Perceptual and Motor Skills

Two studies were completed to evaluate the role of motor function in the observable brain laterality of normal, familial, dextral males. A right-brain advantage was demonstrated on a figure-matching task and on a sequential-spatial task when subjects responded with a manual key press. A left-brain advantage for the same two tasks was demonstrated when subjects responded by compressing a microswitch embedded in a mouthpiece. The data suggest that both hemispheres of the brain may be capable of processing visuosparial stimuli but do not share the same facility for effecting appropriate motor responses. The results were discussed in terms of lateralized cognitive styles in brain and lateralized control of effector systems.

A recent study had shown that a high level of interscorer agreement (reliability) could be obtained with graduate students using standardized training materials for the perceptanalytic system of Rorschach scoring. The efficiency of these training materials used without classroom instruction for independent study had not been demonstrated. Two groups of psychologists independently studied the training materials and took the standard test for the Intermediate level of scoring difficulty after 6 wk. One group was composed of 2 “Research Examiners” and the second group (n = 5) was composed of Staff Psychologists using the training for continuing education. 966 pairs of comparisons between the scores and the standard were analyzed. The over-all percent of agreement for the Research Examiners was 91% and for the Staff Psychologists was 89%. The training yielded high agreement for clinical psychologists who studied materials independently. Limitations are discussed and suggestions for further research are made.

Hyperkinesis, educational placement, drug utilization, socioeconomic status and age were used to predict performance on The Purdue Perceptual-motor Survey subtests that measured balance, spatial organization, neurological organization, and visual motor accuracy. The variables were poor to moderate predictors of perceptual-motor performance of 9 hyperkinetic children.

To determine the influence of two forms of visual control techniques and one kinesthetic technique on putting accuracy 27 right-handed female volunteers performed a putting task under one of three testing conditions: eyes on ball, eyes on target, and no vision. Three putting distances of 5, 10, and 15 ft. were employed. The results of a 3 (conditions) × 3 (putting distances) analysis of variance with repeated measures on the second factor indicated that the shorter the putting distance the more accurate the responses. There were no marked differences among the three visual and kinesthetic conditions. Since no differences were found among the visual and kinesthetic putting conditions, it may be argued that the elimination of vision may enhance learning in the early stages of putting skill acquisition.

To compare the effects of prescribed weight-training and basketball programs on scores of four test items of the AAHPER basketball skill test for boys, pretests and posttests were administered to three groups of ninth grade boys, 26 in Group I—basketball, 17 in Group II—weight-training, and 15 in Group III—control group. No significant differences were found among groups on the front shot, speed pass, jump and reach, or dribble; and no trend was visible in the ranked order of means on the dependent measures.

128 kindergarten children learned an oddity task with no repeated stimuli until they reached one of the three criteria of 4/4, 8/8, and 8/8 + 20 correct responses, and then they were given either an oddity task with repeated stimuli or a discrimination task. With increasing numbers of pretraining trials, the repeated oddity learning became significantly easier but ease of the discrimination learning did not change significantly. These findings were interpreted as showing that attention to relational cues increased to a high level through learning the nonrepeated oddity task, whereas attention to absolute cues remained at almost the same level as in the control group with no pretraining.

At the end of 6 wk., 37 elderly women turned in 145 dream narratives and accompanying emotions. Approximately two emotions were used to describe each dream; enjoyment, surprise, distress, confusion, interest, and fear accounted for 86% of all dream emotions. The emotions of disgust, anger, shame, and contempt were infrequently reported by these elderly persons. The dreams associated with the retirement life style of the elderly exhibited pleasant as well as unpleasant emotions.

37 marathon runners were compared with 45 cross-country skiers on Cattell's 16 Personality Factor Inventory (16 PF) and 12 factors derived from the 16 PF. Both groups were similar on reserved, imaginative, self-sufficient, and independence factors on the 16 PF. Additional similarities were observed on creativity and scholastic potential of the derived factors. Marathoners appeared more intelligent and tough-minded on 16 PF and more subjective, creative, and scholastic on the derived factors than cross-country skiers. A stepwise multiple discriminant analysis (Rao's V criterion) used seven variables (intelligence, shy-venturesome, tenderminded-toughminded, forthright-astute, undisciplined-controlled, group dependent-self-sufficient, and expedient-conscientious) to classify correctly 73% (n = 27) of the marathoners and 78% (n = 35) of cross-country skiers. This accounted for 34.2% (R²) of the variance.

