THE EFFECT OF MEANING FREQUENCY ON PROCESSING LEXICALLY AMBIGUOUS WORDS: Evidence From Eye Fixations

Abstract —Subjects read sentences containing lexically ambiguous words while their eye movements were monitored Biased ambiguous words (those that have one highly dominant sense) were used m sentences containing a prior context that instantiated their subordinate sense Control words were matched m frequency both to the dominant and to the subordinate meaning of the ambiguous word (high- and low-frequency controls) Subjects fixated longer on both the ambiguous word and the low-frequence control than on the high-frequency control When the target was ambiguous, however, the duration of posttarget fixations was longer and the likelihood of making a regression to the target was greater than when the target was an unambiguous control The results are discussed m relation to current models of lexical ambiguity resolution     

Peer Group and Family Relationships in Early Adolescence

This study explored the possible interface between family and peer group systems in early adolescence. Sixth-graders who were identified as group members were interviewed and given questions regarding their attitudes toward the group and group dynamics. Family atmosphere and parent-adolescent relationships were evaluated from the parents' perspective. The results show two different linkages of peer and family processes: On the one hand, family relationships are related to the perception of the peer group as a source of support, especially when individual growth is respected within an atmosphere of acceptance and support in the family. On the other hand, family life characterized by conflict and lack of support for individual development is related to an increased involvement with groups and more conformity to group pressure. Results are discussed in line with theories dealing with the role of the family in adolescent development.     

Differential convergence of self-report and informant data for multidimensional personality questionnaire traits: implications for the construct of negative emotionality

Construct validation work on Tellegen's (1982) Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ) resulted in further inferences about Negative Emotionality. Two hundred thirty-two students were rated by three knowledgeable informants, yielding a total of 928 participants. The median monotrait correlation of MPQ primary scores with summed observer ratings was .48, and all were significant, p < .01. These data show higher self-report to informant rating convergences in the Positive Emotionality (Extroversion) domain than in the Negative Emotionality (Neuroticism) domain. Furthermore, in the Negative Emotionality domain, peers, mothers, and fathers were not equivalent as classes of raters. Stress Reaction ratings showed uniformly lower levels of convergence with self-report (relative to Positive Emotionality traits) across all rater classes. For Alienation, peer and maternal ratings were comparable, but paternal ratings correlated significantly less with self-report scores than did maternal ratings. And finally, with Aggression, peer ratings correlated significantly higher with self-report than either maternal or paternal ratings. These findings, taken in the context of the literature, have implications for a hierarchical model of Negative Emotionality, support inferences about the display of cues of Negative Emotionality, and offer new cautions for rating-based assessment.     

Healing Touch Controversies

Healing touch is one of the gifts of our humanity. It has been used since antiquity in many cultures around the world. Healing touch has frequently been the source of controversy, however. The controversies explored are related to the historical use and abuse of healing touch in the church, the controversy surrounding the notion of energy fields, and that surrounding therapeutic touch as a modern healing-touch therapy.chair of the department     

Actuarial Prejudice Toward Women and Its Implications

A process called "actuarial prejudice" is discussed. Actuarial prejudice is a cognitive bias, based on available information about a group from the past and the present, that causes individuals to expect inferior performance from persons who belong to the group. The process, in part, explains why both women and men expect relatively low achievement from women and why women are less likely to achieve than are men. Hypotheses are proposed for future research to test the implications of this process.     

Learned helplessness versus reactance: The effects of sex-role stereotypy

Both learned helplessness and reactance theories hypothesize that the effects of noncontingent reinforcement on later performance are related to the amount of experience with noncontingent reinforcement and to the subjects' expectations of control. In addition, learned helplessness theorists have suggested that performance may depend upon the causes to which subjects ascribe failure. The present study investigated these hypotheses by defining expectation of control as the degree of sex-role stereotypy and by assessing causal attributions. Forty men and 40 women were given either zero, three, four, five, or six discrimination problems for which they received noncontingent reinforcement; they were subsequently tested on anagrams and math problems. Causal attributions were rated after each set of tasks. The data suggested the following. (1) In general, under conditions of noncontingency, high masculinity subjects performed better on anagrams and low masculinity subjects performed worse on anagrams than subjects in the control conditions; stereotypic femininity was not related to performance. (2) Ratings of attributions for failing the discrimination problems were generally unrelated to performance, although there was weak support for the facilitating effects of effort attributions. (3) Subsequent to anagram and math performance, women rated external attributions higher following success and internal attributions higher following failure than did men. The implications for learned helplessness and reactance theories are discussed.The authors would like to thank Stephen Haynes and Jack McKillip for their helpful comments on earlier versions of this paper.