Multiple measures of motor lateralization in human primates (Homo sapiens)

Laterality was assessed in 100 human (Homo sapiens) subjects through the use of five measures of motoric behavior in three categories: locomotor, manual, postural. Locomotor measures included leading limb for initiation of walking and whole-body turning. Performance and questionnaire measures were used to assess lateral hand bias. Postural bias was assessed as the weight distribution in quiet standing. Population-level biases on the manual and leading limb measures were to the right; on posture and turning, to the left. Locomotor measures were found to be altered by marching experience. Only the manual measures were correlated. We compare the results with those of nonhuman primate studies that have used similar measures and discuss some patterns of laterality common to human and nonhuman primates.     

Stress counselling in the Post Office

This paper highlights a unique experiment in stress counselling in industry. It will provide the background to an in-house stress counselling service for postal employees in the north-west and north-east of England. The structure of the counselling service, its location within the organization, the problems of setting it up, the terms of reference, the client base and many more issues will be discussed. In addition, systematic evaluation of the effectiveness of the service has also been independently undertaken and will be discussed. Preliminary findings on the impact of stress counselling on sickness absence and psychosocial measures of job stress are presented and discussed.     

Whole-word units are used before orthographic knowledge in perceptual development

A visual search task for target letters in multiletter displays was used to investigate information-processing differences between college students and presecond-grade children (mean age = 7 years, 4 months). The stimulus displays consisted of single words, pronounceable pseudowords, and unpronounceable nonwords varying in length from three to five letters. The mean response times for indicating whether or not a target letter occurred in the display increased with the number of display letters for both groups, although there were apparent differences between groups in the rate of search and type of search strategy used. Pre-second-grade children responded faster to word displays than to pseudoword and nonword displays, indicating that familiar letter strings could be processed faster than unfamiliar strings regardless of whether or not the latter were consistent with rules of English orthography. In contrast, college students processed words and pseudowords about equally well, and both resulted in faster responses than nonwords. As reading skills develop, children apparently come to process familiar words differently from other letter strings. Only after a significant sightword vocabulary is established do children seem to recognize the regularities of standard English orthography and make use of this knowledge to facilitate perceptual processes.     

Conversion equations for modified scoring of the MMPI-168

For a sample of 300 patients who had been administered the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), the MMPI-168 was extracted from the full MMPI and scored to incorporate those items normally excluded by Form R keys. MMPI-168 correlations with the full MMPI ranged from .80 to .97 with a mean of .90, indicating satisfactory statistical validity, and modified scoring was shown to improve predictability for Pa and Sc. Using these data, substitution equations for transforming MMPI-168 raw scores to estimates of full-scale scores were calculated. These transformations did not differ greatly from those reported in previous research except on Pa and Sc, where additional items increase scale length substantially.     

Contrast, induction, facilitation, suppression, and conservation

Ten rats received all of their water in daily 1-hr sessions. Following a baseline phase in which lever and water spout were freely available throughout each session, subjects were trained to press the lever for water on mixed schedules composed of two alternating components. Each component gave access to water for a fixed cumulation of drinking time every time the rat cumulated a fixed amount of lever-pressing time. Changes in one component produced contrast and induction effects, both positive and negative, with respect to both lever pressing and drinking in the unchanged component. All schedules facilitated lever pressing relative to baseline. All schedules suppressed drinking relative to baseline, even though contingency sessions allowed ample time to perform the baseline amount of drinking. The entire pattern of results was predicted in quantitative detail by assuming that the total amount of a dimension apportioned to lever pressing and drinking is conserved between baseline and contingency sessions. Conservation theory was shown to predict several effects produced by simple fixed-ratio schedules, and was compared favorably with probability-differential (Premack, 1971) and response-deprivation (Timberlake and Allison, 1974) theory.     

Fitts' law as a function of system dynamics and target uncertainty

Fins' law was found to hold for discrete movements executed by subjects controlling the velocity of a cursor with a control stick The slope of movement time versus index of difficulty was approximately twice as large as for a comparable position control system. Target uncertainty also increased the slope of total time versus index of difficulty, and this effect is interpreted in terms of adaptive tuning of the human movement system.     

Intrapsychic factors influencing career aspirations in college women

A 300-item questionnaire designed to assess the relationship and relative importance of several factors for women's career aspirations was answered by 169 female college juniors and seniors. Regression analyses showed that women with high career aspirations were satisfied with their lives; confident of their career plans; willing to postpone marriage; nontraditional in their values and behaviors; generally external in orientation, believing that discrimination is responsible for many of women's failures and that organized pressure rather than individual action is necessary to combat this discrimination; certain that women's demands for equality are justified and that most men agree with them; likely to have had a working mother who was perceived as being dissatisfied with her own life; and if planning to marry soon, endorsing dual role compatability. When all variables were considered simultaneously, attitudinal factors were found to best predict career aspirations, while socialization variables were relatively unimportant.This study was supported by funds from the University of California, Los Angeles, Personality and Social Psychology Training Grant, USPHS 1 T 1 MH 11, 696. The authors wish to express their thanks to the Women's Studies Program at UCLA for its continued cooperation. Also deserving of recognition for their help with early phases of this study are Cathy Connor, Jomary Hilliard, Paula Johnson, Karen Paige, Andrea Tyree, and Gail Zellman. Portions of this paper were presented at the University of California, Los Angeles, Symposium on Sex Roles and Sex Differences, Los Angeles, 1972.     

A Field Study of Sex-role Attitude Change in College Women

Two field studies are presented which examine to what extent women's studies courses are effective in changing sex-role attitudes in college women. Factor analyses were performed on the questionnaire data to produce summary variables for the change analysis and to examine the structure of sex-role ideology. The results, consistent in both studies, showed the women's sex-role beliefs are comprised of definable areas and that awareness of sex discrimination and traditional beliefs regarding the proper roles for men and women are more susceptible to influence than are other types of variables.     

LOREN COREY EISELEY: IN APPRECIATION

Abstract. In his writings, Loren Eiseley revealed the feelings and the wonder that inspire many scientists in their work but that most scientists are unable or unwilling to write about. He was at once an anthropologist of science and the scientist's bard.