Factors affecting developmental changes in the speed of processing

Although many studies have found developmental changes in the speed of various processes, they have potentially confounded the subject's age with his knowledge of the task domain and use of strategies. In this study, the strategies used by the subject and his domain knowledge were independently assessed by a number of tasks. Subsequently, processing rate measures were obtained for a task (the “same/different” judgment task of simultaneously presented stimuli) in which domain knowledge was manipulated independently of age while controlling for strategy usage. It was found that the usual adult superiority in speed of processing could be markedly reduced if children possessed equivalent amounts of domain knowledge and this effect was domain specific. Further, it was found that differences in knowledge affected processing rates in both knowledgeable adults and children and to about the same extent. It was concluded that some part of the typical adult superiority in processing rate was due to knowledge differences.     

Parents' reactions to finding out that their children have average or above average IQ scores

The parents of 41 children who had been given an individually-administered intelligence test were contacted approximately 19 months after testing. The sample included 20 parents who had learned their child had an Average IQ (children'smeanIQ = 100.8) and 21 parents who had learned their child had an Above Average IQ (children'smeanIQ = 130.0). Parents of Average IQ children were less accurate in their memory of test results, and they and their children experienced fewer positive consequences from IQ testing than Above Average children and their parents. Children with Above Average IQ experienced extremely low frequencies of sibling rivalry, conceit or pressure, and they and their parents experienced increased pride and/or self-confidence as a result of the IQ testing. The results as a whole suggest that parents of Average IQ children may need more psychological support during the parent informing process than parents of Above Average IQ children.     

The height of handwriting

An experiment is described that examines the basis of the control of vertical amplitude (height) of handwriting. It is shown that changes in movement duration accompany changes in height whether the latter are associated with instructions to write larger than normal (between words) or because the letters to be written (e, l) differ in height (within words). The proportional differences in movement duration match the proportional differences in amplitude between words but not within words. It is concluded that two different time-based mechanisms are invoked for handwriting height control: interval adjustment for writing size changes between words and duration selection for letters differing in height within a word.     

Some types of stability in the study of students' work values

It is suggested the concept of “stability” in the study of work values has at least three facets: (1) hierarchical stability, (2) response pattern stability, and (3) factor stability. These three facets are investigated using a sample of 165 Australian students, assessed using a work values list initially in Grade 12 and then $\text{2}\text{1}\text{2}$ years later during which time all had engaged in full-time tertiary study. Of the 13 work values assessed only independence and intellectual stimulation increased in importance and surroundings decreased. Canonical correlation analysis revealed four significant response patterns which indicated that the same work value may sometimes be stable or changeable in combination with other work values. It was also found using factor analysis that two rotated principal components appeared stable over time. They were identified as an Intellectual Concern factor and People Concern factor. An Extrinsic Concern factor for subjects as high school students was found to differentiate into a Status/Power Concern factor and a Co-workers Concern factor by the time of the second assessment. A Freedom Concern factor found in the Grade 12 assessment was not discovered until $\text{2}\text{1}\text{2}$ years later. The results confirm the need for further theoretical and methodological refinement of the notion of stability in the study of work values.     

Evaluation of a parent's manual for training enuretic children

An operant method of training enuretic children had previously been evaluated by direct training of the child and parent. A manual describing the method was used by 13 parents in the present study with no professional assistance. Bedwetting was reduced from its pre-treatment level of 68% of the nights to 27% during the first week. 10% during the third month and 7% the sixth month. These results closely approximated those obtained previously with direct training.     

Effects of imaginal exposure to feared disasters in obsessive-compulsive checkers

The combined effects of imaginal exposure to feared catastrophes and in vivo exposure to external stimuli were compared with the effects of in vivo exposure alone in 15 obsessive-compulsives with checking rituals. The first group received 90 min of uninterrupted exposure in imagination, which concentrated mainly on disastrous consequences, followed by 30 min of exposure in vivo to stimuli-situations which triggered rituals. The second group was given 2 hr of exposure in vivo only. Both groups were prevented from performing rituals. Treatment consisted of 10 daily sessions within a 2 week period.Assessments were conducted before and after treatment and at follow-up ranging from 3 months to 2.5 yr with a mean of 11 months. At post-treatment both groups improved considerably and did not differ. But at follow-up those who received imaginal and in vivo exposure maintained their gains, whereas the group who were treated by exposure in vivo alone evidenced partial relapse on four of the six dependent measures. The results tend to indicate that a closer match between a patient's internal fear model and the content of exposure enhances long term treatment efficacy.     

Validation of the sensation scale,a measure of subjective physiological responses to alcohol

The Sensation Scale was originally constructed to measure the subjective experience of physiological changes following alcohol consumption. Reduction of the original scale of 31 variables on the basis of face validity resulted in six ‘factors’ comprising 26 variables and one ‘other’ factor. These sortings are shown to have good interrater reliability. Furthermore, evidence is presented from two experiments that five of the six factors discriminated between nonalcoholic male subjects who drank either a beverage containing a moderate dose of alcohol or a nonalcoholic beverage.     

Against definitions

Definitional accounts of language structure are explored in this paper. Several classes of arguments for definitions are reviewed; those which connect to: classical theories of reference, theories of informal validity, theories of sentence comprehension, and theories of concept learning. We suggest that, for each of these areas, accounts which rely upon definition are, in fact, not to be preferred on evidential grounds to plausible non-definitional alternatives. We also present a series of experimental observations bearing on one of these areas — that of sentence comprehension. We show that one widely cited class of examples of definitional structures — that of “causative verbs” — fails to affect subject judgements of those relations among the words of causative sentences which depend upon the putative definitional structures. Such subject judgements are independently demonstrated to be sensitive to structural relations of comparable type for other linguistically non-problematic types.     

Kindergartners' reasoning in simple problems

Three experiments assessed kindergartners' performance on simple conceptlike problems in which the correct solution could be selected from a specified set of possible solutions by using the information provided by a single positive or negative stimulus. For both positive and negative instances, performance was accurate when all stimulus attributes were logically informative, but performance was impaired when stimuli included an additional, logically uninformative, attribute. This impairment could not be attributed simply to increased information processing load. Children seemed to realize that uninformative attributes provided no basis for choosing among possible solutions, but did not seem to understand how to interpret this fact in order to make appropriate inferences. It was suggested that children's inferential deficit may result from a failure to understand how the relationships that exist between two sets of information are coordinated with the relationships that exist among the parts of each set. Implications were discussed for kindergartners' performance on more complex concept problems.     

Male alcoholics,secondary psychopathy and Eysenck's theory of personality

The scores of several samples of male alcoholics and others on the MAC Scale (an MMPI-derived scale for the differentiation of male alcohol abusers from non-substance-abusing male psychiatric outpatients) are summarized, and the responses of the false negatives and false positives from the scale's standardization samples are analyzed. The following 7conclusions were reached: (1) There are two broad classes of male alcoholics—those who fall into the E + N + quadrant of secondary psychopathy and those who fall into the E - N + quadrant of neurotic introversion; (2) Unselected runs of male alcoholics populate these two quadrants in a quite stable ratio of 17 to 3, respectively; (3) Pari passu, Eysenck's placement of alcoholics in the E + N + quadrant will be upheld in approximately 85% of the cases while those who hold that alcoholics are ‘dysthymics who also drink too much’ will find themselves in error in approximately similar degree.