Reading and typing

As an extension to an earlier study on typing, an experiment was carried out on skilled touch typists in which they were asked to type texts that differed in word structure and word length. It was predicted from certain assumptions about the reading process that there should be significant effects of structure, length and their interaction. These predictions were confirmed.     

Are thresholds reduced by illusions? An attempt at replication

Three experiments are reported, which are attempts to replicate the finding of Ross and Gregory (1964) that difference thresholds for weights can be lowered by means of the size-weight illusion. Three different procedures were used, the first one (experiment I) being designed to show whether or not changes in a subject's judgement criterion could account for apparent changes in sensitivity. The second method (Experiment II) was a replication of Ross and Gregory's first procedure, in which the standard weight was judged before the comparison. In Experiments I and II a larger illusion was induced than in the original studies, but in Experiment III both the weights and container sizes were practically identical to those used by Ross and Gregory. The procedure was also the same as their most successful procedure (number 3) in which standard and comparison were judged simultaneously. The findings were uniformly negative: there was no evidence of criterion shift when the size-weight illusion was induced nor did we find the lowering of threshold previously reported.     

The bioelectrical activity of cerebellar structures in the freely-moving rat

Electrodes were implanted in the brains of 27 freelymoving rats and the bioelectrical activity of cerebellar cortical structures (lobus simplex, tuber verrais, lobus ansiformis, crus II) and the dentate nucleus was measured simultaneously with the activity of the cerebral cortex and dorsal hippocampus and respiratory rate and motor activity. Different behavioral states were produced by habituation procedures and by elaborating conditional avoidance reflexes to light-flash or click series. In addition, startle reflexes to acoustic stimuli were used to evaluate behavioral state. The following conclusions could be drawn: 1) in the awake rat the various cerebellar structures have clearly distinguishable bioelectrical activity patterns; 2) changes in these patterns depend on the actual behavioral state of the animal; 3) this dependence upon behavior is especially clear in crus II, one of the projection zones of the tactile and proprioceptive afferent nerves in the cerebellar cortex. The changes in the electrocerebellogram of the unrestrained rat may be used as an indicator of the behavioral state of the animal.     

Stimulus information and stimulus interference in bisensory short-term memory

An attempt was made to determine if Ss’ strategy of retaining stimulus material changed under conditions of bisensory simultaneous stimulation when one of the two inputs was relevant information as opposed to interference. Thus in Group 1 Ss were stimulated bisensorily, attended to both inputs (information), but recalled only one input. Ss in Group 2 were stimulated bisensorily, attended to only one input, and recalled only that input (interference). It was found that S’s efficiency of recall was decreased in the information condition (Group 1) but strategy was not altered. In both groups, Ss performed similarly; performance was in turn similar to that observed in the typical bisensory situation, i.e., where both channels are recalled.     

Counselor conditions for self-exploration of college students

This study was designed to determine whether the counselor-offered conditions of empathy, respect, and genuineness promoted self-exploration in clients reporting voluntarily to a university counseling center. Twenty-seven male and 27 female undergraduates comprised the sample of clients; nine male doctoral student interns comprised the counselors. Clients were assigned to an educational, vocational, or personal-social problem category. The instruments used were the Truax Depth of Self-Exploration Scale and the Carkhuff scales of counselor conditions. Significant relationships were found between empathy, respect, and genuineness, and self-exploration in each problem category for counseling center clients of both sexes.     

Comparison of Life Styles of Honors,Non-Honors Women

This study compares the after-college life styles of participants in a college honors program with a control group of women who were not college honors students in order to determine the effects of a college honors program on life roles after college. The 81 participants of this study represent 93 percent of women who participated as college freshmen and during their ensuing college years in a study to determine the effects of an honors program on students while still in college. The results of the current study—the first contact with the women since they left college—illustrates the differences between the present life roles of these two groups of women in the areas of family involvement, careers, education, and community participation. The results show significant differences between honors and non-honors subjects in career-orientation and in commitment to their field of study and to the university at which they studied.     

Was Marx an ethical humanist?

