Sexism and beautyism in women's evaluations of peer performance

The purpose of this study was to investigate independent and interactive effects of physical attractiveness (PA), sex, and task sex-typing on performance evaluations. Subjects were 216 college women who read poorquality essays written on masculine, feminine, or neutral topics. Essays supposedly were written by a male or a female student who was either attractive, unattractive, or physically unidentified. Results indicated that PA enhanced evaluations of both male and female essayists, except for the predicted effect that female attractiveness is less beneficial for masculine than feminine task performances. Women did not evaluate the sexes differently, and sexism was largely restricted to the interactive effects of PA. PA stereotypes also affected causal attributions of performers' outcomes in a manner consistent with attribution theory. These data are considered in the context of the existing literature and the directions for further research on sexism and beautyism.     

Evidence for disparity change as the primary stimulus for stereoscopic processing

Subjects were able to respond to a lens-induced stereoscopic slant more quickly and more accurately when it was imposed on only part of a surface rather than on the whole surface. This shows that the presence of a stereoscopic boundary, where disparity is discontinuous, increases the efficiency of stereoscopic processing. This finding is not consistent with many current models of stereopsis.     

In search of ambiguity

A study of the time required for Ss to perceive the two meanings of ambiguous sentences, supports the following conclusions: (I) Perception time (PT) is a function of the type of ambiguity, three of which are defined in this study. (2) A similar relative function was obtained for thePT in sentences with more than one ambiguity and for sentences with only a single ambiguity. (3) ThePT for finding a single ambiguity in such multiply ambiguous sentences was significantly longer than in singly ambiguous sentences. (4) When one of the interpretations of certain types of ambiguous sentences is less likely than the other (where likeliness is defined in terms of the number of Ss perceiving that inter-pretation first)PT is high. (5) Complexity of the surface and underlying structures (which are defined in transformational grammar) is an important determinant of thePT for surface and underlying structure ambiguities, respectively.     

Confidence ill stimulus predictions and choice reaction time

In two choice reaction time (RT) experiments, a stimulus prediction and a confidence judgment in the prediction preceded each occurrence of one of two stimulus alternatives. Ss identified each stimulus presentation by pressing a left-hand or right-hand telegraph key. In Experiment I the source of the stimulus predictions and confidence estimates was varied between groups of 20 Ss. For each condition, RT to correctly predicted stimuli was an inverse function of prediction confidence. Following incorrectly predicted stimuli, RT was not reliably influenced by confidence when S gave both predictions and confidence judgments; but RT to incorrectly predicted stimuli was an increasing function of confidence when E verbalized the predictions and confidence estimates or when S predicted and E indicated confidence. In Experiment II Ss made predictions and the validity of Es confidence estimate was manipulated between Ss. When Es confidence was perfectly related to the probability of a correct prediction, choice RT to nonpredicted stimuli was inversely related to confidence. However, choice RT to nonpredicted stimuli was not affected by prediction confidence when Es judgments were random.     

Investigations of a mirror-image transfer effect in pigeons

In two separate experiments, pigeons trained binocularly to peck a key on which an oblique line (e.g., 60 degrees counter-clockwise rotation from horizontal) was projected yielded bi-modal angularity generalization gradients in extinction, with peaks of responding at both the training stimulus and its mirror image (in this case 120 degrees ). This mirror-image transfer effect may be analogous to an "octave effect" in auditory generalization, but Mello's finding of a mirror-image reversal transfer effect following monocular training in pigeons suggests an alternative interpretation.     

Binocular summation in the perception of form at brief durations

Visual form identification at brief durations was studied under: (a) monocular presentation; (b) dichopic presentation where the same form was presented successively on noncorresponding areas; and (c) dichopic presentation where the same form was presented on corresponding areas simultaneously and successively. Form identification for noncorresponding area dichopic presentation was at the level to be expected from 2independent chances to perceive. Both simultaneous and successive dichopic presentation on corresponding areas gave identification accuracy significantly above the level predicted by the assumption of independence. However, the binocular summation was not complete. When the same amount of energy entering the visual system in a binocular presentation was given in a monocular stimulation, the latter condition gave significantly better identification.     

Fundamental frequency as a cue to postvocalic consonantal voicing: Some data from speech perception and production

Several recent studies by Lehiste have reported that changes in fundamental frequency (F0) can serve as a cue to perceived vowel length and, furthermore, that the perceived lengthening of the vowel can influence perception of the voicing feature of stop consonants in syllable-final position. In Experiment 1, we replicated Lehiste’s basic results for stop consonants in final position. Experiment 2 extended these results to postvocalic fricatives. The final consonant in syllables of intermediate vowel duration was more often perceived as voiced when F0 was falling than when F0 was monotone. In Experiment 3, we examined the F0 contours produced by eight talkers before postvocalic stop consonants and fricatives in natural speech for minimal pairs of words differing in voicing. The amount of change of F0 over the vowel was no greater before voiced than voiceless consonants, suggesting that the earlier perceptual effects cannot be explained by appealing to regularities observed in the production of F0 contours in vowels preceding postvocalic consonants.     

De Re Language,De Re Eliminability,and the Essential Limits of Both

De re modality is eliminable if there is an effective translation of all wffs into non-de re equivalents. We cannot have logical equivalence unless logic has odd theses, but we can have material equivalence by banning all essences, something the non-de re facts let us do, or by giving everything such humdrum essences as self-identity and banning the more interesting ones. Eliminability cannot be got from weaker assumptions, nor independent ones of even modest generality. The net philosophical import is that, quite apart from the merits of essentialism, de re language has scant utility.     

Sentence encoding and implicitly activated memories

Some words have fewer direct associates than others, and, when words varying in set size are studied in a list-learning task, those with smaller sets are more likely to be recalled. This set-size effect is found in cued recall when the words are studied in the absence of related words, but not when studied in the presence of related words. Related words provide context and theoretically inhibit irrelevant associates. The present research determined that set-size effects are found when words are encoded in sentence contexts. In contrast to list-learning experiments, the results of three experiments found such effects even when lexically related words were present in the sentences. Other findings indicated that target-set-size effects were determined by the proximity of related words in the sentence and the nature of the test cue. The results are discussed in relation to a model for explaining set-size effects and to selective findings from the sentence-comprehension literature.