Typographical cues that facilitate comprehension.

Written sentences often contain several meaningful components (e.g., causes and effects or events in a sequence). Preliminary studies of technical documents showed that typographically segmenting these components improved raters' judgments of the comprehensibility of the information. In the present paper, this segmentation notion is generalized, suggesting that phrase segmentation and indentation can be used to facilitate comprehension. Five experiments were conducted (with a total of 72 college students or technical aides) in which Ss verified sentences by reading complex information in several technical passages. Meaningfully segmented and indented text resulted in 14–28% faster response times than standard text. Both segmenting and indenting significantly influenced performance; however, once a text had been meaningfully segmented, the addition of indentation cues did not significantly affect response time. These data shed light on persisting issues in typographic design, namely, whether there is an optimal length for lines and whether justified margins are desirable. Such factors appear to be of minor cognitive relevance. The critical variable is whether the format results in a display of easily encoded units, regardless of length or neatness of margins. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Retraction of Hard, Lozano, and Tversky (2006).

Reports a retraction of "Hierarchical encoding of behavior: Translating perception into action" by Bridgette Martin Hard, Sandra C. Lozano and Barbara Tversky (Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 2006[Nov], Vol 135[4], 588-608). All authors retract this article. Co-author Tversky and co-author Hard believe that the research results cannot be relied upon; Sandra C. Lozano takes full responsibility for the need to retract this article. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2006-20327-007.) People encode goal-directed behaviors, such as assembling an object, by segmenting them into discrete actions, organized as goal-subgoal hierarchies. Does hierarchical encoding contribute to observational learning? Participants in 3 experiments segmented an object assembly task into coarse and fine units of action and later performed it themselves. Hierarchical encoding, measured by segmentation patterns, correlated with more accurate and more hierarchically structured performance of the later assembly task. Furthermore, hierarchical encoding increased when participants (a) segmented coarse units first, (b) explicitly looked for hierarchical structure, and (c) described actions while segmenting them. Improving hierarchical encoding always led to improvements in learning, as well as a surprising shift toward encoding and executing actions from the actor's spatial perspective instead of the participants' own. Hierarchical encoding facilitates observational learning by organizing perceived actions into a representation that can serve as an action plan. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Hierarchical encoding of behavior: Translating perception into action.

[Retraction Notice: A retraction for this article was reported in Vol 137(4) of Journal of Experimental Psychology: General (see record 2008-15679-005). All authors retract this article. Co-author Tversky and co-author Hard believe that the research results cannot be relied upon; Sandra C. Lozano takes full responsibility for the need to retract this article.] People encode goal-directed behaviors, such as assembling an object, by segmenting them into discrete actions, organized as goal-subgoal hierarchies. Does hierarchical encoding contribute to observational learning? Participants in 3 experiments segmented an object assembly task into coarse and fine units of action and later performed it themselves. Hierarchical encoding, measured by segmentation patterns, correlated with more accurate and more hierarchically structured performance of the later assembly task. Furthermore, hierarchical encoding increased when participants (a) segmented coarse units first, (b) explicitly looked for hierarchical structure, and (c) described actions while segmenting them. Improving hierarchical encoding always led to improvements in learning, as well as a surprising shift toward encoding and executing actions from the actor's spatial perspective instead of the participants' own. Hierarchical encoding facilitates observational learning by organizing perceived actions into a representation that can serve as an action plan. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Development of the concept of truth-functional negation": Correction to Kim.

Reports an error in "Development of the concept of truth-functional negation" by Kyung Kim (Developmental Psychology, 1985[May], Vol 21[3], 462-472). In the article, several key words were omitted from the last sentence of the Method section on page 464, column 2, third paragraph. The corrected sentence is included in the erratum. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 1985-25108-001.) Studied the development of the concept of truth-functional negation in 2 experiments, using 36 English-speaking children (aged 3-6 yrs) and 10 Korean-speaking children (aged 4-5 yrs) as Ss. In Exp I, English-speaking Ss were given a sentence-variation task in which the following 4 sentence types were used to describe 36 pictures of common items: true affirmative, false affirmative, true negative (TN), and false negative. The results show that a majority of Ss under 5 yrs had difficulty with negative sentences, particularly TN sentences, indicating a lack of explicit understanding of truth-functional negation as defined in logic. In Exp II, a cross-linguistic replication of Exp I was attempted with Korean-speaking Ss. Despite some cross-linguistic differences in the negation system, the Korean-speaking Ss showed essentially the same pattern of results, suggesting that the development in question proceeds within the general limit set by the general cognitive development. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Self Verbalization and Emotional Arousal": Erratum.

