Electroencephalogram asymmetry during emotionally evocative films and its relation to positive and negative affectivity

The purpose of the present study was to determine if there were differences in hemispheric lateralization during the experience of emotions and if those differences were related to personality style. College-age adult subjects selected for high positive and negative affectivity on Tellegen's Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ; Tellegen, 1982) viewed video stimuli selected for their emotionally evocative nature and rated the intensity of the emotions they experienced. The ongoing electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded while they watched the video clips. Analyses of the EEG data revealed that there were differences in regional activation during the emotional video clips, especially for those stimuli selected to elicit either happy or disgust emotions. These results support the hypothesis that the right hemisphere is specialized for the experience of certain negative affects, whereas the left hemisphere is specialized for the experience of certain positive affects. The findings also indicated some support for the theory that individual differences in personality style are related to differing levels of hemispheric arousal.     

Using tutoring systems to study learning: An application of HyperCard

HyperCard was used to develop a simplified tutoring system whose principles were based on a learning theory, and a genetics tutoring system was evaluated experimentally. Learning was studied by examining immediate versus delayed feedback after an error was made. Such tutoring systems aid in psychological studies of learning, because experimental variables can be easily manipulated. HyperCard provides a good vehicle for tutoring system development, since it requires no extensive programming skills.     

Motor-motor adaptation: preliminary findings

This study investigated the relationship between speech perception and speech production. An experimental technique called motor-motor adaptation was devised. Subjects produced a speech token repeatedly (20 to 40 repetitions), then produced a second token one time. These tokens all contained stop consonants and were subsequently analyzed for voice onset time. The results paralleled previous findings using the experimental procedure, perceptuomotor adaptation. The present study supports the notion of a perception-production link.     

Computer Communication and Organizational Commitment: Tracing the Relationship in a City Government

Various theories and management policies suggest that there should be a positive relationship between communication and commitment to the organization. However, support for that relationship remains equivocal. We report the results of a questionnaire on communication and commitment filled out by 376 employees of a mid-sized city government. They were asked about the mode and frequency of their communications within the organization and about their commitment to the city government. Consistent with our hypotheses about the nature of computer-mediated communication, use of computer mail and bulletin boards predicted organizational commitment, but use of the telephone and paper modes of communication did not. In addition, those most likely to benefit from the immediacy and memory of computer communication—shift workers—evidenced a stronger relationship between computer mail use and commitment than did regular employees. Two mechanisms for mediating the relationship between communication and commitment were evaluated. Evidence supports active participation in communication as a mediating mechanism in the relationship between communication and commitment. The informational value of communication does not appear to be important in this regard.