On knowing the meaning of words we are unable to report confirmation of a guessing explanation

This experiment investigated Allport's (1977) claim that normal subjects can be induced to make semantic errors of the type characterised by “deep dyslexia”. The procedure followed that used by Allport except that a subject based control for the chance level of semantic errors was included. The results replicated the original finding by producing a semantic error rate of 12·7%. It was shown, however, that this rate was not significantly higher than the calculated chance rate of 11·5%. It was concluded, therefore, that the semantic error rates reported by Allport can be accounted for in terms of a guessing artefact and thus they bear no relevance to the problem of deep dyslexia.     

Dynamic visual noise and the stereophenomenon: Interocular time delays,depth, and coherent velocities

Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics - This study concerns the stereophenomenon obtained with binocular viewing of dynamic visual noise with a neutral density filter over one eye. Such a...     

Direct versus indirect response-reinforcer relationships in teaching autistic children

One possibility suggested by the literature for maximizing the efficiency of behavior modification procedures concerns the relationship between target behaviors and their reinforcers. Therefore, in this experiment three severely autistic children were taught a total of six new target behaviors (in a multiple baseline design) employing two different response-reinforcer relationships: (1) those where the target behaviors were a direct part of the response chain required to procure a reinforcer (e.g., opening the lid of a container to obtain a food reward inside the container); and (2) those where the target behavior was an indirect part of the chain leading to the reinforcer (e.g., the therapist handing the child a food reward after the child had opened the lid of an empty container). In all cases, the results showed rapid acquisition only when the target behavior was a direct part of the chain leading to the reinforcer. The results are discussed in terms of several possible conceptualizations concerning efficient reinforcement contingencies, and in terms of their implications for teaching autistic children.This investigation was supported by U.S. Public Health Service Research Grants MH 28210 and MH 28231, and by U.S. Office of Education Research Grant G007802084 from the Bureau for the Education of the Handicapped. Portions of the results described in this article were discussed in a presentation at the 13th Annual AABT Convention in San Francisco, 1979. The authors are particularly grateful to Andrew Egel, Roberta Elman, Janis Costello, and Karen Britten, for their helpful comments, and to Jody Fisher and Gina Richman, for their assitance in the data collection.     

Two subjective scales of number

The way in which the apparent magnitude of numbers grows with their absolute magnitude was measured with a modified version of the direct technique Marks and Slawson (1966) used to determine the psychophysical exponent for loudness. This modified technique required subjects to estimate how evenly and randomly a sequence of integers appeared to sample the numerical continuum. The results indicate that the apparent magnitude of numbers increases with a decelerated power function of their arithmetic magnitude when a series samples from an open-ended range. However, when an upper boundary of the range is specified, the subjective scale seems to be linear. Random productions of numbers parallel the results found with judgments of presented sequences. The two scales of number provide the basis for an interpretation of the difference between magnitude and category scales: that subjects use numbers differently when the response scale is open-ended Imagnitude estimation than when it has a fixed upper limit tcategory scale. Given the assumption that subjects use numbers in this way in the two tasks, the qualitative relation between magnitude and category scales is predicted.     

Negative attitudes toward masturbation and pelvic vasocongestion: A thermographic analysis

The present study examined differences in pelvic vasocongestion as a function of negative attitudes toward masturbation. Pelvic vasocongestion was measured thermographically, which is a noninvasive means of detecting and photographing individual heat patterns to indicate physiological condition and functional changes within. The results indicated that women, with positive attitudes toward masturbation, who read an erotic story, experienced the greatest increase in pelvic vasocongestion. This and other findings were discussed in terms of masturbation acting to facilitate the patterning of sexual arousal and orgasmic functioning, especially in regard to creating the capacity for pelvic engorgement.     

Personality and mood: State-trait relationships

The scores of 33 subjects of the neuroticism scale of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire correlated more highly with mood levels averaged over the 12 occasions studied than, on average, with mood scores on single occasions, and more highly with mood described in global terms than with scores on each of the original 18 mood scales. Subjects with high neuroticism scores had poorer mood on average and showed greater variation in mood pattern from one occasion to another than did more stable subjects. It is suggested that forms of relatively poor mood may be more varied than forms of good mood, and that, although neuroticism makes a poor mood more likely, the precise composition of this mood on any occasion may be determined by the combination of situation characteristics and person variables. Psychoticism scores correlated significantly, though weakly, with the average scores for some mood scales independently of neuroticism.     

Sexual preference,feminism, and women's perceptions of their parents

In an attempt to clarify the relation between parental variables, sexual preference, and sex-role attitudes, three groups of women were studied: lesbian feminists, heterosexual feminists, and heterosexual traditional women. The women were asked about their perceptions of their parents when they were in high school. The groups differed more from each other with respect to their perceptions of their fathers than their mothers. The perceived attitudes of the father were much more important in differentiating lesbian feminists from heterosexuals than in differentiating heterosexual feminists from heterosexual traditionals. Both the heterosexual groups (feminist and traditionals) reported having a more affectionate and involved father who also encouraged them more in the expression of anger than the lesbian feminists reported. The results suggest women's father relationships must not be obscured in research and support Johnson's hypothesis that the father relationship is more central than the mother relationship in sex typing and especially in the specifically sexual aspects of sex typing.     

The following schedule of reinforcement as a fundamental determinant of steady state contrast in multiple schedules

Two experiments investigated whether steady-state interactions in multiple schedules depend exclusively on the following schedule of reinforcement. Experiment 1 used a four-component multiple schedule in which two components were associated with the same constant schedule of reinforcement, and where rate of reinforcement was varied in the component that followed one of these. Contrast effects were reliable only in the component that preceded the point of reinforcement variation, although some contrast did occur otherwise. In those instances where contrast other than the following-schedule effect did occur, it was accounted for by the effect of the preceding schedule, an effect for which there were consistent individual differences among subjects, and which varied with component duration. Experiment 2 used a three-component schedule, in which reinforcement rate was varied in the middle component. The results were consistent with Experiment 1, as the following-schedule effect was the only consistent effect that occurred, although an effect of the preceding schedule did occur for some subjects under some conditions, and was especially evident early in training. The conclusion from both experiments is that there is no general effect of relative rate of reinforcement apart from the sum of the effects of the preceding and following schedules, and that the following-schedule effect is the fundamental cause of steady-state interactions.     

Development of clinical tests of vision: Initial data on two hyperacuity paradigms

Many basic psychophysical functions offer promise as clinical tests of vision. Here, we discuss problems that one encounters in the clinical setting, how one identifies a psychophysical test for potential clinical development, and an orderly approach to development of suitable test paradigms. Parameters are selected which are relatively insensitive to variables encountered in the field (clinic) in a normal population, but which are sensitive to changes in the response system being studied. Initial data on two hyperacuity tests are presented. These tests are adaptations of hyperacuity paradigms (Westheimer, 1979) to a clinical environment. This particular test set offers promise because it exhibits a unique threshold which is dependent upon neural data processing and is relatively independent of retinal image degradation.