Effects of practice, instructions, and modeling on components of assertive behavior

Unassertive psychiatric patients matched on age, years of education, diagnosis, and self-reported assertiveness were assigned to one of five conditions, with 10 subjects in each group: (1) Test-Retest, (2) Practice-Control, (3) Instructions, (4) Modeling, (5) Modeling plus Instructions. All subjects were videotaped (Pre- and Post-Test) while responding to five interpersonal situations requiring assertive responses. Pre- and Post-Test responses for all subjects were rated independently by judges on seven verbal and non-verbal components of assertiveness. Analyses of variance for difference scores followed by multiple t-test comparisons indicated that the Modeling plus Instructions group was superior or equal to the Instructions alone or Modeling alone groups on five of the seven components. Instructions alone and Modeling alone led to greatest improvement in the remaining two components. No differences were found between the Practice-Control and Test-Retest groups on any of the seven components of assertiveness. No differences (Post-Pretest) were found among the groups on a self-report measure of assertiveness.     

Implications of measurement of eye fixations for a psychophysics of form perception

It was suggested that insights into feature analysis of processes involved in form identification might be gained from an analysis of eye movements made by Ss as they identified patterns. Fixations were measured during identifications of histoforms, polygons, and Vargus 10 figures. Eye fixations were measured, and Ss rated sections of the figures in terms of their importance. Eye fixations were measured in terms of number of changes and duration of fixations. The number of changes in fixation were found to reflect only individual differences. Duration of fixation was found to vary significantly with location within figures, with fixations being longest where changes of contour occurred. There was also a tendency to look longer at the top of polygons and Vargus 10 figures and at the center of histoforms. Ratings of importance were highest for sections of figures fixated for longer duration-generally areas in which changes of contour were present.     

Variations in watch keeping performance as a function of the rate and duration of visual signals

This study was designed to assess the relative effects on watch keeping performance of five signal durations (0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 4.0, and 8.0sec) combined factorially with five signal rates (6, 12, 24, 48, and 96 sig/h). A visual display consisting of a red and green light mounted on a vertical vector was used; red-onset and green-offset were critical signals. The probability of correct detections increased monotonically with increases in signal duration; a stable rate of nearly 100% detection was approached at signal durations of 4.0 and 8.0 sec, independently of signal rates. The likelihood of detection was enhanced by increases in signal rates only at the 0.5-sec duration with the green-offset critical signal. Response time to correct detections increased with time on watch, independently of signal rates and durations.     

CORRECTION DES VERBALISATIONS IRRATIONNELLES CHEZ DES JOUEURS DE POKER-VIDEO*

Earlier studies have shown that irrational thinking dominates rational thinking during gambling. The present study evaluated the effects of cognitive restructuring on gambling behaviors among video poker players. Within a single case experimental design across subjects, the results showed that irrational verbalizations decreased during treatment while rational verbalizations increased. Three out of four players reduced their frequency of gambling following treatment. The theoretical and clinical implications of these results are discussed.     

Noise stress and circadian arousal in self-paced computation

Previous work(Frankenhaeuser & Lundberg, 1977) has shown that unpaced mental arithmetic is performed at slower rates in noise, despite unchanged catecholamine indices of arousal; only male subjects were used, tested early in the day. Since the times of testing entail arousal effects that interact with noise stress, and the sex of subject further modifies these interactions, a new experiment was designed to include these variables. Men and women were tested on the Norinder mental arithmetic task, in quiet or in noise, either in the morning, when arousal was low, or during the early evening, when temperature curves indicate that arousal should be high. Analysis of the number of problems attempted shows a significant drop for men in noise in the morning, but an interaction due to reversal of the noise effect in the evening; there is no main effect of noise when women's scores are included. The results are compatible with interpretations combining motivation and cognition, and they demonstrate the importance of the experimental variables in explaining noise stress effects.The authors are indebted to the late David A. Shipp for his assistance in running subjects.     

Alternate antagonism with paradoxical translation behavior in two bilingual aphasic patients

Two patients presenting a pattern of recovery yet unreported in the literature were observed, one in Paris, the other in Montreal. Both patients alternately suffered severe word-finding difficulties in one language while remaining relatively fluent in the other. They retained good comprehension in both of their languages at all times. They were able to translate correctly and without hesitation from the language they could speak well at the time into the language unavailable for spontaneous use, but were unable to translate from their temporarily poor language (which they understood well) into the language which they could speak quite well at the time.     

A case of cortical deafness: Clinical and electrophysiological data

A patient suffering from a primary myocardiopathy is suddenly no longer able to recognize speech and environmental sounds, in spite of good peripheral hearing; he remains able to speak, read, and write. The C.T. scan shows lesions involving both supratemporal planes. The cortical sensory deficit documented by the absence of late acoustic evoked potentials leads to a diagnosis of cortical deafness rather than of auditory agnosia.     

Sensory stores and high-speed scanning

A model of scanning based on separate sensory and short-term stores was suggested and tested. The experiment used a probe recognition method, with set size varied from 1 to 8 and a fast presentation rate. A masking procedure was used to vary the number of items available in a possible sensory store. Although conditions were such as to maximize the chances of detecting an effect, none was found: the possible size of the sensory store had no effect on reaction time whatsoever. Other aspects of the data lent little support to a serial exhaustive scanning model, but a previously proposed parallel processing model fared better. Finally, not only was the function for positive probes steeper than that for negative probes but also there was a crossover effect as well. This crossover is not without precedent and may indicate the need for consideration of both accuracy and latency in high-speed scanning studies.