Using HyperCard to administer a figural test on the Apple Macintosh

To date, applications of automated assessment techniques in personality testing have largely been limited to objective personality instruments with text stimuli; few assessment applications have involved graphic stimuli. Although projective personality instruments generally include ambiguous graphic or pictorial stimuli, computer applications with these procedures have been limited to automated scoring and interpretation, administration of sentence completion devices employing text stimuli, and the use of mechanical methods rather than computer graphics to display visual stimuli. In the present report, we describe a Macintosh HyperCard application for administering an objective personality test with visual stimuli, the Barron-Welsh Revised Art Scale of the Welsh Figure Preference Test. This test consists of a series of figural stimuli and a binary “like”/“dislike” response format, and it thus represents an administration procedure between standard objective self-report inventories involving text stimuli and a “true”/“false” response or variant, and tests such as the Rorschach or TAT that are both figural and free-response. The HyperCard language provides a variety of promising techniques useful for microcomputer test administration.     

Visibility of an afterimage in the presence of a second afterimage

Visibility of an afterimage has been measured for a single rectangular bar on its own and in the presence of a second bar. Visibility of each bar is increased if the two bars are in the same orientation and closer than 1 deg (this effect being called “facilitation”) and is decreased if the bars are in different orientations (this effect being called “inhibition”). These interactions also depend on the relative size of the bars. If a pattern of two bars is viewed dichoptically, rivalry between the bars occurs causing a mutual decrease in visibility. The rivalry effect and the orientation-specific effects discussed above are additive in the dichoptic viewing condition. The orientation-specific effects have been likened to those found in other psychophysical studies of angle detection.     

The place of the conditioned reflex in psychology and psychiatry: Reply to reese,dykman, and peters

Razran’s “The Place of the Conditional Reflex in Psychology and Psychiatry” delivered at GAP Symposium No. 9 traced historically the influence of Russian physiology on American behavior systems, first in the classical Watson period and then in present-day Neobehaviorism. The address collated Pavlovianism and Behaviorism, and mentioned recent Soviet emphasis of interoceptive, semantic, and compound-stimulus conditioning. Within the limits of time, it dealt with group developments and not with individual contributions. And it assumed that a behavior system comprises both normal and abnormal aspects; that is, the basics of both psychology and psychiatry. The assertion by Reese, Dykman and Peters that “Psychiatrists tend to avoid contributions of experimental psychologists and vice versa” is not shared by Razran, nor, he believes, by American psychiatry and experimental psychology as such. And the assertion is contrary to the Pavlovian tradition. Pavlov’s first, 1903, publication on conditioned reflexes was entitled “Experimental Psychology and Psychopathology in Animals” which he later renamed “the physiology and pathology [or pathophysiology] of higher nervous activity.”     

Pronoun disambiguation: Accessing potential antecedents

Two general classes of pronoun disambiguation processes are considered. In reading “Jack threw a snowball at Phil, but he missed,” both possible antecedents of “he” (“Jack” and “Phil”) may be accessed initially. Or, the actual antecedent alone may be accessed after sufficient semantic context is encoded. To evaluate these alternatives, a yes-no-probe recognition task was used to measure priming of the potential antecedents in sentence comprehension. Subjects read sentences similar to the example and were presented a test word immediately following each sentence. Response times for the actual antecedent (“Jack”) and nonantecedent (“Phil”) probes were obtained. Results indicated that the nonantecedent as well as the antecedent was activated (accessed) in pronoun disambiguation. This conclusion was not affected by the ordering of the antecedent and nonantecedent in the first clause.     

Andisp: A Turbo pascal program to analyze and display sampled data

ANDISP is a Turbo Pascal program that analyzes, displays, and manipulates sampled data recorded with a PC-compatible data-acquisition system The data analysis routines include “integrate/differentiate a channel”, “rectify,” “smooth,” “filter,” and “add/sub/mult/div a channel by a constant, ” as well as a routine that gives some basic statistics. The data manipulation routines are “copy a channel” or “copy the data buffer to a file.” The versatile display routine can give either oscilloscope-type displays of a data channel or plots of pubUshable quality. Hardware requirements are an IBM-compatible microcomputer and an EGA color monitor.     

