Perceptual and Motor Skills

This report contains an heuristic (a systematic set of questions) addressing issues of concern in the emotion-memory literature. Four experiments (ns of 73, 24, 160, and 34) are described in terms of the heuristic and its potential for describing the literature is examined.

Rats were trained in a straight runway on a series consisting of 4 elements, each element being defined in terms of the number of .045-gm. Noyes pellets used as reward on 4 runway trials separated by about 20 sec. The series elements were 2, 6, 12, and 0 (2-6-12-0). The animals were trained each day on 3 such series, the series themselves being separated within a day by about 12 min. for 28 days before introducing a new transfer series to assess the relevance of the order of the series elements. In previous experiments with the simpler series, 2-12-0, alterations in order of elements eliminated the animals' tendencies to run much slower to the terminal nonreward element of the series, but transfer was clearly shown here when we shifted from 2-6-12-0 to 6-12-2-0. That is, the animals continued on the transfer test to approach the terminal element slowly, a result which we interpret as supporting the view that the rats either counted the rewarded trials and used that count to predict terminal nonreward, or they behaved on the basis of cues associated with the ordinal position of the trial.

To gather some insight into the genuineness of room rate discounts offered to select travelers, 250 individual inquiries were made in response to a promotional by a national hotel chain. About 84% of the time a discounted room was available for booking.

The purposes of this study were to (1) describe errors in weightbearing at three target levels for patients with neuropathic feet and control subjects, (2) compare the absolute errors at the three target levels between groups, and (3) identify predictor variables of errors in weightbearing by the neuropathic group. The groups of 26 subjects were matched for age and height. Weightbearing was measured with digital scales while subjects attempted to adjust their weight through a designated lower extremity to each target level (25, 50, and 75% of body weight). Analysis of variance indicated no significant difference in the percentage weightbearing between groups at the three target levels. There was a significant difference in errors made in weightbearing by the groups at the three target levels. Mean errors ranged from 8.5 to 9.7% for the neuropathic group and from 2.4 to 6.6% for the control group. The findings cast doubt on the utility (in the absence of feedback) of requesting individuals, particularly those with neuropathic feet, to weightbear at specific target levels.

This study examined the effects of cultural factors on perception of 15 boys and 21 girls in Nigeria. The five geometric illusions of Segall, Campbell, and Herskovitz were shown in booklets. Previously tested Afghan boys gave evidence of greater illusion than the Nigerian children. The findings also supported previous research on perception of illusion.

The purpose of the present study was to examine the changes of the tickle sensation reflected in effects of the direction of attention to one's own body (Exp. 1) and the expectation of the experimenter's gestures (Exp. 2). In Exp. 1, for 15 subjects, when tickled on their own foot soles, the tickle sensation was not significantly changed by attending to the stimulus and to one's own sole. These results suggested the importance of instructions. In Exp. 2, 6 subjects were tickled and were required to report their experience while they looked at the experimenter's gestures and were tickled. Although the subjects' stimulations were unaffected by looking at the gestures, the tactual stimulus elicited a tickle sensation. From these results, quantitative and qualitative differences in subjects' tickle sensation may be identified.

Evidence from 175 adults is reported which suggests, contrary to the study by Tversky and Kahneman (1973), that people do not use the availability heuristic to make judgements of letter frequency.

Links exist between physiological stimulation and the development of intelligence and also emotional and mental well-being because touching, seeing, hearing, smelling, and tasting involve active participation by the individual.

A 3-mo. follow-up was made of 64 male veterans who were discharged from a 21-day Alcohol Detoxification Treatment Program at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center at Lyons, NJ. Scores on the Rotter I-E and Alcohol Responsibility Scales were significantly correlated with tendencies toward a more external direction among the 13% who relapsed, significant on the I-E scale and nonsignificant on the Alcohol Responsibility Scale. When tests were compared as possible predictor variables of alcoholic relapse, the difference in favor of the I-E scale was statistically nonsignificant.

