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eth 1st UQ Fayetteville, NC Vol. XXXVI, No. 9 Monday, April 5,' 1999 B. F. Stone Lyceum Sparks Hot Debate By Michael C. Molter Assistant Editor On March 23, Methodist College held its third annual B. F. Stone Endowed Ly ceum. Mr. Stone was an Elizabethtown, N.C. pharmacist and philanthropist who ac tively supported Methodist College, and it is his estate which endows the lyceum. Dr. Donald Lassiter, Associate Profes sor of Psychology, presented a paper en titled “Aging and Driving; The Need for Improved Driver’s License Testing." His presentation began around 7:30 p.m. and lasted roughly thirty minutes. It was fol lowed by four ten-minute commentaries by experts in the fields of psychology, sociol ogy, gerontology, and the community ser vice of senior citizens. The forum was opened to questions following the argu ments, one of which was a commentary by a local AARP representative, and was ad journed shortly after 9:30 p.m. The evening began with dinner at six in the Alumni Dining Room. President M. Elton Hendricks welcomed the guests to the campus, and Dr. Robert Christian gave the invocation, reading from Psalms and Tennyson. After dinner, the party made its way to the Yarborough Auditorium in Clark Hall, where President Hendricks welcomed everyone once again, including those who In This Issue Should You Cheat? Page 2 Most Wanted, Page 4 Hot Cross Buns, Page 5 Die, Melissa, Die, Page 7 Gone Fishin', Page 10 Pick of the Pride, Page 11 Horror Scopes, Page 14 25 Years of Cher, Page 15 did not attend dinner. Dr. Michael Potts introduced himself as the moderator for the lyceum, an honor given to the previous year’s lyceum presenter. He set the guide lines for the presentations, and introduced the guest speakers: Dr. John Sill, Profes sor of Sociology at Methodist College; Mr. Bob White, representing Seniors Call to Action of Fayetteville; Dr. Susan Franzblau, Associate Professor of Psychol ogy at Fayetteville State University; and Mr. James A. DePree, a psychologist on the Rehab Team at Cape Fear Valley Health Center. The phrase “academic and scholarly ex change of ideas" was used more than once to describe what would unfold. Basically it would be a way for scholars to state their opinions, differing as they may be, back them up, and do so without getting per sonal—and it’s a good thing! An abstract of Dr. Lassiter’s paper was included on the many advertisements hang ing in the classroom halls before the ly ceum, but in case you missed it, I shall sum marize his discussion. Dr. Lassiter argued that as we get older, we fall victim to a natu ral process called “cognitive aging.” He defined this to be the changing in concep tual and mental abilities effected by aging. This includes general cognitive slowing and reduced capacity for mental workload (i. e., multi-tasking). There are exceptions, however. A person’s individual differences may make them less susceptible to the ef fects of cognitive aging, whereas some would be more susceptible. Also, people’s expertise in an area may help them perform tasks in their area of expertise as well as anyone, yet succumb to cognitive aging in Dr. Lassiter responds to a question from the audience, flanked by Dr Potts (left) and Mr White (right). Photo by C. Kearns. other tasks. Dr. Lassiter argued that cognitive ag ing affects driving ability. Cognitive aging could affect reaction time, visual functions (acuity, depth perception, color percep tion), timely spatial localization, mental state, mental workload capacity, perfor mance when selective attention is required, and performance when attention is divided. So the problem is a decrease in visual attention, rather than visual ability. Dr. Lassiter touched on driver’s license renewal policies in a handful of states, citing how lax some of them are. When visual tests are administered by the DMV, they only measure a person's visual ability, not vi sual attention. Dr. Lassiter offered a way to improve testing to make test results more relevant to their purpose (keeping unsafe drivers off the roads) by testing drivers’ “useful field of vision” (UFOV). Dr Lassiter explained that the typical field of vision was 180 degrees on the hori zontal axis, and about 60 degrees on the vertical. The UFOV is a “subfield" of the field of vision. He defined the UFOV to be “the place where we can rapidly process and use information.” Research has shown that the size of the UFOV decreases with age, and that a low UFOV is highly corre- See Lyceum, page 9 The Kosovo Crisis Explained By Cindy Bridges Editor On Monday, March 29, Methodist Col lege held a panel discussion on the situa tion in the Balkans. Mr. Steve Williams, a geography and earth science professor, covered the geography and history of the area. Dr. Andrew Ziegler, a political sci ence professor, discussed the United States’ foreign policy concerning the crisis in Kosovo. Thirty-five people were in attendance at the seminar. Although many students simply showed up for extra credit points. Dr. Murray’s entire contemporary world history class made an appearance to be come more familiar with the explosive situ ation in this area of the world. Many pro fessors also attended the discussion including: Dr. Carter, Dr. Walsh, Dr. Bitterman, Mrs. Rohrer-Walsh, Dr. Foster, and Dr Murray. Mr. Williams spoke first, outlining the geography of the area and explaining the history behind the tensions that have caused this crisis. He emphasized that this region of the world is very diverse in many aspects. What was formally known simply as Yugoslavia is now called the Federal Republic of Yu goslavia—just remnants of the former state. It consists of two of the six republics that originally composed the country of Yugo slavia. In this region there are five major nationality groups, four languages, three religions, and two alphabets. Mr. Williams further explained that there are thousands of sacred sites in Kosovo. It is considered the “cradle of Serbian culture.” The Serbs want to pre- See Kosovo, page 11
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