A right hemispatial field advantage on a verbal free-vision task

Within a fixed time limit for each stimulus item, right handers searched, in a top-to-bottom scan and from right to left for half the subjects and from left to right for the other half, among randomly placed and oriented words for target words that rhymed with a designated sound. A right hemispatial field advantage emerged, as well as an advantage for targets above as compared to below the horizontal meridian. A lateral X vertical location interaction showed a right-side advantage only for targets below the horizontal meridian and an upper target advantage only for targets on the left. Even though the task was presented in free vision, results were highly similar to prior findings with lateralized tachistoscopic presentation of verbal stimuli.     

A flexible and interactive software package for a laboratory in cognition and perception

This paper introduces the second edition of a software package for use in teaching cognitive psychology and research methods. Detailed are the distinctive features of the edition and how this courseware can be used effectively. Fifteen content programs were developed to provide multiple levels of use, ranging from simple demonstrations to sophisticated templates for designing complex independent research projects. Relative to its predecessor, data handling is greatly enhanced, the overall power of the programs to respond to a wider range of responses is increased, and the breadth of the content is expanded significantly.     

Personality and Attitudinal Predictors of Support of Proposition 187—California's Anti-Illegal Immigrant Initiative1

Right-wing authoritarianism, stereotypes about illegal immigrants relative to legal immigrants (and nonimmigrants), and collective self-esteem were investigated as predictors of attitude toward California's Proposition 187—the 1994 initiative making illegal immigrants ineligible for public services. Among both Latinos (n= 92) and Caucasians (n= 79), right-wing authoritarianism and negative stereotypes about illegal immigrants predicted Proposition 187 support and reported vote. For Latinos, low collective self-esteem and high levels of acculturation predicted support and vote in favor of Proposition 187. In contrast, high collective self-esteem among Caucasians was related to Proposition 187 support and vote. The results suggest that 3 perspectives on prejudice—personality, cognitive, and cultural—contribute to the understanding of attitudinal and behavioral support of Proposition 187.     

Movement patterns of persons with HIV receiving treatment in public clinics in the Southern Health Region,Puerto Rico

A survey conducted among 187 HIV-infected patients from publicly supported HIV clinics in the Puerto Rican Southern Health Region (SHR) failed to substantiate health planners' concern that this group travels frequently to the US to receive medical services. Respondents were questioned about all places of residence and all sites of HIV treatment in the past 12 months. Movement was defined as being anywhere outside of the SHR for 2 weeks or longer. 7% of the sample had moved at least once in the past year; 4% had moved outside the SHR but within Puerto Rico, while 3% had been in the continental US. Compared to the heterosexual risk group, intravenous drug users and men who have sex with men were 7-8 times more likely to have moved. The attainment of at least a high school education was also significantly and independently associated with increased probability of movement. Medical care was not identified by any of these respondents as the primary reason for travel. 58% indicated they were in their current place of residence to be near family, friends, and relatives. Both the small sample size and the low socioeconomic status of respondents may have limited the ability of this study to identify the so-called "air bridge," however.     

The Correlation Between Depression and Headache: The Role Played by Generational Changes in Female Achievement

The relationship between depression and somatic symptoms such as headache has never been explained. Both depression and headache appear to become more prevalent among women than among men only for cohorts that reach adolescence during periods of great change in opportunities for a female's academic achievement. In Studies 1a and 1b, the same pattern was found to apply to the correlation between depression and headache. In Studies 2a and 2b, self-report measures of depression and headache were found to share significant variance only among female adolescents who reported concerns regarding the limited achievements of their mothers. These females may view the roles of adult women as being limited and may experience stress and low self-esteem associated with depressive and somatic symptomatology.     

Gender differences in depressive symptomatology: The role played by “anxious somatic depression” associated with gender-related achievement concerns

In the studies reported here, females were more likely than males to report high levels of depression accompanied by anxiety and somatic symptomatology such as disordered eating and headache, but not more likely to report depression unaccompanied by these symptoms. This gender difference in depression prevalence and the symptomatology associated with depression was due to a subgroup of females who scored high on scales comprised of items measuring concerns about the limitations placed on their achievement (sample item: “More people would pay attention to my ideas if I were male”) or on their mothers (sample: “When you were growing up, how much did your mother feel limited by being female?”) due to responses to their gender.     

Nimodipine Counteracts Corticosterone-Induced Habituation Impairments

Corticosterone or placebo sustained-release pellets (4 pellets of 200 mg each, released over 90 days) were implanted subcutaneously in young Fischer-344 rats, fed with either regular food or with food containing 860 ppm of nimodipine. Following 2 weeks of treatment, the habituation of the rats to a new environment was studied. On the first test day, placebo-implanted rats explored the new environment and exhibited a characteristic habituation. On the second test day, 48 hr later, low activity was measured in the already familiar environment. This habituation was absent in corticosterone-implanted rats fed with regular food. However, corticosterone-implanted rats fed with food containing nimodipine behaved during the second test similarly to the placebo-implanted group. The data indicated that the behavioral deficit, induced in Fischer-344 rats by the high corticosterone levels, was reversed by the nimodipine treatment. Thus, nimodipine may be useful in counteracting certain prolonged stress-related cognitive impairments.     

Asymmetry of perception in free viewing of chimeric faces

We have devised a new free-vision task to index functional cerebral asymmetry for processing facial characteristics. Confirming its sensitivity to properties of lateralized hemispheric functions, left- and right-handers were clearly differentiated on this task with respect to several aspects of performance that conform with known differences between handedness groups in hemispheric asymmetry. Additionally, there were highly reliable and stable individual differences in perceptual asymmetries within handedness. Analyses of items in the task revealed that most of the differences between items in the asymmetries they elicited were random.     

Developmental changes in predicting one's own span of short-term memory

Developmental changes in the accuracy of predicting one's own recall were studied, using preschool, third grade, and college subjects in Experiment 1 and third grade and college subjects in Experiment 2. Experiment 1 showed that prediction accuracy increased from the preschool to the college years, subjects were not influenced by a potential “expectancy” bias in the procedure, and only third grade subjects were influenced by the presence of norms about peer performance. Experiment 2 showed that third graders and college subjects lower their predictions in the face of “false” norm information, with college subjects being the only group to under predict actual recall in both experiments. Thus, although adults are significantly more accurate than elementary shool children in estimating short-term recall, their susceptibility to norm information suggests that even they have uncertainty about their exact capabilities.     

Effects of warm and neutral models on the attention of observational learners

The study was conducted to examine observers' attention to adults following warm and neutral interactions with them. Forty-two preschool and 36 third grade girls interacted with a pair of female models in one of three treatment conditions in which models were, respectively, warm and neutral, neutral and neutral, or warm and warm. Subiects then witnessed the models play a picture-preference game and were asked to recall the models' responses. Analyses of the children's overt attention to the models' responses revealed a greater attention to a warm model when in the presence of both a warm and neutral model and less distraction by nonsocial stimuli when at least one warm model was present. A significant positive correlation was obtained between attention to and recall of the models' responses.