The aim of this study was to examine the ability of the Reasoned Action theory to predict exercise behavior of 56 children 10 to 11 yr. of age. Analysis showed that the Reasoned Action model's efficacy to predict exercise behavior of young children increased when the subjects' past behavior was entered in the analysis as an external variable. The regression of intention and behavior over exercise yielded significant multiple correlation coefficients of .52 and .70, respectively. Also, two variables of the Reasoned Action model (Behavioral Beliefs and Attitudes toward the Behavior) were strongly correlated with scores on the Children's Attitudes Toward Physical Activity. Although this inventory is a more general attitude scale, it may, in conjunction with Reasoned Action theory, satisfactorily contribute to the explanation of the exercise behavior.

This paper concerns results of a Rasch and a factor analysis of Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices items for a sample of 166 gifted children. Of 36 items, 33 had adequate fit to a Rasch model but a three-factor solution provided the most interpretable explanation of item intercorrelations.

For 70 rehabilitation patients aged 17 to 85 yr. mean ratios of number of symbols coded to number copied were .48 for 10 persons (16 to 19 yr.) and .47 for 60 (20 to 69 yr.) which compares with .44 for normal subjects. Coding and copying are moderately correlated, and copying may be more sensitive to brain damage.

The present paper studied Popular responses to the Holtzman Inkblot Technique by Argentine children. The aims of the study were to assess whether Universal Popular responses reported by Knudsen, Gorham, and Moseley appeared also among Argentine children and to analyze how differences on certain intracultural variables, such as social marginality, modified Popular responses. Form A of the test was administered to 593 children attending Grades 4, 5, 6, and 7. Their ages ranged from 9 to 12 yr. This group was subdivided on social integration, yielding a socially marginal group of 57 and a socially integrated one of 536. We noted 15 concepts considered Universal Popular answers were identical for this group, Knudsen's and Holtzman's normative groups. The responses from the nonmarginal Argentine group were compared with those of the socially marginal Argentine group. Contents characteristic of each group suggest the nonmarginal group gave more elaborated and more differentiated responses than those of the marginal group.

Data of 30 men and 30 women in college show similar body-image perception which is associated with abnormalities of eating or psychological instability.

The influences of early crawling experience on motor skill development were examined in children identified by parents as crawlers or noncrawlers during early infancy. Relative to the performance of crawlers, noncrawlers showed lower average and subtest-specific performance on selected measures of the Miller Assessment for Preschoolers. These results, interpreted through Ayres' sensory integration theory and applied to current occupational therapy practices, support Farber's hypothesized importance of early crawling experience in the development of sensory and motor systems of the body and general motor skill development.

Performances of groups of second grade elementary school boys with Minimal Brain Dysfunction (ns = 34) and matched with normal boys (ns = 30) were studied using mostly psychometric criteria in Prague, Czechoslovakia and Skopje, Macedonia. Boys with brain dysfunctions scored more poorly than normal ones at both places, but normal boys from both cultures did not differ. Information-processing capability (derived from Wechsler scale) was lower and its rank among disordered features higher among Skopje boys, probably because organized care for minimal brain dysfunctioning children was relatively lower.

Mood state was estimated in six men using the Profile of Mood States questionnaire, with a “right now” directional set prior to performance of a modified Wingate power test, once at 03.00 hr., 09.00 hr., 15.00 hr., and 21.00 hr., on different days. Anaerobic power was measured as peak power output in 5 sec., and anaerobic capacity was measured as total external work performed during the 30-sec. test. Intraindividual difference scores were calculated as a subject's score minus his mean over the four tests. Multiple regression analyses showed that time of day and the Profile of Mood States fatigue score accounted for 51% of the variance in peak power and 62% of the variance in anaerobic capacity. However, the relationships between fatigue and subsequent anaerobic power and capacity reached statistical significance only at 21.00 hr. These results suggest that intraindividual differences in the mood state are related to subsequent performance. Greater than usual levels of fatigue are associated with reduced performance capacity. However, this relationship is dynamic and is dependent upon the time of day.

