阅读预期对快速阅读理解的影响的实验研究

探讨阅读预期对快速阅读的理解水平与进程的影响。实验１探讨阅读预期对快速阅读理解水平的影响。阅读文章前分别给予被试正确、中性与误导的标题提示,结果表明,不同类型的标题提示对快速阅读的理解成绩有显著的影响,而对正常速度阅读的理解成绩影响效果不显著。实验２探讨阅读预期对快速阅读过程的词句加工程度的影响。结果表明,对优生来说,正确标题提示组发现文章中锗字的成绩显著低于误导标题提示组,差生的不同标题提示组发现错字的成绩差异不显著。两个实验的结果初步表明,快速阅读文章过程会更多地利用概念推动,较少地需要材料信息。     

Ubiquity of schedule-induced polydipsia

Spaced feeding of individual food pellets to food-deprived rats induced excessive drinking after pellet delivery if water was continuously available. When access to water was restricted to a portion of the inter-pellet interval, and competition from food-reinforced bar pressing was removed, excessive drinking occurred whenever drinking was possible. This finding extends the generality of accounts of excessive behavior that implicate induction by apparently unrelated scheduling characteristics of the environment.     

Automated psychophysiology laboratory

A laboratory has recently been established in University Hospital based on a PDP-11 /40 processor running a real-time Executive (RSX-ll/D) which has storage and data acquisition peripherals to handle on-line processing of psychophysiological data from patients receiving biofeedback. A data acquisition program has been written which permits the sampling of eight simultaneous channels of data coming from a Hewlett-Packard 7700 electrophysiological recorder system. Input from the patient includes switch closures and variable resistors, thermistors, GSR, electrocardiogram, respiration rate, and a variety of others. Feedback to the patient includes a variety of types of lights, a cathode ray tube storage screen, a character-oriented CRT monitor, and a variety of audio signals. Developers are presently involved in writing the biofeedback section of the programs and an on-line decision-making dependent upon patient response. Simultaneously with laboratory operation, a number of other users are served. These include the Admitting Department and Respiratory Function Laboratory. A rat laboratory will be served also by this facility in the near future via a front-end microprocessor.     

Sex differences in response to physical and nonphysical instigators

One hundred and twenty subjects competed in a reaction-time task similar to that of Taylor (1967). Subjects were randomly assigned to a white noise, fine, or control condition. In the fine and noise conditions programmed opponents administered increasing provocation to subjects over a series of 24 trials. Control subjects were not provoked. As predicted, males retaliated with higher levels of noise than did females, while there were no sex differences in the fine condition. Contrary to prediction, sex of opponent had no effect. Subjects in all conditions tended to view the task as competitive but to devalue their opponent only in the noise condition. The prevalent assumption of female passivity in the face of instigation was rejected. Instead a dichotomy was proposed that while females are less likely than males to reciprocate to physical provocation, they are just as likely to respond to provocation of a nonphysical nature.Parts of this article were presented at the meeting of the American Psychological Association, Chicago, September 1975. Critical comments by Edward Donnerstein and Arnold Kahn on an earlier draft of this article are gratefully acknowledged.     

The perception of time following stress

To determine whether the relationship between the overestimation of time and anxiety or stress is a function of the anticipation of the stressful event, high and low socially anxious subjects judged a series of eight short (5-second and 7-second) intervals both prior to and following a stressful or nonstressful social interaction. The results indicated that overestimation of fixed intervals occurs following a stressful interaction, thus disconfirming the hypothesis that such overestimation is due to anticipation of the stressful event. These results are discussed with regard to a modified storage size model of time estimation.     

A Panel Study of Subjective Expected Utility for Adolescent Sexual Behavior1

The relationship between subjective expected utility (SEU) for intercourse and sexual behavior was examined in a 3-year panel study of adolescents. Linear structural equation models were used to evaluate the causal priority of these variables for 225 junior high school students. Panel data allowed this examination, which is not possible in more common cross-sectional studies. It was found that SEU had a significant relationship to subsequent sexual behavior in each of the 1-year intervals, but intercourse was significantly related to subsequent SEU in only the first interval. This pattern was explained as a result of the process of development of utility during adolescent initial experience with sexual behaviors.