Developmental and individual differences in performance on phonological synthesis tasks

This study was conducted in order to examine the role of individual differences in working memory and lexical access in accounting for age and reading skill related differences in performance on phonological synthesis tasks. The performance of 28 kindergarten, first-, and second-grade children with normal reading skills, as well as that of 28 reading-disabled second graders, was compared under four testing conditions. The testing conditions were formed by completely crossing rate of presentation of phoneme strings with type of stimulus to be blended (real or nonword). Both independent variables affected performance on the blending tasks, with better performance obtained at faster presentation rates and with real words. There was a developmental discontinuity in overall performance, with the kindergarten children obtaining substantially lower scores than the first or second graders. In the comparison of second-grade good and poor readers, there was a significant interaction between groups, presentation rates, and type of stimulus. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for a general model of performance on the sound blending task, as well as their value for interpreting individual differences on the task.     

Shamed into anger? The relation of shame and guilt to anger and self-reported aggression.

The relation of shame and guilt to anger and aggression has been the focus of considerable theoretical discussion, but empirical findings have been inconsistent. Two recently developed measures of affective style were used to examine whether shame-proneness and guilt-proneness are differentially related to anger, hostility, and aggression. In 2 studies, 243 and 252 undergraduates completed the Self-Conscious Affect and Attribution Inventory, the Symptom Checklist 90, and the Spielberger Trait Anger Scale. Study 2 also included the Test of Self-Conscious Affect and the Buss-Durkee Hostility Inventory. Shame-proneness was consistently correlated with anger arousal, suspiciousness, resentment, irritability, a tendency to blame others for negative events, and indirect (but not direct) expressions of hostility. Proneness to "shame-free" guilt was inversely related to externalization of blame and some indices of anger, hostility, and resentment.     

Rorschach blends, IQ, and the effect of R.

A correlation of .351 was found between the Rorschach blend score and the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale Full Scale IQ (WAIS FSIQ) score for 70 outpatients. When the total number of responses (R) was partialed out, however, the correlation dropped to .255. We concluded that it is advisable to take into account the effects of R in validity studies showing significant but low correlations. The importance of further exploring the psychological implications of R was stressed.     

Prediction of facial displays from knowledge of norms of emotional expressiveness

A study was conducted to examine the accuracy of prediction of facial expressiveness from knowledge of the norms of expressiveness in same-sex and mixed-sex social interactions. Men and women subjects were videotaped while they viewed emotionally loaded stimulus slides and rated their responses to them. The edited videotapes were shown to judges who attempted to identify the emotion reported by each viewer for each slide. A separate group of subjects was asked to rate how acceptable or appropriate it is for a man or a woman to express each target emotion under the conditions of the slide-viewing study. The accuracy of emotion identification data correlated highly with acceptability ratings across emotions and sex pairings, although examined more closely, the data show this predictability only for same-sex pairings. Alternative explanations for these results in terms of display rules and the social demands of interactions are discussed.The authors wish to thank Alan Fridlund for helpful comments on a previous version of this paper.     

Memories of Morocco: The influence of age,schooling, and environment on memory

To what extent are models of memory general, in that they may be applied to children or to other cultural groups? In an attempt to answer this question, two experiments were undertaken in Morocco to investigate various cultural and experiential antecedents to memory development. A total of 384 children and young adults, ranging in age from 6 to 22 years, were tested in a design that contrasted schooled and nonschooled children in urban and rural environments. Three additional groups of subjects—Koranic students, Moroccan rug sellers, and University of Michigan students—were also studied because it was hypothesized that each might have particular “culture-specific” memory skills as a function of previous experience.A serial short-term recall task was used in Experiment I. Results showed that the recency effect or short-term store was generally invariant with age or experience. Control processes appeared to be a function of age, but only when coupled with schooling, and, to a lesser extent, urban environment. In Experiment II, a continuous recognition memory task was given with black and white photographs of Oriental rugs as stimuli. Forgetting rates were generally invariant with age and experience, while the acquisition parameter seemed to vary as a function of specific cultural experiences. Data from the three additional groups were useful in supporting the hypothesis of culture-specific memory skills.From Experiments I and II, and previous research, it was hypothesized that structural features of memory (e.g., short-term store and invariant forgetting rates) may be universal, while control processes or mnemonics in memory are probably culture-specific, or a function of a variety of experiential and cultural factors that surround the growing child.     

Personality correlates of Rorschach scoring determinants: hypotheses derived from structural analysis

A paradigm was presented whereby the meaning of some major Rorschach scoring determinants could be explicated in terms of a classification system based on Structural Analysis which indicates whether a response is intellectually or emotionally oriented and where it is located on a behavior-fantasy continuum. Implications of this analysis for resolving some interpretive issues and generating behavioral predictions were discussed.