Case Matching and Relative Clause Attachment

Two accounts of relative clause attachment will be discussed, the case-matching hypothesis proposed by Sauerland and Gibson (1998) and the attachment-binding dualism (Hemforth et al., in press a, b). While the case-matching hypothesis predicts that relative clauses are preferentially attached to NPs whose case matches that of the relative pronoun, attachment binding predicts that NPs are preferentially attached to the most salient host, that is NP1 in constructions with two NPs. We conducted two off-line studies, one sentence completion task and one magnitude estimation experiment using subject (nominative pronoun) and object (accusative pronoun) relative clauses that can be attached to either of the two nouns in a complex subject (NP1 = nominative, NP2 = genitive) or object NP (NP1 = accusative, NP2 = genitive). While attachment binding predicts an across-the-board NP1 preference, the case-matching hypothesis predicts an NP1 prefence only in the case of subject (object) NPs followed by subject (object) relative clauses. The results of both experiments provide evidence for attachment binding and against case matching.     

Nonregulation of food intake in restrained,emotional, and external eaters

In the present study, regulation of ice cream intake after a preload was examined in 20 high and 20 low scorers (median split) on subscales of the Restraint Scale (RS) (Herman, Polivy, Pliner, Threshold, & Munic, 1978) and the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire (DEBQ) (van Strien, 1986). For each subscale it was hypothesized that low scorers would regulate their ice cream intake. High scorers on disinhibitive scales (i.e., the RS and the DEBQ-emotional and -external subscales) were expected to counterregulate after a preload. In contrast, high scorers on the inhibitive DEBQ-restraint scale were expected to regulate their ice cream intake. A robust effect was found: high scorers never regulated ice cream intake after a preload on either the disinhibitive or the inhibitive scales, while low scorers always did. For the RS a significant interaction effect was found [F(1,39)=4.97, p=.03]. None of the other subscales showed interaction effects. The t tests showed that low scorers on all subscales ate significantly less after a preload than without one, while high scorers on all subscales did not differ in intake after a preload or without one. This nonregulation appears to be characteristic of people preoccupied with caloric intake, regardless of the content of the preoccupation.     

Pavlovian conditional stimuli cannot always be defined solely in physical terms

Twenty-four university students received differential Pavlovian conditioning with two colored stimuli separately accompanied by shock, and two other colored stimuli separately presented without shock. The reinforced and nonreinforced pairs of stimuli both contained complementary elements. After differentiation between the reinforced and nonreinforced elements was established, the complementary pairs were each additively mixed, (i.e., presented at the same time and in the same locus), producing two identical white compounds (established by pilot study). The subjects’ skin-conductance responses to the two compounds showed that their different conditioning histories did not result in different responses. Rather, a simple declining function was obtained, resembling habituation or extinction. It was concluded that the definition of the conditional stimulus as a physical event is inappropriate in studies in which physically different stimuli may result in identical internal processes (or phenomenologic experiences)—for example, in additive color mixture.     

Antecedent Priming at Trace Positions: Evidence from German Scrambling

In Chomsky's theory of grammar, syntactic representations are said to contain movement traces, i.e., syntactically active but phonetically null copies of displaced constituents. Correspondingly, traces have been claimed to form part of the processing of sentence structure by showing that at trace sites the parser reactivates a moved constituent. This view has been contested, however, by researchers arguing that experimental findings can better be explained in terms of direct associations between subcategorizers and arguments. Against this background, we investigate antecedent reactivation effects in scrambled double-object constructions of German in two cross-modal priming experiments. We found significant priming effects at positions at which a movement analysis of these constructions would postulate an empty category, thus suggesting that the antecedent is indeed reactivated at the gap position. The Direct Association Hypothesis, on the other hand, cannot account for the priming effects we found. Implications for processing and for syntactic analyses of scrambling in German will be discussed.     

