Subliminal stimulation, choice behavior and some personality correlates of subliminal sensitivity

The aim of this study was to investigate the possible relations between specific personality variables and the effect of subliminal stimulation on choice behavior. It was hypothesized that subjects with low anxiety, less neuroticism, and external locus of control and the trait of extraversion would be more susceptible to subliminal stimulation. 38 undergraduate students were exposed to subliminal messages urging them to choose symbols instead of numbers or letters. Analysis showed that subliminal stimulation did not generate a preference for symbols over numbers or letters. No support was observed for the hypothesis of an association between susceptibility and personality variables. These results may be explained in terms of symbol choice being a neutral message that did not relate to the subjects' needs and motivation.     

Critical review: Richard B. Brandt,A Theory of the Good and the Right

Conclusion To sum up. Doubts can be raised about cognitive psychoterapy. The charge of utopianism may apply in part. And a few quibbles are possible about other points. This hardly detracts from the enormous achievement of the book, which really sets a new standard for the subject, in my opinion. Brandt makes abundantly clear the importance and usefulness of trying to state issues in neutral nonmoral terminology in a way that permits them to be answered but also allows one to understand why one might be interested in the answers. He shows how psychological theory can be applied in philosophy in unsuspected ways. He greatly advances our understanding of the sorts of criticisms that actions are subject to, and therefore advances our understanding of practical reasons. He provides an excellent account of what a morality is. He raises an important issue about desire satisfaction versions of utilitarianism and presents a plausible theory concerning the measurement of a group's total happiness.The Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1979.     

Toward understanding sex differences in pay allocation: Agency,communion, and reward distribution behavior

This research examined the extent to which the personality characteristics of agency and communion are sex linked, and the extent to which differences in these orientations can account for sex differences in reward distribution behavior. In two studies, the agency and communion level of large samples of male and female undergraduates were assessed. As expected, males were more agentic and females were more communal. Moreover, when subjects who scored high or low on agency and high or low on communion were asked to allocate rewards between themselves and a co-worker, these personality differences were related to their allocation decisions. These results were used as the basis for discussing the role that sex-linked personality differences might play in distributive justice judgments.This article is an adaptation of a colloquium presentation at the meeting of the American Psychological Association, Los Angeles, August 1981. The research reported here was supported by NIMH grant MH29987-1, Goals, Motives, and Norms of Reward Distribution, and by NIMH Biomedical Research Support Grant from the College of Social Science, Michigan State University. The authors wish to thank Andrea Doughty for her valuable advice, and to gratefully acknowledge the help of Mark Teicher, Julie B. Klein, Sue Schnelbach, Pat Loepp, Barb Allen, Gavin Goodrich, Bob O'Hara, Kelly Bowen, Rod Hollenstein, Steve Schultz, and Mary Hurst.     

Does awareness of speech as a sequence of phones arise spontaneously?

It was found that illiterate adults could neither delete nor add a phone at the beginning of a non-word; but these tasks were rather easily performed by people with similar environment and childhood experiences, who learned to read rudimentarily as adults. Awareness of speech as a sequence of phones is thus not attained spontaneously in the course of general cognitive growth, but demands some specific training, which, for most persons, is probably provided by learning to read in the alphabetic system.     

Nonverbal assessment of interpersonal affect.

Two nonverbal methods for assessing degree of interpersonal attraction were explored. Twenty children ranging from 11 to 13 years of age were asked to select two liked and two disliked classmates of the same sex. On four different trials, subjects selected one geometric block to represent themselves and one to represent a pre-selected classmate, then placed the figures on a ruled board. Distance between objects was measured and found to be significantly related to degree of peer liking. In addition, subjects were asked to draw each of the four peers. The human figure drawings were rated for total pictorial detail which was found to vary strongly across magnitude of liking for female subjects, and for parts integration which was found to vary with degree of peer liking for both sexes. The degree of rated positive affective tone of drawings was also found to increase with liking. Implications for the use of these two interpersonal assessment techniques in clinical practice were discussed.     

Listening to speech while retaining music: What happens to the right-ear advantage?

On each trial, subjects were played a dichotic pair of syllables differing in the consonant (/ba/, /da/, /ga/) or in the vowel (/ba/, /b?/, /bi/). The pair of syllables was preceded by a melody, or a sentence, and followed by the same or a different melody, or sentence. Subjects either had to retain the first piece of additional material or were free to ignore it. The different combinations of phonemic contrast, additional material, and instruction concerning the additional material were used in different sessions. In each case, the main task of the subjects was to respond to the presence or the absence of the target /ba/ on the ear previously indicated. There was no effect of context on relative ear accuracy, but the right-ear advantage observed for consonants in response latency when subjects retained a sentence gave way to a small nonsignificant left-ear advantage when subjects retained a melody. Right-ear advantage in response latencies was also observed for vowels in the verbal context, but the contextual effect, although in the same direction as for consonants, was very slight. The implications of contextual effects for a theory of the determinants of the auditory laterality effects are discussed.