Marital satisfaction and family stress as predictors of classroom behaviors

The purpose of this research was to examine the relationship between parents' perceptions of marital satisfaction and family stress and their third grade children's classroom behavior. Twenty-one married couples completed questionnaires during home visits. Behavior observations were made from videotapes of children recorded in their classroom during lunch and group academic periods on each of three days. Frequencies of peer interactions, solitary behaviors, and teacher interactions were coded. Regression analyses showed that mothers' level of marital satisfaction (but not fathers') predicted their children's frequency of peer interactions during lunch. Fathers' level of perceived family stress (but not mothers') predicted their children's frequency of peer interactions during lunch. Neither measure for either parent was related to the frequency of peer interactions, solitary behaviors, or teacher interactions observed during the academic sessions. These findings highlight the importance of assessing the potential differential relation of parent variables to children's trans-situational behaviors, and the examination of these variables in relation to different social-environmental contexts in which children participate outside the home.     

GRADER: A computer program that recommends student letter grades

GRADER, a computer program that makes student test and/or course letter grade recommendations to instructors, is described. The program uses an algorithm to combine the content mastery (percentage correct) and peer comparison (“curve”) approaches to set grade cutoffs. In addition to standardizing the procedures with which letter grade cutoffs are made, GRADER may help to reduce instructor grading subjectivity and obviate tendencies toward grade inflation or deflation.     

Motion coherence and conjunction search: Implications for guided search theory

Feature integration theory has recently been revised with two proposals that visual conjunction search can be parallel under some circumstances—either because items with nontarget features are inhibited, or because items with target features are excited. We examined whether excitatory or inhibitory guidance controlled conjunction search for an X oscillating in one direction among Os oscillating in that direction and Xs oscillating in another. Search was affected by whether items oscillated in phase with each other, and it was exceptionally difficult when items with target motion moved out of phase with each otherand items with nontarget motion moved out of phase. The results suggest that conjunction search can be guided both by excitation of target features and by inhibition of nontarget features.     

On axiomatization of many-valued logics associated with formalization of plausible reasonings

This paper studies a class of infinite-valued predicate logics. A sufficient condition for axiomatizability of logics from that class is given.To the memory of Jerzy Supecki     

Varieties of size-specific visual selection

Compared time to evaluate stimuli of varying sizes. When Ss expect an upcoming stimulus to be a certain size, response time increases with the disparity between expected and actual size. There are, however, 2 size adjustment processes, and they reflect 2 types of visual selection. In the first, a shape-specific image representation is used to separate a visual object from a superimposed distractor. These representations require the type of slow size scaling demonstrated in imagery experiments. The second size scaling process is faster and not shape-specific. At any given time the visual system is set to process information at a particular scale, and that scale can be adjusted to match an object's size. Because both selection mechanisms depend on size, they probably occur at a relatively low, spatially organized processing level. These findings lead to a new explanation for results that had been taken as evidence for attentional selection at the level of object representations.     

Alcoholism and morphologic findings of the nervous system in autopsy cases

154 autopsy cases of alcoholics (120 men and 34 women) were investigated from a neuropathological viewpoint. In only 19 cases could typical diseases of the nervous system caused by alcoholism be found (Wernicke's encephalopathy, central pontine myelinolysis, Marchiafava-Bignami's disease and disorders of the peripheral nerves and muscles). In comparison liver diseases occurred almost five times more frequently in our own material. Diseases caused by alcoholism of the nervous system, the question of brain shrinkage and its partial reversibility, the up to now not completely known effects on the neurophil and cortical cytoarchitectonic are discussed according to the literature.     

Mood profiles of Masters track and field athletes

In several studies attributing positive health benefits to running, the benefits include reduced depression, fatigue, anger, and increased vigor. Until now, little research has focused on Masters track and field athletes. The present study reports on 587 men and women Masters who participated in a mailed survey measuring mood states using the Profile of Mood States. In comparison to other groups of athletes, these Masters tend to be less depressed, less angry, and less fatigued. Attribution to lifestyle and maturity with their sport is discussed.     

Stressed vowel perception in word recognition

The purpose of this study was to measure subjects' ability to detect deliberate stressed, front-vowel misarticulations embedded in two-syllable words. Reaction times to words with various vowel-height misarticulations were examined for 25 women to assess the effect of a specific vowel height change on listeners' ability to recognize a word. Statistical analysis indicated no significant differences between reaction times to initial, stressed vowel changes along the height dimension, suggesting that subjects responded similarly to all vowel errors on the detection task. This finding provides further evidence that stressed-vowel information may serve as a perceptual anchor in guiding a listener during word recognition.     

Effect of click rate and delay on breakdown of the precedence effect

The precedence effect was tested as a function of echo-click delay and click rate after an abrupt switch in location between leading and lagging clicks. Click trains at three rates, 1/sec, 2/sec, and 4/sec, with delays ranging between 2 and 20 msec, were presented to subjects in an anechoic chamber. Duration of the click train after the switch in location was 12 sec, and echo click perceptibility was assessed throughout this period. The number of echo clicks heard was an increasing monotonic function of delay. The subjects reported a "fade-out" of echo clicks after a set number of clicks at each delay, regardless of rate. This result was interpreted as a buildup in inhibition of echoes produced by the ongoing click train. Suppression of echoes was stronger when the leading click originated from the right side than from the left side.