The word frequency effect in lexical decision: Finding a frequency-based component

Subjects making lexical decisions are reliably faster in responding to high-frequency words than to low-frequency words. This is known as the word frequency effect. We wished to demonstrate that some portion of this effect was due to frequency differences between words rather than to other dimensions correlated with word frequency. Three groups of subjects (10 engineers, 10 nurses, and I0 law students) made lexical decisions about 720 items, half words and half nonwords, from six different categories (engineering, medical, low-frequency nontechnical, medium-frequency nontechnical, and two groups of high-frequency nontechnical). Results of two analyses of variance revealed a crossover interaction such that engineers were faster in responding to engineering words than to medical words, whereas nurses were faster in responding to medical words than to engineering words. The engineering and medical words were equally long and equally infrequent by standard word counts. We take this as support for a frequency-based component in the word frequency effect. The practical implications of this research for estimating the readability of technical text are discussed.     

Differences in the search rate of children and adults in short-term memory

When people recognize a test item as belonging or not belonging to a previously presented set, recognition latency increases with the number of items in the set. Although some evidence suggests otherwise, it is currently held that the rate of this increase is the same for children and adults. In contrast, the present experiments indicated a much slower search rate for second graders (mean age = 7.33 years) than for seventh (mean age = 12.50 years) and twelfth graders (mean age = 17.25 years). Moreover, search rate for second graders was invariant under instructions which did or did not emphasize speed and with presentation of the memory set in either the auditory or visual modality. Experiment II showed that the slow search rate for children was not due to differences in encoding between children and adults.     

The Family Impact of Pain Scale: Preliminary Validation

A new questionnaire, the Family Impact of Pain Scale (FIPS), was designed in order to assess the effects of chronic pain on the significant other and family of the chronic pain patient. The FIPS is a 10-item self-report questionnaire examining the effect of pain on domestic duties, social functioning and communication within the family. It was administered to 177 chronic pain patients in two different samples to investigate its psychometric properties. Internal reliability (α = .94) and test–retest reliability (r = 0.79) were high. Exploratory factor analysis suggested a two-factor solution, relating to physical limitations and difficulties with communication. Construct validity was confirmed by significant Pearson correlations with pain intensity, pain distress, mood and the use of pain coping skills (r = −0.22–0.74, all at p < .05). Outcome data also showed that the measure is sensitive to the effects of a cognitive behavioural pain management intervention.     

Do attentional focus instructions affect real-time reinvestment during level-ground walking in older adults?

Cognitive Processing - This study represents the first attempt in exploring whether attentional focus instructions could affect real-time reinvestment (conscious movement processing) in older...     

Why Maximize Expected Choice-Worthiness?1

This paper argues in favor of a particular account of decision-making under normative uncertainty: that, when it is possible to do so, one should maximize expected choice-worthiness. Though this position has been often suggested in the literature and is often taken to be the ‘default’ view, it has so far received little in the way of positive argument in its favor. After dealing with some preliminaries and giving the basic motivation for taking normative uncertainty into account in our decision-making, we consider and provide new arguments against two rival accounts that have been offered—the accounts that we call ‘My Favorite Theory’ and ‘My Favorite Option’. We then give a novel argument for comparativism—the view that, under normative uncertainty, one should take into account both probabilities of different theories and magnitudes of choice-worthiness. Finally, we further argue in favor of maximizing expected choice-worthiness and consider and respond to five objections.     

Hedonic and sensory characteristics of odors conditioned by pairing with tastants in humans

Animals readily acquire positive odor-taste hedonic associations, but evidence for this in humans remains weak and was explored further. Retronasal pairing of odors with sucrose or salty stimuli (Experiment 1) increased the rated sweetness of sucrose-paired odors without altering liking, although changes in odor pleasantness correlated with sucrose liking. Experience of odors with sucrose or quinine by sweet likers (Experiment 2) found increased pleasantness and sweetness for sucrose-paired odors, whereas quinine-paired odors became less liked and more bitter. Odor-sucrose pairings in sweet likers and dislikers (Experiment 3) found increased sweetness in both groups but increased odor liking only in likers. These data suggest that evaluative and sensory learning are dissociable and that evaluative changes are sensitive to individual differences in sweet liking.     

Epidemiology of nonfatal deliberate self-harm in the United States as described in three medical databases

The absence of validated U.S. rates of nonfatal suicidal behavior places risk management and injury prevention programs at danger of being poorly informed and inadequately conceptualized. In this study we compare estimated rates of intentional self-harm from two ongoing surveys (National Electronic Injury Surveillance System-All Injury Program-NEISS-AIP; National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey-NHAMCS) to data from the Toxic Exposure Surveillance System. Results suggest that, for every 2002-2003 suicide, there were 12 (NEISSAIP) or 15 (NHAMCS) self-harm-related emergency department visits, and for every intentional self-poisoning death there were 33 intentional overdoses reported to poison control centers, of which two ultimately went untreated.     

An interactive activation approach to object processing: Effects of structural similarity,name frequency,and task in normality and pathology

Abstract

We present a computational model of the processes involved in retrieving stored semantic and name information from objects, using a simple interactive activation and competition architecture. We simulate evidence showing a cross-over in normal reaction times to make semantic classification and identification responses to objects from categories with either structurally similar or structurally dissimilar exemplars, and that identification times to objects from these two different classes correlate differentially with measures of the structural similarity of objects within the category and the frequency of the object's name. Structural similarity exerts a negative effect on object decision as well as naming, though this effect is larger on naming. Also, on naming, structural similarity interacts with the effects of name frequency, captured in the model by varying the weight on connections from semantic to name units; frequency effects are larger with structurally dissimilar items. In addition, (1) the range of potential errors for objects from these two classes, when responses are elicited before activation reached a stable state, differ–a wider range of errors occur to objects from categories with structurally similar exemplars; and (2) simulated lesions to different locations within the model produce selective impairments to identification but not to semantic classification responses to objects from categories with structurally similar exemplars. We discuss the results in relation to data on visual object processing in both normality and pathology.     

Post-response stimulation and the Simon effect: Further evidence of action-effect integration

The recently proposed action-concept view of perceptual-motor behaviour posits that a stimulus which consistently follows a certain response will become associated with that response. Some evidence in favour of this view comes from the finding that the size of the Simon effect can be altered by the inclusion of post-response stimuli. However, only one study has investigated the effects of including same-side in addition to opposite-side post-response stimuli, as well as a neutral Simon condition, and, possibly because of a failure of random assignment, the results from that study were inconclusive. In light of this limitation, a Simon experiment was performed in which the location of post-response stimulation was manipulated within subjects. The results showed that: (1) the Simon effect can both decrease and increase in the presence of post-response stimuli, and (2) the amounts of Simon interference and Simon facilitation are both affected by post-response stimuli, whereas performance on neutral trials is not. These findings provide additional support for the action-concept view and suggest that further research concerning this new approach is warranted.