Sentence processing: Evidence against the serial,independent stage assumption

The assumption that the processing stages involved in sentence comprehension are serially and independently executed was tested in two separate experiments using two new sentence types. One experiment was a sentence-picture verification task, the other was not. In Experiment I, subjects viewed sentences such as It's false that the dots are red and indicated, by pressing the appropriate response key, which of two colors would make the sentence true. In Experiment II, subjects verified sentences such as It isn't true that the dots aren't red against pictures of colored dots. On the strength of Sternberg's additive factor method, present findings challenge the validity of the serial, independent stage assumption, and results are alternatively discussed in terms of a capacity sharing model.This research was supported by PHS research grant MH 23401 to Sam Glucksberg, principal investigator.     

Personality characteristics of the users of corporal punishment in the schools

The Rokeach Dogmatism Scale and the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire were correlated with educator-reported use of corporal punishment. Respondents were from a medium-size school system in Tennessee. Results indicated that closed-mindedness, as measured by the Rokeach scale, and Neuroticism, as measured by the Eysenck Scale, were highly correlated with reported use of corporal punishment. Of the remaining two dimensions of personality measured by the Eysenck questionnaire, Extraversion was found to be moderately correlated with reported use of corporal punishment while Psychoticism showed no significant relationship. A significant negative correlation was found between years of experience in teaching and use of corporal punishment. Frequency of physical punishment used on an educator when he/she was in grades K-12 was positively correlated with reported use of corporal punishment. Heavy users of corporal punishment tended to be relatively inexperienced, close-minded, neurotic, and impulsive as compared to their peers who did not use corporal punishment.     

Effects of d-amphetamine on self-aggression and posturing in stumptail macaques

The behavioral effects of d-amphetamine sulfate were studied in adult male stumptail macaques living within a large heterogeneous group in an outdoor enclosure. Among five subjects that received a range of doses (.01 to .3 mg/kg), d-amphetamine increased self-aggressive behavior and abnormal posturing in subjects that exhibited these types of behavior prior to drug administration, but it had no effect in subjects not exhibiting those activities in the absence of the drug. For the former subjects, the dose-effect curves for self-aggression were of an inverted U-shape analogous to the effect of d-amphetamine on schedule-controlled behavior. Over the range of doses studied, the curve for abnormal posturing was monotonic. The data indicate that d-amphetamine can have effects on untrained behavior in individual animals in a quasinatural environment that are qualitatively and quantitatively similar to the behavioral effects observed in other laboratory environments, and that d-amphetamine does not evoke or increase a behavioral response in individual subjects that do not exhibit the response in the absence of the drug.     

Disentangling Type A behavior: The roles of ambition,insensitivity, and anxiety

This study identified stable components of Type A behavior as usually defined, and examined their relationships with more traditional psychological constructs. Overall scores on the most popular Type A measure (a version of the Jenkins Activity Survey) were moderately associated with ambition but largely unrelated to measures of adjustment. An item analysis yielded subcomponents of Drivenness and Involvement. Drivenness was unrelated to ambition, but was positively related to anxiety and negatively related to interpersonal perceptiveness. Involvement was positively related to ambition and to interpersonal competence. It is suggested that the Jenkins Activity Survey measures a heterogeneous mixture of constructive commitment and self-defeating responses that clouds its psychological interpretation.     

Anxiety induced by cardiac perceptions in patients with panic attacks: a field study

In panic disorder bodily sensations appear to play an important role as a trigger for anxiety. In our psychophysiological model of panic attacks we postulate the following vicious circle: individuals with panic attacks perceive even quite small increases in heart rate and interpret these changes as being catastrophic. This elicits anxiety and a further increase in heart rate. To evaluate this model we conducted a field study of 28 subjects with panic attacks and 20 healthy controls. A 24 hr ambulatory ECG was recorded and the subjects were instructed to report any cardiac perceptions during this period and to rate the anxiety elicited by these perceptions. The incidence of cardiac perceptions was about the same in both groups, but only subjects with panic attacks reported anxiety associated with such perceptions. Analysis of the ECGs revealed that in both groups heart rate accelerations preceded cardiac perceptions. Following cardiac perceptions, the healthy controls showed a heart rate deceleration, whereas the subjects with panic attacks had a further acceleration. This heart rate increase after cardiac perceptions was positively related to the level of anxiety elicited by the perceptions. These results provide clear evidence in support of the vicious circle model of panic attacks.     

The rights of research assistants and the rhetoric of political suppression: Morton Grodzins and the University of California Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement Study

This case study of an inter-university controversy over the publication of research from an interdisciplinary social science project on the forced migration and long-term internment of West Coast Japanese-Americans during World War II shows some of the difficulties of maintaining ownership of research materials. In this particular instance the junior employee was able to override his seniors' demand for control of the dissemination of research results by playing on the concerns about even appearing to suppress work for political reasons. The paper discusses conflicting norms of science and rhetorics of justification ranging from proprietary self-interest through "good science" to "the national interest" and onto "the needs of a free society."     

Changes in mood caused by staged, moderate physical activity]

This experiment provides a test for the common sense knowledge that moderate physical exercise leads to mood improvement. Furthermore, it was tested whether light exercise intensifies negative feeling states or alleviates them. 30 female and 30 male students of psychology served as subjects (mean age 25.3 years, SD = 4.8). After being exposed to a mood induction procedure designed to elicit either a positive or negative feeling state, the subjects had to pedal a bicycle ergometer with 0, 50 or 75 Watt load. Cardiovascular variables and self-reports of mood states were assessed during a baseline period, after the mood induction, following the ergometer exercise, and after a follow-up period. The mood induction procedures were successful, but only for a short duration. Physiological activation was observed according to the ergometer loadings. Moderate physical exercise led to an increase of positive feeling states (Concentration) and a decrease of negative feeling states (Tiredness) in the follow-up period. Corresponding changes in tension related states could not be observed, probably due to the weakness of the mood induction procedure employed and the low level of energetic activation reached.     

From the desk of the IFA president : International fluency association priorities: A poll of potential members

Potential members of the International Fluency Association (IFA) were polled regarding their fluency interests and perceived priorities for the organization during the year it was founded (in 1990). Results from 201 respondents indicated that a need for the IFA existed among researchers, clinicians, and representatives of self-help organizations for people who stutter. Improving the quality of treatment for those who stutter was considered the highest priority by all three groups. Researchers were of the opinion that the Journal of Fluency Disorders should be of higher quality than it had been in the past, and clinicians were most interested in reviews of new and relevant materials.     

Zur Geschichte und gegenwärtigen Lage der Philosophie in der ČSR

Official Czech philosophy has been dominated by a mix of Engelsian philosophy of science and positivism, a combination explained in part by the survival of positivism in Czechoslovakia and the failure of analytic philosophy to make inroads into Czech thinking. However, due to Jan Patoka's influence in espousing the works of Husserl and Heidegger, there was an anthropologically oriented Marxism (K. Kosik) although its successes were greater abroad than in Czechoslovakia. A more neopositivistic variant (L. Tondl) of Marxism also appeared, but it was a short-lived phenomenon without purchase on mainstream philosophy.A certain renewal of Czech philosophy was evident before 1968, once again largely due to Patoka's influence. Foreign guests who took part in informally organized, often secret, seminars and discussion groups were very instrumental in spreading new ideas. Despite these positive occurrences, Czech philosophy is experiencing a crisis at the level of the middle generation of non-academic, philosophically competent intellectuals among whom sceptical and nihilist attitudes prevail. A rebirth of spirit may be in the offing if the recovery of the specific sense of the Czech Reformation's idea of truth is pursued.