Comprehension of main ideas and details in coherent and noncoherent discourse by aphasic and nonaphasic listeners

Aphasic and nonaphasic listeners' comprehension of main ideas and details within coherent and noncoherent narrative discourse was examined. Coherent paragraphs contained one topic to which all sentences in the paragraph related. Noncoherent paragraphs contained a change in topic with every third or fourth sentence. Each paragraph contained four main ideas and one or more details that related to each main idea. Listeners' responses to yes/no questions following each paragraph yielded the following results: (1) Nonaphasic listeners comprehended the paragraphs better than aphasic listeners. (2) Both aphasic and nonaphasic listeners comprehended main ideas better than they comprehended details. (3) Coherence did not affect comprehension of main ideas for either group. (4) Coherence did not affect comprehension of details by nonaphasic subjects. (5) Coherence affected comprehension of details by aphasic subjects, and their comprehension of details in coherent paragraphs was worse than their comprehension of details in noncoherent paragraphs. There was no significant correlation between Token Test scores and measures of paragraph comprehension.     

Context effects on the perceived physical attractiveness of faces

Four experiments were conducted to study the nature of context effects on the perceived physical attractiveness of faces. In Experiment 1, photos of faces scaled on attractiveness were presented in sets of three, with target faces appearing in the middle flanked by two context faces. The target faces were of average attractiveness, with the context faces being either high, average, or low in attractiveness. The effect of the context was one of assimilation, rather than contrast, regardless of whether the persons in the photos were portrayed to be associated. This result was interpreted in terms of a “generalized halo effect” for judgments of the physical attractiveness of stimuli within a group. Presenting the persons of a set as friends enhanced the perceived attractiveness of the target face but only when the context did not contain a face of low attractiveness. In Experiment 2, the assimilation effect was observed to carry over to influence ratings of the target faces several minutes after the context faces had been removed. Experiment 3 showed the assimilation effect to be robust regardless of whether the context was composed of two faces or one, but Experiment 4 showed the assimilation effect to be evident only when the context faces were presented simultaneously with the target.     

Resilience characterized and quantified from physical activity data: A tutorial in R

Consistent physical activity is key for health and well-being, but it is vulnerable to stressors. The process of recovering from such stressors and bouncing back to the previous state of physical activity can be referred to as resilience. Quantifying resilience is fundamental to assess and manage the impact of stressors on consistent physical activity. In this tutorial, we present a method to quantify the resilience process from physical activity data. We leverage the prior operationalization of resilience, as used in various psychological domains, as area under the curve and expand it to suit the characteristics of physical activity time series. As use case to illustrate the methodology, we quantified resilience in step count time series (length = 366 observations) for eight participants following the first COVID-19 lockdown as a stressor. Steps were assessed daily using wrist-worn devices. The methodology is implemented in R and all coding details are included. For each person’s time series, we fitted multiple growth models and identified the best one using the Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE). Then, we used the predicted values from the selected model to identify the point in time when the participant recovered from the stressor and quantified the resulting area under the curve as a measure of resilience for step count. Further resilience features were extracted to capture the different aspects of the process. By developing a methodological guide with a step-by-step implementation, we aimed at fostering increased awareness about the concept of resilience for physical activity and facilitate the implementation of related research.     

Personality correlates of retrieval processes in intentional and unintentional forgetting

Early accounts of intentional forgetting relied exclusively on mechanisms that operate at encoding. The results of more recent experiments indicate that memory-retrieval inhibition also is involved, thus linking waking intentional forgetting with hypnotic amnesia. The present Experiment 1 was designed to provide further support for the retrieval-inhibition hypothesis by testing four alternative explanations for some of the recent results. Experiment 2 examined the role of word affect in both intentional forgetting and unintentional forgetting to evaluate theoretical interpretations of the retrieval mechanisms thought to be involved. Unintentional forgetting of negative words was consistent with a repression-like interpretation, whereas intentional forgetting of negative words appeared to be limited by sensitization. Personality correlates of the recall results were identified and were found to be in support of these interpretations.     

