Letter visibility and the viewing position effect in visual word recognition

The ease with which printed words are recognized depends on the position at which the eyes initially fixate the word. In this study, we examined to what extent recognition performance for each fixation position depends on the average visibility of the word's constituent letters. Experiment 1 measured recognition performance to single letters embedded in strings of Xs (lengths of 5 and 7) for all combinations of letter position and initial fixation position in the string. In Experiment 2, recognition performance was measured for five-letter and seven-letter words as a function of initial fixation position in the word. Whereas average letter visibility showed a symmetric function in Experiment 1, the word recognition data of Experiment 2 showed the typical asymmetric curve. Combining the letter visibility data with measures of lexical constraint using absolute letter-in-string positions failed to capture the pattern in the word data. An alternative measure of constraint based on relative position coding of letters generated more accurate predictions.     

A processing model for children's sentence comprehension: A discussion of two studies by Janellen Huttenlocher

Huttenlocher and coworkers studied children's comprehension of sentences by looking at the times required by these children to put an object in the place specifiec by the sentence. The explanations offered by these investigators for their data are discussed. A model which assumes that three processing stages are involved in comprehension is proposed to explain Huttenlocher's data. In these stages, the experimenter's sentence is transformed so as to derive an active sentence in which the to-be-moved object is the grammatical subject, and which specifies the relative position to which this object has to be moved. The model yields reaction time predictions which seem to fit the data well.     

The Development of Charismatic Leaders

This paper explores the origins of leadership potential and motivation for leadership, primarily with regard to two types of leaders: personalized and socialized charismatic leaders. Bowlby's attachment theory (1969, 1973) provides a theoretical basis for determining an individual's potential to be in leadership positions. The "internal working model," formed (according to Bowlby) in the course of attachment processes in infancy, has a considerable impact on self-perception, which may later affect the development of "ego resources" required for leadership. The motivation to be a leader is analyzed with the help of various psychodynamic concepts and models.