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Biomedical subjects

R Pasnak

Publications and source records attributed to R Pasnak.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2000

Preliminary test of effects of cognitive ability, experience, and teaching methods on Verbal Analogy Test scores.

The methods from which one can choose when preparing for the GRE Verbal Analogies include books, software, audiotapes, and formal classroom instruction. What teaching method will work best for a given individual? To begin the search for an answer, Gray's test of reasoning ability was given to 28 undergraduates who also answered a questionnaire detailing their experience with analogies. They were randomly assigned to teaching conditions ranging from self-directed workbook study to intensive interactive assistance. No teaching method was superior overall, but interactions showed that (1) students who scored worst on the pretest improved the most, (2) those higher in cognitive functioning and experience performed better after intensive interactive assistance, and (3) those lower in both cognitive functioning and experience did significantly better with self-paced workbooks. This preliminary work suggests that it may be profitable to assess the prior experience and reasoning of potential students and adopt the methods for teaching formal operational thought found empirically to be most suitable.

Adult↗
PubMed1999

Effects of instruction in sequencing and class inclusion for first graders.

Four 1st-grade boys who were lagging cognitively were taught class-inclusion and sequencing strategies via a multiple baseline design with the learning-set approach to instruction. All of the boys gained significantly when taught class inclusion; these gains endured while the boys were taught sequencing. Three of the 4 made significant gains when taught sequencing; these gains also proved enduring. These conceptual gains were accompanied by IQ gains averaging 9.25 points, as assessed by the Slosson Intelligence Test (R. L. Slosson, 1982). The boys also made significant gains in academic achievement as measured by the Diagnostic Achievement Battery-2 (P. L. Newcomer, 1990). The results support past research on the effectiveness of instruction in class inclusion. They also suggest that the ability to understand sequences may be an important step in cognitive development.

Achievement↗
PubMed1997

Perceptions of the risk of child abduction or loss and the utility of child electronic security devices.

Perceptions of the susceptibility of young children to becoming lost or being abducted, and of the potential usefulness of child electronic security devices, were examined via a questionnaire. Data were provided by 41 volunteers, most of them from a local government office centre. The questionnaire asked for demographic data, and then for the risk of a child being abducted or lost when under the supervision of different caregivers and in different situations. The probable effectiveness of three common abductor ploys was also addressed. The questionnaire concluded with 10 questions about child electronic security devices. Respondents viewed mothers, fathers, and grandparents as equally responsible caregivers and young adults/babysitters as the least responsible. These effects diminished as the age of the children increased. The garden at home was judged to be the most secure environment for children of all ages, while an amusement park was judged the least secure environment. Children were perceived to be more at risk of an abduction when a stranger asked for physical assistance or to take them to the hospital because their parents were hurt, than when asked for directions. Furthermore, the respondents expressed a moderately strong need for child electronic security devices, and viewed parents who use them as more responsible than those who do not.

Adult↗
PubMed1995

Human analog tests of the sixth stage of object permanence.

Two adult cats were tested on multiple invisible displacement. A dowel was established as a secondary reinforcer and hidden in a manner similar to that used to assess the culmination of sensorimotor intelligence in human infants. Three other cats were tested on single invisible displacement, a simpler version of the task. For human infants, this task is used to assess the beginning of mental representation in the sixth and last stage of sensorimotor intelligence. The cats' searches on these tasks were consistent with representation of an unsensed object and fully developed sensorimotor intelligence.

Animals↗
PubMed1990

Instruction on Piagetian concepts for children with mental retardation.

Eighteen children with mild mental retardation were pretested on unidimensional classification (oddity), unidimensional seriation, number conservation, Slosson's Intelligence Test, and the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT). The children were instructed on the Piagetian concepts twice per week for 4 months via a learning-set technique. All 315 problems (except 20 verbal classification and 15 verbal seriation items) involved concrete items. When posttested at the semester's end, the children had, with few exceptions, mastered the Piagetian concepts and made significant gains on performance on the PPVT.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1989

Local contour characteristics as determinants of pattern discrimination.

Subjects were required to discriminate complex random polygons which had the same global shapes but differed in local contour characteristics. Discrimination was most often successful when local contour features comprised a few long line segments or when they were relatively complex. Local contour features of intermediate sized elements and intermediate complexity played a smaller role in discrimination. Presentation time and interstimulus interval effects, and their interaction were observed. A two-factor explanation was offered for the effect of the contour variable.

Female↗
PubMed1986

Prediction of differences in Rorschach protocols from the Personality Assessment System.

