Rate changes in the speech of stutterers after therapy

The fluent speaking rate of nine adult male stutterers was compared before and after stuttering intervention. The subjects, ranging in age from 18 to 37 yr (mean, 25 yr, 3 mo), exhibited mild to severe stuttering prior to treatment. The only rate reduction strategy taught to subjects during intervention was to slow the first phoneme or syllable of sentences spoken. In addition, however, subjects significantly reduced their overall rate as determined by measurements made of their fluent speech at the middle of sentences, as well as overall sentence durations (excepting the first word of utterances). The data from this investigation are interpreted relative to the facilitation/simplification hypothesis.     

Context and companion's behavior as determinants of cooperation and competition in school-age children

Information about the social context and a companion's actions were studied as determinants of cooperation and competition in middle childhood. In Experiment 1, first-, third-, and fifth-grade children were told that they would play a board game with another same-age, same-sex child (actually a bogus companion). The experimenter's instructions established shared rewards or winner-take-all as outcome conditions. Preprogrammed responses—100% cooperative or 100% competitive—provided information about the companion's actions. Results revealed that the companion's responses alone determined cooperation and competition among the first graders. Third graders used both types of information. Fifth graders, however, demonstrated a bias to respond cooperatively whenever a cooperative cue was present. In Experiment 2, first-grade subjects were given extra rehearsal of the game strategies, a scorekeeping procedure for use during the game, or a combination of the two. Results indicated that, under these conditions, younger subjects were able to use the instructions about reward distribution as well as the companion's actions in guiding their social behavior.     

Tracing memory-structure activation during person judgments

The purpose of the reported research was twofold: (a) to introduce a procedure for measuring concept activation during memory-based decisions and (b) to employ the procedure to investigate memory-activation processes in social judgments. Recent research has focused on subjects' reliance on memory for earlier inferred categorizations as the basis for judgments about persons. However, subjects have also been shown to rely on memory for factual information when making such decisions. To more fully understand how social judgments are made, methods are needed that are capable of tracing concept activation during the judgment process. The present study introduces a procedure that relies on probe recognition speed as a measure of concept activation. The procedure is used to examine alternative models of how subjects activate categorical and event memory when making contemplative impression judgments (i.e., judgments that they have to justify). The results favor a dependent memory-activation model that hypothesizes subjects activate both facts and earlier categorizations that they have made about a person when making subsequent memory-based judgments. Memory-structure activation was dependent in that facts relevant to forming the early categorizations were more likely to be activated in the service of a judgment than category-irrelevant facts. Advantages and limitations of the probe procedure as a measure of memory-structure activation during decisions are discussed.     

Immunization of opioid analgesia: Effects of prior escapable shock on subsequent shock-induced and morphine-induced antinociception

In Experiment 1, it was shown that experience with escapable foot shock 4 hr prior to a session of 80 inescapable tail shocks prevented the occurrence of an analgesic response normally observed immediately following the tail shock. It has been suggested by J. W. Grau, R. L. Hyson, S. F. Maier, J. Madden, and J. D. Barchas (Science, 1981, 213, 1409–1411) that the analgesia that occurs following this number of inescapable tail shocks is mediated by endogenous opioid systems. To further explore the influence of escapable shock on opiate-mediated analgesia, Experiment 2 examined the effects of prior escapable shock on the long-term analgesia reaction that occurs upon brief exposure to shock 20 hr after morphine administration. Rats were given escapable shock, inescapable shock, or no shock 4 hr prior to a morphine injection. Twenty hours following the injection, all subjects received 5 brief foot shocks and were then immediately given tail-flick analgesia tests. Subjects which received inescapable shock or no shock prior to the morphine injection displayed a significant analgesic response. However, subjects which received escapable shock prior to morphine were not analgesic following brief exposure to shock. Thus, escapable shock seems to directly influence the activation of opioid analgesia systems.     

