An adult model of preschool children’s speech memory

In previous work, it has been demonstrated that phonetic similarity among the items in a spoken list interferes with recall much more in school-aged children than in preschool children. The basis of this developmental change, however, is unclear. In the present study we examined the possibility that a developmental increase in the use of covert verbal rehearsal accounts for the change in the effects of phonetic similarity. Adults who recalled lists of spoken words during articulatory suppression tasks that blocked covert rehearsal were found to display patterns of recall that resembled those ordinarily found in 5-year-old children. The specific aspects of rehearsal responsible for these effects also were investigated.     

Classical conditioning of pupillary constriction

Previous attempts to condition classically the pupillary response have resulted in mixed outcome. Studies using light as the UCS have generally been unsuccessful while those studies using shock as the UCS have been more successful. In the present study six subjects were visually presented 15 CVC trigrams while their pupil sizes were monitored. Five of the CVCs had been previously presented, five had been previously presented while paired with shock, and five had not been previously presented. Analysis indicated that more pupillary constriction occurred to the five CVCs paired with shock than those presented without shock or those not previously presented. The resulting classically conditioned pupillary constriction is discussed in terms of the development of meaning through classical conditioning.     

A study of semantic and syntactic processing in monolinguals and fluent early bilinguals

The present study consists of two reaction-time experiments administered in English. These experiments were designed to compare semantic and syntactic processing in English monolinguals and fluent early French-English bilinguals. Results of both experiments revealed that the bilinguals did not function as the English monolinguals did. That is, their reaction times were slower and they made twice as many errors in response to certain sentences. These findings are especially important for two reasons: (1) The bilinguals were all highly fluent, and in most cases dominant, in English, and (2) the bilinguals exhibited systematic differences in two different linguistic components (the semantic and the syntactic). The results are viewed as evidence of the interdependence of the bilinguals' languages. Some note is made of individual patterns of response, and two interpretations of linguistic interdependence are provided.     

Effects of maternal employment on sex role orientation of adolescents

Sex role orientation was determined for 352 high school seniors in Plano, Texas. Using maternal employment status as the independent variable, students were divided into groups according to full-time employed mothers or full-time homemaker mothers. Results of the three-part instrument indicated that adolescents of employed mothers had a more liberal sex role orientation and attitude toward division of household tasks than adolescents of homemaker mothers. Mean scores from two sections of the instrument indicated nontraditional attitudes. Results indicated that maternal happiness with employment did not affect male and female sex role orientation.     

Factors Predisposing Women to Take Precautions Against Breast and Cervix Cancer

The utility of the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA), the Health Belief Model (HBM), and the Subjective Probability Model (SPM) in a health education diagnosis to discover predisposing factors for performing breast self-examination (BSE) and having a Pap test was explored in a survey of 123 women. Each model was a significant predictor of BSE and Pap test intentions. However, a composite model comprising the TRA's attitudinal and normative components supplemented by the barriers component of the HBM was the most useful in performing a health education diagnosis in relation to breast self-examination and the Pap test. "Psychological relevance" scores of particular beliefs obtained by SPM procedures tended to confirm the TRA's correlational method of identifying primary beliefs that would be the targets of persuasion to change BSE and Pap test intentions.     

Physiological arousal of obese persons to food stimuli

Physiological arousal was measured in 20 obese and 20 normal-weight subjects during presentation of imagery tasks with food- and nonfood-related stimuli and during presentation and eating of food. No differential arousal, as measured by skin conductance, was obtained between the groups for any of the stimuli. Presentation and eating of the food did produce significant arousal in subjects.     

