Congruence and typology of diagnoses in school psychology: An empirical study

Focus is directed upon the logic and import of the assumption that effective preventative and remedial mental health service demands reasonable agreement among service providers as to the nature and course of psychological problems. The study proceeds to test the belief that school psychologists improve in diagnostic agreement as a function of increased training and experience. Seventy-two randomly selected members of groups of novice, intern, and expert school psychologists were presented with three child case studies containing a full breadth of information and were subsequently asked to render diagnoses. It was found that diagnostic agreement was absent at all levels of experience, and further, a trend was noted wherein school psychologists tended to demonstrate increasing disagreement with one another as they acquired more training and experience. The findings were examined in the context of comparative research from allied mental health and educational specialties, with a special concern for discovering prevailing patterns of decision-making errors that result in reduced diagnostic agreement and validity.     

Competency and interpersonal ratings of teacher specialties: What teachers think of each other

The perceptions of 135 teachers of elementary, secondary, and mentally retarded students on the competency and interpersonal skill characteristics of teachers within their teacher subgroup and toward the two other subgroups were assessed by a semantic differential instrument. Two-factor (3×3) analysis of variance indicated that teachers of mentally retarded students and teachers of elementary students were rated higher than secondary teachers on the Competency and Interpersonal scales. Teachers of mentally retarded students were rated higher than elementary teachers on the Interpersonal scale. Professional self-esteem of teachers and its implications for school psychologists was discussed in light of these findings, and additional research was urged to determine the generalizability of the results.     

The effects of work:rest duration on physiological and perceptual responses during intermittent exercise and performance

In this study, we examined the effects of different work:rest durations during 20 min intermittent treadmill running and subsequent performance. Nine males (mean age 25.8 years, s = 6.8; body mass 73.9 kg, s = 8.8; stature 1.75 m, s = 0.05; VO(2max) 55.5 ml x kg(-1) x min(-1), s = 5.8) undertook repeated sprints at 120% of the speed at which VO(2max) was attained interspersed with passive recovery. The work:rest ratio was constant (1:1.5) with trials involving either short (6:9 s) or long (24:36 s) work:rest exercise protocols (total exercise time 8 min). Each trial was followed by a performance run to volitional exhaustion at the same running speed. Testing order was randomized and counterbalanced. Heart rate, oxygen consumption, respiratory exchange ratio, and blood glucose were similar between trials (P > 0.05). Blood lactate concentration was greater during the long than the short exercise protocol (P < 0.05), whereas blood pH was lower during the long than the short exercise protocol (7.28, s = 0.11 and 7.30, s = 0.03 at 20 min, respectively; P < 0.05). Perceptions of effort were greater throughout exercise for the long than the short exercise protocol (16.6, s = 1.4 and 15.1, s = 1.6 at 20 min, respectively; P < 0.05) and correlated with blood lactate (r = 0.43) and bicarbonate concentrations (r = 0.59; P < 0.05). Although blood lactate concentration at 20 min was related to performance time (r = - 0.56; P < 0.05), no differences were observed between trials for time to exhaustion (short exercise protocol: 95.8 s, s = 30.0; long exercise protocol: 92.0 s, s = 37.1) or physiological responses at exhaustion (P > 0.05). Our results demonstrate that 20 min of intermittent exercise involving a long work:rest duration elicits greater metabolic and perceptual strain than intermittent exercise undertaken with a short work:rest duration but does not affect subsequent run time to exhaustion.     

The effects of arm crank strategy on physiological responses and mechanical efficiency during submaximal exercise

The purpose of this study was to compare submaximal physiological responses and indices of mechanical efficiency between asynchronous and synchronous arm ergometry. Thirteen wheelchair-dependent trained athletes performed eight steady-state incremental bouts of exercise (0 to 140 W), each lasting 4 min, using synchronous and asynchronous arm-cranking strategies. Physiological measures included oxygen uptake (VO2), heart rate, and blood lactate concentration. The power outputs corresponding to fixed whole blood lactate concentrations of 2.0 to 4.0 mmol x l(-1) were calculated using linear interpolation. Mechanical efficiency indices - gross efficiency, net efficiency, and work efficiency - were also calculated. An analysis of variance with repeated measures was applied to determine the effect of crank mode on the physiological parameters. Oxygen uptake was on average 10% lower (P < 0.01), and both net efficiency (P < 0.01) and gross efficiency (P < 0.01) were higher, during the asynchronous strategy at both 60 and 80 W (gross efficiency: 16.9 +/- 2.0% vs. 14.7 +/- 2.4% and 17.5 +/- 1.8% vs. 15.9 +/- 2.6% at 60 and 80 W respectively). There were no differences in heart rate, blood lactate concentration or power output at either of the blood lactate reference points between the asynchronous and synchronous strategies (P > 0.05). In conclusion, test specificity is an important consideration. If a synchronous strategy is to be adopted, it is likely to result in lower efficiency than an asynchronous strategy. The exercise testing scenario may help dictate which method is ultimately chosen.