Mindless reading: Eye-movement characteristics are similar in scanning letter strings and reading texts

The purpose of the present study was to compare the oculomotor behavior of readers scanning meaningful and meaningless materials. Four conditions were used—a normal-text-reading control condition, and three experimental conditions in which the amount of linguistic processing was reduced, either by presenting the subjects with repeated letter strings or by asking the subjects to search for a target letter in texts or letter strings. The results show that global eye-movement characteristics (such as saccade size and fixation duration), as well as local characteristics (such as word-skipping rate, landing site, refixation probability, and refixation position), are very similar in the four conditions. The finding that the eyes are capable of generating an autonomous oculomotor scanning strategy in the absence of any linguistic information to process argues in favor of the idea that such predetermined oculomotor strategies might be an important determinant of eye movements in reading.     

Taking an individualized approach to the assessment of self-efficacy and the prediction of alcoholic relapse

The present study reports on a clinical instrument designed for assessing self-efficacy in alcoholics. In contrast to studies that construct general measures, it was proposed that taking an individualized approach to assessment might offer an effective methodology. Thirty-four alcoholics in an outpatient, behaviorally oriented treatment program participated as subjects. During therapy, an Individualized Self-Efficacy Survey (ISS) was developed for each subject. The ISS was developed by (a) administering the Drinking Patterns Questionnaire (DPQ) to identify important problem areas (e.g., work, children, marital) and specific drinking antecedents and (b) constructing a 15-item scale using each drinker's most important cues. The utility of having clients choose their own items was supported by finding a significant relationship between problem areas identified as important on the DPQ and the areas reported as surrounding relapse. ISS ratings were reflective of efficacy changes during treatment, while posttreatment ISS scores were predictive of subsequent relapse. Situation-specific prediction of relapse was not found. The advantages of this methodology for clinical use are discussed, while general directions for future research are suggested.     

The effect of token reinforcement on McCarthy Scale performance for white preschoolers of low and high social position

In Study 1, the effect of making tokens contingent on correct performance of low social position preschoolers on the McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilitieswas examined. Preschoolers in a token reinforcement group scored significantly higher (mean=8 IQ points) than subjects in a control group. In Study 2, the effect of tokens on McCarthyresults was examined as a function of social position in a 2×2 design. The high social position control group scored significantly above the low social position control. The low social position token reinforcement group, however, performed as well as both the high social position control and token reinforcement groups. Use of systematic reinforcement contingencies to reduce test error is discussed.     

In the light of the splendor: Veritatis Splendor and moral theology.

In the last 25 years, Roman Catholic moral theology has debated issues ranging from the sources of moral theology to the role of ecclesiastical authority in moral theology. In 1993, Pope John Paul II issued his encyclical letter Veritatis Splendor, which addresses issues in fundamental moral theology. The encyclical must be understood against the background of ongoing debates since Pope Paul VI's 1968 encyclical on birth control (Humanae Vitae). It is not clear what the impact of Veritatis Splendor will be. However, it seems safe to say that it will be deployed in debates about issues such as birth control, artificial reproduction, sterilization, and abortion.     

Novel popout with nonsense strings: Effects of predictability of string length and spatial location

Recent studies have shown that when one of four expected words is replaced by a single unexpected word, the unexpected word may capture attention. In three experiments, we explored the generality of this effect. In each experiment, observers viewed arrays composed of four computergenerated “nonsense” strings. Accuracy of string localization was assessed after each array. Some strings, calledfamiliar, appeared in many arrays, whereas others, callednovel, appeared in only one. In each experiment, novel strings in arrays composed of one novel and three familiar strings were localized more accurately than were novel strings in arrays composed entirely of novel strings, and familiar strings in these arrays were localized less accurately than were familiar strings in arrays composed entirely of familiar strings. These two effects, termednovel popout andfamiliar sink-in, respectively, were observed even when novel and familiar strings were rendered less discriminable by holding their lengths constant (Experiment 2) and when familiar strings always appeared in the same spatial locations (Experiment 3). The data suggest that novel objects can capture attention even when the objects lack any clear linguistic referent, when they are superficially similar to the familiar objects that surround them, and when the spatial locations of familiar objects are completely predictable.     

Visual processing of multielement arrays and selective backward masking

In the first of two selective masking experiments, 7-letter rows were followed at several ISIs by a mask or no-mask and a bar-marker partial report cue. The results suggest that the arrays were processed ends-first and then, in general, from both ends towards the middle. In the second experiment, bar-marker partial report cues were presented at the onset or offset of 6-letter/1-digit or 7-letter rows. The subjects could not anticipate the category of the to-be-reported item with the alphanumeric displays. With a delayed cue, selective masking was obtained with both mixed category and pure letter arrays, but with simultaneous cuing, masking was always distributed across all serial positions. The results suggest that the subjects: (a) abstracted some information about category from the mixed arrays during an initial parallel stage of processing, (b) selectively attended to mainly the cued item with simultaneous probes with homeogeneous and mixed category displays, and (c) employed an ends-first processing strategy with both types of arrays when the bar-marker partial report cue was delayed.     

Attentional biases and the right-ear effect in dichotic listening

Most dichotic listening experiments permit subjects to deploy attention in any way they choose. We argue that this adds uncontrolled variance to the observed right-ear advantage. In the first experiment, more robust laterality effects were obtained in an identification task with focused than with divided attention. Such differences were not found in the second experiment, when a detection procedure was used. Virtually all the laterality effect observed in the second study could be attributed to subjects who were biased attenders, in the sense that they exhibited more intrusions from the right ear to the left than vice versa. However, rather than indicating that laterality effects are simply attentional bias, this effect can be attributed to an asymmetry of perceptual discrimination.