Using talking computers to remediate reading and spelling disabilities: The critical role of the print-to-sound unit

Talking computers employing computer-generated speech feedback have been used to remediate the literacy skills of dyslexic readers. A computer program is described that employs DECtalk, a highlevel speech synthesizer, to narrate instruction involving intensive training in identifying whole words or in identifying and blending word segments corresponding to onsets, rimes, and phonemes. Procedures for developing individualized instruction are described as well as for constructing and editing the speech and graphics features of the program. Neurologically impaired dyslexic children trained with this program achieved greater acquisition and transfer of word recognition skill when their training involved segmented rather than whole word feedback.     

Early stimulation and patterned responding in rats

This experiment was designed to determine the extent to which performance differences on learning tasks arising from infantile handling reflect learning or emotionality differences. Handled and nonhandled rats were trained and tested in a controlled operant situation where a response on every other trial yielded reinforcement. A key light was turned on for 10 sec during each trial and was off during the 10-sec intertrial interval. The reinforced (S+) trials alternated in a regular sequence with nonreinforced (S–) trials. The pattern of S+ and S– trials recycled continuously throughout the session of 160 trials. The handled rats emitted more responses during both S+ and S– trials than did the nonhandled rats. However, when they were compared on the percentage of emitted responses that were reinforced, there was no significant differences between the two groups. These results were interpreted to suggest that infantile handling does not directly facilitate associative learning in rats.This research was aided by a grant from the National Research Council of Canada, 67-0247. I thank Linda Easton and Beverly Clark for their help in collecting and analyzing the data.     

Best univocal estimates of orthogonal common factors

A general formulation is presented for obtaining conditionally unbiased, univocal common-factor score estimates that have maximum validity for the true orthogonal factor scores. We note that although this expression is formally different from both Bartlett's formulation and Heermann's approximate expression, all three, while developed from very different rationales, yield identical results given that the common-factor model holds for the data. Although the true factor score validities can be raised by a different non-orthogonal transformation of orthogonalized regression estimates—as described by Mulaik—the resulting estimates lose their univocality.     

Racial Mistrust and Deviant Behaviors Among Ethnically Diverse Black Adolescent Boys1

While it has been suggested that mistrust of the dominant White society may be an important protective factor for some members of racial minorities, the question of whether mistrust may also be related to nonnormative behaviors among minority members has not been explored. Using survey data from Miami, Florida, this study empirically tests this hypothesis among a sample of African American, Haitian, and other Caribbean island Black adolescent boys. Bivariate analyses suggest a strong relationship between racial mistrust and conventional forms of delinquency for all three ethnic groups. These findings also held in multivariate analyses in which six traditional predictors of deviance were statistically controlled. The authors conclude that racial mistrust adds a new dimension to empirical prediction models. In addition, they conclude that issues associated with racial mistrust should be considered when developing and implementing prevention strategies.     

Collective views of vaccination predict vaccine hesitancy and willingness to receive a COVID-19 vaccine

We examined the association between sociodemographic factors, views of vaccines as being an individual choice to protect oneself versus a collective choice to protect others, general vaccine hesitancy, and willingness to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. In a sample of adults (N = 619; 33% non-white), we showed that demographic factors explain significant variance in both vaccine hesitancy and willingness to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. Viewing vaccines as an individual choice to protect oneself explained additional variance in vaccine hesitancy. However, people who viewed vaccines as a collective choice to protect others showed both less vaccine hesitancy and greater willingness to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. These findings suggest that promoting prosocial attitudes about vaccinations may decrease vaccine hesitancy and increase vaccine uptake.     

Jung Among the Physicists: A Review Essay of Dual-Aspect Monism and the Deep Structure of Meaning

This essay reviews the recent book by Harald Atmanspacher and Dean Rickles, Dual-Aspect Monism and the Deep Structure of Meaning. The essay aims to contextualize and clarify the book’s core argument about the theoretical and empirical fruitfulness of decompositional dual-aspect monism as an intervention into the mind-body problem that ascribes a pivotal role to meaning. The variants of dual-aspect monism discussed were developed primarily by physicists, but the essay also highlights the crucial contributions to the argument by the one non-physicist involved, Carl Gustav Jung, as well as noting the significance of dual-aspect monism and of the reviewed book for analytical psychology.     

The development of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory

The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) was constructed at the University of Minnesota before and during World War II. In its developmental phase, the MMPI was conceputalized as an efficient way of detecting psychiatric disturbance. The test's construction was made possible by atypical cooperation between psychologists and psychiatrists, within the context of a crisis in the U.S. public mental health care system. The MMPI was designed to meet the diagnostic needs of psychiatrists. As such, it represented the operationalization of medical hegemony. However, the interpretation of the MMPI shifted significantly after the war, reflecting organizational reform in clinical psychology and changing professional relationships between psychologists and psychiatrists.