A package of five FORTRAN programs that provides for fast user-controlled analyses of reading eye fixations is described. The package requires the data to be in a fixation format and to be rescaled to screen dimensions. OLDEYE identifies six types of fixations and calculates descriptive statistics on each of them, on their associated saccades, and on their average pupil diameter. CONVRT represents the text as a string of words that can be coded according to experimentally relevant variables. PLTFIX prints fixation durations by letter position and sequence of occurrence. MODDAT is an interactive program for marking parts of the text in which the data quality is below acceptable standards. It also allows the correction of systematic errors due to calibration or drift. MATCH combines the outputs from OLDEYE, CONVRT, and MODDAT and calculates 11 dependent measures for every word. The output of MATCH is suitable for input to conventional multivariate statistical programs.

The present paper presents FORTRAN programs for reducing eye monitor output to fixations and for mapping these fixations to locations in the stimulus space. Flexible parameters of the fixations program allow for determination of the beginning and end of fixations under different resolution criteria and for indicating loss of accurate measurement. The calibration program is based on a rectangular 9-point fixation grid. Each fixation is rescaled within this grid by solving for a quadratic equation. The rescaled values are output in a flexibly determined rectangular coordinate system that is related to the stimulus space, such as character position on the screen. The programs were developed for the 60-Hz Applied Sciences corneal reflection eye monitor, but they may be used with a number of other systems.

Contents: I. Introduction II. Word Coding Processes A. Word Recognition B. Orthographic Coding C. Phonological Coding III. Eye Monitor and Reading Task IV. Group Differences V. Dimensions of Individual Differences A. Regressive Fixation Index and Word Recognition B. Regressive Fixation Index and IQ C. Regressive Fixation Index and Saccade Length D. Regressive Fixation Index and Relative Phonological Skill VI. Multiple Regression Models of Individual Differences A. Disabled Readers in the Aloud Condition B. Disabled Readers in the Silent Condition C. Normal Readers in Silent and Aloud Conditions VII. Conclusions

Contents: I. Introduction II. Word Length and Word Frequency III. Preferred and Convenient Viewing Position IV. Influences across Words A. Serial Dependencies B. Lack of Saccadic Resilience V. Conclusion

EMAN is an eye-movement analysis program that consists of four modules. The first module rescales eye positions to coordinates of the display. The second and third modules reduce data to a fixation format and identify areas of bad measurement by means of iterative passes over the data. In the fourth module iterative algorithms are employed for the identification of line numbers and for achieving congruence between fixations and display.

I. Introduction A. Theoretical Framework and Selection of Tests B. Related Studies of Reading Disability Subtypes C. Overview of Specific Questions and Article Outline II. Selection criteria nd performance on standardized measures III. Group differences between disabled and normal readers A. Phonetic Memory B. Picture-Naming Speed and Automatic Responses to Print C. Phonological and Orthographic Skill D. Easy Regular and Exception Word Reading E. Difficult Regular and Exception Words IV. Individual diferences in reading disability A. Phonological Skill, Orthographic Skill, and the Regularity Effect B. Phonological Skill, Orthographic Skill, and Spelling Errors V. Eye movement reading style A. The "Plodder-Explorer" Dimension of Eye Movement Reading Style B. Eye Movements, Coding Skills, and Spelling Ratings C. Verbal Intelligence and the Plodder-Explorer Dimension D. Eye Movements in a Nonreading Task and the "Visual-Spatial" Subtype VI. Distribution and etiology of reading disabilities A. Distribution Issues B. Etiology of Reading Disabilities VII. Summary and new directions in research

Fluid intelligence belongs to that cluster of intellectual abilities evincing aging loss. To examine further the range of intellectual reserve available to aging individuals and the question of replicability in a new cultural and laboratory setting, 204 healthy older adults (mean age = 72 years; range = 60-86) participated in a short-term longitudinal training study. For experimental subjects, 10 sessions consisted of cognitive training involving two subability tests (Figural Relations, Induction) of fluid intelligence. The pattern of outcomes replicates and expands on earlier studies. Older adults have the reserve to evince substantial increases in levels of performance in fluid intelligence tests. Transfer of training, however, is narrow in scope. Training also increases accuracy of performance and the ability to solve more difficult test items. Difficulty level was estimated in a separate study, with a comparable sample of N = 112 elderly adults. Future research is suggested to examine whether intellectual reserve extends to near-maximum levels of performance.

Criticisms of the integration of psychotherapy-outcome research performed by Smith, Glass, and Miller (1980) are reviewed and answered. An attempt is made to account for the conflicting points of view in this disagreement in terms of certain issues that have engaged philosophers of science in the 20th century. It is hoped that, in passing, something useful is learned about research of many types on psychotherapy.

Der hier berichtete Forschungsansatz kombiniert entwicklungs- und kognitionspsychologische Fragestellungen. Das entwicklungspsychologische Ziel war, Potential und Grenzen latenter kognitiver Leistungsreserven bei jungen und älteren Erwachsenen sichtbar zu machen. Eine systematische Heranführung an Leistungsgrenzen sollte außerdem die unterschiedliche Alterssensitivität kognitiver Prozesse verdeutlichen und zu einer Vergrößerung interindividueller Unterschiede führen. Das kognitionspsychologische Ziel war, die Genese kognitiver Expertise unter Laborbedingungen zu simulieren, wobei vor allem die Transformation von Laien- in Expertenwissen untersucht werden sollte. Diese Überlegungen wurden in einem Trainingsprogramm überprüft, in dessen Verlauf junge und ältere Erwachsene in einer Gedächtniskunst für das Behalten von Zufallszahlen und Wortlisten unterwiesen wurden. Die Brauchbarkeit dieses experimentellen Paradigmas für die Überprüfung der theoretischen Fragen wird durch Ergebnisse aus vier Einzelfallstudien belegt. / This research examines developmental and cognitive psychological questions. The developmental interest is to demonstrate the potential and limits of latent cognitive reserve in young and older adults. A testing-the-limits methodology is advocated to identify differential sensitivity to aging in cognitive processes and to magnify interindividual differences. The cognitive psychological goal is to simulate the acquisition of cognitive expertise in a laboratory situation and, in particular, to study processes that transform novice to expert knowledge. In the context of a training program that was designed to test these assumptions, young and older adults acquired a memory expertise that allowed recall of random digit strings and lists of words. Results from four case studies are used to illustrate and to document the utility of this research paradigm.

This article outlines a research strategy for investigating, in a laboratory setting, the acquisition and the "limits" of a cognitive skill. Expert digit memory is used as an illustration. Two participants with initial average digit- and word-span memory were trained to memorize and reproduce strings of 80 to 90 digits presented at 10- to 1-sec rates. The instruction and training program, based on a theory of skilled memory, focused on three components: (a) acquisition of a mnemonic system (i.e., recoding digits into historical dates or concrete nouns), (b) use of a long-term memory retrieval structure (i.e., instruction in the Method of Loci), and (c) improvement in processing speed. After 86 experimental sessions, one participant recalled 90 random digits presented at a 1-sec rate. The digits were, however, constrained to be compatible with the participant's historical knowledge. The second participant recalled 80 random digits presented at a 5-sec rate after 70 sessions. Speed of encoding and retrieval processing was the only component that required extensive practice for skilled digit-memory acquisition.