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.     

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.     

Developmental changes in children's use of semantic information in recall

Third and seventh graders (age 9 and 13 years) were randomly assigned to three instructional groups and engaged in a sort/recall task. The instructions emphasized either (a) recall of the items, (b) meaningful organization of the items, or (c) meaningful organization and recall of the items. Regardless of instruction, seventh graders sorted 20 unrelated items into semantically-based groupings and exhibited elevated levels of recall. Third graders instructed to group items to facilitate recall formed seemingly random groupings and recalled significantly fewer items than third graders instructed to make semantically-based groupings, even when some of these latter subjects were unaware of a subsequent recall trial. The results indicated that young children are capable of adult-like organizational strategies but are unaware of their relevance to recall performance or conditions under which organization might be an appropriate strategy.     

Developmental changes in infants' sensitivity to octave-band noises

Localization responses to octave-band noises with center frequencies at 200, 400, 1000, 2000, 4000, and 10,000 Hz were obtained from infants 6, 12, and 18 months of age. During an experimental trial, an octave-band noise was presented on one of two speakers located 45° to each side of the infant. A head turn to the noise (correct response) was rewarded by activating an animated toy on top of the speaker. The intensity of the noise was varied over trials (method of constant stimuli) to determine thresholds at each center frequency. Thresholds for the lower frequencies were approximately 5–8 db higher in the 6-month-old infants compared to the older infants. However, there were no consistent differences among groups at the higher frequencies. Infant thresholds were found to be 20–30 db higher than adult thresholds at the lower frequencies. At the higher frequencies thresholds for infants were approaching those of adults.     

IQ and social class

A brief overview is given of the nature-nurture debate elicited on the basis of Arthur Jensen's article concerning group differences in IQ test results published in 1969.Sandra Scarr-Salapatek found that the contribution of genetic variance in IQ test results tended to be larger in a more stimulating environment and proportionately smaller in a disadvantaged environment. This finding has been tested on data from a Swedish twin study. A comparison of within-pair similarity for MZ and DZ twins with varying social background has been made. Genetic variance seems to account for a greater proportion of the variance in IQ test scores in social group I and II compared to social group III. This is in accordance with the conclusions drawn by Scarr-Salapatek and thus tend to support the above-mentioned hypothesis. It therefore seems as though the potentially restricting effects of working class conditions for the development of the kind of abilities measured by conventional IQ tests would tend to reduce the degree to which genetic differences are expressed. More stimulating environmental opportunities, on the other hand, tend to allow a greater range of such differences in the middle and higher social classes.     

Developmental trends in cue utilization for attributional judgements

Fourth through twelfth graders of both sexes were tested for developmental trends in making causal attributions for success and failure and in using past history, social comparison, and importance information in making their attributional judgements. Results suggested that basic information processing rules had already developed by the fourth grade but that children continue to develop and become more consistent in applying these rules. Sex differences indicated that girls were more defensive generally in not taking responsibility for their outcomes by attributing them externally.     

The nature of the task-stimulus interaction in the tachistoscopic recognition of kana and kanji words

To investigate the nature of the task-stimulus interaction in tachistoscopic recognition of kana and kanji, right-handed normal subjects performed two phonological tasks and two visual tasks. In the phonological tasks, the subjects compared the members of a pair of kana or kanji appearing in the right or left visual field on the basis of phonological identity; while in the visual tasks, they compared the members of a pair of kana or kanji on the basis of visual identity. The results showed a significant Visual Field × Task interaction as well as a significant Task × Stimulus interaction, indicating that both the type of stimuli and the nature of task demands contribute importantly to the determination of visual field asymmetry and hence the relative participation of each hemisphere.     

Capacity and strategy for syntactic comprehension after left or right hemidecortication

The left and right hemispheres perform different encoding and decoding operations on a syntactically complex sentence in order to identify its meaning. Hemispheric asymmetry for syntax involves not only variations in capacity, but also differences in the strategy used to effect similar language performance.