Semantic generalization in French and English bilinguals.

In order to examine between-language generalization (BLG), eight two-syllable French and English words were presented, with half of the words in each language paired with shock. After this conditioning procedure shock was withheld and one translated equivalent of each word was presented. GSRs, digital and cephalic vasomotor activity were recorded. Responses to the translations of the words paired with shock were greater than to the translations of the neutral words. The results were accepted as an illustration of BLG and were discussed in relation to the dynamics of semantic systems and bilingual typing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Semantic generalization of classically conditioned responses: A review.

25 experiments on semantic generalization of classically conditioned responses are reviewed. Several major methodological inadequacies are discussed. These included frequent failure to convincingly demonstrate conditioning, failure to distinguish between generalization effects and extinction effects, and failure to control for simultaneous conditioning to the generalization stimuli. 2 alternative inferred mechanisms of generalization are discussed. While mediation by common responses is not strongly supported by evidence, there is suggestive evidence of the importance of Ss' categorizing generalization stimuli as similar to the conditioned stimuli, as evidenced by Ss' reported expectation of reinforcement. (50 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stimulus generalization and schizophrenia.

Paranoid and nonparanoid schizophrenics, on and off drugs, were compared with medical inpatients for stimulus-generalization responsivity. The stimuli were lines differing in length, and the response alternatives differed in amplitude. There were no significant differences in gradients of stimulus generalization among the groups. This finding opposes Mednick's original anxiety-drive theory of schizophrenia, especially his assumption that schizophrenics overgeneralize. The finding does not oppose Mednick's amended theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Distortions in the gradient of stimulus generalization related to cortical brain damage and schizophrenia.

Measurement of the gradient of stimulus generalization (GSG) of 60 schizophrenics (S group), 60 medical control patients (C group), and 60 patients with cortical brain damage (O group), by means of an apparatus consisting of a panel of 11 lamps placed in an arc around the subject, showed: "(1) The GSG for both the C and S groups is considerably more elevated than that of the control group (O group). (2) The differences between the S and C groups, while in the main in the predicted direction, are not conclusive. (3) Damage to the cortex of the dominant hemisphere results in considerably more diminution of the elevation of the GSG than damage to the cortex of the non-dominant hemisphere. (4) The number of EST's received by patients in the S group was found to vary inversely with the degree of SG responsivity; but in view of the limitations of the data, no conclusions were drawn." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Learning theory and schizophrenia: A comment.

In a recent paper by Mednick (see 33: 10749), concerned with a learning theory explanation of schizophrenia, some confusion with respect to the use of the concept "generalization" exists. Pointing out the inconsistencies, it is suggested that further theoretical articulation is required. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Studies of brain dysfunction in schizophrenia.

The purpose of this paper is to bring to the attention of the psychologist the extensive research literature concerned with the physiological correlates of behavior. Research concerned with the electroencephalographic, histopathological, and biochemical analysis of schizophrenics receives concentrated attention. The review also includes "several psychological and physiological studies which focus specifically on the question of brain disorder in schizophrenia." The studies made within the last twenty to twenty-five years are included. 81-item bibliography. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Semantic Organization and Verbal Memory Efficiency in Patients With Schizophrenia.

The role of semantic organization in verbal memory efficiency in schizophrenia was investigated. Patients and healthy controls were administered a free-recall task involving 1 nonsemantically organizable list, 1 list organizable in semantic categories with typical instances, and 1 list organizable in semantic categories with atypical instances. Reduced semantic organization was observed in patients. Regression analyses showed that the semantic clustering score in the atypical organizable list made a significant contribution to recall performance in patients. When semantic clustering was controlled, the effect of diagnosis on free recall was significant. These results suggest that depth of semantic organization is a crucial factor of verbal memory performance in schizophrenia. However, semantic organizational deficit does not account for the whole recall impairment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stimulus generalization as a function of clinical anxiety and direction of generalization.

"This experiment studied stimulus generalization in psychiatric patients as a function of direction of generalization and clinical anxiety. It was found that direction of generalization along the height continuum did not significantly affect the gradient of stimulus generalization. Level of clinical anxiety, as measured by the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale, also did not significantly affect the gradient of stimulus generalization. The validity of the Taylor scale with psychiatric patients was discussed briefly." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stimulus generalization.

An elaboration and criticism of the immense literature (127 titles) covering the subject. The definition is: when a response, previously trained to be elicited, can also be elicited by test stimuli similar, though with a gradient physically determined. Of course, the response might then also be generalized. Stimulations mentioned are tactual space, light intensity, time, pitch in hearing, loudness, seen angles and other drawings, "drive" intensified by drugs, etc. Theories distinguish irradiation in the cortex and irradiation over neural pathways. Historically, neural science does not seem to be quite ripe for theorizing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ethnocentrism and stimulus generalization: A replication and further study.

Data were previously reported giving "support to the hypothesis that ethnocentrism represents an 'overgeneralization phenomena.' " In a study of 60 female student nurses, aged 18 through 22, who were given the MMPI, the CVS Intelligence Scale, and the California Ethnocentrism Scale as well as two stimulus generalization (SG) tasks, significant correlations were not found between E Scale scores and total error scores on each stimulus generalization task. Previous positive finding "must therefore probably be attributed to chance. While present results do not preclude the possibility that ethnocentrism is related to overgeneralization in thinking, the functions involved in performance on the tasks investigated do not appear to be on the same psychological continuum." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ethnocentrism and stimulus generalization.

"This study is an attempt to demonstrate that ethnocentrism is related to an 'over-generalization process' as has been postulated by various authors. The performance of a group of student nurses on a stimulus-generalization task was correlated with their scores on the California E scale yielding a significant μ = .44. Some possible theoretical implications are discussed and mention is made of further research which is in progress." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

New Semantic Learning and Generalization in a Patient With Amnesia.

