Rule- and idiosyncratically derived denominal verbs: Effects on language production and comprehension

A distinction is drawn between two classes of denominal verbs, and four experiments examine the effects of this distinction on the production and comprehension of denominalizations.Rule-derived (RD) denominals are formed from nouns belonging to semantic categories whose members share the same meaning when they are used as verbs. For instance, denominal verbs formed from vehicles generally mean “to travel/convey byx,” wherex represents the specific vehicle. In contrast,idiosyncratically derived (ID) denominals are drawn from categories whose members possess diverse meanings when they are used as verbs. Thus,to fish means “to try to catch fish,” whereasto dog means “to chase tirelessly.” Because the verb meanings of rule-derived terms are relatively predictable, they might be more easily produced and understood. Experiments 1 and 2 show that speakers are more likely to select RD terms for denominalization and are faster at creating denominal uses for RD terms. Experiments 3 and 4 show that RD denominals are rated as easier to understand than ID denominals, and that they are interpreted more uniformly across readers. The Discussion considers pragmatic accounts of the results, the theoretical basis for the distinction between RD and ID terms, and the more general point that experimental methods can be used to study creative uses of language.     

Orthographic cues to lexical stress: Effects on naming and lexical decision

Words whose spellings represent regular phonemic patterns, such asmint, show advantages in naming and lexical decision tasks over words, such aspint, that have exceptional relations between orthographic and phonemic patterns. We have extended such phenomena to the domain of lexical stress, by showing that disyllabic words whose spellings are consistent with their stress are easier to process than words whose spellings are misleading about stress. Such words are named more quickly and are pronounced with incorrect stress less often (Experiment 1). They are also classified more quickly and accurately in lexical decision tasks (Experiments 2 and 3). These results indicate that literate speakers have learned orthographic correlates to lexical stress in English. In addition, the similarities between results in the phonemic and prosodic domains indicate that models of reading developed for the former could be extended to the latter area.     

Muslim Canadians: Immigration policy and community development in the 1991 census

Canada's Muslim population is rapidly increasing. Initial immigration was hindered by the racist White Canada policy, discarded in 1962. Thereafter, Muslims from South Asia and the Middle East entered Canada in large numbers as professionals and trained workers, as well as substantial numbers of refugees. While the community is well‐integrated economically, in terms of job classification and educational involvement, Muslims face prejudice and discrimination because of their race and religion. The most important challenge is passing on religious and cultural traditions to offspring, not only since their socialization occurs in a secular environment but also because the higher levels of economic and educational success within the Muslim community tend to break down religious and cultural barriers to mixed marriages. While characteristics of Muslim social identity, such as esteem for education and caring for older relatives, are positive factors encouraging group adhesion, negative forces, such as racism, also contribute to group maintenance.     

Behavioral and environmental correlates of infant abuse in group- living pigtail macaques

The present study investigated the context of occurrence of infant abuse and the behavior of abusive mothers and their infants in pigtail macaques (Macaca nemestrina). Subjects were 8 abusive mothers with their infants and 8 control mother-infant pairs living in 3 captive social groups. The most common forms of abuse were infant crushing and dragging and the most common context of occurrence was social stress. Severe and mild abuse differed in the frequency but not in the type of abuse patterns. Abusive mothers had controlling parenting styles relative to nonabusive mothers, and abused infants played at a later age and less frequently than controls. This study replicates previous findings on the parenting styles of abusive macaque mothers and provides new evidence on the context of occurrence of abuse and its consequences for infant health and social development.     

Factors affecting reports of fragmenting visual images

Seven experiments employing simulation as well as actual voluntary stabilization were performed to study the reporting of fragmenting visual images. The results indicated a significant bias toward the reporting of meaningful fragments when verbal reports were used throughout each trial. Moreover, tracings of fragments were completely accurate only when one line segment of the original pattern remained, with errors becoming increasingly likely as the number of segments remaining increased. Diagonally oriented line segments disappeared more frequently than those oriented either vertically or horizontally. Locus of fixation proved important, but Hebb’s hypothesis concerning the preponderance of meaningful fragments was not supported.     

Suppression of random-ratio and acceleration of temporally spaced responding by the same prereward stimulus in monkeys

A 1-min tone and light signal that preceded two free pellets of food suppressed the random-ratio responding of four rhesus monkeys, but accelerated the same subjects' responding on a differential-reinforcement-of-low-rate schedule in separate sessions. Both schedule-specific interactions occurred during the first presentations of the signal that previously had been paired with food outside the operant sessions. Thus, neither effect was adventitiously produced. In two subjects, both the direction and magnitude of the prereward change in differential-reinforcement-of-low-rate responding appeared related to baseline response rates: the more rapid the baseline responding, the less was the acceleration during the signal. Suppression and acceleration did not appear as dichotomous effects with separate parameters, but as related effects at least partly determined by the characteristics of the baseline operant performance.     

Localization of a peripheral target during parametric adjustment of saccadic eye movements

The aim of the experiment was to find out whether saccadiceve movements have any effect on perceived visual directions. ihe method was to alter the parameters of the oculomotor system so that the eye movement made in response to a peripheral target was inappropriate to the retinal locus of its image. It was found that this procedure had no effect on the perceived location of the peripheral target; and it was concluded that a specific retinal locus is more or less rigidly associated with a corresponding visual direction, but not with a particular magnitude of ocular rotation.