Direct Evidence of Memory Retrieval as a Source of Difficulty in Non‐Local Dependencies in Language

Linguistic dependencies between non‐adjacent words have been shown to cause comprehension difficulty, compared with local dependencies. According to one class of sentence comprehension accounts, non‐local dependencies are difficult because they require the retrieval of the first dependent from memory when the second dependent is encountered. According to these memory‐based accounts, making the first dependent accessible at the time when the second dependent is encountered should help alleviate the difficulty associated with the processing of non‐local dependencies. In a dual‐task paradigm, participants read sentences that did or did not contain a non‐local dependency (i.e., object‐ and subject‐extracted cleft constructions) while simultaneously remembering a word. The memory task was aimed at making the word held in memory accessible throughout the sentence. In an object‐extracted cleft (e.g., It was Ellen whom John consulted…), the object (Ellen) must be retrieved from memory when consulted is encountered. In the critical manipulation, the memory word was identical to the verb's object (ELLEN). In these conditions, the extraction effect was reduced in the comprehension accuracy data and eliminated in the reading time data. These results add to the body of evidence supporting memory‐based accounts of syntactic complexity.     

Unrecognized Posttraumatic Stress Disorder as a Treatment Barrier for a Gang-Involved Juvenile Offender

This study examines the case of GH, an 18-year-old Latino male participating in an employment-based delinquency intervention for gang-affiliated youth. Although postintervention measures revealed that GH showed gains on key outcomes (i.e., delinquency, employment), he experienced sporadic treatment setbacks (e.g., work absenteeism, fighting) that disrupted his progress. A comprehensive psychological assessment suggested that his aggressive, illegal behavior and difficulty maintaining employment could have been influenced by previously undiagnosed posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Excerpts from counseling sessions illustrated how reactive aggression, hypervigilance, sleep disruptions, and emotional numbing could have interfered with treatment gains and ultimately contributed to GH's re-arrest. Implications for early, accurate identification of PTSD in delinquency interventions for gang youth are discussed.     

Concealing negative evaluations of a romantic partner's physical attractiveness

Two studies provided evidence that people hide their negative evaluations of their romantic partner's physical attractiveness. This pattern was found using self‐reports of concealment (Study 1) and a behavioral observation measure (Study 2). Participants who engaged in this deception also exhibited elevated speech disfluencies, which is a deception cue. Moderators of concealment were examined. Concealment was especially pronounced for participants high in care for the partner's welfare (Studies 1 and 2), low in commitment (Studies 1 and 2), and high in attractiveness ideals (Study 2). Results suggest that people use deception to regulate their romantic partner's feelings, but that long‐term orientation or desire to maintain closeness may curtail use of this strategy.     

DETERMINATION AND EVALUATION OF RATE MEASUREMENTS IN THE ANALYSIS OF SPACE MEDICAL DATA

Measures of rate of change and of rate of rate of change are developed for application to physiological and psychological data. Examples are given of the use of these measures with heart-rate data for comparisons within and between subjects. It is shown that the measures provide information over and above that offered by means and variances, and that the measures appropriately reflect the impact of external variables.     

Lateralized Hand Gesture during Speech

A group of individuals conversing in natural dyads and a group of lecturers were observed for lateral hand movement patterns during speech. Right-handed individuals in both groups displayed a significant right hand bias for gesture movements but no lateral bias for self-touching movements. The study provides external validity for previous laboratory studies of lateralized hand gesture. The results were interpreted as evidence of a central processor for both spoken and gestural communication.     

Buddhadharma and Contemporary Ethics

‘The ‘exotic’ is uncannily close …’¹

‘Anthropologists in particular are viewed with profound distrust by ever-growing segments of the Candomblé²community …’³     

Short review and book note

John McManners, Death and the enlightenment. Changing attitudes to death among Christians and unbelievers in eighteenth-century France, Oxford University Press 1981, vii + 619 pp. £17.50

Richard Swinburne, Faith and reason, Oxford, The Clarendon Press 1981, 206 pp. £16.00

John Coulson, Religion and imagination, Oxford, The Clarendon Press 1981, 193 pp. £12.50

Irving Hexham, The irony of apartheid, the struggle for national independence of Afrikaner calvinism against British imperialism, New York, Edwin Mellen Press 1981, 239 pp

David Tracy, The analogical imagination, London, SCM Press 1981, xii + 467 pp. £12.50

K. D. Sethna Rutherford, The spirituality of the future, a search apropos of R. C. Zaehner's study in Sri Aurobindo and Teilhard de Chardin, Madison, Teaneck: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press; London and Toronto: Associated University Presses 1981. 314 pp. $28.50