Logical relations and comprehension in conversation

This study examines how logical relations (e.g., causality and identity) in spoken discourse affect comprehension. Research on cohesion, which shows that specific unit template structures link discourse and text together, is used to build a model of language comprehension that places template structures at the base of a context comparison operation. Subjects were engaged in ordinary conversation with a confederate trained to produce specific types of logical utterances unobtrusively. The comprehension model predicted that systematically different latencies, topical response, and remedial response of subjects would follow the test items produced by the confederate. The data support the predictions. It is shown that comprehension occurs via one processing path if there is a direct tie between the target item and the immediately prior item in discourse, and a separate processing path if the tie is between the target item and the earlier context. Subject response in conversation is shown to display useful evidence on the nature of comprehension achieved. The findings specify and extend the recent research on the integration of new information into a textual structure.     

Initial response to rape: The impact of factors within the rape situation

The relationship between specific aspects of the rape situation and immediate post-rape measures of depression, fear, anxiety, and social and interpersonal functioning in 50 recent victims of sexual assault was examined. The data failed to reveal any significant relationships between rape situation variables (e.g., stranger vs. known assailant, weapon vs. no weapon) and the nature or severity of the victims' psychological response. It is emphasized that this negative finding contradicts previous and current clinical lore, and has a number of implications for the assessment and treatment of rape victims.This research was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (MH#29692) to the first two authors.     

Syntactic locus as a determinant of judged pause duration

This study sought to determine if the syntactic location of a speech pause might affect its apparent duration. Ss listened to a continuous discourse, being required to attend to its content as well as to make judgments, now and then, as to the duration of particular pauses. For pauses all actually of the same length, it was found that those falling at a minor within-sentence break, as syntactically defined, were characteristically judged to be longer than those falling at a major within-sentence break or at a between-sentence break, with no difference between the two latter cases. These results, obtained in a perceptual task involving a minimum of extraordinary or disruptive features, are taken as evidence for the power of syntactic variables in affecting attention during listening to speech.     

An individual differences model for multidimensional scaling

A quantitative system is presented to permit the determination of separate multidimensional perceptual spaces for individuals having different viewpoints about stimulus interrelationships. The structure of individual differences in the perception of stimulus relationships is also determined to provide a framework for ascertaining the varieties of consistent individual viewpoints and their relationships with other variables.This research was supported in part by the National Institute of Mental Health, United States Public Health Service, under Research Grants M-2878 and M-4186 to Educational Testing Service, in part by Educational Testing Service, and in part by the Office of Naval Research under Contract Nonr-1834(39) and the University of Illinois. The authors wish to thank Drs. Harold Gulliksen and Douglas N. Jackson for their helpful comments and Miss Henrietta Gallagher for supervising the computations. Portions of this paper were presented at the American Psychological Association meetings in Chicago, September 1960.This paper was written while Dr. Messick was a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences.     

Factors Related to Inconsistent Career Preferences

A sample of entering college freshmen was divided into 2 groups on the basis of the consistency or inconsistency of their first and second career preferences. The two groups were compared on several family and personal factors in order to identify variables that are related to inconsistencies in career preferences. The groups were observed to be somewhat different in the general level of their academic ability and the degree to which their interests were supported by SVIB results. No significant family differences between the two groups were observed. These findings were tentatively interpreted as implying that the inconsistency of career preference was more likely to be the result of the student's recognition of his limited abilities than the other variables examined in this study.     

The Kuder-Richardson formula (21) as a split-half coefficient,and some remarks on its basic assumption

Case IV of the Kuder-Richardson series, their formula (21), is derived as a generalized split-half Spearman-Brown coefficient. The basic assumption employed is shown to be sufficient to justify the various assumptions used in derivations by other authors. Some of the implications of this assumption are discussed.