Quantification and semantic memory

Two models are considered for how people verify explicitly quantified sentences, such as All fathers are parents and Some fathers are parents. The models share the same second stage, but have different first-stage mechanisms. In the Predicate Intersection Model, suggested by Meyer (1970), the first stage involves a serial, self-terminating search among names of categories that intersect the predicate category. In the Feature Comparison Model (Smith, Shoben & Rips, 1974a), the first stage involves evaluating the overall relatedness between the subject and predicate categories by comparing their semantic features. To test the models, three reaction time experiments required subjects to verify statements quantified by Some or All. In the first experiment, the semantic relatedness of categories in false Some-statements was varied. Contrary to predictions of the Predicate Intersection Model, related categories increased reaction time for both true and false Some-statements. While the first experiment revealed that All-statements took longer to verify than comparable Some-statements, the second experiment demonstrated that the All-Some difference can be eliminated by presenting both statement types in the same block of trials, also disconfirming the Predicate Intersection Model. Finally, Experiment III examined the meaning of Some-statements in more detail by having subjects interpret the quantifier Some as “some but not all.” With this interpretation, Some-statements took longer to verify than All-statements. Overall the results support the Feature Comparison Model.     

Hand inversion in sinistrals and lateral preference: Comments on Searleman, Porac, and Coren (1984)

A reanalysis of data from left-handers presented by A. Searleman, C. Porac, and S. Coren, (1984, Brain and Cognition, 3, 86–93) cautions against premature conclusions that an inverted handwriting posture is more prevalent for sinistral men with leftward lateral preferences and for women with rightward or mixed lateral preferences. Although this may eventually prove to be true, the findings of Searleman et al. (1984) are insufficient for supporting this inference.     

Some theorems in haploscopic vision

Three formal hypotheses are specified concerning the combination of neural signals from the two eyes. The hypotheses are (1) that a large uniform light presented to the opposite eye has no effect (independence), (2) that all information from one eye relevant to a given percept (for example, brightness) is encoded by a single neural signal (isolation), and (3) the mutually exclusive and exhaustive alternative to isolation (interaction). Though independence or isolation often has been claimed or simply assumed to hold, these hypotheses imply specific empirical relationships. These relationships are derived for brightness and for equilibrium colors. In addition, one model consistent with the interaction hypothesis is developed. The isolation hypothesis is important for generalizing results from monocular experiments to normal binocular vision. If it is false, monocular results can reflect a combination of one eye's neural signals that never occurs with binocular stimuli.     

Les grands magasins de la médecine de Milton Friedman

The coronavirus pandemic has brought back the question in Western countries of the solidity of their health systems. This article discusses Friedman's 1962 piece of work, “Capitalism and Freedom”, and more specifically his presentation based on American occupational licensure. This research insists beyond the complexity of “de-licensing laws” passed for some U.S. health care facilities, on the consequences of a parasitic competition on health care ethics.     

The coding and transformation of spatial information

The present paper examines the mental processes involved in inferring perspective changes that result either from the rotation of a spatial array or from the rotation of the viewer of that array. Piaget has shown that viewer-rotation problems are difficult when children must choose among pictures or models of an array from differing perspectives. We showed earlier that, with parallel tasks, array-rotation problems are much easier than viewer-rotation problems. We proposed that in solving these problems, subjects interpret the instructions literally, recoding the position of the viewer vis-à-vis the array for viewer-rotation problems and recoding the array with respect to its spatial framework for arrayrotation problems. At that time, we proposed a second principle to explain why Piagetian perspective problems are so difficult; namely, that children have special difficulty in recoding viewer position (egocentrism). The present experiments show that, when subjects are asked a different sort of question on such tasks, viewer-rotation problems become easy and array-rotation problems become difficult. The results show that the difficulty of the Piagetian perspective task is not due to egocentrism; i.e., to difficulty recoding viewer position. The results of all these rotational-transformation tasks can be explained if we add a different second principle to the principle of literalness of problem interpretation. This new second principle posits that the array is fixed vis-à-vis the spatial context rather than that the viewer is fixed vis-à-vis the array.     

Computer assisted versus traditional vocational counseling with high and low readiness clients

This study tested Hershenson's hypothesis that different vocational counseling methods would be differentially effective for clients at different levels of readiness. The top 54 and bottom 54 high school sophomores from a class of 853 were selected on the basis of their Educational Development Series test scores. Half of each group (highs and lows) received individual counseling; the other half interacted with a computerized vocational information program (CVIS). It was predicted that high readiness subjects would change more with CVIS and lows would change more with counseling. Only the latter prediction was confirmed. The groups did not differ in satisfaction with their posttreatment vocational choices. Findings suggest that individual counseling be emphasized with low readiness clients when both options are available.     

A self-fulfilling prophecy in a competitive psychomotor task

Fifty-six pairs of male college students competed in games of electronic table tennis. The participants were led to expect a bias in the game equipment, such that one player would have an advantage and the other a disadvantage. All participants recorded levels of aspiration both before and after being informed of the alleged bias. Upon completion of the game, the subjects made ratings of causal attribution to five factors: ability, task difficulty, effort, luck, and equipment bias. The results showed that the students with the putative disadvantage set significantly lower aspiration levels and performed at a significantly lower level than those students with the supposed advantage. Thus the putative bias became a real bias, although a psychological rather than a physical one. It is suggested that the source of the bias and the performance differences was a self-fulfilling prophecy. In contrast to the results of earlier studies, there were no meaningful differences in ratings of causal attribution.     

Origin of the speech apparatus and its reconstruction in fossils.

Renewed enthusiasm has produced provocative speculations in recent literature on the origin of speech. The purpose of the present investigation is to expose the adaptive renovations underlying the emergence of a “Vocal Tract” and from this to define its anatomical substrate which governs the biomechanics of speech production. The vocal tract is a double resonator tube coupled in series and composed of oral and pharyngeal cavities. Analysis is made of the crucial structural elements of this complex from detailed dissections in modern man and the study of modern and fossil hominid crania. The study focuses on relations of the skull base, jaw, hyoid bone and the contained tongue, pharynx and valvular devices, calling into question recent reconstructions built on classical Neanderthal skulls.     

Hemifield independence in the left handed

Tachistoscopically presented arrays containing either a single word or two words in different configurations were given to left- and right-handed subjects. Several measures indicated hemifield, and by implication, hemispheric independence for word recognition was more likely to be found among left- than right-handers. Differences within the left-handed group associated with the presence of family sinistrality and writing posture were also found. Results were discussed with respect to the view that bilateral representation of language frequently occurs in left-handed adults.     

Crossed aphasia: analysis of four cases

Data from the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago was used to contrast a sample of 358 aphasics with data from a Boston aphasia and aging study (L. Obler, M. Albert, H. Goodglass, and F. Benson, Brain and Language, 6, 318–322, 1978). Unlike the females, Chicago males showed remarkable similarity to the Boston male sample for the Broca, Wernicke, and Global groups with ratios of approximately four Broca's to every two Wernicke's and Global aphasics. Similar to the Boston Sample, Wernicke's aphasics were 11.6 years older (p < .001) than Broca's aphasics.