Memory for item order and phonetic recoding in the beginning reader

A defect in immediate memory for item order is often attributed to poor beginning readers. We have supposed that this problem may be a manifestation of an underlying deficiency in the use of phonetic codes. Accordingly, we expected good and poor readers to differ in their ability to order stimuli that can be easily recoded as words and stored in phonetic form, but not in their ability to order nonlinguistic stimuli that do not lend themselves to phonetic recoding in short-term memory. The purpose of the present study was to test this hypothesis by examining the ability of good and poor readers to reconstruct the order of sets of briefly presented stimuli that varied in the extent to which they could be distinctively recoded into phonetic form: pictures of common objects versus nonrepresentational, “doodle” drawings. As expected, an interaction between reading ability and type of stimulus item was found, demonstrating the material-specific nature of poor readers' ordering difficulties. These findings support the hypothesis that a function of the phonetic representation is to aid in retention of order information, and that poor readers' ordering difficulties are related to their deficient use of phonetic codes.     

Use of a statistical significance criterion in drawing inferences about hemispheric dominance for language function from dichotic listening data

A dichotic listening test (composed of VCV nonsense syllables) was administered to 31 right-handed subjects. A χ² statistical significance criterion was then applied to the resulting ear differences in subjects. Fifteen subjects had ear differences significant at the p < .10 levels. Of these, 14 had right-ear advantages, an incidence consistent with the incidence of left-hemisphere language dominance derived from neurological data. Incidence for the total group of 31 subjects, however, showed the overabundance of left-ear-superior protocols typical of studies that report ear-dominance scores with no statistical criterion.     

“比较治疗学”的原理与方法浅析

重点论述比较治疗学的发展背景和历史、基本概念、治疗方法、以及比较治疗学的发展基础和其对临床医学所带来的影响等。比较治疗学的产生和发展对传统医学以及临床医生来说都是一个严峻的挑战,如果临床医生能熟练地掌握和综合地运用比较治疗学的决策方法去解决临床医学的问题,将会大大提高临床诊疗工作的科学性和合理性。     

CTPI和CTA在椎底动脉系统TIA诊断中的互补性

研究CT灌注成像（CTPI）和CT血管造影（CTA）对椎底动脉系统短暂性脑缺血发作（TIA）的诊断价值。采用64排螺旋CT对30例患者进行常规CT、CT灌注成像和CT血管造影检查。30例CT平扫无责任病灶。CT灌注成像正常14例,异常16例。CTA正常4例,异常26例。CT灌注成像和CT血管造影联合应用有利于椎底动脉系统短暂性脑缺血发作的诊断和治疗方案的选择。     

Trust-suspicion and gender differences in interpersonal functioning

Responses on self-report questionnaires (Study 1) and in a dyadic game (Study 2) were observed to investigate relationships of trust-suspicion (T-S), locus of control (I-E), and situational contingencies to styles of interpersonal functioning. Generalized T-S predicted cooperative/competitive interactional choices among the male college student samples (p ? .01). However, T-S predicted females' interpersonal behaviors only when they were in a reactive, defensive position. T-S did not relate to actual behaviors when females were allowed to select/initiate cooperative or competitive exchanges. Situational rules (p ? .025) and I-E (p ? .01) predicted all subjects' behaviors when in a choice, but not defensive, position.     

A microgenetic model of paragrammatisms produced by a schizophrenic speaker

A series of papers appearing in Brain and Language ask whether schizophrenic language irregularities can be understood in linguistic terms. This literature is reviewed and the contrary positions of different authors are highlighted. The clinical presentation of a schizophrenic male is described. In a single interview he produced a set of paragrammatical errors which are noteworthy insofar as they indicate sustained epochs of diminished expressivity. In this sense, they differ from schizophasic deviance, which is described by Lecours and Vanier-Clement (Brain and Language, 3, 516-565, 1976) as an enhanced expressivity cooccurring with intact language competence. They are also partially decodable, which distinguishes them from the schizophrenic segments discussed by Chaika. Analyses of the paragrammatisms indicate disruptions at three discrete representational levels. One involves the formation of abstract speaker intentions, while the second organizes syntagms into some serial form, and the third level takes content words belonging to a particular syntagm and positions them in a syntactic frame. A microgenic model of these representational planes is proposed that is based on the theoretical perspective of Brown, as well as Garrett's investigations of normal speech errors. The model is justified insofar as the paragrammatisms indicate "linguistic regressions" back to more "thought-like" linguistic representations. Moreover, a recapitulation of specific linguistic mappings is demonstrated to occur between processing levels. This microgenetic model represents an extension of previous work in aphasiology insofar as it targets combinatorial rather than selectional processes as primary planes of disruption.     

Fluency and eye contact as factors influencing observers' perceptions of stutterers

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of different levels of eye contact and fluency on observers' perceptions of a speaker. One of four videotapes depicting an actor (playing the part of a supervisor) interviewing another actor (who played a subordinate) were shown to 127 college students. The four videotapes represented four different conditions comprising combinations of fluent vs nonfluent speech and normal vs low eye contact. Results indicated that these combinations of fluency and eye contact differentially influence listeners' perceptions of a speaker. Highest ratings were obtained for the fluent-normal eye-contact speaker, with lower ratings for all other conditions. In addition, it was determined that the frequency of eye contact rather than fluency was more strongly related to listeners' perceptions. The clinical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Components of syllogistic reasoning

The present research sought to understand the components of syllogistic reasoning used in a syllogistic evaluation task. In this task, subjects must indicate whether a conclusion such as “Some Yale professors are humbugs” is definitely true, or never true of a set of premises such as “Some humbugs study syllogistic reasoning; some Yale professors study syllogistic reasoning”. A modified form of componential analysis (Sternberg 1977, 1978) was used to decompose the syllogistic evaluation task with abstract content into encoding and encoding plus combination subtasks. The response-choice data from these subtasks were used to provide (a) direct tests of a proposed theory of syllogistic reasoning, and in particular, of its assumptions about sources of error in syllogistic reasoning; and (b) direct inferences regarding the representation of relations between the subject and predicate of the premises as encoded and combined. The results supported a proposed transitive-chain model of syllogistic reasoning.     

Second-order conditioning with diffuse auditory reinforcers in the pigeon

Pigeon subjects were used in five experiments investigating second-order conditioning with visual second-order and diffuse auditory first-order stimuli. Experiment 1 used a discriminative conditioning procedure to demonstrate reliable and substantial second-order conditioning with these stimuli. In Experiments 2 and 3, extinction of the auditory first-order stimulus after second-order conditioning had little effect upon responding to the second-order stimulus, when compared to a stimulus whose reinforcer was maintained. Experiment 4 compared directly the susceptibility of second-order responding to extinction of the first-order reinforcing stimulus as a function of the modality of that reinforcer. When a visual second-order stimulus was paired with a visual reinforcer, and the response to the latter was extinguished, then second-order responding was greatly reduced relative to control levels. In contrast, when that reinforcer was an auditory stimulus, second-order responding was not affected by the current value of the first-order stimulus after conditioning. Finally, in Experiment 5 the auditory stimulus was established as a reinforcer through discriminative-operant training. Following second-order conditioning, extinction of responding to this stimulus again had little impact upon responding to the second-order stimulus with which it had been paired. These results are discussed in terms of previous work on second-order conditioning with rat and pigeon subjects.