Developmental auditory agnosia in the severely retarded: A further investigation

The hypotheses were investigated that (a) ability to recognize the auditory perceptual stimuli for familiar events is a developmental correlate to language acquisition and (b) the low functioning mentally handicapped suffer from auditory agnosia and are impaired in this ability. The subjects were 42 nonretarded children of ages 3 through 6 and 53 severely and moderately retarded, noninstitutionalized students. The retarded subjects were matched by mental age to the chronological age of the nonretarded children. The stimuli were 49 environmental sounds; the task consisted of sound-and-picture matching-to-sample. Group membership and developmental age were the factors in an analysis of variance design. The results revealed a strong effect of developmental age (p <. 0001). The effect of group was not significant, indicating that auditory agnosia may not be common among the lower functioning retarded. The assumption that agnosia may be a major factor underlying the language disability of the severely retarded was reexamined. It was suggested that the severely retarded achieve the requisite perceptual-semantic knowledge base for language too late, after the critical age for spontaneous and efficient language learning has passed.     

Hearing test for a profoundly retarded human subject

A profoundly retarded 28-yr.-old female was trained to avoid an aversive but harmless shock to the foot by withdrawing the foot upon presentation of a visual cue. She was later unable to learn to avoid the shock consistently upon presentation of an auditory cue, confirming the ward staff's contention that she had a hearing disability. The audiometric technique using negative reinforcement bridges the problems of (1) difficulty in finding positive reinforcers for patients of low functioning and (2) satiation which may result from the continued use of positive reinforcers. The use of aversive stimuli raises ethical concerns. The growing trend in research is that aversive stimuli are permissible for individuals for whom positive techniques have not been effective and when used by trained professionals under careful review.     

Hostility in fantasy: A further test of the hypoglycemia-aggression hypothesis

In a recent investigation carried out among the Qolla Indians of Peru, Bolton (1973a) tested the hypothesis that hypoglycemia tends to produce high levels of individual aggressiveness. Glycemic condition was determined by the readings on a 4-hour glucose tolerance test performed on a sample of 54 adult males. Key informants then ranked these subjects on overt aggressiveness. A correlational analysis of the data supported the hypothesis that moderately hypoglycemic subjects would be more aggressive than the normoglycemic subjects. The present paper responds to questions raised about this study and describes the results of an additional test of the hypoglycemia-aggression hypothesis. The dependent variable in this follow-up study is fantasy aggression. Aggression scores were derived from Sentence Completion Test protocols for the same sample of subjects used in the first study. The results indicate a significant correlation between glycemic condition and aggression scores (Biserial, 0.57), thus providing further confirmation of the hypoglycemia-aggression hypothesis.     

The Differential Diagnostic Technique: a visual-motor projective test: further research

Within a wide variety of research settings and problems investigation the Differential Diagnostic Technique continues to indicate its usefulness as an objective measure of certain personality characteristics.     

Statistical judgement: A further test of the representativeness construct

Kahneman and Tversky's (1972) construct of ‘representativeness’ as a mediator of statistical judgements has been subjected to several recent criticisms. The present study allows test of the hypothesis that individuals differ in their use of the representativeness heuristic. Tasks are devised which permit measure of two types of judgemental error attributed to use of the heuristic. One is a misperception of Bernouilli sequences, in which subjects expect sequences to have shorter run lengths than would actually occur by chance. The other error is a tendency to give insufficient weighting to the evidence of larger samples. The tasks were administered in two experiments by on-line computer. Characteristic errors of both sorts are found in two experiments, but in neither case was there any evidence of a correlation between them. It appears, then, that even a modified form of the representativeness hypothesis, that might be reconciled with other critiques, is lacking in empirical support.     

A sensible formulation of the significance test

The conventional procedure for null hypothesis significance testing has long been the target of appropriate criticism. A more reasonable alternative is proposed, one that not only avoids the unrealistic postulation of a null hypothesis but also, for a given parametric difference and a given error probability, is more likely to report the detection of that difference.     

Observer states and traits and the imitative process: A test of a new formulation

In three studies the formulation was tested that characteristics of the observer have an effect on imitation only in situations which provide little information concerning appropriate or expected behaviors. In Experiment I, female college students of high, medium, and low need for social approval underwent either a high or low arousal manipulation. Subjects observed a videotaped model who engaged in a size judgment task. For half the subjects the model received verbal reward (high information); for the other half the model received no feedback (low information). Subsequently, the model and subject responded alternately in the task during which no feedback was given. Neither need for social approval nor manipulated arousal was found to be systematically related to imitation in either information condition. However, the hypothesized relationships were found when subjects' arousal or anxiety levels were determined by self ratings. These results were replicated in a second, similar experiment. In a third experiment, which involved an improved arousal manipulation, the hypothesized relationships were confirmed.     

Stimulus exposure and gaze bias: A further test of the gaze cascade model

We tested predictions derived from the gaze cascade model of preference decision making (Shimojo, Simion, Shimojo, & Scheier, 2003; Simion & Shimojo, 2006, 2007). In each trial, participants’ eye movements were monitored while they performed an eight-alternative decision task in which four of the items in the array were preexposed prior to the trial. Replicating previous findings, we found a gaze bias toward the chosen item prior to the response. However, contrary to the prediction of the gaze cascade model, preexposure of stimuli decreased, rather than increased, the magnitude of the gaze bias in preference decisions. Furthermore, unlike the prediction of the model, preexposure did not affect the likelihood of an item being chosen, and the pattern of looking behavior in preference decisions and on a nonpreference control task was remarkably similar. Implications of the present findings in multistage models of decision making are discussed.     

Gender differences in coping: A further test of socialization and role constraint theories

To further test role constraint and socialization theories of gender differences in coping, two studies were conducted to examine coping strategies in individuals occupying similar roles. The relations between coping strategy frequency and effectiveness and between coping strategy use and psychological functioning also were examined. Predominantly Caucasian female and male college students participated in the studies. Results indicated support for both socialization and role constraint theories. Effectiveness and frequency of coping strategy use were moderately correlated. Gender differences in cognitive appraisal varied with dispositional vs. situational assessment. The need for a more integrated model to explain gender differences in coping and implications for existing theories are discussed.