Stimulus-seeking behavior in hyperactive and nonhyperactive children

Auditory and visual stimulus-seeking behavior was measured in hyperactive and nonhyperactive youngsters. The design controlled for motor activity level. The results indicate that hyperactive children preferred auditory stimulation more than the control children. There were no differences in stimulus-seeking preferences in the visual modality. The groups did not differ in motor activity. It was concluded that abnormally high needs for stimulation are important in hyperactivity.The authors would like to express their appreciation to James Fogarty, Superintendent, Walter Galvin, Principal, and the many teachers, students, and parents of the Greene Avenue Learning Center of BOCES II in Sayville, New York for their cooperation and support in this study. We would also like to thank Susan O'Leary, Ph.D. Director of the Point of Woods Laboratory School and the students and parents for participation and support in this study.     

Feature-positive effect in adults and attention to portion of stimulus array

In three experiments, adult humans were tested in a feature-positive or feature-negative simultaneous symbol task. In Experiment 1, some persons focused on the correct side of the stimulus cards, whereas other persons focused on the not-correct side of the stimulus cards. The feature-positive group learned faster than the feature-negative group did in the correct side condition; the feature-negative group learned faster than the feature-positive group did in the not-correct side condition. In Experiments 2 and 3, all persons focused on both the correct and not-correct sides of the stimulus cards. Under these circumstances, feature-positive and feature-negative performances were comparable. These results indicated that the usual superiority of feature-positive over feature-negative learning results from a tendency to attend to only a portion of the stimulus array.     

The job climate for women in traditionally male blue-collar occupations

Rapid growth has been observed in recent years in the number of women entering traditionally male blue-collar occupations, yet researchers have paid little attention to this pioneering group. The present study undertook a comparison of the job conditions of two groups of nontraditional women workers, tradeswomen (N=71), and transit workers (N=151); a third group, school secretaries (N=389), was studied as a comparison group of traditionally female workers. Results from a 16-page mail questionnaire revealed that women in traditionally male occupations encountered significantly more adverse working conditions than did their traditional counterparts, and, in addition, reported significantly less satisfaction and more stress at work. Tradeswomen were the most likely to experience sexual harassment and sex discrimination, and black tradeswomen to experience race discrimination. The degree of job satisfaction expressed by the secretaries was unexpected, since most evidence suggests that clerical workers lack autonomy, and encounter boredom and routinization on the job. These findings are discussed in terms of gender segregation and the need to focus future research efforts on specific occupational groups in order to make appropriate policy recommendations as well as to provide help for women in these jobs.This research was supported by grants from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (Grant No. 1 RO1 OH02162-01A1) and the College of Health and Human Development, The Pennsylvania State University. The authors wish to acknowledge the invaluable contributions of Patty Lambert, Ming Qi Wang, Mary Harmon, Joseph Vasey, Gina Jay, Darrell Harvey, and Haleh Rastegary.     

Situational factors affecting the weighting of predictor components in the Fishbein model

The Fishbein regression model (B ≈ BI ≈ (Aact)w₀ + (NBs)w₁) is designed to predict behavior (B) from attitudes (Aact) and normative beliefs (NBs). Using a variation of theAjzen and Fishbein (Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 1970,6, 466–487) method, potential limitations of the model were investigated. It was found that certain situational factors were capable of altering the nature of the model significantly. Aact carried a nonsignificant regression weight when the participant had had no prior direct experience with the act and carried a significant weight when the participant had had experience with the act. NB carried a nonsignificant weight under competitive motivational set conditions and a significant weight under cooperative set conditions. These findings raise the question of the generality of the Fishbein model, since different prediction models were required by different situational conditions. The hypothesized association between attitude and behavior appears to be dependent on prior experience with the behavior, while the association between norms and behavior seems to be dependent on consistency between personal motivation and perceived social expectations.     

Influence of linguistic complexity,rate of presentation,and interphrase pause time on auditory-verbal comprehension of adult aphasic patients

Among the variables affecting comprehension of linguistic stimuli by aphasic subjects are syntactic complexity and processing time. Comprehension performance of 15 aphasic adults was studied while altering the rate of speech presentation and varying the pause time between the major phrases within sentences of increasing grammatical complexity.Simple Active Affirmative Declarative Sentences, Negative, and Passive sentences were presented (1) at the rate of 150 words per minute (wpm) with 1-sec interphrase pause time (IPT); (2) 150 wpm with no pauses; (3) 120 wpm with 1-sec IPT; (4) 120 wpm with no pauses added.Performance was seen to vary with increasing syntactical complexity and as a function of processing time. Greater comprehension was seen with active affirmative than negative; greater with passive affirmative than with active negative. Clinical implications are discussed. Subjects demonstrated greater comprehension when sentences were presented at slower than normal rate; addition of interphrase pause time intervals aided comprehension. Combining slower rate of presentation and IPT intervals provided greatest increase in auditory processing time and showed concomitant increase in comprehension performance.