This study tested the effect of embedded clauses on recall for English‐speaking high school students reading Spanish historical texts. Twenty‐four students with high prior knowledge of Incan history and 24 with low prior knowledge read texts concerning the Incas. Three levels of syntactic complexity were defined: Level I (LI) contained the essential ideas for the topic; Level II (LII) embedded one clause with nonessential information within LI sentences; and Level III (LIII) embedded an additional clause within LII sentences. A significant decrease in the recall of the essential propositions occurred as the level of syntactic complexity increased. Readers with high prior knowledge recalled significantly more of the essential information for LI and LII. However, recall scores for the essential propositions in LIII were nearly equal to those for the low prior‐knowledge group. In conclusion, the study found that complexity of sentence structure seemed to cancel the advantage of previous exposure to the content domain.

This study documents the relationship between White racial identity development and multicultural counseling competency (MCC) as reported by mental health practitioners. Initial results were generally consistent with J. E. Helms's (1990) construction of White racial identity attitude development theory. More sophisticated statuses of White racial identity development generally correlated with higher levels of perceived MCC. Overall, there was a significant difference in MCC reported between men and women. Among counselors, conflicting relationships were observed between some racial identity statuses and multicultural competencies (skills, relationship).

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The primary foci of the study were exploration of the linkage between cognitive and autonomic inflexibility of worry and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and examination of the effects of an analog cognitive restructuring task on this relationship. Cardiac responses of GAD and non-GAD participants were measured to examine the sympathetic and parasympathetic effects of worry and cognitive challenge. Diagnostic groups of undergraduate students were determined via administration of a structured interview, yielding a GAD group (n=16) and a control group (n=19) of individuals without GAD, depression, or panic disorder diagnoses. Cardiac autonomic responses were acquired via electrocardiogram during rest, worry, and cognitive challenge conditions by an experimenter blind to diagnosis. Metrics were compared between the two groups and across the three conditions. Individuals diagnosed with GAD did not differ significantly from controls on autonomic indices. Worry was associated with significantly decreased parasympathetic influence and increased sympathetic activity. Cognitive challenge did not result in significant increased cardiac responsivity. The results indicate that worry behavior is associated with decreased vagal activity, suggest a linkage between autonomic and cognitive inflexibility, and provide further suggestions for improving protocols to assess the autonomic effects of cognitive therapy techniques.

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