Location dominance in attending to color and shape.

Investigated in 4 experiments whether Ss direct attention to stimulus location when attempting to attend to its color or shape. In the 1st 2 experiments, a given property (location, color, or shape) of a letter cue instructed Ss whether to report any letters from a subsequent display. Regardless of which property was relevant, Ss reported letters adjacent to the cue and not those similar to its color or shape. In the last 2 experiments, the varied location of a cue was irrelevant to the task, whereas its varied color instructed Ss to report a letter in a given location or of a given shape. Targets adjacent to the cue were reported faster than those remote from the cue. The results suggest that attempting to attend to any aspect of a stimulus entails directing attention to location. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Idiodynamic sets as determinants of children's false recognition errors.

Reports 2 experiments in which the object-referent and dimension-referent response sets identified from the word association data of children were used to investigate the basis for false recognition errors by kindergartners and by 2nd and 6th grade Ss (n = 32 each). Word association data from these Ss were consistent with previous findings, validating the developmental changes in the dominant dimensions of associative organization. The false recognition data involving object-referent associations paralleled the word association data, but the results for dimension-referent associations did not. Instead, kindergartners made more errors to dimension-referent than to object-referent associates, and there was a significant decrease in the number of errors to both types of associates with increasing age. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development of children's understanding of the metalinguistic term word..

Designed 3 experiments to assess 24 preschool (mean age 64.63 mo), 24 1st-grade (mean age 76.25 mo), and 24 2nd grade (mean age 88.61 mo) children's understanding of the term word. A modified aural discrimination task was used in which Ss were required to discriminate word from nonword stimuli along only 1 dimension at a time. Exp I tested Ss' discrimination of words and sounds. Exp II examined word–phrase differentiation. Both of these experiments followed previous research in examining children's comprehension of the term word in relation to nouns. Exp III examined Ss' understanding of word with stimuli from a variety of form classes. Results indicate that Ss' word concepts have been underestimated in past research suggesting that young children lack an adequate word concept: although preschool Ss did not understand the term properly, by 1st grade word was understood. These experiments also show that Ss benefited from brief training in which they were taught to attach the metalinguistic label word to their developing concept of the word as a unit of spoken language. (38 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationships between word decoding speed, general name-retrieval ability, and reading progress in first-grade children.

A discrete-trial RT methodology was employed to measure the speed with which 22 skilled and less-skilled 1st grade readers named colors, pictures, numbers, letters, and words (Wide Range Achievement Test and the Stanford Early School Achievement Test). Words were the only stimulus type that skilled Ss named more rapidly. The equality of naming times for colors, pictures, and numbers suggests that a general name retrieval deficit, suggested by earlier studies of dyslexic Ss (M. B. Denekla and R. G. Rudel, see PA, Vol 59:1307; C. Spring and C. Capps, PA, Vol 53:7713), did not appear to be characteristic of less-skilled nondyslexic Ss. The marked word decoding speed difference, in conjunction with the lack of a letter naming difference between the 2 groups, supports previous research that has suggested that phonological analysis skills may be important determinants of early reading acquisition (R. M. Golinkoff, 1978; P. Rozin and L. R. Gleitman, 1977; and F. R. Vellutino, see record 1978-25485-001). (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children learning to use the telephone: Emergency and non-emergency calling.

Examined developmental differences in children's telephoning skills. Four girls and 4 boys from each of preschool, 1st, 3rd, and 5th grades were interviewed. Ss demonstrated how they would telephone a friend and an ambulance and how they would receive calls from a stranger and a friend. A general developmental trend was found for Grades 1, 3, and 5. Incoming calls were performed better than outgoing calls, but the gap decreased with increasing grade level. Preschool Ss performed as well as Ss in Grade 1. Children of all grades were generally knowledgeable about the technical procedures for contacting help in an emergency, but did not know what information was important and necessary to supply. 62.5% of Ss responded that parents were not home during the stranger call. Results support previous studies suggesting that children may lack the skills for stranger and emergency calling. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conservation level and category clustering.

