On becoming a leader: Effects of gender and cultural differences on power distance reduction

The present research focused on power processes in a simulated organizational structure consisting of three hierarchical levels occupied by different numbers of mules and females. Subjects were presented with a chart showing the organizational hierarchy of which they were a member placed at the lowest level, and asked to nominate any person for the leader position vacated by the current incumbent. The results of Experiment I (n = 88 Dutch male and female university students) showed that male subjects strongly overnominated themselves, whereas a majority of the female subjects nominated either self or another female. Of the others that were nominated by both males and females, almost all were occupants of positions immediately below the leader position, indicating the normative influence of a bureaucratic rule of leader succession. Experiment 2 was a replicational study carried out in a different culture (n = lOl Polish male and female university students). Polish subjects adhered to the bureaucratic rule more strongly than their Dutch counterparts, and both females and males nominated mostly males. Results are discussed with reference to gender self-stereotypes and cultural differences.     

Sensitivity of persons with hearing impairment to visual emotional expression — compensation or deficit?

The research examined whether subjects with hearing impairment would differ from normal hearing subjects in their ability to decode emotions from video stimuli (48 video takes in which two actors portrayed six different emotions). Studies in tactile and visual perception lead one to expect deficits, while there is also some evidence for compensation. Twenty-six subjects with hearing impairment and 26 matched normal hearing subjects participated (average age = 25.5 years; nine female, 17 male subjects in each group). Results indicate that in general subjects with hearing impairment were slightly less successful in decoding emotions from the visual stimuli than the normal hearing subjects. A comparison between highly (loss > 60–90 dBA) and moderately (loss about 30–60 dBA) impaired subjects on the other hand indicated poorer emotion decoding only for the moderately impaired group. Post-hoc analyses indicated that these effects were specific to males. Results are discussed with respect to compensation versus deficit, and with respect to issues of training.     

Rate variables and automatized naming in developmental dyslexia

The rate variable in rapid automatized naming (RAN) was investigated in 50 adolescent and 40 adult students with developmental dyslexia, in matched normal controls, and in learning-disabled students without reading difficulties. Visual stimuli depicting familiar colors and common objects were presented in isolation at three film speeds and three exposure times. Film speed and exposure time contributed as independent variables to error rate; and dyslexic subjects of both age groups made significantly more naming errors than controls. Dyslexic subjects also responded with longer naming latencies than controls when the same RAN stimuli were presented in a continuous sequential mode as a matrix of rows and columns. Naming latencies in the sequential presentation were highly correlated with naming errors in the film version. The implications of reduced naming rates for nongraphological stimuli in developmental dyslexia are discussed.     

Lexical integration across saccades in reading

Summary Eye movements were recorded during sentence reading to examine the integration of parafoveal text across fixations. Four viewing conditions were used, each affording full view of the directly fixated word: no preview of the spatially adjacent parafoveal word; preview of its beginning trigram; preview of its beginning four letters; or preview of all its constituent letters. The magnitude of parafoveal-preview benefits (the difference between the no-preview condition and the different parafoveal-preview conditions) was examined as a function of the size of the saccade to the parafoveal target and as a function of the subsequent fixation location at the previewed target. The results revealed no effects of saccade size on parafoveal-preview benefits, but large effects of fixation position during the initial target fixation. Furthermore, parafoveal previews were used during the initial target fixation and during subsequent intratarget refixations. The results support a lexical-text-integration hypothesis which posits that lexical information is integrated across interword fixations and intraword refixations.     

Book reviews

Enlightenment East and West Leonard Angel, 1994 Albany, State University of New York Press 388 pp.

Visions of Power: Imagining Medieval Japanese Buddhism Bernard Faure, trans, by Phyius Brooks, 1996 Princeton, Princeton University Press 329 pp.