Middlesex: A Pastoral Theological Reading

This article, written for the Group for New Directions in Pastoral Theology’s conference on the theme of “Emotion, Mood, and Temperament,” focuses on Middlesex, a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Jeffrey Eugenides, Professor of Creative Writing in the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University. The novel, set in 20th century America and written as a fictional memoir, is a coming-of-age story of Cal/Calliope, a man with an intersex condition caused by 5-alpha-reductase deficiency. The mission statement of the Intersex Society of North America (ISNA) states that the organization is “devoted to systemic change to end shame, secrecy, and unwanted genital surgeries for people born with an anatomy that someone decided is not standard for male or female.” This essay employs the resources of pastoral theology to assist in the project of ending shame regarding intersex conditions by offering a pastoral theological reading of Middlesex. As such, this essay is an example of the discipline of pastoral theology being employed in the field of medical humanities in particular and the field of clinical humanities more broadly, and it also serves as an example as to how one might offer a pastoral theological reading of a novel.     

Eta,disco, odisco,andF

Two coefficients are proposed for measuring the extent of overlap in distributions as a direct function of the variance between the arithmetic means (“disco” and “odisco”). They are designed to answer such questions as: “Given the value of a numerical variablex, to which population should an individual be assigned so that minimum error would be incurred?” This is just the reverse of the question addressed by ANOVA. These coefficients are shown to be analytic inx and they are related to Pearson's eta and Fisher'sF. Extensions of these coefficients (designed for univariate, one-way discrimination) tok-way and multivariate discriminant analysis and measurement of “interaction” are suggested.     

Mastery motivation in boys and girls: The role of intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation

This research tested the hypothesis that the importance of adult approval and feedback for females relative to males would render girls of elementary school age more likely to develop an extrinsic orientation in comparison to boys. Using S. Harter's Scale of Intrinsic versus Extrinsic Motivation [(1981), “A New Self-Report Scale of Intrinsic Versus Extrinsic Motivational Orientation in the Classroom: Motivational and Informational Components,” Developmental Psychology Vol. 17, pp. 300–312], the data supported this hypothesis. Because of the assumed differential importance of controlling feedback from adults for females relative to males, a second study examined girls' and boys' preference for challenge as a function of adult controlling feedback and children's motivational orientation. The pattern of data supported the hypothesis that girls relative to boys show differential preferences for challenge, depending on the presence of type of adult feedback and motivational orientation in girls.     

The professional ethics course

A professional ethics program was recently developed and implemented as a comparative values course at the University of Puget Sound. This article is a report ontheprogram, “Professional Ethics fora Technological Era.”The program consists of two courses: “Ethics for a Technological Era,” and “Values: Conflict and Compromise.” The first course emphasizes skills necessary for ethical decision making. The second course follows through with an opportunity to apply these skills to a major social policy program. This article discusses the approach to ethics, and participation, and the theoretical approach, including role modeling, speakers, and reading and discussion material, for “Professional Ethics in a Technological Era.”     

Apple Picker: Computer software for studying human responding on concurrent and multiple schedules

Apple Picker, a software package for the Apple II microcomputer, is described. Subjects respond by searching for “apples” in two “orchards.” “Attempted pickings” may be reinforced according to random ratio or interval schedules. “Search” responses are recorded and may be examined either as rates of responding in the two orchards or visually as paths the subject has traced during the session.     

The history of a catatonic dog

This article is a condensed life-history of a dog (“V3”) born and reared in the Pavlovian Laboratory and studied until his death in 1961. A detailed study was made of his pathologic development, his relations to people, and the effects of drugs. Measurements recorded were heart rate, blood pressure, respiration, 24-hour activity, sexual reflexes, general behavior. Although early experiments were done chiefly for recording and were not considered noxious or traumatic, this dog’s general development and symptoms seem to have been “constitutionally” rather than environmentally determined. His external behavior was strikingly similar to that of a catatonic patient-flexibilitas cerea, general immobility. Of particular interest was the “Effect of Person”: in the presence of all humans who confronted him he showed catatonic postures, cardiovascular disorders (tachycardia up to 200 beats/min., bradycardia to 12 beats/min., drop of blood pressure from 150 to 75 mm Hg, arrest of heart-beat for as long as 8 seconds), moribund poses. His response to drugs illustrated the specificity to a definite “constitutional type”: sexual activity markedly increased by alcohol and rarely present except after administration of alcohol; no improvement after administration of tranquilizers, except alcohol and meprobamate, which made him act like a normal dog in behavior and in relations to people. His symptoms and reactions to both people and drugs were generally opposite to those of another dog, “Nick”, studied over his life span: Nick showed excessive activity in physiologic systems; hyperactivity (running); generally, improvement through “Effect of Person”; sexual inhibition with alcohol. Observations of the two dogs suggest that symptoms as well as reactions to drugs are the result of the “type” rather than the procedure used, that perhaps psychopathologic symptoms are due more to inborn constitution than to “conflict” (“collision”) between excitation and inhibition, and that neurotic or psychotic symptoms may not interfere with longevity-Nick lived to be 14 years old and died fighting; V3, who also spent most of his life in the laboratory, died at the age of 14.     

