A computer model for unconscious spread of anxiety-linked inhibition in cognitive networks

Unconscious inhibitory processes, triggered by a potential anxiety reaction, are reviewed in the context of an emerging rapprochement between psychodynamic and cognitive approaches in experimental psychology. Conditions underlying spread of inhibitory action to other cognitive networks are first explored in three tachistoscopic experiments utilizing words posthypnotically tied to a potential anxiety, pleasure, or neutral reaction. Response times of subjects, instructed to ignore those words while naming pictures or solving anagrams as quickly as possible, reveal a highly differentiated pattern of circumstances governing likelihood of inhibitory spread from anxiety-linked words to target stimuli. Next a computer model is constructed to simulate cognitive processes from onset of display to eventual response, and the model is then tested for its fit to the empirical data. Finally, an illustrative study shows that a subset of computer-generated predictions for spread of inhibitory action is verifiable experimentally.     

The Coordination of Welfare and Health Services in Australia

The report of the Task Force on Coordination in Welfare and Health (Bailey Report) is the most important single report on the organization of health and welfare services since the first Medibank Green Paper. It provides for the collapsing of a plethora of categorical grants into four broad ‘programme grants’. The effects of this report will be felt by most health and welfare organizations. It is the purpose of the article to review the main recommendations of the Task Force and of the related Report from the Committee on the Aged and the Infirm.     

The impact of smoking bans on alcohol demand

Although many studies find that smoking bans reduce cigarette demand, arguments can be made for smoking bans also affecting alcohol demand. Accordingly, in this paper we address the determinants of state-level alcohol demand, which we treat as a function of various economic and demographic variables, as well as smoking bans. Results reveal that smoking bans reduce the demand for beer and spirits. Furthermore, smoking bans tend to intensify the complementary relationship between cigarettes and alcohol, which suggests that smoking bans have altered consumer demographics in the alcohol market. We also find the nature of the smoking ban matters, as bans specific to restaurants and bars lead to larger reductions in beer and spirits consumption, but increase the demand for wine.     

Determination of an attribute single sampling scheme

SUMMARY This paper presents procedures for the selection of a new sampling scheme called 'single sampling scheme' (SSS). It presents a compact table for the selection of an SSS indexed by various combinations of entry parameters. The advantages of SSSs are discussed. The basis for the construction of the table is also given.     

On Robust Analysis of a Normal Location Parameter

Pericchi and Smith considered a normal location parameter problem with double-exponential and Student t prior distributions. These two prior distributions both belong to the class of scale mixtures of normal distributions and are useful in providing a robust analysis of the normal location parameter problem. In this paper we extend the analysis to other scale mixtures of normal distributions, such as the exponential power and the symmetric stable distributions.     

Consistency and Change in Children's Tattling on their Siblings: Children's Perspectives on the Moral Rules and Procedures of Family Life

Children's tattling on their siblings was observed in 39 families when children were 2- and 4- and 4- and 6-years of age. Tattling was more frequent among older siblings, and increased across time, despite a corresponding decrease in sibling transgressions against one another and an increase in parents' negative reactions to tattling. Tattling was largely truthful, implicit in form, and more likely to concern transgressions of what parents also regarded as more important standards. Among 4- and 6-year-olds, tattling was related to children's negative behaviour to one another and equally likely when children faced ongoing conflict issues and when they merely wished to inform parents of sibling wrongdoing. Parents generally allowed their children to tattle on one another, rarely reprimanded tattlers, but responded to the information contained in the tattlers' reports. The parents' responses were related to the quality of their children's tattling, but the children's tattling was unrelated to the likelihood that parents would react either positively or negatively to it. Results are discussed in terms of the place of tattling within the family system, with emphasis on the children's understanding of the implications of their parents' involvement in their own disputes.     

An appraisal of organizational response to fiscally constraining regulation: the case of hospitals and DRGs

Results from analysis of 227,771 discharge abstracts from 68 short-term, acute-care hospitals and from interviews with a stratified random selection of 24 of the 68 chief executives of these hospitals demonstrate that institutions perceive implementation of DRGs as fiscally constraining, especially in light of other resource-constraining conditions (an increase in unemployment resulting in fewer people with hospitalization insurance, in addition to severe cuts in Medicaid rolls and budget). Hospitals responded to DRGs by decreasing the use of affected resources or services available to the hospitalized Medicare patient. In order to survive a more economically stringent marketplace, hospitals no longer protected the traditional core within the Medicare inpatient market. They opted instead to change practices and products at the unregulated margins of the DRG system.     

The marihuana perception inventory: stage 3--the parent sample

This article reports the third step in the development of a perceptual inventory of factors associated with marihuana use. Identification of those factors, along with an analysis of demographic characteristics is designed to facilitate the formulation of drug education programs. This third phase was an administration of the inventory to sixty-parents who were also members of a community anti-drug group. Their beliefs are strong, as evidenced by their active association with the group. Factors analysis revealed a five-factor solution that utilized all thirty-four items of the inventory. Scales were again labeled Parental Limitations, Societal Issues, Inherent Predispositions, Rebelliousness, and Maturational Difficulties. Since there was a shift between parents and youths in specific items that made up the scales, it appears that drug educators will need to take parents' perceptions into account when designing programs.