The role of rhythm in the speech intelligibility of 18 hearing-impaired children, aged 15 years with hearing losses from 40 to 108 db, was investigated. Their perceptual judgement of visual rhythm sequences was superior to that of the hearing controls, but their scores were not correlated with their speech intelligibility.

This study assessed the correlations among measures of physical fitness, body image and locus of control in college freshman women dancers and nondancers. 39 students enrolled in courses in modern, ballet, and jazz dance, and 120 students enrolled in an introductory personal health course were administered the Hall Physical Fitness Test Profile, the Winstead and Cash 54-item short-form Body Self-relations Questionnaire (BSRQ), and the Adult Nowicki-Strickland Locus of Control Scale. Analysis showed dancers were more physically fit, scored more positively on the BSRQ physical fitness and health domains, and were more internal in their locus of control than the nondancers. There was no significant difference between dancers and nondancers on the BSRQ appearance domain. The significant positive correlation between BSRQ health and physical fitness among dancers was not observed among nondancers. The significant positive correlation for BSRQ appearance and health was noted for nondancers but not for dancers.

This response to Spiegel's comments on our proposal for a new medical specialty emphasizes the need for a residency designed to provide training in evaluation and treatment of patients with biologically-based brain disease.

The purpose of this preliminary investigation was to assess the equivalence of Forms L and M of the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test—Revised for a sample of 15 Hispanic and 12 black children diagnosed as having Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). The children (15 boys, 12 girls) were administered PPVT—R Forms L and M in counterbalanced order and in immediate succession. The coefficient of equivalence, r, was .77 and significant. Influential factors, such as the behavioral manifestations of AIDS, are discussed. Limitations of the study are included. Research should focus on the long- and short-term stability of the test for these children as they are evaluated repetitively.

A review of research on the use of the Rorschach in the assessment of cerebral dysfunction indicated that the Rorschachs of patients with cerebral dysfunction do not manifest any characteristic response in terms of percentages, ratios, or any unique response to any one of the stimulus determinants of the blots (color, shading, the stimulus for movement). The patient with cerebral dysfunction does manifest a unique style of thinking; responses tend to be concrete, perseverative, and stereotypic. This finding is similar to that found with schizophrenics where research, summarized by Frank in 1990, also indicated no uniquely ‘objective’ response style but reflected a unique cognitive style. These two reviews taken together suggest that the better way to use Rorschach data in clinical work is as an opportunity to assess patients' thinking as opposed to the Rorschach being used as a psychometric device, yielding ‘numbers.’

In reviewing and summarizing work at our institution, we have identified some surprising consistencies in patients with breast cancer. Breast cancer shows four features of cerebral laterality: excess left-handedness, atypical season-of-birth patterns, the risk factor of advanced maternal age, and an association with prenatal sex hormones. Since hypopigmentation also relates to cerebral laterality, a consequence of the association of breast cancer and cerebral laterality is that eye color should be measured as a function of side of disease and age at diagnosis in women with breast cancer.

The large-sample distribution of the odds measure of qualitative variation (OQV) is given. The results may be used for testing hypotheses and constructing confidence intervals for OQV. Numerical data are provided to exemplify the use of these statistical inference procedures.

22 expert collegiate basketball players were exposed to either imagery training only or restricted environmental stimulation (REST) with imagery training. The REST group showed significantly better performance on both objective game performance and coaches' blind ratings.

This study was done to examine the relationship between sex and perception of body image among athletes and nonathletes. A total of 211 men and women athletes and nonathletes completed a questionnaire which asked them to identify from a nine-figure body-silhouette scale their current image and the image that they thought was most ideal. t tests showed no significant differences for men based upon athletic participation and that both athletes and nonathletes were satisfied with their body image. However, when comparing current image and ideal image, significant differences were found for women athletes and nonathletes. These data support previous research documenting women's dissatisfaction with their body images and show athletic participation is not associated with this perception.

