Automatic and Controlled Processes in the Analytisis of Hierarchical Structure

Targets are identified faster if they appear at the same level (global vs. local) as the target on the previous trial. This effect has been attributed to a controlled attentional process wherein participants attend to the level containing the target on trial n − 1, thus facilitating performance if target level repeats on trial n. An alternative explanation (Lamb & Yund, 1966) is that automatic activation of level-specific neural mechanisms is responsible. The controlled-process hypothesis predicts better performance whenever target level is predictable, because participants can anticipate, and thus attend to, the appropriate level. The automatic-process hypothesis predicts better performance when target level repeats, regardless of target-level predictability. In the present studies, level repetitions facilitated performance regardless of target-level predictability. The data support the automatic-process explanation of level repetition and other attentional effects. The data illustrate how an automatic process can give rise to performance that seems to reflect more cognitive or strategic mechanisms.     

Psycholinguistic correlations of academic achievement

This research investigated the relationship of the ITPA subtests to measures of academic performance (i.e., the California Achievement Test). Subjects were 137 9-year old children similar to those used in the standardization sample of the 1968 revision of the ITPA. Two kinds of data analyses were undertaken-1. correlation coefficients among the variables were derived, and 2. the subjects were divided into low, average, and high groups based on their CAT performance, and analyses of covariance were run to determine the significance of ITPA differences. The results failed to support the hypothesis that psycholinguistic abilities, except those which contribute to the Grammatic Closure subtest, are related to academic proficiency.     

Baby X

The present study investigated adult behavior while interacting with a three-month-old infant under conditions in which the child was introduced as a boy, as a girl, or with no gender information given. Gender labels did not elicit simple effects, but rather interacted significantly with the sex of the subject on both toy usage and physical contact measures. There was a stronger tendency for both male and female adults to utilize sex-stereotyped toys when the child was introduced as a girl. Most of the findings, however, reflected a differential response of men and women to the absence of gender information. In this condition, male subjects employed a neutral toy most frequently and handled the child least; in contrast, females used more stereotyped toys and handled the child more. All subjects attempted to guess the gender of the child (with “boy” guesses more frequent, although the child was actually female) and all justified their guess on the basis of stereotyped behavioral or physical cues like strength or softness.     

Scales of selected aspects of kinesthesis

Fifty male Ss made judgments of (1) thickness by finger span, (2) extent of arm movement, (3) heaviness of lifted weights, (4) force by handgrip, and (5) speed of arm movement. The method was fractionation: halving the magnitude of each stimulus. Comparisons were made in terms of the size of the exponent of the sensory scale.     

Development and control of licking in the guinea pig (Cavia porcellus)

Guinea pigs were taught to lick an electronic lickometer by successive approximations brought about by a gradually receding lickerandum-liquid feeder mounted in their home cage. All Ss learned to lick and obtain their total liquid intake by tongue licking. An optimum deprivation schedule was determined, and the response was brought under schedule control comparable to that of the rat.     

Stability and Change in the Social Status of Occupations Over 21 and 42 Year Periods

Forty-two years ago, Counts (1925) surveyed the social status of occupations and found a well-defined prestige order, with banker at the top and ditch digger at the bottom. Because of changes wrought by the depression and World War II, Deeg and Paterson (1947) repeated Counts' study and found only minor relative changes in social status. Because of the extensive social and cultural changes since World War II, Counts' study was repeated again, and again only minor relative changes in the social status of occupations were found. The prestige order of the occupations surveyed is remarkably stable.