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.     

The effect of mere presence on social facilitation: An unobtrusive test

An unobstrusive experimental manipulation was used to test the hypothesis that the mere presence of others can influence an individual's performance. A task was employed for which there were no clear performance criteria, and which was very unlikely to engender evaluation aprehension. Performance times on this task (dressing and undressing in familiar and unfamiliar clothing) were compared for subjects working alone, in the presence of a passive inattentive person, and in the presence of an attentive spectator. In contrast with the Alone condition, both social conditions (Audience and Incidental Audience) enhanced performance on the well-learned aspects of the task (dressing and undressing with one's own clothing) and hindered performance on the more complex aspects (working with unfamiliar clothing). It is concluded that the mere presence of others is a sufficient condition for social facilitation and social interference effects.     

Changes with age in two components of visual search speed

Subjects aged 8, 10, 12, and 18 years participated in two visual search tasks. In one task the rate of visual search reflected the speed of preattentive localization processes, and in the other task it additionally reflected letter identification process speeds. The data revealed that localization processes become faster from ages 8 to 12 and remain stable thereafter, and that identification processes increase in speed primarily from ages 8 to 10. Performance on a subsequent recognition task indicated that subjects of all ages were employing a similar encoding strategy during visual search. Furthermore, subjects retained general information about the features of irrelevant background letters even though recognition accuracy for more specific information about letter names was not high. The finding that localization and identification processes have different rates of development confirms the hypothesized distinction between the two and implies that developmental studies of visual scanning speed must focus upon changes in the relationships among various processes or component skills throughout development.     

Intelligence and the processing of stimulus structure

It has been demonstrated in a number of experiments that the difficulty level of several performance type intelligence test tasks is determined directly by stimulus and task variables that vary the information to be processed. The variables are quantifiable. The implications of these findings for intelligence and the problems of an experimental approach to the measurement of intelligence are discussed.     

An examination of the Fishbein-Ajzen behavioral-intentions model's concepts and measures

The Fishbein-Ajzen behavioral-intentions model is designed to represent the effect of attitudes and subjective norms on behavioral intentions. The model has been used in a variety of contexts, and evidence for its validity flows largely from its generally good performance in predicting behavioral intentions. However, the manner in which these concepts are defined and operationalized appears to make it inappropriate for those seeking to distinguish between personal and normative reasons for engaging in a behavior. Additional problems were found in the hypothesized relationship between the more global normative construct and its underlying components.