Medication effects in the classroom: Three naturalistic indicators

Hyperactive and comparison boys participated in 5-week summer enrichment programs that included classroom activities and structured assessments of peer interaction patterns. During the 3rd and 4th weeks of these programs, a double-blind, methylphenidate-placebo crossover design was implemented within the hyperactive group. Three heterogeneous indicators of everyday behaviors were obtained: number of negative incidents noted by staff, quality of handwriting, and number of times the teacher called the boys' names aloud in the classroom. Medication effects emerged for each of these indicators. When hyperactive boys were taking placebos, they were involved in more negative incidents, their handwriting was poorer, and their names were called more frequently than when the boys were taking methylphenidate. Interrelationships among the measures suggest moderate cross-situational generality of medication responsiveness. Discussion focused on the bandwidth of medication effects and the need to examine the social ramifications of child treatments.This research was supported in part by NIMH grant 29475 and NIDA grant 01070. We gratefully acknowledge the participation of the data coders and the many summer school staff. Special thanks go to Mike Berlin, Barry E. Collins, and Sharon Dotemoto. Methylphenidate and placebo were supplied by Ciba-Geigy, Summit, New Jersey.     

Ear differences in simple reaction time: The influence of attentional factors

Simple motor reaction times (right-handed) to tape-recorded consonant-vowel syllables were obtained from 12 subjects under two conditions of monotic stimulation: “expected” presentation (subject informed as to ear of presentation) and “random” presentation (ear of presentation varied randomly). Significantly faster left ear reaction times were obtained in the “expected” condition. The rank order of subjects' standard dichotic listening task scores correlated negatively with reaction time ear differences in the “expected” presentation condition. Results are discussed in terms of existing theories of response lateralization in simple reaction time tasks, and an expanded hypothesis is offered. Specifically, it is suggested that two or more distinct but potentially overlapping mechanisms may be responsible for observed asymmetries in monotic auditory perception. Both an attentional or lateralized motor response bias and an inherent lateralization of function may operate side by side, differentially activated by task demands, mode of stimulus presentation, and nature of stimuli.     

Sex differences in self-disclosure: Effects of topic content,friendship, and partner's sex

Male-female differences in self-disclosure were found as a function of sex stereotyping of topic content. Men disclosed less than women on “feminine” topics, which emphasized personal concerns and sensitivities. Men and women did not differ in disclosure on “neutral” topics, considered appropriate for both sexes to discuss. Men and women did not differ in disclosure on “masculine” topics (emphasizing assertiveness) in two of three experiments. Theoretical mechanisms that might mediate sex differences in self-disclosure were considered.     

The role of Canadian school psychologists: Perceptions of a sample from the general public

A sample of 77 subjects responded to a questionnaire designed to collect information about their perceptions of the role of school psychologists. The results indicate that overall the respondents had a fairly accurate sense of what a school psychologist does, although they overestimated the importance of psychotherapy as one of the school psychologist's functions. It is recommended that school psychologists more clearly specify their function when dealing with members of the general public.     

The effect of phonemic processing on the retention of graphemic representations for words and nonwords

The three experiments reported in this study were each conducted in two phases. The first phase of Experiment 1 involved a same-different comparison task requiring “same” responses for both mixed-case (e.g., MAIN main) and pure-case (e.g., near near) pairs. This was followed by Phase 2, a surprise recognition test in which a graphemic effect on word retention was indicated by the superior recognition accuracy obtained for pure-case compared with mixed-case pairs. The first phases of Experiments 2 and 3 involved pronounceability and imageability judgment tasks, respectively. Graphemic retention was assessed by contrasting recognition accuracy for letter strings presented, during Phase 2, in their original Phase 1 case, with letter strings presented, during Phase 2, in. a graphemically dissimilar new case. The experiments provided evidence that there was minimal retention of the graphemic representations from which the phonemic representations of words are generated and, further, that the locus of this effect is probably postlexical. Nonwords were recognized more accurately than words in all three experiments. The latter result was attributed to differences between nonwords and words in both graphemic retention and semantic distinctiveness.     

