Is preparation of responses precluded by choice reaction time testing?

Choice reaction times for short (Dit) and long (Dah) Morse key presses were measured using a number of different left hand/right hand Dit/Dah 2-response combinations. When Dit and Dah responses were made with the same hand, Dits were initiated significantly faster, which confirms the finding of Klapp et al. (1974). The absolute sizes of Dit and Dah CRT's, however, varied significantly from one test situation to another; and the Dit:Dah difference was shown to be intransitive. Such context effects cast doubt on the extrapolative power of CRT findings, and on the usefulness of CRT as a measure of movement complexity. Latencies were reduced when subjects knew in advance which hand would be used; but the usefulness of response duration pre-knowledge was not unambiguously demonstrated. Preparation of responses is, therefore, not precluded by CRT testing; and possible explanations for these savings in terms of response selection and motor preprogramming were discussed. On balance, the hypothesis that the longer reaction times of Dah responses are due to their greater movement complexity (Klapp et al. 1974) was rejected, in favour of the explanation that subjects adopt a strategy of preferentially preparing Dit responses.     

Distraction,amnesia, and the next-in-line effect

Two studies use a free recall task to track, moment by moment, cognitive repercussions of an upcoming performance. As in earlier research, subjects display impaired recall for events which immediately precede an anticipated public performance. This “next-in-line effect” occurs even if the “performance” consists of reading a word to oneself. However, subjects show no memory deficit if their performance is not anticipated, and they have generally poor recall if they know they will be performing—but not when. Distraction and amnesia accounts of these recall deficits are discussed. Ancillary findings illuminate the organization of memory in social settings.     

Physiological arousal,exposure to a relatively lengthy aggressive film,and aggressive behavior

Male college students viewed either a 15-minute aggressive television program excerpt or a neutral one. Half of the students in each group were then angered or treated in a neutral fashion by a confederate. Each subject was allowed to retaliate by delivering electric shocks to the confederate as an evaluation of a problem solution he supposedly had completed. Heart rate was measured (a) before exposure to the television program, (b) after exposure to the program, (c) immediately before delivering the shock, and (d) immediately after shock delivery. Angered men who had seen the aggressive film were most aggressive toward the confederate and exhibited the lowest average pulse rates both before and after shock delivery. The findings are discussed in terms of their implication for arousal vs disinhibition conceptualizations of aggressive behaviors following exposure to television violence.     

A comparison of LRT and VOT values between stutterers and nonstutterers

The experiment reported here found no significant group differences in laryngeal reaction time (LRT) and voice onset time (VOT) values. Rank-order correlations between the stutterers' LRT and VOT values were also nonsignificant. A model of the LRT paradigm is presented that (1) allows for systematic assessment of factors possibly contributing to the failure to replicate the often reported LRT group difference, and (2) is useful in examining the relationship between the LRT experimental condition and normal speaking conditions. We argue that two factors were particularly critical to our results. First, simple reaction time procedures included (1) a warning signal that preceded a response signal by a variable 1–3-sec foreperiod, and (2) a single response. We argue that foreperiod durations exceeded the stutterers' speech posture time for a known response. Second, the stuttering severity rating of our experimental group was less severe than ratings in other experiments.     

Spelling dyslexia: A form of cross-cuing

A patient with spelling dyslexia maintained the ability to write, spell, and pronounce spelled nonsense words and words that require knowledge of orthographic rules of language. He was unable to perform grapheme-phoneme conversions except after naming the letter involved. We propose that he uses a letter-naming strategy to circumvent the disconnection of visual areas from the area of visual word images and that his letter-naming strategy represents a compensatory cross-cuing strategy.     

Event-related potential studies of cerebral specialization during reading: I. Studies of normal adults

A number of methodological features were incorporated in a paradigm designed to maximize the likelihood of finding reliable event-related potential (ERP) signs of functional specializations between and within the cerebral hemispheres. Every subject was more accurate in identifying words presented to the right than to the left visual field. The morphology of the ERPs elicited by these words varied considerably as a function of electrode position both within and between the hemispheres. Amplitude asymmetries of ERP components recorded from occipital regions of the two hemispheres varied systematically with the position of the word in the visual field. On the other hand, ERPs from more anterior (temporal and frontal) regions displayed large asymmetries which were in the same direction regardless of the visual field of word presentation. The most prominent such asymmetry was in the negativity in the region 300–500 msec (N410) which was larger in the left than the right hemisphere in every subject. These results demonstrate that in this paradigm which demands specialized language processing ERPs are sensitive to aspects of cerebral organization both within and between the two hemispheres.     

The effect of Self-Esteem and Locus of Control in career decision making of adolescents in Fiji

The effect of Self-Esteem and Locus of Control Orientation in career decision making was investigated in 224 adolescents from schools in Suva City. It was shown that both self-esteem and locus of control had significant effect on career decisional status of both males and females. Correlational analyses showed that while both variables had significant relationship with decisional status, locus of control accounted for greater variance. The importance of locus of control in the vocational guidance process is demonstrated.     

Searching for a pre-specified target letter in briefly displayed words and unpronounceable non-words

Two experiments were designed in which subjects searched briefly displayed and masked arrays of letters for a single pre-specified target. The target was randomly located at one of twelve positions, its identity remained constant throughout, and it was embedded either in the context of words or in a context of unpronounceable strings of letters. In experiment 1 the letters were arranged in two six-item rows, and word and non-waord displays were mixed and presented to a single group of subjects. Accuracy of search was superior when the letters formed words, both for responses scored for correct position and for responses scored for correct row. In experiment 2 word and non-word displays were presented to different groups of subjects, and for both groups the twelve characters were either arranged as before in two rows or were positioned at loci representing the clock positions. Accuracy of search was again superior when the letters formed words and were arranged in rows, but there was no advantage for words when the letters formed a circle. These findings, firstly, indicated that the “word-superiority effect” obtained in experiment 1 was not a result of subjects adopting a word processing strategy for all stimuli, and secondly, they suggested that the word information could not be used to advantage in the absence of spatial cues delineating the words and/or when the letters were not positioned in the usual horizontal arrangement. It was concluded that the results of both studies were consistent with a perceptual account of the word superiority effect.     

Ambiguity,cubist works of art,and preference

Number of one sec views and verbal judgements of interestingness and pleasingness of Cubist paintings were found to be a function of subjective ambiguity, defined in terms of the Shannon-Wiener average information measure, especially when an expectancy had been established regarding the identity of the main object or person in the paintings. Viewing behaviour was found to increase with subjective ambiguity; verbal judgements were found to decrease. Titles corresponding to varying degrees to the content of the paintings or instructions involving guessing were used to manipulate expectancy. An attempt was made to explain these findings and those involving recall of titles by making reference to Berlyne's point of view and the experimental literature.