Categorization reaction time,category structure,and category size in semantic memory using artificial categories

This study examined the effects of category structure and category size on categorization reaction time, artificial categories being used to obtain greater experimental control than is usually found in semantic memory research. Four artificial categories varying in structure (hierarchical and nonhierarchical) and size (8 or 16 instances) were introduced to 20 adolescent subjects over a 12-week period by means of stories, exercises, and discussions. Significantly longer categorization reaction times were required for instances from the hierarchical categories, but no set size effect was found. The application of clustering and multidimensional scaling procedures to subjects’ free recall data revealed that subjects had acquired the hierarchical structures but imposed their own structures on the other categories. These findings were interpreted within a spreading activation framework.     

Social networks,information-seeking,and the utilization of services

Voluntary participation by low-income and/ar high-risk populations in prevention-oriented human service programs is minimal and dropout rates are high. Examination of social networks as they relate to information-seeking and utilization behavior may provide a source of understanding. Two investigations are reported. The results of Study 1 indicate that high-risk referred women with denser networks attended fewer parent group sessions than did those whose networks were less dense and that the more contact a woman had with her kin, the fewer parent group sessions she attended. The results of Study 2 indicate that in a sample of low-income women participating in a supplementary food program, those women whose networks were characterized by lower density and less frequent kin contact were more likely to pursue professional child-rearing information and advice than women in denser, more kin-involved networks. In addition, a significant interaction between one's sense of competence as a parent and the structure of one's network was found to determine the overall frequency of information seeking.     

Human figure drawings of gender-problem children: A comparison to sibling,psychiatric, and normal controls

The Draw-a-Person test was used to evaluate a number of questions regarding children referred for potential problems in their gender-identity development (N = 36). Sibling (N = 31), psychiatric (N = 23), and normal (N = 30) children served as comparison groups. The major results included the following: (1) The gender-referred children were more likely to draw an opposite-sex person when requested to "draw a person" than were the other three groups; (2) the gender-referred children who drew an opposite-sex person were more likely to play with opposite-sex toys and dress-up apparel on a free-play task than were the gender-referred children who drew a same-sex person; (3) the gender-referred children drew taller opposite-sex persons than same-sex persons; (4) using Koppitz's (1968) criteria, the normal children had a smaller proportion of emotional disturbance indicators in their same-sex drawings than did the other three groups. These findings were discussed with regard to psychometric and interpretive issues in the assessment of children with atypical gender-role behavior.     

Variables influencing the learnability of individual signs and sign lexicons: A review of the literature

The last decade has seen an increase in investigations of the psycholinguistic and production attributes of sign and the features of sign which influence learning and memory. However, these investigations usually have not adequately delineated between the learning of individual signs as opposed to the learning of sign lexicons or sign strings and have not discussed features which might differentially influence the learning and recall of single signs and sign lexicons. The current paper reviews existing literature in the area of sign learning and identifies psycholinguistic, psychological, and production features which may influence learning and recall of individual signs as well as sign lexicons. Included in the discussion of features which are hypothesized to influence the learning of individual signs are sign translucency (rather than sign iconicity) and referential concreteness of the sign gloss. Varibles hypothesized to influence sign lexicon learning are cheremic similarity, acoustical confusion, and their relationship to proactive and retroactive interference. Implications of the effects of these variables on the learning of individual signs and on the learning of sign lexicons are discussed.     

Lesions of the basal ganglia, thalamus, and deep white matter: Differential effects on language functions

Forty-five patients with unilateral demarcated vascular lesions in the basal ganglia, the thalamus and the deep white matter were investigated with an "aphasia battery." Patients with basal ganglia lesions performed worse than both other groups in tests of articulation, syntax, and lexical functions. The deficit of patients with basal ganglia lesions on all expressive language modalities was lateralized to the left hemisphere. Patients with left thalamic lesions showed impairments of speech fluency and in the Token Test. Patients with white matter lesions alone showed no effect of laterality in tests of language functions. The results are discussed on the basis of a recent theory of the participation of the deep nuclei in language processing.     

Are introverts still more religious?

The JEPQ and a religious attitude scale, ASC 4B, were completed by 1715 school children aged 11–17 yrs. Attitude to religion was found to decline across the age range, girls were found to be more religious than boys, and introverts more religious than extraverts. The relationship between introversion and religiosity is consistent with previous research and the present study adds substance to this relationship with the use of a more recent E scale on an extended age range.     

Acquisition of probabilities in anticipatory appraisals of stress

Processes involved in predicting stressor events were examined from the perspective of ‘associative memory models’. Subjects were exposed to alphabetic letters which supposedly represented electrical resistors used in audio equipment, in the guise of marketing research. Each letter presentation was followed either by a burst of aversive white noise, signifying ‘resistor failure’ during a brief surge of current, or by a green light, signifying ‘resistor effectiveness’. After a programmed series of presentations, subjects were asked to make several judgments about each resistor; analyses of these judgments focused on the comparative influence exerted by the alternate stimulus events. Regardless of the type of judgment (e.g. probability of future noise, frequency of earlier silent outcomes, and so on), the determining stimulus property was the cumulative frequency of earlier aversive outcomes. Moreover, the dominance of this property was not altered by manipulations designed to elevate the salience of equally relevant benign outcomes. Results were discussed with reference to models of categorical memory and predictive confidence. Circumstances under which stress predictions may be especially inaccurate were considered, as were implications of the present findings for studies of differences in categorical-frequency memory processes associated with ‘depresed mood’.     

Light source position in the perception of object shape

The apparent relief of monocularly viewed surfaces reversed when the order of light and shade was reversed relative to the position of a lamp observed the moment earlier. The pattern of shading was reversed either by illuminating from a direction opposite to that of the apparent direction of illumination or by inverting the illuminating image relative to the light source. The combination of both of these manipulations restores the original juxtaposition of light source and shading and reestablished accurate perception of relief. These results demonstrate that the perception of the relief of physical surfaces depends upon the remembered position of an apparent light source.     

Personality patterns of British police officers

This study investigates personality patterns in four different British police groups. The subjects comprised: (i) 84 police recruits; (ii) 84 probationary constables; (iii) 73 experienced constables; and (iv) 112 officers of senior rank. Of particular interest were personality traits measured by the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) and the Eysencks' I5. The former measures Psychoticism (P), Extraversion (E) and Neuroticism (N), whereas the latter monitors Impulsiveness (Imp), Venturesomeness (Vent) and Empathy (Emp). All groups tended to be low on P, but whereas the recruits were highly extraverted, venturesome and impulsive, the remaining groups were more reserved, controlled and exhibited fewer empathetic responses. The findings are discussed in terms of ‘wastage’ and occupational socialization.     

Working through a group's fantasy of the deceased leader's wish for the group's continuation

This paper reflects the working through of a group's fantasy that the deceased group leader wished the group to continue. As in any defense, the fantasy protected members from the pain of the finality of the leader's death. This article reveals the subjective experience concerning the effect of the leader's death on the group and members' intrapsychic struggle to separate and individuate from the deceased leader, while attending to and striving toward the group's continuation. The group's painful and growing individuation enabled the group to follow its own tasks without the spector of the deceased leader.