Zusammenfassung Während der letzten zehn Jahre wurde viel über den Humanismus des jungen Marx gesprochen. Osteuropäische Marxisten, die bemüht sind, ihren Anti-Stalinismus durch Berufung auf die Autorität von Marx selbst zu untermauern, gebrauchen den Ausdruck Humanismus in einem ungenauen Sinn, etwa gleichbedeutend mit Anthropozentrismus. Aber wenn man sagt, daß Marx Haltung anthropozentrisch sei, so sind damit die Hauptfragen erst gestellt, nicht schon gelöst.Humanismus mag etwa soviel wie Säkularismus bedeuten — der Mensch, nicht Gott, wird als im Mittelpunkt stehend gedacht. Die anthropozentrische Haltung kann verschiedene Formen annehmen, vor allem die Formen, die man als Humanismus der Ideale und als Humanismus der Prinzipien bezeichnen könnte. Der Humanismus der Ideale ist ausdrücklich an derZukunft orientiert, der Humanismus der Prinzipien aber an derGegenwart. Nur ein Humanismus der Prinzipien, dem es darum geht, den Eigenwert existierender Individuen zu behaupten und zu verteidigen, verdient es, ethischer Humanismus genannt zu werden. Marx, sogar der jüngste Marx, war kein ethischer Humanist in diesem Sinn. Und nur ein Humanismus in diesem strengen Sinn würde einen philosophischen Standort bieten, von dem aus man den Stalinismus oder Neo-Stalinismus angreifen könnte.Marx war ein Säkularist, und er entwarf ein humanistisches Ideal für die Zukunft, aber humanistische Prinzipien für die Gegenwart lehnte er ab. Er betonte, daß nur dem nicht entfremdeten, produktiven Individuum der kommunistischen Zukunft ein eigener Wert zukomme. Bis dahin haben Individuen nur einen geschichtlich instrumentalen Wert: jene, die an der Verwirklichung der kommunistischen Gesellschaft arbeiten, sind zu respektieren; diejenigen, welche dabei Widerstand leisten oder versagen, müssen ausschließlich als Hindernisse auf dem Wege des geschichtlichen Fortschritts behandelt werden.In diesem Sinn ist der Leninismus und sogar der Stalinismus und Neo-Stalinismus in dem zukunftsorientierten Humanismus der Ideale des jungen Marx einbegriffen, oder zumindest davon nicht ausgeschlossen. Selbst der jüngste Marx machte sich den Modeirrtum des 19. Jahrhunderts zu eigen — den Irrtum des aufgeschobenen Wertes oder des zeitlich verstellten Wertes und nahm damit eine mit dem ethischen Humanismus grundsätzlich unvereinbare Position ein.

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An earlier, and much shorter, version of this paper was read at a session on Marxism and Humanism at the Fourteenth International Philosophy Congress in Vienna, September 4, 1968, and published in Vol. II of the Congress Proceedings, Vienna, 1968, pp. 69–73.     

Monitoring simultaneous auditory messages

If a S is asked to monitor two simultaneous auditory speech messages and to report only on the occurrence of target words appearing at random in either message, then it is shown that he witt fail to detect all of them but will detect significantly more than half. The targets used in these experiments were immediate repeats of text words. The results reject theories that part of the sensory input is blocked or that all is recognized. Detection performance was a function of rate of speech and of intertarget interval; there was a small, not significant, effect of instruction to recognize message content.     

Variables underlying the recognition of random shapes

Speed of sorting decks of 32 cards with two alternative stimuli was measured. The stimuli were pairs of dots with attributes of distance between dots, angle of orientation of the pair, and position of the pair to the right or left of center. The attributes varied in relative discriminability and were used in all possible pair- and triple-correlated (redundant) combinations. Results showed an increase in speed of sorting with either an increase in discriminability or an increase in number of redundant attributes. It is argued that the increased speed with addition of redundant attributes is due both to a selective serial processing of attributes (requiring attribute separability) and to an increased discriminability with combined attributes (requiring attribute integrality).