Sensitivity to probabilistic orthographic cues to lexical stress in adolescent speakers with autism spectrum disorder and typical peers

Lexical stress refers to the opposition of strong and weak syllables within polysyllabic words and is a core feature of the English prosodic system. There are probabilistic cues to lexical stress present in English orthography. For example, most disyllabic English words ending with the letters “-ure” have first-syllable stress (e.g., “pasture”, but note words such as “endure”), whereas most ending with “-ose” have second-syllable stress (e.g., “propose”, but note examples such as “glucose”). Adult native speakers of English are sensitive to these probabilities during silent reading. During testing, they tend to assign first-syllable stress when reading a nonword such as “lenture” but second-syllable stress when reading “fostpose” (Arciuli & Cupples, 2006 Arciuli, J. and Cupples, L. 2006. The processing of lexical stress during visual word recognition: Typicality effects and orthographic correlates. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 59(5): 920–948. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Difficulties with prosody, including problems processing lexical stress, are a notable feature of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The current study investigated the ability of adolescents with ASD (13–17 years of age) to show this sensitivity compared with a group of typically developing peers. Results indicated reduced sensitivity to probabilistic cues to lexical stress in the group with ASD. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

Early pavlovian studies on the effects of starvation

This communication is based on the pioneering studies performed by I. P. Pavlov’s associates, Yu. P. Frolov (in 1918) and I. S. Rozental’ (in 1918/1919) at the Institute of Experimental Medicine, in Petrograd. The changes in the “independent variable”—the dogs’ diet—were not planned but were the consequences of severe shortages of food for man and beast. The principal generalization concerns the order in which different forms of “complex nervous activity” were impaired: the order is opposite to the order in which they emerge in the process of ontogenesis. First to suffer was “internal inhibition,” as documented by the failure of stimulus differentiation. This was followed by the decrease in the magnitude of well-established conditional responses (CRs). As a result of a more severe impairment of the excitatory processes, it became difficult or impossible to establish new CRs. In time, previously established CRs to artificial stimuli, visual and acoustic, disappeared totally. The CRs to natural conditional stimuli (CSs) were maintained fairly well but, eventually, they too decreased markedly. In the terminal phase of starvation, the unconditional salivary reflexes continued to function, although their magnitude was depressed.     

Real or imagined incomplete lateralization of function in females?

Visual field effects for 30 normal familial right-handed females were investigated with 4-point random forms known to be recognized more accurately in the right visual field by normal familial right-handed males, and the relationship between spatial ability and various performance patterns was examined. The forms were presented 2 deg in the left or right visual field. After a 10-sec delay, the subject decided whether or not a form exposed in central vision was the same as the stimulus. Incomplete lateralization of function appeared to be supported by the finding of no field differences. An alternative explanation was discussed since visual field superiority was significantly correlated with WAIS Block Design scores scaled for age, females with relatively low scores showing a right visual field superiority and females with relatively high scores showing a left visual field superiority. The experiment was repeated with 30 familial right-handed males. A significant right visual field superiority was obtained, but visual field superiorities were not correlated with measures of visuo-spatial or verbal ability.     

Fully automated psychiatric diagnosis: Some new possibilities

A fully automated psychiatric diagnostic system is outlined that would rely on picture-preference items rather than verbal ones and that would involve a tailored approach rather than conventional “brute-strength” testing. The conditions under which such a system can diagnose patients in a way that might arouse their interest and cooperation are discussed. These include a set of diagnostic categories (perhaps a subset from DSM-III), availability of a single-frame video disk unit allowing random access to each frame, a microprocessor system with a memory capacity of about 32,000 bytes, known base rates of the population of interest, and known probabilities of a particular response to the items for each diagnostic category. Some futuristic extensions of the proposed system are suggested.     