Pāli Buddhism. Curzon Studies in Asian Philosophy Frank J. Hoffman & Deegaixe Mahinda (Eds), 1996 Richmond, Curzon Press xiii + 233 pp., ISBN 0 7007 0359 4, hb £40

Friendship East and West: philosophical perspectives Oliver Leaman (Ed.), 1996 Richmond UK, Curzon Press ix + 288 pp., ISBN 0 7007 0358 6, hb £40

Heidegger's Hidden Sources: East Asian Influences on his work Reinhard May, trans, by GRAHAM PARKES, 1996 London, Routledge xviii+ 121 pp., hb £35.00, pb £11.99

The Social Self in Zen and American Pragmatism Steve Odin, 1996 Albany, SUNY Press xvi + 482 pp., ISBN 0 9714 2492 8, pb $24.95

The Art of living. Aesthetics of the Ordinary in World Spiritual Traditions Crispin Sartwell, 1995 Albany, State University of New York Press xiv+ 163 pp., hb

East‐West Encounters in Philosophy and Religion Ninian Smart & B. Srinivasa Murthy (Eds), 1997 London, Sangam Books xxiii + 411 pp., ISBN 0 8613 2375 0, hb £24.95

Confucianism and Christianity: a comparative study of Jen and Agape Xinzhong Yao, 1996 Brighton, Sussex Academic Press viii+ 164 pp., ISBN 1 8987 2325 7, hb £35 and $55     

Book reviews

Thirty‐Five Oriental Philosophers. Diane Collinson & Robert Wilkinson, 1994, London and New York, Routledge, vi + 205 pp., £35

Essays on Indian Philosophy Traditional and Modern. J. N. Mohanty (edited by Purushottama Bilimoria), 1993, Delhi, Oxford University Press, xxxvii + 347 pp., Rs. 500

Gates of Light (Sha'are Orah). Rabbi Joseph Gikatilla, 1994, London, Harper Collins, 400 + xxxiv pp., $30     

ADULTS LISTEN SELECTIVELY; INFANTS DO NOT

Abstract— Infants' auditory detection thresholds are higher than adult thresh olds. Since adults listen selectively for an expected test tone frequency, and selective listening improves their detection performance, one hypothesis about why infant thresholds are high is that infants do not listen selectively. This hypothesis was tested by obtaining listening bands from adults and from 7- to 9-month-old infants. The results replicate earlier findings that adults listen selectively but indicate that infants do not. Lack of selective listening likely contributes to infants' high thresholds. Further, the finding that infants and adults have different listening strategies has implications for infants' auditory perception in general.     

Compound word effects differ in reading,on-line naming,and delayed naming tasks

Bimorphemic compound words (e.g.,blueberry), bimorphemic suffixed words (e.g.,ceaseless), and monomorphemic controls (e.g.,arthritis) were read in neutral sentence contexts in Experiment 1. The main result revealed longer first fixation durations on compound words than on control and suffixed words. Different effects emerged when naming tasks were used. An on-line naming task revealed substantially shorter naming latencies for compound words than for control and suffixed words. Naming latencies for compound and control words were equivalent in a delayed naming task. These results indicate that on-line naming latencies and word-viewing durations may yield diverging results. They also suggest that activation of constituent words of compound words occurs independently from the specification of conventional word meanings.     

Book reviews

The Awakening of the West: the encounter of Buddhism and Western culture Stephen Batchelor (Foreword by The Dalai Lama), 1994 London, Aquarian xvi + 416 pp., £12.99, US $20.00

A Comparative Study of Early Buddhism and Kantian Philosophy S. G. M. Weerasinghe, 1993 Colombo, S. Godage and Brothers xxii+ 104 pp., pb Rs. 150.00; US$7.50

New Light on Early Buddhism Balkrishna Govind Gokhale, 1994 London, Sangam x + 208 pp., hb £22.95

Vedic Hermeneutics K. Satchidananda Murty, 1993 New Delhi, Shri Lai Bahadur Shastri Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeetha, in association with Motilal Banarsidass xxvi + 106 pp., hb Rs.150