Meeting a deviant person: Subjective norms and affective reactions

Studied differences in verbal, nonverbal, and physiological responses during a confrontation with a male confederate role-playing either a physically handicapped (PH), homosexual (HS), or normal (NOR) person. One hundred and eight males from colleges of economics and engineering listened in a laboratory experiment to personal introductions by two confederates in succession. Whereas the first confederate always appeared normal, the second took one of the three roles mentioned. A further informal meeting with this confederate was arranged outside the laboratory; all subjects had taken a stereotype test before. Normative differences between PH and HS (p ≤ 0.05) are found on verbal measures including the stereotype test, self-rated emotion and consent to a further contact. General effects of deviance separating PH and HS from NOR (p ≤ 0.05) emerge on observed emotion, interpersonal distance during the informal meeting, and skin-resistance responses. The results largely confirm the hypotheses. They are interpreted as supporting a distinction between intended (action-type) components of behaviour which are strongly influenced by subjective norms, and unintended (reaction-type) components reflecting undifferentiated reactions to deviance.     

Perception of emotions by accepted and rejected children

The purpose of this study was to assess the perceptions of emotions by accepted and rejected children. Peer ratings and peer sociometrics were used to identify accepted and rejected children. All children were administered a task specifically designed to measure their ability to perceive emotions. This task consisted of a series of videotaped interactions involving two individuals—either two adults or two children—portraying one of three affective states: happiness, sadness, and anger. After viewing each interaction, children were asked to identify what the person was feeling. In addition, teachers and peers rated the children on their ability to perceive emotions in others. The results indicated that accepted children obtained significantly higher scores than rejected children on the identification of emotions in the interactions. Teachers and peers also rated accepted children as better perceivers of emotions than rejected children. Implications of the results are discussed.     

The relation between proximity and brightness similarity in dot patterns

The Gestalt studies demonstrated the tendency to visually organize dots on the basis of similarity, proximity, and global properties such as closure, good continuation, and symmetry. The particular organization imposed on a collection of dots is thus determined by many factors, some local, some global. We discuss computational reasons for expecting the initial stages of grouping to be achieved by processes with purely local support. In the case of dot patterns, the expectation is that neighboring dots are grouped as a function of proximity and similarity of contrast, by processes that are independent of the overall organization and the various global factors. We describe experiments that suggest a purely local relationship between proximity and brightness similarity in perceptual grouping.     

Surface tilt (the direction of slant): A neglected psychophysical variable

Surface slant (the angle between the line of sight and the surface normal) is an important psychophysical variable. However, slant angle captures only one of the two degrees of freedom of surface orientation, the other being thedirection of slant. Slant direction, measured in the image plane, coincides with the direction of the gradient of distance from viewer to surface and, equivalently, with the direction the surface normal would point if projected onto the image plane. Since slant direction may be quantified by the tilt of the projected normal (which ranges over 360 deg in the frontal plane), it is referred to here assurface tilt. (Note that slant angle is measured perpendicular to the image plane, whereas tilt angle is measured in the image plane.) Compared with slant angle’s popularity as a psychophysical variable, the attention paid to surface tilt seems undeservedly scant. Experiments that demonstrate a technique for measuring apparent surface tilt are reported. The experimental stimuli were oblique crosses and parallelograms, which suggest oriented planes in 3-D. The apparent tilt of the plane might be probed by orienting a needle in 3-D so as to appear normal, projecting the normal onto the image plane, and measuring its direction (e.g., relative to the horizontal). It is shown to be preferable, however, to merely rotate a line segment in 2-D, superimposed on the display, until it appears normal to the perceived surface. The apparent surface tilt recorded in these experiments corresponded closely to that predicted by assuming the 3-D configurations consist of equal-length lines and perpendicular intersections.