Factorial similarity of the WISC-R for Anglos and Chicanos referred for psychological services

Two- and three-factor principal factor solutions to the WISC-R (Wechsler, 1974) were compared across race for referred Anglo and Chicano children. Additional comparisons of these factor solutions were made with those for normal Anglo, Chicano, Black, and Papago students (Reschly, 1978, Note 1) and the WISC-R standardization sample (Wechsler, 1974). Substantial congruence occurred across race for both the two- and three-factor solutions, though the two-factor solution was clearly most appropriate for the present sample.     

Sex-role and innovative major choice among college students

This study examined the relationship between sex-role and nontraditional major choice. The sample included 693 male and female students enrolled in traditional and nontraditional majors. In addition to exploring this relationship the study had a methodological intent: Could scales derived from previous factor analyses of the Bem Sex-Role Inventory delineate this relationship as readily as the traditional Bem scoring method. Results indicate significant distributional patterns in sex-role and choice of major, which vary by sex. Men tend to choose male-dominated majors, regardless of sex-role. Patterns for females are more complex. The factored scales used in cross-validated discriminate analysis procedures did demonstrate some power to discriminate students in the two majors, suggesting certain implications for sex-role transcendence in vocational settings.     

Perceptual equivalence of two acoustic cues for stop-consonant manner

The first experiment examined the effects of orthogonal variation in two acoustic cues that are both produced by the articulation of a stop consonant. One component of the articulation produces a temporal cue, the other a spectral cue. In a phonetic identification task, these quite different cues were found to engage in a trading relation: One cue could, within limits, substitute for the other. In a second experiment, the perceptual equivalence implied by that trading relation was put to a stricter test. If the cues are truly equivalent in perception, then they should have their effects on the same perceptual dimension. That being so, it should be possible to combine them in such a way that, working at cross purposes in the perceptual domain, they effectively cancel each other. Pairs of patterns so produced should, then, be harder to discriminate than pairs produced by either cue alone, and still harder than those produced when the (same) two cues are combined in the opposite way and so cooperate. That expectation was confirmed. We suggest that the equivalence thus demonstrated comes about because the two cues are processed by a system specialized to take account of their common origin in speech production. So interpreted, the equivalence may be viewed as an instance of distinctively phonetic perception.     

Declines in non-digital social interaction among Americans, 2003–2017

It is unclear whether Americans spent less time on non-digital social interaction in the 2010s than in the 2000s. In the nationally representative American Time Use Survey administered by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (n = 191,558), U.S. residents 15 years of age and older spent 10 to 11 fewer minutes a day in non-digital social interaction during leisure time in 2017 compared to 2003, which translates to 67 fewer hours a year. The decline was primarily driven by adolescents and young adults ages from15 to 25, who spent between 21 and 23 fewer minutes per day on non-digital social interaction in 2017 compared to 2003, or 140 fewer hours a year. Thus, American adolescents and young adults spent less time on non-digital social interaction in the 2010s, with a less pronounced decline among those ages 26 and over.     

Short-term memory for "surprising" versus "expected" unconditioned stimuli in Pavlovian conditioning.

Rabbits were trained via a Pavlovian eyelid-conditioning regime to respond differentially to a conditioned stimulus (CSR) depending on whether or not that stimulus was preceded several seconds earlier by a preparatory stimulus consisting of an electric shock otherwise employed as an unconditioned stimulus (UCS). Following training, differential responding to CSR varied systematically with the interval between the preparatory stimulus and CSR, consistent with assumptions concerning decay of information in short-term memory. The major finding, however, involved the test effects of announcing the preparatory stimulus by either a conditioned stimulus with which it had otherwise been paired (CS+) or a conditioned stimulus with which it had otherwise been systematically unpaired (CS-). The greater differential responding to the following CSR in the latter case is taken to support the notion that a "surprising" UCS is more likely to be retained (rehearsed) in short-term memory than is an "expected" UCS.     

Average faces are average faces

Photographs of faces of young adult male and female Scots were measured on nineteen frontal dimensions. Measures in each dimension were converted to z-scores and summed for each face. For each sex, the ten faces closest to the average summed z-score and the ten most distant from it were rated for attractiveness by white male and female New Zealand undergraduates. Raters agreed significantly in ordering the faces in attractiveness, but did not rate faces close to the “population” average differently from those distant from it. Tested for the first time with actual rather than contrived faces, the commonly reported hypothesis that faces representing the average of a population are attractive is not supported.     

The Influence of Long-term Memory Factors on Immediate Serial Recall: An Item and Order Analysis

In immediate serial recall, an error can occur because the presented item is not recalled (item error) or because it is recalled at the wrong serial position (order error). Even if these two types of information can be selectively influenced, in most current studies, a global performance measure confounding item and order information is used. Here, the issues associated with the measure of memory for item and order information are discussed. First, it is argued that in some circumstances it is very important that item information be controlled for when measuring order retention, by for example, conditionalizing order memory on memory for item information. Second, using such measures, it is shown that long-term memory factors recently investigated in immediate serial recall produce a different pattern of results than what is predicted by most current models: Semantic similarity, word frequency, and lexicality all influence item recall, but only lexicality affects order information. These findings are discussed in the light of a retrieval-based account suggesting that degraded phonological traces must undergo a reconstruction process calling upon long-term knowledge of the to-be-remembered items.     

MacLaboratory Controller: A switch and A/D interface between Apple’s Macintosh and peripheral apparatus

Apple’s Macintosh microcomputer has advantages over other systems used for laboratory control and data acquisition, especially because of its graphic and user-friendly features. However, a major perceived limitation has been its closed architecture. We describe an interface using the RS 422 modem port that supports up to 64 input/output (I/O) functions including analog-to-digital 4–12 channel input. The Controller software supplies an easily edited authoring tool in which functional relationships, logical operators, timing (millisecond accuracy), and counting functions are established through simple mouse and menu commands. Data from I/O functions may be displayed or saved as tab-delimited files that can be opened by various Macintosh statistical and spreadsheet packages and that are transportable to some mainframe applications.     

Psychology and homelessness. A public policy and advocacy agenda.

This article describes a public policy agenda developed for the American Psychological Association (APA) by the APA Ad Hoc Advisory Panel on Homelessness, which met May 31-June 1, 1991. The agenda is intended to inform APA staff in their legislative and policy work with Congress and Executive Branch agencies on issues relevant to homelessness.