Tactile short-term memory

Subjects tried to recall the location of a tactile stimulus on the underside of the forearm after delays of 0, 3, 5, 10, 15, 30, 45 and 60 sec. When “rehearsal” was prevented by requiring subjects to count backwards during the delay, accuracy of recall decreased systematically reaching an asymptote after 45 sec. When subjects were left free to “rehearse,” this did not affect the decline in accuracy over the first 10 sec. Between 10 and 15 sec. there was a significant increase in accuracy followed by a slow decline which had not reached asymptote by 60 sec. It is suggested that tactile STM (short-term memory) depends on two processes, a fading sensory trace which is unaffected by distraction and a less labile system which does not appear to be verbal but which depends on “rehearsal.”     

A model for detection and recognition with signal uncertainty

A model for signal detectability suggested by Luce is extended to situations in which the observer is uncertain of some important characteristic of the signal, such as frequency. By making a single assumption concerning the observer's covert response behavior, two solutions are obtained corresponding to qualitatively different behavior. Decrements in detectability and in recognition with uncertainty are shown to be particular functions of discriminability and detectability of the stimuli in other situations. Relevant experimental data are considered.This work was supported by grant NSF-G5544 from the National Science Foundation. The author is indebted to R. Duncan Luce for critical discussion of the content and helpful suggestions concerning the form of this paper. Useful comments have been made by David M. Green, Francis W. Irwin, Roger M. Shepard, and W. P. Tanner, Jr.     

The prediction of adjustment at age 7 from activity level at age 5

One-hundred and ninety-two children (equally split between boys and girls) were studied when they were 5 years old in two settings, school and home. The children were observed in playgroups and at home, and were rated on activity level by their parents on the Rothbart Child Behavior Questionnaire. At age 7, the children were tested in our laboratory on the Harter Test of Perceived Competence and on an achievement task, and parents filled out the Child Behavior Checklist, the Child Behavior Questionnaire, and the Conners Parent Rating Scale. Home observations of activity level were significantly related to parent ratings of activity level, but not to school observations. Activity level at age 5 was related to parents' ratings of aggression and hyperactivity and to girls' learning problems at age 7. Activity level was not related to the children's self-perceived competence, but mothers' rating of high activity level at age 5 was related to low reading comprehension at age 7.Preparation of this paper was supported in part by the Center for Research for Mothers and Children, NICHD, U.S. PHS grant HD 19739 to Beverly I. Fagot.     

Grading the ‘cultural literacy’ project

The essay examines the argument advanced by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., for instituting ‘cultural literacy’ as a fundamental priority of schools. A number of confusions and equivocations in Hirsch's reasoning are identified, and the propensity of his project to indoctrinate is exposed. Among the features of Hirsch's argument shown to be troubling are his shifting construal of ‘language’, his inconsistency about the requirements of cultural literacy, and his uncritical relation to traditional images of the American past and present. The upshot is to raise the question why Hirsch's project has elicited wide support and praise.     

African American women's sexual satisfaction as a dimension of their sex roles

African American women's sexual satisfaction in heterosexual relationships was examined as a dimension of their sex roles. Responses to questions about sexual behaviors and interactions they preferred in primary relationships were selected from a larger study of a stratified random sample of 126 African American women. Three factors were identified: sexual responsiveness, sexual expression, and sexual interest and enthusiasm. The factors are described as profiles that may enhance or limit women's male-female sexual relationships. The implications of African American women's sexual satisfaction as an important dimension to understand in today's AIDS related sexual climate is discussed within a socio-cultural context.A modified version of this paper was presented at the American Anthropological Association, November 1987, Chicago, Illinois. The research was funded by The Center for Prevention and Control of Rape, NIMH Grant, R01 MH33603 and through a Research Scientist Career Development Award to the first author, K01 MH00269.     

Adult Attachment Styles, the Desire to Have Children, and Working Models of Parenthood

ABSTRACT College students who had yet to marry and begin a family were asked about their desire to have children and their beliefs and expectations about themselves as parents (Study 1) and the characteristics of their prospective children (Study 2). Persons with more avoidant and anxious-ambivalent models of close adult relationships harbored more negative models of parent-hood and parent-child relationships. These findings indicate that working models of parenting and parent-child relationships form well before marriage and the birth of children and that these models are systematically associated with attachment styles in adult relationships. The findings also suggest ways in which insecure attachments between child and parent may be influenced by the caregiver's models of parenting and parent-child relationships.