This study was conducted to examine whether the Honesty scale of the Personnel Selection Inventory differentiates a counterproductive group of individuals from a randomly-selected group of employment applicants. The Honesty subscale measures applicants' attitudes toward theft and counterproductivity. In this study, a group of 100,000 job applicants randomly selected from a normative data base was compared to a group of 1,073 employees from a variety of industries. Each of the latter group of employees had been hired regardless of their Honesty scale scores and had been terminated for acts of counterproductivity including workplace theft. This counterproductive group scored significantly lower on the Honesty scale than the comparison group of applicants. Also, approximately 43% of the counterproductive group admitted to past theft but only 4% of the comparison group did so.

This paper deals with general considerations on human split-capacity in dual-tasks. Notions about understanding, vision and split-vision are touched. For a proper understanding of the phenomenon of split-vision in sport, not only visual aspects of behavior must be regarded but also attentional and intellectual.

Although self-regulation has been advanced as a construct in sport psychology, little attention has been paid to the relationship between motor expertise and the actual self-regulation of a motor task. The present text examines the theoretical notions of self-regulation (on-line supervision and control), expertise, and performance, in the light of certain particularities implicated in motor skills, such as the nature of practical and conceptual knowledge and the relationship between them.

A young left-handed girl with an extensive posttraumatic lesion in the left hemisphere was tested with dichotic listening (DL) under three different attentional instructions. The major aim of the study was to evaluate a structural vs attentional explanation for dichotic listening. As both her expressive and receptive language functions were intact after the lesion, it was assumed that the right hemisphere was the language-dominant one. In the free-report condition, she was free to divert attention to and to report from both ear inputs. In the forced-right condition, she was instructed to attend to and report only from the right ear input. In the forced-left condition, she was instructed to attend to and to report only from the left-ear input. Her performance was compared with data from a previously collected sample of normal left-handed females. Analysis showed that the patient, in contrast to the normal sample, revealed a complete right-ear extinction phenomenon, irrespective of attentional instruction. Furthermore, she showed superior correct reports from the left ear, compared with those of the normal sample, also irrespective of attentional instruction. It is concluded that these results support a structural, rather than attentional explanation for the right-ear advantage (REA) typically observed in dichotic listening. The utility of validating the dichotic listening technique on patients with brain lesions is discussed.

In a previous paper a device for synchronizing the tempo of synthesizer music to the pedal rotation of an exercise cycle was described. The device has been improved with a control panel and additional programming which makes easy choosing songs from a large pool. In addition, the synthesizer module and the computer are now located in a small unobtrusive box directly on the exercise cycle.

This study examined the effect of prior biofeedback-assisted training of hand warming or hand cooling on the subsequent ability to train the opposite response. A two-group crossover design employed 43 subjects with one group receiving three days of hand warming followed by three days of hand cooling, while the second group received the opposite sequence. Analysis indicated subjects were able to produce the appropriate changes in hand temperature and were more successful at hand cooling than hand warming. During the transfer of training phase, subjects with prior training in hand cooling were able to produce warming above baseline levels compared with subjects initially trained to hand warm. In contrast, prior training of hand warming had no effect on the subsequent ability to cool hands.

This study examined the question whether the deviation of slant towards uprightness in simulated handwriting is enhanced by characteristics of the model or by the manner of production. The models were varied by familiarity of shape (loops vs zigzags and waves) and by width between downward strokes. 36 subjects with a slant of 50° to 70° in their normal handwriting copied 4 different writing patterns with 60° slant in a line and in an interrupted manner of production. Analysis showed that unfamiliar and narrow models as well as copying without interruptions led to significantly greater upright slant. Also, a significant interaction between familiarity and the manner of production was found. Results were discussed as evidence for employment of formerly learned motor programs in simulation tasks. Increased strain in the copying task leads to steeper downward strokes which probably are simpler to perform.

