What Do Letter Migration Errors Reveal About Letter Position Coding in Visual Word Recognition?

Dividing attention across multiple words occasionally results in misidentifications whereby letters apparently migrate between words. Previous studies have found that letter migrations preserve within-word letter position, which has been interpreted as support for position-specific letter coding. To investigate this issue, the authors used word pairs like STEP and SOAP, in which a letter in 1 word could migrate to an adjacent letter in another word to form an illusory word (STOP). Three experiments show that both same-position and adjacent-position letter migrations can occur, as well as migrations that cross 2 letter positions. These results argue against position-specific letter coding schemes used in many computational models of reading, and they provide support for coding schemes based on relative rather than absolute letter position. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Applied Psychology in Action: Comment on Word Meaning.

Comments on "The non-directive approach in advertising appeals" by H. D. Hadley (1953) and the distinction between credibility and credulity in the text. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Social psychology in an era of social change": Comment.

Comments on "Social psychology in an era of social change" by K.E. Weick (American Psychologist, 1969, Vol. 24, 990-998). If I interpret Weick correctly, his understanding of the relevance of social psychology to the present era of social change will necessarily be fragmentary. To me the fragment he supplies is enlightening but represents "science as usual" in the face of the uniquely menacing quality of current social change. Domestic and international crises will multiply at an exponential rate if our attitude remains "science as usual." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Language and Psychodynamic Appraisal: A Development of the Word Association Method.

Reviews the book, Language and Psychodynamic Appraisal: A Development of the Word Association Method by J. D. Sutherland and H. S. Gill (1970). Jung used the word association method to uncover complexes and Sutherland and Gill recommend the use of the sentence association method. One hundred stimulus words were selected covering persons, relations, affective states and such words as school, dead, wound, and dark. The book presents a classification of responses and reports two validation studies, but more than half of it is concerned with reporting on eight individual cases. In these cases the authors give free reign to their clinical intuition in the psychoanalytically oriented interpretations of each and all responses. The clinical orientation of the authors is given away by one particular gem of a statement. This is that the test confirms that dependent, sexual and aggressive expressions are heightened during the early phases of treatment. The patients referred to in the early phases of treatment were, in fact, in their third or later year of treatment! This work does not develop but merely changes the word association method. Reading and working with individual responses is fun. No doubt, Sutherland and Gill thought they were doing methodological research such as is frequently reported in clinical journals, e.g. on the question whether one can get the same kind of information from sentence associations as from the interview. Yet, in terms of the criteria of applied science, the authors (i) do not produce any useful new knowledge, nor (ii) even attempt to demonstrate how they improve on any existing knowledge. Only a pure scientist may study association simply because it is there. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

企业设备管理信息系统编码设计

根据济钢的实际情况 ,参考宝钢设备编码原则 ,对单项设备、分部设备、设备监测、设备润滑、维修作业等信息的编码进行了规范 ,从而实现了设备管理全过程的有机联系 ,为设备管理过程的信息处理奠定了科学的基础。     

Monkey Tricks and Voodoo Psychology: Comment.

Comments on the article by Goodwin (American Psychologist, 1959, 14, 649-650) concerning the work of Harlow (1958). Goodwin's (1959, p. 649) claim that the unique feat of Harlow's research is that it is supposed to make possible the discovery of something about the biological basis of man's behavior without the "interference" of culture. Harlow's real feat, it seems to me, is that so many of us have come to accept blandly such a possibility when we ought to know better. Goodwin attributes Harlow's remarkable feat to the biological similarity between monkey and man. The biology which Goodwin defends is a pseudobiology; it is itself a kind of fetish whose spell reduces social science to a nonentity. The real purpose of my communication, however, is to defend the independent integrity of social science. Without independence and without the integrity to rule in its own field of competency, then social science is enthralled by every spurious application of technology to social phenomena. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Word length and lexical activation: Longer is better.

Many models of spoken word recognition posit the existence of lexical and sublexical representations, with excitatory and inhibitory mechanisms used to affect the activation levels of such representations. Bottom-up evidence provides excitatory input, and inhibition from phonetically similar representations leads to lexical competition. In such a system, long words should produce stronger lexical activation than short words, for 2 reasons: Long words provide more bottom-up evidence than short words, and short words are subject to greater inhibition due to the existence of more similar words. Four experiments provide evidence for this view. In addition, reaction-time-based partitioning of the data shows that long words generate greater activation that is available both earlier and for a longer time than is the case for short words. As a result, lexical influences on phoneme identification are extremely robust for long words but are quite fragile and condition-dependent for short words. Models of word recognition must consider words of all lengths to capture the true dynamics of lexical activation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Word recognition: From letters to meaning.

