Identification of sequential dependencies in conversations: A Pascal program

A Pascal program that provides an analysis of the sequential dependencies between conversational events (e.g., speech acts) generated by two sources is described It produces z scores, chirsquare values, and confidence limits for the difference between estimated unconditional probabilities of the occurrence of selected events (valid events) and estimated conditional probabilities of these events following specified target events immediately (at Lag 1) and, if required, more distantly (at Lags 2, 3, etc.). Valid events and target events may be independently selected from the set of events generated by the first source, the second source, or both. Events not selected are ignored. The user may also elect to exclude the target event from the set of valid events (an adjustment for autocorrelation). The program is especially appropriate for conversational events because it does not assume that two events from the same category can never follow one another.     

Memory comparison time for complex digit stimuli: The effect of number length

Woodworth (1938) reported that naming latency increased linearly with the number of digits per number (number length). In the present study, the Sternberg memory scanning paradigm was utilized to investigate this effect. It was found that the slope of the memory scanning function increased linearly with number length: memory scanning time was 40 msec for one-digit numbers, 70 msec for two-digit numbers and 101 msec for 3 digit numbers. The intercepts of the memory scanning functions did not differ for the three types of numbers. Thus the increase in latency may be due to the memory comparison stage of processing. The data suggest that a memory comparison operation occurs for each digit position of the complex memory items composed of more than one digit.     

Effects of stimulus duration and intensity on the rate and specificity of behavioural habituation

Tone stimuli were presented to rats once per day until habituation was reached. Neither the duration nor the intensity of the stimulus affected the rate of habituation. Habituation was specific to both these stimulus parameters as shown by the distraction produced by either an increase or a decrease in the original stimulus value. It is suggested that some of the discrepancies in the literature might be resolved if a distinction is drawn between habituation of orienting responses and the decrement of more specific responses.     

Book reviews

SINGER, J. L. (Ed.). The Child's World of Make-Believe. New York: Academic Press. 1973. PP. 294. £5.75.

CRUE, B. L. (Ed.). Pain Research and Treatment. New York: Academic Press. 1975. Pp. 417. £12.50.

BEILIN, H. Studies in the Cognitive Basis of Language Development. New York: Academic Press. 1975. Pp. 420. £11.25.

ROLLS, E. T. The Brain and Reward. Oxford: Pergamon Press. 1975. Pp. 115. £3.00.

GAZZANIGA, M. S. and BLAKEMORE, C. Handbook of Psychobiology. New York and London: Academic Press. 1975. Pp. 639. £15.15.

KULLER, R. (Ed.). Architectural Psychology. Stroudsberg: Dowden, Hutchinson and Ross. 1973. Pp. 450. S.Kr. 69.

CANTER, D. and LEE, T. (Eds). Psychology and the Built Environment. London: Architectural Press. 1974. Pp. 213. £7.50.

CLARE, A. Psychiatry in Dissent. Controversial Issues in Thought and Practice. London: Tavistock Publications. 1976. Pp. xvii +438. £7.50 (hardback); £4.00 (paperback).

RACHMAN, S. J. and PHILIPS, C. Psychology and Medicine. London: Temple Smith. 1975. PP. 223. £3.75.

VURPILLOT, ELIANE. The Visual World of the Child. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd. 1976. Pp. 372. £9.50.

FALMAGNE, R. J. (Ed.). Reasoning: Representation and Process. London and New York: Wiley. 1975. Pp. 275. £10.15.

FANT, G. and TATHAM, M. A. (Eds). Auditory Analysis and Pevception of Speech. London: Academic Press. 1975. Pp. 564. £12.00.     

Visual memory for colour

Two colours were either simultaneously or successively presented. In both cases the time taken to determine whether the colours differed increased as the visual similarity of the colours increased. In another experiment, colours or names of colours were presented successively in different blocks of trials. Here colour similarity affected the discrimination reaction times whenever the second stimulus was a colour. This was taken to suggest that visual mnemonic representations can be generated from the first stimulus.     