Choice times and Spence's discrimination learning theory

In two experiments, rats acquired brightness discriminations in a free-operant circular runway with two response alternatives. Both individual and group choice times revealed continuous changes that were not apparent in the discrete measure of choice. Two major assumptions of Spence's discrimination learning theory were confirmed: (a) learning is continuous, and (b) discriminative stimuli in simple discrimination tasks of both simultaneous and successive types are compounds with position elements as well as elements from the relevant visual dimension. The distinctive, consistent pattern of learning revealed by the choice-time measure suggests that position habits reflect a learning strategy in which the complex task is learned as a series of simpler ones.     

Covariation and temporal contiguity as principles of causal inference in young children

Four- to seven-year-old children observed a simple physical effect which could be attributed to either a consistent but noncontiguous covariate or a contiguous but inconsistent covariate. When there was a physical rationale for the temporal delay between covariate and effect, children attributed the effect to the consistent but noncontiguous covariate. In the absence of such a rationale, they attributed the effect to the contiguous but inconsistent covariate. It was concluded that neither consistent covariation nor strict temporal contiguity were essential aspects of causal inference for these children.     

Related attributes in the choice of comparison others: It's there,but it isn't all there is

Subjects within a group of nine were supposedly given different amounts of practice prior to taking a test on which performance was either related or unrelated to practice. After taking the test, each subject was given his score, his rank order in the group, and the amount of practice presumably done by each of the other group members. The subject was then given a choice of which performance score he would like to know; a second choice was also given. On both first and second choices, subjects in the related condition were more likely to choose to see the scores of others with the same amount of practice. Related condition subjects were more interested in their comparison choices and thought they had done better on the task than unrelated subjects. In addition to this confirmation of the related attributes hypothesis, there was a significant tendency toward comparison on the basis of similarity of performance per se and a significant tendency toward upward comparison.     

Understanding and appreciating metaphors

We consider three theories that have dominated discussions of metaphor. One view is that metaphors make comparisons, the basis for the comparison being the features (or categories) that the terms of the metaphor share. The second view is that metaphors involve an anomaly. The third view is that metaphors are ‘interactive’, producing a new way of seeing the terms. We propose a new theory—the domains-interaction view—that draws on elements of all three earlier views, but borrows especially from the interaction view. We consider the implications of our theory for three questions: What are metaphors? How are they understood? What makes a good metaphor? We argue that metaphors correlate two systems of concepts from different domains. The best metaphors involve two diverse domains (more distance between domains making for better metaphors) and close correspondence between the terms within those domains. We call the degree of correspondence within-domain similarity. Metaphors are interpreted in several stages: the terms of the metaphor are encoded; the domains involved are inferred; the structures to be seen as parallel are found; the correspondences between these structures are ‘mapped’ or constructed; the terms of the metaphor are compared. If the terms are not seen to match or occupy analogous roles in their different domains, then the metaphor may be reinterpreted. The evidence on all this is tentative but supports our view. We review two studies (Tourangeau and Sternberg, 1981) that support the hypothesis that distance within domain relates negatively to aptness, whereas distance between domains relates positively. Several studies on comprehension tend to disconfirm the comparison theory's notion that the tenor and vehicle necessarily share features. Tenor and vehicle also appear to have asymmetrical roles in the interpretive process.     

An empirical examination of relative deprivation theory

Relative deprivation theory centers around the proposition that the negative affect associated with judgments of one's own status is not simply a function of one's objective status. Instead, resentment, anger, dissatisfaction and other deprivation-related emotions vary with the subjective assessment of one's status. In the present experiment, subjects read vignettes in which the hypothesized preconditions of felt deprivation were manipulated. They then indicated the degree of perceived resentment and related cognitive-emotional factors attributed to the story characters. Perceptions of deprivation become more prevalent when an individual who lacks a desired outcome (X) (a) compares with another who does possess X, (b) feels entitled to X, (c) feels it was once feasible to attain X, and (d) feels it is not feasible to attain X in the future. The results also suggest that certain preconditions, such as the presence of a comparison other and entitlement, act conjunctively in affecting judgments of felt deprivation. Finally, personal control over desired outcomes appears to be important for relative deprivation theory.