Pair discrimination for a continuum of synthetic voiced stops with and without first and third formants

Phoneme labeling and discrimination experiments were conducted with a continuum of voiced stops produced by a Terminal Analog Speech Synthesizer. The stops ranged from |b| to |d|. Only second formant (F₂) transitions changed from one sound to another. (A formant is energy concentrated in a narrow frequency range.) In the labeling experiment conducted to locate the phoneme boundary, subjects identified the individual stimuli as |b| and |d|. In discrimination, difference and identity pairs were presented, with alternative responses of same and different. This allows separate consideration of discrimination (different/Different) and recognition (same/Identity) hits, and also analysis of the data in accordance with the theory of signal detectibility. The sounds were discriminated with and without F ₁ and F ₃ which contained no discriminatory information, but are responsible for perceived similarity to speech. With F ₁ F ₃ , sensitivity (d) was highest at the |b-d| boundary, but without F ₁ F ₃ this was not true. Spectral analysis of the sounds both with and without F ₁ F ₃ revealed a phonemic energy discontinuity for the 1/3 octave around the F ₂ steady-state frequency (1250 Hz). It therefore seems probable that subjects listened to frequencies which contained phonemic information when F ₁ F ₃ were included, but not when they were omitted. In spite of the high sensitivity at the |b-d| boundary, recognition hits (same /Identity) were lowest the boundary had to sound less like a difference to be called different than a pair away from the boundary.Indications, then, are quite strong that auditory-frequency selection helps the perception of speech, and it is clear that a strategy of criterion lowering helps it.     

Studies in group decision I: Social space,patterns of communication and group concensus

The discovery of the effects of risky shift focusses the interest on the study of decision processes. Nevertheless the researches carried on until now have always shown confusion between the theoretical and experimental analysis of these processes and the risk-related behavior. In the first part of the article the authors try to clear this confusion as well as to define the conditions of a systematic study of the mechanisms of decision leading either to an averaging or to a polarization of individual views. The authors insist on the necessity to compare groups rather than individuals to groups. To start with, one hypothesis concerning the effects of group organization on the degree of polarization of views is proposed. The experiment described in the second part of the article confirms the hypothesis: A group in which individuals have the possibility to communicate with each other and to interact directly take more extreme decisions than a group deprived of this possibility. It is presumptuous and inexact to state that groups take more extreme risk than individuals whereas it is right to say that certain groups take risks when circumstances are favorable.     

Use of the conditional reflex to assess the temporal characteristics of curarization effects on heart rate responding

A Pavlovian methodological counterpart to the use of druginduced changes in operant rates of responding was used to assess the temporal characteristics of d-tubocurarine chloride effects on the heart rate conditional reflex in rats. After a stable conditional reflex had been established, the base heart rate, as well as the unconditional and conditional reflex, was monitored during administration of the drug. A sizable behavioral effect was reflected in all three measures, including a temporary abolition of the conditional and unconditional reflexes. An interpretation of these results was discussed, and further development and application of this specific methodology was explored.     

The effects of computer-mediated vocational guidance procedures on the appropriateness of vocational preference

To assess the effectiveness of vocational guidance procedures proposed for inclusion in a computer-based vocational exploration system, 139 eleventh-grade male subjects were randomly assigned to three experimental groups and a control group. One group was given a computer-generated accuracy of self-knowledge feedback, another group was taught an occupational classification scheme, a third group experienced both. Utilizing a method of explicit comparison between students' measured characteristics and the measured characteristics of occupational norm groups, the results showed students in the groups receiving feedback increased in the appropriateness of the occupational level of their first occupational choice. In addition, students in the combined treatment group increased in the appropriateness of the level of their total occupational preferences. A delayed posttest indicated that these increases persisted.     

Effects of educational and career exploration system on vocational maturity

An experimental group of 792 tenth graders spent from 1 to 17 hr (average 3 hr) on ECES, a computer-based educational and occupational exploration system.Gains on a test of vocational maturity administered at the beginning and end of the school year were compared with a control group of 1453 tenth graders, matched on relevant variables. ECES users showed larger gains than nonusers in (1) degree of planfulness and (2) knowledge and use of resources for career exploration, as measured by the Career Development Inventory, not in information about education, occupations and career decision making. Gains were related to amount of time spent on ECES but male-female differences were not exhibited.     

CHANGED CONCEPTS OF BRAIN AND CONSCIOUSNESS: SOME VALUE IMPLICATIONS

Abstract. Prospects for uniting religion and science are brightened by recently changed views of consciousness and mind-brain interaction. Mental, vital, and spiritual forces, long excluded and denounced by materialist philosophy, are reinstated in nonmystical form. A revised scientific cosmology emerges in which reductive materialist interpretations emphasizing causal control from below upward are replaced by revised concepts that emphasize the reciprocal control exerted by higher emergent forces from above downward. Scientific views of ourselves and the world and the kinds of values upheld by scientific belief undergo basic transformations, making them more compatible with religious motivation and moral responsibility.     

Social environmental predictors of children's adjustment in elementary school classrooms

Relationships between qualities of the perceived social environment and children's adjustment were examined in 30 second- to fourth-grade classrooms. Based on Moos' conceptual framework, social environment was assessed from both teachers' and children's perspectives. There was little agreement between the two views. Nine teacher- and peer-rated adjustment variables were used as criterion measures in multiple regression analyses which controlled for the potential confounding influence of grade level and family income. The main substantive findings were that peer sociometric ratings were more positive at lower grade levels and in classes rated by children as high in Order and Organization; teachers rated less acting-out behavior in classes seen by children as high in Affiliation, Teacher Control, and Task Orientation; and teachers rated children as more likeable in classes seen by Children as high in Teacher Control and Competition. Implications of the study's findings for future primary preventive efforts to engineer health-promoting classroom environments are discussed.     

The effects of an interpersonally based problem-solving process on consultation outcomes

The relationship was examined between the extent to which school psychologists incorporated an interpersonally based problem-solving process (IBPSP) in their consultation and several defined outcomes of consultation. The study also investigated the degree to which utilizing and IBPSP correlated with other variables that have been either empirically or theoretically identified in the literature as having an impact on the outcomes of consultation.

A highly significant positive relationship exists between the IBPS Scale and each of the four criterion variables: general behavior change, teacher satisfaction, problem-in-resolution and professional growth. Moreover, the IBPS Scale correlates more highly with each of the dependent variables than do the other predictor variables.     

‘What do you mean by depression?’—A study of the relationship between antidepressive activity and personal concepts of depression

This study explores the relationship between a subject's concept of depression and his reported antidepressive activities. A pilot study is reported which was used to develop a method of classification of subjects' concepts of depression in terms of depth of depression and degree of external causality perceived. The majority of the subjects studied fitted into a group who see depression as a major disturbance of mood unrelated to external events; this was true for both the pilot and main studies. The main study applied the depressive classification method to an investigation of the relationship between depressive concept group and qualitative and quantitative aspects of reported repertoires for coping with depression. A major concept of depression was shown to be associated with a high frequency of reported antidepressive activity, but ANOVAR revealed no other significant main effect on quantitative analysis. Various complex interactions of sex. depth of concept and locus of concept were observed. A group of psychiatric inpatients were seen to differ in quantitative and qualitative aspects of reported antidepressive behaviour from the remainder of the population studied; the implications of these findings for further research are discussed.