The symbolic implications of vowels and of their orthographic representations in two natural languages

Ninety-two Hebrew-speaking subjects judged the magnitude, brightness, and hardness symbolism of orthographic characters designating five vowel phonemes in Hindi and in Japanese. For both languages and all three symbolic dimensions, the figural symbolism of the orthographic characters was found to replicate very closely the sound symbolism of their phonemic referents. The ranking of the five vowel characters in order of increasing magnitude and decreasing brightness and hardness was as follows:i, e, a, u, o. The results were interpreted to suggest that sound patterns and visual patterns tend to carry cross-culturally consistent connotations, and that the symbolic implications of sounds have been embodied in the pattern of orthographic characters in natural languages.This study was supported by a grant from the Human Development Center, The Hebrew University.     

MEASURING CLIENT GAINS FROM STAFF-IMPLEMENTED PROGRAMS

Confidence in the adequacy with which staff implement training programs requires an analysis of the impact on the client. In two experiments, measures were devised to reflect this impact. In the first, a measure of the consistency with which clients participated in a toilet-training program revealed their participation to be erratic. Consistent participation occurred after a public display of the consistency of participation was introduced. In Experiment II, detailed measures were devised to reflect the client's performance during the implementation of two physical-therapy programs: range-of-motion and ambulation. Additionally, standardized measures of the benefits that accrued from their participation in these programs were devised. Improvements in both measures were slight and unstable during a condition of immediate feedback (supervisor praise) to staff but substantial improvements were obtained with the addition of a public display of the client's performance.     

The “Three Rs” of Sex

Summary We have seen that sex has three functions, the reproductive, the relational, and the recreational. We have shown it probable that a great deal of unnecessary marital conflict comes from one party holding relational sex to be all-important while the other considers recreational sex to be of more importance. Finally, we have indicated that it is most likely that if they can compromise this difficulty by each meeting the other on his own ground a part of the time, much of the haggling will stop and many unnecessary divorces will be avoided.The Rev. Maxwell H. Morris, Th.D., following studies in the Old Testament and ancient history in the University of Oregon, the University of Washington, and the University of Southern California, spent a year in Jewish studies at the Hebrew Union College for Rabbinical Studies in Cincinnati. His interest in the psychology of sex grew out of his attempts to understand phallic and fertility cults.     

Personal Encounter in Higher Education

The undergraduate course in the psychology of personal and social development at the University of California at Davis recently underwent some methodological changes. The changes were the addition of weekly encounter groups to traditional lecture during the fall and winter quarter and the substitution of the encounter groups for lectures during the spring quarter. Students found that the addition of the encounter groups to the lecture increased their involvement in the course and made it a much more meaningful and relevant experience when compared with other college courses already taken. Students in the class where the encounter groups took the place of the lecture not only found their experience more meaningful and relevant when compared with the traditional lecture class but also scored as well as the lecture class on an identical final exam.     

Comments on cognitive science in the experimental analysis of behavior

Arguments are increasingly being made for the inclusion of cognitive science in the experimental analysis of behavior (TEAB). These arguments are described, and a critical analysis of them is presented, especially in regards to the logic of objective inference and the renewed use of cognitive intervening variables. In addition, one particular defining feature of cognitive processes (i.e., the absence of an immediate controlling stimulus) is described, along with alternative points of view stressing molar-molecular levels of analysis and historical causation. Finally, comments are made on the use of cognitive concepts and language in the behavioral sciences. On all of these issues, counter-arguments are based on available material in behavior analysis metatheory, concepts, and experimental practices.     

A portable micro-based system for the study of associated movements

This paper describes a microcomputer-based system for the on-line study of associated movements. The system is portable, provides hard copy, includes a backup system, is relatively inexpensive, can be used with simple or choice reaction time paradigms, and is simple to operate.     

Effects of goodness and other properties of patterns on discriminative performance of monkeys

Subsequent to prism adaptation, subjects may be readaptedto their original visual-motor coordination using procedures similar to those occurring during adaptation. It has been argued that such procedures will be moreeffective than allowing for a decay of the aftereffect if normal visual-motor behavior is itself a state of adaptation. In the present study, two readaptation procedures were compared for their effectiveness to four decay and/or controf conditions. Although all groups, except for one decay condition, showed significant reductions in prism aftereffects, only the two readaptation groups showed final aftereffects that were not significantly different from zero.It is argued that readaptation is distinguishable from decay and, further, that the necessary conditions for readaptation can be elucidated with reference to the information discordance hypothesis of prism adaptation. These arguments are primarily based on an extensive analysis inwhich discrepant informationabout the adapted arm’s position is supplied by a nonvisual search task using the two arms.