Two experiments investigated sentence context effects on the naming times of sentence completion words by third-grade children and college students. The semantic acceptability of the word in the sentence context had a much greater influence on children's word identification times than adults'. (Author/CB)

Questionnaire responses from 146 high school cheerleaders indicated that acute, cheering-related dysphonia may be preceded or accompanied by a set of clinical signs that could be incorporated easily into a screening protocol for prospective cheerleaders. (Author/DB)

The study examined predictors of educational placement using the Personality Inventory for Children with 55 children previously identified as either learning disabled or nonhandicapped. Leading student characteristics predicting placement were (1) achievement; (2) adjustment; and (3) social incompetence, depression, defensiveness. (Author/DB)

Describes the method of discriminant analysis, including the concept of discriminant function, discriminant score, group centroid, and discriminant weights and loadings. Discusses methods for testing the statistical significance of a function, methods of using the function in classification, and the concept of rotating functions. Illustrates the…

Reviews the etiology of chemical use and abuse among children and adolescents. Discusses progression of youth drug behavior from initial to occasional and/or regular use. Identifies the following predictors of chemical abuse: (1) antisocial behavior; (2) school acquiescence; (3) peer influence; and (4) age at onset of use. (Author/LHW)

College students (N=144) completed the Affective Sensitivity Scale and conducted peer-counseling interviews with student volunteers. The volunteers responded to the Empathy Scale of the Barrett-Lennard (1964) Relationship Inventory, while interviewers predicted their interviewees' responses. Found a positive correlation between predictive accuracy…

This article develops and tests a model for predicting individual choice between two automotive safety policies (whether to mandate passive restraint devices in new cars or to require motorists by law to use seat belts). The study's implications for auto safety and other types of social regulation are discussed. (CT)

Observations of three parent-child dyads seeking help for severe interactional problems provided tentative support for the predictability hypothesis, which suggests that social interactions are most likely to function as aversive stimuli when delivered in unpredictable fashion by either party and that responses instrumental in reducing…

The equivocal relationship between contact with and perceptions of the elderly obtained in previous research is attributed to limitations in the way contact has been assessed. Multiple regression analyses identified several aspects of quality of contact with the elderly that reliably predicted attitudes toward and perceptions of them. (Author/ABB)

Presenting a new theory of work role transitions, a conceptual framework for analyzing and predicting modes of adjustment to transition is outlined. Includes a list of references. (MD)

Compared divorced men and women in regard to previous levels of marital adjustment and problems experienced in former marriages. Used personality traits assessed at the beginning of each marriage to predict problem ratings reported after divorce. Results indicated that wives reported more problems in their former marriage than husbands. (BH)

The study involving 33 children referred to school psychologists compared the Bender Gestalt and the Minnesota Perceptual Diagnostic Test-Revised (MPDT-R) in ability to predict intellectual and academic performance as measured by standardized tests. Factor analysis suggested that the MPDT-R provides unique information concerning…

Recently, high unemployment and a high perceived rate of technological change have created interest in work-sharing. Definitions of different types of work-sharing and theoretical and practical issues related to work-sharing are covered. Work-sharing is not necessarily a panacea, but it does show the potential to help. (Author/IS)

Examines how authors have looked at the future and probes the limits of forecasting. Looks at several futurists' views on the manufacturing industry and emerging occupations. (SK)

Reviews 32 studies about the utility of the Bender Visual-Motor Gestalt Test (BG) as a predictor of reading, its relationship to reading achievement, and ability to differentiate between good and poor readers. Results question the use of the BG (scored using discrete error systems) in a diagnostic reading battery. (BH)