A method for producing foveal retinal exposures in an awake,task-oriented,rhesus monkey

A method for producing retinal exposures from a laser source in an awake, task-oriented S is presented. The technique allows for the measurement of rhesus monkey visual acuity immediately following exposures.     

Necessary versus sufficient causal schemata for success and failure

197 subjects judged the perceived presence or absence of ability or effort, given information about task outcome (success or failure), the difficulty of the task (easy, intermediate, or difficult), and the state of the complementary cause (effort or ability). The data revealed that a multiple sufficient causal schema is used to explain common events. That is, the presence of ability or effort is perceived as enough to produce success at an easy task, while the absence of ability or effort is perceived as sufficient to result in failure at a difficult task. On the other hand, a multiple necessary schema tends to be employed to explain uncommon events. Success at a difficult task is believed to require both ability and effort, while failure at an easy task tends to be perceived as caused by low ability and low effort. In addition, there were disparities in the causal judgments for success and failure: failure outcomes are more likely to elicit a multiple sufficient schema. Further, in achievement-related contexts ability and effort are perceived as negatively covarying causal determinants of typical successes and failures. In addition to supporting hypotheses from attribution theory, the data shed further light upon the perceived determinants of success and failure, and demonstrate the influence of cognitive structures on achievement-related causal judgments.     

THE RELATIONSHIP OF ‘EXCHANGE-ORIENTATION’ AND ‘COMMITMENT’ SCALES TO MARRIAGE ADJUSTMENT*

Believing that “exchange” and “commitment” are basic dimensions associated with marriage adjustment (MA), scales measuring these three dimensions were administered to 40 married couples. Exchange was predicted to be negatively correlated with MA, commitment positively associated with it, and an individual's exchange and commitment qualities were predicted to affect his partner's MA. The hypotheses were all supported. Further analyses, however, revealed that husbands' MA was more strongly associated with their own exchange and commitment scores than those of their wives. However, wives' MA was equally associated with their own and their husbands' exchange and commitment scores. The implications of this finding for women's position in marriage are discussed.     

Clinician's molar and molecular stuttering analyses of expanded and nonexpanded speech

Twenty speech pathologists measured total words and completed molar and molecular stuttering analyses from audio-recorded contrived samples of stuttered speech. Each subject completed a criterion referenced test prior to performing the experimental tasks. Analyses were performed under two conditions: Condition I consisted of samples presented at 100 wpm as recorded (nonexpanded); Condition II consisted of parallel samples recorded at 100 wpm as recorded (nonexpanded condition); Condition II consisted of parallel samples recorded at 100 wpm but presented at 59 wpm via a speech time expander. Results indicate that presentation of expanded samples (Condition II) significantly increased subject accuracy for the specific disfluency form-types word repetitions and part-word repetitions. Similar trends were noted for sound prolongations and hard contacts. Theoretical, experimental, and clinical implications are offered.     

The elimination of visible behaviour from social interactions: Effects on verbal,nonverbal and interpersonal variables

The study intended to test a number of implications of the alleged communicative functions of nonverbal behaviours. Four sets of specific hypotheses were defined under the general expectation of important effects of the suppression of visible behaviours from a channel of communication. Pairs of subjects were requested to interact either face-to-face or through a wooden screen depriving them of reciprocal visibility. Dependent variables comprised nonverbal behaviours, indices of paralinguistic, syntactic, grammatical and content aspects of the speech, and ratings of the partner and of the interpersonal situation. In spite of the number and variety of measurements, differences in line with the predictions were extremely rare. It is concluded that, better than the communicative ones, other functions such as assistance to the speech encoding processes, probably account for the abundance of nonverbal behaviours among speaking subjects.     

An examination of the relationship between race,skin color and a series of autonomic nervous system measures

In the total population of 75 subjects, the skin albedo correlated significantly with skin resistance, a relationship which was not maintained when the total population was separated into its component subgroups of whites, blacks and Indians. The Indians, “anthropologically Caucasians” but skin color more akin to the blacks, exhibited mean skin reflectance and skin resistance intermediate to that obtained in the black and white groups respectively. Other differences and significant correlations between the autonomic functions in the three groups indicated a higher level of sympathetic tone in the Indians, although this could be attributed to the older age of this group. It was suggested from the results that skin color rather than race has a greater influence on skin resistance.