores ways of writing the history of information infrastructures. Describes the historical development of the information infrastructure of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD), a universal medical classification system. Discusses changing medical information needs and the ICD's advancements in information technology and…

Examined reliability and validity of binge eating disorder (BED), proposed for inclusion in Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), fourth edition. Interrater reliability of BED diagnosis compared favorably with that of most diagnoses in DSM revised third edition. Study comparing obese individuals with and without BED and…

Cluster analysis of data from 166 children with autistic spectrum disorders revealed 4 subtypes with differences in behavioral and cognitive areas. The four subtypes include a typically autistic group, a low-functioning group, a high-functioning group (Asperger syndrome/schizoid), and a hard-to-diagnose group with mild/moderate retardation and a…

Describes results of research by the Test User Qualifications Working Group that can be applied to improving testing practices, including 86 test use competencies and 7 factors accounting for misuse; a test classification system; and empirically based test purchaser qualification forms. (SLD)

A sample of chronic postconcussive patients with and without overt malingering signs was compared with objectively brain-injured patients (total sample=106) on common episodic memory and malingered amnesia measures. Findings validate commonly cited malingering measures and new methods of classifying malingering in real-world clinical samples. (SLD)

In the globalized world economy three types of jobs are emerging: routine production, in-person service, and symbolic analysis. In Australia, routine production is still the largest category, females outnumber males in service, and only one in five are symbolic analysts, predominantly male. Vocational education and training must change focus and…

Six experiments examined how children approach the task of learning novel count nouns. Findings indicated that three- and four-year olds function with an antithematic bias and that children do not reliably extend novel count nouns to subordinate exemplars when perceptual similarity is controlled until about age 7. (MDM)

Twenty-two children (ages 5-8) with mild mental retardation who received learning set instruction on unidimensional classification and seriation improved on these precursors to concrete operations; 22 children who received more conventional instruction did not. Improvement on classification and seriation was accompanied by improvement on measures…

A study concerned with factors that may affect three-year olds' acquisition of subordinate categories considered salience of the attribute or attributes that differentiate a subordinate category, presence or absence of linguistic input, and child characteristics. Correlational analyses pointed to a series of relationships between child…