Timed picture naming in seven languages

Timed picture naming was compared in seven languages that vary along dimensions known to affect lexical access. Analyses over items focused on factors that determine cross-language universals and cross-language disparities. With regard to universals, number of alternative names had large effects on reaction time within and across languages after target-name agreement was controlled, suggesting inhibitory effects from lexical competitors. For all the languages, word frequency and goodness of depiction had large effects, but objective picture complexity did not. Effects of word structure variables (length, syllable structure, compounding, and initial frication) varied markedly over languages. Strong cross-language correlations were found in naming latencies, frequency, and length. Other-language frequency effects were observed (e.g., Chinese frequencies predicting Spanish reaction times) even after within-language effects were controlled (e.g., Spanish frequencies predicting Spanish reaction times). These surprising cross-language correlations challenge widely held assumptions about the lexical locus of length and frequency effects, suggesting instead that they may (at least in part) reflect familiarity and accessibility at a conceptual level that is shared over languages.     

Coping Self-Efficacy as a Mediator of Distress Following a Natural Disaster

Social-cognitive theory and conservation-of-resources theory were utilized to understand individual differences in psychological response to natural disaster. Coping self-efficacy, lost resources, social support, and optimism were assessed along with demographic variables in predicting distress following Hurricane Opal. Participants included 67 residents of Okaloosa County, Florida. Multiple regression analyses indicated that coping self-efficacy was the strongest predictor of general distress and trauma-related distress. Loss of resources and gender were also important predictors of general distress. Path analyses demonstrated that lost resources directly influenced general distress, social support, optimism, and coping self-efficacy. These analyses also indicated that coping self-efficacy perceptions mediated the relationships between loss of resources and trauma-related distress, social support and both trauma and general distress, and optimism and both types of distress. Theoretical implications are discussed.     

Attention allocation policy influences prospective timing

The role of attention allocation policy control in prospective duration judgments was tested in two experiments. In the first experiment, it was demonstrated that prospective duration judgments of same clock durations are longer when timing is treated as a primary task than when it is treated as a secondary task, regardless of the difficulty of the nontemporal task filling the to-be-judged interval. In the second experiment, this finding was replicated. Additionally, it was demonstrated that when prospective timing is not preassigned a specific priority, duration judgments are longer than those obtained under secondary-task conditions, but shorter than those obtained under primary-task conditions. It was also revealed that when attention is distracted from timing, prospective duration judgments become shorter than when attention is not distracted. These findings support the notion that prospective timing creates a dual-task condition in which magnitude of duration judgments reflects the amount of attentional resources allocated for temporal information processing.     

EFFECTS OF CULTURES AND LANGUAGES ON SELF CONCEPTIONS*

Cultural evolution in self conceptions under the influence of external cultures was explored through semantic differential ratings of Turkish English-speaking (TK/EN) students. As the criterion for inter-cultural and inter-language comparisons, the “norm” conceptions were obtained from two indigenous samples that represent the American/English (AM/EN) culture and the Turkey/Turkish (TK/TK) culture respectively. Results indicated significant transfusion effects of the “providing” (AM/EN) culture on self conceptions of the “receiving” (TK/EN) culture - in desaturating as well as elevating the semantic intensities of various aspects of self identity over the “native” (TK/TK) culture. An implication was made that future cross-cultural interactions should become an effective mutual learning process for improving inter-cultural and inter-group heterogeneities and conflicts, rather than for spliting a homogeneous indigenous culture into many fragmented and isolated entities.     

Grading distractor-identification tests

On distractor-identification tests students mark as many distractors as possible on each test item. A grading scale is developed for this type testing. The scale is optimal in that it is the unique scale giving an unbiased estimate of the student's true score, i.e., the score that would result if no guessing occurred. If the test is administered as a usual multiple choice test and graded using the usual correction for guessing scale, the expected item score is the same as for the distractor-identification testing using the optimal grading scale. However, the variance of the item score is shown to be less for distractor-identification testing than for usual multiple choice testing under certain conditions.     

Factors Influencing Gay Men's Attitudes,Subjective Norms,and Intentions With Respect to Performing Sexual Behaviors1

In a recent paper (Fishbein et al., 1992) gay men's attitudes and subjective norms were found to be accurate predictors of their intentions to perform a variety of sexual behaviors. In addition, the relative importance of norms as determinants of intention was found to be greater in Seattle (a city with a well organized gay community) than in Albany (a city in which the gay community is not well organized). The purpose of the present study was to investigate the extent to which the men's attitudes, subjective norms, and intentions were influenced by a number of situational and individual difference variables. Three hundred and fourteen self-identified gay or bisexual men from Seattle (134), Denver (78), and Albany (102) completed a questionnaire specifically designed for this study. As expected, type of partner and type of sexual activity significantly influenced attitudes, perceived norms, and intentions. In addition, these dependent variables were also influenced, in part, by city of residence, age, and perceived risk of HIV infection. The findings provide additional justification for developing different interventions for gay men in different cities, age, and perceived risk groups.