Trading relations in the perception of speech by 5-year-old children

Five-year-old children were tested for perceptual trading relations between a temporal cue (silence duration) and a spectral cue (F₁ onset frequency) for the “say-stay” distinction. Identification functions were obtained for two synthetic “say-stay” continua, each containing systematic variations in the amount of silence following the /s/ noise. In one continuum, the vocalic portion had a lower F₁ onset than in the other continuum. Children showed a smaller trading relation than has been found with adults. They did not differ from adults, however, in their perception of an “ay-day” continuum formed by varying F₁ onset frequency only. The results of a discrimination task in which the two acoustic cues were made to “cooperate” or “conflict” phonetically supported the notion of perceptual equivalence of the temporal and spectral cues along a single phonetic dimension. The results indicate that young children, like adults, perceptually integrate multiple cues to a speech contrast in a phonetically relevant manner, but that they may not give the same perceptual weights to the various cues as do adults.     

The role of self-produced movement and visual tracking in infant spatial orientation

In two longitudinal studies, infants were trained at 12 and 18 months to find an object hidden in one of two identical wells in a Plexiglas box. On the test trial, normal access was blocked and infants were either guided by their mother or allowed to move on their own to another opening on the opposite side. In Experiment 1 significantly more correct responding occurred after active movement than after passive at 12 months, with correct responding related to high visual tracking. In contrast, at 18 months correct search without tracking predominated among both movement conditions. A difference between the conditions in the position of the mother on the test trial was ruled out as a contributor to performance on the basis of data from Experiment 2. When opaque sides were inserted to prevent tracking in Experiment 3, active movement no longer facilitated correct search at 12 months, thus indicating that the tracking and not the active movement per se was the critical factor.     

Stimulus context and infant orientation discrimination

In three experiments, the effect of additional "contextual" elements on the discrimination of the orientation of linear and curvilinear segments was investigated with 4-month-old infants. In Experiment 1, paired visual matrices (one which contained some irregularity in orientation of internal elements, vs one which contained no irregularities) were presented. Infants detected irregular matrices significantly better than chance, but such detection was not aided by contextual elements. Discrimination of orientation in Experiment 2 was assessed with a paired-comparison familiarization-novelty paradigm. It was found that the addition of elements here significantly aided discrimination of linear segment orientation, but not curvilinear segment orientation. Experiment 3 investigated why this effect was not found for curvilinear segments; after equating the curvilinear stimuli to linear ones used in Experiment 2 with respect to the closedness of figure, discrimination of curvilinear orientation was observed.     

Development of Children's perceptions of internal locus of control: A cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis

Elementary school children between the ages of eight and thirteen were administered the Children's Nowicki/Strickland Locus of Control Scale annually for three years. As predicted, children's mean locus of control scores were found to be significantly different from one age group to the next (cross-sectional analysis) as well as from one year to the next (longitudinal analysis). Older children had significantly more internal scores than did younger children, and the same 97 children demonstrated significant increases in internal perceptions over each succeeding year. No significant sex differences were observed in this generally linear developmental trend. The study supports the hypothesis that increases in internal perceptions are associated with growing older. The data are explained using a confluent theoretical perspective drawing upon cognitive as well as behavioral theory.     

A comparison of three methods for scoring figure drawings

Figure drawings obtained from 758 white male medical students were scored using three different methods. Method I involved 16 different physical size measurements; Method II involved six separate sophistication of body concept ratings; and Method III involved 42 separate aspects of the drawings weighted in direct proportion to their relative frequency of occurrence in the sample studied (conventionality scoring). Separate factor analyses of the scores derived from each method revealed that Methods I and II each reflect only a single underlying factor, and that these factors are uncorrelated in the population studied. Method III yielded eight meaningful factors, each of which may be construed as an independent area of conventionality/deviancy. An overall conventionality/deviancy score was also derived. It is believed that these three methods of scoring capture most of the variance inherent in existing figure drawing scoring systems, but that use of all three is necessary for a comprehensive analysis.     

Discriminating between alcoholic and nonalcoholic blacks and whites on the MMPI

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the influence of race (black, white) on the MMPI performance of alcoholic and nonalcoholic inpatients. Subjects were 73 (27 black, 46 white) male alcoholic inpatients and 73 (27 black, 46 white) male nonalcoholic psychiatric inpatients. While black and white alcoholics failed to differ on the MMPI, white alcoholics presented as less disturbed and black alcoholics as less defensive and distressed, compared to their respective nonalcoholic counterparts. Furthermore, only white alcoholics were accurately identified by the MMPI 2-4/4-2 high-point pair combination and only white alcoholics achieved more high-point pairs containing Scale 4 relative to nonalcoholic controls.     

Sweet sorrow: the color-shading response in an adult cystic fibrosis population

Research on the color-shading response on the Rorschach has been limited previously to its use as a predictor of suicide. The theoretical understanding of this response was addressed by some of the major Rorschach authors. Adult cystic fibrosis patients were administered a battery of psychological tests, including the Rorschach. While these patients face a premature death, none of these patients were suicidal. A higher than usual incidence of color-shading responses occurred. Rapaport's hypothesis that the color-shading response is an expression of a simultaneously conflicting emotion, or similar to "sweet sorrow," was suggested as a possible hypothesis.     

Application of the consensus Rorschach to couples

The consensus method of administering the Rorschach is described and the literature reviewed. The consensus method is viewed as an adaptation of the Rorschach as a form of behavioral assessment, especially as regards couple interaction. Materials on two couples are presented as illustrations.