An Investigation of Sex Differences in Word Ratings Across Concrete,Abstract, and Emotion Words

The Psychological Record - Researchers haw often overlooked the relationships between sex and ratings of word characteristics, such as concreteness, context-availability, imageabil-ity, and...     

The word concreteness effect occurs for positive,but not negative,emotion words in immediate serial recall

The present study examined the roles of word concreteness and word valence in the immediate serial recall task. Emotion words (e.g. happy) were used to investigate these effects. Participants completed study‐test trials with seven‐item study lists consisting of positive or negative words with either high or low concreteness (Experiments 1 and 2) and neutral (i.e. non‐emotion) words with either high or low concreteness (Experiment 2). For neutral words, the typical word concreteness effect (concrete words are better recalled than abstract words) was replicated. For emotion words, the effect occurred for positive words, but not for negative words. While the word concreteness effect was stronger for neutral words than for negative words, it was not different for the neutral words and the positive words. We conclude that both word valence and word concreteness simultaneously contribute to the item and order retention of emotion words and discuss how Hulme et al.'s (1997) item redintegration account can be modified to explain these findings.     

Dissociations of writing and praxis: Two cases in point

For normal writing it is essential that both motoric and linguistic competence be present; disruption of one or the other of these faculties may result in qualitatively different types of agraphia. Two right-handed patients became agraphic after left hemisphere lesions; pure apraxic agraphia in the absence of limb apraxia developed in one patient and pure linguistic agraphia in association with severe ideomotor limb apraxia in the other. The performance of these patients not only serves to illustrate the dissociation between the motoric and linguistic faculties that underlie writing but also confirms that ideomotor limb apraxia and apraxic agraphia are distinct and dissociable entities.     

The Morning After: Gender Differences In Attributions About Alcohol-Related Sexual Encounters1

Traditional sex role characteristics suggest that women may be more dissatisfied with casual sex than men. We investigated this notion by examining the reactions of women and men to a hypothetical, first-time sexual encounter. An additional factor that was hypothesized to affect reactions was the presence of alcohol, which may serve as a cue for sexual disinhibition. College students read a scenario depicting a consensual sexual encounter between two people who met at a party, and made judgments about the partners' behavior and characteristics. Four versions of the scenario varied the alcohol consumption of both characters. Results showed that men were more likely than women to find the behavior of each partner socially acceptable, to foresee a positive future for the couple as a result of their sexual encounter, and to predict that they themselves would engage in similar behavior. Although no main effects for alcohol consumption were found, alcohol consumption interacted with gender to influence judgments about the characters' sexuality. Results are discussed in terms of sex role stereotyping and the tendency of both sexes to misunderstand or misperceive each other's sexual feelings.     

DATING, DRINKING, AND RAPE: Effects of Victim's and Assailant's Alcohol Consumption on judgments of Their Behavior and Traits

Effects of an acquaintance rape victim's and her assailant's alcohol consumption on judgments of their behavior and traits were examined in a 2 × 2 × 2 between-subjects factorial experiment. Sixty-eight women and 64 men, 21 or older, read one of four stories in which only the victim, only the assailant, both victim and assailant, or neither victim nor assailant consumed alcohol. One individual difference trait, rape attitudes, was also measured. The interaction of victim and assailant drinking diminished the view that a rape had occurred and that the victim responded negatively, whereas it enhanced judgments of the assailant's likability and sexuality. The portrayal of only the victim drinking resulted in a more negative view of the assailant's behavior and traits. Evaluations of the victim depended on the assailant's drinking behavior rather than on her own. Implications for treatment of rape victims and establishing assailant accountability are discussed.     

WOMEN'S APPRAISALS OF SEXUAL-ASSAULT RISK IN DATING SITUATIONS

This study investigated how 165 female college students appraised their sexual-assault risk in a hypothetical dating situation. A 2 × 2 × 2 between-subjects experiment investigating the effects of male-dating-partner characteristics, story character beverage consumption, and perspective on women's risk appraisals was conducted. Multivariate analyses of variance were performed to test hypotheses regarding the feelings of the dating woman and the occurrence of sexual behaviors. Although the dating woman was rated as feeling more vulnerable on dates when alcohol was consumed, alcohol consumption did not influence ratings regarding the dating man committing nonconsensual sexual acts. Nonconsensual sexual behaviors were rated as more probable when the man had rape-congruent characteristics and when the participants were judging another woman rather than themselves. These findings suggest that women are partially accurate in making sexual-assault risk appraisals and thus may benefit from rape prevention education that specifically targets their inaccuracies.     

Category-Specific Naming Deficit for Medical Terms after Dominant Thalamic/Capsular Hemorrhage

Postmortem, retrograde degeneration, and electrical stimulation studies have implicated the anterior pulvinar in language processing. We examined a patient who, after a hemorrhage affecting the dominant pulvinar and internal capsule, exhibited a circumscribed anomia for medical items and conditions. No other language disturbance was noted. Five category-specific word lists, matched for word frequency, were administered in a naming-to-definition format. Results indicated that the patient exhibited a significant category-specific naming deficit for medical items and conditions compared to matched control subjects. Although medical item lists were found to differ from nonmedical item lists in imageability and abstractness, B.C.'s category-specific deficit did not seem to be caused by word frequency, concept familiarity, imageability, or abstractness. Nor could the patient's performance be explained on the basis of deficits in broader semantic classifications (i.e., animate vs inanimate or man-made vs natural). The patient was unable to retrieve medical items even when given phonemic cues for those he could not name. Findings indicate that subtotal damage in the dominant pulvinar may create category-specific deficits.