Degree of consistent training: Improvements in search performance and automatic process development

Previous research has shown substantial improvements in detection performance when subjects consistently detect a subset of stimuli. In contrast, in conditions in which stimuli appear as both targets and distractors, there is little performance improvement with practice. The present experiments examine how varying degrees of consistency determine the improvement of detection accuracy with extended practice. The degree of consistency was varied by manipulating the frequency with which a letter was a distractor while holding the number of occurrences as a target constant. The experiments utilized a multiple-frame target-detection search paradigm in which subjects were to detect single-letter targets in a series of rapidly presented letters on four channels. Experiments showed that detection performance improvement with practice was a monotonic function of the degree of consistency, decreasing to zero as the target-to-distractor ratio increased from 10:0 to 10:20. As consistency decreased, detection performance asymptoted earlier and at a lower level. A dual-task experiment examined subjects’ ability to perform the previously trained search task as a secondary task. Results showed that the previous targetto-distractor consistency had a marked effect on resource sensitivity of the detection task. The general issues of consistency in the development of skilled performance and in the development of automatic processing are discussed.     

Auditory processing and anxiety in stutterers

This study utilized the Synthetic Sentence Identification/Ipsilateral and Contralateral Competing Message subtests and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory to examine auditory processing deficits, anxiety levels, and the interaction of these two components in 15 adult stutterers and 15 nonstutterers. Results support brainstem auditory processing deficits in stutterers and equalization of cortical functioning between groups. Group differences were not found in anxiety levels. Nonsignificant correlations between anxiety levels and auditory processing were revealed.     

Reaction time,movement time,and intelligence

Speed of information processing is measured in terms of reaction time (RT) and movement time (MT) to five stimulus displays which differ in the amount of information transmitted, over a range from 0 to 3 bits of information. RT, but not MT, increases as a linear function of the number of bits in the stimulus display. RT and MT show reliable individual differences which are significantly correlated with intelligence as measured by Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices.     

Some correlates of women's Self-Image and Stereotypes of Femininity

An expanded version of the Gordon Self-Image and Stereotypes of Femininity scale was administered to a sample of 362 female nursing personnel. Factor structure of the scale was found to closely approximate that of the Gordon sample. Numerous significant relationships of self-image dimensions to affective responses, experienced role stresses, demographic measures, and personality indices were isolated. However, perceptions of males' image, doctors' image, and own image of a feminine woman were generally unrelated to these measures. Further, examination of discrepancies between self-image dimensions and self and others' stereotypes of a feminine woman along these dimensions did not aid in explaining variance in affective responses or experienced role stresses. Implications of the findings are discussed and suggestions for future research are presented.     

Increasing Career Center Accessibility for the Blind

To improve career planning services for visually impaired persons, the career center at Florida State University developed a self-directed program. This article describes strategies for making career information materials and resources more accessible to the blind.     

An examination of culture bias in the wonderlic personnel test

Internal evidence of cultural bias, in terms of various types of item analysis, was sought in the Wonderlic Personnel Test results in large, representative samples of Whites and Blacks totaling some 1,500 subjects. Essentially, the lack of any appreciable Race × Items interaction and the high interracial similarity in rank order of item difficulties lead to the conclusion that the Wonderlic shows very little evidence of cultural bias with respect to the present samples which, however, differ appreciably in mean scores. The items which account for the most variance within each racial group are, by and large, the same items that show the largest interracial discrimination.     

Democratic Moral Education and the Gifts of the Holy Spirit

How far is Thomas Aquinas available for current discussions in political philosophy? While there are certainly things to be learned from him about our political preoccupations, the pedagogy of his moral teaching typically resists our familiar questions. This holds even when the question is put in terms that Thomas should recognize—say, as a question about the virtues appropriate for a democracy. Thomas not only gives different meanings to these terms, he moves political topics away from the center of theological attention and so organizes them very differently. A reader can notice these differences at many points but perhaps especially in the attention that Thomas gives in the Summa to the gifts of the Holy Spirit. His account of these gifts qualifies significantly what he says of virtue and suggests large limits on human agency, whether in ethics or in politics.