Conducted 2 experiments with 180 elementary and junior high school students to test the hypothesis that category recall is related to the quantity conservation of mass, weight, and volume. The predicted association between conservation level and category recall was observed. In Exp I conservation level was varied with word lists. Main effects of both these variables on recall and category clustering scores appeared. Systematic developmental trends in clustering for the high- but not for the low-associative word list were revealed in post hoc analyses. In Exp II, the Ss' organizational bases were studied under a procedure in which the Ss were allowed first to study a stimulus word and then to select a syntagmatic, a paradigmatic, a category inclusive, or an unrelated response word as a mediator to help them remember the stimulus word. Analyses performed on response selections and response selections in relation to recall revealed that Ss who conserved volume showed the highest tendency to select category inclusive responses. It is suggested that more mature Ss are more likely both to select and use superordinate information as an encoding device. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Recognition of uncertainty in emotional inferences: Reasoning about emotionally equivocal situations.

Three experiments investigated children's and adults' understanding of the uncertainty inherent in emotionally equivocal situations (i.e., situations that commonly elicit different feelings in different people). Students in 1st grade, 3rd grade, 6th grade, and college heard scenarios in which a peer experienced an emotionally equivocal or unequivocal event. Children, and to some degree adults, were overconfident about how individuals felt in equivocal situations. The tendency to acknowledge only 1 emotional possibility appeared to reflect difficulty in recognizing the plausibility of alternatives. Neither prompting children to give greater consideration to alternatives nor reminding them of the existence of individual differences produced greater discrimination between equivocal and unequivocal situations. In contrast, children recognized uncertainty when there was variability in the situation or within the individual. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationship of rapid naming ability and language analysis skills to kindergarten and first-grade reading achievement.

34 kindergartners and 34 1st graders completed a series of measures including the McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities and the WRAT. Language analysis tasks (segmentation and rhyming) and rapid automatized naming tasks (objects, colors, and letters) were found to tap different components of linguistic processing in both kindergarten and 1st-grade Ss. In kindergarten, rapid naming of colors was significantly related to 5 of 6 reading measures, whereas rapid naming of objects, syllable segmentation, and rhyming were related to at least 3 of the 6. In the 1st grade, rapid naming of letters and phoneme segmentation were significantly related to all 3 measures of 1st-grade reading achievement. Ss who could analyze letter names (as indicated by speed on the letter naming task) were more likely to be among the better readers at the end of the 1st grade. (66 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reasoning and secondary reinforcement in 6–7-year-olds and 10–11-year-olds.

Conducted 2 experiments to investigate the 1st author's cognitive theory of secondary reinforcement effects, which predicts that Ss of a preoperational age (i.e., younger than 7 yrs) should not necessarily learn responses followed by a stimulus object previously instrumental in obtaining a reward, while Ss of a postoperational age should do so. Using 24 1st and 24 5th graders in 2 learning tasks, the prediction was confirmed. Furthermore, verbal responses indicated that the logical operations that presumably influenced the behavior of the older children actually did occur. In Exp II, using 28 2nd and 15 6th graders, the training task was simplified in order to try to facilitate logical reasoning, but the behavior of the younger Ss was not affected. It is concluded that secondary reinforcement of a stimulus–response associative type has yet to be demonstrated, and that secondary reinforcement of a cognitive type is heavily dependent on reasoning ability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Measuring the strength, structure, and reliability of free associations.

Criticizes current associative measures of word relatedness for being insufficiently versatile and for having inadequate statistical justification. This criticism is extended to a widely used measure, the mutual frequency score, which has been held to be based on the product-moment correlation. Measures of the reliability of free association are criticized on a similar basis. The reliability of free associations has typically been measured as the tendency of Ss to respond consistently on retesting. It is argued that the stability of the distribution of associations to a given stimulus, regardless of the behavior of individual Ss, is of greater interest and application. An association measure based on the product-moment correlation, and appropriate for measuring both word relatedness and the reliability of associations, is described. The prediction of free recall and the measurement of reliability in a study with 283 undergraduates is summarized. (34 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Memorization processes involved in performance on the Visual-Sequential Memory subtest of the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities.

