Selective impairment of sensorimotor representations following short-term upper-limb immobilization

In the present experiment, we examined whether short-term upper-limb immobilization would selectively affect the representation of the immobilized limb (using a hand laterality task) or whether the effect of immobilization would extend to another body part (using a foot laterality task). A rigid splint placed on the participants’ left hand was used for immobilization. A control group did not undergo the immobilization procedure. We compared the participants’ performances on the hand and foot laterality tasks before (T₁) and after (T₂) a 48-hour delay, corresponding to the immobilization period. For controls, response time analysis indicated a benefit of task repetition for the recognition of both hand and foot images. For the immobilized group, a slowdown of performance appeared in T₂ for hand images, but not for foot images. The reduced benefit of task repetition following left-hand immobilization appeared for both the immobilized and non-immobilized hand images. These findings revealed that the general cognitive representation of upper-limb movements is affected by the decrease in input/output signal processing due to the left-hand immobilization, while the cognitive representation of lower-limb movements is not.     

Performance on a Following Tracking Task (Modified Sam Two-Hand Coordination Test) as a Function of Radius of Control Cranks

The influence of two deindividuating variables, altered responsibility and coaction in groups, on one's tendency to deliver noxious or helpful stimulation impulsively and in a cyclical pattern to a target person was investigated in a laboratory experiment with use of 96 male and female junior college students. Analysis of variance revealed that, as hypothesized, Ss who coacted in groups of three and who had the responsibility for their behavior removed delivered noxious (but not helpful) stimuli more impulsively than Ss who worked alone and were made to feel responsible (p < .01). Ss responded in a more cyclical pattern when delivering aversive tones than when delivering facilitating tones (p < .005). A marginally significant finding was that Ss in groups responded in a more cyclical pattern than Ss alone only when the response was seen as aversive. It was concluded that the probability of impulsive and cyclical aggression may be increased by altered responsibility and coaction.     

Emphasis on Experimental Procedure,Sex of Subjects and the Biasing Effects of Experimental Hypotheses

For a set of 20 male graduate student Es, the experimental hypotheses held were significant partial determinants of the responses Ss produced for Es. This effect of Es' hypotheses was more marked among Es made more conscious of their experimental procedure when collecting data from female Ss. Male Ss were found to be less susceptible than female Ss to the biasing effects of Es' hypotheses. Unexpected was the finding that for a minority of Es (15%) the data they obtained from their Ss were significantly opposite to the data they expected to obtain.     

A Candidate's Perspective: A Review of Impossible Training: A Relational View of Psychoanalytic Education by Emanuel Berman

The author reviews Emanuel Berman's book Impossible Training from the perspective of a candidate in psychoanalytic training at The William Alanson White Institute in New York. The author relates aspects of her training experience to issues Berman raises in his article, focusing on and expanding a discussion of key problematic aspects of psychoanalytic training.     

Empathy and the Actor's Emotion’

Summary

Consensus ratings for beauty or attractiveness yielded comparatively low, though mostly positive, correlations with intelligence and educational achievement. Most of the correlations between beauty and intelligence and also between beauty and scholarship were in the neighborhood of +.20. Four groups of college students, two groups of girls and two groups of boys, served as S's. The consensus ratings for beauty were secured from 2 groups of judges, each group composed of 12 boys and 12 girls. These consensus ratings were correlated with ratings for intelligence and scholarship, as determined by intelligence test scores and by grades received in at least three semesters of college work. The ratings for beauty showed a high degree of variability. On the average, individual judgments deviated from the consensus ratings by about four steps. Deviations were greater for the middle group than for those taking a high or low position in the consensus ratings. The judges showed higher variability in rating their own sex than when rating the opposite sex.     

