Spatial contingency and the McCollough effect

On the basis of a conditioning analysis of the orientation-contingent color aftereffect (McCollough effect, ME), orientation stimuli become associated with simultaneously presented chromatic stimuli. This account suggests that decreasing the contingency between the grid orientation and color should decrease the strength of the aftereffect. Results of previous research indicate that decreasing the temporal contingency (by presenting homogeneous chromatic stimuli between presentations of chromatic grids) does not decrease the ME. However, it has been suggested that the appropriate contingency-degradation procedure would involve decreasing spatial (rather than temporal) contingency. That is, the illusion should be attenuated by extending the color beyond the confines of the grid. Contrary to this hypothesis, the results of the present experiments provide no evidence that decreasing the spatial contingency between grid and color decreases the ME; rather, the aftereffect is increased by such a manipulation.     

Young infants’ perception of liquid coarticulatory influences on following stop consonants

Phonetic segments are coarticulated in speech. Accordingly, the articulatory and acoustic properties of the speech signal during the time frame traditionally identified with a given phoneme are highly context-sensitive. For example, due to carryover coarticulation, the front tongue-tip position for HI results in more fronted tongue-body contact for a /g/ preceded by /l/ than for a /g/ preceded by /r/. Perception by mature listeners shows a complementary sensitivity—when a synthetic /da/-/ga/ continuum is preceded by either /al/ or /ar/, adults hear more /g/s following HI rather than Irl. That is, some of the fronting information in the temporal domain of the stop is perceptually attributed to /l/ (Mann, 1980). We replicated this finding and extended it to a signaldetection test of discrimination with adults, using triads of disyllables. Three equidistant items from a /da/-/ga/ continuum were used preceded by /al/ and /ar/. In the identification test, adults had identified item ga5 as “ga”, and dal as “da”, following both /al/ and /ar/, whereas they identified the crucial item d/ga3 predominantly as “ga” after /al/ but as “da” after /ar/. In the discrimination test, they discriminated d/ga3 from dal preceded by /al/ but not /ar/; compatibly, they discriminated d/ga3 readily from ga5 preceded by /ar/ but poorly preceded by /al/. We obtained similar results with 4-month-old infants. Following habituation to either ald/ga3 or ard/ga3, infants heard either the corresponding ga5 or dal disyllable. As predicted, the infants discrimi-nated d/ga3 from dal following /al/ but not /ar/; conversely, they discriminated d/ga3 from ga5 following /ar/ but not /al/. The results suggest that prelinguistic infants disentangle consonant-consonant coarticulatory influences in speech in an adult-like fashion.     

The Factor Structure of the Beavers Interactional Scales

Confirmatory factor analysis and regression analyses of the Beavers Interactional Scales did not appear to support the model offered by its developers, namely, several specified family attributes contributing respectively to two global factors of Family Competence and Family Style. Moreover, regression analysis indicated that only three of 12 items predicted raters' assessments of Global Family Health, and one of seven items predicted Global Family Style. Individuals interested in the family dynamic centripetal/centrifugal might best think of that as a unitary entity and rate it accordingly.     

Relations of Tripartite Dimensions of Emotion to Childhood Anxiety and Mood Disorders

This study examined preliminary higher-order models relating tripartite dimensions of emotion to severity of anxiety and depressive disorders in 100 clinically referred children and adolescents. In light of the accumulating support for multifactor models of vulnerability and negative emotion in children, the present investigation was designed to establish preliminary estimates of the structure and magnitude of the relations of three emotion factors with dimensions of social anxiety, depression, panic, generalized anxiety, obsessions/compulsions, and separation anxiety. Results were consistent with structures that minimally specified two higher-order emotion factors, yet only some parameter estimates were consistent with theory regarding the tripartite model. Problems with the measurement of tripartite factors and possibilities for further research are outlined.