Sibling data may be used as a covariant statistically controlling family background for testing the adequacy of age-standardized scores; for testing the interval scale of mental measurements; for analyzing correlations into between- and within-family components; and for detecting cultural sources of variance. (Author/GDC)

Examines the status of postoccupancy evaluation, which is the study of the effectiveness of designed environments for their human users. Issues addressed include generality, breadth of focus, applicability, sponsorship, methodology, and future directions. (WB)

The portable rod-and-frame test was used to measure the level of psychological differentation for 100 behavior-problem, father-absent children, ages 8-16. A significant interaction was noted between the reason for the father's absence (death vs divorce/desertion) and the child's age when the father left home. (Author/SJL)

Three articles presented at the 54th Annual Convention of the American School Health Association discuss: understanding stress with an emphasis on environmental factors; stress management techniques; and questions from the audience pertaining to stress management. (JN)

Ratio and proportion are discussed by giving examples of a child's view of the concept. Instructional suggestions are given. (MK)

This study related major parameters of moral character (socialization and empathy) to self-reported drug use by 88 students. Level of socialization correlated significantly with total drugs used, frequency of marijuana use, and number of drug-related social complications. However, empathy did not relate to the drug-use variables examined.…

From a review of empirical research, a new theoretical synthesis of anxiety's effect on learning and memory is proposed: anxiety always reduces processing effectiveness, by generating task-irrelevant processing activities, but this will not impair performance efficiency if sufficient compensatory effort is expended. (SJL)

Reports on experiments examining the semantic organization of concrete nouns and verbs and its development in childhood. Differences in semantic organization are said to be a clue to age-related changes in performance with verbs. (AM)

Studies the effects of perceptual salience on performance in problems requiring the coordination of information. Subjects were groups of children, younger adults, and older adults. For each of the age groups, those problems containing the most salient information were solved faster and more accurately than problems containing the least salient…

This study indicates that social drive and valence theories of social reinforcement cannot adequately account for the results of three different measures of reinforcer efficacy (accuracy, rate, and persistence). Suggests that activation/arousal theories provide a better basis for behavior modification. (BH)

Reports a study of developmental differences among 4-, 6- and 8-year-old children in physiognomic sensitivity, the tendency of a perceiver to suffuse precepts with an emotional, affective, or expressive quality. (Author/GH)

The results of this study indicate that tobacco smoking may have a deleterious effect on the learning process. Those Ss who smoked in excess of 12 cigarettes per day did significantly less well, as a group, than nonsmokers and light smokers on three of the four learning tests. (Editor)

The production of informationally redundant choices in a selection concept attainment task was investigated in relation to age and intelligence, using 62 adolescents aged 12:7--15:6 drawn from the lower middle ability range of a comprehensive school. (Editor)

Expectancy and value scores from 376 engineers were used to develop a taxonomy of nine psychological categories, these being differentially related to motivation and satisfaction. Static and longitudinal analyses over four years revealed significant relationships between age, prior category, and organizational reward practices. (Author)

This research was designed to measure the abilities of black and white students in determining the race and status of a speaker. Forty black and white college undergraduates listened to a tape recording of 24 voices and were asked to distinguish sex, race, and status of speaker. The hypothesis that black students would be more skillful at this…