Reduction of sadistic sexual arousal by olfactory aversion: a case study

A sexual sadist was treated by an olfactory aversion procedure for eight weeks. Pre-treatment assessment of sexual arousal showed high levels of response to sadistic stimuli as well as high arousal to non-sadistic heterosexual stimuli. In treatment the inhalation of the gas of an odoriferous chemical agent, valeric acid, was paired with slide presentations of sadistic materials while penile erection was monitored. The aversive stimulus immediately and permanently suppressed the response for the duration of treatment. In separate measurement sessions, with valeric acid absent, deviant response remained suppressed and nondeviant response was unaffected. Post-treatment reassessment revealed very low levels of response to sadistic stimuli. Follow-up sessions showed that the deviant response was absent eight months following the conclusion of treatment.     

Individualized behavior therapy for alcoholics: a third year independent double-blind follow-up.

An independently conducted double-blind study providing third year follow-up data for 53 of 70 male alcoholics who served as subjects in an experiment evaluating “Individualized Behavior Therapy (IBT)” techniques is reported. In the original study, subjects were initially assigned to either a controlled drinking or non-drinking (abstinence) treatment goal, and were then randomly assigned to either an experimental group receiving IBT or a control group receiving conventional state hospital treatment oriented towards abstinence. Previously reported results showed that IBT subjects functioned significantly better than control subjects throughout the first year of follow-up. Second year follow-up results found that IBT subjects treated with a controlled drinking goal functioned significantly better than their respective control subjects on a variety of measures, including drinking behavior. Differences between IBT subjects treated with a non-drinking goal and their control subjects did not retain statistical significance during the second year of follow-up. The independently determined follow-up data showed that during the third post-treatment year, subjects in the experimental groups generally functioned better than their respective control subjects. Comparison of the controlled drinking experimental group with its control group showed the significantly better functioning of subjects in the experimental condition on a number of drinking and other life functioning measures. Comparison of the non-drinking groups indicated only one possible difference on the drinking related measures involving a trend for subjects in the experimental condition to abstain more than those in the non-drinker control group. On other life functioning measures, however, subjects in the non-drinking experimental condition showed consistent improvement over their respective control subjects. Both of the controlled drinking groups reported more controlled drinking days than the non-drinking groups throughout the third year follow-up period.     

Training children's self-control: A field experiment in self-monitoring and goal-setting in the classroom

A field experiment investigated the effects of training in self-monitoring and goal-setting skills on classroom study behavior and academic achievement among elementary school students in an individualized mathematics program. In the Self-Monitoring Conditions, students were shown a simple system for observing and maintaining daily records of their own study behavior during their math classes; orthogonally, in the Goal-Setting Conditions, students were shown a simple method of setting and recording daily performance goals during their math classes. Exposure to self-monitoring procedures produced significant increases in both appropriate study behavior and in actual achievement in the mathematics program, while exposure to goal-setting procedures had no effect on either study behavior or academic achievement. Nor, contrary to expectation, did exposure to the goal-setting instructions enhance the effectiveness of the self-monitoring system. The implications of these results in terms of implicit and explicit models of self-reinforcement processes were discussed.     

Further analysis of stuttering as a phonetic transition defect

This article presents a further analysis of stuttering as a phonetic transition defect. Three types of phonetic transitions are identified. Two of these occur within words and represent sites where stutterings are readily detectable. The third transition involves movement from the end of one word to the beginning of the next. Spectrographic evidence is provided to show that stuttering also occurs at points of transition of this type. The same data are interpreted relative to their implications for stuttering theory, research, and therapy.     

The universal nature of human intelligence: Evidence from games

Mentally retarded individuals have relatively greater difficulty in dealing with strategic games and puzzles than with many other tasks. Consequently, it is of interest to find that strategic games have been played since ancient times, are played throughout the world, and that players who excel are frequently considered wise. Hidden within the more obvious differences between cultures, strategic games are an invariant expression of certain universal intellectual traits.