Sensitivity for Treatment Effects of the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders

The Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED) is a relatively new self-report questionnaire that measures DSM-defined anxiety disorders symptoms in children. The present study examined the treatment sensitivity of the SCARED. Eleven anxiety-disordered children aged 10 to 13 years received cognitive-behavioral treatment, an intervention that is generally known to be effective. Children completed the SCARED on three occasions: (1) 3 months before treatment (i.e., baseline), (2) at pretreatment, and (3) at posttreatment. Before and after treatment, scores on traditional childhood anxiety measures (i.e., State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children, Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale, and Fear Survey Schedule for Children) were also obtained. Results showed that children's SCARED scores remained relatively stable from baseline to pretreatment. However, from pre- to post-treatment, significant decreases were evident for the SCARED and for all traditional measures. These results suggest that the SCARED reliably taps treatment effects and, thus, provide further support for its utility as a self-report index of childhood anxiety in clinical and research settings.     

Students With Learning Disabilities and Low-Achieving Students: Peer Acceptance,Loneliness, Self-Esteem,and Depression

The present study focuses on the following questions: (a) Are students with learning disabilities (LD) and low-achieving students (LA), when controlling for age and gender, less accepted by peers, do they feel more lonely, do they have lower self-esteem, and do they feel more depressed than NLD and NLA students? (b) Does low achievement per se or does selection into special education programs or special class placement of students with LD affect these students' psychological adjustment? Two analyses were conducted to elucidate these questions. Concerning the first question, the analysis was based on a sample of 1,434 4th-, 7th-, and 9th-grade students drawn from regular school classes. It revealed that students with LD compared with NLD and NLA students were less accepted by peers, had lower self-esteem, and felt more lonely. LA students compared with NLD and NLA students were less accepted by peers, had lower self-esteem, and were more depressed. Concerning the second question, the analysis was based on a subsample of 276 LD and LA students. It revealed that, when controlling for age and gender, and holding achievement in reading, writing, arithmetic, and intelligence constant, LD students compared with LA students were less depressed but were less accepted by peers and felt lonelier. Thus, besides the effects of low academic achievement, to be labeled “a student with LD” may have negative effects primarily on peer acceptance and directly and indirectly on feelings of loneliness, particularly in primary school.

     

Covariation bias,classical conditioning,and phobic fear

The present study investigated whether phobics show an illusory correlation (IC) between phobia-relevant stimuli and aversive events. Nineteen treated and 19 untreated spider phobics were exposed to a series of 72 slides. Three different categories were used: Phobia-relevant slides (spiders), alternative fear-relevant slides (weapons), and neutral slides (flowers). Slides were randomly paired with either a shock, a siren, or nothing at all. All slide/outcome combinations occurred equally frequently. A posteriori recorded contingency estimates indicated that untreated phobics dramatically overestimate the covariation of spiders and shock. On-line recorded outcome expectancies revealed that the bias to overestimate the spider-shock contingency is highly resistant to extinction. The covariation bias was accompanied by differentially heightened electrodermal first interval responses (FIR) and unconditioned electrodermal responses (third interval responses: TIR) on phobia-relevant trials. Treated phobics did not show a covariation bias, indicating that such bias can be modulated by behavioral treatment. The present findings sustain the hypothesis that phobic subjects process information in a fear-confirming way.     

Component summation or configuration in human eyelid conditioning depends upon stimulus properties

The experiment reviewed here merges Garner’s (1974) distinction of separable and integral stimulus properties with the field of Pavlovian eyelid conditioning with human subjects. According to one rule, two sets of stimuli (separable vs integral) were constructed. A differential compound conditioning procedure was used with one group of subjects being trained with a subset of the separable material and then tested with a new subset. The same procedure was used with a second group but with integral material. The experiment showed a reversal of conditioning effects, depending on the properties of stimuli. Separable compounds showed results as predicted by elementistic conditioning theories: the associative values of the elements summed up. With integral compounds, the associative values of the elements were irrelevant. Instead, integral compounds were processed and classified primarily on the basis of similarity.