Key membership and implied harmony in Western tonal music: Developmental perspectives

In three experiments on the psychophysical measurement of pain, electrocutaneous currents were applied to the volar surface of the forearm. In the first experiment, a conventional category scaling method was compared with the rating method of signal detection. The results of both methods were analyzed in detection-theory terms to derive receiver operating characteric curves and measures of the discriminability of adjacent currents. The rating method yielded larger discriminability values than the category scale did, and that method was therefore used in the subsequent experiments to examine the effect of a topical anesthetic on discriminability. When the stimuli were applied through surface electrodes, no effect of the topical anesthetic on discriminability was found, but when the stimuli were applied to a more localized area by intradermal needle electrodes, a dose-dependent effect of the anesthetic on discriminability occurred. For this experiment, the slope of the cumulative sensitivity function increased with increasing elapsed time since the removal of the anesthetic. This result is congruent with the theory that discriminability can serve as a measure of sensitivity to painful stimuli.     

Influence of Racial/Ethnic Membership and “Therapist Culture” on Therapists' Worldview

The authors investigated 2 competing hypotheses related to therapists' worldview and therapists' race/ethnicity: (a) whether therapists of different racial/ethnic groups differed on worldview reflecting group membership, and (b) whether therapists were similar to each other on worldview reflecting membership in a “therapist culture.” Results indicated that therapists shared similar worldviews regardless of group membership, and differences found between therapists based on racial/ethnic membership were minimal.     

A matter of time: novel nouns mark object categories when delays are imposed

In previous work, preschool-aged children have revealed a specific expectation that novel count nouns (but not adjectives) will refer to object categories (but not to object properties or to thematic relations). However, in these tasks, children have been permitted to extend a novel word immediately after it has been introduced. The current experiments test the hypothesis that the noun-category bias is sufficiently robust to hold up even when a delay is imposed between a naming episode and the child’s opportunity for extension. To capture this phenomenon experimentally, we imposed delays of 30 s (Experiment 1) and 1 h (Experiment 2). Across both delay conditions, children in a ‘novel noun’ condition revealed a strong inclination to consistently choose other members of the same object category as the (previously named) target. Children in either a ‘novel adjective’ or ‘no word’ condition revealed no taxonomic inclination. These results establish the power of the noun-category bias in situations that more closely approximate some of the very real challenges that children face in mapping and extending novel words.     

RULES OF EVIDENCE:

Abstract— Statistical tests define rules of evidence in psychological science Agreed-upon rules of evidence are needed to discuss what is true Statistics are probability statements about the reliability of associations In public and journalistic debates about psychological topics, the need far statistical rules is evident Anecdotes, intuitions, and sensational and unlikely events often dominate popular discussions Psychological science demands that the probability of events and associations be evaluated by statistical means Understanding of statistical tests can be improved by abandoning the term significance, winch means reliability to psychologists, but in everyday English, means importance. The importance of a result depends on magnitude of association, not on whether the event has a nonzero chance of recurring. Given large samples and multiple measures, statistical tests are used too often to draw misleading conclusions about the importance of research results. Better uses of statistics would focus on the magnitude of effects and error estimates     

INCIDENTAL LANGUAGE LEARNING:

Abstract —Two experiments investigated the performance of first-grade children and adults on an incidental language-learning task. Learning entailed word segmentation from continuous speech, an initial and crucial component of language acquisition. Subjects were briefly exposed to an unsegmented artificial language, presented auditorily, in which the only cues to word boundaries were the transitional probabilities between syllables. Subjects were not told that they were listening to a language, or even to listen at all; rather, they were engaged in a cover task of creating computer illustrations. Both adults and children learned the words of the language. Moreover, the children performed as well as the adults. These data suggest that a statistical learning mechanism (transitional probability computation) is able to operate incidentally and, surprisingly, as well in children as in adults.     

Gender Neutral Names: Don't Be So Sure!

Males and females were asked to rate the gender neutrality of familiar and unfamiliar names in order to identify gender neutral names for training and research purposes. A large group of non-traditional students and a group of practicing managers provided responses to a series of names. Two follow-up studies were also conducted to provide replication and verification. Initially, 26 familiar and 21 unfamiliar names were studied although in the final study that was expanded to include nine more familiar names. The most neutral names identified were Pat, Terry, Chris, and Lee.     

Characteristics of the System of Production of History-of-Psychology Literature, 1975–1986

We used Psychological Abstracts to identify a large international sample of history-of-psychology literature that was published from 1975 through 1986. Information was obtained on such producer characteristics as: The language in which each publication was written; the country (or American state) from which it originated; and authorship gender and number. Differences in productivity were examined as a function of these variables and their combinations; comparisons were made with a random sample of psychological literature and with previously published findings regarding publication in psychology. Conclusions were drawn regarding the history of psychology considered as a literature-producing enterprise.     

Alcoholism treatment and marriage and family therapists: An empirical study

This article reports on results of a mail questionnaire study conducted among 257 members of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (132 respondents, response rate of 51%) on their attitudes toward alcoholism issues (acceptance of alcoholism as a disease, treatment philosophies used with clients and/or families, and acceptance and use of Alcoholics Anonymous as a resource). Results indicated that 69% of respondents (as compared with 42% formerly) considered alcoholism a disease after MFT education. A combination of individual, family therapy, and AA (81.1%); family therapy (66.7%); and AA only (60.6%) were most often used. Controlled use of alcohol by clients in treatment was believed to be unethical by 43.2%, legal by 39.4% and ineffective by 54.5%.