Common sense as psychosocial reality: A reply to Sjöberg

Attempted explications of common sense can be submitted to consensual validation. Therefore, purely programmatic discussion about common sense may be dispensed with in favor of actual studies. The failures to recognize the fundamental role of common sense may stem from an unreflective presupposition that psychological language and psychological reality are independent realms. Actually, language and psychosocial reality are mutually constitutive, and the total cultural order is built upon common sense. We are not free to choose conceptualizations. Our theorizing must consist of explications of common sense.     

Sex differences on the serial color-word test

The Serial Color-Word Test was administered to nonclinical volunteers of three age strata (17-29, 30-45, 46-65 yr.). Sex differences on the 17 variables of the test were explored for each age stratum. Only six significant intersex differences were found. In all age strata women scored significantly higher on linear regression of reading times in one of the last two subtests, i.e., R4 or R5.     

Improved reliability estimates for the serial color-word test

Starting from Lennart Sjöberg's serial scoring of the Color-Word Test and his critical review of the test, the possibilities of attaining better reliability estimates are briefly surveyed. As a simple step, the orthogonalization of the regression model is suggested. Ways of maximizing the reliability estimate are demonstrated. On the basis of 261 subjects from five differing subsamples, clinical and control groups, the reliability estimates of the oblique system of the orthogonalized system and of the maximum reliability solutions are compared empirically. The significance of the results for test theoretic evaluation of the Color-Word Test is discussed.     

Content and distance similarity models: a correction to Sjöberg

Corrections are made to a statement by Sjöberg (1977) concerning the compatibility of results obtained by him and by Gregson (1976).     

Differentiating clinical groups using the serial color-word test (S-CWT)

The present study attempted to differentiate 11 diagnostic groups by means of the Serial Color-Word Test (S-CWT), using multivariate discriminant analysis. Two alternative scoring systems of the S-CWT were outlined. Asample of 514 individuals who had clinical diagnoses of various types and 397 controls who had no diagnostic findings comprised the sample. The first discriminant analysis failed to differentiate the groups adequately. The groups were consequently reduced to four (schizophrenia, bipolar disorders, temporo-mandibular joint pain dysfunction syndrome, and eating disturbances), which gave better reclassification findings for a clinical application of the test. This classification gave over 55% correct assignments. The final four groups had a statistically significant discrimination on the test, which remained stable also in a bootstrap procedure. Implications for treatment indications and outcomes as well as strategies for further studies using the S-CWT are discussed.     

The stroop color-word interference test as an indicator of ADHD in poor readers

The performance on the Stroop Color-Word Interference Test of 36 boys with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) was compared with performances of a matched control sample. The control group outperformed their counterparts on the control and interference conditions of the Stroop test, suggesting ADHD-specific executive and reading deficits. When individuals with both ADHD and reading disorders were excluded from the analysis, the authors found a significant difference between the ADHD group and the control group on the color-word test, indicating that poor reading skills may produce false negatives on the Stroop test. However, fast and slow readers with ADHD did not perform differently from each other on the color-word test. The authors postulated the existence of two different causes of reading problems: phonological deficits and attentional deficits.     

Effects of influenza and the common cold on the Stroop color-word test.

Two experiments examined the effects of experimentally induced upper respiratory viral infections on selective attention. In Exp. 1, 61 adults were challenged with a cold-producing virus; analysis showed no effect of infection or illness on performance of the Stroop task. In contrast to this the results of Exp. 2, involving 27 adults, showed that influenza increased distractibility from irrelevant stimuli.     

A test of parallel versus serial processing applied to memory retrieval

Townsend has identified necessary and sufficient conditions that reaction time distributions meet if they are produced by two underlying processes that are parallel and within-stage independent. This paper describes an attempt to use one of these conditions to assess the assumption of independent parallel memory retrieval in Anderson's ACT theory. In the experimental test, subjects studied profession-location pairs, with each profession and location included in two pairs. One pair had a high frequency of presentation and the other had low. When cued with a profession (or location), subjects responded with the first of the two studied locations (or professions) that came to mind. The reaction times to these responses were used to test the ACT assumption of independent parallel search. The problems encountered in trying to apply Townsend's abstract test to a concrete situation included the need to consider mixtures and convolutions of distributions and empirical, rather than theoretical, distributions. These difficulties are discussed at length and some formal analyses concerning their effect on the test are given. Despite these problems, we were able to use Townsend's test and the results of the experiment support the within-stage independent parallel assumption of ACT.     