Reports an error in the original article by David C. Rimm and Stuart B. Litvak (Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 1969[April],74[2],181-187). On page 187 of the article corrections need to be made in the first and second paragraphs. (The following abstract of this article originally appeared in record 1969-09037-001.) Investigated certain assumptions derived from A. Ellis' theory relating implicit verbalization to emotional arousal. Emotional responses (GSR and respiration changes) of 18 undergraduates instructed to silently read sequences of affectively loaded sentences were compared with those of 9 Ss who read neutral sentences. The relationship between relevance to S of the content of the sentences and level of emotional response was investigated, as was the effect of sentence type (observation, inference, or evaluative conclusion) on level of emotional response. Results were that Ss showed a significantly greater response to affectively loaded than to neutral sentences on 2 out of 3 responses measures. Neither relevance nor sentence type were found to have any significant effect. Results were interpreted as offering only partial support for the theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"When are social judgments made? Evidence for the spontaneousness of trait inferences": Correction to Winter and Uleman.

Reports an error in "When are social judgments made? Evidence for the spontaneousness of trait inferences" by Laraine Winter and James S. Uleman (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1984[Aug], Vol 47[2], 237-252). There are errors in the labeling of Figure 1 on p. 244. The ordinate percentages should be three times greater than indicated. In addition, the algebraic formula in the note for Table 2 on p. 245 is incorrect. The correct ordinate percentages and the correct algebraic formula are provided in the erratum. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 1985-01259-001.) Adapted E. Tulving and D. M. Thomson's (see record 2005-09647-002) encoding specificity paradigm for 2 recall experiments with 153 undergraduates to investigate whether Ss would make trait inferences without intentions or instructions at the encoding stage of processing behavioral information. Under memory instructions only, Ss read sentences describing people performing actions that implied traits. Later, Ss recalled each sentence under 1 of 3 cuing conditions: a dispositional cue (e.g., generous); a strong, nondispositional semantic associate to an important sentence word; or no cue. Results show that recall was best when cued by the disposition words. Ss were unaware of having made trait inferences. Interpreted in terms of encoding specificity, findings indicate that Ss unintentionally made trait inferences at encoding. It is suggested that attributions are made spontaneously, as part of the routine comprehension of social events. (39 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Empathy and ego development": Correction.

Reports an error in the original article by A. F. Carlozzi et al (Journal of Counseling Psychology, 1983[Jan], Vol 30[1], 113-116). A sentence was omitted on page 115. The missing sentence is provided. (The following abstract of this article originally appeared in record 1983-10448-001.) Examined the relationship between empathy and ego development to determine whether, as J. Loevinger (1976) suggested, empathy is characteristic of higher levels of ego development. 51 undergraduates (dormitory advisors) completed the Affective Sensitivity Scale (a measure of empathy) and the Loevinger Sentence Completion Test (a measure of ego development). Analysis of test scores indicated that Ss at higher levels of ego development (I-3/4 and above) had significantly higher empathy scores than did those at lower ego levels. Findings have implications for the selection and training of individuals to serve in counseling or quasi-counseling roles. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Social–Cognitive influences on change in aggression over time": Erratum.

Reports an error in the original article by S. K. Egan et al (Developmental Psychology, 1998 [Sep], Vol 34[5], 996–1006). On pages 1004–1005, the last sentence of the article should read as follows: "Given that we speculated that the effects of aversive treatment hinge crucially on factors such as timing and whether successful counterattacks occur, such observations, especially if supplemented with measures of social cognitions, might greatly enrich our understanding of how cognition and behavior jointly contribute to social development." The first line of text in the right-hand column on page 1005 should be deleted. (The following abstract of this article originally appeared in record 1998-10846-016.) This study examined whether social cognitions that have been assumed to influence aggression actually forecast change in aggressive habits over time. Participants were 189 3rd- through 7th-grade boys and girls; data on social cognitions and social behaviors were collected in the fall and spring of the school year. Aggression-encouraging cognitions assessed in the fall indeed promoted aggression over the school year, but such developments hinged critically on child sex and on initial (fall) levels of aggression and victimization. Results illustrate the principle that cognitions affect behavioral development mainly when the child's transactions with the social environment support the use of the cognitions as guides for behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"How automatic are social judgments?" Correction to Winter, Uleman, and Cunniff.