Two studies investigated memory processes involved in performance on the Visual-Sequential Memory subtest of the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities. In the 1st study, 64 2nd and 4th graders were administered this subtest under standard conditions. Ss were designated as either "labelers" or "nonlabelers" according to whether they used a stimulus labeling strategy to aid recall. Differences in performance between 2nd and 4th graders could be accounted for almost entirely in terms of the greater number of labelers in the 4th grade. In the 2nd study, labelers and nonlabelers from Exp I at each grade level were formally trained to use a labeling strategy. The training resulted in improved performance for all Ss. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Associative intrusions in schizophrenic verbal behavior.

Developed 2 multiple-choice vocabulary subtests in which the items of 1 subtest contained associates to the stimulus word as incorrect alternatives, while the items of the other subtest contained no associative distractors. Using a standardization sample of normal Ss (65 firemen with average IQ and 27 prison inmates with below-average IQ), the subtests were matched on coefficient alpha, mean, variance of item difficulty, and shape of the distribution of item difficulty. The subtests were then given to 42 chronic schizophrenics. Results reveal that schizophrenics, unlike normal Ss, showed a significantly greater deficit on the with-associates subtest than on the no-associates subtest. This finding demonstrates heightened susceptibility to associative distraction in schizophrenia, without the possible artifact of generalized deficit coupled with differential discriminating power of tests. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Pictorial mnemonics for phonics.

Evaluated whether picture mnemonics help prereaders learn letter–sound associations in 2 experiments with 20 1st graders (Exp I), 30 preschoolers, and kindergartners (Exp II). Pictures integrating the associations were compared with disassociated pictures and with a no-picture control condition. Ss in the integrated-picture group learned 5 letter-sound associations (e.g., f, /f/), each represented by a picture whose shape included the letter (e.g., letter f drawn as the stem of a flower) and whose name (flower) began with the letter's sound. Ss in the disassociated-picture group learned letter–sound associations with pictures having the same names as the integrated pictures, but drawn differently—without letter shapes. Ss in the control group learned associations with picture names but no pictures. Prior to letter–sound training, all groups were taught how to segment the initial sounds of the picture names. Results reveal that Ss taught with integrated mnemonics learned more letter–sound associations and also more letter–picture associations than did the other 2 groups, which did not differ. Integrated pictures were effective because they linked 2 otherwise unconnected items in memory. It is concluded that the shape of letters included in pictures reminded learners of previously seen pictures with those shapes whose names began with the relevant letter sounds. (33 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Variables affecting stimulus fading and discriminative responding in psychotic children.

Overselective attention in autistic children has proven detrimental to learning when prompt-fading techniques are used, as autistics often respond exclusively to the prompt (the extra guiding stimulus) and fail to learn about the training stimuli. Exp I investigated stimulus variables in prompt fading that might reduce the attentional requirements for discrimination learning. Ss were 8 institutionalized autistic children, each of whom was either mute or echolalic, with minimal intelligible verbal behavior. Two variables were assessed: distinctive vs nondistinctive feature fading, which signified whether a prompt was a feature contained only in the positive stimulus (S+) or contained both in S+ and in the negative stimulus, and within- vs extrastimulus fading, which signified whether the prompt was superimposed on S+ during fading or presented spatially separate from S+. Significant main effects were found for both variables, due to the success of the within-stimulus and the distinctive feature conditions; the combination of within-stimulus and distinctive feature fading was the most effective procedure. Exp II was conducted with the same Ss to assess whether they were still responding only to that pretrained feature after fading. Results show that discriminative responding was maintained when the pretrained feature was made irrelevant, showing that Ss attended to multiple features of S+, but that it was disrupted when the whole letter containing the pretrained feature was made irrelevant, showing that Ss still learned a restricted portion of the S+ word. (48 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Active and passive touch at four age levels.

Active touch, passive touch with a moving object, and passive touch with a still object were examined developmentally with 192 Ss in the 1st, 3rd, and 5th grades, and college. The stimulus objects were 10 geometric forms. Active touch and passive touch with a moving object were found not to differ significantly, and both were more accurate than passive touch with a still object. All comparisons were made with the palm of the hand. Developmental improvement of a gradual nature was found from the 1st grade through college, except for the condition of passive touch with a still object which showed no improvement between 1st and 5th grades, but more accurate performance at the college level. Developmental and touch mode differences were found with some of the 10 geometric objects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Forced-choice word associations in schizophrenia.

