Effects of input conditions on intramodal and crossmodal visual and kinesthetic matches by children

Three experiments are reported on the relation between children's intramodal and crossmodal visual and kinesthetic performance under conditions varying the difficulty of the input patterns. Crossmodal recognition errors exceeded intramodal errors on distance patterns with two and four constituents by ten-year-olds (Expt 1), and by 5.5-year-olds on single and double distance patterns (Expt 2). Preschoolers showed no significant crossmodal deficits in the recognition of single and double patterns (Expt 2), or in recall of single lengths presented in blocked or alternating order (Expt 3). No interactions between crossmodal errors and pattern difficulty were found. Order of presenting the patterns (Expts 1 and 2), and blocked versus alternating presentations (Expt 3) had significant effects on the relation between intramodal and crossmodal errors. The results are discussed with reference to explanations of crossmodal matching.     

Mediators of the effects of magnitude of reinforcement

The characteristics of mediational mechanisms based upon magnitude of reinforcement were investigated using rats. In two experiments, two-choice discriminations were trained in which selections of one lever in one external stimulus and a second lever in another external stimulus were reinforced with food. In the first experiment, it was found that the discrimination was acquired more rapidly when one choice was reinforced with a large number of food pellets and the other with a smaller number of pellets than when other configurations of reinforcement magnitude were provided. In the second experiment, reversal of a two-choice discrimination was found to be facilitated by prior exposure of the animals to the reversed relationships between the external stimuli and magnitudes of reinforcement. These results were consistent with predictions from a stimulus or associative view of anticipatory processes based upon magnitude of reinforcement.     

Obese-normal differences in the self-monitoring of expressive behavior

Several recent studies have found that while the behavior of normal weight individuals is primarily determined by internal cues, the behavior of the obese is chiefly controlled by external or environmental cues. The present study sought to generalize this finding to the self-monitoring of expressive behavior. Specifically, it was predicted that obese persons would tend to be high in the self-monitoring of their expressive behavior while individuals of normal weight would tend to monitor their expressive behavior to a lesser extent. This hypothesis was strongly supported. The findings are discussed both in terms of further extending the Schachterian model and in terms of the obese as a deviant population.     

Treatment of dental fears by imaginal flooding and rehearsal of coping behaviour

All combinations of high versus low arousal imaginal flooding, and coping versus no-coping imaginal rehearsal, were compared in the modification of dental fear. About one half of all subjects seen successfully completed dental treatment, although significant differences were found between groups in anxiety reduction before and during dental examination, which favoured the low arousal flooding groups. Coping rehearsal did not influence anxiety, but interacted with arousal level of flooding to determine subsequent dental attendance. The results suggest that flooding without coping rehearsal had little effect at high levels of arousal, but good results at low levels. Flooding with coping rehearsal on the other hand, had mixed results. At high arousal levels avoidance was reduced but not anxiety, while at low levels anxiety was reduced but not avoidance. The implications for further research on coping rehearsal are discussed.     

The human lateral lemniscus and its nuclei: The human auditory pathways: A quantitative study

Quantification of the human lateral lemniscus and its nuclei in 15 brains of patients without hearing impairment revealed these average values: Cross-sectional surface area of the bundle at the level of the nucleus of cranial nerve IV of 2.5 mm², fiber density of 77,000/mm²; 194,000 total fibers on each side; grouping of the nerve cells in three nuclei (olive remnant, ventral, and dorsal) the largest of which is the ventral; cell density in the olive remnant of 5009/mm³, in the ventral nucleus of 15,184/mm³, and 13,169 cells per mm³ in the dorsal nucleus; total cell populations in all nuclei of 20,063 on the left and 26,137 on the right; glial-neuronal index of 9.2; cell dimensions of 23.6 × 15.4 microns in the olive remnant and 21.2 × 12.2 in the other nuclei; combined nuclear volume of 1.91 mm³. Loss of neurons was not apparent in the aged brains but a significant reduction in counts of axons and in lemniscal bulk appeared in two of the older brains of the series (77 and 91 years).     

Recall in preschool children

Free recall, cued recall, color recall, organization in recall, and sorting of 3- and 4-year-olds was assessed on 9-item lists of objects that were orthogonally varied on color and category dimensions. Half of the children in each age group were presented items successively, and the other half simultaneously. Older children recalled more items than younger children in both free and cued recall, and also organized their recall more. Moreover, simultaneous presentation benefited the older, but not younger children. Clustering and sorting data suggested a decreasing reliance on perceptual information, and increasing utilization of conceptual information, over the preschool years. The results were discussed in terms of the importance of concrete, external stimulus support at both time of encoding and retrieval.     

Discrimination between reinforced action patterns in the rat

Laboratory rats were rewarded for face-washing, rearing, or scratching by being given the opportunity to press retractable levers for food reward. Yoked control animals received the same number of lever presentations and food rewards, but did not have to face-wash, rear, or scratch to obtain the levers. The experimental animals showed increases in number of bouts of reinforced target behavior above control levels, and the total amount of time spent face-washing increased when a 1.5-sec criterion for reinforced bout length was introduced. The activities in this experiment were made to serve a discriminative as well as an instrumental function, since the cue to tell the rat which lever to press for reward when the levers were presented was the activity that the rat had engaged in to obtain lever presentation. In two separate experiments high levels of discrimination between behaviors were obtained. Discrimination was worse following scratching than after other actions, and scratching also showed relatively poor instrumental conditioning. The relationship between Pavlovian and instrumental conditioning processes in this situation is discussed.     

Spectral versus temporal features in dichotic listening

Ear advantage for the processing of dichotic speech sounds can be separated into two components. One of these components is an ear advantage for those phonetic features that are based on spectral acoustic cues. This ear advantage follows the direction of a given individual's ear dominance for the processing of spectral information in dichotic sounds, whether speech or nonspeech. The other factor represents a right-ear advantage for the processing of temporal information in dichotic sounds, whether speech or nonspeech. The present experiments were successful in dissociating these two factors. Since the results clearly show that ear advantage for speech is influenced by ear dominance for spectral information, a full understanding of the asymmetry in the perceptual salience of speech sounds in any individual will not be possible without knowing his ear dominance.     

Behavioral confirmation in social interaction: From social perception to social reality

A perceiver's actions, although based upon initially erroneous beliefs about a target individual may channel social interaction in ways that cause the behavior of the target to confirm the perceiver's beliefs. To chart this process of behavioral confirmation, we observed successive interactions between one target and two perceivers. In the first interaction, targets who interacted with perceivers who anticipated hostile partners displayed greater behavioral hostility than targets whose perceivers expected nonhostile partners. Only when targets regarded their actions as reflections of personal dispositions did these behavioral differences in hostility persevere into their subsequent interactions with naive perceivers who had no prior knowledge about them. Theoretical implications of the behavioral confirmation construct for social perception processes are discussed.