Reports an error in "How automatic are social judgments" by Laraine Winter, James S. Uleman and Cathryn Cunniff (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1985[Oct], Vol 49[4], 904-917). There are errors in the labeling of the ordinates of the figures. The correct labeling is provided in the erratum. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 1986-03720-001.) Adapted the encoding-specificity paradigm developed by D. Thomson and E. Tulving (see record 1971-03487-001) to test 3 operational indicants of automatism (absence of intention, of interference from other mental activity, and of awareness). Recruited for a digit-recall study, 95 undergraduate students read sentences describing actions during the retention interval of either an easy or a difficult digit-recall task. Later, sentence recall was cued by (a) disposition cues, (b) strong semantic associates to the sentence actor, or (c) words representing the gist of the sentence, or (d) sentence recall was not cued. Awareness was measured immediately after the last sentence was read. Disposition-cued recall was higher than (b) or (d) and was unaffected by digit recall difficulty. Awareness of making dispositional inferences was only weakly correlated with disposition-cued recall. Results suggest that disposition inferences occurred at encoding, without intention, without interference by differential drain on processing capacity, and with little awareness. Thus, making dispositional inferences seems to be largely, but not entirely, automatic. (50 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ease of segmenting two- or three-phoneme words in kindergarten: Rime cohesion and vowel salience?

The ability to segment phonemes in words is fundamental for learning to read and spell. In two experiments, kindergartners segmented 2- and 3-phoneme words in an oral task using blank markers. Children segmented vowel–consonant (VC) words (e.g., age) more easily than consonant–vowel (CV) words (e.g., me) and much more easily than consonant–vowel–consonant (CVC) words (e.g., same). The greater ease of segmenting VC over CV words is attributed to the salience of vowels in initial position. The rime-cohesion hypothesis predicted segmentation performance with CVC but not with CV and VC words, indicating that rimes are a structural property of 3- but not 2-phoneme words. A practical implication is that instruction in phoneme segmentation should begin with 2-phoneme words before 3-phoneme words are taught. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Sound localization acuity in very young infants: An observer-based testing procedure": Correction.

Reports an error in the original article by B. A. Morrongiello et al (Developmental Psychology, 1990[Jan], Vol 26[1], 75–84). Corrections are made to the sentence beginning on Page 78, Column 2, Line 12 and to the text at the bottom of Page 80, Column 2, 4 lines from the bottom. (The following abstract of this article originally appeared in record 1990-11976-001.) Infants 8 to 28 weeks of age were tested to determine the smallest sound shift off midline and along the horizontal axis that could be reliably discriminated, that is, minimum audible angle. Both sound-shift and no-shift trials were presented. For each trial, an observer decided, based solely on the infant's behavior, whether the sound shifted location (i.e., an observer-based yes–no task). To isolate sensory from nonsensory factors, analyses were performed on d′ scores. The results indicated increasing localization acuity with age. The video records revealed numerous auditory orienting behaviors (e.g., alerting, quieting, and lateral head and eye movements) and highlighted the value of not requiring that specific behavioral responses be performed on sound-shift trials. Possible factors contributing to these developmental trends are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Stimulus Selection in Eyelid Conditioning in the Rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus)": Erratum.

Reports an error in the original article by Perry S. Kinkaide (Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 1974[Jun], 86[6], 1132-1140). The lower portion of Figure 3 on page 1138 should have represented the last two conditions for Group T as Test AV and reTest AV. The last sentence of the caption should have been deleted. (The following abstract of this article originally appeared in record 1979-05368-001) Conducted 2 experiments, using a total of 24 female New Zealand white rabbits, in which a "visual" stimulus (V), either flashes or electrical stimulation of the optic chiasma, was reinforced in compound with a differentially reinforced (CS+) or nonreinforced (CS-) nonvisual stimulus. Visual stimulus control of conditioned eyeblink activity was acquired if V was reinforced in compound with CS- but was "blocked" when reinforced in compound with CS+. Both effects were demonstrable within Ss and were independent of the method of visual stimulation. Extinction and backward conditioning of chiasmic stimulation preceded retraining of 6 Ss. The establishment and blocking of visual stimulus control were again evident within Ss. The data are interpretable in terms of either attentional or associative theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Young children's imitation of sentence subjects: Evidence of processing limitations.

Elicited imitation was used to determine whether young children's inconsistent production of sentence subjects was due to limitations in their knowledge of English or in their ability to access and use that knowledge. Nineteen young children (age range = 1 year 10 months to 2 years 8 months; Mean Length of Utterance [MLU] range = 1.28 to 4.93) repeated sentences that varied in length, structure, and type of subject. A competence-deficit hypothesis would predict that children below MLU 3 would differentially omit expletive subjects and subjects preceded by a discourse topic more often than children above MLU 3. That hypothesis was disconfirmed. A performance-deficit hypothesis would predict that children below MLU 3 would omit more subjects from long sentences than short ones, and that the high-MLU children would not show a length effect. That hypothesis was confirmed. Processing limitations, rather than a defective grammar, explain very young children's absent subjects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Recognition-by-components: A theory of human image understanding": Clarification.

