Deaf children's understanding of beliefs and desires

Twenty-two children (5-12 year old) who were profoundly, prelingually deaf were given two tests designed to tap their 'theory of mind', that is, their ability to attribute independent mental states to other people. The tests were versions of Baron-Cohen, Leslie, and Frith's Sally-Anne task and of Baron-Cohen's breakfast task. Seventy percent of the children were successful on all questions requiring belief attribution, a considerably and significantly larger percentage than the 29% obtained by Peterson and Siegal for a similar sample, though it is still lower than would be expected on the basis on chronological age. Children were universally successful on questions requiring the attribution of desire. We discuss implications of the findings.     

Unanticipated problems in the United States child protection system

While the United States child protection system is widely recognized as probably the most sophisticated and wide-ranging in the world, it nevertheless has some inherent problems. This article addresses some of the negative effects of mandatory reporting and the lack of fit of a short-term crisis intervention treatment approach for a substantial proportion of the protective services population. Reporting may have detrimental effects on the client-reporter relationship. Further, over half of the cases investigated are not substantiated. Of concern are the impact on innocent families of being investigated and the waste of scarce worker resources on investigation. While some protective services families are well suited to a crisis intervention model, a large number are multiproblem families who are always in crisis and families with chronic problems for whom crisis intervention is totally inadequate. Furthermore, because of high caseload size, workers are often not available to intervene after they have investigated the case. The problems described have been exacerbated by funding cutbacks under the current United States administration. The child protection system, along with other social welfare programs, is at risk for being dismantled by the Reagan administration.     

Identifying determinants of risk of sexual victimization of youth: a multivariate approach

The present study argues that a greater understanding of the factors which contribute to a youth's sexual victimization is likely to not only be based on what we know about the youths who are victimized but also on comparative information on youths who are not. Selected social background variables from a sample of young victims (n = 20) and nonvictims (n = 21) representing a population of youths with histories of antisocial behavior were compared. Using stepwise discriminant analysis several factors relating to youths' home environment significantly discriminated victims from nonvictims. The results suggest that the probability of being sexually victimized is increased when the home environment is unstable and lacks adequate control over youths' activities. The need for improved research methodologies to achieve better identification of determinants of risk is discussed. Multivariate assessment of social, situational, and personal factors of victims and nonvictims is recommended as a potentially promising approach for improving current rape prevention efforts.     

Diagrams and illustrations as aids to problem solving

The psychological literature relating to factors which should be taken into account in the design of illustrations and pictorial instructions as aids to problem solving is reviewed. The problem solver can invoke a wide range of strategies for using pictorial materials to achieve his goal, although pictorial instructions which indicate how to perform actions place a tighter constraint on the choice of strategy than illustrations showing only states to be attained. The designer must make his graphics compatible with as wide a range of strategies for using them as possible while building on the knowledge the problem solver already possesses.The author now works for the Post Office Telecommunications Systems Strategy Department, 88 Hills Road, Cambridge.     

Behaviour and misbehaviour of Latino children in a time of zero tolerance: mothers' views

Thirty‐eight Latin American mothers with young children tell of their perceptions of school discipline and comportment issues and talk of their children's encounters with ‘zero tolerance’ legislation, and related rules for conduct, implemented by the local school boards. The purpose of this exploratory study is to understand: (a) parents' views of and concern about disciplinary practices at school; (b) parents' ideas about the connection between home and school discipline; and (c) parents' understanding of the officially prescribed consequences of behaviour identified as non‐tolerable. Implications of the findings are discussed with regard to professional practice.     

Know your personal computer

This article surveys personal computing with the IBM personal computer as a platform to discuss details of hardware.     

What's Civic About Technical Communication? Technical Communication and the Rhetoric of Community

Although the concept of community has been advanced in technical communication as a moral reference point for civic rhetorical action, this concept is typically used in romantic, redemptive, and essentializing ways. This article argues for a radical and symbolic/rhetorical view of community, regarding it a discursive construct purposefully invoked by technical writers for strategic reasons.     

Cars beyond Otto's internal combustion engines

Road transportation as an important requirement of modern society is presently faced with restrictions in mainly two respects, namely the ever tightening emission legislation as well as the availability of petroleum fuels, and as a consequence the fuel cost. But in any review of power sources for future road transport vehicles, the performance of the existing internal combustion engine is likely to be the yardstick against which other power sources will be compared. The power sources most likely to provide favourable comparison are those, which can display comparable range and speed, long and reliable life and manufactured at a cost comparable to petrol engine. A vehicle which fails in any of these requirements is unlikely to achieve anything but a niche market share. This article is an appraisal of a variety of proposed electrochemical systems, viz. rechargeable batteries, fuel cells and supercapacitors, for an electric car. It is surmised that a viable electric car could be powered with a fuel cell to provide power for cruising and climbing coupled in parallel with a supercapacitor/battery bank to deliver additional short-term burst-power during acceleration. A K Shukla is a Professor at the Solid State and Structural Chemistry Unit, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. His current research interests are in materials electrochemistry with special emphasis on batteries, fuel cells and supercapacitors.     

Know your personal computer

This article surveys system software organization in personal computers using the IBM personal computer software. Details of the hierarchical levels of the system software organization are explained.