Mobilization of Cognitive Resources and the Generation Effect

The generation effect refers to the memory advantage of words that have been generated rather than read. Such a read-generate comparison confounds qualitative task differences and raises methodological problems. A revised methodology is proposed circumventing these problems in that the encoding task is held constant and all stimuli have to be generated, but the degree of generativeness (i.e. the amount of cueing) is varied. In Experiment 1, 1, the (refined version of the) generation effect is demonstrated in a within-subjects design; with increasing generation activity left to the subject, free recall performance increases. No effect is obtained for degree of target masking. The same finding is replicated and shown to be independent of self-paced study time when generative activity is manipulated between subjects (Experiment 2) or within subjects (Experiment 3). As all learning trials involve generation, encoding time is controlled statistically, and free recall is used as a measure of memory, this refined generation effect cannot be explained as an artifact of selective attention or elaboration. Rather, generative activity seems to increase the mobilization of cognitive resources. This motivational account is supported by Experiment 4 showing an enhanced generation effect for positive mood.     

Reference and comprehension: A topic-comment analysis of sentence-picture verification

A sentence often contains two components: a topic, which refers to a nonlinguistic object whose existence is presupposed; and a comment, which asserts some thought about this object. In addition, a sentence will often repeat (or refer back to) information that was expressed earlier in a text or conversation. The purpose of this article is to propose a single theoretical framework to describe the mechanisms that relate a sentence to its nonlinguistic environment as well as those that relate a sentence to its linguistic context. The theory developed in this article suggests that sentences can strongly influence the representation of visible nonlinguistic events and that this representation is sensitive to the distinction between presupposed and asserted information. To evaluate this theory, a sentence-picture verification priming task was developed. In this task, subjects were presented with pairs of sentence-picture displays, and were asked to verify whether or not the sentence in each display correctly applied to an accompanying picture. The relationship between pairs of sentence-picture displays was varied systematically. Across five experiments, three hypotheses were supported: (a) The processes which evaluate presupposed information and the processes which evaluate asserted information are differentially affected by nonlinguistic factors, (b) only those aspects of the picture which are referred to by the sentence are encoded for future use, and (c) coherence between successive sentences is in part a function of the referential continuity of the presupposed information.     

Testing significance of differences between two chi-squares

This paper presents a way to test the difference between twoX ²'s. The test requires evaluating the difference with respect to theT _m (x) Bessel function. Included is a table of the 5 percent and 1 percent points for the Bessel function with degrees of freedom up to 100.This investigation was supported by National Science Foundation Grant Number GE 9846.     

Taming the Heathkit-Votrax speech synthesizer

Three inexpensive text-to-speech synthesizers are described, intelligibility data from a pilot experiment are reported, and software is offered that has been written to facilitate the phonemic programming of the Heathkit-Votrax synthesizer.     

Ethnotherapeutic empathy (EthE)—Part I: Definition,theory, and process

This paper introduces the concept of ethnotherapeutic empathyin working with ethnoculturally different patients to increase the efficacy of therapy. This form of empathy is used instrumentally to get to know the patient's inner problematic images, anxieties, fears, depressive affect, suffering, hurt, disillusionment, rage, joy, and triumph. Clinical empathy with ethnic patients is instrumental in that it is purposive:it sets out to achieve what might be called patient-comprehending(that is, finding out the nature of the patient's problems) using this as guide to intervening—a form of creativity-in-action. Ethnotherapeutic empathy utilizes active ego processes, in contrast to the passive processes implied in artistic appreciation and surrender. This article presents the definitions of empathy, and associated intrapsychic and social factors, as well as physiological responses in empathie responding. The implications for clinical practice with patients of differing ethnocultural and racial groups are discussed. The article develops a foundation for understanding the therapeutic matrix of applied ethnotherapeutic empathy which is detailed in the second part of this article (Ethnotherapeutic Empathy [EthE]—Part II: Techniques of Vicarious experiencing Across Cultures).     

Comprehension and expression of affect in language-impaired children

Eight children with developmental language impairment (LI) and eight age-, sex-, socioeconomic-status-, and I.Q.-matched controls were given tests of comprehension and expression of affective intent in spoken language and through facial expression. The LI children performed significantly more poorly than did controls in both comprehension and spontaneous expression of vocal affect. On tasks involving emotional facial expression, the opposite results were observed: The LI children were more dramatic in their expression of facial affect than were the controls. Children with language impairment appear to have a deficit in affective comprehension and expression that is modality-specific, i.e., limited to vocal affect. The heightened range of affective facial expression that they demonstrate may be a compensatory mechanism to offset their difficulties with vocal affect.This work was supported by grant 12-203 from the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation, and by NINDS grant NS22343 for the Center for the Study of the Neurological Basis of Language.