Right-hemisphere superiority for discriminating memorized from nonmemorized faces: Affective imagery, sex, and perceived emotionality effects

Sixty-four subjects, divided into four groups according to sex and type of memorization instruction, were given a manual RT task requiring discrimination of two memorized from two nonmemorized faces. Two types of memorization were employed, one emphasizing highly negative affective imagery about the faces being memorized (extreme sadness), the other relatively neutral imagery (feeling composed). Females in the affective imagery group were predicted to show left-visual-field superiority (LVFS), while females employing neutral imagery were not. Males were predicted to show LVFS regardless of imagery type because of their presumed strong right-hemispheric dominance for visual-spatial functions. Predictions were accurate for females; neither group of males showed significant LVFS. Post-experimental semantic differential ratings of the emotionality of the memorized faces showed that LVFS existed for faces rated as emotional, but not for faces rated as nonemotional. This effect was common to the sexes. Results indicate that right-hemispheric memory storage of faces can be induced in females through affective imagery and in both sexes via idiosyncratically perceived emotionality in the face stimuli. This effect of affectivity cannot be attributed to visual-spatial dominannce of the right hemisphere.     

The word order problem in agrammatism : II. Production

This study demonstrates that agrammatic aphasics have difficulty describing relations that are signified by the order of noun phrases around verbs or prepositions. The word order deficit is found in a Sentence Order Task, in which written words must be arranged linearly to form a sentence, as well as in oral production. Ordering tendencies reflect factors like animacy or potency, rather than the systematic use of syntactic rules. These results point to a fundamental syntactic disorder in agrammatism.     

Modality-specific information processing and intellectual ability

Two groups of children, one of below average intelligence and one of above average intelligence, were adminitered nine tasks involving matching information between auditory and visual modalities and temporal and spatial presentations. The below average intelligence children made more matching errors than the above average intelligence group, with no indication that matching problems were particular to one modality or particular to cross-modal as opposed to intramodal matching. Factor analyses did suggest, however, that matching processes varied according to levels of intelligence. The results are discussed in terms of the differences between modality-specific and nonmodal theoretical views of sensory systems, and it is noted that neither view alone is adequate to account for the variations found for the two intelligence groups. It is suggested that the results are consistent with Luria's research on neurological organization.     

On aspiring to present a developmental theory of occupational aspirations: A reader's guide to Gottfredson

L. S. Gottfredson's preceding comment (Journal of Vocational Behavior 1983, 23, 203–212)is characterized by undocumented and arbitrary assertions. Moreover, we still maintain and cite further evidence that the features of the stages she describes represent an implausible account of development. We conclude that there is nothing in either L. S. Gottfredson's original (Journal of Counseling Psychology 1981, 28, 545–579) article or her preceding paper that leads us to alter our belief that the views we present in our own article (Journal of Vocational Behavior 1983, 23, 179–212) will be useful for the future development of vocational theory and intervention.     

Cross-modal transfer and intermediate-size transposition

Kindergarten and third grade boys learned an intermediate-size problem either visually or tactually. They were then tested either visually or tactually. The test sets were separated from the training set by either 1, 2, or 4 steps. The data supported predictions derived from the D. M. Lane and F. M. Rabinowitz (Child Development 1977,48, 412–426) transposition theory on choice and consistency measures. Of greatest interest were the markedly different transposition gradients exhibited by the boys in the visual-visual and visual-tactual groups.     

B. F. Skinner and G. H. Mead: on biological science and social science.

Skinner's contributions to psychology provide a unique bridge between psychology conceptualized as a biological science and psychology conceptualized as a social science. Skinner focused on behavior as a naturally occurring biological phenomenon of interest in its own right, functionally related to surrounding events and, in particular (like phylogenesis), subject to selection by its consequences. This essentially biological orientation was further enhanced by Skinner's emphasis on the empirical foundations provided by laboratory-based experimental analyses of behavior, often with nonhuman subjects. Skinner's theoretical writings, however, also have affinity with the traditions of constructionist social science. The verbal behavior of humans is said to be subject, like other behavior, to functional analyses in terms of its environment, in this case its social context. Verbal behavior in turn makes it possible for us to relate to private events, a process that ultimately allows for the development of consciousness, which is thus said to be a social product. Such ideas make contact with aspects of G. H. Mead's social behaviorism and, perhaps of more contemporary impact in psychology, L. Vygotsky's general genetic law of cultural development. Failure to articulate both the biological and the social science aspects of Skinner's theoretical approach to psychology does a disservice to his unique contribution to a discipline that remains fragmented between two intellectual traditions.     

SKINNER AS SELF-MANAGER

B. F. Skinner was a remarkably productive, creative, and happy individual, in large part because of his expertise in self-management, a set of self-change skills that derive to some extent from his own scientific and theoretical work. Skinner's ardent defense of determinism appears to conflict with his views on self-control; although determinism can be reconciled with these views, we would be best served by dispensing with the “ism” and focusing instead on relevant data and data-driven theories. Contemporary research on self-control has diverged from Skinner's formulation in a number of ways, especially in focusing on cognition and choice. The extraordinary success Skinner had in applying self-management principles to his life should inspire us to take a closer look at the potential value such principles may have for society.     

Language processing in bilinguals

The present study investigated the language processing strategies of three subgroups of adult bilinguals with different histories of language acquisition: infant bilinguals whose bilinguality dated from infancy; childhood bilinguals who became bilingual around 5 years of age; and adolescent bilinguals who had become bilingual at secondary school age only. All were completely balanced bilinguals in French and English at the time of testing. The experimental procedure, a language recognition task, required the subjects to indicate, by pressing a response button, whether each of a series of words, presented monaurally through earphones, was French or English. Concomitantly, left and right hemisphere EEG activity was monitored, with measures taken of latency to N₁, latency to P₂, and N₁-P₂ peak-to-peak amplitudes. Results indicated shorter latencies to N₁ in the left than in the right hemisphere for the infant and childhood bilinguals but shorter latencies in the right hemisphere for the adolescent bilinguals. Overall, the N₁ latency was shorter for the adolescent subgroup than for the two other subgroups. There were no RT differences. The findings appear to reflect strategy differences: The adolescent group seemed to rely more on a right hemisphere-based, possibly more gestalt-like or melodic strategy, while the early bilinguals relied more on a left hemisphere-based, possibly semantic or analytic type of strategy. The results are discussed in terms of previous research on bilingual subtypes and general forms of language processing among bilinguals.