Is belief in the paranormal alive and well within preservice teachers? In this survey 232 undergraduates (including 202 preservice primary teachers) were asked to react to a series of eight statements reflecting paranormal New Age beliefs rated earlier by a faculty panel as "totally unbelievable." Overall, the students' modal response was expressed as "no particular opinion," although for five of the eight items the modal resp6nse was "slightly believable." It was found that only four students within the sample consistently rejected all eight statements.

This article reviews empirical findings that implicate personal knowledge in human information processing. It cites findings in relation to intelligence, automaticity, learning, schemata activation, analogical processing, problem solving, reading, and cognitive development, and indicates ways in which the impact of prior knowledge typically is not obvious to a teacher, and ways in which prior knowledge can, at times, disrupt the learning process (especially via misconception and know-it-all effects). Educational implications, especially the Matthew effect, are discussed

A complete course of psychotherapy provided extensive information about natural speech patterns of a male psychiatrist and a female patient. Contrary to assertions of the deferential function of tag questions, the patient's use of this form increased as she gained in self-confidence and improved her psychological adjustment. Qualitative analysis of the type, antecedents, and consequences of tag questions in sessions at the beginning and end of the therapy shows how the patient's use of the form reflects her growing independence. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of verbal interaction offer complementary benefits, and a two-stage research method is advocated. (Psychotherapeutic discourse, tag questions, pragmatics, sociolinguistics, psychotherapy process)

Transcripts of over half the sessions of a psychodynamically oriented psychotherapy were coded to show amount of speech by patient and therapist, and role dimensions derived from Stiles' Verbal Response Mode system. Results indicate the process of psychotherapy as one of decreasing asymmetry between participants, in both activity and status.

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