Reviews the book, Basic Processes in Reading Visual Word Recognition by Derek Besner and Glyn W. Humphreys (see record 1990-99017-000). While there has been an increase in the amount of work on many different aspects of reading, as Besner and Humphreys point out in the overview to their book, the vast majority of the research on the topic of reading in the past twenty years has been concerned with the processes involved in word recognition. For this reason, Besner and Humphreys have attempted to bring together studies on topics which are both relevant to current debates in the field of word recognition, and which are likely to be important for future developments in the field. They have compiled an edited volume consisting of their overview and eight additional chapters. The editors have attempted to span the continuum of processes involved in word recognition and thus have included chapters which cover topics ranging from the visual analysis of words, to those on the influence of semantic factors on word recognition. The authors of these chapters comprise an impressive list of researchers in the field of word recognition, with the majority of chapters being authored by leading researchers on the topic. Given the stature of the authors and the range of topics covered, in theory this volume should provide a very thorough overview of current theory and research on reading. There is no question that each of the chapters is interesting and important in its own right. However, in practice the volume as a whole fell somewhat short of my expectations. The different tacts taken by different authors has resulted in a very uneven coverage of the current debates in the field. Notwithstanding these criticisms, I am sure that the majority of researchers in this field will consider this volume to be an important contribution. The book would provide a very useful addition to graduate courses in cognitive sciences and as a supplemental text for an undergraduate course on the psychology of reading. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Reading Aloud: Evidence for the Use of a Whole Word Nonsemantic Pathway": Erratum.

Reports an error in "Reading aloud: Evidence for the use of a whole word nonsemantic pathway" by Lori Buchanan and Derek Besner (Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1993[Jun], Vol 47[2], 133-152). In Table 1, an author's error caused the digits in the Related-Unfamiliar condition to be transposed. The correct table is presented in this erratum. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 1994-04290-001.) Tested the assumptions that (1) only whole word orthographic knowledge can produce priming and (2) it is automatic. Two experiments with 20 adult Japanese readers were conducted in the context of reading Japanese Kana. Results show that, taken alone, neither the presence nor the absence of priming effects in oral reading permits an inference as to whether the addressed or assembled routine is used. Converging operations that do permit such an inference are reported. The data support the view that (1) components of the word recognition system operate interactively such that use of the assembled routine yields priming under certain conditions and (2) normal readers of a shallow orthography use a nonsemantic, whole-word pathway to name words. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Comment: On Legislation.

Letter comments on Sheila Pfafflin's rebuttal in the American Psychologist, (see record 2005-11488-004), regarding legislation for psychologists. The author states that Pfafflin's analogy to physicists and economists is fallacious, and does not apply to professional psychologists. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Word Association as a Function of Biodata Subgrouping.

Responses of 110 female college students from four subgroups with differing prior experiences as measured by a biographical questionnaire were evaluated for reaction time, commonality score, and idiodynamic response set on the Kent-Rosanoff Word Association Test. Hypotheses of differing subset verbal behaviors were based upon the research literature and upon anticipated group differences on scales of cultural-literary interest, maladjustment, social leadership, extraversion-introversion, and inhibition-impulsivity. Differences between groups were significant at the .01 level for both a multivariate discriminate analysis and for post hoc tests across all of the independent variables. Each group possessed a pattern of unique verbal abilities commensurate with differences in prior experiences. Cultural-literary interest and inhibition impulsivity were found to be important developmental dimensions in the differentiation of verbal behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Effect of Age of Acquisition in Visual Word Processing: Further Evidence for the Semantic Hypothesis.

The authors investigated whether the meaning of visually presented words is activated faster for early-acquired words than for late-acquired words. They addressed the issue using the semantic Simon paradigm. In this paradigm, participants are instructed to decide whether a stimulus word is printed in uppercase or lowercase letters. However, they have to respond with a verbal label ("living" or "nonliving") that is either congruent with the meaning of the word (e.g., saying "living" to the stimulus DOG) or incongruent (e.g., saying "nonliving" to the stimulus dog). Results showed a significant congruency effect that was stronger for early-acquired words than for late-acquired words. The authors conclude that the age of acquisition is an important variable in the activation of the meaning of visually presented words. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Word recognition and syntactic attachment in reading: Evidence for a staged architecture.

In 3 experiments, the author examined how readers' eye movements are influenced by joint manipulations of a word's frequency and the syntactic fit of the word in its context. In the critical conditions of the first 2 experiments, a high- or low-frequency verb was used to disambiguate a garden-path sentence, while in the last experiment, a high- or low-frequency verb constituted a phrase structure violation. The frequency manipulation always influenced the early eye movement measures of first-fixation duration and gaze duration. The context manipulation had a delayed effect in Experiment 1, influencing only the probability of a regressive eye movement from later in the sentence. However, the context manipulation influenced the same early eye movement measures as the frequency effect in Experiments 2 and 3, though there was no statistical interaction between the effects of these variables. The context manipulation also influenced the probability of a regressive eye movement from the verb, though the frequency manipulation did not. These results are shown to confirm predictions emerging from the serial, staged architecture for lexical and integrative processing of the E–Z Reader 10 model of eye movement control in reading (Reichle, Warren, & McConnell, 2009). It is argued, more generally, that the results provide an important constraint on how the relationship between visual word recognition and syntactic attachment is treated in processing models. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The low-frequency encoding disadvantage: Word frequency affects processing demands.