Children with AIDS in the public schools: The ethical issues

The question of whether to allow children with AIDS to attend public school generates explosive emotions and has wide-reaching consequences. This paper focuses on the perspective of parents of well children who may be asked to attend school with children who have AIDS. These parents are poised at the heart of the dilemma: they are the ethical “bottom line,” and an argument that fails to satisfy them ought not to satisfy anyone. The conflicting commitments these parents face are first to the parentchild covenant which requires them to act in their child's best interests, and second, to the principles of beneficence and justice, which require them not to further burden a sick child with ostracism and isolation. Almost exact parallels exist between this issue and that of proxy consent by parents for children's participation in low-risk, non-therapeutic research. The lengthy and important debate between Paul Ramsey and Richard McCormick on this question is analyzed, concluding that McCormick's position in favor of thoughtful proxy consent is the more compelling. Returning to the question of allowing children with AIDS to attend school, the essay shows why the parallels are persuasive. On the ethical level, the apparent conflict of obligations is almost exactly the same; on the pragmatic level, the essay shows why sharing a classroom with a child who has AIDS is comparable to the “low-risk” category that the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects found acceptable in its 1978 guidelines. The essay concludes that parents of healthy childrenmay and ought to accept the presence of children with AIDS in the public school.     

Relation of sex and gender role to love,sexual attitudes,and self-esteem

One theory of love (J. A. Lee, The Colors of Love: An Exploration of the Ways of Loving, Don Mills, Ontario: New Press, 1973) assumes at least six different attitudinal orientations toward love. Based on Lee's approach, recent research (e.g., C. Hendrick & S. Hendrick, “A Theory and Method of Love,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1986, 50, pp. 392–402) has found consistent sex differences in love attitudes. Other research has found comparable sex differences in sexual permissiveness and other sexual attitudes. The present study explored the possibility that gender role orientation might be related to differences in love and sexual attitudes. A sample of 286 college students completed the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI), Love Attitudes Scale, Sexual Attitudes Scale, and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. Correlational analyses revealed many significant associations among love and sexual attitudes, self-esteem, and masculinity and femininity. Subjects were also classified according to gender role as androgynous, masculine, feminine, or undifferentiated, according to BSRI scores. Analyses of variance showed effects for both sex of subjects and gender role orientation on several of the dependent measures. The pattern of the results suggested that sex-stereotyped couples may have difficulties in romantic relationships because of the discrepancies in their love and sexual attitudes. An argument was made in support of the recent trend toward a multidimensional concept of gender role orientation.     

Rethinking Reconstructionist Confucianism’s Rethinking

In this review of Fan Ruiping’s book, I am concerned first of all about how representative his account of Confucianism/Ruism is in relationship to the multiform traditions associated with that teaching through more than two thousand years of its existence. Fan emphasizes pre-imperial forms of Confucian traditions, but neglects many alternatives from later sources. Secondly, his account of “familism” lends itself to questions related to the problem of revenge that is associated with traditional Confucianism. This raises further ethical doubts about the effectiveness of his reconstructed Confucianism within contemporary Chinese society. Finally, his “familism” appears to focus on extended family structures, but whether this is suitable and relevant for the structures of modern family transformations in mainland China is questioned.     

Cardiac arrhythmias in the monkey during classically conditioned fear and excitement

Rhesus monkeys(Macaca mulatto) were tested in classic aversive and appetitive conditioning paradigms following complete coronary artery occlusion (CO) to test the hypothesis that “emotional stress” induces ventricular arrhythmias. Findings were based upon conditioning trials conducted for one or more weeks after occlusion in 13 animals. When all data from each animal for the week following CO were considered, there was no demonstrable tendency for arrhythmias to increase during “fear” conditioned to unavoidable electric shock or during “excitement” in anticipation of food. However, selected trials from six monkeys did reveal instances when changes in the frequency of occurrence of arrhythmias were coupled with behavioral conditioning. While analysis of these trials did not reveal any simple relationship between emotional stress and the development of ventricular arrhythmias after myocardial infarction, certain of the behavioral situations may be more potentially arrhythmogenic than others. For these selected trials, with respect to control, the number of arrhythmias may have increased or decreased upon presentation of the conditional stimulus; the exact response appears to depend upon the immediate physiologic status of the animal as well as on the behavioral condition. “More stressful” situations, such as aversive conditioning, are not necessarily associated with greater numbers of arrhythmias than were “less stressful” situations, such as appetitive conditioning. Arrhythmias appear to occur more frequently when an animal’s heart rate is within a given range; this may reflect underlying cardiac sympathetic and parasympathetic nerve activity.