Sentence-type variables as aural concept formation dimensions

An aural conjunctive concept formation experiment used as stimuli sentences varying systematically in Voice (active/passive), Mood (declarative/interrogative), Modality (affirmative/negative), tense, and lexical content. Target classes were the eight sentence types defined by all combinations of the first three syntactic variables. Aural processing was more difficult than visual, but higher education level facilitated concept acquisition for males and females equally (cf. Bakeret al., 1973). The 64 undergraduate subjects tended to avoid syntactic analysis in depth, classifying sentences on as cursory a basis as the task allowed. The simple, unequivocal syntactic signals of Mood and Modality meaning were readily apparent, but the discrimination of Voice was complicated by ambiguous syntactosemantic associations and lack of discourse context. Voice is thus not seen as a determinant of utterance type, but as a context- and content-dependent realization of agent or object focus in transitive messages.This report is based on an M.Sc. thesis completed at the University of Alberta (Edmonton, Canada), in 1972     

A test of sensory pre-conditioning in pigeons

Sixteen pigeons were used in an experiment designed to show the sensory preconditioning effect as originally reported by Brogden. An experimental group received 200 simultaneous presentations of a buzzer paired with a light stimulus. They were then trained to respond to one of these stimuli alone and tested for response to the other. A control group received the same treatment except in the initial stage when 200 presentations of the test stimulus only were given. The results provided no evidence that the pairing of stimuli affected behaviour during the critical test.

Both groups responded to the test stimulus to a similar degree in this experiment, whereas in Brogden's original study with dogs experimental animals responded significantly more frequently than did their controls. The discrepancy in results can be attributed to the use of different control procedures in the two experiments. Brogden's controls were not exposed to presentations of the test stimulus before training. Differences in familiarity with this stimulus may have produced the differences between the behaviour of his control and experimental animals. This interpretation is supported by the result of a preliminary experiment with pigeons in which Brogden's control procedure was used and his original results confirmed.

With human subjects there is some evidence that pairing procedures may result in enhanced generalization, alterations in sensory thresholds or hallucinations. However, these effects are little understood and difficult to predict. Although no functional relationships like those found in ordinary conditioning have yet been shown to apply, the terms “sensory conditioning” and “sensory pre-conditioning” have been widely used and the data have been quoted in support of theories of learning that require the setting up of direct sensory-sensory relationships.

Until there is unequivocal evidence of pairing effects with animals or fuller knowledge of the occurrence of such effects with human subjects, it is considered unadvisable to link them even by name with basic learning mechanisms such as conditioning.     

A device for facilitating the computation of the first four moments about the mean

A mechanical device is described which materially reduces the time, labor, and probability of errors which are involved in the computation of certain moments about the mean. The use of the device is illustrated with the computation of the mean, standard deviation,g ₁ as a measure of skewness, andg ₂ as a measure of kurtosis of data from a given study.Grateful acknowledgment is made to the Holter Research Foundation of Helena, Montana for the grant-in-aid which made possible the development of this device.     

Quantitative relations between avoidance behavior and pituitary-adrenal cortical activity

The rate at which monkeys pressed a lever and avoided shocks was manipulated in several ways. Measurements were also made of their plasma levels of 17-hydroxycorticosteroids. The rate at which the animals pressed the lever and the frequency with which they received shocks were both implicated as determiners of the steroid levels.