Cross-cultural comparison of personality in Danish and English children

536 Danish boys and 575 Danish girls between the ages of 7 and 15 years filled out a translation of the Junior Eysenck Personality Questionnarie (JEPQ). The data were analyzed in terms of 4 scales which measure Psychoticism (P), Extraversion (E), Neuroticism (N), and Lying (L). Factor comparison indicated very good agreement between the scales of the Danish and English versions of the JEPQ. Reliabilities of the Danish L and N scales were satisfactory, while those for the P and E scales were lower but acceptable. Danish boys scored higher than Danish girls on P and E scales, but lower on N and L scales, in accordance with the usual sex difference seen in the JEPQ. A cross-cultural comparison of scores obtained by children in Denmark and in England showed that Danish boys scored significantly lower than British boys on N and L scales, while Danish girls scored lower than British girls on all scales, although the difference on the L scale was not statistically significant. The notion that L scale scores are related inversely to the degree of permissiveness of society is considered on the basis of findings obtained in the present and previous studies carried out using the JEPQ in Denmark, England, Hungary and Yugoslavia.     

On the locus of the stimulus suffix effect

Two experiments contrasted short-term memory and sensory memory (precategorical acoustic storage) explanations of the stimulus suffix effect. Experiment 1 attempted to interfere with recency recall by forcing subjects to encode nonverbal acoustic suffixes into a verbal, articulatory code. Subjects in this condition showed recall that was comparable to that of subjects who were told to ignore the suffixes. However, Experiment 2 showed that silently mouthed articulation of a suffix can produce interference on recall of recency items, although not as much as that produced by vocal articulation. The results are discussed in terms of current models of the stimulus suffix effect.     

Disinhibition of masking in auditory sensory memory

A series of experiments was performed on the difference between single- and double-masking agents in auditory memory. Single or double suffixes were presented following immediate memory lists, with parametric variation in the delay of the suffixes relative to the end of the list. The main interest was in the shape of the masking function produced by the timing of either the single suffix or the second of two suffixes. Disinhibition was shown to occur, although it was weak in absolute magnitude.     

Dividing attention within and between hemispheres: testing a multiple resources approach to limited-capacity information processing

Two experiments tested the limiting case of a multiple resources approach to resource allocation in information processing. In this framework, the left and right hemispheres are assumed to have separate, limited-capacity pools of undifferentiated resources that are not mutually accessible, so that tasks can overlap in their demand for these resources either completely, partially, or not at all. We tested all three degrees of overlap in demand for left hemisphere supplies, using dual-task methodology in which subjects were induced to pay different amounts of attention to each task. Experiment 1 compared complete and partial overlap by combining a verbal memory load with a task in which subjects named nonsense syllables briefly presented to either the left or right visual field (LVF and RVF, respectively). Experiment 2 compared complete versus no overlap by using the same verbal memory load combined with a laterally presented same-different judgment task that did not require a spoken response. Decrements from single-task performance were always more severe when the visual field task stimulus was presented to the RVF. Further, subjects in Experiment 1 were able to trade performance between tasks on both LVF and RVF trials because there was always at least some overlap in left hemisphere demand. In Experiment 2, performance trade-offs were observed on RVF (complete overlap) trials, but not on LVF trials, where no overlap in demand existed. These results contradict a single-capacity model, but they support the idea that the hemispheres' resource supplies are independent and have implications for both cerebral specialization and divided attention issues.     

The problem of relapse in stuttering: Some thoughts on what might cause it and how to deal with it

Bloodstein recently wrote that “the most vital part of science is not accurate measurement or the insistence on empiricism. It is an attitude of inquiry into the how and why of things” [Bloodstein, O. Foreword. In: Maintenance of Fluency (E. Boberg ed.). New York: Elsevier, 1981, p. vii]. In the paper below, I present some unsubstantiated and no doubt controversial thoughts on the how and why of relapse in stuttering. The overall thrust of these thoughts is that stutterers have different propensities to stutter because of the inherent variability in their speech production systems. For this reason, for therapy to have long-range success, stutterers must learn to accept and deal with the inherent variability in their speech production mechanisms.     

Constraints on strategy construction in a speeded discrimination task

In three experiments, subjects reported the identity of a word (above or below) that appeared above or below a fixation point. On some trials, a cue presented 100, 200, 400, 600, 800, or 1,000 msec before the word indicated the relation between position and identity (i.e., whether the dimensions were compatible, e.g., above/above and below/below, or conflicted, e.g., above/below and below/above). On the other trials, the cue was withheld (Experiment 2) or it bore no information about the relation between dimensions (Experiment 1 and 3). In each experiment, the cue reduced reaction time below the level of no-cue or neutral-cue controls, indicating strategic use of the relation between dimensions. Experiments 1 and 2 manipulated the number of potential cues that could occur in a block. A stronger cuing effect was found when one cue could occur (Experiment 2) than when two cues could occur (Experiment 1). Experiment 3 manipulated practice; it revealed that with practice the cuing effect reached asymptote at shorter delays. The asymptote itself did not change. Experiment 4 showed that cue-delay effects were independent of warning interval (warning interval and cue delay confounded in Experiment 1, 2, and 3). The experiments demonstrate construction and utilization of strategies; they show that construction is sensitive to constraints imposed by the subject's goals and abilities and by the structure of the task environment.     

Influence of a televised model's vocalization pattern on infants

To assess the influence of a televised model's vocalizations on the vocal patterns of infant viewers, 32 infants at 6 months of age were presented either a televised adult model repeating a novel phoneme pattern (/ba/ba/ba/ba) or a control televised presentation of adult conversation selected from typical daytime programming. Sequential analyses of infant vocalizations revealed that infants exposed to the televised model altered their vocalization pattern, as indicated by a significant increase over base line levels in their production of a patterned series of discrete vocalizations. Infants exposed to the televised conversation showned no increase in this pattern of vocalization, and none of the infants in the study produced the novel phoneme (/ba/). The results indicate that televised presentation of discrete, repeated vocalizations can have an influence on the vocalization pattern of infants. The potential role of television in infant development is discussed.