Agreement and accuracy in children's interpersonal perceptions: a social relations analysis.

Agreement and accuracy in children's interpersonal perceptions during middle childhood were studied in the school environment. Sociocultural and ecological theories led to the prediction that, in middle childhood, peers' interpersonal perceptions would show high levels of agreement with those of teachers and would be accurate. A social relations analysis of data from a 3-year, cross-sequential study revealed that throughout middle childhood, peer perceptions of cognitive ability, observable behavior and characteristics, popularity, and affect correlated reliably with teacher perceptions. In addition, peer and teacher perceptions of targets' cognitive ability correlated with standardized test scores. Self-other agreement lagged behind teacher-peer agreement. The conceptual and statistical advantages of the social relations analysis of children's interpersonal perceptions were also considered.

Neonatal euthanasia: attributions of students and nurses.

An attributional analysis of neonatal euthanasia was undertaken in two studies to compare the responsibility attributions of nursing and non-nursing students (Study 1) and nurses (Study 2) toward a physician for a critically ill neonate's death. In both studies, vignettes about a newborn's death differed with respect to the physician's treatment of the critically ill newborn. In the student study, the physician was attributed the least responsibility for the newborn's death when cardiopulmonary resuscitation was attempted but failed, followed by the physician's issuance of either a "Do Not Resuscitate" order or an order to turn off the infant's respirator. Greatest responsibility was attributed to the physician when he ordered the infant's nutritional and hydration support to be terminated. In addition, the student's major (nursing vs. non-nursing) and the nursing student's educational cohort impacted the level of physician responsibility attributed. In contrast, the nurses' study found that the termination of nutritional and hydrational support was viewed as different from the physician's other three actions.

Effect of retinal location on cone critical flicker frequency.

This experiment investigated the differential sensitivity of various areas of the retina using flicker. For 12 subjects testing was carried out in the fovea, and 5 degrees and 6 degrees temporal to the fovea using a wavelength of 555 nm. Testing was done both in the presence of a surround beam and in its absence. In all cases, there was a 2.5- to 4-fold increase in the amount of energy needed to perceive flicker as testing was shifted from the fovea to the periphery. A number of possible explanations are suggested to account for these findings.