The validity of a persistence test

In order to raise the predictive efficiency of its college entrance test battery, the Educational Testing Service is working on the development of non-academic measures to supplement the standard aptitude and achievement examinations. A test of difficult number series problems was set up to measure persistence by tempting the students to give up early; the students were informed that some of the problems had no solution, and that full credit would be received by so marking them. This test was tried out and found to have some correlation with grades, while having no correlation with the other tests. Adding this test to the battery showed an appreciable rise in the battery's multiple correlation with grades.     

A serial test of the laterality of familiar face recognition

The purpose of the present study was to address the issue of laterality of familiar face recognition. Seventy-two participants judged familiar faces presented laterally or centrally for their "faceness," familiarity, occupation, and name (which represent four stages of familiar face processing) using one of three response modes-verbal, manual, or combined. The pattern of reaction times (RTs) implied a serial process of familiar face recognition. Centrally presented stimuli were recognized faster than laterally presented stimuli. No RT differences were found between the left and right visual fields (VFs) across all judgments and response modes. The findings were interpreted as supporting the notion that there are no significant hemispheric differences in familiar face recognition.     

Overlapping mental operations in serial performance with preview: Typing. A reply to Pashler

Pashler (this issue) concluded that the rate of responding in serial choice reaction tasks was controlled by a limit on simultaneous response selection rather than on simultaneous response execution. Film of a skilled typist shows that each finger movement starts as a key earlier in the sequence to be typed is struck (three earlier with words, two with orthographically legal non-words). Thus, her rate of responding is controlled by a limit on the number of responses that can be executed simultaneously, not by a limit on response selection.

Preventing simultaneous response selection is one possible strategy for maintaining correct response order in serial tasks. It is suitable for tasks such as those studied by Pashler, where response selection is relatively slow and response execution is quick. Other strategies are more suitable for tasks where response selection is quick and response execution relatively slow and variable.     

Comparing color-word and picture-word Stroop-like effects: A test of the Glaser and Glaser (1989) model

Summary Glaser and Glaser (1989) assume that the processing of colors and pictures is highly similar in that, compared to words, both kinds of stimulis have privileged access to semantic information. This assumption was tested in the present research. In Experiment 1, the season corresponding to the color or to the word of color-word Stroop stimuli had to be named (e.g., green for spring). In Experiment 2, subjects had to name the season corresponding to the picture or the word of a picture-word stimulus (e. g., flower for spring). According to Glaser and Glaser (1989), privileged semantic processing of colors and pictures should be evidenced by a larger interfering power of color and picture distractors than of word distractors. However, the asymmetric pattern of interference was observed only with picture-word stimuli (Experiment 2), but not with color-word stimuli (Experiment 1), suggesting that, unlike pictures, colors do not have privileged access to semantic information. It was also found that word distractors interfered with the semantic processing of pictures, a result that is incompatible with the dominance rule postulated by Glaser and Glaser (1989). From these results, an adapted version of the Glaser and Glaser model is proposed: colors are assumed to have privileged access to a separate color processing system and the pattern of interference depends upon the relative activation strength of the response alternatives activated by the target and the distractor.     

A successive approximation method of maximizing test validity

The ratio of item validity to item-total correlation can be used to select items which will tend to yield the maximum correlation with a criterion. Items to be retained are identified by comparing the ratio for each item with the validity of the original test. Further improvement of the validity in the experimental sample can be obtained by adding items to or removing items from the selected nucleus, according to recomputed ratios involving the correlations of the items with the nucleus and evaluated by means of a revised cut-off point. With slight variations, the method may be used for interest and personality tests as well as for aptitude material. The principal advantage over previous methods is that for any cycle of the analysis an exact cut-off point is provided.     

Assessing the validity of implicit egotism: a reply to Gallucci (2003)

B. W. Pelham, M. C. Mirenberg, and J. T. Jones (2002) argued that most people prefer stimuli that are associated with the self, a preference they called implicit egotism. In support of implicit egotism, Pelham et al presented evidence from 10 archival studies showing that people gravitate toward careers and places of residence that resemble their names or birthday numbers. M. Gallucci (2003) argued that alternate analyses of the same data provide strong evidence against implicit egotism. Whereas Gallucci was correct that Pelham et al's original analyses were flawed, their results remain significant even when more conservative tests are used. The authors also present new data in support of implicit egotism, including exhaustive studies of (a) common surnames and US city names and (b) common surnames and street names. The new studies also revealed that as sample sizes grow larger, studies are more likely to produce evidence of implicit egotism.