Measuring the perceptual magnet effect in the perception of /i/ by German listeners

In a study of the internal category structure of the vowel /i/, Kuhl found a “perceptual magnet effect”: Discrimination sensitivity was poorer for category instances that were acoustically similar to the category prototype than it was for category instances that were not. The typicality of category exemplars was determined by goodness judgments and was found to correlate with the acoustics of average production. Analysis and interpretation of discrimination performance relied on two important assumptions: that listeners perceived all stimuli presented as exemplars of the same vowel category and that, apart from the influence of phonetic coding, discrimination sensitivity was the same across the investigated part of the vowel space. In the present study, it is shown that production and perception estimates of the category prototype may diverge, possibly because listeners seem to prefer hyperarticulated variants of vowel categories. An approach towards measurement of intra-category discrimination minima is put forward and tested that protects against intercategory confounds and avoids the isosensitivity assumption. Received: 26 November 1997 / Accepted: 25 May 1998     

The authorship list in science: Junior physicists’ perceptions of who appears and why

A questionnaire probing the distribution of authorship credit was given to postdoctoral associates (“postdocs”) in order to determine their awareness of the professional society’s ethical statement on authorship, the extent of communication with their supervisors about authorship criteria, and the appropriateness of authorship assignments on submitted papers. Results indicate a low awareness of the professional society’s ethical statement and that little communication takes place between postdocs and supervisors about authorship criteria. A substantial amount of authorship credit given to supervisors and other workers is perceived by the postdocs to violate the professional society’s ethical statement.     

MORE ON THE STRUCTURE OF MALE ROLE NORMS

This study assessed the structure of a widely used measure of masculinity ideology, the Male Role Norms Scale (Thompson & Pleck, 1986), using data from four samples of male college students (total N= 656) at two large, public universities (one Midwestern, one Eastern-Central). Exploratory factor analysis suggested a four-factor model best fit the data in the exploratory sample (sample 1; N = 210). The four factors were Status/ Rationality, Antifemininity, Tough Image, and Violent Toughness. A series of confirmatory factor analyses on a validation sample (samples 2, 3, and 4; N = 446), tested four models based on theory (i.e., Brannon, 1976) and previous research (i.e., Thompson & Pleck, 1986). Results from Study 1, our exploratory analysis, indicated that the four-factor model derived from the exploratory sample in Study 1 provided the best fit for the validation sample data of all models tested and also provided a good fit in absolute terms, according to several model-data fit indices. Implications for the assessment of masculinity ideology and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Do authorship policies impact students' judgments of perceived wrongdoing?

Although authorship policies exist, researchers understand little about their impact on perceptions of authorship scenarios. Graduate students (N=277) at a large university read 1 of 3 vignettes about a graduate student-faculty collaboration. One half of the surveys included the American Psychological Association's statement on authorship. Participants rated (a) the ethics of the professor as first author and (b) the likelihood of a dissatisfied student reporting the authorship result, as well as the effectiveness and negative consequences of reporting. Work arrangements on the project had a consistent main effect. Also, an authorship policy impacted women's ratings of first authorship when the student contributed the idea for a project. For men, a policy impacted only ratings of the likelihood of reporting when a professor was first author on a student's dissertation. Apart from sex, no other demographic variables on participants were predictive. Discussion focuses on the policy's potential for making only some specific issues salient.     

On modal logic with an intuitionistic base

A definition of the concept of Intuitionist Modal Analogue is presented and motivated through the existence of a theorem preserving translation fromMIPC (see [2]) to a bimodalS ⁴–S⁵ calculus.Allatum est die 9 Septembris 1975     

Patterns of service utilization among pregnant and parenting African American adolescents

This study explored factors associated with differential patterns of social and health service use among pregnant and parenting African American adolescents. One hundred seventy-seven young women between the ages of 14 and 22 took part in the study. Cluster analysis suggested three groups of users: frequent users, moderate users, and inconsistent users. These groups were distinct in terms of their frequency of service usage, perceptions of barriers to usage, and psychological and social functioning. Moderate users appeared to be healthier than either the frequent or inconsistent users, as indicated by their relatively higher levels of psychological functioning. In contrast, inconsistent users were distinguished by their high rates of sexual victimization, their low use of medical services, and their perceptions of many programmatic and personal barriers to usage. Suggestions for research and interventions that encompass the diverse needs of young African American women are made.     

Stimulus complexity effects in visual comparisons: the effects of practice and learning context.

This study examined visual comparison performance for 6-24-point random polygon stimuli (Cooper & Podgorny, 1976). Stimulus complexity effects decreased with practice, consistent with Bethell-Fox and Shepard (1988). A difficult discrimination context produced greater complexity effects than an easy discrimination context, consistent with Folk and Luce (1987). The difficult discrimination context also led to more stimulus-specific learning and diminished stimulus complexity effects. Increased stimulus learning resulted in continued skill acquisition, better transfer, and less performance disruption when the task context was equated for all Ss. It is argued that improvements in performance in a perceptual comparison task are not solely a function of the amount of practice provided in responding to particular stimuli. The context in which responses are elicited is equally important and must be accommodated in theories of skill acquisition.     

An extension of the rating scale model with an application to the measurement of change

The polytomous unidimensional Rasch model with equidistant scoring, also known as the rating scale model, is extended in such a way that the item parameters are linearly decomposed into certain basic parameters. The extended model is denoted as the linear rating scale model (LRSM). A conditional maximum likelihood estimation procedure and a likelihood-ratio test of hypotheses within the framework of the LRSM are presented. Since the LRSM is a generalization of both the dichotomous Rasch model and the rating scale model, the present algorithm is suited for conditional maximum likelihood estimation in these submodels as well. The practicality of the conditional method is demonstrated by means of a dichotomous Rasch example with 100 items, of a rating scale example with 30 items and 5 categories, and in the light of an empirical application to the measurement of treatment effects in a clinical study.Work supported in part by the Fonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung under Grant No. P6414.     

Phenomenology, Bruno Klopfer, and individualized/collaborative assessment

This presentation celebrates commonalities of Bruno Klopfer's philosophical phenomenological approach to the Rorschach and my similarly grounded approach to individualized/collaborative psychological assessment. The article begins with an excerpt from such an assessment to ground what follows. It then addresses what phenomenology is and is not in relation to psychological assessment, and reviews Klopfer's phenomenological approach to the Rorschach. It presents the findings from an empirical phenomenological research study relevant to collaborative assessment. Finally, the article reviews some common inquiries and observations about individualized/colloaborative assessment and closes with some shifts in American psychology that are consonant with this approach to psychological assessment.