Chromatic perception in relation to an hypothesized cerebral dominance

On the basis of the cerebral dominance, we have hypothesized an asymmetry (for saturation or brightness) between the two eyes in perception of chromatic stimuli. 51 subjects were tested on chromatic perception (green, red, yellow, blue). For each subject also an ocular-dominance score was obtained. The results substantially confirmed the hypothesis of cerebral dominance in color perception. Subjects with high ocular-dominance scores (right- or left-dominant subjects) showed for the green stimulus asymmetric behavior, while subjects with low ocular-dominance scores showed a tendency toward symmetry in perception.     

Interhemispheric phase relations in children of early school age

The cross-correlation method was used to measure interhemisphere phase differences over four areas of the brain in 22 healthy children aged between 7 and 10 years. Apart from defining normal values, the authors describe age-dependent characteristics and changes that take place as a result of mental stress.     

Interpersonal attraction,social identification and psychological group formation

Two perspectives on the nature of the social group and psychological group formation are discussed. The traditional social cohesion approach traces group formation to processes of interpersonal attraction, while the social identity approach defines the group in cognitive terms and considers identification, or self-categorization, to be the mechanism of psychological group formation. On the basis of an experiment by Turner, Sachdev and Hogg (1983) it is hypothesized that interpersonal attraction (positive or negative) is related to group formation only in so far as it enhances intergroup distinctiveness. This hypothesis is experimentally tested in a 2 × 3 (interpersonal liking/disliking per se versus no explicit categorization/random categorization/criterial categorization on the basis of affect) factorial design employing the ‘minimal group’ paradigm. People who like each other and were not explicitly categorized formed a group. This effect was enhanced by criterial categorization but disappeared when categorization was random. Although the results do not support the hypothesis, they are not explicable in social cohesion terms. A social identity explanation is furnished—attraction influences group formation by acting, under certain specifiable conditions, as a cognitive criterion for common category membership. This explanation is located in current theorizing and is proposed as part of a reconceptualization of the relationship between interpersonal attraction and group formation.     

Symbolic comparisons with and without perceptual referents: Is interval information used?

In an attempt to investigate the range effect obtained by Moyer and Bayer (1976), two groups of subjects were taught to associate colors with circles that differed in size by larger or smaller intervals and then participated in a symbolic comparison task, in which they determined which of two simultaneously presented symbols (the first letters of two colors) represented the larger magnitude. A third group of subjects, who merely learned an arbitrary ordering of the colors along the dimension of size, also participated in the symbolic comparison task. Despite the fact that no practice trials were given, there was no effect of interval size in either early or late blocks, and the circle-learning groups did not differ in performance from the group who only learned an arbitrary ordering of colors, even when pairs containing end terms were removed from the analysis. It is concluded that subjects do not use analogue codes in symbolic comparison tasks involving small, repeated sets of arbitrarily defined symbols.     

Levels of selection and capacity limits

Subjects performed a visual target-detection task in eight experiments. We examined the effects of word relevancy (word in relevant or irrelevant location) and display load (1-4 words) on physical, semantic, and controlled processing of nontargets. Interwoven with the detection task was a test-word identification task that was used to measure priming potency of nontargets. Physical and semantic levels of processing were measured in terms of identity and semantic priming, respectively. Nontarget primes were repeated as test words in identity priming. Nontarget primes were semantic associates of test words in semantic priming. Controlled processing of nontargets was measured in terms of recognition memory on a subsequent test. All measures increased with word relevancy and decreased with display load. The priming effects remained intact even when word presentation was speeded up and controlled processing was sharply curtailed. The data indicate that all levels of processing are selective and capacity limited.     

Social Motives and Susceptibility to Disease: Stalking Individual Differences In Health Risks

This article reviews studies on the relation between social motives and susceptibility to physical illness. The motives examined in the studies include power motivation and affiliation motivation and their related syndromes such as inhibited power and relaxed affiliation. The subject populations include college students as well as adults. Blood pressure, self-reports of illnesses, catecholamines, and parameters of immunologic functioning are among the indices of health outcomes investigated. Taken together, these studies suggest that social motives may be importantly related to susceptibility to illness, that the power motive may be related to heightened susceptibility to illness, particularly when the person is under stress, whereas the affiliation motive may be related to diminished susceptibility to illness.     

Perceptual learning of a non-focal color discrimination between ages three and six

A match-to-sample task and a preference-ranking procedure were used to provide predifferentiation experiences on a color discrimination of 3-, 4-, 5-, and 6-year-old children. Chronological age was the best predictor of task success. Six-year-olds averaged twice as many correct matches as 3-year-olds. Gender and predifferentiation experience were not significant as main effects or in interactions affecting test performance. There was no difference between scores of untrained and trained children. The predifferentiation experiences had no effect. The data suggest that the years between 3 and 6 may be an important period in the development of the perceptual abilities needed to discriminate among subtle differences in one hue. Boys' and girls' abilities seem to develop at the same rate during this age span.     

Certifying Juveniles for Adult Court: An Attribution Analysis1

Certification is the process whereby older juveniles who have committed felony offenses are transferred from juvenile courts to adult courts. The present study examined the variables that influence decisions in these cases and used attribution theory to conceptualize the process. Data were obtained from files of 150 youths on whom certification petitions had been filed from January 1981 to October 1984. Of these, 125 had been certified and 25 had not. The sample comprised 148 males and 2 females. Data included seriousness of the offense, previous offenses, potential for aggressiveness, level of involvement in the offense, age, court in which the case was heard, year in which the case was heard, IQ, family income and sex. Level of involvement, seriousness of the offense and potential for aggressiveness had the strongest association with certification outcomes, with those high on these measures significantly more likely to be certified. The cluster that predicted outcomes best included level of involvement, seriousness of the offense, potential for aggressiveness, IQ, year in which the case was heard, court in which the case was heard, sex and previous offenses. The most explicitly behavioral variable—how actively the child participated in the offense—was the best single predictor of outcomes.