The present study compared the responses of a random sample of award-winning university faculty and a matched sample of non-award winning faculty on five dimensions of teaching: teacher's role, teaching behaviors, teachers' perceptions of the variables explaining students' high ratings of effectiveness, students' work load, and use of teaching aides. The faculty samples were matched on teaching field and academic rank. Discriminant analysis was used to identify differences in award-winning and non-award winning teachers' perceptions of the five dimensions of teaching. The two faculty samples could not be differentiated on their perceptions of the five teaching dimensions sampled. However, the faculty samples could be distinguished on teaching preference. Award-winning faculty preferred instructing graduate students.

52 female college students were exposed to procedures expected to produce some physical or emotional arousal (viewing a sexually-explicit film or riding an exercise bicycle) and were subsequently asked to approach a snake, of which they had previously reported being afraid. Their performance was compared to that of control subjects who had been exposed to non-arousing tasks (viewing a film about sunspots or reading an article about exercise). The prediction that prior arousal would produce misattribution and reduce snake avoidance was not supported.

The hypothesis that the superior performance of internal in contrast to external subjects on a variety of tasks is based on perceived competence rather than on perceived contingency was examined. A Perceived Competence Scale and a Perceived Contingency Scale, derived from Collins' 1974 factor analysis of the Rotter 1966 Locus of Control Scale, were given to 100 subjects. Subjects then performed two intentional and two incidental tasks. Stepwise multiple regression analyses for each dependent measure, with scores on the three scales as independent variables, provided partial support for the hypothesis. Only scores on the Perceived Competence Scale contributed to variance on the first intentional and first incidental task. None of the comparisons were statistically significant for the other two dependent measures. The voluminous literature showing superior performance by internally scoring subjects may not provide as much support for the locus of control construct as is currently thought. A perceived competence dimension within the Locus of Control Scale may be responsible for the superiority of internally scoring subjects on a variety of tasks and personality measures.

A factor analysis of responses from 44 white female teachers to the 40-item Bern Sex-role Inventory yielded two factors, Masculinity and Femininity accounting for 20.7 and 16.2%, respectively, of the common variance. Of the 40 items 28 performed as hypothesized, suggesting sound construct validity for the total scales. 12 adjectives and phrases (gullible, flatterable, athletic, and ambitious, among others) were not perceived as associated with masculine or feminine roles, suggesting that perceptions of traditional sex roles are changing.

The study investigated the perceptions of 80 female and 50 male undergraduate students regarding the Rokeach Value Survey by means of the Interpersonal Perception Method. Wilcoxon rank-sum statistics indicated general agreement between men and women for 16 of the 18 values reported. The results further indicated that females misunderstood males' value preferences on 9 occasions while males misunderstood females' value priorities on 6. Women are aware of men's perception of them concerning 13 values and men are aware of women's perception of them regarding 14 values.

The frequency of traffic accidents for the State of California for the week preceding and the week subsequent to the fall and spring DST changes were analyzed for the years 1976, 1977, and 1978. Regardless of season of the year, DST change was associated with a significant increase in traffic accidents during the post-change weeks.

Although the phenomenon of “halo” effects has been known for over 60 years, little attention has been given to determine their influence in subjective grading. This study involved the evaluation of 20 term papers for introductory psychology by 2 groups of 3 raters. One group had the benefit of knowing the author's previous academic performance, while the other group did not. Correlations of .51 to .81 were found between grades on term papers and those in the course when information about the students' previous academic performance was made available. When this information was not available, the correlation dropped to a negligible level.

The purpose of this study was to determine the contribution of age, sex, and body composition to children's motor performances on selected basic motor tasks, balance, speed, agility, power, coordination, and reaction time, and health-related fitness items, flexibility, muscle strength and endurance, and cardiovascular functions. 80 subjects were students in Grades 1, 2, 3. Data were submitted to a step-wise multiple linear regression for each criterion variable. Predictor variables were age, sex, and body composition. Age was a significant factor in predicting performance on all variables except muscle strength, endurance, and flexibility. Sex significantly predicted performance for only flexibility and cardiovascular function and body composition for the power and cardiovascular function variables. Beyond the biological potential of each individual are factors that influence his motor development. These factors need early identification to make possible opportunities for each person to reach the full perimeters of motor potential.

