Pause loci in stuttered and normal speech

The mainstream of research comparing types of disfluency in stuttered and normal speech has typically omitted consideration of pause. In contrast, psycholinguisticresearch addressed to disfluency in normal speech alone has revealed the salience of pause in the study of fluency/disfluency. The research reported here, which focused on the antecedents and sequelae of filled pauses, revealed substantial differences in pattern of pause occurrence between stuttered and normal speech samples obtained from 20 matched subjects. The results are discussed in reference to relevant findings from the research on pause in normal speech.     

Generalized and lateralized effects of concurrent verbal rehearsal upon performance of sequential movements of the fingers by the left and right hands.

College student subjects performed a sequential typing task requiring bilaterally synchronized movements (Experiment 1) or unilaterally synchronized movements (Experiment 2) singly, and concurrently with silent and vocal rehearsal of verbal lists varying in redundancy. Rehearsal interfered with bilaterally synchronized movements more when the right hand was leading the sequence than when the left hand led, and with movements of the right more than the left hand in unilaterally synchronized movements. Results are interpreted in terms of intrahemispheric and general capacity competition between the concurrent performances.     

Interest differentiation in high school and vocational indecision in college

Vocational indecision was defined as being both a college upperclassman and having no major. In a sample of 1622 students in college for three years, 24% indecisive students were found and compared with vocationally decisive students (having majors) using precollege measures of achievement, aptitude, and interest. Measures of interest differentiation were of particular concern. Indecisiveness was best predicted from present and past achievement measures, e.g., cumulative college GPA or high school mathematics GPA. Interest predictors slightly augmented the multiple correlation including Outdoor interest, Business Contact interest, and interest differentiation. Most important to vocational indecision in these juniors and seniors, however, was lower academic achievement.     

Leading questions and the eyewitness report

A total of 490 subjects, in four experiments, saw films of complex, fast-moving events, such as automobile accidents or classroom disruptions. The purpose of these experiments was to investigate how the wording of questions asked immediately after an event may influence responses to questions asked considerably later. It is shown that when the initial question contains either true presuppositions (e.g., it postulates the existence of an object that did exist in the scene) or false presuppositions (e.g., postulates the existence of an object that did not exist), the likelihood is increased that subjects will later report having seen the presupposed object. The results suggest that questions asked immediately after an event can introduce new—not necessarily correct—information, which is then added to the memorial representation of the event, thereby causing its reconstruction or alteration.     

An empirical evaluation of a scale to measure occupational aspiration level

Data from 34,118 American high school students are used to evaluate the Occupational Aspiration Scale (OAS). The OAS is successively reevaluated for each of 16 subsamples (cells) generated by cross-classifying respondents by grade in school (9–12), sex, and socioeconomic status (SES). In each cell the OAS is found to be essentially unifactorial, and that factor is identified as level of occupational aspiration (LOA). The reliability of the OAS is slightly lower among females ($\text{r}$_kk = .681) than among males ($\text{r}$_kk = .756); it does not vary appreciably by grade or SES. The mean scores are lower for youth from low SES families than for those from high SES families, in accord with previous research. Mean OAS differences due to sex and grade are small. No important differences by age, sex, or SES are found in the standard deviations of the test scores. This and previously published data from small, local samples indicate that the reliability and validity of the OAS are sufficient for research on high school youth of both sexes and from both higher and lower SES levels.     

Effects of prefeeding on performance with body weight held constant

Two experiments are reported in which rats received either no prefeeding, nutritive substance prefeeding, or nonnutritive substance prefeeding prior to running in a straight alley. The running-speed data supported body weight as an overall measure of hunger drive. Performance was a function of body weight but not stomach weight or associated stomach bulk.     

Vocational maturity of Arab and American high school students

The vocational maturity of Arab and American ninth- and eleventh-grade students were compared. Arab students were found to have lower maturity scores than American students. Eleventh graders of both nationalities were more vocationally mature than ninth graders. The possibility that the overall difference found between Arab and American students can be attributed to cultural differences was supported by the response trend of discriminating items as revealed by an item analysis.