On the nonautomaticity of “automatic” activation: Evidence of selective seeing

Early perceptual selection refers to a sequence of perceptual processing in which attentional selection of stimuli occurs before perceptual processing is complete. By contrast, late perceptual selection refers to a sequence in which all stimuli receive complete perceptual processing before selection takes place. An attempt was made to determine if early selection is possible. Three experiments were conducted in which subjects were presented with arrays containing a variable number of red items and a variable number of black items; all array items were randomly positioned around the circumference of an imaginary circle. The subjects task was to report the number of red items. Response time increased with the number of red items, but was essentially independent of the number of black items. The nature of the red and black items was also varied. When the to-be-attended red items were given “Stroop-like” quality (the symbols that were used were directly inconsistent with the correct response for that trial), mean reaction time was increased compared to a baseline condition; when the to-be-ignored black items were given “Stroop-like” quality, mean reaction time was unaffected. These results imply that the relevant (red) and irrelevant (black) items were processed differentially. We conclude that early selection is possible; late-selection models are not supported.     

The morphological asymmetry of the hemispheres and cerebral dominance for speech: A possible relationship

The asymmetry of the posterior Sylvian branches of the middle cerebral artery was examined on the carotid angiograms of 59 patients in whom the lateralization of speech representation was known from sodium amobarbital (Amytal) studies. The usual asymmetry of these vessels was found to be present in the group of patients with left-hemisphere speech representation but significantly reduced in patients with atypical cerebral dominance for speech. A model of the inheritance of handedness and cerebral dominance is extended to take account of these results.     

The computer psychiatrist: How far have we come? Where are we heading? How far dare we go?

The use of computers in psychiatry and psychology is reviewed. It is noted that computers are already being used successfully for consultation, interviewing, and continuing education. Issues related to the usage of computers in mental health are discussed. Guidelines for future work in the area are suggested.     

The development of discourse mapping processes: the on-line interpretation of anaphoric expressions

The present research focuses on how children integrate the antecedent of different kinds of anaphor into their on-going interpretation of an utterance, and on the kinds of cues they use to help them to do this. These issues were studied by examining the on-line processing of three types of anaphoric devices—repeated noun phrases, general terms and pronoun anaphors. The data showed that by the age of five, anaphoric mapping processes in general are well-mastered, although all age-groups (5, 7, 10 year olds and adults) found general term anaphors more difficult to interpret. The major developmental differences concerned the processing of anaphoric pronouns. For five year olds, pronouns were primarily interpreted as devices which maintained the thematic subject of the discourse, but when there was no thematic subject they relied primarily on pragmatic plausibility in their assignment of pronominal co-reference. As children get older, they are able to take advantage of the lexical properties of pronouns and all three sources of information—lexical, pragmatic inference and the thematic structure of the discourse—play contributory roles in the assignment of reference to a pronoun.     

A computerized infrared monitor for following movement in aquatic animals

Reliable monitoring of the movement of small aquatic animals presents some unique problems. In the case of the larval salamander, the animal may be less than an inch long and move in sporadic short bursts. A device is described that utilizes infrared emitters and wide-band sensors inter-faced to a computer for monitoring location and movement of animals between light and dark environments over extended periods of time. The system employs a multiplexed digital input, is inexpensive, and can be easily expanded to deal with a range of monitoring problems that may occur with a wide range of both aquatic and terrestrial species.     

On the optimality of the simultaneous redundancy transformations

The objective of this paper is to introduce and motivate additional properties and interpretations for the redundancy variables. It is shown that these variables can be derived by application of certain invariance arguments and without reference to the index of redundancy. In addition, an optimality property for the variables is presented which is important whenever one restricts attention in a study to a subset of the redundancy variables. This optimality property pertains to the subset rather than to the individual variables.This paper is based in part on the author's doctoral dissertation, Department of Statistics, Princeton, University. Research was conducted under the supervision of Lawrence S. Mayer.     

Interpersonal problem solving: An intervention program for preschool children

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention program designed to train preschool children in interpersonal problem solving skills. Forty preschool age children were randomly assigned to an experimental or control group. Experimental subjects were trained in interpersonal problem solving skills for ten weeks, four days per week, for a total of 10–13 hours. Problem-solving skills were assessed at pretest, posttest, and three months after training was completed. Seventy-eight percent of the children who participated in pretest and posttest were tested at follow-up. Results indicated that the experimental group, compared to the control group, showed a significant increase in both cognitive—verbal and behavioral interpersonal problem-solving skills from pretest to posttest and that these changes were maintained at follow-up testing. Discussion focuses on suggestions for future research and implications for applied settings.