A factor analysis of data obtained with the Kurtzman Community Dental Health Ideology Scale from 500 dental students yielded two factors, one for community practice orientation and the other for private practice orientation, as planned for in the scale's construction. Of the final 23 items 6 do not load on either factor. Reliability data are presented, and the potential of the scale in student counseling and career planning is reinforced.

Two factor analytically derived scales which assess traditional and liberated male attitudes are reported. The scales of 29 items are based on the responses of 277 men. Criteria for item selection are presented with an analysis of variance of the effects of age, marital and parental status on scale responses.

To investigate the visual-memory ability of children referred for psychological evaluations of academic and/or behavior problems, 135 children were administered the Bender-Gestalt and then asked to reproduce as many designs from memory as they could. Analysis indicated that the number of designs recalled increased with age and Performance IQ but not Full Scale IQ. Results were discussed in terms of the importance of considering developmental level when evaluating children and the establishment of rough cut-off scores on recall of the Bender-Gestalt designs.

Discriminant analyses were used to determine optimal solar and seismic variables that could correctly classify years in which major luminous events had been reported within Germany, Italy, Austria, France, and Switzerland between the years 1849 and 1926. Expected discriminant scores were generated from these functions for the years 1820 to 1971. Functions that accurately classified more than 90% of the luminosity events between the years 1870 and 1905 also accurately predicted the major UFO flaps between 1945 to 1971 in this area. These analyses support the contention that luminous events reported in the nineteenth century share the same source of variance as modern UFO reports and these phenomena are associated with tectonic strain within the earth.

Information relating to the significance of WISC-R Verbal-Performance IQ discrepancies and the frequencies of such differences in the standardization sample have been available to practitioners for several years. With regard to the magnitude of significant discrepancies -within the normal population, such data are often misunderstood and misinterpreted by clinicians. Specifically, the nondirectional aspect of significant frequencies reported in the literature is often misconstrued and interpreted incorrectly. An example of a common misinterpretation is presented as well as suggestions for remedying inaccuracies in reporting discrepancies between Verbal and Performance IQs and frequency data.

The hypothesis was tested that a group of 30 schizophrenic in contrast to a control group of 35 non-schizophrenic patients would demonstrate substantial and significantly more “Reverse” interference in reading incongruent word-color combinations on the Stroop Color-Word Interference Test. Results supported the hypothesis. A “reverse” interference of 19% and of 9% was observed in the groups' performances, respectively. The group performance differences were much larger on both the classical “Stroop” and “Reverse” interference tasks than on corresponding non-interference tasks. But these interactions were not statistically significant. Measures of absolute and proportional performance decrements on the interference tasks showed no correlations between “Stroop” and “Reverse” interference. Issues discussed included impaired selective attention in schizophrenics' performance, the unexpected high “Reverse” effect in control data and the psychodiagnostic applications of reverse interference.

5 subjects participated in a within-subjects design to determine the effect of paced abdominal breathing on EMG levels. After training in thoracic and abdominal breathing, each subject's respiration performance and EMG levels were assessed in both breathing modes via a counterbalanced A-B-A-B reversal design. Reliable effects of respiration training were observed in both breathing modes. No effects were observed on EMG measures. The results were discussed in relation to literature on approaches to respiration training which may target specific arousal indices other than electromyogram activity. The utility of dovetailing complementary treatment techniques such as respiration training and relaxation training which are specific to particular arousal indices was discussed.

56 undergraduates took the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and recorded a memory and a daydream. The latter two products were scored for seven characteristics. Interaction of personality variables and imagery were significant over-all; e.g., feeling types reported more vivid memories, extraverts showed more positive emotional tone in memories, and feeling types showed more intense emotional tone, etc. Memories were more vivid than daydreams. Analysis generated new hypotheses.