The Personality Assessment System (PAS) is derived from certain subtest scores on any Wechsler test by rather simple calculations. It purports to measure, among other personality attributes, developmental changes in the Internalized-Externalized (I-E) dimension of personality, which is akin to the Introversion-Extroversion construct reflected by some Rorschach measures. PAS scores from a tightly defined sample of normal adults were contrasted with Experience Balance (EB) and Body-image (B) scores derived from Rorschach protocols by "blind" scorers. Significant relations were found between EB ratios produced via the Exner and Klopfer scoring systems and the primitive (early childhood) I-E scores from the PAS. The B scores produced by the Body Image scoring system were related to the basic (adolescent) I-E PAS scores. Although significant, the PAS-Rorschach correlations were relatively poor, in part because it was difficult to define the center of the internalization-externalization continuum in terms of the Rorschach protocols. It is, nevertheless, provocative that traditional scorings of the Rorschach responses of adults assess differences not only in this personality trait, but also in its development, as determined from scaled scores on Wechsler subtests.

Adult↗
PubMed1985

Effect of distance instructions on size judgments.

The proposition that in a reduced-cue setting subjects could use cognitive information about an object's distance to make accurate judgments of its size was tested. An improved paradigm was used to determine the effects of distance instructions per se. This paradigm also allowed independent tests of the effectiveness of cue reduction. The data indicated that cue reduction was successful and that the specific distance tendency governed size judgments when there were no distance instructions. When distance instructions were given, they produced size judgments in precisely the ratio predicted by the size-distance invariance hypothesis. However, there was a large constant error, which reflects a tendency of college students to overestimate the amount of distance signified by a verbal instruction. Hence, cognitive information in the form of verbal distance instructions has precise effects on size judgments, but the latter are not veridical, even in the absence of anchor effects from the specific distance tendency and residual perceptual cues.

Cognition↗
PubMed1982

The effect of familiar size at familiar distances.

The effect of familial size as a distance cue was tested with familiar objects at familiar distances. Experiment 1 showed that there were no uncontrolled distance cues available and that in their absence the retinal image did not affect depth or size perception. Under these conditions, size and distance judgments were essentially indeterminate and independent of each other. In experiment 2 a paradigm was employed which allowed a direct determination of whether equivalent changes either in size of a familiar object or in its true distance produced equivalent changes in its perceived distance. The results showed that there were no uncontrolled distance cues, and that subjects perceived the familiar object as having its familiar size. Moreover, changing the retinal image of the objects had almost exactly the same effect on their perceived distance as did changing their true distance. Hence, familial size does effectively govern the perception of distance when there are no competing cues.

Cues↗
PubMed1979

Acquisition of prerequisites to conservation by macaques.

Through a progressive series of learning sets, two rhesus macaques were trained to discriminate transformations that produce change of substance from other transformations and manipulations. Several tests were administered to assess the generalization of this discrimination to a variety of objects and shapes and to assess the effects, if any, of size cues, experimenter familiarity, and various methods to problem presentation. After training was completed, performance was not greatly affected by differences in problems and presentations. The results of these experiments suggest that monkeys can acquire this prerequisite for substance conservation as a result of learning set training.

Animals↗
PubMed1976

Discriminability and identifiability of the human hand based on its quantified complexity.

Photographs of human hands were quantified according to a method suggested by Attneave (1954). The over-all complexity of the hands' contours did not affect the accuracy with which pairs and non-pairs of hands could be discriminiated. However, significantly more errors were made in identifying the mates of hands whose thumb regions were relatively complex. These results suggest that the contours of nonlaboratory forms are quantifiable and amenable to parametric investigation.

Discrimination, Psychological↗
PubMed1976

Accelerated conservation acquisition and IQ gains by blind children.

Because blind chidlren are retarded in the attainment of substance conservation and other Piagetial concepts, it was hypothesized that a learning set training procedure which incorporated both substance conservation and subordinate concepts might accelerate the acquisition of substance conservation itself and promote generalization to weight conservation scores and IQ. To test the hypotheses, 28 blind children aged 8 to 13 (IQ range 62 to 131) were divided into two groups. Their visual capacities ranged from 20/500 in the best eye to total congenital blindness and etiologies were varied, but consisted primarily of cataracts and glaucoma. All children were pretested and posttested on Slosson's Intelligence Test, 40 substance conservation tasks, and 20 weight conservation tasks, which involved both continuous and discontinuous substance and included almost all those found in the literature prior to 1970. A lengthy learning set procedure employing everyday household objects was then used to teach the experimental children conceptual skills that are prerequisites to substance conservation. Finally the learning set procedure was used to teach the concept of substance conservation itself to the children. The trained group exhibited significantly increased substance and weight conservation scores and IQs (all ps less than .005). The control group, which had spent matched periods of time in intellectual enrichment activities failed to improve significantly on any of the dependent variables. The research suggests that acceleration of the development of Piagetian concepts may be profitable enterprise in the case of blind children.

Adolescent↗