The Rusalov Structure of Temperament Questionnaire (STQ): results from an Australian sample

Recently, a new temperament inventory [the Rusalov Structure of Temperament Questionnaire (STQ)] has been developed to account for advances in theoretical models of basic central nervous system processes. Rusalov has hypothesized that temperament consists of 8 dimensions; 4 object and 4 subject related interactions. Australian data is presented, suggesting good agreement between the STQ results in the Australian and Russian samples. Generally, internal reliability was adequate for questionnaire responses.     

Evidence for complete translational and reflectional invariance in visual object priming.

The magnitude of priming on naming reaction times and on the error rates, resulting from the perception of a briefly presented picture of an object approximately 7 min before the primed object, was found to be independent of whether the primed object was originally viewed in the same hemifield, left-right or upper-lower, or in the same left-right orientation. Performance for same-name, different-examplar images was worse than for identical images, indicating that not only was there priming from block one to block two, but that some of the priming was visual, rather than purely verbal or conceptual. These results provide evidence for complete translational and reflectional invariance in the representation of objects for purposes of visual recognition. Explicit recognition memory for position and orientation was above chance, suggesting that the representation of objects for recognition is independent of the representations of the location and left-right orientation of objects in space.     

Selective adaptation of English consonants using real speech

Most English consonant-vowel (CV) syllables have other CV syllables embedded within them. For example, splicing sufficient energy from the onset of [k^ha] yields [p^ha], splicing into [ma] or [va] yields [ba], and splicing into [?a] yields [da]. We spliced successively longer segments from naturally spoken CV syllables to produce sequences of CV syllables which varied in discrete acoustic steps from [k^ha] to [p^ha], from [?a] to [da], from [ma] to [ba], from [fa] to [ba], and from [va] to [ba]. Random presentation of syllables in each series resulted in identification functions with typically sharp phoneme boundaries. For example, in the seven-syllable [?a]-[da] series (where [?a] was the original or first syllable), there were98% [?a] responses to Syllable 3, but only 12% [?a] responses (88% [da] responses) to Syllable 5. Following the identification test, subjects listened to 180 repetitions of either the first or last syllable in the test series, and were again required to identify randomly presented syllables from the test series. A shift in the phoneme boundary toward the repeated (adapting) syllable was observed for 11 of the 12 repeated syllables. Repeated presentation of [?a], for example, resulted in fewer [?a] responses to syllables in the [?a]-[da] series, compared to performance on the previous identification test. Likewise, repeated listening to [da] resulted in a decrease in [da] responses. Adaptation was selective in that syllables near the phoneme boundary were most affected by the adapting syllable. A shift in the phoneme boundary was also observed for two different continua when the adapting stimulus contained an acoustic feature identical to syllables in the test series. Thus, selective adaptation was found along a [ma]-[ba] continuum following repeated presentation of [na] and following repeated presentation of nasal resonance removed from its syllable context. A second major result, observed in five different experiments, was an asymmetrical adaptation effect. A greater shift in the phoneme boundary was observed following repeated presentation of the first syllable in each series (e.g., [?a]) than for the final embedded syllable (e.g., [da]). The results were discussed in terms of two different models of-selective adaptation.     

A comparison of two psychological treatments for bulimia nervosa

Two standardized psychological treatments for bulimia nervosa were studied. A cognitive behavioural approach was compared with a form of short-term focal psychotherapy. Twenty-four patients who met strict diagnostic criteria for bulimia nervosa were randomly allocated to the two treatments. All the interviews were tape-recorded so that checks on their content could be made. Assessments took place at the beginning and end of treatment, and at 4-, 8- and 12-month follow-up. None of the patients dropped out of treatment or follow-up, but 1 patient from each treatment group had to be withdrawn on clinical grounds. Patients in both groups made substantial improvements which were well maintained over the 12-month treatment-free follow-up period. The cognitive behavioural approach was superior to short-term focal psychotherapy in terms of its effect on the patients' overall clinical state, their general psychopathology and social adjustment, and their assessment of their outcome.     

Detection of missing words in spoken text

Two tests were conducted to examine listeners' detection of missing words in spoken paragraph contexts. Detection was assessed by presenting listeners with normal paragraphs and with paragraphs each containing a single occurrence of a missed word, an inappropriate pause, or a mispronounced word. In the first test, listeners were simply asked whether they detected any abnormalities and to describe them. The results indicated that listeners reported missed words in only 34 to 49% of the paragraphs containing such words. In the second test, a separate group of listeners was given more specific instructions beforehand, indicating the three possible types of abnormality. In this task, the correct detection of missed words rose to 96%. Taken together, the results indicate that listeners do not readily detect occasional missing words under ordinary circumstances but are capable of such detection in a task specifically focused on message abnormalities.This work was supported by NIH Grant NS 20071. We thank Stephen Eady for serving as the speaker for the test recordings and Pamela Mueller for writing paragraphs.