The effects of methylphenidate on levels of processing and laterality in children with attention deficit disorder

Effects of stimulant medication (methylphenidate) on levels (feature, name, semantic) of word processing by the left and right hemisphere were assessed in 31 attention- deficit- disordered children. In a double-blind procedure, same- different decisions were made to tachistoscopically presented word pairs under medication and placebo. Analysis of manual response times failed to show any negative effects of medication. Feature decisions were faster than name decisions, which were faster than semantic decisions. Methylphenidate induced a right visual field advantage (left hemisphere) for the name decision, which was interpreted as a normalization effect. The results suggest that (1) methylphenidate may selectively improve the phonological level of word processing and (2) methylphenidate's favorable therapeutic effect is produced through inhibition of excessive right hemisphere activity in response to task demands that engage the left hemisphere.This research is based in part upon a doctoral thesis completed by the first author in the Department of Education, University of Toronto. The authors thank Dr. William Logan and Dr. Wendy Roberts of the Hospital for Sick Children for permitting testing of patients in the Child Development Clinic. This research was supported in part by a doctoral fellowship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council to the first author.     

Sex effects in evaluating applicant qualifications: A reexamination

It has been hypothesized that female applicants for male sex-typed jobs are evaluated using different selection criteria than males for the same jobs (E. A. Cecil, R. J. Paul, and R. A. Olins, Perceived Importance of Selected Variables Used to Evaluate Male and Female Job Applicants, Personnel Psychology, 1973, 26, 397–404). The present study examined this hypothesis in two separate experiments, in an attempt to replicate the findings and conclusions of Cecil et al. Results do not support the hypothesis that applicant sex affects the ratings of importance of applicant qualifications for sex-typed jobs, although raters do appear to stereotype the kinds of jobs for which males and females are likely to apply. Type of job for which applicants apply is a stronger determinant of what qualifications are evaluated as important in an interview situation. Use of selection criteria (e.g., tests) that validly predict later job performance and that are standardized for all job applicants, might prevent sex discrimination more than training raters to be wary of sex stereotyping of required applicant qualifications.The authors express their gratitude to Amanda Patacsil for her assistance in data collection and analysis.     

Appreciation of indirect requests by left- and right-brain-damaged patients: the effects of verbal context and conventionality of wording

Unilaterally right (RHD)- and left (LHD)-hemisphere-damaged patients were tested on their ability to discern the correct, nonliteral interpretation of indirect requests (e.g., "Can you open the door?") embedded in short vignettes and presented without any pictorial support. Each stimulus vignette incorporated two verbal cues--context and conventionality of form--designed to influence interpretations of a critical utterance located at the end of each vignette. Contexts were biased to encourage either the direct, literal reading of critical utterances as a question, or the indirect meaning of the utterance as a request for action. The critical utterances themselves were either high in conventionality (e.g., "Can you ...?") which encouraged an indirect interpretation, or low in conventionality (e.g., "Is it possible for you to ...?") which encouraged a direct interpretation. Results indicated that RHD patients were significantly impaired, relative to controls, in their ability to make judgments based on contextual information. RHD patients performed comparably to the aphasic, LHD group in the use of both context and conventionality. These results replicate earlier findings of disrupted indirect request comprehension by RHD patients tested in pictorially supported paradigms.     

INCREASING INDICES OF HAPPINESS AMONG PEOPLE WITH PROFOUND MULTIPLE DISABILITIES: A PROGRAM REPLICATION AND COMPONENT ANALYSIS

We replicated a program to increase indices of happiness among people with profound multiple disabilities and conducted a component analysis of the program. The program involved presentation and contingent withdrawal of stimuli that had been identified as preferred based on preference assessments and staff opinion. The program was implemented with 3 adult students and was accompanied by increased happiness indices for each student. Subsequent implementation of the two types of stimuli indicated that preferred stimuli based on preference assessments were more consistently accompanied by increased happiness indices than were preferred stimuli based on staff opinion. Social validity measures supported the definition of happiness, in that raters' subjective opinions of the students' happiness coincided with the observed happiness indices. Results are discussed regarding the importance and practical implications of using preference assessments for determining stimuli for increasing happiness indices. Future research areas are suggested, focusing on increasing happiness and other quality-of-life indicators during the daily routines of people with profound disabilities.