Two-hand line-bisection task outcomes correlate with several measures of hemisphericity

While seeking new functional methods to reassess the concept of hemisphericity, a two-hand line-bisection task was investigated because of reports of large, stable differences among the general population. These were found to be due to hemispheric differences in judgment of the midpoint of horizontal lines, made visible due to the unilateral brain control of each hand. By use of a two-hand line-bisection test (Best-Hand Test), university workers (n=412) were readily sorted into theoretical response categories, resulting in the production of two large groups. These two groups correlated well with those produced by four independent hemisphericity assessments, two physiological and two psychological. This is the third biophysical method whose performance-based group separations significantly correlated with those produced by preference-based hemisphericity-type questionnaires. It is rapid and avoids language, education, or cultural bias.     

Is Dutch native English? Linguistic analysis by 2-month-olds

A variant of the non-nutritive habituation/dishabituation sucking method was used to test 2-month-old English infants’ perception of languages. This method tests for the spontaneous interest of the baby to a change in the stimulus. English and Japanese were clearly discriminated. The difference between French and Japanese was equally clearly not of interest to babies using this procedure, the babies behaving as though both languages were classified simply as ‘foreign’. In order to further specify babies’ representation of native and foreign language, we used Dutch, which shares a number of suprasegmental features with English. The results from our last 2 experiments indicate that a portion of our 6–12 week-old babies consider Dutch as native, suggesting that we tapped in a transition period where the babies are still refining the suprasegmental specification of their native language.     

Visual sampling after lesions of the superior colliculus in rats

In two separate experiments, rats with bilateral lesions of the superior colliculus showed significantly poorer relearning of a horizontal/vertical stripe discrimination than control animals. In Experiment 1, all animals showed disruption of performance when a stimulus--response (S--R) separation was introduced by raising the stimuli above the site of responding. However, the colliculectomized rats were much more disturbed by the S--R separation than were animals in the control group. In Experiment 2, all animals showed lower performance levels when conflicting patterns were introduced into the upper portion of the stimulus doors, but this time the rats with collicular lesions were less disturbed than the control animals. It is suggested (a) that when the stimulus and response sites are discontiguous, animals must make an appropriate orienting response in order to effectively sample the visual stimuli and (b) that lesions of the superior colliculus alter performance by interfering with this orienting behavior. The impairment in relearning is tentatively attributed to the absence of preoperative overtraining on the discrimination task.     

Identity degradation and mental disorder: An empirical assessment of the conduct impairment scale

Proponents of the medical models have held that mental disorder is best measured in terms of some inventory of symptoms indicative of an underlying disease. Alternatively, critics have argued that mental disorder is the result of a degraded ascribed role, a discrepancy between the person and his environment, or the degradation of identity. The issue goes beyond academic debate, with important implications for case-finding and program development in community mental health. Theodore Sarbin has developed a 58-item "Conduct Impairment Scale" to operationalize the concept of "Identity Degradation" and proposed it as a substitute for the medical model. Three dimensions are posited: status, value, and involvement. An appropriate level of reliability and clustering of scale items are reported by Sarbin. In order to subject the scale to a more rigorous test, it was administered to a random sample of 208 respondents in four neighborhoods in Grand Rapids, Michigan, as part of a larger epidemiological study. In an effort to assess the validity of the scale, factor analytic methods were employed. A principal components model with varimax rotation was performed. It was found that items purporting to tap the three theoretical dimensions explicated by Sarbin did not load in the expected pattern. Additionally, the first three extracted factors accounted for only a small proportion of the total variance. Efforts to assess the reliability of the scale were more fruitful. A corrected split-half of .82 and coefficient alpha of .86 were obtained. It was concluded that the validity of the scale was not adequately demonstrated, and its use as an alternative to the medical model open to serious reservation.     

