Effects of question type and experimenter position on bilateral differences in electrodermal activity and conjugate lateral eye movements

28 dextral males participated in a within-subjects experiment which tasted for the effects of question type (verbal versus spatial) and experimenter-position (in front of or behind the subject) on direction of conjugate lateral eye movements (LEMs) and bilateral differences in skin conductance responses (SCRs). Question dependent asymmetries were observed for LEM direction but not for SCR magnitude. Experimenter-position had no significant effect. The results for LEM direction are consistent with the hypothesis linking eye movements to the left or right with activation of the cerebral hemisphere contralateral to the direction of gaze. The results for SCR magnitude, given certain assumptions, can be reconciled with a hemispheric model of contralateral excitatory control of that system.     

Symbol complexity and symbol identification with rotated symbols

Previous studies of the identification of rotated symbols have been restricted to either alphanumeric characters or symbols designed to be similar in complexity and type to alphanumerics. These researches have found identification response times to be independent of the magnitude of a symbol's angular displacement from a standard upright position, such findings being typically interpreted as supporting a feature extraction model of identification. In the present experiment complex Japanese characters were used to assess whether such a feature extraction interpretation could be generalized to identifying complex rotated symbols. Identification response times were also found to be constant across all non-standard orientations of the characters, supporting a feature extraction interpretation, but quicker times for standard cases suggested that some qualifications might be necessary.     

A comment on Koriat,Averill, and Malmstrom's “individual differences in habituation”

The paper considers the issues, raised by Koriat et al. (1973), of the consistency and reliability of measures of habituation currently used in personality research. It is argued that the problem of reliability is not as serious as Koriat et al. proposed and that specificity of measures of habituation is a theoretical rather than a methodological problem. It is proposed that ambiguity in the literature on the personality correlates of habituation is more likely to be due to the failure to consider the effects of stimulus conditions on habituation than to the problems of reliability and specificity.     

Sequential response bias in randomized response sequences: A computer simulation

In this study sequential bias in randomized response sequences is simulated by computer. The computer model assumes that response bias is composed of two components. The first is a repetition avoidance tendency, which is simulated by a memory search through the seven most recently produced responses, and the second is a repetition tendency for the two most recently produced responses. This repetition tendency is assumed to be related to the better availability of recently produced responses. Both processes together give a reasonable approximation of human subjects' data.The results can be explained by the assumption that subjects try to control perseveration tendencies by using a comparison-based memory search mechanism.     

Numerical taxonomy of aphasia

Two hundred consecutively seen aphasics, 142 of them with infarcts, were examined by tests of fluency, comprehension, repetition, naming, and information content. The language scores were subjected to a minimum variance clustering algorithm separately for the total and for the infarct groups. The latter generated 10 clusters on a dendrogram. Attribute analysis of each cluster provided a clinically meaningful profile of language performance for these groups. The degree of correlation of most computer generated clusters with clinically recognized groups was high, and the homogeneity of some of the clusters is striking. An exception appears to be “conduction aphasia,” which is bimodally distributed. One of these clusters, with high fluency and low comprehension scores, was renamed “afferent conduction” aphasia, and the other, with lower fluency and higher comprehension, was renamed “efferent conduction” aphasia. The Principal Components Analysis was used to evaluate the discriminatory value of language characteristics, and the Nearest Neighbor Network Analysis was used to evaluate the significance of clustering. The dendrogram for all aphasics showed a less specific and less homogenous six clusters.     

Observations on regional cerebral blood flow in cortical and subcortical structures during language production in normal man

Regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) was studied by single photon emission computerized tomography (SPECT) of inhaled xenon-133 in six normal volunteers during various language, articulatory, and control conditions. Language production increased rCBF in predominantly left-sided cortical and subcortical areas. The involved regions were anatomically related to a left frontal area (Broca's), to both caudate nuclei, to a left thalamic/pallidal area, and bilaterally in retrorolandic areas. The failure to demonstrate lateralized retrorolandic activity is thought to reflect the complexity of the tasks.     

Word age-of-acquisition and lexical decision making

This paper reports two experiments concerning the effects of word age-of-acquisition and other word attributes on speed of lexical decision. Analyses of group average data indicated that word length, frequency and familiarity were the major determinants of decision speed. Previous reports of age-of-acquisition effects on lexical decision are attributed to failures to control for word familiarity.     

