Violence and degradation as themes in "adult" videos

Videocassettes have become the dominant medium for pornography. One previous content analysis examined the prevalence of violence in such videos. The Attorney General's Commission on Pornography (1986) has asserted that nonviolent pornography depicting degradation produces harm similar to that from violent pornography. Content analysis of a 10% random sample (n = 50) of the videos displayed in the "adult" section of a video store showed that 13.6% of the scenes in the videos contained violent acts and 18.2% contained degrading acts.     

Categories and particulars: prototype effects in estimating spatial location

A model of category effects on reports from memory is presented. The model holds that stimuli are represented at 2 levels of detail: a fine-grain value and a category. When memory is inexact but people must report an exact value, they use estimation processes that combine the remembered stimulus value with category information. The proposed estimation processes include truncation at category boundaries and weighting with a central (prototypic) category value. These processes introduce bias in reporting even when memory is unbiased, but nevertheless may improve overall accuracy (by decreasing the variability of reports). Four experiments are presented in which people report the location of a dot in a circle. Subjects spontaneously impose horizontal and vertical boundaries that divide the circle into quadrants. They misplace dots toward a central (prototypic) location in each quadrant, as predicted by the model. The proposed model has broad implications; notably, it has the potential to explain biases of the sort described in psychophysics (contraction bias and the bias captured by Weber's law) as well as symmetries in similarity judgments, without positing distorted representations of physical scales.     

Perceptual degradation due to signal alteration: implications for auditory pattern processing.

When a passage is alternately presented to the right and left ears over headphones, perceptual processing is disrupted under certain conditions: When the signal alternation rate is approximately 3-4 cps, intelligibility is greatly reduced. Experiment 1 demonstrated that contrary to previous theorizing, the effect is not mediated by the disruption of syllabic units. Experiment 2 explored the generality of the perceptual degradation by testing perception of simple piano melodies. The basic effect holds for these complex auditory patterns. The final experiment tested a source-effect explanation of the phenomenon by using 3 signal locations (right, middle, and left) rather than 2. The degree of disruption depends on the likelihood that sounds are assigned to different sources. Together, the experiments help to account for the strikingly selective breakdown in perceptual processing and speak to the issues of perceptual units, domain specificity, and auditory source assignment.     

Analysis of the elements of attention: A neuropsychological approach

A model for conceptualizing the components or elements of attention is presented. The model substitutes for the diffuse and global concept of attention a group of four processes and links them to a putative system of cerebral structures. Data in support of the model are presented; they are derived from neuropsychological test scores obtained from two samples, the first consisting of 203 adult neuropsychiatric patients and normal control subjects, and the second, an epidemiologically-based sample of 435 elementary school children. Principal components analyses of test scores from these two populations yielded similar results: a set of independent elements of attention that are assayed by different tests. This work presents a heuristic for clinical research in which the measurement of attention is essential.     

A study of hyperlexia

Twelve children with early intense reading and superior word recognition skills coupled with disordered language and cognitive behavior are described. Cognitive, linguistic, and reading measures evidenced a generalized cognitive deficit in forming superordinate schemata which was not specific to visual or auditory modalities. Positive family histories for reading problems were present for 11 of the 12 children, suggesting a relationship between hyperlexia and dyslexia.     

The shifting salience of valence and instrumentality in the prediction of perceived effort,satisfaction and turnover

The role of valence and instrumentality was examined in predicting three work-related criteria in a military setting: satisfaction, perceived effort, and turnover. A total of 323 enlisted men responded to desirability and instrumentality scales for each of four categories of performance outcomes: extrinsic rewards, personal fulfillment, recognition, and autonomy. Multiple regression analyses indicated that the different outcome types varied substantially in their relationship to the criteria, ranging from strongly positive to no relationship to strongly negative. Furthermore, the salience of valences and instrumentalities changed as a function of the criterion being predicted in a manner not deducible from current expectancy-valence models. Several implications of the results were discussed in terms of assumptions underlying general expectancy-valence approaches to motivation.This research was supported in part by Grant DAHC19-77-G0017 to New York University (Samuel Shiflett, principal investigator) from the Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences. This work was conducted while the authors were members of the Army Research Institute. The interpretations and opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of the Department of the Army or the Department of Defense. The authors gratefully acknowledge the support and assistance of John Turney at various stages of the project.     

Deviation from hierarchical structure in recall: Is there an “optimal” structure?

Past research has suggested that proportionally more superordinate than sub-ordinate propositions are recalled from expository texts, following a hierarchical analysis of the text structure. Since free recall has typically followed this hierarchical pattern, several researchers have assumed that the related memory structures are isomorphic to the text structure. However, few of these studies have examined how individual differences and text structure interact to affect free recall. In two experiments, the assumption of hierarchical patterns of children's recall of expository text was tested. In Experiment 1, high- and average-ability fourth graders (9 years old) were asked to read and recall a passage. Experiment 2 was a replication and extension of Experiment 1. In this experiment, fourth and sixth graders (9 and 11 years old) read and recalled a different passage. The combined results of both experiments support the notion that there is probably no one optimal hierarchical structure for storage and retrieval of expository text.     

The Creative Use of Poetry in the Counseling Process

Poetry is an effective, creative tool in counseling. This article enumerates the advantages of using poetry and poetic methods (e.g., such language makes use of a natural system of communication) and mentions techniques for incorporating either the poem as a whole or in part. Ways of creating poetic awareness in counseling are emphasized. Guidelines for when to use poetry in counseling are suggested along with cautions on the incorporation of this method.     

Measurement of head movement during auditory localization

Head movement can have a significant effect on the ability to locate the direction of a sound source. A system has been designed to track the head movement in response to sound originating at different azimuth locations with respect to the head. A videotape record is made of a light approximating a point source carried on a lightweight “beanie” mounted on the listener’s head. Movement of the light is monitored by the video camera and recorded on tape, along with the sound stimulus and information concerning loudspeaker location and time. The horizontal and vertical coordinates of the light-spot image are determined in relation to the video synch pulses defining the field borders. Synch signals are available from a video monitor either in real-time or from tape replay to define each TV frame and horizontal scan line. The circuitry interfaces to a computer programmed to take the information, apply a calibration, and process the data into records of time-varying head position and velocity. Examples of both digital and graphic printouts of head movement are given. The system is capable of expansion to three-axis operation.     

Effects of assertive training on three dimensions of assertiveness

The relative effectiveness of several components of an assertive training program in shaping assertive responses on three dimensions of assertiveness (refusal, investigatory, commendatory) was assessed. Thirty-two unassertive females were randomly assigned to one of four experimental groups: coaching plus behavior rehearsal plus modeling, coaching plus behavior rehearsal, behavior rehearsal plus modeling, and placebo control. Five behavioral and three self-report inventories were used as dependent measures. Coaching plus behavior rehearsal appears to be the most essential treatment components. Training was effective in improving assertiveness on all three dimensions.