Contextual Connections Within Puns: Effects on Perceived Humor and Memory

The supposition that perceived humor or cleverness would be enhanced by adding separate content to the alternative meanings of a pun was explored, using Tom Swifties as the research vehicle. Because detecting a punning word relationship might induce arousal, requiring more effort and attentional resources for processing than noting a contextual connection, memory strength for adverbs was also examined using a recognition procedure. Five studies were conducted in which college students were asked to judge 24 Swifties (content counterbalanced across participants) in which presence of pun and context were manipulated. The punning relationship was primarily responsible for perceived humor and cleverness. Presence of a pun also enhanced memory strength (d') as long as the familiarization task focused on humor and cleverness. Coherent context enhanced perceived cleverness inconsistently. It was suggested that a coherent contextual connection may make a greater contribution in more lengthy forms of pun-based word play, such as fables or “shaggy dog” stories.     

An Empirical Comparison of Audition,Vision, and Touch in the Discrimination of Temporal Patterns and Ability to Reproduce them

Two conditional reasoning tests were administered to 34 students (17 males and 17 females) at each of four grade levels (i.e., 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th). Both tests contained conditional reasoning arguments which assessed students' comprehension of five basic principles of inference. However, they varied systematically according to the sex typing of the content (i.e., masculine or feminine). The results indicated that there were no significant sex differences according to grade level, type of content, or principle of inference. On the other hand, at each grade level, there were consistent differences among the mean scores for the five principles, and valid principles were significantly easier than invalid principles. The implications of these findings for future research were discussed.     

On the Existential Interpretation of the Rorschach Test

This is an analysis of the Rorschachs of two subjects, a boy and a girl, from the longitudinal research programs of the Institute of Human Development, University of California, Berkeley. Rorschachs had been obtained from these subjects prior to their becoming seriously ill, one with a kidney condition, the other with leukemia. On the basis of the thematic content of the Rorschachs, it was postulated that Rorschach responses may, like dreams, be considered endoscopic in that they may reveal the actual functioning or disfunctioning of the organism, particularly at the onset of somatic illness. Data, from anthropological, mythological, and literary sources, as well as research on the body image concept, were utilized to amplify the hypothesis and to suggest directions for further research.     

A Multivariate Analysis of Psychographic Variables

This study examined the relationship between demographic and personality variables through the use of a multivariate technique, canonical analysis. The principal advantage of such a technique lies in its ability to simultaneously consider sets of variables rather than focusing narrowly in a single predictor or criterion variable. The four demographic variables examined, sex, age, education, and marital status, produced four statistically significant relationships with personality traits measured by the Edwards Personal Preference Schedule. These relations were examined and suggestions made as to how the results might be used to indicate areas for further research.     

Urbanization and Changing Perceptions of Responsibilities Among African Fathers

This study examined the effect of urbanization on 102 South African fathers' perceptions of their paternal responsibilities. Fathers were categorized as rural, transitional, or urban on the basis of a standardized interval measure of urbanization. Perceptions of paternal responsibilities were rank-ordered into three basic anthropologically sequential categories: breadwinner, governor, and family. Results indicated that rural, transitional, and urban fathers all viewed breadwinner responsibilities as most important but that urbanization had a significant effect on fathers' perceptions of their responsibilities.     

Influence of Levels of Abstractness on Reasoning Ability

Judgment by students of faculty effectiveness have relied, for the most part, on subjectively expressed responses to a series of “effectiveness traits” (cues). Simple averaging schemes have summarized the aggregate judgments, often resulting in (a) treating all cues as if they were of equal importance, and (b) inattention to the effects or measurement of individual differences of judges.

Multiple regression was used in this study to derive (empirically) individual cue utilization patterns (i.e., weights) for 10 effectiveness traits. Ss were compared to their subjectively expressed judgment scheme. Results indicate that Ss were moderately successful in expressing their actual cue utilization patterns; however, different judgment schemes were clearly observed.     

Instructional and behavior management practices implemented by elementary general education teachers

This investigation examined 317 general education kindergarten through fifth-grade teachers' use of instructional and behavioral management strategies as measured by the Classroom Strategy Scale (CSS)-Observer Form, a multidimensional tool for assessing classroom practices. The CSS generates frequency of strategy use and discrepancy scores reflecting the difference between recommended and actual frequencies of strategy use. Hierarchical linear models (HLMs) suggested that teachers' grade-level assignment was related to their frequency of using instructional and behavioral management strategies: Lower grade teachers utilized more clear 1 to 2 step commands, praise statements, and behavioral corrective feedback strategies than upper grade teachers, whereas upper grade teachers utilized more academic monitoring and feedback strategies, content/concept summaries, student focused learning and engagement, and student thinking strategies than lower grade teachers. Except for the use of praise statements, teachers' usage of instructional and behavioral management strategies was not found to be related to years of teaching experience or to the interaction of years of teaching experience and grade-level assignment. HLMs suggested that teachers' grade level was related to their discrepancy scores of some instructional and behavioral management strategies: Upper grade teachers had higher discrepancy scores in academic performance feedback, behavioral feedback, and praise than lower grade teachers. Teachers' discrepancy scores of instructional and behavioral management strategies were not found to be related to years of teaching experience or to the interaction of years of teaching experience and grade-level assignment. Implications of results for school psychology practice are outlined.     

Still cautious: Personality characteristics of extremely low birth weight adults in their early 30s

Extremely low birth weight survivors (ELBW; <1000 g) display a personality style characterized by cautiousness, shyness, and risk aversion in their 20s. We examined whether non-impaired ELBW survivors were still more cautious than their normal birth weight (NBW) peers at ages 30–35 and assessed the stability of this personality characteristic across approximately a decade in the oldest known cohort of ELBW survivors. Of the 154 participants tested at ages 22–26, 111 (i.e., 72%) of them returned approximately 10 years later [i.e., 69% (49/71) ELBW and 75% (62/83) NBW], and once again they completed the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Revised (EPQ-R). We created the same theoretically and empirically derived composite measure of cautiousness at each visit by summing the EPQ-R psychoticism scale (reverse scored) and the EPQ-R lie scale. We found that ELBW adults reported higher cautiousness than their NBW counterparts at ages 30–35. We also found that levels of cautiousness remained stable over approximately 10 years in both groups. Our findings suggest that individuals born at ELBW were more cautious than NBW peers and that this personality characteristic remained stable into their early 30s. The present study appears to be the first empirical demonstration of personality stability among adult ELBW survivors.     

Repeated measurement of salivary cortisol within and across days among shy young adults

Temperamental shyness emerges early in childhood and remains relatively stable throughout development and has been associated with high and low levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Studies examining the relation between shyness and cortisol have been limited because they have traditionally collected only one measure of cortisol on a single day in the laboratory, restricting the reliability and diurnal profile of the measure in the participant’s everyday environment. We collected 15 saliva samples across three separate days (i.e., upon waking, +60 min post-waking, +8 h post-waking, +10 h post-waking, and bedtime) in a sample of healthy young adults selected for high and low shyness in order to characterize a portion of the diurnal cortisol rhythm. Overall, shy individuals demonstrated relatively lower cortisol across the day and across multiple mornings than non-shy adults. Higher self-reported social anxiety across multiple measures was also related to lower total cortisol levels across all participants. The present study replicates and extends our previous findings of low salivary cortisol measured in the laboratory in shy adults to repeated measurement in their everyday environments.