The role of visual-auditory “compellingness” in the ventriloquism effect: Implications for transitivity among the spatial senses

A magnitude estimation response procedure was used to evaluate the strength of visualauditory intersensory bias effects under conditions of spatial discrepancy. Maj or variables were the cognitive compellingness of the stimulus situation and instructions as to the unity or duality of the perceptual event. With a highly compelling stimulus situation and single-event instructions, subjects showed a very high visual bias of audition, a significant auditory bias of vision, and a sum of bias effects that indicated that their perception was fully consonant with the assumption of a single perceptual event. This finding reopens the possibility that the spatial modalities function as a transitive system, an outcome that Pick, Warren, and Hay (1969) had expected but did not obtain. Furthermore, the results support the model for intersensory interaction proposed by Welch and Warren (1980) with respect to the susceptibility of intersensory bias effects to several independent variables. Finally, a new means of assessing intersensory bias effects by the use of spatial separation threshold was demonstrated.     

A further examination of project aware: The relationship between teacher behaviors and changes in student behavior

The purpose of the present study was to examine specifically how teacher behaviors influence the effectiveness of a social development program entitled Project AWARE. Thirty-one teachers and two hundred and nine children were included in this study (82 at the primary level and 127 at the intermediate level). Participant teachers were rated in terms of their skill at implementation. For the intermediate grades, those teachers who received the highest skill ratings also tended to report positive changes in their children's behavior over the six months of the study. Those teachers who received the lowest skill ratings tended to report little change in behavior. For the primary grades, similar results were not obtained. Implications of these findings for implementation of classroom programs are discussed.     

Sex differences in childhood socialization patterns in African societies

Data on sex-role socialization patterns of 29 African and 79 non-African societies were analyzed to test a set of hypotheses about the extent of sex-typing displayed in the child-training processes of African societies. Findings suggest that clear sex differences in socialization emphases and behavioral outcomes exist within African societies; moreover, such differentials resemble those reported among societies from other world cultural regions. In addition, three interesting secondary findings suggest that (1) males experience greater overall levels of socialization anxiety than females; (2) greater overall normative pressure is exerted on males than females in the course of child training; (3) in the aggregate, male children tend to be more compliant in reproducing ideal role-related behavior patterns than female children.     

Generalizing the problem definition step in the computer simulation of factorial experiments

A simulation system (KUSIM) used at the University of Kansas is described and examples provided. The system permits instructors and students without computer skills to bring computer simulation of psychological experiments into the classroom.     

The behavioural treatment of sexual inadequacy: A comparative study

Thirty-six couples complaining of sexual difficulties were treated with one of three methods: (1) systematic desensitisation plus counselling. (2) directed practice—based on that of Masters and Johnson—plus counselling. (3) directed practice with minimal contact. Both members of each couple were seen together, but half in each treatment group were treated by a single therapist and half by a therapist pair. Differences in outcome among the groups were not highly significant, but consistent trends were found which suggested that the combination of directed practice and counselling was associated with most change, particularly when two therapists were involved.     

Book Reviews

C. G. J ung : The spirit in man, art and literature
E lizabeth R. Z etzel : The capacity for emotional growth
C harles H anly and M orris L azerowitz (Eds.), Psychoanalysis and philosophy
A niela J affé : The myth of meaning
J une K. S inger , The unholy Bible: a psychological interpretation of William Blake
J anet M attinson . Marriage and mental handicap
A lfred F riedman . Therapy with families of sexually acting out girls
W illiam M. E asson . The severely disturbed adolescent     

Cognitions related to anxiety: a pilot study of treatment

In general, where anxiety appears to have a specific external focus, such as the situations which are avoided by phobic patients, treatment involving systematic exposure to those situations seems to be effective. This is less appropriate, or even impossible, where anxiety is not dependent on any external circumstance, but is described by the patient as occurring at any time or place, either chronically over long periods, or acutely in the form of ‘panic attacks’. These patients with ‘generalised’ anxiety often describe internal cues for anxiety either in the form of thoughts (e.g. worry over a current problem) or somatic (e.g. chest sensations interpreted as possible heart disease). Beck et al. (1974) has suggested that on interview, all patients diagnosed as suffering from diffuse or generalised anxiety can report specific ideas or other cognitive cues which are associated with anxiety. These usually concern possible traumatic events, such as illness and death, or social rejection. Clearly Beck has in mind the possibility that these cognitions have the effect of inducing anxiety, although even if the validity of the subjective reports were to be accepted, the problem remains of whether the relationship between mood state and cognitions is causal and if so, in which direction it operates. Obviously a causal relationship may also operate in both directions simultaneously, to form a ‘vicious circle’ in which each exacerbates the other. To establish whether there is a sense in which particular cognitions contribute causally to anxious mood, it would be necessary to find a method of manipulating the type or frequency of cognitions thought to be operating in this way.

One obvious possibility is that of ‘thought-stopping’: that is, patients could be taught to identify thoughts which are associated with anxiety and stop them in the usual way (Wolpe, 1973, p. 211) e.g. by' shouting stop, and substituting an alternative thought. The present study was planned as a pilot experiment to determine (i) if appropriate anxiety related cognitions could be elicited from a series of patients with generalised anxiety, (ii) if the reported frequency of such thoughts could be modified by a thought-stopping technique, and (iii) if any changes in thought frequency were associated with improvements in mood.

Clearly there are many ‘non-specific’ features involved in thought-stopping which could also have therapeutic effects on mood. For this reason it was necessary to include an alternative procedure, not directed at reducing thought frequency, but having the same degree of plausibility to patients, and preferably to therapists. The control procedure chosen for this purpose was modelled on desensitisation, in which patients were encouraged to allow the supposedly anxiety-provoking thoughts into their mind and tolerate them, rather than attempt to stop them. In summary, the study employed a relaxation training phase as a base-line, followed by a cross-over design in which the two treatment phases of thought-stopping and ‘cognitive desensitisation’ were given to each patient, in balanced order.