Reward vs. Reciprocity as Related to Attraction1

Groups of six subjects participated in a study to investigate the effect of obligation upon attraction. Each subject received offers of monetary aid from other members of the group. Amount of aid offered was varied along with the obligation attached to the aid. The effect of the offer upon the recipient's attraction to the donor was assessed. Both attraction and desire for coalition were greatest when the offer of aid was high and the obligation to return the benefits received was low.     

Visual detection of signals in the presence of continuous and pulsed backqrounds

The detectability of intensity increments in the presence of continuous and pulsed backgrounds was investigated using a two-alternative, temporal, forced-choice procedure. Differences were found in intensity-duration reciprocity relations, the form of the Weber function, and the shape of the psychometric function between continuous- and pulsed-detection conditions. In a second study, signals were added either to a steady background (simple detection) or to background plus pedestal (pedestal detection). Two unusual phenomena were noted, namely, “negative masking” and the “pedestal effect.” The interpretation of the results in terms of a simple, Poisson-detection model is discussed.     

Encoding processes and the recall of text

Two experiments investigated the proposition that the amount of cognitive effort expended to encode information will be directly related to recall of that information. While previous research has shown that amount of processing may affect recall, these studies have generally drawn on the notion of an elaborated memory representation to explain their results. In this study, the amount of processing required to correctly interpret anaphoric relations was varied while the elaboration of the memory trace was held constant. These experiments employed a self-paced reading paradigm in which subjects read a series of short paragraphs and later were cued to recall the final sentence of each paragraph. It was found that recall was significantly improved when more processing was required to correctly interpret the anaphoric relationship expressed in the final sentence. These findings suggest that encoding processes can affect recall performance without elaboration of the memory representation.     

Dichotic speech perception: A comparison between stuttering and nonstuttering children

A stop consonant-vowel dichotic listening task was administered to 90 right- handed boys, 30 in each age group of 5, 7, and 9 yr. Half in each group were stutterers, half nonstutterers. Two and a half times as many stutterers as nonstutterers were found to display either a left-ear advantage (LEA) or no ear advantage (NEA). This finding suggested a greater tendency on the part of stutterers, as opposed to nonstutterers, for reversed or bilateral representation of the auditory speech areas of the brain. In addition, both stutterers and nonstutterers displayed significant developmental increases in the number of times they were able to identify both dichotic speech stimuli, thereby supporting the hypothesis of an age-related increase in children's total information processing capacity. The results are discussed in terms of the differences between stutterers and nonstutterers with respect to the issues of motor representation, cognitive modes, and higher-order linguistic processes.     

Temporal integration and discrimination of equally detectable,equal-energy stimuli: The effect of frequency

Summary The results of several experiments are reported which indicate: 1) complete auditory temporal summation for threshold of up to 32 msec for tones of 493, 1967, and 7874 Hz using a three-alternative forced-choice technique. 2) Equal-energy, equally detectable stimuli constructed of different intensities and durations within the range of complete integration are discriminable from one another. 3) Discrimination level increases as a function of the overall energy level and, consequently, as a function of detection level. 4) When discrimination level is plotted against detection level on normal-normal coordinates, the result is a straight line with a slope (b) greater than unity (1.41b1.68). 5) The extent of the discrimination capability, as well as the slope of the function relating discrimination level to detection level, was found to be independent of the frequency of the tone.All communications regarding this paper are to be addressed to Dr Harvey Babkoff. Dr Babkoff is spending the 1979–1980 academic year at the Military Medical Psychophysiology Laboratory of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Washington, D.C., USAThis material has been reviewed by the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, and there is no objection to its presentation and/or publication. The opinions or assertions contained herein are the private views of the authors and are not to be construed as official or as reflecting the views of the Department of the Army or the Department of Defense     

Bilingual speech: Bilateral control?

Forty bilinguals from several language backgrounds were contrasted to a group of English-speaking monolinguals on a verbal-manual interference paradigm. For the monolinguals, concurrent finger-tapping rate during speech output tasks was disrupted only for the right hand, indicating left-hemisphere language dominance. Bilingual laterality patterns were a function of language used: native (L1) versus second acquired (L2), and age of L2 acquisition. Early bilinguals (L1 + L2 acquisition prior to age 6) revealed left-hemisphere dominance for both languages, whereas late bilinguals (L2 acquired beyond age 6) revealed left-hemisphere dominance only for L1 and symmetrical hemispheric involvement for L2.     

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF VERBAL INSTRUCTION ON TEACHING BEHAVIOR-MODIFICATION SKILLS TO NONPROFESSIONALS1

The effectiveness of a mastery criterion, lecture-based training program for teaching behavior modification to sheltered workshop personnel was evaluated. Staff performance was assessed in terms of: (1) verbal proficiency, as determined from a pre- and posttraining written exam, and (2) application proficiency, as measured by the frequency and appropriateness of staff responses to client behaviors. A direct count was made of the number of positive, negative, and neutral statements following client appropriate and inappropriate behaviors, and the number and type of client behaviors ignored. Thus, it was possible to determine the extent of generalization from classroom to applied settings, as well as the appropriateness of lectures for training specific performance skills. Lecture units introduced stimulus control procedures, shaping-chaining, and contingency management. Characteristic features of the training program were frequent testing, study objectives, immediate remediation, and contingent reinforcement. Verbal instruction was shown to be effective in improving subjects' verbal skills concerning behavior-modification principles, while only partially effective in improving application skills. There was an increase in the total number of staff-client interactions observed for all subjects, but only two of the response classes emphasized in the training program (reinforcing desirable client behavior and ignoring undesirable behavior) showed considerable improvement over pretraining levels. Despite this partial improvement, verbal instruction alone was shown to be insufficient for teaching the full range of behavior-modification skills required to function effectively in applied settings.     

Monaural and binaural temporal integration of noise bursts

Summary A comparison was made between monaural and binaural temporal integration of noise bursts at threshold. The data indicate partial integration, with approximately a 6 dB decrease in threshold per decade increase in noise burst duration for both conditions of stimulation (i.e., parallel functions) for durations ranging from 4 to 256 msec. When thresholds in dB are plotted as a function of log duration, the linear component accounts for 99% of the data indicating no essential change in the partial integration functions up to at least 256 msec. The intercept difference between the monaural and binaural integration functions is 2.5 dB.     

Semantic and acoustic processing in free and cued recall by educable mentally retarded adolescents

The abilities of educable mentally retarded adolescents to encode and retrieve words with semantic and acoustic cues were investigated in a free and cued recall task. On each of three trial blocks, seven groups of subjects were presented 20 unrelated stimulus words. Groups received either semantic, acoustic, or no encoding cues along with the stimuli. Free recall was requested from all subjects, followed immediately by a second period of either free recall or cued recall with the semantic or acoustic cues. Semantic cues were most effective when presented both at encoding and retrieval. The subjects were unable to use acoustic information as effective retrieval aids. Results were discussed in terms of encoding dimension dominance and mediational deficiencies.     

Linguistic recovery after closed head injury

Recovery from acute aphasia after closed head injury was studied in 21 young adults at least 6 months after injury. Three profiles of scores were found using standardized language tests. Persistent expressive and receptive impairment was present in 6 patients who sustained severe diffuse brain injury resulting in global cognitive deficit. Residual expressive impairment, primarily of naming, was associated with mild diffuse brain injury though focal left-hemisphere injury was present in 3 of 6 cases. Patients who recovered to normal levels on all language tests generally had acute neurologic findings consistent with mild diffuse brain injury. Cranial computed tomography at the time of followup frequently disclosed ventricular enlargement.