“Applied” research can be useful: An example

an example of how a practitioner can use his research skills to help a school district evaluate one of its projects is described. The practitioner is advised to become involved in “action” research despite the limitations of such research, and the example is presented as having implications for expanding the psychologist's role to that of a consultant to administrators, teachers, and parents.     

Spatial interactions of taste stimuli on the human tongue

Two nearby loci on the human tongue were stimulated with solutions representing the four basic taste qualities. The recognition threshold for each test stimulus was measured when a strong concentration of one of the four qualities or water was placed nearby. Decreased sensitivity for the test stimulus resulted when both stimuli were the same quality, with the exception of an enhancement of bitter sensitivity by QHCl. The only effect across qualities was a suppression of citric acid by NaC1. In contrast, classical studies reported across-quality enhancement. Stimulation of two loci on the same half of the tongue and the use of modern psychophysical techniques may explain the differences between these and earlier results.     

Auditory temporal processing deficits in children with periventricular brain injury

The present study investigated whether auditory temporal processing deficits are related to the presence and/or the severity of periventricular brain injury and the reading difficulties experienced by extremely low birthweight (ELBW: birthweight <1000 g) children. Results indicate that ELBW children with mild or severe brain lesions obtained significantly lower scores on a test requiring auditory temporal order judgments than ELBW children without periventricular brain injury or children who were full-term. Structural equation modeling indicated that a model in which auditory temporal processing deficits predicted speech sound discrimination and phonological processing ability provided a better fit for the data than did a second model, which hypothesized that auditory temporal processing deficits are associated with poor reading abilities through a working memory deficit. These findings suggest that an impairment in auditory temporal processing may contribute to the reading difficulties experienced by ELBW children.     

Motivation in later life: personal projects and well-being

"Personal projects," as defined by B. R. Little (1983), were elicited from 600 community residents aged 70+, representing a broad range of health and illness. Factor analysis revealed 6 types of personal projects: activities of daily living, active recreation, other-oriented activities, intellectual activities, home planning, and spiritual moral activities. Background factors and health were shown to affect the number and type of projects reported. Most indices of personal projects were associated with positive affect and valuation of life. Only 1 was associated with depression. This confirms the differential association of personal projects to positive but not negative affect. Personal projects are seen as part of an open motivational system in which social position, cognitive ability, health, and positive mental health are mutually interacting members.     

Depression and Contributors to Vocational Satisfaction in Roman Catholic Secular Clergy

A nationally selected, random sample of Roman Catholic secular (i.e., diocesan) priests was examined using the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression scale and an instrument developed for this study to assess contributors to priests' vocational satisfaction. In addition, a self-report inventory gathered information regarding participants' demographics as well as four categories of predictor variables (i.e., overall level of vocational satisfaction, social support, spiritual activities, physical environment). The study yielded a response rate of 45%. Secular clergy reported rates of depression approximately seven times greater than are found in the general population, and also indicated that the recent sexual abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic church had negatively affected their mood. Priests' engagement in sacramental activities contributed greatly to their vocational satisfaction, and low levels of vocational satisfaction were found to be most predictive of depression. Factors comprising priests' vocational satisfaction were External Manifestations (e.g., preaching, teaching), Internal Manifestations (e.g., prayer life, affirmation of God's call), and Social Manifestations (e.g., relationships with parishioners, appreciation from others).     

Semantic processing of living and nonliving concepts across the cerebral hemispheres

Studies of patients with category-specific semantic deficits suggest that the right and left cerebral hemispheres may be differently involved in the processing of living and nonliving domains concepts. In this study, we investigate whether there are hemisphere differences in the semantic processing of these domains in healthy volunteers. Based on the neuropsychological findings, we predicted a disadvantage for nonliving compared to living concepts in the right hemisphere. Our prediction was supported, in that semantic decisions to nonliving concepts were significantly slower and more error-prone when presented to the right hemisphere. In contrast there were no hemisphere differences for living concepts. These findings are consistent with either differential representation or processing of concepts across right and left hemispheres. However, we also found a disadvantage for nonliving things compared to living things in the left hemisphere, which is not consistent with a simple representation account. We discuss these findings in terms of qualitatively different semantic processing in right and left hemispheres within the framework of a distributed model of conceptual representation.     

Does selective attention influence the octave illusion?

The octave illusion occurs when each ear receives a sequence of tones alternating by one octave, but with different frequencies in each ear. Most listeners report a high pitch in one ear alternating with a low pitch in the opposite ear. Deutsch and Roll proposed an influential suppression model of the illusion in which the pitch is determined by ear dominance, while the location of this pitch is determined by high-frequency dominance. Deutsch later suggested that this unusual division between 'what' and 'where' mechanisms is facilitated by sequential interactions within the eliciting sequence. A recent study has raised doubts about the suppression model and the role of sequential interactions in the illusion (Chambers et al, 2002 Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 28 1288-1302). Here, we examined whether this previous null effect of sequential interactions may have arisen because of uncontrolled influences of selective attention. The results reveal no evidence of a link between selective attention and sequential interactions, thus consolidating doubts about the validity of the suppression model.     

Mental and physical practice schedules in acquisition and retention of novel timing skills

Research has indicated that random physical practice of a motor skill enhances effects of long-term learning more than blocked practice. Moreover, the use of mental rehearsal coupled with physical practice has been shown to accelerate motor skill acquisition in many different contexts and is better than no practice at all. Others have found that some mental rehearsal strategies are better than others for maximizing performance. This study examined how combinations of mental and physical practice schedules affected the learning of a coincidence timing task. 30 college students were randomly assigned to one of four treatment groups involving combinations of imagery and physical practice. Three tasks were utilized, each involving a particular speed (slow, medium, fast) on the Bassin Anticipation Timer. Conclusions were based on a three-way analysis of variance, using type of mental practice, type of physical practice, and sex as between-group factors, conducted separately for acquisition and retention trials. Type of physical practice was significantly related to performance. On the acquisition trials, random practice was associated with larger mean errors than blocked practice; however, the reverse was true for retention trials. There was no significant effect of type of mental practice in either the acquisition or retention phase. Sex was significantly related to performance for the retention trials only, where the 15 men made smaller errors than the 15 women.