Detection versus discrimination of visual orientation

The role of focused attention in vision is examined. Recent theories of attention hypothesize that serial search by focal attention is required for discrimination between different combinations of features. Experiments are reported which show that the mixture of a few (less than five) horizontal and vertical line segments embedded in an aggregate of diagonal line segments can be rapidly counted (also called 'subitizing') by a parallel (preattentive) process, while the discrimination between horizontal and vertical orientation requires serial search by shifting focal attention to each line segment. Thus detecting and counting targets that differ in orientation can be done in parallel by a preattentive process, whereas knowing 'what' the orientation of a target is (horizontal or vertical, ie of a single conspicuous feature) requires a serial search by focal attention.     

The influence of information redundancy upon the use of traits and persons as organizing categories

The following question is addressed: How do multiple, simultaneously present cognitive structures influence the representation and recall of social information? In an empirical study examining both free and cued recall, we found the variable information redundancy to influence both the organization and accuracy of subjects' recollections of trait-related behaviors. Redundancy was defined in terms of the degree of person/trait overlap in a social information ensemble. Some evidence indicated that this effect is attributable to an increase in the discriminability of the organizational structures during encoding. The implications of these findings for understanding the formation of integrated cognitive representations of individuals and the spontaneous use of traits in social information processing are discussed.     

The selective impact of question form and input mode on the symbolic distance effect in children

Five experiments are reported on the symbolic distance effect (SDE) and related phenomena with 6- and 9-year-old children. In the first of these, children were asked to judge the relative sizes of animals in verbal and pictorial tests featuring the comparatives "bigger" and "smaller." A perceptual condition with actual objects was included by way of comparison. A Symbolic Distance Effect was obtained for both lexical and pictorial input. Mode differences were also observed. Pictures produced faster responses than words, and congruity effects occurred only in the pictorial condition. Although performance was similar in tests with either comparative, our subsequent experiments on both 6- and 9-year-olds reveal a significant asymmetry in the child's capacity to verify statements of relation as a function of the direction along the (size) continuum implied by the question. However, important differences between age groups also apparent in the data lead us to conclude that the older subjects develop strategies to overcome this asymmetry by translating certain statements of relation into a form more congruent with their natural modes of encoding.     

The co-therapy relationship: Mutuality,agreement and client outcome

This project, utilizing a pretest and posttest design, studied interactions between co-therapists and the relationships of their interactions to client outcome. Six co-therapist pairs at a counseling center saw two clients in multiple treatments yielding twelve cases. The study investigated co-therapist relationships in regard to: (a) their level of mutuality or caring for their partners, (b) their ratings of the quality of their relationships, and (c) their agreement as to perceptions and behavior during sessions. Also investigated were: the relation of co-therapist interaction to client outcome and the personal growth of the therapists over the course of therapy. Results supported success claims of the literature concerning co-therapy.     

A comparison of three methods for scoring figure drawings

Figure drawings obtained from 758 white male medical students were scored using three different methods. Method I involved 16 different physical size measurements; Method II involved six separate sophistication of body concept ratings; and Method III involved 42 separate aspects of the drawings weighted in direct proportion to their relative frequency of occurrence in the sample studied (conventionality scoring). Separate factor analyses of the scores derived from each method revealed that Methods I and II each reflect only a single underlying factor, and that these factors are uncorrelated in the population studied. Method III yielded eight meaningful factors, each of which may be construed as an independent area of conventionality/deviancy. An overall conventionality/deviancy score was also derived. It is believed that these three methods of scoring capture most of the variance inherent in existing figure drawing scoring systems, but that use of all three is necessary for a comprehensive analysis.     

Withholding medical care for religious reasons

Stimulated by publicity over lawsuits involving parents of children who had died from deprivation of medical care, this article is a survey of the beliefs of religious groups that refuse medical care on theological grounds and the legal principles designed to protect children from such abuse. Particular attention is given to whether or not child-neglect laws that carve out exceptions for spiritual healing groups are constitutional under the establishment clause of the First Amendment. Very recent cases, including some still in progress, are used for illustration.     

The importance of assessing treatment integrity: An example in the anxiety disorders

One purpose of this investigation was to examine the importance of assessing treatment integrity in a study evaluating a treatment for specific anxiety disorders. Three subjects, two social phobics and one simple phobic, received self-instruction training (Phase I) followed by exposure and self-instruction training (Phase II) in a multiple baseline across subjects design. All subjects were assessed during a pretreatment baseline and throughout treatment using measures of treatment integrity and measures of change in phobic severity. Improvement took place at different times for different subjects. Measures of treatment integrity, which consisted of monitoring of self-statements as well as practice outside the session, indicated that treatment was not always received as intended and that improvement was correlated with practice. The usefulness of measures of treatment integrity in both clinical and research settings is highlighted.     

Reactivity and unreliability of husbands as participant observers

This study examined the reliability and reactivity of participant observation. Twelve couples engaged in two discussions in a laboratory, one on a conflict topic and one on a consensus topic. For the eight couples in the experimental sequences, a baseline discussion was followed by participant observation in which the husband recorded his wife's use of I while continuing to converse. The four couples in the control sequences conversed without participant observation. Compared to observations made by a trained observer, the husbands were unreliable observers, underestimating their wives' use of I. Participant observation was reactive (P<.01), with more wives decreasing their use of I in the experimental sequences than in the control sequences (p<.094). The topic of discussion did not differentially influence reliability or reactivity.This research was conducted as the first author's independent doctoral research project. We extend gratitude to the Research Council of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro for Grant 0-2-110-218-XXXXX-7548; the Statistical Consulting Center of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro; two anonymous reviewers; and our research assistants, Suzanne Brannon, Ben Hardie, Kathy Lindamood, Amy Mitchem, Regina Pierce, and Elga Wulfert. Portions of this paper were presented at the meeting of the Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy, Washington, D.C., December 1983.     

Developmental influences on speech-motor equivalence: some implications for articulatory disordered children

The peak amplitude of EMG activity was measured from the orbicularis oris superior (OOS), orbicularis oris inferior (OOI) and masseter muscles for 3 normal 4-yr.-old children and compared to past data gathered on a group of articulatory disordered children, normal children, and adults. The 4-yr.-olds evidenced greater average peak EMG activity than the other groups, suggesting that speech-sound production becomes more efficient with maturation. Also, levels of variability obtained for the younger children were considerably smaller than for the normal speakers across the three muscles, showing that motor equivalence changes with age whereby the flexibility in the control of articulators increases. The coefficient of variation for the OOI muscle for the disordered children, however, was similar to that for the 4-yr.-olds, while the corresponding data for the other two muscles paralleled those for normal ones. These findings were interpreted as reflecting a delay in the development of speech-motor equivalence that affects certain muscles while sparing others.     

Polydipsia's contribution to temporal discrimination of rats on a fixed interval schedule

This experiment concerned the contribution of polydipsia on the temporal discrimination of rats during a fixed-interval 60-sec. schedule. In this study, the timing accuracy of 12 rats which had access to water during training was compared to that of 12 rats which had no water during training. The rats were trained for 25 sessions on an FI 60-sec. schedule. In early sessions before polydipsia was fully developed, no differences existed between the timing accuracy of the water group and no-water group. As the amount of water drunk by the water group increased as the number of sessions increased, a parallel increase was noted in the timing accuracy of the water group. In the final sessions, a significant difference was found between the timing accuracy of rats in the water group and that of those in the no-water group. It was concluded that polydipsia facilitated the development of the temporal discrimination which is characteristic of a fixed-interval 60-sec. schedule.