A Music Projective Technique

Twenty college students and twenty hospitalized patients diagnosed as schizophrenic, equated for age, sex, and intelligence, were told to tell a story to sixteen successive pre-recorded excerpts of music. Tests of reliability indicated that the Ss' reaction times and rates of verbalization were stable from music excerpt to excerpt and from test to retest. Interrater reliabilities of judgments concerning verbal content of responses were acceptable. Analyses of variance indicated the hospitalized group had longer reaction times before verbalization to the music stimulus, spoke less during the music, but more during the interim period between music excerpts. The hospitalized group used significantly less human content and visual imagery, but significantly more animal content than the college group. In general, reaction time was quicker to fast tempo music than slow tempo music, and fast tempo music evoked happier more outgoing themes than slow tempo music. Stories told by the hospitalized group were often highly inappropriate vis-a-vis music demands. The instrument clearly differentiated groups.     

Physical attractiveness and academic performance: Beauty is not always talent1

Stepwise multiple regressions were used to determine the relative importance of physical attractiveness in the prediction of academic achievement for two samples of college students. In the first study, only ACT scores made an independent contribution to the prediction of males' (N= 55) grade average. For females (N= 65), verbal IQ (as measured by Borgatta and Corsini's Quick Word Test) and father's education yielded the only independent effects. In the second, follow-up study, males' (N= 50) achievement was significantly positively associated with intelligence and high school grades and negatively associated with attractiveness. For females (N= 87), independent effects were obtained for intelligence, high school grades, socio-economic status (positively correlated), and need for approval (negatively correlated). Attractiveness was again not associated with females' academic performance. In a final study involving high school students, attractiveness was not associated with achievement for 84 boys but was negatively associated for 83 girls. The results are discussed in terms of potential underlying mechanisms and the limitations of a “what is beautiful is good” stereotype.     

The Frequency Accrual Speed Test (FAST): psychometric intelligence and personality correlates

Performance on a putative psychophysical measure of information processing related to intelligence (Vickers' 1995 Frequency Accrual Speed Test, FAST) was assessed in relation to two psychometric measures of intelligence (Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices and the Mill Hill vocabulary test). Participants (N = 57) completed the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire — Revised (EPQ‐R), and performed the FAST task under either low (70 dB) or high (90 dB) levels of white noise. FAST correlated with Raven's (r = 0.56) and Mill Hill (r = 0.28), as expected. FAST total scores were not affected by personality or personality‐by‐noise interactions. However, a measure of consistency of FAST performance (i.e. the standard deviation) was correlated negatively with total FAST scores (r = ?0.37) and positively with (EPQ‐R) extraversion (r = 0.34). The results are discussed in terms of the validity of the FAST to explicate the information processing variables in psychometric intelligence. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Relation of Economic and Social Conditions to Voting Behavior in Iowa, 1924–1936

Summary

Using a three-variable design, this study investigated conformity to male and female group pressures among Chinese and American male college students. Methodologically, it departed from traditional group pressure studies in a number of ways: (a) the study was conducted outside the psychological laboratory where demand characteristics of the situation were believed to resemble college life conditions more closely, (b) it utilized changes in personal opinions about beliefs rather than perceptual judgments, (c) it employed unobtrusive, as well as conventional, means of measuring conformity. Another major difference was that S presented his opinion prior to those of the confederates who expressed contradictory opinions to those of S. Five confederates, all male or all female were used. S and confederate opinions and degree of strength of opinions were assessed on six controversial issues. Latency between hearing the controversial statement and S's announcing his opinion was recorded. When S and all confederates had made their statements, S and confederates were permitted to alter their earlier stated opinions or the degree of strength of their opinions. It was found that Chinese Ss increased their hesitancy to respond, from the first to sixth issue, to a greater degree than did Americans. Hesitation for all Ss was longer in the presence of male confederates than in the presence of females. Americans made greater shifts of opinion after the group pressure experience, but Chinese made a greater number of shifts. Americans showed a far greater tendency toward anticonformity than did Chinese.     

The Attitudes and Attitude Estimates of Catholic,Protestant, and Jewish Students

Summary

This study was a cross-cultural extension of previous research concerning the relationship between attitudes toward homosexuality, attitudes toward heterosexual sexual practices, personal sex-guilt, and sex stereotyping. One hundred twelve Brazilian male college students completed a series of attitude measures previously administered to a comparable sample of Canadians. As had been previously found in Canada, antihomosexual (Anti-H) Ss were more disapproving of various heterosexual sexual practices and reported greater personal sex-guilt than prohomosexual (Pro-H) Ss. The intercorrelations among the three principle attitude scales were only moderately positive in both samples, suggesting that attitudes toward homosexuality are somewhat independent of more general sexual attitudes. Anti-H Ss also stereotyped the sexes more than did Pro-H respondents and were more willing than Pro-H Ss to label a male as homosexual when he exhibited what they thought was a single feminine characteristic. In these respects the Brazilian and Canadian results were strikingly similar.

