The Relation of ERP Components to Complex Memory Processing

The relation between various ERP components generated during encoding of a word and its subsequent recall were investigated using a “rote” serial-order and an “elaborative” category memory task. Words (flashed separately) were time-locked to EEG recordings from 21 cortical sites. ERP components from the five subjects having the highest recall scores were compared to the five lowest scoring subjects. Results based on the P200 peak amplitude data as well as the N400 and late positive component peak amplitude and latency data suggest that anterior and posterior distributional differences are elicited during encoding of words for rote and elaborative memory tasks. Furthermore, strong individual differences in these patterns were found as a function of task. A tentative argument was made that the obtained anterior and posterior differences may index different word feature selection and encoding processes, which are differentially utilized by high and low recallers.     

Motivation to manage among women: Studies of college students

Studies were conducted with samples of students from four different universities to determine if male-female differences in motivation to manage existed. Although differences were not found among students majoring in the field of education, females in business administration and the liberal arts did prove to have lower managerial motivation scores than the comparable male samples. These findings are discussed in terms of their relationships to sex discrimination, prospective managerial talent shortages and the vocational guidance of female college students.     

Dry-bed training: rapid elimination of childhood enuresis

Enuresis has been treated with moderate effectiveness by the urine-alarm method which requires many weeks of training. The present procedure used a urine-alarm apparatus but added such features as training in inhibiting urination, positive reinforcement for correct urinations, training in rapid awakening, increased fluid intake, increased social motivation to be nonenuretic, self-correction of accidents, and practice in toileting. After one all-night training session, the 24 enuretic children averaged only two bedwettings before achieving fourteen consecutive dry nights and had no major relapses. Little or no reduction in bedwetting occurred within the first two weeks for matched-control enuretics who were given the standard urine-alarm training. The results of a control-procedure showed that the new procedure did not involve Pavlovian conditioning. The new method appears to be a more rapid, effective and different type of treatment for enuresis.     

Concurrent validity and Holland's theory

This study was designed to explore two areas: (1) the concurrent validity of Holland's theory for employed men using four different operational definitions of vocational orientation, and (2) the relationships among all possible combinations of same named scales across the four inventories. Concurrent validity was studied by administering the Vocational Preference Inventory, the Self Directed Search, and the Holland Scales (Set I and Set II) to 153 male workers established in occupational environments consistent with Holland's six vocational environments. The results revealed that five scales of the VPI and of the Holland Scales (Set I and Set II) and four scales of the SDS successfully differentiated the occupational groups consistent with Holland's theoretical framework. The correlation coefficients for same named scales for all possible combinations of the four inventories were all found to be significant. In general, the findings of this study tend to support the concurrent validity of Holland's theory for employed men.     

Content analysis of the strong vocational interest blank for women

The content of each of the Occupational and Nonoccupational scales on the Strong Vocational Interest Blank for Women (SVIB-W; Form TW398) was described in terms of the categories used for the Basic Interest scales. The number of common items scored on the Occupational or Nonoccupational scales and the Basic scales was cross-tabulated for each pair of scales. A variety of interest factors was represented on each of the Occupational and Nonoccupational scales. Several shortcomings of the SVIB-W (e.g., restricted range of interests represented in item pool, no Occupational scale for “outdoors” occupations, and questionable validity of Diversity scale) were noted.     

Consistent occupational preferences,vocational maturity,and academic achievement

This study explored the differences in vocational maturity, academic aptitude, and achievement variables among female sorority students who made congruent, incongruent, and undecided occupational choices. The variables were operationally defined by the Career Maturity Inventory, the American College Test Battery, and a self-report questionnaire. Congruent, incongruent, and undecided current occupational choice groups were defined operationally using the Self-Directed Search. The analysis of variance revealed the main effect of groups to be significant for two variables. The findings suggest that students in the congruent female group tend to be more vocationally mature than students in the incongruent and undecided groups.     

The development of same and different judgments

Junior kindergarten children, third-grade children, and college students were given a simultaneous pattern discrimination task, with simple and complex patterns, under either unlimited or limited (150 msec) viewing time. Under unlimited viewing, RTs to same patterns were faster than to different patterns for younger children and older males. Under limited viewing, same and different RTs were equivalent, but more errors were made in judging different patterns by all age groups. The RTs were longer to complex than to simple patterns, but the increase was differentially less for the youngest Ss, especially on same pairs. Since this age difference was found under both limited and unlimited viewing, it was not attributable to age differences in perceptual scanning strategies. The same-different asymmetry in RT under unlimited viewing and in error rate under limited viewing confirms across a wide age range previous findings with adults using codable stimuli. A two-process model for same and different judgments appears to be required, although young children may have had a response bias for same in Expt II.     

Striking coincidences: How realists should reason about them

Many metaethicists assume that our normative judgments are both by and large true, and the product of causal forces. In other words, many metaethicists assume that the set of normative judgments that causal forces have led us to make largely coincides with the set of true normative judgments. How should we explain this coincidence? This is what Sharon Street (2006) calls the practical/theoretical puzzle. Some metaethicists can easily solve this puzzle, but not all of them can, Street argues; she takes the puzzle to constitute a specific challenge for normative realism. In this article I elucidate Street’s puzzle and outline possible solutions to it, framed in terms of a general strategy for reasoning about coincidences. I argue that the success of Street’s challenge crucially depends on how we set the ‘reference class’ of normative judgments that we could have endorsed, assuming realism. I conclude that while the practical/theoretical puzzle falls short of posing a general challenge for normative realism, it can be successful as a selective challenge for specific realist views.