Relationship between intellectual status and reading skills for developmentally disabled children

The relationship between WISC-R Full Scale IQ and scores on the Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests were explored for 80 developmentally disabled children. While the children's reading skills correlated moderately and significantly with intellectual status, abstract reading skills, e.g., word comprehension, correlated more highly with Full Scale IQ than did concrete ones, e.g., word identification. The development of concrete learning patterns by such children was discussed, with an emphasis on the emotional importance of these learning styles to the children and their families.     

HLA-B27 as a possible genetic marker of psychoticism

In an earlier study HLA-B27 was found to correlate with some subgroups of schizophrenia, having an increased incidence specially in the subgroup of patients with poor prognostic features.In order to study a possible association between the P-score from the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire and HLA-B27, two subgroups of chronic paranoid schizophrenic patients selected according to the same diagnostic criteria were compared. P-scores were significantly higher in the subgroup of patients showing HLA-B27, when compared with patients without HLA-B27 (p < 0.02).This finding gives support to the hypothesis of a genetic factor underlying P, and indicates the possibility of using P-scores in the selection of more homogeneous patients groups for other researches, as well as a factor in prognostic prediction.     

The superiority of the pair-comparisons method for scaling visual illusions

Twenty-one Ss scaled the Delboeuf illusion by the methods of pair comparisons, constant stimulus differences, reproduction, and pair reproduction. The method of pair comparisons was clearly superior on all indices of validity, reliability, and efficiency. Pair comparisons forces the S to discriminate between treatment levels and avoids motor responses. Es should consider using pair comparisons or related methods which share these advantages.     

Redundancy in perceptual-motor testing: confirmation and generalization.

The Developmental Test of Visual-motor Integration was administered to 63 children in regular classrooms and 51 children in Special Education. Prediction based on total score (r = .68) was similar to a multiple R utilizing only five scores (.67). The over-all raw test score, based on all 24 designs, correctly classified 85% of the children while a combined abbreviated score utilizing only 5 designs achieved an 80% differentiation. Results were interpreted as confirming the hypothesis of redundancy in this perceptual-motor test.     

Transformation theory of size judgment.

Perception of size is assessed by having observers adjust a comparison target at a fixed distance to match the size of a standard located at different distances. Results depend on instructions, target orientation, and available stimulus cues. A mathematical theory assumes that the brain performs an inverse transformation on the proximal information impinging on the retina to recover the original distal size of the target. Results depend on the target visual angle, and the effective target distance and orientation applied in performing the inverse transformation. Effective values are linked to instructions, target location, and stimulus cues. Two models are developed and successfully fit to empirical data. One emphasizes the distance parameter; the second, the orientation parameter.     

Modulation of unconditioned defense reflexes by a putative emotive Pavlovian conditioned stimulus

Four experiments showed differential modulation of defensive unconditioned responses (URs) in rabbits by contextual stimuli that Brandon and Wagner (1991) have shown similarly to modulate conditioned eyeblink responses. Two 30-s auditory cues, A and B, were differentially paired with shock. Tests were presentations of a response-eliciting probe stimulus within A, B, or a comparable blank interval, Experiments 1 and 2 demonstrated that A and B differentially facilitated eyeblink URs, and Experiments 3 and 4 showed that A and B similarly differentially facilitated startle responses elicited by airpuffs to the ear. These data are consistent with a characterization of Pavlovian conditioning that distinguishes between emotive and sensory conditioning and assumes that conditioned emotional responses similarly modulate specific conditioned and unconditioned defensive reflexes (Konorski, 1967; Wagner & Brandon, 1989).     

A method for coping with overall productivity when making between-group category comparisons

A straightforward method for dealing with the effect of response productivity when comparing individual scoring categories between groups was presented along with an example. It was contended that percentage comparisons based on group data can circumvent the reliability problems associated with percentage scores derived from single protocols. Other problems connected with ratio and percentage scores were discussed.     

Differences in Hand Test responses of healthy females across the life-span.

The Hand Test was administered to 175 females ranging from 17 to 72 years. Subjects were all "community-living," within normal range of hearing and vision, in good health, and had a modal education level of high school graduate. Results were consistent with previous findings using projective techniques with the elderly, in that a depletion and constriction of personality appears to be concomitant with the normal aging process.