Pronoun disambiguation: Accessing potential antecedents

Two general classes of pronoun disambiguation processes are considered. In reading “Jack threw a snowball at Phil, but he missed,” both possible antecedents of “he” (“Jack” and “Phil”) may be accessed initially. Or, the actual antecedent alone may be accessed after sufficient semantic context is encoded. To evaluate these alternatives, a yes-no-probe recognition task was used to measure priming of the potential antecedents in sentence comprehension. Subjects read sentences similar to the example and were presented a test word immediately following each sentence. Response times for the actual antecedent (“Jack”) and nonantecedent (“Phil”) probes were obtained. Results indicated that the nonantecedent as well as the antecedent was activated (accessed) in pronoun disambiguation. This conclusion was not affected by the ordering of the antecedent and nonantecedent in the first clause.     

On the conflict between logic and belief in syllogistic reasoning

Three experiments are reported that investigate the weighting attached to logic and belief in syllogistic reasoning. Substantial belief biases were observed despite controls for possible conversions of the premises. Equally substantial effects of logic were observed despite controls for two possible response biases. A consistent interaction between belief and logic was also recorded; belief bias was more marked on invalid than on valid syllogisms. In all experiments, verbal protocols were recorded and analyzed. These protocols are interpreted in some cases as providing rationalizations for prejudiced decisions and, in other cases, as reflecting a genuine process of premise to conclusion reasoning. In the latter cases, belief bias was minimal but still present. Similarly, even subjects who focus primarily on the conclusion are influenced to an extent by the logic. Thus a conflict between logic and belief is observed throughout, but at several levels of extent.     

How to Speak “Counselnese”

The origin of “Counselnese,” the limited professionl language spoken by counselors, is examined. All fourteen words in the language are defined and misconceptions cleared up.     

Age and cohort effects on personality factor scores across sexes and racial/ethnic groups

Substantial differences exist across ethnic groups and sexes in generational changes in status among groups residing in Hawaii. Despite these generational differences across groups, age differences in personality are remarkably consistent across sexes and racial/ethnic groups, and the few Sex x Age, Ethnicity x Age or Sex x Ethnicity x Age interactions account for little variance in scores. It is concluded that age/generational differences in personality factor scores in these populations result from age and not, to any major degree, from cohort effects.     

Light source position in the perception of object shape

The apparent relief of monocularly viewed surfaces reversed when the order of light and shade was reversed relative to the position of a lamp observed the moment earlier. The pattern of shading was reversed either by illuminating from a direction opposite to that of the apparent direction of illumination or by inverting the illuminating image relative to the light source. The combination of both of these manipulations restores the original juxtaposition of light source and shading and reestablished accurate perception of relief. These results demonstrate that the perception of the relief of physical surfaces depends upon the remembered position of an apparent light source.     

Male responses to female competence

This study investigated the conditions under which a male would denigrate a female because of her competence. Sixty-four male subjects either cooperated or competed on anagram tasks with high/low competence male or female co-workers in the presence of a male or a female experimenter. Subsequently, these subjects evaluated their co-workers. No evidence was found to support the notion that males rejected a female partner because of her competence. In fact, some measures revealed that competent females were valued over their male counterparts in the cooperative conditions. Unexpectedly, sex of the experimenter interacted significantly with sex of the co-worker to determine the subject's responses to his partner's competence on two of the dependent measures. The discrepancies between these findings and earlier research findings are addressed. The implications for females in a mixed-sex work context are discussed.     

The importance of inhalation volume when measuring smoking behavior

Theoretical and technical considerations of measuring puff and inhalation volumes during cigarette smoking are reviewed. Measures of smoking behavior using a flowmeter and inductance plethysmography are described and demonstrated with seven subjects smoking over a 3-to 4-h period. Puff volume and duration, inhaled volume and duration, interpuff and intercigarette interval, and number of puffs varied for each individual over the session. The ratio of puff volume to inhaled volume changed with successive cigarettes. Smokers adjust the concentration of smoke by blending air with the smoke. Thus, to completely characterize smoking behavior, the volume of smoke and air inhaled into the lungs must be measured directly.     

Preparing dichotic tapes using a digital music synthesizer

Digital music synthesizers represent audio signals in the form of binary coded numbers. These binary coded numbers can be manipulated by the operator, thereby altering the audio signal in a variety of ways. The present article describes how these capabilities can be used to produce perfectly aligned dichotic tapes in which the stimulus items are matched on all extraneous (timbre, amplitude, duration) factors.     

Apple II/FIRST system control of electrical brain stimulation in the rabbit

An Apple II/FIRST system has been developed to control classical conditioning experiments, collect analog data, and extract dependent variable measures of conditioning from uniphasic (Scandrett & Gormezano, 1980) and multiphasic (Johnson, 1981) response signals. The present paper details the development of an electrical brain stimulation system as a peripheral device to the Apple II/FIRST system. In addition, data are presented that document the capabilities of the EBS system to concurrently stimulate up to eight animals while values along the dimension of each of four stimulation parameters are manipulated by a program written in FIRST. In our judgment, the EBS system has a number of advantages over currently available commercial stimulators, including cost, number of sites that can be independently stimulated, and availability of complete software control.     

A rose is a rose is a rose: Minimalism in perception

The article by Wilcox and Edwards (1982) is discussed in terms of the notion of a Physics necessary for an explanatory theory of Perception. Phenomenological explanations, while true, are rejected as lacking explanatory adequacy. Some examples of succesful computational theories, covering the phenomena Gibson considered basic to an Ecological Physics, are given which are based upon a classical optics.