In and behind a Lenneberg paradigm

Lenneberg suggested that a chimpanzee's linguistic ability could be tested by presenting sentences containing two prepositional phrases joined by a conjunction. This would involve joining two semantic propositions, and thus represents a more complex test of chimpanzee syntactic competence than previously attempted. Jane, a five year-old language trained chimpanzee, was tested on her ability to both produce and comprehend sentences involving a preposition (in or behind) and a conjunction (and). The results from production and comprehension were substantially the same. Jane showed the ability to appropriately deploy and, behind and in, but displayed very little flexibility in their use. It is suggested that a chimpanzee may be able to learn some rules of syntax but is not able to be creative with that syntax.     

Pavlov’s position on the effects of decortication on conditional reflexes

This paper examined D. Joravsky’s (1989) hypothesis that I.P. Pavlov dogmatically refused to acknowledge that classical conditioning can be mediated by subcortical regions of the large cerebral hemispheres. Decortication literature from 1901 to 1936 was reviewed. The early studies available to Pavlov, who died in 1936, showed that decortication does not allow the establishment of new or retaining of old conditional reflexes (CRs). G.P. Zelenyi’s later experiments(1930) suggested that the establishment of primitive CRs in decorticated dogs was possible. Pavlov never denied this possibility but cautioned that Zelenyi’s experiments could have been methodologically flawed. Although Joravsky’s original hypothesis on Pavlov’s position on the relation between decortication and the establishment of CRs is by and large accepted, it must be stressed that Pavlov’s theory of higher nervous activity was primarily concerned with the function of the brain in the higher organism’s struggle for existence. Within this context the cortical, rather than subcortical, processes play the decisive role in the organism’s adaptation to the changing external environment.     

Mothers' Experience of Stress Following the Birth of a First Child: Identification of Stressors and Coping Resources1

The purpose of this study is to identify, through a retrospective methodology, stressor and coping resource variables which are involved in mothers' experience of stress one month after the birth of a first child. The variables were identified on the basis of previous work in this field, and were categorized as stressor or coping resource variables according to the writings of authors in the larger domain of stress and coping. The influence of interactive and additive combinations of stressors and coping resources, as described by Wheaton (1985), were also examined in a multiple regression model. A five-variable model, accounting for 58.74% of the variance of a measure of the experience of stress, was obtained. Discussion focuses around the predictive possibilities of such a model, the impact of coping resources, and on the potential for utilizing this model for describing the process of adaptation following this event over time.     

Mothers' attributions and expectancies regarding their conduct-disordered children

As an extension of Patterson's family coercion model, we hypothesized that parental attributions about the causes of child misbehavior and parental expectancies concerning the effectiveness of parenting techniques are involved in the establishment and maintenance of coercive exchanges. Mothers of 40 conduct-disordered children and 40 matched control children completed questionnaires measuring their attributions regarding the causes of their children's misbehavior and their expectations concerning the general and personal effectiveness of parenting techniques. Results supported the hypotheses: parents of conduct-disordered children were more likely to regard their children's misbehavior as intentional and to attribute it to stable, global causes beyond the parents' control. They also were less likely to see their own parenting as effective. We speculate that these parents hold cognitive stances of blame and helplessness that contribute to aversive parent behavior as well as to parent withdrawal in the face of escalating child aggressiveness.This article is based on a doctoral dissertation conducted by Anne Davison Baden while at Peabody College of Vanderbilt University, and was presented in part at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, New Orleans, August 1989.     

José María Ferrater-Mora (1912–1991)

Sans résumé     

Priming effects on lexical access and decision processes: A signal-detection analysis

Summary Signal-detection methodology was employed to examine the assumption that in a lexical-decision task context effects are primarily the result of post-access processes. Experiment 1, in which prime-relatedness was varied within subjects, found changes in target sensitivity (d) without corresponding changes in the response criterion. This outcome was interpreted as evidence that prior context facilitates lexical access, whereas post-access contributions remain constant across conditions. When prime-relatedness was varied between subjects in Experiment 2, the lexical-decision task showed differing context effects on access processes as well as on post-access processes. It was concluded that subjects adopt a single response criterion suited to maximize task performance. The particular response criterion adopted is a function of the stimulus set rather than a function of the relationship between prime and target on any single trial. Finally, it was concluded that post-access strategies alone are insufficient to account for context effects obtained when typical lexical-decision-task procedures are used, or to account for the magnitude of the differences obtained between the present experiments.