The acquisition of prenominal modifier sequences

This paper presents a study of children's interpretations of prenominal modifier sequences like the one in ‘the second green ball’. In such phrases the modifier ‘second’ has scope over the rest of the phrase. It is shown that children misinterpret these phrases in such a way that it appears that they give ‘second’ scope only over the head noun of the phrase. A series of six experiments, all designed to test various hypotheses about the motivating factors behind this misinterpretation is described. Experiments 1 and 2 constitute a replication and extension of the work in this area originally done by Roeper (1972). Experiment 3 tests a set of hypotheses about the influence of certain syntactic variables in conditioning the children's misinterpretations. Experiment 4 is an attempt to check an hypothesis about the semantic complexity of phrases like ‘the second green ball’. Experiments 5 and 6 test the children's sensitivity to ordering constraints in different kinds of prenominal modifier sequences. The results are presented in Section 3 and discussed in Section 4. It is argued that the children's misinterpretations of the phrases come about because of their tendency to be conservative about the amount of hierarchically organized structure they will postulate in the absence of evidence that such structure is needed.     

Individual response patterns and the effects of different behavioral methods in the treatment of claustrophobia

The importance of individual response patterns in claustrophobic patients was examined in the present study. Thirty-four psychiatric outpatients with a phobia of enclosed spaces were assessed in a small test chamber. During the test their overt behavior was video-taped, heart-rate was measured continuously, and self-ratings of experienced anxiety were made at certain intervals. On the basis of their reactions in the test situation, the patients were divided into two groups showing different response patterns—behavioral and physiological reactors. Within each group the patients were randomly assigned to one behaviorally-focused method (exposure), one physiologically-focused method (applied relaxation) and a waiting-list control group. The patients were treated individually in eight sessions. The between-group comparisons showed that both exposure and applied relaxation were significantly better than the waiting-list condition. Furthermore, exposure yielded better results than applied relaxation for the behavioral reactors, while applied relaxation was better than exposure for the physiological reactors. The improvements were maintained at a follow-up assessment 14 months after the end of treatment. The results support the hypothesis that greater effects are achieved when the method used fits the patient's response pattern than when it does not.     

Constraints on the visual accuracy of drawings produced by young children

Errors made by young children when they are asked to draw a model were investigated in two studies. In the first study, the experimenter asked 5- and 8-year-old children to draw a cup that had a flower decal (transfer) attached to its outside surface, attached to its inside surface or positioned beside it. The 8-year-old children in all conditions produced visually accurate drawings. The 5-year-old children produced visually accurate drawings when the flower decal was positioned beside the cup and when the flower decal was attached to the inside surface of the cup but not when the flower decal was attached to the cup's outside surface. In the second study, 5- and 8-year-old children were asked to draw a cup that had either an intact or a broken handle. The handle area of the cup was either in view or not in view. The 5- and 8-year-old children performed comparably in this experiment. The children had difficulty producing accurate copies of the model only when the cup had a handle and the handle was not in view. Taken together, these studies indicate that 5-year-old children are more likely to produce visually accurate drawings than has previously been supposed. Difficulty in producing accurate drawings occurred when drawing rules and drawing conventions interfered with the task.     

On the role of the anterior cingulate cortex in phonation: A case report

A 41-year-old male patient is presented with a lesion in the anterior cingulate cortex, medial orbital cortex, and rostral striatum bilaterally and supplementary motor area on the left side. The patient first exhibited a state of akinetic mutism which lasted about 6 weeks. During this state, no volitional vocal utterances were made; there were, however, occasional groans of pain. During recovery, the mute phase was replaced by a state in which the patient could whisper but not phonate verbal utterances. About 10 weeks after the accident, phonation was restored. The speech was characterized, however, by monotonous intonation and a very low frequency of spontaneous utterances. While the frequency of spontaneous speech improved noticeably during the following months, emotional intonation remained permanently defective. A comparison of the present case with other cases from the literature as well as experimental monkey data suggest that the anterior cingulate cortex is involved in the volitional control of emotional vocal utterances.     

Monaural recall and the right-ear advantage

Lists of eight nonsense syllables were monaurally presented to right-handed men and women for free recall, half to each ear on each trial. Results showed a right-ear advantage (REA) in the recall of recency items, but not primacy items and for males only. Among males only that subgroup without familial sinistrality demonstrated the REA. Results offer support for the following: (A) the language mechanisms involved in short-term “echoic” memory are particularly well-lateralized; (B) mechanisms underlying monaural REAs may be similar to those responsible for the asymmetries found in other paradigms; (C) processing demands and strategies inherent to the monaural technique may account in part for its limited reliability in yielding REA and for the present absence of REA among females.     

Individual needs as correlates of satisfaction and involvement with a modified Scanlon Plan company

This investigation examined individual need strengths as they relate to job satisfaction and job involvement with a company using a modified Scanlon Plan. Participants in the study were 78 production workers. The company utilized a unique management system which stressed employee participation, semi-autonomous work teams, individual pay incentives, and a plant-wide bonus system based on yearly profits. The study focused on four of H. A. Murray's (Explorations in personality, New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1938) original needs: n Ach, n Aff, n Aut, and n Dom. Satisfaction and involvement were positively related to n Ach and n Dom, but negatively related to n Aut. Results pertaining to the n Aff scale could not be interpreted due to a low degree of internal consistency. Issues related to the internal consistency of the Manifest Needs Questionnaire (R. M. Steers & D. N. Braunstein, Journal of Vocational Behavior, 1976, 9, 251–266) are discussed along with the potential role of individual differences in understanding employee reactions to the Scanlon Plan process.     

Visual memory for colour

Two colours were either simultaneously or successively presented. In both cases the time taken to determine whether the colours differed increased as the visual similarity of the colours increased. In another experiment, colours or names of colours were presented successively in different blocks of trials. Here colour similarity affected the discrimination reaction times whenever the second stimulus was a colour. This was taken to suggest that visual mnemonic representations can be generated from the first stimulus.