A note on temporal relations between language and gestures

The initiation of the spontaneous gestures of Wernicke's aphasics was analyzed in relation to shifts in semantic content between the syntactic boundaries of main clauses and embedded clauses. Gestures proved more likely to arise at the initial boundaries of embedded clauses when these were semantically discontinuous with the main clause than when these were semantically related to the main clause. Spontaneous gestures may signal underlying shifts in semantic intention, thereby reflecting the difficulties encountered by Wernicke's aphasics in maintaining a coherent stream of thought across syntactic boundaries.     

Interactive processes in sentence comprehension and recognition

Two experiments examined the roles played by semantic and surface information in reading and recognizing sentences. Subjects read sentences in normal and inverted typography. Their recognition of meaning and other sentence features was tested using sentences whose typography, wording, and/or meaning were either the same as or different from that in the first set of sentences. In Experiment 1, subjects either read aloud or performed a sentence continuation task. For originally inverted sentences, recognition of meaning was high, irrespective of task demands. For originally normal sentences, recognition was low for Read Aloud subjects and high for Sentence Continuation subjects. Sentence recognition was affected by repetition of wording and typography. Experiment 2 replicated the results with the read aloud task and showed the second reading of originally inverted sentences to be equally swift for paraphrase and verbatim test forms. It was concluded that reading and recognition are interactive processes, involving conceptually driven and data driven operations. The interaction of operations may be either automatic or controlled. While processing of normal typography is automatic, inverted typography induces controlled processing, resulting in better retention. Furthermore, semantic and surface information are conceptualized as interacting components of comprehension and memory processes.     

Habituation of subjective anxiety during flooding in imagery

Patterns of habituation of subjective anxiety during flooding in fantasy are delineated for eleven obsessive-compulsive and six agoraphobic patients. The majority showed a curvilinear pattern of subjective anxiety response, while three patients showed a linear decelerating pattern. Habituation was found both within and across sessions. The results are compared with habituation patterns in physiological responses during flooding in fantasy and in vivo.     

Priming effects with food and water reinforcers in hamsters

Hamsters were tested in a square maze with either food or water in each corner compartment. A substantial priming effect (runway times increase as intertrial interval increases) was demonstrated using both food and water reinforcers. A lengthy period of free access to food and water (satiation) immediately abolished the priming effect, although runway times in general remained relatively rapid for some time. Extinction of rapid runway times proceeded more slowly under food than under water deprivation. It is concluded that priming is a widespread phenomenon associated with the presentation of a reinforcing stimulus to an appropriately deprived animal.     

Response conflict theory,error rates and hybrid processing: A reply to McLeod

McLeod (1977) has proposed a parallel processing model of the psychological refractory period quite similar to an earlier model most recently adumbrated by Kantowitz (1974a). This article corrects some erroneous statements made by McLeod about the testability of the response conflict model and emphasizes the importance of error data in distinguishing among conceptually similar models of the PRP effect.     

An integration of shifts toward risk and caution in gambling situations

Findings have been reported and replicated indicating group-induced caution at the racetrack and group-induced risk in blackjack gambling. The present research examined the effects of two consistent differences between the blackjack and racetrack situations: (a) the amount of money available to groups versus individuals; and (b) the number of bets made in the postbaseline session. It was found that group-induced caution can occur in the blackjack setting if groups have larger stakes than individuals, as was the case in the racetrack studies, and that this effect disappears over trials, due to group versus individual differences established in the previous blackjack studies. Since current explanations of choice shifts cannot account for the observed trial effects, it was suggested that traditional choice-dilemma material, on which these explanations are largely based, be examined for such effects. Implications of the possible outcomes of such an examination for current group polarization theory were discussed.     

Attribution and aggression: The misattribution of anger

An experiment was designed to test the effect of misattribution of anger on subsequent aggression. Subjects were induced to take a placebo with half of the subjects led to expect arousal symptoms and the other half led to expect relaxation. Crosscutting the pill manipulation, half of the subjects were provoked by a confederate and half were not. All subjects were then given an opportunity to aggress against the confederate. As predicted, relaxation pill-provoked subjects were significantly more aggressive than subjects in the other conditions (p < .025), with arousal pill-provoked subjects no more aggressive than no provocation controls.