The Missouri Children's Picture Series: Correlates of the aggression scale in normal fourth-grade males

Missouri Children's Picture Series (MCPS) Aggression scale scores and four more traditional measures of aggression were intercorrelated for 40 normal fourthgrade boys. Results indicated that the MCPS Aggression scale must be viewed as a highly specific instrument which has little if any usefulness in a public school setting. In addition, the failure of the five aggression measures to be interrelated significantly suggests that aggression may be a highly situational response, with children varying in the modality through which they are able to express aggressive feelings and motives.     

Distortions in judged spatial relations

In three experiments, we explore distortions in subjects' judgments of relative geographical relations. People make large systematic errors in judging the geographical relations between two locations that are in different geographical or political units. There is a strong tendency to distort the judged relation to conform with the relation of the superordinate political unit. To account for this result, we present a model in which spatial information is stored hierarchically. Spatial relations between any two locations are stored explicitly only if those locations are within the same superordinate unit. Spatial relations not stored are inferred by combining the relations from between and within superordinate units.     

Relationship between a pulmonary function test (FEV1) and the ADAPT quality-of-life scale

In a previous study the Additive Daily Activities Profile Test (ADAPT) correlated .83 with maximum oxygen consumption among pulmonary rehabilitation patients. The present study expanded the pulmonary population base and compared the ADAPT scores of 41 patients at two independent centers with a more readily available parameter, the forced expiratory volume in the first second of forced exhalation (FEV1). The relationships between the two major ADAPT subscales and FEV1 were significant but lower in magnitude than that found with maximum oxygen consumption. The ADAPT continues to be sensitive to physical impairment and in translating the effect of impairment upon daily physical activity.     

Hemisphere function and vigilance

A vigilance task in which successive signals were presented to one or other hemiretina, and therefore to one or other cerebral hemisphere, revealed no differences between the hemispheres in terms of detections, although detections declined overall during the experimental period. False positive responses also declined, but consistently more arose from the left hemisphere. There was also a difference in the detection of signals received through the nasal and temporal hemiretinae, the temporal hemiretina showing superiority in detection rate throughout the experiment. This finding may provide a new and more economical approach to the tunnel vision phenomenon.     

Eye movement Responses of Repressors and Sensitizers to a stressful film

Groups scoring high, intermediate or low on the Byrne R-S Scale viewed an industrial accident film while horizontal eye movements were assessed by means of infrared corneal reflection. Neutral and stressful film segments were scored in terms of deviations from the center of the perceptual field (point of looking scores), and the standard deviations of these scores were calculated as an index of perceptual scanning. A stressful segment was also dichotically scored as to whether the point of looking was on or off dominant elements of the scene. Results indicated that Repressors and Sensitizers had equivalent levels of perceptual scanning (and both significantly higher than Intermediates' level) independent of film segment content, but that they differed in on/off and average point of looking for the stressful segment such that Repressors were avoiding stressful content. These data suggest that relatively high perceptual scanning can be an avoidant defensive style of attending to dynamic stimulus displays. The issue of adaptiveness of responding is considered.     

Short-term memory for spatial and temporal information

Two experiments examined the probed recall of visually presented letter sequences in which the items appeared at different spatial locations. Three types of probe were compared: (1) spatial position; (2) temporal association; and (3) combined position and association. In the first experiment, in which the spatial locations of the items were correlated with their temporal order, spatial probes were more effective than temporal association probes. In the second experiment spatial location was uncorrelated with temporal order, and spatial probes were less effective than temporal association probes. Regardless of the probe, errors tended to be items presented close in time to correct responses: spatial proximity was far less important. The results are discussed in terms of a storage system in which items and their spatial locations are organized within a temporal format. Both experiments showed superior combined probe performance, demonstrating that short-term retrieval is not limited to the use of one type of cue at a time. Secondary aspects of the results showed additionally that subjects can “edit” their responses to avoid making obvious mistakes, and that spatial location can be partially forgotten rather than being completely lost.