Foreperiod and stuttering severity effects on acoustic laryngeal reaction time

An earlier paper presented a model of the laryngeal reaction time (LRT) paradigm that included several factors that appeared to affect LRT values. The present study assesses the effects of two of these factors: foreperiod and stuttering severity. The former was assessed by the use of 13 foreperiod durations. The latter was assessed by classifying experimental subjects as either mild or severe stutterers. Both factors significantly affected LRT values. More importantly, these factors demonstrated a composite effect on group LRT differences. Specifically, mild stutterers' LRT values approached normal values as foreperiod increased, whereas severe stutterers' LRT values remained significantly greater than normal values at all foreperiods. Results are discussed in terms of differential posturing and/or vibration initiation deficits underlying stutterers' delayed LRT values. We caution that acoustic measurements alone are insufficient to specify fully the nature of the underlying deficits.     

Distraction,amnesia, and the next-in-line effect

Two studies use a free recall task to track, moment by moment, cognitive repercussions of an upcoming performance. As in earlier research, subjects display impaired recall for events which immediately precede an anticipated public performance. This “next-in-line effect” occurs even if the “performance” consists of reading a word to oneself. However, subjects show no memory deficit if their performance is not anticipated, and they have generally poor recall if they know they will be performing—but not when. Distraction and amnesia accounts of these recall deficits are discussed. Ancillary findings illuminate the organization of memory in social settings.     

A comparison of LRT and VOT values between stutterers and nonstutterers

The experiment reported here found no significant group differences in laryngeal reaction time (LRT) and voice onset time (VOT) values. Rank-order correlations between the stutterers' LRT and VOT values were also nonsignificant. A model of the LRT paradigm is presented that (1) allows for systematic assessment of factors possibly contributing to the failure to replicate the often reported LRT group difference, and (2) is useful in examining the relationship between the LRT experimental condition and normal speaking conditions. We argue that two factors were particularly critical to our results. First, simple reaction time procedures included (1) a warning signal that preceded a response signal by a variable 1–3-sec foreperiod, and (2) a single response. We argue that foreperiod durations exceeded the stutterers' speech posture time for a known response. Second, the stuttering severity rating of our experimental group was less severe than ratings in other experiments.     

The impact of education and selected traits on sex-role related goals and attitudes

Questionnaires that assessed educational goals, career goals, preferred and expected career commitment, sex-role attitudes, age, college class, height, and weight were completed by 884 male and female undergraduates representing two racial groups and two age groups. Age, size, and college class were unrelated to women's goals and attitudes, whereas men chose more traditional careers as their education progressed. Technical college students tended to be more traditional than university students. Implications for related research are discussed.     

Additional effects of a cognitive task on dual-task training to reduce dual-task interference

ObjectiveWhen we perform dual-tasks in daily life, task performance is generally reduced. As these reductions in performance (i.e., dual-task interference) are responsible for various accidents such as falls, the repeated practice of dual-task (i.e., dual-task training) is often implemented to reduce dual-task interference. However, the risk of various accidents increases with longer dual-task training, as dual-task interference cannot be avoided. Therefore, it is important to achieve training goals more rapidly during dual-task training. This study sought to determine whether a combination of dual-task training and cognitive tasks would accelerate training effects.DesignThe experimental design included four groups: 1) cognitive task training group, 2) dual-task training group, 3) cognitive task and dual-task training group, and 4) non training group.MethodWe assessed single- and dual-task performance before and after the 2-week training sessions. We adopted a dual-task involving knee extension and an auditory reaction, and used N-back task as a cognitive task. On the other hand, dual-task training was the same method to assess dual-task performance.ResultDual-task interference was reduced in all groups in both the tasks. However, the number of participants in the cognitive task and dual-task training group who achieved a reduction in dual-task cost was significantly higher than those in other groups.ConclusionThese findings could contribute to the development of an effective method for reducing dual-task interference and resolving issues caused by dual-task interference in daily life.     

Alarm call responsivity of mallard ducklings: The inadequacy of learning and genetic explanations of instinctive behavior

Traditional conceptions of learning do not adequately account for the development of species-typical behavior. Developmental theory, though, can account for learning phenomena, as well as seemingly innate behavior. Developmental theory also focuses on subtle, nonobvious, as well as obvious, forms of experience throughout the life span, including the prenatal period. To illustrate the developmental approach, data on the ontogeny of alarm call responsivity in mallard ducklings (Anas platyrhynchos) are presented. This research, which was conducted both in the field and in the laboratory, identifies the particular acoustic feature of alarm calls to which ducklings are sensitive. Additional experiments have shown that normally occurring perinatal auditory experience is required for the development of behavioral inhibition (i.e., “freezing”). These experiments demonstrate the ability of developmental theory to account for phenomena that elude other, more traditional, theories.     

Experimenter effects on responses to explicitly sexual stimuli

Experimenter effects on responses to explicitly sexual stimuli were investigated in 63 single undergraduate males and 89 single undergraduate females. A completely factorial design with sex of subject, sex of experimenter, and experimenter's style of interacting (informal vs formal) as the independent factors was employed. While the variables under investigation did not have an overriding effect on the outcome measures, at least one experimenter attribute was discovered to significantly influence a large percentage of the variables assessed: The data suggest that informal experimenters permit less socially desirable responses and more generalized arousal than formal experimenters. In addition to replicating earlier work on experimenter effects, the present study serves to delineate a possible set of cues by which experimenters may influence their subjects' arousal to explicitly sexual stimuli.     

The development of analogical reasoning processes.

Two experiments were conducted to test the generalizability to children of a theory of analogical reasoning processes originally proposed for adults (R. J. Sternberg, Psychological Review, 1977a, 84, 353–378; R. J. Sternberg, Intelligence, information processing, and analogical reasoning: The componential analysis of human abilities, Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1977b) and to examine the development of analogical reasoning processes in terms of five proposed sources of cognitive development: (a) availability of component operations; (b) strategy for combining multiple component operation; (c) strategy for combining multiple executions of the same component operation; (d) consistency in use of strategy; (e) component-operation latency and difficulty. Between 15 and 21 subjects in each of grades 2, 4, 6, and adulthood (ages 8, 10, 12, and 19 years, respectively) were tested in their ability to solve analogies of systematically varied difficulty. Performance was measured in terms of latencies for items solved correctly, latencies for all items solved, and error rates. A slightly modified version of the Stenberg, 1977(a), Stenberg, 1977(b) theory was found to be applicable to the data for each of the age levels tested. In analogies with perceptually separable attributes, change over age was found in sources (d) and (e) noted above. In analogies with perceptually integral attributes, change over age was found in sources (a), (c), (d), and (e). Developmental trends were discussed in terms of past theory and findings, and possible reasons for differences in developmental patterns between the two kinds of analogies were suggested.     

The effect of stimulus person valence on divergent self-other attributions for success and failure

Two experiments investigated self-other attributions for success and failure. In Experiment 1, high and low achievers completed a modified IAR scale either for themselves or another. Regardless of achievement motives, more personal attribution for failure was assigned to oneself than to a neutral other. In Experiment 2, additional scales for liked and disliked others were administered and scale item importance was varied. On global and individual causal measures, neutral and liked others were credited more and disliked others less for success than oneself, and liked others were blamed less and disliked others more for failure than oneself and neutral others. Item importance produced few effects. Results were interpreted in terms of informational considerations in self-other attribution.