Repeated exposure and the attractiveness of synthetic speech: An inverted-U relationship

Previous experimental investigation of the effects of repeating an unfamiliar stimulus suggests that mere exposure breeds attraction (e.g., Zajonc, 1968). On the other hand, correlational work with naturally occurring stimuli such as names, music, or landscapes suggests that there is also an overexposure effect: the preference function does rise with familiarity at first but then reaches a turning point and diminishes. The study (N=72) demonstrates this inverted-U relationship in an experimental setting. The stimuli were synthetic nonsense speech, permitting exact control of exposure durations and interstimulus intervals. The critical factors for demonstrating the effect are probably (1) the inclusion of a large number of repetitions, and (2) blocked repetition of each stimulus in a homogeneous sequence not interspersed with other more or less frequent stimuli.     

TESTICULAR SELF-EXAMINATION: VALIDATION OF A TRAINING STRATEGY FOR EARLY CANCER DETECTION

Testicular self-examination (TSE) can lead to early diagnosis and treatment of testicular cancer, the third leading cause of death in young men. We evaluated the effectiveness of a brief and specific checklist for teaching TSE skills. Ten men were videotaped while performing testicular self-examinations before and after training. The TSE training resulted in large and significant increases in the number of TSE steps completed and duration of the TSE. Two urological validation measures supported the improvements observed in the mens' self-examinations. Subjects reported continued performance of TSE during a follow-up telephone interview. This pilot study indicates that a brief and specific checklist is an effective strategy for teaching early cancer detection skills.     

The role of factor analysis in the development and evaluation of personality scales

The purpose of this paper is to examine the usefulness of factor analysis in developing and evaluating personality scales that measure limited domain constructs The approach advocated follows from several assumptions that a single scale ought to measure a single construct, that factor analysis ought to be applied routinely to new personality scales, and that the factors of a scale are important if it can be demonstrated that they are differentially related to other measures A detailed study of the Self-Monitoring Scale illustrates how factor analysis can help us to understand what a scale measures A second example uses the self-esteem literature to illustrate how factor analysis can clarify the proliferation of scales within a single content domain Both examples show how factor analysis can be used to identify important conceptual distinctions Confirmatory techniques are also introduced as a means for testing specific hypotheses It is concluded that factor analysis can make an important contribution to programmatic research in personality psychology     

Girls and Engineering: Perceived Influences on Career Choice amongst Female Craft and Technician Engineers and Non-Engineers

There are very few women who take up careers as engineers - especially at the non-professional level. The present research attempts to throw some light on this issue, examining by means of a postal questionnaire the educational experiences of 22 young women craft and technician apprentices in a variety of engineering jobs. Comparisons are made with 33 similar young women who have chosen more traditional 'female' occupations. The results show significant differences between engineers and non-engineers in terms of their subject choices and curriculum opportunities at school and their perceptions of the attitudes of parents to wards their careers. Possible implications of the findings for developments in curriculum planning and careers guidance are explored.     

Children's assumptions about the generalizability of sex-typed abilities

Children (mean age = 103 months) were provided with information about the relative abilities of two stimulus children at a specific activity. They then were asked to predict which child would likely be superior at a second highly related activity. The two stimulus children were either same sex or opposite sex, and the activities in each pair were sex typed as male or female. The design was a 2 (sex of subject) × 2 (age of subject) × 4 (stimulus pair—MM, FF, MF, FM) × 2 (sex type of activities) mixed design, with sex of subject and age of subject as the between-subjects factors. Each child responded to 32 instances, representing four replications of eight possible combinations. The dependent variable was the child's choice of the initially superior child or initially inferior child as better at the second activity. The prediction was that children would be less likely to assume that superiority could generalize to a second activity if the initial superiority contradicted sexstereotyped expectations. This result would indicate that sex stereotypes interfere with inferences processes, supporting a scehmatic model of sex stereotyping. The results were consistent with the prediction. Compared to a baseline condition in which sex stereotypes were not relevant, children were less likely to choose the initially superior child when the sex stereotype had been violated, and more likely to select that child when it had been confirmed.