Frequency of occurrence and concreteness ratings of homograph meanings

The purpose of this research was to establish norms for the relative frequency of use of the different meaning of common homographs (words that have one spelling but two or more distinctly different meanings) and to present ratings of the concreteness-abstractness of those meanings. A total of 108 subjects wrote a phrase or sentence using each of 120 homographs that were presented at a 15.5-sec rate. For each homograph, norms are provided indicating the relative frequency with which each meaning was used by men and by women. In addition, four judges rated the concreteness-abstractness of each meaning. These ratings are also provided, as are the means of the overall concreteness for each homograph.     

Spatial depth relationships in young children's drawings

Previous research suggests that young children do not attempt to represent depth relationships between objects in their drawings. The present study, however, showed that when both objects are visible and the children's attention is drawn to the depth relationship between them, most 5-, 6-, and 7-year-olds do attempt to portray this relationship.     

Effects of concurrent verbal memory on recognition of stimuli from the left and right visual fields.

Two experiments examined the effect of concurrently holding 0, 2, 4, or 6 nouns in memory on the recognition of visual stimuli briefly presented to the left or right visual fields. When stimuli to be visually recognized were complex visuospatial forms it was found that a relatively easy memroy load of 2 or 4 nouns improved visual recognition accuracy on right visual field (left-hemisphere) trials relative to the no-memory condition; however, a more difficult memory load of 6 nouns decreased visual recognition accuracy to a level slightly below the no-memory condition. There were no effects of concurrent verbal memroy on visual form recognition on left visual field (right-hemisphere) trials. When the stimuli to be visually recognized were words it was found that a relatively easy memroy load of 2 or 4 nouns improved visual recognition accuracy and a more difficult load of 6 nouns decreased visual recognition accuracy on both left and right visual field trials. The complete pattern of results indicates that several factors including cerebral hemisphere specialization, stimulus codability, selective perceptual orientation, and selective cerebral hemisphere interference interact in systematic ways to produce overall visual laterality effects.     

The rod-and-frame illusion in erect and supine observers

Previous studies have found that the effect of a tilted frame on egocentric rod adjustments is greater when an overhead display in a horizontal plane is viewed from a supine body position than when a vertical display is viewed from an erect body position. The present studies were designed to see whether this phenomenon could be attributed to an intravisual orientation contrast effect or to the effects of visually induced eye torsion. No significant erect-supine differences were found on measures of either effect. Errors in the direction of frame tilt were significantly greater in the supine position when observers were asked to align a visible rod or an unseen hand-held disk with the head, but no effect of body position was found in matching the orientation of the disk with the rod. The data suggest that erect-supine differences in frame effects are not attributable simply to intravisual factors. The results are discussed in terms used by Harris (1974) to describe “straight-ahead shifts” in judging spatial directions with respect to the median plane.     

Field independence and laterality in the perception of faces.

For a sample of 28 college males the degree of left visual-field bias in the perception of faces correlated .45 (p less than .01) with extent of field-independent performance, as assessed by a composite score based on the Embedded-Figures Test, the Rod-and-Frame Test, and ratings on the Articulation-of-Body-Concept Scale. In a second study with 16 female and 10 male college subjects using the Group Embedded-Figures Test, field-independent subjects again showed greater left visual-field lateralization of face perception (r = .43, p less than .05). Based on Witkin's view of field independence as a manifestation of psychological differentiation, possible links between extent of differentiation at the psychological and neurophysiological levels are suggested.     

Medication use and the assessment of agoraphobic avoidance

Many anxiety disorder patients who present for behaviour therapy are already taking anxiolytic medications. The present study added a new subscale to the Mobility Inventory labelled ‘Without Medication’ to assess possible reliance on medication for coping with phobic situations. 121 Patients with panic-related disorders were administered the scale. The results supported the reliability and validity of the existing Mobility Inventory subscales in general and of the new subscale in particular. It appears to reliably assess a clinically important domain that is not measured in traditional self-report measures of phobic avoidance.     

Research ethics committees: a regional approach

Guidelines for Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) or research ethics committees exist at national and international levels. These guidelines are based on ethical principles and establish an internationally acceptable standard for the review and conduct of medical research. Having attained a multinational consensus about what these fundamental guidelines should be, IRBs are left to interpret the guidelines and devise their own means of implementing them. Individual and community values bear on the interpretation of the guidelines so different IRBs attain different levels of effectiveness. In the Caribbean and Pan American regions there are few IRBs. Obstacles to the establishment and function of IRBs are exacerbated in developing regions like these by differences in language, literacy, and local value systems; education, administrative expertise, facilities, and access to information are also limited. A regional IRB network might facilitate more uniform ethical review in developing countries, and simplify IRB procedures. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Exploratory Factor Analysis: A Users’Guide

In 1978, Comrey wrote a guide to factor analysis in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. This paper provides an update of the information given by Comrey in relation to exploratory factor analysis (EFA) for work and organizational psychologists, and particularly those involved with test development, interpretation and validation. In doing so, it offers a user's guide to contemporary methods and available techniques and introduces heuristics for dealing with problems of skew and kurtosis, social desirability response set, and factor naming.