Likens the role of a public relations practitioner to that of a lawyer, as an advocate in an adversarial society. Argues that this role justifies the distribution of "selective truth," relieves the public person from the obligation to tell "objective truth," allows for ethical persuasion, but does not delineate the parameters of ethical behavior.…

Finds that perceptual identification of target words explicitly presented was significantly higher than that of new targets and that targets inferred to maintain coherence and targets predicted by the text were identified as well as explicit targets and significantly better than targets schematically appropriate to the text. (SR)

James J. Gibson (1954) viewed perception as a system that picks up information which supports coordination of the agent's actions with the systems the environment provides. This led him to develop the idea of affordances, characteristics of objects and the environment that support their contributions to interactive activity. (SLD)

Compares probabilistic models of same-different and identification judgments concerning their sensitivity to perceptual dependence or the degree to which underlying psychological dimensions are correlated. Results support a perceptual independence assumption when using these models and pertain to studies of different decision rules used at…

Three experiments with 29 college students and 8 members of a university community demonstrate that shape recognition processes influence perceived figure-ground relationships in 3-dimensional displays when the edge between 2 potential figural regions is both a luminance contrast edge and a disparity edge. Implications for shape recognition and…

A connectionist model, SEarch via Recursive Rejection (SERR), is presented that performs across a window defining the model's functional field. Implications are discussed, and results of 5 experiments involving 19 male and 19 female adults and adolescents that test novel predictions derived from the model are presented. (SLD)

Introduces two systems that increase the information density of textual presentation by reconsidering text as pictures, expanding the range of written expression. Notes that these systems are implemented as computer programs, active filters that represent textual information graphically. (SR)

Examined the behavior of 8.5-month-old crawling infants and 14-month-old walking toddlers in ascending and descending sloping walkways. Both groups overestimated their ability to ascend slopes. Toddlers hesitated most before descending 10 and 20 degree slopes, whereas infants hesitated most before descending 30 and 40 degree slopes. (MDM)

A theory is presented to explain the perception of partially occluded objects and illusory figures, from both static and kinematic information, in a unified framework. This detailed theory of unit formation accounts for most cases of boundary perception in the absence of local physical specification. (SLD)

Compared actual roles and functions of correctional psychologists to their perceived ideal roles and functions in two surveys, the first with 121 and the followup with 84 psychologists. Found psychologists wanted to spend less time in diagnostics and program administration and more in counseling and psychotherapy. (Author/ABL)

Speed and accuracy of identification of pictures of objects are facilitated by prior viewing. Contributions of image features, convex or concave components, and object models in a repetition priming task were explored in 2 studies involving 96 college students. Results provide evidence of intermediate representations in visual object recognition.…

Infants (n=34) were tested on a speech-sound discrimination-in-noise task using the visual reinforcement of infant speech discrimination procedure. An adult control group was also tested. The infant-adult difference in discrimination threshold in noise was 6.9 dB. Advantages of this adaptive threshold procedure and possible applications are noted.…

Discusses problems faced by children growing up in an alcoholic family. Reviews four survivor roles of children of alcoholics (COAs): super-coper, scapegoat, lost child, and family mascot. Describes alcoholism as a disease of denial. Reviews the Children of Alcoholics movement begun by adult COAs to become advocates for COAs. (NB)

Examined potential benefits and costs of having both work and elder care responsibilities, based on interviews with 94 employed caregivers. For most respondents, negative aspects of combining work and caregiving roles were outweighed by positive aspects, such as sense of accomplishment, enhanced interpersonal relationships, and opportunities to…

Describes follow-up work to two citywide surveys (in Sheffield, England) investigating the deputy head's role in primary school. Findings highlighted lack of a robust definition of the vice-principal's role, which is heavily influenced and controlled by the headteacher and dependent on amount of time available to undertake responsibilities. (29…