On the predictor variable for choice reaction time

A survey of published research using the Sternberg task was made for the period 1966 to early 1973. A majority of the data are better described by a linear equation involving log positive set size than by one involving set size per se as the scale of the predictor variable.     

Models for school psychology: Dimensions,barriers, and implications

This article argues that the development of school psychology may be seriously retarded unless a program is developed to overcome several hurdles. It is proposed that the several models of school psychology offer the potential but no guarantee that the profession will develop in an appropriate fashion.     

The behavioral treatment of a “transsexual” preadolescent boy

Behavioral treatment procedures were developed to suppress feminine sex-typed behaviors and to increase masculine sex-typed behaviors in an 8-year-old boy with “childhood cross-gender identity.” The boy's clinical history paralleled the retrospective reports of adult transsexuals, including (1) feminine voice inflection and predominantly feminine content in speech, (2) verbal self-reference as “sissy” and “fag” and statements about his preference to be a girl, (3) feminine hand and arm gestures and “swishy” gait, (4) an aversion to masculine play activities, (5) a strong preference for girl playmates and taking a feminine role in play and role-playing, and (6) improvised cross-dressing. With a multiple-baseline intrasubject design across stimulus environments and across behaviors, the subject was treated sequentially in the clinic, at home, and in the school. The boy's mother was trained to administer a token economy program in the home, and the school teacher was taught to apply a response-cost procedure in the classroom. The initial treatment effects were found to be largely response specific and stimulus specific, necessitating treatment for a number of behaviors in the three major environments. Followup data 12 months after treatment termination suggest that the boy's sex-typed behaviors have become essentially normalized. This treatment holds promise for correcting pathological gender identity development in boys and for relieving the associated emotional adjustment problems.     

The effect of memory color on form identification

Previous studies have demonstrated that a form’s identity affects the phenomenal hue of that form. This effect has been attributed to the operation of the “memory color” phenomenon. The present study was proposed to assess the effect of “memory” or characteristic color on form identification. Results indicate that memory color, rather than interacting with the object in such a manner as to aid identification, induces a bias toward identification of an object of the memory color.     

The concept of parsimony in factor analysis

The concept of parsimony in factor analysis is discussed. Arguments are advanced to show that this concept bears an analogic relationship to entropy in statistical mechanics and information in communication theory. A formal explication of the term parsimony is proposed which suggests approaches to the final resolution of the rotational problem. This paper provides the rationale underlying Carroll's (2) analytical solution for approximating simple structure, and the solutions of Saunders (7) and Neuhaus and Wrigley (5).     

The fusion frequency of flicker in the central and peripheral field with photopic levels of surround luminance

Flicker-fusion frequencies have been measured against a photopic level of surround luminance in the four quadrants of the visual field and the critical fusion frequences (c.f.f.s.) taken in direct vision compared with those determined at 15° and 35° in the periphery. The central c.f.f.s. of 47 subjects exceeded the peripheral values only in just over half of all the quadrants tested, although smaller differential thresholds were given almost without exception in the centre than in the periphery by the same observers and under similar conditions on a test of brightness discrimination. Likewise higher central than peripheral c.f.f.s. were recorded in the great majority of all quadrants when determinations were made against a dark surround. The contrasting types of flicker response observed against the photopic ground were shown to be relatively reproducible, and the same pattern was as a rule found in at least three quadrants of any one visual field. It was ascertained that the different patterns might result from a reciprocal shift of fusion frequencies either in central or peripheral vision.

Interpretations of the higher peripheral c.f.f.s which adduce the effect of accentuated pupillary constriction with central stimulation mere contra-indicated since such patterns of flicker perception survive after the photopupillary reflex has been abolished. Some evidence was, however, forthcoming for the view that peripheral fusion frequencies tend to exceed central values when the test object is larger than about 1·5° in angular size and more intense than the surround. It was suggested that the contrasting types of flicker response might be related to individual differences in the effect that stimulus size has on the flicker pattern.     

Prayer

Pastoral Psychology -     

A tabular method of obtaining tetrachoricr with median-cut variables

A method is presented that enables the immediate determination of tetrachoricr from a table if the proportion in the plus-plus cell for median-cut variables is known.