GERONTOLOGICAL INTEREST AND OPINIONS OF HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS

The purpose of this study was (1) to examine and analyze the opinions and interests in geriatrics, gerontology, and older people of physicians, registered nurses, and dentists; and (2) to make comparisons of the expressed interests and opinions between the three groups of practitioners. The instrument consisted of two parts, demographic information and 22 questions regarding the interest and training in geriatrics/gerontology and opinions of the health needs of the elderly. From the results obtained in this study implications for the future training of health care providers are discussed.     

Memory content of scientific concepts in beginning university science students

This study examines the characteristics of the content of scientific concepts stored in memory by beginning university science students. The features of this representation are examined and compared to the memory content of abstract non-scientific concepts shown by previous studies. Property generation task, a tool extensively used in identifying conceptual content, was used for this purpose. The findings show that the content of scientific concepts stored in memory by beginning university students is characterised by a predominance of entity properties along with, to a lesser extent, situation and introspective properties. This stands in contrast to previous findings about non-scientific abstract concepts, where situation properties are predominant. The implications of this finding on the acquisition and use of scientific concepts are discussed.     

Comparison of California Test of Mental Maturity and WISC-R IQs among children suspected of being EMR or LD

The California Test of Mental Maturity, Short Form (CTMM-SF) and the WISC-R were compared in a sample of black and white children, ages 6-8 to 15-2 years, referred for learning problems. A 2 × 2 mixed ANOVA (Ethnicity and Test) indicated that ethnicity was the only significant effect, with black children obtaining lower scores than white children. All correlations between the two tests were significant, although they were higher for white children than for black children. The results indicate that the CTMM-SF has adequate criterion-related validity.     

A longitudinal study of the WISC-R and WAIS-R with special education students

The relationship between the WISC-R and WAIS-R was studied in a sample of 30 special education children (22 male and 8 female). Children were administered the WISC-R at an average age of 13.85 years and the WAIS-R at an average age of 17.52 years. ANOVAs indicated that the two tests yielded Verbal, Performance, and Full Scale IQS that were not significantly different. For example, the mean Full Scale IQ was 81.13 for the WISC-R and 82.70 for the WAIS-R. Product-moment correlations also were highly significant, with rs ranging from .76 to .86 for the three scales. The results suggest that, for children of limited intelligence, the WISC-R and WAIS-R provide comparable IQs over a four-year time period.