The Self-description Inventory was designed to measure the traits of middle managers. 27 students who were managers completed the inventory and were evaluated by their immediate supervisors as more or less successful. Managers' scores and supervisors' rankings of their success generally did not correlate, suggesting a problem of concurrent validity. However, supervisors' rank of importance of the Self-description Inventory traits in determining more or less successful managers also did not correlate, suggesting a problem in perception.

Two brief scales were proposed to assess effectiveness of teaching in laboratory and seminar/discussion group classes.

Judged distance in a large open field, scaled by the method of magnitude estimation, is related to physical distance by a power function with an exponent smaller than unity. The exponents obtained with two ranges of distance were not affected by the availability of a standard. The mean exponent for all 80 individual power functions was 0.86, with a standard deviation of 0.11.

The main purpose was to determine the short-term retention characteristics of temporal information when subjects experienced time under a conscious cognitive strategy for time estimation, i.e., subjects were instructed to refrain from employing time-aiding techniques. Visual durations of 1 and 4 sec. were estimated by 12 subjects under the method of reproduction. Six levels of retention interval were used, viz., immediate reproduction, self-paced reproduction, i.e., the subjects were allowed to recall whenever they wished, 15 and 30 sec. of rest, and 15 and 30 sec. of interpolated activity, i.e., counting backwards by threes. The variable error was used to evaluate effects of forgetting. When subjects held a duration of 4 sec. in memory for a period of 15 or 30 sec. of rest, they became more variable than when they recalled the item immediately, at their own pace or when the duration to be remembered was only 1 sec. long. When an interpolated task was required during the retention interval, its variability was similar to the results obtained under an unfulfilled retention interval for both durations. The presence of an interaction between duration and retention interval under the variable error was explained in terms of memory.

Effects of physical, mental, and vigilance fatigue on the autokinetic reports of 48 undergraduate students are described. Eight response measures were taken of the subjects with an apparatus that permitted recording of the apparent motion of the autokinetic stimulus in the same plane as the light source. Presence of the fatigue states was verified by independent measurements. Fatigue conditions facilitated quick and continuous perception of the autokinetic movements. The most perceptual complexity in the patterns of apparent motion was observed under mental fatigue followed by physical and vigilance fatigue, with least in the neutral condition.

To measure the extent to which an integrated program of motor and cognitive tasks might enhance the learning disabled children's motor and basic cognitive skills, a treated group of 8 had three ½-hr. sessions per week for 6 mo. 8 control subjects continued regular physical education and reading programs with their classroom teacher. All subjects were tested before and after 6 mo. Over-all the treated group showed greater improvement on tests of both motor and cognitive skills than the control group. This study suggests a physical activity program can influence basic cognitive skills as well as motor skills.

The revision of Feingold's Humor Perceptiveness Test and its construct validation are reported. The revision quantifies two components of humor comprehension, memory for jokes and humor-reasoning ability. The test items are in the form of joke completions (e.g., “Take my wife——–!”). Reliability coefficients (split-half, Kuder-Richardson, alternate form) of the test were .84 to .93. The Humor Perceptiveness Test-Revised was related to humor appreciation (interest in comedy movies) and to scores on a short form WAIS, the correlates varying as a function of intelligence. Scores on the humor measure correlated only with intelligence for a subsample of dull subjects but with both intelligence and humor appreciation for brighter examinees. The revised Humor Perceptiveness Test may be of use to researchers.

To investigate the effects of passive exercise of the extremities on peripheral vision of muscular dystrophic children aged 9 to 13 yr. these subjects were either not exercised (control days) for a 6-min. period or were exercised (experimental days) for a 6-min. period after a 5-min. rest. Peripheral vision was recorded after each condition. Analysis of variance with repeated measures on the exercise and no exercise conditions was computed for each measure. 6 min. of passive exercise significantly increased peripheral vision. It was assumed that exercise increased blood flow through the lungs allowing for greater oxygen diffusion in the brain and other facilitory responses which increased effective cerebral activity. Curriculum revisions for such children indicate the importance of activity in facilitating subsequent learning.

A set of monozygotic female quadruplets developed schizophrenia at age 26 and were treated at the National Institute of Mental Health for several years. Using graphic material of these unusual subjects, this study demonstrates how handwriting, statistically in graph forms, expresses the developmental stages before (at age 16), during the acute phase of the disease (age 26 to 28) and 25 yr. later (age 51) when they functioned outside a hospital setting in various degrees of competency.

