A simplified version of the SYMLOG Trait Rating Form

This paper describes a brief measure of Bales's three SYMLOG dimensions. A sample of 204 undergraduates with a mean age of 24.7 yr., 72.4% of whom were women, completed the usual version of the SYMLOG Trait Rating Form. This could also be scored as if it were a simplified version, omitting some items. The Simplified Measure of the SYMLOG Trait Rating Form correlated fairly highly with the full form--with r between .87 and .89 for the corresponding versions of all three scale dimension scores--making it a suitable substitute for research or illustrative purposes on occasions when respondents' time is of the essence.     

The relation between children's conceptual functioning with color and color term acquisition

Young children experience considerable difficulty in learning their first few color terms. One explanation for this difficulty is that initially they lack a conceptual representation of color sufficiently abstract to support word meaning. This hypothesis, that prior to learning color terms children do not represent color as an abstraction, was tested in two experiments using samples of 25- to 39-month-olds and 20- to 32-month-olds. Children's ability to conceptually represent color and their knowledge of color terms were assessed, and a strong association was found between the ability to make inferences based on color and the comprehension of color words. Children who did not comprehend color terms were unsuccessful at a conceptual task that required them to represent color as a property independent of the particular objects that displayed it. The results suggest that the initial absence of an abstract representation of color contributes to the difficulty that young children encounter when first learning color words.     

Simultaneous specification of amplitudes and directions of bimanual reversal movements

Intermanual interactions are modulated by task requirements in the course of motor preparation. In particular, amplitude coupling is strong when identical amplitudes are specified concurrently for the 2 hands but relaxed when different amplitudes are specified. Similarly, directional coupling is symmetric when symmetric directions are specified concurrently but turns to parallel when parallel directions are specified. Here, the author investigated whether the modulations of amplitude coupling and directional coupling in the course of motor preparation are independent or interact. Application of the timed-response procedure, which enables one to manipulate the time available for motor preparation, in 9 participants revealed a weakly interactive pattern. Directional coupling tended to be reduced when different rather than same amplitudes were specified concurrently, and amplitude coupling tended to be reduced when parallel rather than symmetric directions were specified concurrently. In general, interactive effects were also apparent in the rates at which directions and amplitudes were specified. Those observations are consistent with the notion that intermanual amplitude and direction interference are mediated by different but partially overlapping neural structures.     

Intermanual interactions related to movement amplitudes and endpoint locations

In almost all studies of bimanual movements with same and different amplitudes, the difference between amplitudes has been confounded with a difference between endpoint locations. The present authors varied those parameters orthogonally. In addition, they presented target locations on the surface on which the movements were produced (direct cues) and on a monitor (indirect cues). Participants' (N = 12) reaction times were longer when both amplitudes and endpoint locations differed than when they were the same. Intermanual amplitude correlations were reduced whenever 1 of the movement parameters differed for the 2 hands; only when cues were presented on the monitor was the amplitude correlation further reduced when both movement parameters were different. The results indicate that structural constraints on bimanual movements take effect on both amplitudes and endpoint locations. The relative importance of those 2 parameters is largely independent of the type of cue.     

Effect of bandwidth knowledge of results on the learning of a grip force control task

An experiment was conducted to investigate the persistence of the effect of "bandwidth knowledge of results (KR)" manipulated during the learning phase of performing a manual force-control task. The experiment consisted of two phases, an acquisition phase with the goal of maintaining 60% maximum force in 30 trials, and a second phase with the objective of maintaining 40% of maximum force in 20 further trials. There were four bandwidths of KR: when performance error exceeded 5, 10, or 15% of the target, and a control group (0% bandwidth). Analysis showed that 5, 10, and 15% bandwidth led to better performance than 0% bandwidth KR at the beginning of the second phase and persisted during the extended trials.     

Insanity and responsibility

This paper attempts to set forth, in the context of Anglo‐U.S. criminal law, the meaning of the concept of insanity, its necessary relation to absence of responsibility, and its bearing on some relevant psychiatric concepts and legal controversies. Irrationality is a distinctive and necessary (but not sufficient) condition for insanity. Irrationality consists in failure even to grasp the relevance of what is ‘essentially’ relevant. To that extent there obviously can be no responsibility. A mental makeup which renders one (who would not normally be so) substantially incapable of rational conduct constitutes insanity, and in that respect renders the person non‐responsible. Much more broadly and roughly speaking, the mind that is ill is the mind that is irrational (and hence in that respect non‐responsible).     

Election predictions: Reply

Contrary to Aubert's claim, my paper on election predictions does not seek to draw empirical conclusions from mathematical premisses alone. The empirical premiss, approximated by the continuity assumption, is that sufficiently small changes in the predicted vote will cause only small changes in the actual vote. The technical criticisms by Øfsti and Østerberg of the reaction function are answered by specifying the function's domain. Other criticisms are also answered, and the reply concludes by placing the election prediction theorem in the context of other theorizing about human expectations and outguessing phenomena.