To increase data on the accuracy of students reporting their high school and college GPAs and SAT scores the sex and class differences of students who reported their grades and scores and those who did not were examined. Freshmen, sophomores, men, and women who reported their SAT scores had significantly higher SAT-M, SAT-V, and SAT-Total scores than those who did not. Differences between the actual scores of those reporting and those not reporting for the men were greater than those for the women. No consistent pattern was noted for the differences between the actual scores of those reporting and those not reporting for the freshmen and for the sophomores. No significant differences between the actual GPAs for men, women, freshmen, and sophomores reporting grades and those not reporting grades were noted for either high school GPAs or college GPAs.

This study examined the effect taekwondo training has on the level of aggression of children between the ages of 6 and 11 yr. 68 students (boys and girls) were tested using a behavior checklist designed to measure children's aggression. Analysis indicated a significant inverse relationship between the children's taekwondo rank and their aggression.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of age on tactile threshold shifts occurring during magnitude-estimation scaling of vibratory stimuli presented to the dorsal surface of the tongue. Relationships of the lingual vibrotactile threshold shifts to suprathreshold stimulus intensity, magnitude-estimation responses, and over-all scaling behavior were explored. Three groups differing in mean age participated in this study (Group 1 8.05 yr., Group 2 19.46 yr., and Group 3 56.2 yr.). Each subject performed two magnitude-estimation tasks. In one task, threshold of sensitivity was measured after every suprathreshold numerical response of the subject. If a threshold shift was recorded, threshold was allowed to return to the pretest baseline level continuing to the next suprathreshold stimulus presentation. The results showed that threshold shift during magnitude-estimation scaling took place for all three age groups and that the shift was related to the intensity of the suprathreshold vibratory stimulus being applied to the tongue. They also showed that Group 2 (young adults) performed magnitude-estimation scaling differently when threshold shift was controlled than when it was not. The other two groups of subjects were not similarly affected.

A method of pattern analysis for evaluating data from serial recall trials assesses frequencies of response in nine possible patterns for change during learning and recall.

Two aspects of the extent of computer use—the number of applications to which the computer is put and the frequency of computer use—are investigated in relation to adaptive-innovative cognitive style and personal involvement in computing. The number of computing applications taken up is related on a priori grounds to sensation-seeking, a personality trait which has been consistently associated with both the Kirton Adaption-Innovation Inventory and with consumers' exploratory behavior. Described are two studies of the extent of computer use in (i) home computing and (ii) task-oriented computing by graduate business students. The number of applications employed by home computer owners was weakly related to both adaptive-innovative cognitive style and to personal involvement in computing. The study of students' behavior shows again that scores on both inventories are related to the extent of computer use but that, while Kirton inventory scores are uniquely associated with the number of computer applications used, Personal Involvement scores are uniquely associated with the frequency of computer usage.

The ability of children to copy a complex figure was investigated by means of the Rey-Osterrieth complex figure and the corresponding methodology. The sample consisted of 420 children (boys and girls) aged 5½ to 12½ years. Responses indicate that the visuomotor ability involved in copying a complex figure increases with increasing age and that girls show significantly better performance than boys during the ages 8½ to 12½ years. The differences in performance can be attributed to differential neuropsychological strategies or functional differences that require further investigation.

It is proved that the reliability of any measurement may be as close to one as is pleased; thus, the universal upper bound for the reliability of any measurement may always approach one, implying that a stronger upper bound cannot be found.

This study investigated whether 20 skilled baseball/softball players could perform simple gloved catching with both the dominant and nondominant catching hand in the presence and absence of visual feedback of the glove. Results showed essentially perfect performance in all conditions. Out of 1600 total trials, only 7 balls were dropped, all by the nondominant catching hand. Of these, 6 occurred in the absence of vision of the glove. The data provide a demonstration of bilateral motor skill transfer and also suggest that articular proprioception allows adequate positioning of the glove and timing of the grasp by the nondominant catching hand. Viewing the glove is not necessary.

