Arousal and paired-associate learning

Walker and Tarte (1963) postulate that at short retention intervals high arousal paired-associates are reproduced more poorly than low arousal items. Walker and colleagues believe that this hypothesis is confirmed by their paired-associate learning studies. However, results of these paired-associate learning studies are position confounded artifacts. Better recall of low arousal items at short-term retention is caused by the coincidence of the recency effect and low arousal at the end of the trial. When these position effects are controlled there is no action decrement for the high arousal paired-associates. To test this assumption, the Kleinsmith and Kaplan study (1963) was replicated and two other variations were conducted. In these three studies with 76 subjects, which were tested at two minutes or 1 week, the action decrement occurs only when the two position effects coincide.     

A kinematic analysis of anticipatory coarticulation in the speech of anterior aphasic subjects using electromagnetic articulography

An investigation was made into the extent and time course of anticipatory coarticulation in the speech of two normal and two anterior aphasic, German-speaking subjects. Both labial and velar coarticulation gestures were investigated. Subjects produced sentences containing target words contrasting in postconsonantal vowel rounding (e.g., [geli:ge]/[gely:gel]) and in nasality (e.g., [ti:de]/[ti:ne]). Speech kinematics were monitored by means of electromagnetic articulography. The data revealed that for correct productions, aphasic speakers' coarticulatory patterns were more highly variable than those of control subjects. These differences, however, were found chiefly for spatial displacement characteristics, while the temporal aspects of articulator movement necessary for anticipatory coarticulation appeared largely intact. Articulator mistiming did not appear to explain a small corpus of stop/nasal substitution errors produced by one of the aphasic speakers.     

Illusory correlation and the maintenance of sex role stereotypes in children

The present work tested the hypothesis that children would perceive illusory correlations leading to greater recall of events that confirm rather than disconfirm sex-stereotypic beliefs. In the study, 33 second graders and 34 fourth graders were shown slides of adult males and females engaged in traditional sex role activities, nontraditional activities, and gender-neutral activities. Frequency judgments of the occurrence of each Stimulus Type x Stimulus Sex category served as the dependent measure. In actuality there was no correlation between gender and activity type in the stimulus set. As expected, both age groups perceived illusory correlations, giving the highest frequency estimates to traditional stimuli and the lowest frequency estimates to nontraditional stimuli. Individual differences in level of stereotyped attitudes had no effect on this cognitive bias. Results are discussed in terms of gender schema theory and the maintenance of sex role stereotypes.This research was supported by grants to the first author from the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown and the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education. We wish to express our appreciation to Lynn Liben and Margaret Signorella for the use of their stimuli. We would also like to thank the administrators, teachers, and students whose cooperation made the project possible. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 59th annual meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association, Buffalo, NY, April 1988.     

Toward a Process Analysis of Emotions: The Case of Surprise

Based on an earlier model of the processes elicited by surprising events, the present studies provide evidence for one of these processes, the evaluation of the surprising event's relevance for ongoing activities (action-relevance check). The central prediction tested was that, if unexpected events elicit among other processes an action-relevance check, then response delay on a concurrent task will be more pronounced in a condition where this process is more elaborate and hence takes more time. In accord with this prediction, Experiment 1 found that an unexpected appearance change of the imperative stimulus in a choice reaction time (RT) task caused greater response delay than an equivalent appearance change of a distractor stimulus. Experiment 2 replicated this finding and tested several additional predictions that concerned the effects on response delay of a second appearance change of either the imperative or the distractor stimuli. These predictions, which were also mostly confirmed, were derived by combining the logic underlying the first study with the assumption that once made, appraisals of unexpected events are stored as part of the situational schema and are reused when the same or similar events reoccur leading to an abbreviation of appraisal processes. Experiment 3 once more replicated the basic finding of the previous studies and ruled out a possible alternative explanation. It is suggested that the proposed RT method of process verification may be of broader interest as a tool to study appraisal processes in emotion.     

Introduction and commentary to: M.I. Mityushov (1954) “Conditioned reflex secretion of insulin”

Recent research on the role of classical conditioning in homeostatic regulation (Dworkin, 1993; Siegel, Krank & Hinson, 1987) has underscored the potential importance of the work of earlier Eastern-European work on physiological conditioning. The present article is a translation and discussion of a paper on blood glucose conditioning, first published in 1954 by the Russian physiologist M.I. Mityushov. Dr. Mityushov was able to demonstrate conditioned hypoglycemia in humans and dogs after using an injection procedure as the CS and intravenous glucose as the UCS. The translation is preceded by a general introduction and followed by a reanalysis and discussion of Mityushov’s results.     

Showing Clients What Their Profiles Mean

This article suggests that counselors might profitably investigate new graphic approaches to showing clients what their multivariate profiles mean. An illustration is given in terms of Holland's RIASEC (Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, Conventional; 1985) model of vocational interests.     

Vocational role choice in second- and sixth-grade children

In a replication of two investigations reported by Looft (1971a, 1971b), 40 second- and sixth-grade male and female students were interviewed concerning their desired and expected vocational aspirations. In contrast to Looft's findings, no significant sex differences were found for either grade level in (a) the number of different (nonoverlapping) vocations nominated or (b) the number of subjects changing initial vocational role choices. When the issue of traditionality of vocational choice (i.e., vocations socially identified with the sex of the subject) was examined, it was found that half of the sixth-grade females interviewed nominated nontraditional vocations (e.g., basketball player, police officer). It was observed further that males in both the second- and sixth-grade samples overwhelmingly nominated traditional vocations. Contrary to Looft's interpretation, the findings suggest that although goals associated with the women's liberation movement (e.g., changes in sex-role expectations) are not demonstrated clearly in the vocational aspirations or expectations of young children, they may be reflected in the aspirations of adolescent females.     

The subjective vertical under ‘dry’ and ‘wet’ conditions at clockwise and counterclockwise changed positions and the effect of a parallel-lined background field

Summary The dependence of the subjective vertical (SV, the angle between a subjective vertical line and body median plane) on the gravity vertical (body tilt position, angle ) and on the optical vertical (i.e., a field of parallel lines seen as background to the line to be adjusted) was investigated. The SV was measured under dry and wet conditions at different degrees of body tilt attained in either clockwise (CW) or counterclockwise (CCW) progression.The measured difference in between field-of-lines left and right of the line is smallest at the upright position (=O°) and largest at =150°/165°. All body positions show a -difference between CW and CCW attainment (hysteresis), this too being least at upright and greatest at inverted body positions.These results, and changes of with test time, are discussed relative to the hypothesis that efficiency of the statolith organs decreases with body tilt increase, favouring increase of interference of somatoreceptors and the optical reference.     

Some theory and results for metrics for bounded response scales

In an earlier note, a new metric for bounded response scales (MBR) was introduced which resembles the city-block metric but is bounded above. It was suggested the MBR may be more appropriate than minkowski metrics for data obtained with bounded response scales. In this article, some formal properties of the MBR are investigated and it is shown that it is indeed a metric. Empirical predictions are then derived from the MBR and contrasted with those of a “monotonicity hypothesis,” which holds that dissimilarity judgements tend to be biased towards overestimation of larger distances, and with the predictions of the minkowski metrics, which imply additivity of collinear segments. Some empirical results are presented which contradict the monotonicity hypothesis and the minkowski metrics, and favor the MBR. Finally, the logic used to motivate the MBR is invoked to define a subadditive concatenation for bounded norms in the one-dimensional case, which may be useful in psychophysical work where the upper bounds are often real, rather than due to the response scale. This concatenation predicts understimation for doubling and overestimation for halving and middling tasks.