A program for constructing SVT tests: An alternative way of assessing text comprehension

The sentence verification technique (SVT), developed by Royer, Hastings, and Hook (1979), provides developmental and educational researchers with an alternative way of assessing text comprehension based on all of the information contained in a passage. Students must decide if test sentences have the same meaning as sentences that appeared in an original passage. The program described here automates the more laborious aspects of constructing SVT tests. The user must create a passage using a word processor. The program will prompt the user for information as needed. Finally, printable text files (SVT test and answer key) are generated. The program is written in BASIC for IBM and IBM-compatible computers.     

PERSONAL SPACE AMONGST ARABS AND AMERICANS*

Personal space zones were examined amongst Arab and American university students by jointly varying degree of acquaintanceship and sex of subject. Overall, there were few differences between Arab and American males. Arab females, however, showed dramatic differences in comparison to American males and females and to Arab males. Arab females kept male friends very far away relative to female friends. Indeed, male friends were kept almost as far away as male strangers.     

Effects of Perceived Group Effectiveness and Group Role on Attributions of Group Performance1

Cadets at the U.S. Military Academy completed a questionnaire describing their experiences in Cadet Basic Training (CBT) and Cadet Field Training (CFT). Analyses of variance examined the impact of Group Role (Leader vs. Follower) and Perceived Group Effectiveness (High vs. Low) on group member perceptions of the extent to which each of six factors affected group performance. Significant main effects for Perceived Effectiveness were interpreted in terms of the egodefensive bias. Role main effects indicated that leaders tended to make stronger dispositional attributions than did followers. There were no signifcant Group Role × Perceived Effectiveness interaction effects. Findings support, in part, hypotheses concerning the operation of an attributional bias within the leader-member relationship.     

Dual hemispheric processing in a letter matching task

It has been reported that performance on recognition, detection, and matching tasks is enhanced if stimuli are projected to both sides of the visual field rather than to one side alone (Dimond, 1972). The present study investigated the claim that this phenomenon is due to the distribution of the burden of perceptual processing between the hemispheres. Three experiments were carried out using a matching paradigm in which RT and response errors were recorded. In all experiments, subjects were required to match two letters that were displayed separately on either side of a central fixation point (bilateral presentation) or were displayed together on the same side of the visual field (unilateral presentation). It was found that although lateral interference between adjacent stimuli was significantly implicated in the phenomenon, a strong residual effect, which could be tentatively ascribed to hemispheric mechanisms, remained in relation to letter name matches. It is argued that a model based on parallel hemispheric decision processes provides a better account of the data than does one based upon the notion of distributed perceptual processing.     

Stability and Change in Type A Components and Cardiovascular Reactivity in Medical Students During Periods of Academic Stress1

This study examined the effects of academic stress upon components of Type A behavior and cardiovascular reactivity. In a longitudinal design, heart rate and blood pressure responses to the Type A Structured Interview (SI) and additional laboratory challenges were measured in medical students at three points during an academic semester. Sessions 1 and 3 were scheduled during vacation periods; Session 2 took place during an intensive examination week. Results indicated that three “stylistic” components of Pattern A derived from the SI—loud and explosive speech, short response latency, and potential for hostility—increased significantly during the exam period. Similar increases achieved marginal significance for another stylistic component, rapid and accelerated speech. By contrast, global Type A assessments did not increase with academic demands. Cardiovascular reactivity was significantly but only moderately stable across the three sessions, showing less consistency than has been reported in previous research. In addition, there was little evidence in this study that cardiovascular reactivity was potentiated by academic stress or by Type A behavior. These results demonstrate the influence of naturalistic environmental factors on overt behavioral components that have recently been suggested as coronary risk factors. Therefore, it is advisable for future experimental and epidemiological research to examine the social and environmental context in which these behaviors occur.     

Psychoanalytic training and its effect on the candidate's clinical work

This paper explores the effects of the psychoanalytic candidate's role, supervision, training analysis, office setting, and emerging professional identity on his clinical work. The strains associated with institute candidacy and how these may be perceived by patients are explored. The author suggests that further study of the process of becoming an analyst could ultimately improve training.     

Competitive fixed-interval performance in humans

Two persons responded in the same session in separate cubicles, but under a single schedule of reinforcement. Each time reinforcement was programmed, only the first response to occur, that is, the response of only one of the subjects, was reinforced. “Competitive” behavior that developed under these conditions was examined in three experiments. In Experiment 1 subjects responded under fixed-interval (FI) 30-s, 60-s, and 90-s schedules of reinforcement. Under the competition condition, relative to baseline conditions, the response rates were higher and the pattern was “break-and-run.” In Experiment 2, subjects were exposed first to a conventional FI schedule and then to an FI competition schedule. Next, they were trained to respond under either a differential-reinforcement-of-low-rate (DRL) or fixed-ratio (FR) schedule, and finally, the initial FI competition condition was reinstated. In this second exposure to the FI competition procedure, DRL subjects responded at lower rates than were emitted during the initial exposure to that condition and FR subjects responded at higher rates. For all subjects, however, responding gradually returned to the break-and-run pattern that had occurred during the first FI competition condition. Experiment 3 assessed potential variables contributing to the effects of the competitive FI contingencies during Experiments 1 and 2. Subjects were exposed to FI schedules where (a) probability of reinforcement at completion of each fixed interval was varied, or (b) a limited hold was in effect for reinforcement. Only under the limited hold was responding similar to that observed in previous experiments.