Can substantive theorizing really save us from ourselves? A skeptical commentary on Wicker's proposal

This commentary concurs in Wicker's call for more attention to substantive theorizing, but attempts to place that strategic approach within a broader conceptual and methodological context. It presents a perspective that is somewhat more skeptical than Wicker's as to the ultimate potential of research in our field. Specifically, the commentary discusses five themes that Wicker raises in support of the importance and potential value of substantive theorizing, looking at the dark side of each of them as well as at the potential gains. The commentary thus tries to give an appropriate balance of attention to both the limitations and the advantages of substantive theorizing.     

An investigation of body part as object (BPO) responses in normal and brain-damaged adults

A test of simple pantomime was administered to three groups of adults and comparisons were made across groups of the incidence of subjects who exhibited body part as object (BPO) responses and of the mean frequency of occurrence of BPO in each group. The three groups were left-hemisphere-damaged aphasics (N = 28), right-hemisphere-damaged (N = 24), and normal controls (N = 28). The results indicated no significant differences among groups on the BPO measures. Also, to test the strength of association between the frequency of occurrence of BPO and measures of limb apraxia and severity of aphasia for the left-hemisphere-damaged aphasic group, correlation coefficients were obtained. The correlations were low and nonsignificant. The results of this investigation do not support the common clinical assumption that the occurrence of BPO during the performance of simple pantomimes is pathognomic for left-hemisphere pathology or associated with limb apraxia.     

Simulating second-guessing in on-line probability learning

Formal processes (especially metacognitive or control processes) involved in complex human problem solving are examined in a game-playing situation with one person pitted against a microcomputer algorithm. In particular, the strategy of second-guessing is simulated in real-time in an attempt to outwit the person in a binary prediction paradigm. Aspects of success and failure are suggested. A working implementation in BASIC for a TRS-80 Level II is provided.     

Reduction in clinical assessment time using computer algorithms

A new mathematical procedure (BIDALGO) is suggested for application to the psychological testing field. BIDALGO, similar to past adaptive testing methods, is compared both with MMPI short-form efforts and applications in the educational testing literature. A comparison is also made between linear regression models used in past efforts and the Bayesian decision models used in BIDALGO. The requirements for an MMPI application are delineated, emphasizing branching procedures for specific scales and difficulties expected in achieving code-type congruence. Work in progress of applying BIDALGO to the depression scale and the full MMPI is also described.     

Reliability issues in the penile assessment of incarcerants

Although there has been increased reliance upon the direct physiological measurement of penile tumescence in the assessment of sexual deviations, the reliability of these measures has never been empirically validated. This investigation evaluates the reliability of the rape index as a technique in differentiating rapists from nonrapists. Eighteen individuals incarcerated on non-sexual-related offenses were presented visual and audio stimuli depicting mutually consenting intercourse, rape, and aggression. These stimuli were presented under two instructional sets: (1) enchance arousal and (2) suppress arousal. Reliability indices for the rape index were computed among various conditions of modality presentation, instructional set, and test-retest conditions. The overall reliability of the rape index was found to be low. The implications of these results upon the assessment and classification of offenders is discussed.     

The structure and reliability of the teacher temperament questionnaire

The Teacher Temperament Questionnaire is a recently developed instrument designed for personality assessment with preschool and early school children. The present study employed a sample of 116 in order to study the reliability and structure of the TTQ. A principal-components analysis yielded four well-defined components, which were labeled Compliance, Extraversion, Interpersonal Affect, and Environmental Sensitivity. These results did not support the theoretical scales. The component patterns were well defined and stable across the two administrations of the inventory. Internal consistency and test-retest reliability coefficients were determined for each of the four new scales. A second administration involving only items from the first three components provided a partial replication.An initial version of this paper was presented at the Northeastern Educational Research Association Meeting, Ellenville, New York, October 1979.     

A practical method for screening psychiatric disorder in children with speech and language disorders

Children with speech and language disorders have been found to have a prevalence rate of psychiatric disorder of 50%. The authors sought to develop an efficient screening procedure to distinguish such children who have psychiatric disorder and those who do not. Cutoff scores for easily administered parent and teacher behavior rating questionnaires were investigated in a population of 256 children with speech and language disorders and known presence or absence of psychiatric disorder. It was learned that when the questionnaires are used together, a cutoff score of 31 or greater on either questionnaire has a positive predictive value of 74.1 % and a negative predictive value of 76.1%. This screening method shows promise in assisting speech pathologists in comprehensive evaluation and treatment planning for children with speech and language disorders.     

Noise stress and circadian arousal in self-paced computation

Previous work(Frankenhaeuser & Lundberg, 1977) has shown that unpaced mental arithmetic is performed at slower rates in noise, despite unchanged catecholamine indices of arousal; only male subjects were used, tested early in the day. Since the times of testing entail arousal effects that interact with noise stress, and the sex of subject further modifies these interactions, a new experiment was designed to include these variables. Men and women were tested on the Norinder mental arithmetic task, in quiet or in noise, either in the morning, when arousal was low, or during the early evening, when temperature curves indicate that arousal should be high. Analysis of the number of problems attempted shows a significant drop for men in noise in the morning, but an interaction due to reversal of the noise effect in the evening; there is no main effect of noise when women's scores are included. The results are compatible with interpretations combining motivation and cognition, and they demonstrate the importance of the experimental variables in explaining noise stress effects.The authors are indebted to the late David A. Shipp for his assistance in running subjects.