Incidental learning,attention, and curiosity in squirrel monkeys calorie deprived as infants

The long-term effects of infantile malnutrition on information processing were studied in squirrel monkeys. From 2 through 8 weeks of age, four low-calorie infants were fed reduced amounts of a high protein diet, limiting their mean body weight gain to 23% of that of four well-fed controls, with all of this gain occurring during the first 2 weeks on the low-calorie diet. Thereafter, both groups received the standard diet ad libitum. At 68 weeks of age, incidental learning was tested by introducing shape cues that were redundant to the solution of a previously learned, two-choice, color discrimination. Removal of the color cues showed that the low-calorie monkeys had learned significantly less about the shape cues than had the controls. The basis for this incidental learning failure was then examined with an embedded-figures dicrimination, to measure attentional ability, and a novel stimulus substitution task, to measure curiosity. The groups did not differ in detecting embedded figures, but the low-calorie monkeys were significantly less likely than controls to select or handle novel stimuli that had been substituted for previously learned discriminative cues. It was concluded that undernutrition in infancy may induce a long-term strategy of only learning information which leads to an immediate reward, while suppressing the acquisition of information due to intrinsic curiosity.     

Male-female differences in occupational attitudes within minority groups

Few studies have considered sex differences in occupational attutudes in minority group samples. Evidence of interracial differences in occupational attitudes, coupled with probably interracial differences in socialization processes, suggests that patterns of sex differences in occupational attitudes may not be invariant across races. Any such variations could contaminate interracial comparisons within sexes. The current study examined sex differences in occupational attitudes in two samples of poor minority group members. Differences regularly isolated in studies of whites were not evident. In both samples, rankings of preferences for work-related outcomes of males and females were remarkably similar.     

Risky decision: Attention effects or masking effects?

The Marshak bid procedure shows that more money is required to induce a S to exchange gamble a for gamble e and then e for b if e differs from a only in the winning amount and differs from b only in the probability of winning, rather than if e differs from a only in the probability of winning. This is contrary to most theories of risky decision making which imply that the amount of money necessary to effect a 2-step exchange between a and b should be independent of the intermediary gamble. One might attempt to explain the effect by saying that the S attends to the dimension which is different between gambles. But the explanation is untenable if one assumes that states of attention are defined as weightings of the dimensions. An alternative explanation is put forward which basically assumes that winning amounts mask differences in probability of winning more than vice versa. The formalization of the theory is given in terms of Fechnerian integration over imperfect differentials.     

Perceptual-cognitive explorations of a toroidal set of free-form stimuli

A polar-coordinate analogue of Fourier synthesis generates organic-appearing “free forms” that can be continuously deformed along any desired number of difficult-to-verbalize dimensions. Since the dimensions are also circular, the forms correspond to points on the surface of a torus which, though conveniently finite, is free of bounding edges. Two experiments explore a particular two-dimensional set of 81 such forms. The first shows that perceived pair-wise similarities among the individual forms are well explained purely in terms of the distances among their corresponding points in the toroidal parameter space. The second, however, establishes that forms that tend to be grouped together as having the same cognitive interpretation define regions in parameter space that are variously shaped or even bimodal and, hence, that cannot be explained solely on the basis of the fixed set of pair-wise similarities. The stimuli appear to offer a novel combination of cognitive richness and low-dimensional parametric control.     

Timing in the performance of Erik Satie's ‘Vexations’

In traditional studies of single cue probability learning the subject's errors and the covariation he/she establishes between the judgments and the cue (cue dependency) are confounded. Learning results in increased cue dependency which is necessarily accompanied by decreasing errors. This paper presents a method for disentangling errors from cue dependency. This is done by (1) making the criterion contingent upon the judgments instead of the cue, and (2) giving standard instructions, implying that the cue is informative about the criterion. In this way errors are controlled independently of any covariation that the subject may create between the cue and the judgments, and indirectly between the cue and the criterion (task regularity). The paper examines whether subjects aim at small errors or task-regularity when the task does not allow them to do both. It was found that error reduction does occur only when task-regularity can be maintained. Conclusion: task regularity, and thus cue-dependency, has priority to error reduction under the standard conditions used in single cue probability learning experiments. The study may be viewed as an example of conditions under which a cue illusion (false beliefs in the validity of a cue) arises.     