The finding by Gastorf (1980) that 11 subjects classified as Type A arrived significantly earlier at experimental sessions than those 17 classed as Type B was not replicated. There were no differences between the A and B groups, but both were significantly later in arriving than 25 “average” subjects.

Using data from the Bern Sex-role Inventory, this study examined the hypothesis that male and female physicians are perceived differently both by their patients and by other physicians and medical students. This hypothesis was confirmed. Not only were significant differences in profiles of male and female physicians noted, but differences were also found among the three groups surveyed. Further, some of the differences in perception of male and female physicians were related to the sex rather than the group identity of respondents. Female patients, and to some extent female medical students, tended to view women physicians most often as androgynous and feminine. Male medical students tended to view women physicians in reverse pattern, i.e., most often feminine and then androgynous. Male physicians viewed the woman physician most often as feminine, like medical students, and then as undifferentiated. Both male and female patients and medical students tended to view the male physician most often as undifferentiated and masculine. Male physicians viewed their male colleagues most often as clearly masculine. Implications of these differences for residents' training and quality of patients' care are discussed.

References to “tunnel vision” under stress are considered to describe a process of attentional, rather than visual, narrowing. The hypothesis of Easterbrook that the range of cue utilization is reduced under stress was tested with a primary task located in the visual periphery. High school volunteers performed a visual discrimination task with choice reaction time (RT) as the dependent variable. A 2 × 3 order of presentation by practice design, with repeated measures on the last factor, was employed. Two levels of stress, high and low, were operationalized by the subject's performing in the presence of an evaluative audience or alone. Pulse rate was employed as a manipulation check on arousal. The results partially supported the hypothesis that a peripherally visual primary task could be attended to under stress without decrement in performance.

Risk-taking attitudes were investigated from the standpoint of differential primary group associations (family, friends, and mixed relations). The inquiry was designed to test implications emerging from the risky-shift paradigm in a social setting where potential choices regarding health and safety could be taken by the subject. Significant differences were observed between family and friendship patterns of association. Since age and sex previously were significant, these variables were included as possible intervening factors in the design. Age proved significant and changed risk factors associated with family and friendship, while sexual differences were not significant.

A formula derived by Kelley estimates the sampling variance of the correlation corrected for attenuation by using split-half reliabilities. In some cases, the coefficient alpha estimate of reliability will be preferred for use over the split-half. An examination of a recent Monte Carlo simulation suggests a variation of the Kelley formula can be used appropriately with coefficient alpha. Kelley's formula is modified to accept coefficient alpha directly.

The model is described in a previous paper where evidence is restricted to psychological findings. In the present paper evidence is taken from physiological findings derived from experiences with event-related brain potentials and from studies of agnosia caused by brain lesions. The hypothesis that two separate modes of consciousness are involved in human perception has obtained increased credibility.

Sounds and Images, a measure of originality, was administered to 44 professionals attending a national convention in 1981. The verbal images they produced were scored for originality and analyzed according to multiple presentation and differential sound effects. The main effect of presentation was significant but not that of sound or their interactions.

The aim of this experiment was to study some linguistic relationships between pre-sleep verbal stimuli and contents of reports of mental experience during sleep. In 4 weekly sessions 16 subjects listened before sleep to a sentence stimulus, which was either semantically acceptable (SEM+) or not (SEM—), and were told to retain it for a recall test after awakening; they were awakened once each night during NREM or REM sleep and asked to report their mental experience during sleep. The relationships between the stimulus and the contents of the reports were classified using Clark's (1970) associative rules. Both pre-sleep sentence stimuli were frequently incorporated into contents of NREM and REM reports, without significant differences between the two types of sleep. The SEM+ sentence led prevalently to incorporations through paradigmatic associative relationships, while the SEM—sentence led to incorporations through both paradigmatic and syntagmatic relationships. It appears that all the features of the lexical constituents of the stimulus may be involved in the processing leading to incorporation.

The relationship between height and self-esteem was examined among male (n = 85) and female (n = 125) college students (n = 210). It was hypothesized that self-esteem would increase with height for males and decrease with height for females. The data gave no distinct pattern for height and self-esteem for either gender, so height apparently has little role in the determination of self-esteem.

