Predicting adult temperament from minor physical anomalies

It is known that in children, individual differences in temperament are linked to rates of minor physical anomalies (MPAs). These anomalies are a standard set of 17 nonobvious but measurable characteristics of the face, hands, and feet. We explored the relation between MPAs and temperament in adults. An intact sample of 88 undergraduates completed a battery of personality tests and lifestyle questions, and then were examined for MPAs. The index of MPAs for each subject was simply the total count out of 17. The results showed a pattern of correlates parallel to that found in children. Among male subjects, correlations with MPAs were significant for the Physical Activity and Clumsiness factors of the lifestyle inventory as well as for measures of emotionality, extraversion, masculinity, femininity, and Type A personality. The MPA index was also predictive of a behavioral index of temperament in male subjects. No correlations were significant among female subjects.     

Subjective quality of life of surgically treated glioma patients undergoing polychemotherapy

25 patients with glioma were questioned as to how they apprehended and appreciated their state of health and their psychosocial situation 1 1/2 years (s = 4 months) after the start of their postoperative polychemotherapy. In their opinion, their health was relatively good, that is, they claimed to suffer little pain, few complaints, little feeling of inadequacy, few fears for the future. They regarded the mode of treatment as being somewhat more inconvenient. Such an unexpectedly positive response, in view of the poor prospect, raises the question as to its provenance. A significant cause is seen in the organic psycho-syndrome, and its significance is made the subject of the concluding discussion, with reference to adaptation mechanisms and specifics of the illness.     

Fluctuations and phase symmetry in coordinated rhythmic movements

Pendular, clocking movements typify mammalian terrestrial locomotion. They can be investigated with a procedure in which people swing hand-held pendulums at the wrists, comfortably and rhythmically. Pendular, clocking behavior was examined for in-phase and out-of-phase coordinations. The periodic timing and powering of rhythmic movements in the comfort state follow from different laws (Kugler & Turvey, 1986). One law guides the assembling of the reference frame for "clocking." Another law guides the assembling of the muscular, escapement processes determining the cycle energy. Wing and Kristofferson's (1973) method for parsing periodic-timing variance into independent "clock" and "motor" sources was applied. Mean periodicity was unaffected by phase. "Clock" fluctuations, however, were larger out of phase than in phase. "Motor" fluctuations were indifferent to phase but reflected the departures of individual wrist-pendulum systems from their preferred periods. It appears that an intended phase relation is realized as a constraint on "clock" states. These states are more stable under the in-phase constraint than under the out-of-phase constraint.     

Anxiety,aspirations, and self-concept in the achievement process: A longitudinal model with latent variables

Recent research suggests that anxiety is not a single, unified reaction to perceived threat, but rather a cluster of interrelated factors whose relationships to performance change as the individual progresses from one test event to another. This study investigated the presumed linkages between traitlike predispositions to perceive threat and achievement performance, as mediated by statelike anxiety arousal on a longitudinal basis (Perceived Threat Anxiety Arousal Impaired Performance). College students were administered self-report questionnaire measures during a preenrollment period, after the first two midterms, and following the last two midterms in a general psychology course. Four performance measures and 26 motivational indicators were fitted to a 10-factor latent model using LISREL model-fitting techniques. Path-analytic interpretations of this structural model provided little evidence for the commonly held view that traitlike threat perceptions mediate performance via statelike anxiety reactions. Far more promising, theoretically, are those influences on test performance stemming from the self-attributional, cognitive domain. Overall, the findings support a recent reinterpretation of achievement anxiety as stemming from the disruptive effects of diminished ability perceptions (and hence, impaired personal worth), rather than from the interfering influence of diffused emotional arousalper se.     

The relationship between eye movements and spatial attention

Most previous studies of the attentional consequences of making saccadic eye movements have used peripheral stimuli to elicit eye movements. It is argued that in the light of evidence showing automatic “capture” of attention by peripheral stimuli, these experiments do not distinguish between attentional effects due to peripheral stimuli and those due to eye movements. In the present study, spatial attention was manipulated by varying the probability that peripheral probe stimuli would appear in different positions, while saccades were directed by a central arrow, enabling the effects of attention and eye movements to be separated. The results showed that the time to react to a peripheral stimulus could be shortened both by advance knowledge of its likely position and, separately, by preparing to make a saccade to that position. When the saccade was directed away from the most likely position of the probe, the targets for attention and eye movements were on opposite sides of the display. In this condition, the effects of preparing to make a saccade proved to be stronger than the effects of attentional allocation until well after the saccade had finished, suggesting that making a saccade necessarily involves the allocation of attention to the target position. The effects of probe stimuli on saccade latencies were also examined: probe stimuli that appeared before the saccade shortened saccade latencies if they appeared at the saccade target, and lengthened saccade latencies if they appeared on the opposite side of fixation. These facilitatory and inhibitory effects were shown to occur at different stages of saccade preparation and suggest that attention plays an important role in the generation of voluntary eye movements. The results of this study indicate that while it is possible to make attention movements without making corresponding eye movements, it is not possible to make an eye movement (in the absence of peripheral stimulation) without making a corresponding shift in the focus of attention.     

The locus of intersensory facilitation of reaction time

When an imperative visual stimulus is paired with an auditory (accessory) stimulus, RT is generally faster than with the imperative stimulus alone. Three experiments using additive-factors logic tested an energy-summation view of the accessory, where effects are due to increased rate of information build-up in sensory stages, and a preparation-enhancement view which holds that the accessory serves an alerting function. Experiment 1 found no interaction between the accessory presence and (visual) stimulus brightness, suggesting no role of the accessory in stimulus identification. Experiment 2 found no interaction between accessory presence and spatial S-R compatibility, arguing that the accessory operated in stage(s) other than response selection. Experiment 3 produced an interaction between the accessory and movement complexity, arguing for accessory effects in a response-programming stage. The data generally favored preparation-enhancement, and offered no support for an energy-summation view.