Stripes within words affect reading

In a series of eight studies it is shown that the first peak in the horizontal autocorrelation of the image of a word (which captures the similarity in shape between the neighbouring strokes of letters) determines (i) the appearance of the words as striped; (ii) the speed with which the words are read, both aloud and silently; and (iii) the speed with which a paragraph of text can be searched. By subtly distorting the horizontal dimension of text, and thereby reducing the first peak in the horizontal autocorrelation, it is shown that the speed of word recognition can be increased. The increase in speed is greater in poor readers.     

Fear Extinction to an Out-Group Face: The Role of Target Gender

ABSTRACT— Conditioning studies on humans and other primates show that fear responses acquired toward danger-relevant stimuli, such as snakes, resist extinction, whereas responses toward danger-irrelevant stimuli, such as birds, are more readily extinguished. Similar evolved biases may extend to human groups, as recent research demonstrates that a conditioned fear response to faces of persons of a social out-group resists extinction, whereas fear toward a social in-group is more readily extinguished. Here, we provide an important extension to previous work by demonstrating that this fear-extinction bias occurs solely when the exemplars are male. These results underscore the importance of considering how gender of the target stimulus affects psychological and physiological responses to out-group threat.     

Quantifying the value of human life for cost accounting of safeguards: clarifying formulas applied to the clozapine controversy.

Using CPMS as an example, this article has developed mathematical formulations to compare the value of lives saved against the cost of medical safeguards. By a logical comparison of benefit and cost converted to the same units of currency, the article explores three important questions relating to the CPMS example. These mathematical formulations serve to quantify the decision-making process in a logical manner, and might serve as a useful example for clinical and public policy decisions.     

Evaluation in the private sector: Evolution and professionalization of quality management

This article reviews different approaches to quality management in the private sector from an evolutionary perspective. Two dimensions of this evolution are crucial: the scope of evaluation (“product” versus “system”) and the objective versus intersubjective orientation. Experiences within the private sector can be relevant for the public sector, with adaptation for public sector characteristics. Complexity of both object and process of evaluation has implications for the professionalization of the evaluation function.     

A comparison of hyponym and synonym decisions

Is class inclusion (hyponymy) a more primitive or simpler semantic relation than synonymy? This question was addressed by comparing the time required to identify examples of the two relations in a semantic decision task. In two experiments subjects made truelfalse decisions about statements of the form “An A is a B.” In Experiment 1 category-member and synonym pairs were randomly intermixed; there was no difference between the two relations. In Experiment 2 one group was presented with the two relations randomly intermixed, as in Experiment 1 (mixed condition), while two other groups were each presented with just one of the relations (separate condition). In the separate condition responses were faster to class inclusion than to synonym pairs, while in the mixed condition there was no difference, as in Experiment 1. The results suggest that class inclusion may be a simpler relation than synonymity, although the difference may simply reflect the use to which the two relations are put in common use. The fact that the difference occurred in the separate but not in the mixed conditions suggests that the latencies reflected the evaluation of the relations against a decision criterion rather than directly reflecting lexical organization or everyday usage.     

Introduction to the model guidelines for preemployment integrity testing

TheModel Guidelines for Preemployment Integrity Testing Programs are described. These guidelines have implications for both test publishers and test users.Companies may request a copy of the Association of Personnel Test Publisher'sModel Guidelines for Preemployment Integrity Testing Programs by writingModel Guidelines, APTP, 655 Fifteenth Street, N.W., Suite 320, Washington, D.C. 20005.     

The comprehension of idioms

Four experiments will performed to examine how familiar idioms are interpreted. Subjects had to respond as rapidly as possible whether an idiom had the same or different meaning as a phrase which, on half of the trials, was a paraphrase of either the figurative or literal meaning of the idiom. When subjects were instructed to respond on the basis of either figurative or literal meaning, idioms were matched to their literal and figurative paraphrases equally rapidly. When subjects were instructed to respond only on the basis of literal meaning, idiom-phrase pairs that shared a figurative interpretation took longer to reject as different than idiom pairs that shared no interpretation. These results domonstrated that whenever a familiar idiom is comprehended, both its literal and figurative interpretations are made.