Reports that an article by I. Biederman published in Psychological Review, 1987[Apr], Vol 94[2], 115–217) was inadvertently a duplicate publication. A large portion of this article had previously appeared as unedited conference proceedings in another journal and in an edited book. (The following abstract of this article originally appeared in record 1987-20898-001.) The perceptual recognition of objects is conceptualized to be a process in which the image of the input is segmented at regions of deep concavity into an arrangement of simple geometric components. The fundamental assumption of the proposed theory, recognition-by-components (RBC), is that a modest set of generalized-cone components, called geons, can be derived from contrasts of five readily detectable properties of edges in a two-dimensional image. The detection of these properties is generally invariant over viewing position and image quality and consequently allows robust object perception when the image is projected from a novel viewpoint or is degraded. RBC thus provides a principled account of the heretofore undecided relation between the classic principles of perceptual organization and pattern recognition. The results from experiments on the perception of briefly presented pictures by human observers provide empirical support for the theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Predictive validity of the Addiction Severity Index's composite scores in the assessment of 2-year outcomes in a methadone maintenance population": Erratum.

Reports several errors in the original article by G. B. Bovasso et al (Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 2001, Vol 15[3], 171-176). On p. 172, cocaine prevalence should have been reported as 67%, and the prevalence rate should have been reported as not exceeding 9% for lifetime bipolar disorder, panic disorder, agoraphobia, simple phobia, and social phobia. On p. 173, the treatment dropout rate should have been reported as 48%. In the first sentence of the Alcohol Problems section of the Results, the N for the logistic regression analysis of negative drug outcomes should be 283. On p. 174, the number of Ss reporting alcohol intoxication was reported as both 61 and 104; 104 is correct. In Table 3, the entries for the Drug Composite Scores (CS) were incorrect; the corrected table is provided. On p. 175, in the first sentence of the Legal Problems section, the p value of the chi square for the association of the Legal CS and criminal charges rounded to .01, not .001. Also, the last two lines of the Threshold Manipulation section are incorrect; the correct sentences are provided. (The abstract of this article originally appeared in record 2001-18100-001.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development of the concept of truth-functional negation.

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 22(1) of Developmental Psychology (see record 2008-10957-001). In the article, several key words were omitted from the last sentence of the Method section on page 464, column 2, third paragraph. The corrected sentence is included in the erratum.] Studied the development of the concept of truth-functional negation in 2 experiments, using 36 English-speaking children (aged 3–6 yrs) and 10 Korean-speaking children (aged 4–5 yrs) as Ss. In Exp I, English-speaking Ss were given a sentence-variation task in which the following 4 sentence types were used to describe 36 pictures of common items: true affirmative, false affirmative, true negative (TN), and false negative. The results show that a majority of Ss under 5 yrs had difficulty with negative sentences, particularly TN sentences, indicating a lack of explicit understanding of truth-functional negation as defined in logic. In Exp II, a cross-linguistic replication of Exp I was attempted with Korean-speaking Ss. Despite some cross-linguistic differences in the negation system, the Korean-speaking Ss showed essentially the same pattern of results, suggesting that the development in question proceeds within the general limit set by the general cognitive development. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Effects of Peer-Assisted Sentence-Combining Instruction on the Writing Performance of More and Less Skilled Young Writers.

Mastering sentence-construction skills is essential to learning to write. Limited sentence-construction skills may hinder a writer's ability to translate ideas into text. It may also inhibit or interfere with other composing processes, as developing writers must devote considerable cognitive effort to sentence construction. The authors examined whether instruction designed to improve sentence-construction skills was beneficial for more and less skilled 4th-grade writers. In comparison with peers receiving grammar instruction, students in the experimental treatment condition became more adept at combining simpler sentences into more complex sentences. For the experimental students, the sentence-combining skills produced improved story writing as well as the use of these skills when revising. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An eye movement analysis of topic-shift effect during repeated reading.

This study replicated previous reading time studies that have observed increased reading times for sentences introducing a new subtopic in a text, compared with sentences that are continuations of a subtopic. This topic-shift effect was obtained for the initial reading but not when the same text was reread. The absence of topic-shift effect was taken to suggest that readers construct a mental representation of the text's topic structure during the initial reading. The topic-shift effect was primarily due to regressive fixations, which tended to land in the first half of sentences. Regressions were typically launched at the end of sentences, with topic-shift sentences also well before the sentence end was reached. These findings are interpreted as evidence for the integrative nature of regressive fixations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reading processes during syntactic analysis and reanalysis.

Conducted 2 experiments to examine the processing of garden path sentences such as While the boy scratched the dog yawned loudly. The ambiguous phrase of such sentences was varied, and the task of the 64 undergraduates was to read each sentence while their eye movements were monitored and then judge whether the sentence was grammatical. Early closure sentences were judged grammatical less often than were late closure sentences. Sentences with a long ambiguous phrase were judged grammatical less often than were those with a short ambiguous phrase. Reading times were shorter for sentences with a long ambiguous phrase. The latter finding reflects Ss' tendency to read more quickly as they proceed through a sentence. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)