Rhythm and dominance

Subjects were tested by a short experimental procedure involving tapping of a rhythm with one limb with a simultaneous regular beat with another limb. Informal observations had suggested a rhythm dominance effect—that is was dramatically easier with some limb combinations. Notably it was easy when the right hand tapped the rhythm and the left hand the beat but almost impossible the other way round. Equally, both hands dominated both feet. Our tests revealed enormous individual differences, subjects separating neatly into three groups. Some people could not do the task at all, some could do it with any limb combination, the latter group including all the serious musicians tested. For the remainder the rhythm dominance effect was clear. However, the laterality effect was the same (right hand advantage) for a majority (60%) of left handers. We conclude, then, that this effect is linked to language dominance and not handedness. In addition it seems there is a task scheduler which imposes its own view in combining this laterality effect with the dominance of hands over feet.     

The effects of symmetry and contour on recognition memory in children

Children in prekindergarten, kindergarten, and second grade were tested on a delayed match-to-sample task using abstract visual patterns. The patterns varied both in type of visual organization (unstructured, diagonally symmetrical, vertically symmetrical, and horizontally symmetrical) and in amount of contour. Following the initial memory task, we attempted to train half of the children at each grade by directing their attention to axes of symmetry; the other half of the children received a control task. Subsequently, the subjects were given a second delayed match-to-sample test. On both pre- and post-training trials, structure influenced performance, especially in the two younger groups. Vertical and horizontal symmetry generally facilitated performance in the prekindergarteners, while all three types of symmetry facilitated performance in the kindergarteners. In addition, children generally responded more accurately to patterns with lower levels of contour. They also made more like-contour than unlike-contour confusions, indicating that quantitative aspects of patterns were encoded. Group differences suggested that both processing capacity and memory increase during the age range studied. Finally, there was no indication that training improved performance at any age.     

The effectiveness of attentional diversion and situation redefinition for reducing stress due to a nonambiguous Threat

After receiving a sample shock, subjects in a Threat Condition were told that they would receive additional painful shocks while subjects in a Nonthreat Condition were not threatened with additional shocks. Subjects in an Attentional Diversion Condition were then instructed to read and think about an amusing story, subjects in a Situation Redefinition Condition were instructed to write down reasons why they should not be afraid in this situation, and subjects in a Control Condition were not given any instructions for coping with stress. (Coping Conditions were factorially crossed with Threat Conditions and 192 subjects were employed.) Physiological measures (pulse rate, finger pulse volume, skin resistance) indicated that unlike the results of previous research, attentional diversion was effective in reducing stress but situation redefinition was not. Discussion was focused on the parameters which determine whether or not a coping strategy will be effective.     

Conceptions of Parenthood

The everyday concept "parent" includes a central prototype and less typical subtypes, such as stepparent, adoptive parent, and foster parent. We studied informants' concept of "parent" by constructing typical and atypical scenarios in which people become parents: planned and unplanned pregnancy, unmarried parents, abandonment, divorce, stepparent/child, adoption, pregnancies resulting from rape, and situations involving medical technology and contract motherhood. The parental role of each of the characters in the scenarios was characterized in terms of seven attributes of parenthood. Unmarried undergraduate informants rated the claim of each of the characters to be a parent of the child. Characters whose parental contribution was more similar to the prototype case were seen as having stronger claims. The most important attributes were, in order: intention to raise the child, gestation, genetic contribution, provision of nurture, and intention to create a baby. All informants appeared to make use of three principles involved in everyday, informal explanations of how a person becomes a parent. Parental consent, the predominant principle for both men and women, was given more weight by women; maternal investment in gestation was given equal weight by both sexes, and genetic contribution was given more weight by men.     

CONSPEC and CONLERN: a two-process theory of infant face recognition

Evidence from newborns leads to the conclusion that infants are born with some information about the structure of faces. This structural information, termed CONSPEC, guides the preference for facelike patterns found in newborn infants. CONSPEC is contrasted with a device termed CONLERN, which is responsible for learning about the visual characteristics of conspecifics. In the human infant, CONLERN does not influence looking behavior until 2 months of age. The distinction between these 2 independent mechanisms allows a reconciliation of the conflicting data on the development of face recognition in human infants. Finally, evidence from another species, the domestic chick, for which a similar 2-process theory has already been put forward, is discussed. The new nomenclature is applied to the chick and used as a basis for comparison with the infant.