More antihomosexual prejudice was found in the Brazilians. They also assigned much higher probabilities to a “feminine” male being homosexual than did Canadian Ss. The findings of this study provide potent cross-cultural confirmation of Churchill's theory of antihomosexual prejudice within a sex-negative environment.     

The Effect of Size of Pupil on the Form and Color Fields

The construct validity of the Wallach-Kogan (W-K) creativity test was investigated through an hierarchical factor analysis of intercorrelations among intelligence, creativity, control, and criterion variables for 73 Ss enrolled in grades 3 and 4 of an inner-city parochial school. The results provided considerable support for W-K's theoretical formulations. Creativity and intelligence assessors defined separate domains and remained totally resilient to merger into a superordinate factor. The creativity domain, which was defined by W-K subtests and criterion ratings, included the following factors: general, visual, and verbal creativity plus a weak methods factor for crayon drawings. The intelligence domain, which was defined by WISC subtests, included a relatively strong g factor and the following four primary factors: verbal precision, freedom from distractibility, perceptual organization, and quasi-specific.     

Adjustment for the Total Number of Responses in Calculating the Rorschach Apperception Type

In order to adjust for total responses (R) on the Rorschach, apperception (location) scores arc expressed as percentages of R. An alternative procedure is recommended in which adjustments are the differences between obtained scores and those predicted from the regression of the scores on R. Standardization Ss were 200 male and female normals, ages 20 to 40. Percentages of these Ss falling within certain ranges of adjusted scores are given. Caution is recommended in making inferences about apperception types obtained by extrapolating beyond the range of R in the standardization group. Preliminary results obtained by applying these adjustments to disturbed adult and children's groups suggest that the distributions of adjusted scores tend to approximate the score distribution of the standardization group.     

Certain Emotional Factors in Learning and Efficiency

A group of measures duplicating the original battery of tests which Halstead used to obtain his four biological intelligence factors were given to a group of subjects with acute lateralized brain lesions. These results were compared to the results of the same battery when administered to subjects with chronic diffuse brain damage. This comparison demonstrated that the factors derived from brain damage testing are affected by (a) the subjects' mental abilities, (b) the sensitivity of the measures to brain damage in general, and (c) the lateralization of the damage.     

Instinct,Heredity, and Social Tradition

Summary

The influence of physical attractiveness and warmth of a model on imitation and social perception in adults was assessed in this study with the use of 108 male and female college students. The Ss were randomly paired with a model who, depending on experimental conditions, was either a male or female, of high or low facial attractiveness, and who interacted with the S in a warm or cold manner. The Ss were then placed in a task situation which provided an opportunity to imitate the model, after which the Ss were asked to rate their experience and the model's personality. Warmth of the model was a more influential determinant of imitation, personality rating, and experience than physical attractiveness. However, the warmth affect was influenced by sex of the model and sex of the S. Possible explanations for the warmth effect were explored.     

Repeated Auditory Stimulation of the Startle Response in the Guinea Pig

Simulated and behavioral personal space measures and the Sensation Seeking Scale were administered to 20 males and 20 females. In the simulated measures Ss positioned male and female top profiles relative to a top profile representing themselves at each of nine equally spaced angles. For the behavioral measure Ss were approached by a male or female at each of the nine angles.

The female “swinger” had greater simulated personal space. Males who liked new and interesting experiences had greater side and diagonal simulated personal space, and females high on the same scale had a closer behavioral personal space toward males except at the sides. Males and females responded similarly to males and females approaching from various directions. However, there was no relation between front and side simulated personal space for males. Size of personal space relative to females tended to be highly correlated with size of personal space toward males. However, for male Ss there was little relation between front personal space toward males and females. For male Ss simulated personal space and behavioral personal space were highly correlated. For female Ss the two measures were almost completely unrelated.     

