Differential predictability of four dimensions of affect intensity

Individual differences in affect intensity are typically assessed with the Affect Intensity Measure (AIM). Previous factor analyses suggest that the AIM is comprised of four weakly correlated factors: Positive Affectivity, Negative Reactivity, Negative Intensity and Positive Intensity or Serenity. However, little data exist to show whether its four factors relate to other measures differently enough to preclude use of the total scale score. The present study replicated the four-factor solution and found that subscales derived from the four factors correlated differently with criterion variables that assess personality domains, affective dispositions, and cognitive patterns that are associated with emotional reactions. The results show that use of the total AIM score can obscure relationships between specific features of affect intensity and other variables and suggest that researchers should examine the individual AIM subscales.     

Grammatical awareness in the spoken and written language of language-disabled children

Experiments examined grammatical judgement, and error-identification deficits in relation to expressive language skills and to morphemic errors in writing. Language-disabled subjects did not differ from language-matched controls on judgement, revision, or error identification. Age-matched controls represented more morphemes in elicited writing than either of the other groups, which were equivalent. However, in spontaneous writing, language-disabled subjects made more frequent morphemic errors than age-matched controls, but language-matched subjects did not differ from either group. Proficiency relative to academic experience and oral language status and to remedial implications are discussed.     

Memory for modality of presentation: Within-modality discrimination

Two experiments demonstrated that Ss are capable of making within-modality memory discriminations in both visual and auditory modalities. In Experiment I Ss studied mixed lists of pictures and labels representing common objects and were subsequently required to judge whether the original presentation was pictorial or verbal The high level of performance achieved on this task was unaffected by degree of categorical relatedness of items within method of presentation or by instructions to produce visual images when items were presented verbally. In Experiment II Ss demonstrated the ability to remember whether a sentence was originally presented by a male or a female speaker. Some strategies by which within-modality discrimination in memory might be accomplished are discussed.