This study, based on Freudian theory, used a forced-choice word association format to test the hypothesis that regressed schizophrenic Ss would prefer children's to adult's association. 16 schizophrenic, 16 sociopathic, and 16 normal male patients matched for age and education were tested on a 51-item test in which they were forced to choose their associations from among randomly arranged adult preferred, children preferred, and irrelevant alternatives. Using choice of children's responses minus choice of irrelevant response as a measure to control for random error markings, schizophrenic Ss differed significantly from normal Ss as predicted. Normal and sociopathic Ss did not differ. Sociopathic and schizophrenic Ss differed at p     

Basic processes in reading: Two phonological codes.

In Exp I, 16 undergraduates viewed letter strings that varied in phonological similarity and lexical status. Under a no-interference condition, phonologically distinct lists were better recalled than phonologically confusable ones, and lists with entries in a phonological lexicon (e.g., BRANE) were better recalled than lists without lexical status (e.g., SLINT). When Ss were required to articulate irrelevant sounds, the phonological similarity effect was completely eliminated, but a lexicality effect persisted. In Exp II, another 16 Ss viewed letter strings that varied in syllabic length and lexical status. Pseudohomophones were better recalled than control nonwords under both quiet and articulation conditions, but a syllabic length effect was obtained only in the no-articulation condition. Results show that at least 2 phonological codes underlie performance in a memory-span task. The 1st code permits lexical access from print; suppression does not prevent this code from accessing lexical memory. The 2nd underlies both word length and phonological similarity effects in span; suppression prevents the formation or utilization of this code. Implications for understanding normal reading and developmental reading problems are noted. (French abstract) (41 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effect of a subliminal food stimulus on verbal responses.

To what extent can subliminal stimulation be used to influence human behavior? This study involving 105 college freshmen attempts to isolate and study a few of the possible variables. "The experimental group saw a classroom movie with the word 'beef' superimposed in flashes of –1??? of a second every seven seconds; the control group just saw the movie. It was found that, compared to the control Ss, the experimental Ss (a) did not show increased verbal references to the stimulus word; (b) did not choose the stimulus object in a multiple choice situation (though sex differences were significant); but (c) did rate themselves significantly more hungry. It was also found that hours of food deprivation did not influence any of these relationships. 15 refs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Increased attention to the irrelevant dimension increases interference in a spatial Stroop task.

In a spatial Stroop task, it is argued that interference (ITF) results because selective attention is only partially successful. If so, increasing attention to the word should increase ITF. Three experiments, with 88 undergraduates, used the position words above, below, left, and right in incompatible positions to the left, right, or below a fixation point. Exp 1 showed increased ITF with position naming when Ss must be prepared to attend to either the word or its position. Exp 2 required Ss to first name the position of the word and then recall which word had been presented. This resulted in increased ITF with position naming when the word was followed at a short stimulus onset asynchrony by a pattern mask. Exp 3 employed both word reading and position naming and showed that a large reverse Stroop effect occurred with both vocal and manual responses when Ss were prepared to attend to either dimension of the stimulus. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Does attention affect visual feature integration?

Investigated whether (1) the integration of color and shape information is affected by attending to the stimulus location and (2) attending to a stimulus location enhances the perceptual representation of the stimulus or merely affects decision processes. In 3 experiments with 39 Ss (aged 16–38 yrs), Ss were briefly presented with colored letters. On most trials, Ss were precued to the stimulus location (valid cue); on some trials, a nonstimulus location was cued (invalid cue). Ss were less likely to combine colors and letter shapes incorrectly following a valid cue. The attentional facilitation afforded by the cue was not limited to feature integration but also affected the registration of features; however, when the amount of feature information was strictly controlled, attention still affected feature integration. It is suggested that orienting attention to the location of the cue affects the quality of the perceptual representation for features and their integration. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)