Value Hierarchies of French Catholics Committed to the Fight Against AIDS

Summary

An attempt was made to create the social satiation effect via vicarious learning. Second-grade boys and girls from middle class homes in a Jerusalem school observed other children being administered a short treatment in which the stimulus word Yafeh (“Good”) was presented by E twice (low-satiation) or 20 times (high-satiation). Immediately thereafter, E administered to the observers a 75-trial binary discrimination task, to test the efficacy of the word Yafeh as a reinforcer. The control groups consisted of Ss treated and tested by the same E. A typical satiation effect (i.e., decreased performance of the group presented with 20 stimuli) was observed for the control groups, but no difference was found between groups of Ss observing the high- and low-satiation treatments. It was thus concluded that social satiation had not been learned vicariously. The post-treatment inquiry on the Ss who were observed by the experimental Ss revealed that these children were aware of the frequency of stimuli presented in the treatment. However, the cognitive mechanism hypothesized to mediate the social satiation effect—perceived lack of contingency—was not confirmed by their verbal reports.     

The Rôle of Clasping Activity in Adaptive Behavior of the Infant Chimpanzee: I. Delayed Response

Forty male and 40 female volunteer college students were divided into two groups. Half were exposed to actual tape recorded verbal reports of violent events, and half to similar reports of nonviolent happenings. Ss who had been angered by insult prior to being exposed to violent tapes displayed significantly more aggression than Ss in an insult, nonviolent condition and Ss in a no-insult, violent condition on a subsequent “extrasensory learning” task supposedly involving shocks for incorrect responses. An unexpected finding was that Ss who had not been insulted administered significantly higher “shocks” after exposure to nonviolent reports than Ss in the no-insult, violent group. No significant sex differences were found. Results were interpreted as failing to support the catharsis hypothesis, and comparisons with the effects of visually witnessed violence were made.     

Responses of Comparable White and Negro Adults to the Rorschach Test

Five groups of 20 Ss each, ranging from seven years to college age, were asked to solve a series of problems involving change-making and coin equivalences. Results indicated that the number of Ss able to make change without the use of written calculations increased as a consequence of chronological age, with the greatest increase occurring between 11 and 13 years of age. In addition, it was found that although children at all levels knew the various coin equivalences, younger children used primarily dimes and pennies in making change, whereas older children used all of the coins available. This was interpreted to mean that coin equivalences are probably learned as specific stimulus-response pairs, and that in making change younger children use untransformed base 10 units, such as pennies and dimes, largely because the computational demands placed by change-making operations force them to minimize the number of noncomputational transformations used.     

Hemispheric involvement in shadowing vs. interpretation: a time-sharing study of simultaneous interpreters with matched bilingual and monolingual controls

A time-sharing study used shadowing and interpretation/paraphrasing tasks to evaluate lateralization in professional interpreters individually matched to bilingual and monolingual controls. A two-step multivariate general linear model procedure was used to determine lateralized effects and extent of disruption produced by the tasks. Results revealed the monolingual group to be left lateralized for both tasks, but the two bilingual groups were lateralized in the LH only for shadowing. The monolingual group was significantly different from the bilingual groups in the pattern of hand asymmetry for interpretation/paraphrasing. The findings replicate outcomes of prior repeated measures analysis of variance procedures on percentage of change scores. However, new information is added by the more refined analysis. The findings are also discussed in terms of previous laterality studies using similar tasks and subject samples.     

Aurelius Augustine on Imagination

The evaluation of a person seeking or volunteering information in cooperatively or competitively oriented problem solving groups was investigated in 63 white and black, male and female, high school and college students. It was hypothesized that under cooperative conditions the seeking of information would be evaluated more positively than would the volunteering of information, while under competitive conditions the volunteering of information would be evaluated more positively than would the seeking of information. A highly trained confederate (C) engaged in either the seeking of information or the volunteering of information in four-person problem solving groups in which Ss were either cooperatively or competitively oriented. Ss rated Cs on eight bipolar scales. The results confirmed the hypothesis.