This report describes an exploration of the relations between self-perceived and actual peer acceptance among 31 preschool children, aged 3 to 5 years who were given the Pictorial Scale of Perceived Competence and Social Acceptance to measure self-perceived peer acceptance and a sociometric scale to assess actual peer acceptance. Analysis showed a low but significant correlation between perceived peer acceptance and sociometric scores. Children who perceived themselves as well accepted by peers also received higher nomination scores from peers.

Effects of stimulus context on magnitude estimations and on category ratings were examined for a range of stimulus intensities of a 1-kHz tone. The stimuli were distributed in equal-interval steps of energy so they formed a perceptual cluster of high-intensity tones with a perceptual outlier at the lowest intensity. According to the Invariance Principle, the shape of the response function should not be affected by the distribution of stimulus intensities. However, neither magnitude estimations nor category ratings yielded the linear functions predicted from the Invariance Principle when plotted on log-log axes. Instead, both procedures yielded concave-upward response functions for the group data as well as for the individual data sets of the six subjects. Moreover, unlike previous reports of a nonlinear relationship, we found a linear relationship between magnitude estimations and category ratings. Rather than implying an equivalence of the underlying sensory scales, however, our results may imply subjects used a similar attention strategy for both procedures. We consider some theoretical suggestions, including an attention-band concept, for modification of a multistage stimulus-response (S-R) transformation model.

The Kolb Learning Style Inventory was administered to 80 novice computer users. Using one of two training methods based on different conceptual models, subjects were trained to use an electronic mail filing system. Performance accuracy was assessed on three experimental tasks. As hypothesized, those with the Converger learning style had highest over-all performance, however a significant interaction between training approach and learning style was also hypothesized and supported, indicating that the efficacy of training models depends on a fit with learning style.

Some epidemiological studies have fostered concern about cancers caused by electric and magnetic fields associated with distribution and use of electric power. At present, there is no scientific consensus as to which factors, the electric field and/or magnetic field, are biologically important. Similarly, there is no clear indication whether higher field levels are of greater risk than lower level fields. The complex scientific issues attending health effects of power-frequency electric and magnetic fields would be most effectively resolved through interdisciplinary research involving investigators from biological, medical and engineering research communities. A critical need, at present, is a significant increase in federal funding for research on interaction mechanisms and animal studies, while maintaining efforts in epidemiology but with greater emphasis on confounding factors and known cancer-causing agents.

The effect of aerobic exercise on reaction time in older women was investigated. 14 women (M age = 65 yr.) were carefully screened for health status and lifestyle, then assigned to a random order of the exercise and control groups (ns = 7). Pre- and posttraining tests of aerobic capacity, simple reaction time, and choice reaction time were administered. The exercise group rode a stationary bicycle ergometer for 8 consecutive weeks for 3 35- to 40-min. sessions per week. There were no significant pretraining differences between groups on simple reaction time, choice reaction time, or estimated VO_{2 max}. No posttraining differences for simple and choice reaction time were found even though the exercise group had a significantly higher VO_{2 max} than the controls. Contrary to some other findings, the data indicate that reaction time may be independent of aerobic training in healthy older women.

Microsoft's in-line random number generator is of the multiplicative, congruential type. However, the generator produces duplicates of numbers in the series being generated before the value that began the cycle is repeated. Such physical dependency in the cycle makes the program suspect for applications involving pseudorandom values.

A six-item Playground Skills Test has been developed to measure elementary-school-age children's motor skill in moving on playground structures. Responses to the test, analyzed for test-retest reliability, objectivity, internal consistency, content and construct validity, indicate the test is both reliable and valid. Initial normative data are reported for 63 7- to 9-yr.-old subjects. Further development of the test is needed but it should be valuable in research on development of playground skill and on correlates of playground skill.

