Perceptual cues used in reproduction of inspired volume

Man is capable of reproducing an inspired lung volume (IV) with relative precision (±3 %–8 %). To investigate the importance of cues which may be used to determine IV, we performed two experiments. In each, the subject inspired a “standard” breath (from resting end~xpired lung volume) corresponding to 25%, 50%, or 75% of inspiratory capacity (IC) and then expired nearly completely. From this expired volume, the subject either tried to reproduce the tidal volume (i.e., volume of air inspired) of the first breath (volume reproduction) or to reproduce the previous end-inspired lung volume (position reproduction). The constant error indicated that subjects overestimated tidal volume by about 200 ml. Despite this overestimation, the variability of reproduction was less for volume reproduction than for position reproduction when IV was small. The JND for volume reproduction increased linearly with increasing IV, whereas the JND for position reproduction was similar at all IVs so that the Weber ratio decreased. These observations suggest that, in the perception of inspired volume, the sensation of end-inspired position is important when the inspired volume is large, but that subjects apparently rely on some other cue to reproduce small lung volumes accurately.     

Personality patterns of adolescent poor and good sleepers

To determine whether poor sleepers have a unique personality constellation significantly different from that of good sleepers, a sample of 162 emotionally disturbed adolescent poor sleepers was compared to a sample of 153 emotionally disturbed adolescent good sleepers on standardized personality instruments. Poor sleepers were found to have a high incidence of neurotic psychopathology with personality patterns characterized by depression, fearfulness, inhibition, anxiety, and rumination. In contrast, good sleepers showed quasi healthy and/or characterological patterns. While this study does not resolve cause and effect relationships, it does establish a highly significant relationship between neuroticism and sleep disturbance for adolescent boys and girls, and also demonstrates a similarity of personality dynamics and patterns between adult and adolescent samples of patients with sleep disturbances.     

Effects of retention interval and modality on sensory and semantic trace information

Subjects studied a long list of individual words that were presented either visually or auditorily. Recall was tested immediately or after a filled delay by using either word endings or taxonomic categories as extralist retrieval cues. Two interactions were of particular interest. First, word ending cues were just as effective as taxonomic cues on the immediate test. On the delayed test, however, ending cues were less effective. This result suggests that sensory information encoded about a word decays at a faster rate than semantic information. Second, although modality had no observable influence on the taxonomic cues, word ending cues were more effective when all items were shown visually than when they were presented auditorily. Taken together, these findings indicate that the visual features of words are encoded at study and that this information can be accessed during test if it is recapitulated by the retrieval cue shortly after acquisition.     

Auditory processing and anxiety in stutterers

This study utilized the Synthetic Sentence Identification/Ipsilateral and Contralateral Competing Message subtests and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory to examine auditory processing deficits, anxiety levels, and the interaction of these two components in 15 adult stutterers and 15 nonstutterers. Results support brainstem auditory processing deficits in stutterers and equalization of cortical functioning between groups. Group differences were not found in anxiety levels. Nonsignificant correlations between anxiety levels and auditory processing were revealed.     

Ratio scaling of taste intensity by a matching procedure

Given the assumptions that the taste sense is analytic and that the total perceived intensity of a complex taste equals the sum of the perceived intensities of the components, a new procedure was devised to scale taste intensity. Subjects matched the intensity of test substances either to the total intensity or to the intensity of one component of two-component mixtures tin which the two components appeared equally intense. Given the above-stated assumptions, such a pair of matches should define a psychological ratio of 2∶1. Scales erected by this procedure agreed well with scales determined by magnitude estimation.     

The use of teachers as behavioral observers

The effect of using teachers as behavioral observers on both student and teacher behavior was examined with eight teachers and 32 elementary school children. The frequency of prompts (but not praise or criticism) to those students observed by the teacher increased significantly from nonobserver to teacher observed experimental phases. In addition, students observed by the teacher showed more change in appropriate behavior than students who were not observed. The significance of these findings for research and therapy is discussed.     

Data analysis implications of some concepts related to the cuts of a graph

Connections are pointed out between the concept of a cut in a graph and the data analysis problems of hierarchical clustering and seriation encountered in the social and behavioral sciences. An emphasis is placed on hierarchical clustering by the criterion of k-edge connectivity and on the relationship between several criteria for object seriation proposed in the literature and the appropriate graph-theoretical structures.     

Explorations using computer simulation to comprehend thematic apperceptive measurement of motivation

The new theory of motivation by Atkinson and Birch (1970), based on conceptual analysis of a change in activity, has been programmed to allow computer simulation of effects of differences in motivation on the stream of operant behavior. Simulation of conditions that exist when people who differ in strength of achievement motive write imaginative stories in response to a sequence of pictures shows that construct validity does not require internal consistency as traditionally supposed. The theoretically deduced differences in total time spent imagining achieving (instead of something else) can postdict input differences in motive strength (i.e., construct validity) even when there is little or no internal consistency reliability as indicated by Cronbach's (1951) alpha computed from theoretically deduced time spent imagining achievement in response to particular pictures. This general point has already been amply documented in 25 years of productive empirical research using TATn Achievement. Now a definitive theoretical refutation of the repeated psychometric criticism of the method is provided. Those who have been moved to dispel fantasies about fantasy-based measures of achievement motivation (Entwistle, 1972) are invited, instead, to examine the shallow theoretical foudation of our traditional myths of measurement.This paper elaborates a report presented August 30, 1975, at the 83rd annual meeting of the American Psychological Association. The authors gratefully acknowledge early assistance by Mary M. Moffett, and financial support by a Rackham Faculty Research Grant (JWA), a National Science Foundation Fellowship (KB), and a Michigan Student Medical Research Grant (LHP). Intricate detail has been avoided in describing the several simulations for the sake of clarity in this overview of exploratory work.