Multiple encoding of word attributes in memory

Two experiments employing the release from PI method were conducted to determine whether degree of release could be predicted by the amount of denotative attribute overlap between the control and experimental groups. This theory was very appropriate for predicting the results of the first experiment, but was less successful in the second unless a connotative attribute is also introduced. It is suggested that this class of attribute should be included in semantic memory conceptualization.     

Conditioning in human opiate addicts

Eight volunteers maintained on daily methadone participated in a classical conditioning procedure to determine which if any of the elements of narcotic withdrawal could be conditioned. The unconditioned stimulus was the injection of a small dose of naloxone. The unconditioned response was a brief precipitated withdrawal syndrome. The conditioning stimulus was a tone, odor, and injection of saline. Conditioning was successful in the pilot study in 5 of 8 subjects. The conditioned response consisted of tearing, yawning, lacrimation, systolic blood pressure increase, respiratory irregularities and subjective feelings of narcotic withdrawal sickness (nausea, muscle aches, chills). A second group of 8 subjects showed, in addition to the above, evidence of conditioning of heart rate, respiratory rate and skin temperature decrease. These laboratory findings support the clinical reports of a conditioned withdrawal syndrome and suggest ways to improve treatment results by detecting and extinguishing or modifying conditioned responses.     

Comparison of the WISC and WISC-R on a psychiatric adolescent inpatient sample

The present study compared the WISC and WISC-R on a group of psychiatric adolescent inpatients. The results indicated high intercorrelations between the two test versions but with the correlations linearly related to the changes in content and administration rules of the WISC-R. Analyses of variance indicated that, on the basis of the Full Scale IQ, the WISC is an easier test than the WISC-R.The authors gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Ms. Kathleen Lennox for her aid in data analysis and computer programming.     

Herbert Blumer's critique of The Polish Peasant: A post mortem on the life history approach in sociology

Herbert Blumer's appraisal of William Thomas and Florian Znaniecki's Polish Peasant study and the panel discussion of Blumer's critique, sponsored by the Social Science Research Council in 1938, occasioned a discussion of the value of personal documents in social research which is indicative of the controversy surrounding their use in the interwar period. It is suggested that most sociologists writing in the 1930s were skeptical of the value of personal document research, because such research could not be conducted along the lines of experimental procedure in physical science. Personal document research was in decline by 1938. The critique and conference constituted a post mortem examination of this approach to social analysis.