New learning of semantic information is impaired in amnesia. Several reports have demonstrated that "errorless" learning techniques have allowed patients with amnesia to acquire at least some form of new semantic information, although this information appears to be relatively inflexible. Using insights and principles from connectionist modeling of cortical and medial temporal lobe memory systems, the authors describe why errorless learning procedures act as a poor proxy for the medial temporal lobe, suggesting that they artificially eliminate the variability that defines semantic information. The authors trained a patient with severe amnesia on new semantic sentences both with and without variance and then tested him on both repeated and related novel sentences to assess generalization. He successfully learned new semantic information in both conditions but demonstrated better generalization of semantic concepts following training with variance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Failing to Get the Gist: Reduced False Recognition of Semantic Associates in Semantic Dementia.

In 2 experiments involving patients with semantic dementia, the authors investigated the impact of semantic memory loss on both true and false recognition. Experiment 1 involved recognition memory for categories of everyday objects that shared a predominantly semantic relationship. The patients showed preserved item-specific recollection for the pictorial stimuli but, compared with control participants, exhibited significantly reduced utilization of gist information regarding the categories of objects. The latter result is consistent with the patients' degraded semantic knowledge. Experiment 2 involved categories of abstract objects that were related to one another perceptually rather than semantically. Patients with semantic dementia obtained item-specific recollection and gist memory scores that were indistinguishable from those of control participants. These results suggest that the reduction in gist memory in semantic dementia is largely specific to semantic representations and cannot be attributed to general difficulty with abstracting and/or utilizing gistlike commonalities between stimuli. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The generalization of expectancies.

To test the proposition that generalization of expectancy changes occurs along a dimension of learned-goal similarity, a level-of-aspiration paradigm was utilized. The results were dealt with in terms of proportion of Ss who changed their expectancies on three generalization tasks (which varied in goal-relatedness to a control task by decreasing amounts) after experiencing success or failure on the control task. The data supported the hypothesis and indicated that the three tasks were significantly different from each other in relative position along the dimension of goal similarity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Time estimation in process-reactive schizophrenia.

Process and reactive schizophrenics, and reactive schizophrenics and normals were compared as to their responses on a perceptual time-estimation task. Null hypotheses being tested were that groups would not differ in variability or accuracy of response. Schizophrenic (45) and normal (15) subjects were selected from the male patient population and hospital employees, respectively, of a Veteran's Administration hospital. Schizophrenics selected for the study were classified by means of the Abbreviated Becker Elgin Scale. Subjects were individually administered a time-estimation task consisting of seven stimulus cards which were tachistoscopically presented, with exposure speeds at 10, 20, and 30 seconds for each card. Judgments of exposure times were converted into scores based upon ratios of estimated time to actual time. Scores (three) for each card were totaled. Groups were then compared on each of the stimulus cards by means of two-tailed t tests. In accuracy of estimation, process schizophrenics demonstrated significantly less accuracy than did reactives on four of the seven cards; no differences were shown between reactives and normals in accuracy of estimation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A new theory of schizophrenia.

Atheory of schizophrenia is presented by a patient on a closed ward of a VA hospital with a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia. "My view is that the schizophrenic has adopted semi-instinctive, insincere strategems in order to escape punishment, one of them being withdrawal from intimacy—which isolation causes a libidinal starvation resulting in an involuntary, neurotic-type outbreak of symptoms based on unconscious, pregenital (perverted libidinal) drives… . He is a terrified, conscience-stricken crook, who has repressed his interest in people, unavowedly insincere and uncooperative, struggling against unconscious sexual perversion." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychological deficit in schizophrenia: II. Interference and activation.

The 2nd of 2 papers reviewing laboratory studies of psychological deficit in schizophrenia. This report first considers experiments on attention, set, and association. Research based on drive interpretation of deficit is then evaluated, followed by an assessment of psychophysiological studies of schizophrenia. 4 theories of deficit are discussed: social motivation, drive, arousal, and interference. It is suggested that a fundamental sensori-motor defect underlies psychological deficit in schizophrenia. A final section describes methodological problems raised by research reviewed in both papers. (7 p. ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Censure sensitivity in schizophrenia.

Hypotheses derived from the Rodnick-Garmezy theory of schizophrenic censure sensitivity were tested in a 3 Groups (Normals and Poor and Good Premorbid Schizophrenics) × 2 Sex (Man and Woman Parental Surrogate) factorial design. Predictions were tested both at predispositional (recollections of parental child-rearing attitudes and practices) and behavioral levels (susceptibility to social influence). The results at both levels failed to support the predictions of general schizophrenic hypersensitivity and differential schizophrenic sensitivity to sex according to the adequacy of premorbid adjustment. The general clinical theory of hyposensitivity was considered as an alternative but was also found to be inadequate. Reported parental dominance was unrelated to susceptibility to influence. Acquiescence response tendency was found to be highly related to reports of parental attitudes and to extent of social influence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Context-conditioned generalization in adaptation to distorted speech.

People were trained to decode noise-vocoded speech by hearing monosyllabic stimuli in distorted and unaltered forms. When later presented with different stimuli, listeners were able to successfully generalize their experience. However, generalization was modulated by the degree to which testing stimuli resembled training stimuli: Testing stimuli's consonants were easier to recognize when they had occurred in the same position at training, or flanked by the same vowel, than when they did not. Furthermore, greater generalization occurred when listeners had been trained on existing words than on nonsense strings. We propose that the process by which adult listeners learn to interpret distorted speech is akin to building phonological categories in one's native language, a process where categories and structure emerge from the words in the ambient language without completely abstracting from them. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)