A method for the preparation of audio tapes for dichotic listening research

A simple method for producing audio tapes with temporally synchronized messages is described. The duration and spacing of words can be precisely controlled. This method requires a minimum of elaborate equipment, yet synchronization is very accurate with highly intelligible speech.     

Cognitive support for the career choices of college women

The career aspirations of 50 female college seniors of lower- and middle-class backgrounds was assessed by a questionnaire and tape-recorded interview. Using a fourfold classification contrasting career choice with career commitment, the women were classified as innovative career oriented, innovative noncareer oriented, traditional career oriented, and traditional noncareer oriented. The career aspirations of these women, however, were not related to maternal employment patterns as previous studies have indicated. Rather, the perceived attitudes and direction of the parents was found to be a significant correlate of career choice and career commitment. It was concluded that maternal employment as a modeling variable may be unimportant for women of lower- and middle-class backgrounds.This article is based on a dissertation which was submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Ph.D. degree in the Graduate Center, City University of New York. The author expresses appreciation to Dr. Florence Denmark for her continuous support throughout the entire study and also thanks Dr. Bernard Seidenberg for his valuable suggestions on earlier drafts of this article.     

A simple special-purpose interval-duration timer for acoustic research

A special-purpose interval-duration timer is described. The device is designed to interface with commercially available psychophysical packages, to be used in time interval calibration. The extremely low cost of materials justifies the construction of this essentially single-purpose device.     

Figurai vs. configural effects in the filled duration illusion

Patterns varying in form goodness and size were presented for 15, 30, and 45 msec. The experiment included three independent groups of subjects. Half of the first group were presented size variations with good figures, while the other half were shown size variations with poor figures. Half of the second group were presented goodness variations with small figures, while the other half were shown goodness variations with large figures. A third group experienced variations in both goodness and size. The major findings were: (1) poor figures and large figures were judged “longer” than good or small figures when varied within a session; (2) this effect vanished when the different levels of size or goodness were presented to separate groups of subjects; (3) the magnitude of the difference in temporal estimation was the same for size and goodness when each was varied in isolation; (4) when size and form goodness were varied orthogonally in the same session, both dimensions produced reliable changes in temporal estimation. These data are discussed in light of current theoretical explanations of the filled duration illusion.     

Graphemic analysis underlying literacy

Three experiments are described that studied the role of detailed graphemic analysis upon the ability to read text. College students named letters in various approximations to English, with frequency of individual letters constant. Findings were that later skill at reading varied with the order of approximation to English of the letters that were named, that the spacing of the letter sequences was important to this result, and, finally, that the influence of specific visual practice extended to the typeface on which the naming and reading were carried out. Hence, rather than a letter-by-letter process or its opposite, a wholly semantic analysis, reading is shown to be intimately dependent upon details of visual analysis of patterns or letter sequences.     

An information processing system for the psychiatric emergency room

An information processing system for a psychiatric emergency room is described. Several studies are presented that show the utility of the system. In the first study, variables involved in diagnosis are explicated. The second study attempts to determine the characteristics that distinguish recidivists from nonrecidivists at an emergency room. The third study attempts to find patient variables related to success in short-term treatment programs. The final study is aimed at discovering whether there are psychopathological effects related to the use of inhalants. Together, these studies show the potential of a mental health information system for learning more about the nature of mental disorders and their treatment.     

Parafoveal information is not sufficient to produce semantic or visual priming

Marcel (1978) has shown that semantic priming can occur in the lexical-decision task even if the prime is masked to the point at which its presence cannot be detected. The purpose of the present experiments was to determine if primes that begin four or five spaces to the right of fixation can also produce semantic facilitation even though they are very difficult to recognize. Experiment 1 showed that facilitation did occur when the parafoveal primes used in the subsequent experiments were presented foveally. In Experiment 2, the primes were moved to the parafovea, but the task demands directed the subject’s attention toward the fovea. When subjects were ignoring the information presented to the parafovea (an allocation pattern that should correspond to that used during normal reading), neutral primes were just as effective as either semantically related or identical primes. In Experiment 3, the task demands were altered so that subjects were actively attending to the parafoveal primes. Although subjects were trying to process the primes, there was still no evidence that benefits could be derived from parafoveal primes. A final experiment showed that subjects given extensive practice with the materials will produce large amounts of identity and semantic priming. The results support the conclusion that readers can benefit little from the preprocessing of information in the parafovea unless that information can be supplemented with contextual expectations.     

Probabilistic contingency theories of animal conditioning: A critical analysis

Seven contingency theories of classical and instrumental conditioning were defined in relation to the contingency matrix and to six separate probabilities which can be derived from this matrix. These theories were compared on the basis of formal similarities and differences, and were judged against three separate empirical variables which have been discussed in the contingency literature: the duration of the intertrial interval, partial reinforcement, and negative contingencies between the two events of conditioning. All previous theories had some difficulty predicting the effects of one or more of these variables upon animal conditioning. Also, some formulas make the unusual prediction that there will be less conditioning when there is more than one conditioning trial. The paper concluded with an extensive discussion of the problems that are created by conditioning events with temporal extension; events which are then categorized by a contingency matrix which has no temporal character. Some possible solutions to the problems were discussed.     

The effects of sex differences and evaluation on task performance and aspiration

An investigation was conducted of how evaluation differentially affects the performance and aspiration for future performance of 118 high school boys and girls. Subjects were selected to fit into either a superior or average intelligence group. In the high evaluation condition, subjects were instructed that their intelligence was being evaluated in anagram and visual-motor tasks they performed, while those in the low evaluation condition were instructed that the two tasks were being correlated. It was hypothesized that on a highly evaluated task, girls, when compared to boys, would show greater performance debilitation and would have lower aspirations for future performance. Although sex differences were found in performance debilitation and aspiration for future performance, they were not all in the predicted directions. Girls were equally debilitated in anagram performance under both evaluation conditions, while boys were debilitated in anagram performance only under high evaluation. When both boys and girls demonstrated a performance debilitation on the anagram task, their performance declined approximately 10%. No sex differences in performance were found on the visual-motor task. On both tasks, girls' aspirations were significantly affected by evaluation condition. The girls averaged 89% choosing the more difficult task in the low evaluation condition. Evaluation condition had no significant effect on aspiration for boys on either task. Intelligence showed no significant relationships.