Contribution of the speech musculature to apparent human EEG asymmetries prior to vocalization

Vocalizations are preceded by slow EEG waves over inferior frontal scalp regions, but some controversy exists as to whether these slow potentials are left-lateralized as a function of speech. In this study both speech and non-speech vocalizations were studied, under conditions of repetitive and variable production. Averaged responses over the speech musculature, including the temporalis, masseter, orbicularis oris, and mylohyoid muscles, as well as the eyes and tongue, were calculated simultaneously with scalp EEG averages. The responses of the temporalis and masseter muscles, as well as that of the tongue, were correlated with EEG sites at specific latencies prior to speech, suggesting that no part of the inferior frontal EEG record was free from myogenic confounds. In addition, all significant EEG differences between speech and non-speech conditions were subsequently eliminated by covariance analysis, using selected muscle channels as covariates. Previous reports of asymmetrical “speech potentials” in the EEG probably reflected a combination of several myogenic confounds.     

A comparison of operant licking and lever pressing in the rat

Two groups of rats were trained on a signaled, free-operant, avoidance procedure to lick or to lever press in order to avoid shock while water-deprived or satiated and, in the case of licking, while ingesting deionized water, isotonic saline, or 10% sucrose. The most effective avoidance licking occurred while the rats were water-deprived and ingesting 10% sucrose. Water deprivation level had no effect on lever pressing for shock avoidance. Two other groups of rats were operantly conditioned to lick or to lever press for food pellets while waterdeprived or satiated and, in the case of licking, while ingesting deionized water or 10% sucrose. The most effective licking for food reinforcement occurred while the rats were water-deprived and ingesting 10% sucrose. Water deprivation level had no effect on lever pressing for food reinforcement. The data indicated that effective operant licking must be supported by factors related to water regulation and taste palatability.     

Clinician's molar and molecular stuttering analyses of expanded and nonexpanded speech

Twenty speech pathologists measured total words and completed molar and molecular stuttering analyses from audio-recorded contrived samples of stuttered speech. Each subject completed a criterion referenced test prior to performing the experimental tasks. Analyses were performed under two conditions: Condition I consisted of samples presented at 100 wpm as recorded (nonexpanded); Condition II consisted of parallel samples recorded at 100 wpm as recorded (nonexpanded condition); Condition II consisted of parallel samples recorded at 100 wpm but presented at 59 wpm via a speech time expander. Results indicate that presentation of expanded samples (Condition II) significantly increased subject accuracy for the specific disfluency form-types word repetitions and part-word repetitions. Similar trends were noted for sound prolongations and hard contacts. Theoretical, experimental, and clinical implications are offered.     

Factor comparison of two Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory short forms

A sample of 315 valid Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) protocols were selected from inpatient files and scored for both the MMPI-168 and Faschingbauer Abbreviated MMPI short forms. Each short form was then factor-analyzed by a principal axis strategy with varimax rotation. The six factors extracted from each short form were then compared as to their similarity by use of the s index. This procedure showed five of the six factors in each short form as having a significant relationship of the pattern of salient variables they had in common with the complimentary factors of the other form. These data suggest that both short forms, though based on different construction methodologies, share the same underlying personality attributes. Future research is suggested to replicate these results and extend them to the full MMPI.     

Retrieval processes in fifth graders and adults

This research was concerned with retrieval processes which underlie conceptual clustering. In a free recall task with categorized lists, fifth graders' and adults' retrieval was examined temporally by means of interword response times. List organization and retrieval cue factors were manipulated in order to assess the developmental relevance of an hypothesized three component retrieval model. The results indicated that both age groups used a qualitatively similar retrieval strategy, involving search for and decoding of higher-order memory units. Providing retrieval cues eliminated the category search component, but also increased the likelihood of exhaustive recall attempts under random presentation conditions. The results were discussed in terms of the inter-relationships between storage and retrieval strategies. Age-related differences in retrieval time were attributed to insufficient reorganization during input and failure to attempt to recall all of a category's members.     

Acalculia: Historical development and current significance

Acalculia is a loss of calculating abilities occurring as a result of cerebral damage. This paper reviews the development of the notion of acalculia from an expected concomitant of aphasia or dementia to that of a sometimes autonomous disorder. Current evidence indicates that acalculia tends to occur particularly in lesions of the left posterior hemispheric areas.