Conclusions about group differences, especially sex differences, in cognitive ability have been based largely on psychometric tests, to the relative neglect of contemporary chronometric instruments. We explore some problems that may account for this methodological bias and suggest that the barriers to using chronometric techniques can be overcome. We adapted both the sentence-picture verification procedure and the Posner letter-matching task to field conditions, obtaining values in both instances which were virtually identical to those obtained under ideal laboratory conditions. 38 adults provided data for analysis.

In Grade 1 of two groups of 10 children who were of comparable arithmetic ability, those using pictured sets of different objects in word problems scored significantly higher than the group shown sets of the same objects.

The purpose of this study was to examine multidimensional self-concept and skill development changes in soccer players after a 15-hr. soccer camp (3 hr. per day, 5 days a week). Players (n = 54), 8 to 14 yr. of age, were pre- and posttested on four skill tests (dribbling, juggling, wall volley, and accuracy of kick), the 1985 Harter Self-perception Profile, and a soccer self-concept scale. Significant improvements occurred on the wall volley item, physical appearance scale of the Harter Profile, and the self-concept scale. The significant improvement in the soccer self-concept supported the multidimensional theory of self-concept. Subscale means in our study were slightly higher than those of Harter. Comparisons of players' perceptions of ability and coaches' ratings indicated that older players (11 to 14 yr.) and coaches agreed more on ability than younger players (8 to 10 yr.) and coaches.

Correlations of – .80, – .78, and – .67 for 72, 94, and 92 pupils in Grades K, 1, and 2 support the validity of the Qualitative Scoring System (vs Koppitz's system) for the modified Bender-Gestalt test.

Development of a computerized questionnaire for investigating prevalence of child sexual abuse as “unwanted sexual contact” prior to Age 17 and associated long-term mental health sequelae is described. The computerized technique has technical advantages, and in a study of 200 university men elicited significantly more recall of prior abuse (in 14% of subjects) than a paper questionnaire

An observation made 160 years ago by Jacob Abbott (1803–1879), subsequently reinforced and publicized by Robert Southey (1774–1843), that half the duration of human life seems to be passed within its first 15 to 20 years, is shown to agree with Lemlich's quantitative hypothesis of subjective aging.

In this study the relationship between attitudes about chance and self-concept of 140 college students (74 women, 66 men) were analyzed. The finding of nonsignificance is discussed in view of previous assumptions as to relations between the two variables. Suggestions for further work are outlined.

For groups of 10 subjects magnitude estimation of area presented physically or symbolically (using prelearned CVCs) could be described by power functions. Memorial judgments were also governed by power functions, but shallower ones. These relations held regardless of length of delay of the memory-based judgment.

Even with radical restriction of range, reliability coefficients from 10 studies gave an average interstudy value of .74, suggesting constancy of reliability over diverse experiments. A value from a new test can help index reliability of tests not previously studied.

Six men and six women were timed as they made judgments about a word whose line of letters and individual letters were separately turned in different angular orientations. The subjects were asked to indicate by manual key-pressing responses whether the letters in the word were normal letters or reflected, mirror-image letters. Analysis showed that (1) reaction time (RT) was slower for reflected letters than for normal letters, and for subjects using the left (nondominant) hand rather than the right (dominant) hand for responding to normal letters. (2) RT generally increased in relation to the deviation of the individual letters from normal upright orientation but increased more reliably for normal than for reflected letters. (3) Although there were exceptions, RT for words composed of normal letters generally increased in relation to the deviation of the individual letters from normal upright, regardless of the orientation of the line of letters.

The different effects of monocular and binocular vision in a distorted-room illusion suggest both an interaction between apparatus and vision and a significant main effect for monocular/binocular vision, with monocular viewing resulting in a greater illusion than did binocular viewing.

