Further evidence on androgyny and interpersonal flexibility

The component scales from which Bem's index of psychological androgyny is derived are better thought of as measures of dominance and nurturance, rather than “masculinity” and “femininity.” When the Bem scales were administered to 202 male and female college students, along with eight scales that form an interpersonal circumplex, it was once again found that stereotyped, near-stereotyped, and androgynous classifications on the Bem index generalized to sex-role stereotype classifications on other dimensions of interpersonal behavior, as well. Moreover, the Bem index was found to be based on the best available combination of orthogonal interpersonal scales for measuring sex-role stereotypy. In this recent sample of college students, the hypothesis that Bem's index of androgyny reflects the more general construct of interpersonal flexibility was confirmed for both male and female subjects. The recognition that Bem's index of androgyny is specific to the interpersonal domain should encourage others to develop androgyny indices in other domains such as temperatment, interests, and cognitive styles.     

Auditory evoked potentials and sex-related differences in brain development

Auditory evoked potentials (AEPs) were obtained to probe tones which were delivered during the presentation of complex verbal and nonverbal auditory stimulation to 3-month-old infants. Significant sex-dependent AEP amplitude asymmetries were found. Females produced higher-amplitude responses from the left hemisphere and males produced higher-amplitude responses from the right hemisphere during both the verbal and nonverbal presentations. No significant AEP asymmetries were obtained in an independent group of infants that received only the probe tones. These findings are consistent with theories and behavioral data suggesting differences between males and females in the development of language and spatial functions.     

Functional cerebral lateralization in subtypes of disabled readers

This study investigated the functional cortical organization of reading-disabled boys and age-matched normal readers. Subjects were initially classified according to E. Boder's (1971a. In B. Bateman (Ed.), Learning disorders. Seattle: Special Child Publications. Vol. 4.) distinction between dysphonetic children (who make nonphonetic, bizarre spelling errors), dyseidetic children (who make phonetically acceptable errors, but do not respond to some words as “wholes”), and children who display normal error patterns (who make phonetically acceptable errors and respond to words as “wholes”). It was hypothesized that different types of reading disability would be associated with different patterns of lateralized brain function. This proposal was examined by testing subjects on three experimental neuropsychological measures—hemispheric time-sharing, conjugate lateral eye movements, and tactile directional perception. Conjugate lateral eye movements were disregarded as the control subjects failed to show predicted asymmetries on this measure. The two other measures were considered valid and demonstrated atypical lateralization in the reading-disabled groups. Lateralization of verbal and/or spatial functiosn differed among the reading-disabled groups and an attempt was made to relate these atypical patterns to the type of reading difficulties presented.     

Perception of facial expressions

Three studies examined the nature of the contributions of each hemisphere to the processing of facial expressions and facial identity. A pair of faces, the members of which differed in either expression or identity, were presented to the right or left field. Subjects were required to compare the members of the pair to each other (experiments 1 and 2) or to a previously presented sample (experiment 3). The results revealed that both face and expression perception show an LVF superiority although the two tasks could be differentiated in terms of overall processing time and the interaction of laterality differences with sex. No clear-cut differences in laterality emerged for processing of positive and negative expressions.     

QUANTUM COSMOLOGIES AND THE "BEGINNING"

Abstract. The cosmology proposed by Stephen Hawking has been understood as support for an atheistic stance, due mainly to its view of the nature of time in combination with the absence of explicit boundary conditions. Against such a view, this article argues that one might develop a theistic understanding of the Universe in the context of Hawking's cosmology. In addition, the quantum cosmologies of Andrej Linde and Roger Penrose are presented. The coexistence of different research programs and their implicit metaphysical views about the nature of quantum reality and time may have profound implications for philosophy and theology.     

Arousal and memory: phasic measures of arousal in a free recall task.

EEG alpha activity and skin potential were monitored during word presentation in a single trial free recall task. Phasic changes in EEG alpha and skin potential, co-occurring with word onset, were positively related to recall at an immediate retention interval (2 min) but not after a delay (45 min). The results were interpreted as supporting the extension of Routtenberg's (1968) two-arousal system hypothesis to human memory. Arousal was viewed as affecting memory during the attribute encoding stage of memory storage.     

Occupational decision development over the high school years

This study described the development of occupational decision processes over the high school years. Five developmental trends derived from theory were examined separately for males and females in three rural schools. Growth was defined as increased frequency in classes of behavior from early 9th grade to late 12th grade. The key processes in occupational decision development for both sexes appeared to be an information search strategy and an elaborate rationale. Both processes increased in complexity and contributed to confident feelings about occupational choices in 12th grade. Implications for measurement of occupational decision processes and for developmental research are discussed.     

Effects of positive and negative adult-child interactions on children's social preference

The effects of positive and negative interactions on children's performance and preferences for the adults associated with each type of interaction were studied. Five children served as subjects during daily sessions in which each of three adults followed prescribed patterns of social interaction. One adult (positive) dispensed positive comments contingent upon either color-sorting or completion of arithmetic problems; a second adult (negative) mildly reprimanded the child for off-task behavior; and the third adult (extinction or nonreactive) said nothing to the child when he was present. Following each session the three adults reentered and the child chose one of them for an additional period of interaction. Three response measures (frequency, latency, and percent of time on-task) and children's adult preferences were obtained daily. The negative adult affected the most task behavior and had strongest stimulus control; the positive adult, though exerting little control over children's behavior, was the most preferred. Children's adult preferences were not specific to the task setting, but were observed across a variety of contexts.     

Some conditions for the dissociation of consummatory and instrumental behavior in rats

To investigate whether consummatory and instrumental behavior depend upon different motivational factors, rats were trained to press a bar for saccharin solution, then given various treatments designed to reduce the palatability of saccharin, and finally tested for bar-pressing in extinction and for free intake of saccharin. Prefeeding with dextrose, prefeeding with saccharin, and association of saccharin with injections of lithium chloride all reduced intake of saccharin compared to control treatments, but only prefeeding with dextrose also reduced barpressing in extinction. Thus, performance of an instrumental response may depend upon need for food rather than appetite for it.     

The effects of overtraining and successive extinctions upon nictitating membrane conditioning in the rabbit

In Expt. I Group SAE (N = 16) received four successive acquisitions and extinctions of a classically conditioned nictitating membrane response while Group OTC (N = 8) received an equivalent amount of acquisition training followed by a single extinction session. Successive extinctions resulted in a decrease in resistance to extinction (Rn), but extended acquisition training had no significant effect. In Expt. II a total of 96 subjects participated in a factorial study of the effects of various amounts of overtraining at two different UCS intensities. When CR amplitude was asymptotic extended training had no significant effect upon Rn; when amplitude was below asymptote Rn was correspondingly reduced.