Word and nonword superiority effects in a letter detection task

Subjects searched for predesignated consonant letters embedded in strings of consonants, consonants and vowels, or consonants and numbers. In Experiments 1-3, detection was quicker in the consonant-vowel and consonant-number strings than in the consonant strings. Apparently, vowels and numbers were less confusable distractors than are nontarget consonants. Experiment 4 tested whether psychophysical or categorical information about letters and numbers enabled subjects to process consonant-vowel and consonant-number strings more quickly. Results indicated that psychophysical characteristics of target and distractor letters mediated both word and nonword superiority effects.

     

Personality,husband-wife similarity,and Holland's occupational types

The present investigation had two purposes. The first was to investigate the generalizability of the theorized personality characteristics of men within Holland's occupational types to groups of men typed by their actual vocations instead of their vocational interests. The second purpose was to investigate the extent to which the wives of men in each of the occupational groups were similar to their husbands in terms of personality characteristics. Multiple discriminant analysis of the groups' 16PF scores resulted in significant overall groups differentiation and in two significant discriminant functions labeled tender-mindedness and self-confidence. The second finding was that Social and Enterprising men were significantly similar to their wives on personality dimensions consistent with the defining characteristics of the respective Holland groups. Implications of the present results and suggestions for future research are presented.     

Concurrent validity of Holland's theory for college degreed working women

The study was designed to explore two areas: (1) the concurrent validity of Holland's theory for employed college degreed women using two different operational definitions (Vocational Preference Inventory and the Self-Directed Search) of vocational orientation; and (2) the relationships among same named scales across the VPI and the SDS. Concurrent validity was studied by administering the VPI and the SDS to 179 women workers in occupational environments consistent with Holland's six vocational environments. In general, the findings indicate that the VPI and SDS scales tend to effectively discriminate among the occupational groups consistent with Holland's theoretical framework. In addition, the correlation coefficients for same named scales for the two inventories were all found to be significant. In sum, the results of the study lend some support to the concurrent validity of Holland's theory for employed college degreed women.