Articulatory rehearsal and phonological storage in working memory

The theoretical distinction between an articulatory control process and a short-term phonological store was supported in five experiments on immediate serial recall. In Experiment 1, articulatory suppression during the presentation and recall of auditory material abolished the word length effect but not the phonemic similarity effect. In Experiment 2, the two latter effects were found to be independent with auditory presentation. In Experiment 3, the effects of irrelevant speech and word length were found to be independent with visual presentation. In Experiment 4, articulatory suppression during the presentation and recall of auditory material abolished the phonemic similarity effect with a slow presentation rate. Nevertheless, in Experiment 5, articulatory suppression with a conventional presentation rate did not reduce the effect of phonemic similarity, even when a 10-sec interval was interposed between presentation and recall. These results indicate that the encoding, maintenance, and retrieval of spoken material within the phonological store do not depend on a process of articulatory rehearsal.     

Working with older adults and their families – a review

This paper discusses family work with older adults by exploring some of the related literature published since Herr and Weakland's work in 1979, and compares psychoeducational and systems-based approaches to work with later life families. Issues of bias and omissions in the existing literature, and the definition of family therapy with this client group are raised. Areas for future research are indicated.     

Television distraction and the performance of introverts and extroverts

An experiment was run to test the effect on reading comprehension of distraction by a television programme, which was presented while reading took place. Respondents, classified in terms of extroversion or introversion, carried out two reading comprehension tests in silence and in the presence of a television drama programme. As predicted, extroverts and introverts both performed better in silence, but there was a significant interaction that showed that extroverts performed better than introverts in the presence of television distraction. The findings are discussed in relation to previous research on this subject.     

Word-order and imagery in the recall of adjective-noun phrases

Previous research using French material and subjects has found that noun-adjective pairs are easier to recall than adjective-noun pairs, which suggests that linguistic rules are important in determining performance. However, experiments using English material have also suggested that noun-adjective phrases are easier, although in English these pairs violate grammatical conventions. The latter findings have been interpreted as supporting the view that mental imagery is important in remembering. However, these studies are faulty in various respects. In an experiment on free recall, using English material, the grammatical order (adjective-noun) was found to produce better performance than the reversed order (noun-adjective), but only because reversed phrases tended to be reported in the conventional order. This supports the original view that grammatical constraints affect recall.     

Role perceptions: Variations by sex and roles

A Role Perception Scale utilizing a combined projective-objective methodology was developed to assess female and male perceptions of each of three single roles — work, marriage, and parent — and two combined roles — work-marriage and work-parent. Research participants were 134 college students, 88 females and 46 males. Factor analysis of the objective scale, the only part to be scored, resulted in two major orthogonal factors labeled role engagement and competition factors. Sex and role differences for each factor were analyzed using 2×5 split block analysis of variance design with repeated measures. On three out of the five single and combined roles women perceived more engagement than men. In general males perceived roles as more competitive. These sex differences and patterns identified in within-sex analyses across roles are discussed.Parts of this paper were presented at the American Psychological Association Convention, Washington, D.C., September 1976. Research was supported in part by the Dean's Development Fund, New York University, School of Education, Health, Nursing, and Arts Professions. Both authors are senior authors. The order of names is randomly determined. The authors wish to thank Philip Merrifield and Barbara Hummel-Rossi for their statistical assistance in data analysis.     

Attitudes Toward Male Oral Contraceptives: Implications for Models of the Relationship Between Beliefs and Attitudes1

Four factors (effectiveness, health risks, cost, and convenience) were orthogonally manipulated in a 3 × 2 × 2 × 2 factorial design to determine their relative importance in influencing attitudes toward and intentions to use male oral contraceptives. The experimental design also permitted a test of the assumption of additivity underlying expectancy-value models of attitude and the assumption of absence of context effects. Results were consistent with expectancy-value models of the relationship between beliefs and attitudes. In addition, it was found that health risks and effedtiveness, in that order, were the most important factors influencing receptivity to male oral contraceptives, with the effects of cost and convenience being mediated by these two factors. Sex differences in attitudes toward male oral contraceptives were also observed.     

The effect of alcohol on male aggression toward female targets

This study attempted to determine the effects of alcohol, verbal provocation, and target strategy on male aggression toward female targets. Intoxicated and nonintoxicated male research participants competed with a female confederate in a reaction time task designed to measure aggression. Intoxicated participants responded more aggressively than did nonintoxicated participants. Verbal provocation had no effect on participants' aggressive response. Effects of target strategy and trial outcome lent support to a cognitive disorganization interpretation of the effect of alcohol on aggression.     

The perceived social status of husbands and wives in dual-work families as a function of achieved and derived occupational status

The perception of the general social standing of husbands and wives in dual-work families as a function of their respective achieved and derived occupational statuses was examined experimentally. The results indicated that both the wife's and husband's general social status was a function only of the husband's occupational status; the wife's occupational status had no effect on either her general social status or that of her husband. The one exception to this was the case of the high achieved occupational status wife depressing the social status of the low occupational status husband. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for recent critiques of male-determined stratification models.     

Abstraction of contingency in concept learning

It is generally agreed that concept learning involves the abstraction of some general representation or schema. Just what is abstracted, however, and how it is used in the classification of sets of stimuli in the natural world or in the laboratory, remain outstanding questions. In this paper a hypothesis involving contingency abstraction is described as a possible solution to these questions. An experiment which manipulated measured contingency in a concept-learning task, and which offered empirical support for the hypothesis, is reported. The advantages of a contingency-abstraction theory of concept learning are briefly discussed.