Book review

Bruner, J., Cole, M. and Lloyd, B. (Eds.). The Developing Child. London: Fontana/Open Books. 1977. (1) MacFarlane, A. The Psychology of Childbirth. Pp. 128. £1.00. (2) Garvey, C. Play. Pp. 128. £1.00. (3) Schaffer, R. Mothering. Pp. 128. £103. (4) Dunn, J. Distress and Comfort Pp. 128. £1.00. (5) Bower, T. The Perceptual World of the Child. Pp. 128. £1.00. (6) Goodnow, J. Children'sDrawing. Pp. 128. £1.00. (7) Tucker, N. What is a Child? Pp. 128. £1.00. (8) Stern, D. The First Relationship. Pp. 128. £1.00.

Mandler, G. Mind and Emotion. New york: Wiley. 1975. Pp. 280. Hardback £7.65; paperback £3.70. ISBN 0471 56690 X.

Elcock, E. W. and Michie, D. (Eds). Machine Intelligence 8. Chichester: Ellis Horwood. 1977. Pp. 630. £24.00. ISBN 85312 058 7.

Griffin, D. R. The Question of Animal Awareness: Evolutionary Continuity of Mental Experience. New York: The Rockefeller University Press, 1976. Pp. viii + 133. $8.95. ISBN 87470 020 5.

Drucker-Colin, R. R. and McGaugh, J. L. (Eds). Neurobiology of Sleep and Memory. New York: Academic Press. 1977. Pp. 456. £13.85. ISBN 0 12 222350 0.

Elkind, D. Child Development and Education: A Piagetian Perspective. New York: Oxford University Press. 1977. Pp. 274. HArdback £8.95. ISBN 0 19 502068 5; paperback £3.75. ISBN 0 19 502069 3.

Tyrer, P. The Role of Bodily Feelings in Anxiety. Londn: Oxford University Press. 1976. Pp. 128. £6.50. ISBN 0 1971 2145 4.

Desmedt, J. E. (Ed.). Progress in Clinical Neurophysiology. Vol. 2. Auditiory Evoked Potentials in Man. Psychopharmacology. Correlates of Evoked Potentials. Basle: KArger. 1977. £37.75. ISBN 3 8055 2629 6.

Snow, C. E. and Ferguson, C. A. (Eds). Talking to Children. Cambridge.: Cambridge University Press. 1977. Pp. 369. £8.00. ISBN 0 521 21318 5.

Lerner, R. M. Concepts and Theories of Human Development. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley. 1976. Pp. 324. £9.10. ISBN 0 2010 4342 4.

Gesell, A., Ilg, F. and Ames, L. The Child from Five to Ten. Revised edition. New York: Harper & Row. 1977. Pp. 461. £7.95. ISBN 06 011501 7.

Bergling, K. The Development of Hypothetico Deductive Reasoning in Children. IEA Monograph studies No. 3. New York: John Wiley. 1975. Pp. 127. £7.50. ISBN 0470 06972 2.     

The Role of Family Income Dynamics in Predicting Trajectories of Internalizing and Externalizing Problems

Economic disparities in children’s behavioral functioning have been observed in prior research. Yet, studies have ignored important perspectives from developmental psychopathology and have not delineated how aspects of income dynamics (i.e., cumulative family income versus income volatility) differentially relate to behavior problems. To address these limitations, the current study examined how both cumulative income and income volatility predict trajectories of children’s internalizing and externalizing problems from kindergarten through fifth grade in a nationally representative sample of 10,900 children (51.4 % male). Results showed four distinct trajectories of internalizing problems and five distinct externalizing trajectories. Family income dynamics were related to trajectory group membership. Specifically, increased cumulative income decreased risk of membership in mid-increasing and mid-stable internalizing groups, and children whose families experienced multiple waves of income loss were 2.4 times as likely to be in the mid-increasing group instead of the low-stable group. With respect to externalizing, higher cumulative income increased the likelihood of belonging in the group exhibiting stably low externalizing problems. Experiencing income loss increased the risk of belonging in the trajectory group exhibiting chronically high externalizing behaviors. These results enhance our knowledge of the role of family income in the development of behavior problems.     

The representation of spatial information in memory

Following memorisation of the spatial arrangement of an array of circles, subjects were asked to recall the circles in a type of free-recall task designed to determine the structure of the memorised information. Their performance showed that the circles tended to be recalled in an order that corresponded with a top-to-bottom ordering of circles on the array. In a second experiment the input order of the circles was varied by presenting them successively. The results indicated that input order influenced recall order. The implications for hypotheses about the structure and manipulation of stored spatial information were discussed.