The identification of stuttering: Can you look and tell

This investigation focussed on how observers identify stutterers. It was found that stutterers are identified most correctly under visual circumstances as compared to auditory and combined auditory-visual conditions. Therefore, the reduction of stuttering should include removal of noticeable, interfering, and unnecessary nonverbal behaviors, particularly mouth and nostril movements.     

Semantic distance effects in naming superordinates

The time to select a superordinate label in response to a target word is shown to be a function of the normative likelihood of the target being produced as an exemplar of the superordinate. This extends the scope of semantic distance effects to a new task situation. The effect declines with practice (repetition) and is also reduced by other preceding tasks. Two alternative accounts of the processing underlying selection are discussed.     

Synchronization of unimanual and bimanual responses with monotic and dichotic clicks

In experiments requiring subjective judgments, the apparent rate of rapidly presented dichotically alternating clicks has consistently been shown to be slower than that of clicks presented monotically. The first of the present studies asked (1) if slowing of dichotic clicks would be observed when the listener’s task was to “follow” the clicks with overt motor responses (unimanual keypresses) rather than to make psychophysical judgments, and (2) if following of dichotic clicks could be improved by providing two response channels (alternating bimanual presses). Both answers were affirmative. The second study asked (3) if the improvement obtained in the bimanual condition reflected increased perceptual capacity. The results indicated that it did not, but was attributable to an increase in response ceiling.     

On methods in the analysis of profile data

This paper is concerned with methods for analyzing quantitative, non-categorical profile data, e.g., a battery of tests given to individuals in one or more groups. It is assumed that the variables have a multinormal distribution with an arbitrary variance-covariance matrix. Approximate procedures based on classical analysis of variance are presented, including an adjustment to the degrees of freedom resulting in conservativeF tests. These can be applied to the case where the variance-covariance matrices differ from group to group. In addition, exact generalized multivariate analysis methods are discussed. Examples are given illustrating both techniques.We are indebted to Mrs. Norma French for performing all the calculations appearing in this paper.     

American Psychology and Schools: A Critique

No one denies that the Boulder Conference on Clinical Psychology marked a turning point on American psychology. This paper by one of the three or four living participants lists the conference as one in which psychology was at a choice point, went in one and only one direction, without examining the possible consequences or the possibility of going in more than 1 direction. A second theme is that the APA has to be faulted for a lack of searching self-scrutiny of its past. Organizations, like individuals, resist such self-scrutiny.     

The influence of attention upon anticipatory arousal,habituation, and reactivity to a noxious stimulus

Forty subjects were assigned to four groups, an External-attending Group, an Internal-attending Group, a Control Group, and a Distracted Group. All groups were presented with six trials of a 0.5-sec 110-db white noise. A measure of heart rate deceleration verified the experimental manipulation of attention. During the anticipatory period, the Internal-attending Group exhibited the greatest and the Distracted Group exhibited the least reactivity among the four groups. The two specially attending groups exhibited greater galvanic skin-response conditioning during the anticipatory period than the other groups. There was no support for the hypothesis that heightened attention facilitates habituation. Two measures were differentially sensitive to direction of attention during the anticipatory period. The External-attending Group exhibited reliably greater anticipatory deceleration of heart rate than the Internal-attending Group, while the Internal-attending Group exhibited reliably more nonspecific electrodermal responses than the External-attending Group. This latter finding, along with other evidence, suggests that an inward direction of attention tends to exacerbate anticipatory anxiety as well as reactivity to the impact of a noxious stimulus.     

Masculinity-femininity and response to somatic discomfort

Multiple samples of male and female college students were studied to determine the relationship of sex and degree of masculinity-femininity to frequency of symptom reports, symptom site, frequency of medical treatment, and attitudes toward various aspects of the medical establishment. The results indicated that sex and sex role are not consistently or strongly correlated with total symptom frequency, delay in seeking medical consultation, or frequency with which medical treatment is obtained. They are also not correlated with attitudes toward physicians and other health care figures. However, interesting and rather consistent relationships were observed between masculinity-femininity and sites of somatic discomfort.This study was partially supported by Grant No. 5501RR0540212 (USPH). Special thanks are due to the Computer Center of the Upstate Medical Center for statistical assistance.     

American psychology,and the needs for transcendence and community

In this its centennial year the American Psychological Association has reason to take satisfaction from its past accomplishments. However, as psychologists we know that our view of our history has some self-serving aspects. There have been some errors of commission and omission. In this paper one of those errors of omission is discussed: the significance of religion, especially of the fundamentalist variety, for understanding the modern psyche. This omission is viewed from a historical perspective in which the relationship between the needs for transcendence and community underwent a fracturing that has had troublesome consequences both for religious and nonreligious people. The nature of those needs are illustrated in the ideas and writings of two people separated by 2500 years: Socrates and B. F. Skinner. This paper was delivered by Professor Sarason as an invited address to the American Psychological Association in celebration of it centennial in Washington DC, August 1992. The editor is particularly pleased that Dr. Sarason chose to publish his address in this journal.