On the psychological reality of a natural rule of syllable structure

If natural rules in phonology, such as the rule which deletes a word final consonant before a consonant, are frequently found in unrelated languages, it must be because they tap universal features of production and/or perception. The present experiment employed a learning task to see whether naive subjects have a predisposition for the natural rule as opposed to its converse (consonant deletion before a vowel). The Ss first learned four novel words (nouns) - two beginning with a consonant, two with a vowel - as paired associates to English ‘translations’. Then three novel adjectives were combined with each of the four nouns, following the natural rule for one group of Ss, the unnatural rule for the other. The twelve phrases were cued by their English translations and the S had to respond to each with the phonologically correct sequence of adjective and noun; confirmation followed each response. The Ss learning the unnatural corpus had a strong tendency to give natural responses, whereas the converse was not true. Consequently they made many more errors en route to mastery than their natural counterparts, even when the operative rule was displayed on the first trial by presenting in turn each adjective with its four following nouns. It appears that our Ss had implicit knowledge of the natural rule, even though it does not operate to any significant extent in English.     

“in”, “on”, and “under” revisited

The present study presents evidence that young children's comprehension of the locatives ‘in’, ‘on’, and ‘under’ is, at least in part, contextually determined. Children aged 1;6–3;0 were given tasks with verbal instructions which were either contextually congruent or incongruent. The results were interpreted in terms of the non-linguistic as well as linguistic strategies apparently used to interpret speech. The results and interpretation are in contrast to those of earlier research.     

Qualities of color vision in infancy.

Four-month-old infants attended differentially to eight equally bright, monochromatic spectral lights; that is, they discriminated colors. Moreover, infants showed the same pattern of differential attention regardless of experimental group (different groups of infants saw different subsets of all possible pairings of colors) or experimental method (paired comparisons or single stimulus). In general, the differential attention of infants to colors parallels the ratings of the pleasantness of those same colors by adults. Finally, infants looked significantly longer at color category centers than at color category boundaries. These results suggest that looking at this early stage of infancy can better be understood in terms of preference rather than in terms of stimulus categorization. The results also provide further evidence for a neural excitation model of early visual attention.     

Subjective ratings of credibility following brief exposure to desensitization and pseudotherapy

Forty-two Ss were selected as if they were to participate in an analogue desensitization experiment. They then listened to taped excerpts of desensitization and pseudotherapy and responded to a questionnaire assessing the relative credibility of the two treatments. Desensitization was found to be more credible than pseudotherapy. The implications of this finding for previous and future research are discussed.     

Relationships among measures of visual imagery

As a step toward the development of an objective measure of visualization ability, five tasks which yielded seven separate measures were administered to 74 Ss and intercorrelated. The tasks were: paired associate recall improvement (RI), recognition memory (RM), the Bett's Questionnaire on Mental Imagery (QMI) as revised by Sheehan (1967a, b), a task calling for the production of visual images (PVI) where rated vividness and latency of image attainment were measured, and a task requiring the imagining of emotional scenes (ES) where rated vividness and rated anxiety were measured. The results indicated that although paired associate learning scores per se were related to RM, neither of the memory measures of visualization (RI and RM) were related to any of the other visualization measures. A cluster of intercorrelations was obtained among self-ratings of image vividness on the QMI, PVI and ES tasks. This cluster also included a measure of latency of report of “best image” attainable derived from the PVI task. None of the measures correlated with anxiety ratings on the ES task. These findings were discussed in relation to previous studies and the potential value of the latency measure as an adjunct measure of visualization ability was noted.     

Effect of donor resources on recipient self-esteem and self-help

A 2 (aid vs no aid) × 2 (high vs low resource potential donor) between subjects design tested the effects of aid and donor resources on recipient self-perceptions and subsequent self-help behavior. The results were characterized by interactions between the two factors. Subjects who received aid from a low resource donor perceived themselves more positively and engaged in less self-help than subjects in the no-aid low resource potential donor condition. In contrast, subjects who received aid from a high resource donor perceived themselves less positively and tended to engage in more self-help behavior than subjects in the no-aid high resource potential donor condition. The relationship between threat to self-esteem inherent in aid and subsequent self-help is discussed in terms of self-esteem theory.     

Systematic desensitization, relaxation-training and suggestion in the treatment of test anxiety.

In investigations that have examined the component procedures in traditional desensitization treatment, desensitization was more effective than relaxation-training alone in several studies (Freeling and Shemberg, 1970: Davison, 1968; Rachman, 1968). while these treatments were equally effective in other studies (Benjamin, Mark and Huson, 1972: Aponte and Aponte, 1971; Johnson and Sechrest, 1968). One possible determinant of these inconsistent findings may be the presence of uncontrolled differences in therapeutic suggestion due to the fact that desensitization treatment typically includes a specific ‘rationale’ that explains the expected course and outcome of treatment while comparable authoritative guidelines for providing the rationale for relaxation treatment are not available.The present study compared the relative effectiveness of desensitization and relaxation-training in the treatment of test anxiety under conditions in which suggestion concerning the nature and outcome of treatment were essentially the same for both procedures. To examine systematically the role of suggestion in the treatment of test anxiety, instructions that were high and low in suggestion were given. Treatment outcomes were assessed in terms of changes in measures of anxiety and in performance on objective ability tests. A no-treatment group controlled for the effects of using the same pre- and post-treatment measures.     

Sex differences in the structure of intelligence: A confirmatory factor analysis

The LISREL model of Jöreskog and Sörbom was used to perform a comparative factor analysis on intelligence data from four sex by generation groups. The covariance matrices for 10 psychometric ability measures were used to isolate Spatial and Verbal Intelligence factors. Results from a series of factor analysis models indicated substantial invariance in the factor pattern and factor covariance matrices, although the hypothesis of complete invariance in factor pattern was rejected. The groups did differ in observed and unique variances. The results were basically consistent with the hypothesis that males and females have similar intellectual structure, which would have been obscured had standardized factor analysis been employed. There were also sex and generation differences in the Spatial and Verbal factor means.     

A disfluency descriptor digest for clinical use

A clinical form to be used in identifying which of a set of fluency eliciting techniques might be used most advantageously in therapy with individual stutterers is described.     

Vocal changes in stutterers and nonstutterers during monotoned speech

For years, reports have circulated that stutterers experience marked decrements in their stuttering when they speak or read in monotone. Wingate has suggested that the ameliorative effects of various novel speaking conditions on stuttering can be attributed to modifications in vocalization induced by such conditions. The present study was conducted to see whether this explanation would extend to monotoned speech as well. Ten teenage and adult stutterers and 10 normal speakers were tested in control and monotone reading conditions. Dependent measures were the frequencies of disfluency and stuttering, fundamental frequency, fundamental frequency standard deviation, vocal SPL, vocal SPL standard deviation, and fluent reading rate. Only within-group statistical comparisons were made, because members of the two groups could not be matched pairwise along critical vocal parameters. The major findings of this study indicated that across the two conditions, both groups significantly reduced their fundamental frequency, fundamental frequency standard deviation, vocal SPL and vocal SPL standard deviation. Only the stutterers exhibited a significant decrement in disfluency and stuttering. The normals did not evince enough disfluency in the control condition for a reduction to occur during monotoning. Neither group effected a reduction in fluent reading rates. These and other findings and interpretations are discussed relative to Wingate's modified vocalization hypothesis.