The emergence of complex automated systems in the workplace has been viewed by many as shifting the kind of work people are asked to perform. This shift has tended to be toward more cognitively-oriented tasks, such as those associated with inferential decision making. In addition, it is very likely the future workplace will require that people perform cognitive tasks for continuous periods of time. The present findings indicate that statistically significant decrements in accuracy of performance on a multicue-judgment task were evident over the course of a continuously performed 4-hr. computerized work experiment. In contrast, performance accuracy on two analytical tasks remained high during the experiment. These results are evaluated in the context of the fatigue explanation for decrements found in research on continuous performance.

The aim of this study was to investigate the possible relations between specific personality variables and the effect of subliminal stimulation on choice behavior. It was hypothesized that subjects with low anxiety, less neuroticism, and external locus of control and the trait of extraversion would be more susceptible to subliminal stimulation. 38 undergraduate students were exposed to subliminal messages urging them to choose symbols instead of numbers or letters. Analysis showed that subliminal stimulation did not generate a preference for symbols over numbers or letters. No support was observed for the hypothesis of an association between susceptibility and personality variables. These results may be explained in terms of symbol choice being a neutral message that did not relate to the subjects' needs and motivation.

Empathy and prosociability of 62 6- to 7-yr.-old preschool children were assessed before and after training in an empathy programme. Group I consisted of 14 children (9 boys and 5 girls), Group II of 17 children (9 boys and 8 girls), and the control group of two preschool classes of 15 each. The methods used were the Feshbach and Roe Empathy Slide series and the Ikonen-Nylund Test on Sociability. Prosociability was evaluated by the 1981 Weir and Duveen scale and by the 1981 Kalliopuska rating scale. The WISC Vocabulary scale measured verbal ability. The empathy programme for Group I included music, physical exercise with music, and music drawing, for Group II activities were role-playing, acting, and storytelling. The programmes took time 35 hr. over 4 mo. at 2 hr. per week. The results were promising; empathy was consciously developed during the preschool years. Prosociability seemed to increase along with empathy.

Research workers typically use forced-choice instruments to measure subjects' perceptions of social objects such as apparel brands. Advantages and disadvantages of alternative methods to measure apparel brand image are discussed.

The purpose of this paper was to develop a clearer understanding of factors contributing to the failure to recognize recallable words because this phenomenon has important implications for theories of memory. The paradigm involves a sequence of tasks, including presentation of cue-target word-pairs, testing recognition, and prompted recall with the context cues serving as prompts. An important version of the recognition-failure paradigm includes a free-association task prior to testing recognition that results in subjects generating some of the target items and recognition distractors. This type of free-association task was examined in the current study. It produced problems of list differentiation (interference) that led to subjects' recognition errors and significant failure to recognize recallable words. Other important memory processes which contribute to this failure are discussed. These include generation effects during the free-association task, priming of target items on the recognition test, and associative asymmetry existing between items in the cue-target pairs.

The purpose of the present study was to examine the retention of a constructed motor program. 12 subjects were required to react and produce a designated peak force as soon as possible after each of two starting signals separated by a variable time interval of 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 sec. Analysis showed that simple reaction time and premotor time to initiate the second response sharply increased as the length of the retention interval increased from 0 to 2 sec., with no further increases thereafter. These findings suggest that nearly all of the forgetting of the constructed motor program occurred within the first 2 sec., which may be the approximate upper limit for the retention of this constructed motor program. These findings also may suggest that rapid decay of the motor program would be the basis for programming delay in simple-reaction paradigm.

18 young female gymnasts were randomly allocated to three treatment conditions. One group was exposed to a training regimen typical of that used by Soviet coaches, a second group was trained using a method characteristically encountered in the UK and a control group attended recreational gymnastics classes. Performance on the “core” skills of handstand, round-off, basic-swing, and chin-circle was recorded after 5 and 10 wk. Results demonstrated the overwhelming pre-eminence of the “Soviet” approach.