The present investigation shows that the aftereffect of induced rotation is observable when there is a large separation of inducing and static areas; it also has a substantial monocular component. These points are consistent with the possible involvement of lateral inhibition in movement detectors, (a) A recent study shows the importance of a peripheral inducing stimulus, and therefore presumably peripheral movement detectors; other psychophysical evidence shows that such detectors have large receptive fields and inhibitory surrounds. (b) Other effects probably involving lateral inhibition in movement detectors have a large monocular component.

Seismic and solar-geomagnetic variables that involved absolute measures and the percent change in these measures during 6-mo. intervals for the years 1952 and 1969 were used to predict numbers of UFO reports within the six states surrounding the New Madrid area in the central U.S.A. Expected values from sample optimal equations with multiple rs larger than 0.83 involving 5 or 6 lagged variables were compared to observations not involved with calculation of the equations. Optimal equations predicted all of the major “UFO flaps” within this region as well as some other minor increases not evident in the observed measures. Predicted UFO variations for the years 1970 to 1982 are presented.

An experiment was conducted to determine whether or not genetic colorblindness would limit performance on a rapid dark adaptation test (RDAT) which is based on the Purkinje shift in retinal sensitivity to lower wavelengths of light energy under mesopic/scotopic conditions of illumination. No differences in RDAT performance between age-equivalent colorblind and non-colorblind subjects was observed.

Transient and localized plasma-like luminosities associated with intense electromagnetic fields appear to be systematically associated with tectonic strain within the earth's crust. Although contact proximity to these UFO-like luminosities is fatal, less terminal encounters have generated many religious and cosmic references. Unfortunately, the biobehavioral effects produced by these hazardous exposures have not been considered seriously. One hypothesis is that close-encounter experiences displayed near a luminosity are evoked by direct stimulation through current induction within the observer's brain. Because of the architectural and electrical characteristics of temporal lobe structures, their functions should dominate clinical profiles. Whereas the immediate experience would involve dream-like sequences, terror, perceptual changes, depersonalization, vestibular alterations, auditory sensations, and profound meaningfulness, post-episodic effects would include amnesia, time loss, confabulation, crisis suggestibility, and electroconvulsive shock symptoms. Progressive personality deterioration could be characterized by enhanced religiosity, “sense of the personal,” a compulsion to proselytize, affective disorders and modifications of memory from before the event.

Inhibition and consolidation theories of psychomotor reminiscence were examined under spaced practice conditions in which the intertrial intervals were constant, gradually increasing, or gradually decreasing. Data for 80 subjects conformed more closely to predictions derived from inhibition theory than to those derived from consolidation theory.

Body movements were measured during sleep with a mechanoelectrical transducer in 11 healthy adults. Also measured were the electroencephalogram (EEG), electrooculogram (EOG), and electromyogram (EMG). Each subject slept alone in a quiet room for 21 to 44 consecutive nights. Body movements were classified as minor movements (actogram signal or head leads artifact), major movements (actogram signal plus head leads artifact), or movement time (MT). There was a strong relationship between rate of body movements and sleep stages, with the rate decreasing along the following sequence of stages: W > S1 > REM > S2 > S (3 + 4). If the body movements for all nights are pooled per subject, the distribution of body movement rates shows hardly any overlap for the Stages 1, REM, 2, and (3 + 4). The relative frequency of body movements seems to be regulated by a stage-dependent mechanism. The reliability of the body movement rate was determined by computing correlations between pairs of adjacent nights, which resulted in a r = .69. When 2 to 9 nights were pooled stepwise according to a split-half procedure, the mean r increased and reached values between .80 and .90, which means that body movements are a reliable sleep measure especially if the time base is large enough.

Normative data, item difficulty, and reliability of the Embedded Figures Test for a sample of 71 aged subjects (35 males, 36 females) are given. The usefulness of the material in extended studies on the causes of increased field-dependence in old age is outlined.

