Biologically determined dimensions of personality or temperament?

Relatively stable differences in the intensity of responses treated as a dimension, with suppressed reactions at one pole and reinforced reactions at the other, are discussed. They have been referred to as differences in the so-called Stimulation Processing Coefficient (SPC).Taking sensitivity thresholds, human behaviour, and evoked potentials (EP) as examples of the intensity of responses, it has been shown that such biologically determined dimensions of personality as: Strength of the Nervous System (Pavlov), Extraversion-Introversion (Eysenck), Stimulus Intensity Modulation (Petrie). Sensation Seeking (Zuckerman) and Reactivity (Strelau) have several features in common. All of them have strong biological backgrounds; the physiological mechanisms to be hypothesized as basic determinants of these dimensions are, however, different, depending on the specificity of the concepts discussed.In contradistinction to personality, which is treated by most psychologists as a result of interaction with the social environment, it is proposed to define the discussed dimensions as temperament, to be understood as a product of biological evolution, shaped under the influence of the surroundings.     

Olfactory dysfunction in man: anatomical and behavioral aspects

We reviewed studies examining the olfaction of patients with brain damage for the purpose of discerning correlations between disordered structure and function. Patient samples included those with neurological disorders and neurosurgical interventions and recording of spontaneous or elicited neuronal activity. Brain areas involved in olfaction include the olfactory bulbs, the orbitofrontal and medial temporal cortices, the thalamus, and the amygdala. Despite recent advances in olfactory anatomy, understanding of how these structures are related to olfactory detection, discrimination, and recognition continues to be limited. Inadequate localization of brain lesions and lack of comprehensive behavioral assessment have thus far prevented a detailed account of the organization of olfaction in the human brain.     

Does reticence mean just talking less? Qualitative differences in the language of talkative and reticent preschoolers

In our recent efforts to understand individual variation in the language acquisition process, the existence and nature of the communicative behaviors that differentiate reticent from talkative children have been virtually ignored. This study provides a preliminary investigation of this issue by analyzing the spontaneous language produced by four children who varied in degree of talkativeness in free-play dyadic interactions with a total of 28 different adults. Both structural complexity and discourse features analyses of the children's language revealed significant, difference between the talkative and reticent children. A further question considered the influence of the children's degree of talkativeness on their adult conversational partners. While the structural complexity of the adults' language was not influenced by child talkativeness, several discourse parameters did reveal significant adjustments. Implications for the concept of reticence and for language acquisition theory are explored.     

Relationships of achievement motivation and sex-role identity to college women's career orientation

Two career orientation factors, Career Centeredness and Career Commitment, were predicted to relate differentially to women's achievement motivation and sex-role identity. Career Centeredness is an orientation which places a career above other life activities (e.g., recreation, family life, etc.) as a source of satisfaction whereas Career Commitment concerns the intention of steadily pursuing a career throughout life. The expectation that Career Centeredness would be more characteristic of masculine women and correlate higher with achievement motivation than would Career Commitment was generally supported. Results are discussed in terms of societal support for these two career orientations and of role conflict experienced by women with different sex-role identities.     

TEACHING JOB INTERVIEW SKILLS TO RETARDED CLIENTS

Six retarded adults were taught job application and interview skills including introducing oneself, filling out a standard job application form, answering questions, and asking questions. A combination of instructions, modeling, role playing, and positive and corrective feedback was used across a multiple baseline experimental design. After training, the clients' performance in each area improved substantially over baseline levels. In addition, the newly taught skills appeared to generalize to a different office, application form, and interviewer.     

An individual differences additive model: An alterating least squares method with optimal scaling features

An individual differences additive model is discussed which represents individual differences in additivity by differential weighting of additive factors. A procedure for estimating the model parameters for various data measurement characteristics is developed. The procedure is evaluated using both Monte Carlo and real data. The method is found to be very useful in describing certain types of developmental change in cognitive structure, as well as being numerically robust and efficient.The work reported here was partly supported by Grant A6394 to the first author by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.     

ON PERCEPTION OF DEPICTED ORIENTATION

La perception de l'orientation picturale. — Les deux expériences décrites ici indiquent qu'en matière de perception picturale, les individus de certaines cultures, outre celles qui sont relatives à la perception de la profondeur, rencontrent des difficultés pour percevoir correctement l'orientation. La grandeur des erreurs relativement à l'interprétation de l'orientation dans les dessins semble dépendre de l'angle sous lequel l'ensemble des stimulus est représenté, la position des sujets relativement à l'appareil et la signification implicite de l'ensemble représenté.