Individual differences in vocal activity rhythm: Fourier analysis of cyclicity in amount of talk

Speakers in informal conversations tend to alternate regularly between lower and higher amounts of talking; the periods of these low/high activity cycles are on the order of 3, 6, and 15 minutes. Statistically significant periodicities occurred in 55% of the conversations studied. The periodograms that describe the partition of variance among periodic components whow consistent individual differences in the cyclic patterning of vocal activity. Discriminant analysis used the amount of variance accounted for by each of the 12 lowest-frequency periodic components as discriminating variables to see whether speakers could be identified on the basis of the cyclic patterns in vocal activity. Speakers were discriminated and classified at levels well above chance. This suggests that there are consistent individual differences among speakers in the length of cycles in amount of talk.We gratefully acknowledge support from the Central University Research Fund and from the office of the Dean of Liberal Arts at the University of New Hampshire.     

Variations in characteristic perceptual asymmetry: modality specific and modality general components.

The current study investigates sources of between-subjects variation in asymmetry scores on visual half-field and dichotic listening tasks. For each of these presentation modalities, subjects were given multiple laterality tasks. Results indicate that about 50% of the between-subjects variations in asymmetry scores in each modality is attributable to individual differences in perceptual asymmetries that are not stimulus-specific, referred to as "characteristic perceptual asymmetries" in this paper. In addition, the question of whether individual differences in characteristic perceptual asymmetries are modality specific, modality general, or both was investigated by entering subjects' asymmetry scores from visual half-field and dichotic listening tasks into a principal component analysis. The results of this analysis indicate that there are both modality specific and modality general influences on subjects' characteristic perceptual asymmetries.     

Home,school, and playroom: Training grounds for adult gender roles

Gender differences in children's play activities, preferred school subjects, and occupational goals were examined in relation to such parental variables as toy-giving and chore assignment. Subjects were 245 children in grades K, 3, 6, and 8. Subjects completed questionnaires before and after Christmas asking what gifts they wanted, asked for, received, and liked best. They also were asked to name their friends and play activities, favorite and least-liked school subjects, occupational aspirations, and chores at home. Children generally wanted, asked for, received, and most-liked gender-typical toys. They were less likely to receive requested gender-atypical toys. Children's preferred activities, job aspirations and assigned chores were along gender-typical lines. Girls preferred masculine toys and jobs more than boys preferred feminine ones. With increasing age, both girls and boys increasingly preferred masculine toys and male friends. No gender differences in favorite or least-liked school subjects were found. School subject preference was related to gender-typing of occupational choice for girls but not boys.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, Anaheim, California, 1983.     

The effects of baby bath and massage by fathers on the family system: The sunraysia australia intervention project

Instruction in baby massage and the Burleigh Relaxation Bath technique was given to one-half of our sample of 32 couples who had just had their first child. This brief intervention, given at 4 weeks post-partum, led to beneficial behavioural and psychological effects for the family system when assessed at 12 weeks postpartum. Depression and marital satisfaction were assessed with mothers and fathers at 4 weeks and 12 weeks after the birth of their child, and self-esteem was measured at 12 weeks only. The mothers and fathers who were shown baby bathing and massage techniques showed higher degrees of marital satisfaction and self-esteem, as well as lower levels of depression at 12 weeks post-partum, than parents who did not receive instruction. It seems likely that brief interventions which educate new parents concerning functional techniques of baby care may favourably affect their feelings of competence and be of benefit to the entire family system.     

Fodor's nativism

Conclusion The upshot of all this is that very many lexical concepts arenot triggered. Not is triggering is a brute-causal, non cognitive process. Concepts, by and large, are not acquired through the inductive confirmation of definitions. I think Fodor is right about that. But the experience that leads to their acquisition is not arbitrary, and is cognitively processed. It's not just switching on a little cognitive machine already there, or kick-starting an endogenously controlled process.     

Perceptions of women: Effects of employment status and marital status

Eighty-four female and 84 male college students evaluated a briefly described female stimulus person on 20 seven-point bipolar scales which described personality traits and professional competencies. Each subject rated 1 of 12 women who were described as either never married, divorced, widowed, or married and as either employed full-time, employed part-time, or unemployed. As hypothesized, the personal traits and professional competencies of employed women were evaluated more favorably than those of unemployed women, and the personality traits of married women were perceived more positively than those of unmarried women. Contrary to predictions, unmarried and married women were perceived as equally competent.Portions of this paper were presented at the meeting of the American Psychological Association, Washington, D.C., August 1982.     

Do alcoholic Korsakoff's syndrome patients acquire affective reactions?

In this study we report two experiments that investigate the acquisition of affective reactions. In Experiment 1, unfamiliar melodies were played to Korsakoff's syndrome patients and alcoholic and nonalcoholic control subjects who were matched with them according to age and education. Following a retention interval of 5 min, subjects received a preference test on old and new melodies. Korsakoff's syndrome patients showed the same increase in preference for old melodies as a consequence of prior exposures as control subjects did, but their recognition of melodies was significantly impaired in comparison with controls. In Experiment 2, the same subjects saw photographs of two men. Fictional biographical information depicted one as a "good guy" and the other as a "bad guy." After a retention interval of approximately 20 days, Korsakoffs recalled virtually none of the biographical information; however, 78% preferred the good guy, and impression ratings were less favorable for the bad guy. Korsakoff patients developed preferences and impressions even though they did not have voluntary access to the information on which the preferences were based. However, their impression ratings were less extreme than those of controls. The pattern of results of the two studies is discussed in terms of Johnson's (1983) MEM model of memory.     

New wave or second stage? Attitudes of college women toward feminism

The attitudes of female subjects toward gender roles, gender inequality, and the women's movement were measured using a 24-item attitudinal inventory. Subjects tended to hold nontraditional but only moderately feminist attitudes toward gender roles. They were, however, highly aware of gender inequality and supportive of the women's movement, although they were also reluctant to identify themselves as feminists. T tests revealed that subjects most supportive of feminism were advanced students (juniors and seniors) and students who had personally experienced discrimination. But when personal experience of sex discrimination was controlled for, the strength of the relationships between class level and gender role attitudes, and between class level and support for the women's movement, diminished. Students who had personally experienced sex discrimination are less traditional and more feminist in their gender role attitudes, and show stronger support for the women's movement, regardless of their class level, than students who have not had such experiences. These findings are interpreted and their implications for the future of the women's movement are discussed.