The Rorschach inkblots were rated for their similarity to 40 concepts by 111 female and 116 male students. A 5-point scale was used to compare the inkblots with eight concepts in each of five categories: psychoanalytic affective-symbolic connotations, an alternate set of affective-symbolic connotations, “popular” Rorschach responses, affectively toned concepts, and randomly selected nouns. A one-way repeated-measures analysis of variance for each inkblot provided the error terms for Dunn's multiple-comparison test. Although results varied considerably from inkblot to inkblot, the cards were rated over-all more similar to the derived concepts than to their traditionally assumed connotations. These findings and the results of other studies suggest that reliance on any set of hypothesized a priori meanings in Rorschach interpretation may be hazardous or, at best, premature.

Can visual imagery training substantially improve verbal paired-associate learning in a partial callosal patient? A 20-yr.-old male with the posterior half of his corpus callosum sectioned did show substantial improvement in such learning after 3 mo. of modified visual imagery training. Such training seems useful when there is a disconnection of visual-imagery and verbal-semantic modes of encoding, but basic memory capacities are retained.

The effects of demand characteristics and relevant personality variables on the use of touching were explored. Half of the 32 male and 32 female subjects received instructions discussing touching as one method of expressing emotions. All subjects pretended that an assistant was a friend with whom they roleplayed six emotional feelings. Subjects completed the Mosher Sex-guilt Scale and the Body Accessibility Questionnaire. Those subjects given additional instructions touched more but felt less comfortable with the assistant. Sex of the subject, sex of the assistant, amount of sex guilt, and degree of body accessibility did not have significant effects on touching. However, differential touching was produced by different emotional cues. The results contradict previous suggestions that touching is a function of a stable personality characteristic. Also, unlike clinical literature which suggests that touching produces intimacy and comfort, these findings suggested that instructional set can increase touching but decrease comfort.

While for 31 trainable mentally handicapped children and for 31 nonhandicapped (M 91-56 mo.), there were no differences in static balance on left or right legs, total balance time was significantly different between the two groups, confirming prior work which related motor proficiency to intelligence. The normal group showed significant positive correlations among height, weight, age, and measures of static balance but only age was not correlated with balance for the handicapped group.

Expanding on the work of Melzack, Schultz, Scott, and Eland and Anderson, we devised an instrument that would elicit from school age children a description of their pain experience. After three stages of testing the pain questionnaire, high agreement was achieved on 45 measured responses that were not influenced by the children's sex. Although the instrument would need further refinement before use in the assessment of pain, the results show that children can remember and identify a wide range of events that have caused them pain and can describe specific painful situations, using suggested words as well as their own.

To determine whether race influenced preference for the colors black and white by infants and young children a color preference test was administered to 160 subjects who attended day-care centers and who ranged in age from 6 mo. to 4.5 yr. There were equal numbers of males and females and equal numbers of Afro- and Euro-American subjects. Ages of the subjects were controlled so there were 20 subjects in each 6-mo. age interval. Data were obtained from a 12-item test. The test utilized 6 pairs of toys which were identical except one was black and the other was white. The toy a subject selected was considered that subject's preference and the color of that toy was recorded. A two-way analysis of variance and a regression analysis indicated that, as a group, race affected color preference. Age differences did not produce the same effect for Euro-Americans as for Afro-Americans. As age increased, young Afro-American subjects showed a clear increase in their preference for the color white. A corresponding analysis for Euro-Americans did not show a significant change in color preference with an increase in age.

The purpose of this study was to measure response organization effects in 30 children in Grade 4. On a reaction time task, subjects were pre-cued as to the forthcoming response, being either an ipsilateral or contralateral response, which hand to use, or on which side the response would be. In each condition, there were varying degrees of response uncertainty and predictability. Analysis indicated that knowing which hand to use played a major role in response organization. However, when the subject was unsure of which hand to use but the other variables were pre-cued, reaction time increased significantly.

WAIS Digit Span scores of 50 subjects were evaluated to determine the relationship of Digits Forward and Digits Backward to intellectual functioning in an intellectually subnormal population. The subjects fell into one of five levels of intelligence, 50—59, 60—69, 70—79, 80—89, and 90—99, based upon Full Scale WAIS IQ. WAIS IQs and Digits Backward are significantly more highly correlated to all three WAIS IQs than are Digits Forward. Only the WAIS Digit Span (combined forward and backward) and Digits Backward discriminated across the five levels of intelligence.