Ordering and reordering in the auditory and visual modalities

This study investigates the hypothesis that the modality effect (i.e., the often-found recall advantage of the last few items presented in the auditory- rather than visual-input modality) is attributable to a directional auditory trace. Such a directional trace should help performance of forward item-to-item recall, but should hurt performance if mental reordering is required. However, it was found in our Experiment 1 that mental item-to-item reordering of the materials did not affect the modality effect. In Experiment 2, strict control was exercised over the order of recall of chunks of items, as well as over the order of recall within chunks. It was found that the item-to-item reordering of the materials had little effect on the modality effect. However, the larger scale order of recall of the chunks had a large effect on the modality effect. If recall was in a forward order (i.e., first chunk, second chunk, third chunk), there was a dramatic superiority of the auditory materials on the last chunk. If the recall order was backward (third chunk, second chunk, first chunk), the modality effect was inconsequential. These results suggest that the modality effect is related to access to large memorial units rather than to item-to-item associations.     

Children's preference for body or external object on a task requiring transposition and discrimination of right-left relations.

First graders were tested on trials requiring the discrimination and transposition of right-left relations, with stimuli similar to (dolls) or different from (toy planes) the body. On an initial series of training and practice trials children were allowed to respond to body and external objects as referents providing right-left cues. A later series of test trials was then used to determine the referent the child actually preferred. Results of the test trials indicated that 24 children tested with the dolls preferred the body as referent, while 24 children tested with planes preferred the external referent. The results were interpreted as suggesting two alternative systems through which children develop an understanding of right-left relations and possibly other concepts as well.     

Ordering autobiographical experiences

This study examined individuals' memory for the temporal order of autobiographical events and for the components that constitute autobiographical events. Study 1 measured performance on an across-event ordering task that involved the chronological arrangement of cards that displayed event labels. Results indicated poor ordering ability across events, but a reasonable ability to order clusters of events. Study 2 compared within-event and across-event ordering using computer-presented digital photographs. Participants were better at ordering the photographs in their own across-event trials than in their within-event trials. The results are discussed in terms of the retrieval of temporal information under within- and across-event conditions.     

Species-specific auditory preference of bobwhite quail chicks (Colinus virginianus) is altered by social interaction with siblings

This study examined whether reinstating specific aspects of the normally occurring postnatal setting (ongoing social interaction with siblings during rearing and/or testing) would influence bobwhite quail chicks' attraction to their species-typical maternal call. Results revealed that incubator-reared chicks exhibit a strong preference for the species-typical bobwhite maternal call over a group of same-aged siblings in simultaneous choice tests at 24 hr and 48 hr after hatching, but only if the birds are kept in relative social isolation. No preference for the maternal call was found at 24 hr or at 48 hr if chicks were reared in a group of same-aged chicks from hatching and tested to the maternal call vs. siblings or the maternal call paired with a live adult bobwhite hen vs. siblings. These results raise doubts about the appropriateness of the usual methods of isolation rearing in the study of species-typical perceptual preferences and underscore the importance of considering features of the natural social context in the analysis of early perceptual and social behavior.     

Fairness and preference

Two equity models were evaluated by fitting them to subjects' judgments of the fairness of payment distributions to “self” and “other” under hypothetical work situations. Neither the E. Walster, G. W. Walster, and E. Berscheid (Equity: Theory and Research, Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1978) equity formulation nor Harris' (Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 1976, 12, 194–209) linear model adequately accounted for the fairness judgments regardless of whether self worked more or less than other. Subjects also were asked to indicate their most preferred payment distributions and these preferences were significantly different from the fairness judgments. Results suggested that fairness judgments were influenced by a bias in the direction of overpayment to self.     

Cross-modal transfer and intermediate-size transposition

Kindergarten and third grade boys learned an intermediate-size problem either visually or tactually. They were then tested either visually or tactually. The test sets were separated from the training set by either 1, 2, or 4 steps. The data supported predictions derived from the D. M. Lane and F. M. Rabinowitz (Child Development 1977,48, 412–426) transposition theory on choice and consistency measures. Of greatest interest were the markedly different transposition gradients exhibited by the boys in the visual-visual and visual-tactual groups.     

Visual and auditory facilitation in auditory spatial localization

It has previously been shown that adults localize unseen auditory targets more accurately with their eyes open than closed. The interpretation usually proposed to explain this phenomenon is that auditory spatial information is referred or translated to a visual frame of reference. The present experiments show that the presence of an auditory reference point facilitates auditory localization judgements in the same manner as a visual reference point does. Although our results do not support the visual frame of reference hypothesis, they suggest that the auditory and the visual modalities are strongly linked in their localizing processes.     

Authoritarianism and job preference

The hypothesis tested was that authoritarian personalities prefer the natural sciences (specifically biology and chemistry) and nonauthoritarian personalities choose the social sciences and humanities (specifically, psychology and philosophy). The results strongly supported the hypothesis. Since the study was conducted on freshmen students in Israel who select their department at the time they apply for admission to the university, the results were interpreted as indicating that authoritarians choose professions different from nonauthoritarians.     

Invariant Ordering of Item-Total Regressions

A new observable consequence of the property of invariant item ordering is presented, which holds under Mokken’s double monotonicity model for dichotomous data. The observable consequence is an invariant ordering of the item-total regressions. Kendall’s measure of concordance W and a weighted version of this measure are proposed as measures for this property. Karabatsos and Sheu proposed a Bayesian procedure (Appl. Psychol. Meas. 28:110–125, 2004), which can be used to determine whether the property of an invariant ordering of the item-total regressions should be rejected for a set of items. An example is presented to illustrate the application of the procedures to empirical data.     

Correlation between EEG and auditory perceptual measures in auditory agnosia

We describe a child who acquired a gradual sustained speech deficit for which no specific etiology was found, and who had an associated epileptogenic abnormality on EEG. Assessment of auditory perceptual skills and receptive language confirmed that gradual parallel improvement occurred with the EEG after therapeutic anticonvulsant blood levels were obtained. Prospective trials of anticonvulsant drugs in conjunction with serial measures of central auditory abilities are necessary to establish their value in the management of the linguistic deficit in children with auditory agnosia.     

Conceptual priming for realistic auditory scenes and for auditory words

Two experiments were conducted using both behavioral and Event-Related brain Potentials methods to examine conceptual priming effects for realistic auditory scenes and for auditory words. Prime and target sounds were presented in four stimulus combinations: Sound–Sound, Word–Sound, Sound–Word and Word–Word. Within each combination, targets were conceptually related to the prime, unrelated or ambiguous. In Experiment 1, participants were asked to judge whether the primes and targets fit together (explicit task) and in Experiment 2 they had to decide whether the target was typical or ambiguous (implicit task). In both experiments and in the four stimulus combinations, reaction times and/or error rates were longer/higher and the N400 component was larger to ambiguous targets than to conceptually related targets, thereby pointing to a common conceptual system for processing auditory scenes and linguistic stimuli in both explicit and implicit tasks. However, fine-grained analyses also revealed some differences between experiments and conditions in scalp topography and duration of the priming effects possibly reflecting differences in the integration of perceptual and cognitive attributes of linguistic and nonlinguistic sounds. These results have clear implications for the building-up of virtual environments that need to convey meaning without words.