Low-frequency words produce more hits and fewer false alarms than high-frequency words in a recognition task. The low-frequency hit rate advantage has sometimes been attributed to processes that operate during the recognition test (e.g., L. M. Reder et al., 2000). When tasks other than recognition, such as recall, cued recall, or associative recognition, are used, the effects seem to contradict a low-frequency advantage in memory. Four experiments are presented to support the claim that in addition to the advantage of low-frequency words at retrieval, there is a low-frequency disadvantage during encoding. That is, low-frequency words require more processing resources to be encoded episodically than high-frequency words. Under encoding conditions in which processing resources are limited, low-frequency words show a larger decrement in recognition than high-frequency words. Also, studying items (pictures and words of varying frequencies) along with low-frequency words reduces performance for those stimuli. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Principles of Conventionality and Contrast in Word Learning: An Empirical Examination.

In Study 1, 4-year-olds avoided 2 names for an object when exposed to a common or a proper noun in a puppet's presence or to a common noun in a puppet's absence, but not when exposed to a proper noun in a puppet's absence. In Study 2, 3-year-olds avoided 2 names for an object when the requester for the referent of a second label in a different language was bilingual and present during naming, but not when the speaker was bilingual but absent or monolingual. Study 3 followed up on the results of the first 2 studies. When children could assume that the puppet knew the name the experimenter used, they inferred that the puppet's use of a different name implied a different referential intent. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Phonological Neighbors Speed Visual Word Processing: Evidence From Multiple Tasks.

The author investigated the role of phonological neighborhood on visual word recognition. Using a lexical decision task, the author showed in Experiment 1 that words with large phonological neighborhoods were processed more rapidly than those with smaller phonological neighborhoods. This facilitative effect was obtained even when the nonword fillers had the same number of phonological neighbors as the words. This finding indicates that phonological neighbors speed processing within the phonological system. In the next 2 experiments, this claim was further tested using the naming and semantic categorization tasks. In both experiments, the effect of phonological neighborhood was found to be facilitative. The results across all 3 experiments indicate that phonology is central to visual word recognition and that phonological neighborhood provides a reliable measure of phonological processing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Error Biases in Spoken Word Planning and Monitoring by Aphasic and Nonaphasic Speakers: Comment on Rapp and Goldrick (2000).

B. Rapp and M. Goldrick (2000) claimed that the lexical and mixed error biases in picture naming by aphasic and nonaphasic speakers argue against models that assume a feedforward-only relationship between lexical items and their sounds in spoken word production. The author contests this claim by showing that a feedforward-only model like WEAVER++ (W. J. M. Levelt, A. Roelofs, & A. S. Meyer, 1999b) exhibits the error biases in word planning and self-monitoring. Furthermore, it is argued that extant feedback accounts of the error biases and relevant chronometric effects are incompatible. WEAVER++ simulations with self-monitoring revealed that this model accounts for the chronometric data, the error biases, and the influence of the impairment locus in aphasic speakers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Classism is overrated: Comment.

Comments on "Psychotherapy, classism, and the poor: Conspicuous by their absence" by Laura Smith (see record 2005-11834-002). This article might have improved Smith's argument that prejudice and oppression (classism) are significant obstacles preventing the poor from receiving psychological services if she had presented evidence to substantiate her claim that "psychology has fallen short in its services" (p. 687) to the poor in the first place. In fact, there is reason to believe that psychotherapists are meeting the mental health needs of the poor in some areas of the country. In Maine, the poor are eligible for Medicaid, which allows for mental health benefits that are more generous in some cases than those provided by private insurance. In addition, the poor in southern Maine may take advantage of programs that pay for mental health services in ways that the middle class cannot. Many psychologists in Maine do provide mental health services to the poor. This is not to say that barriers do not exist or that the mental health needs of the poor are being met. However, I think it is fair to challenge the premise of Smith's (2005) article that the poor either are not being served or are being disproportionately served compared with the nonpoor. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Politics and Science: A Combustible Mixture. Comment.

Comments on the article by Crosby et al (see record 2003-03405-003) in which psychological research is brought to bear on an examination of the policy of affirmative action. In their article, Crosby and colleagues cite the current author's paper "The Role of Value in the World of Psychology" (1999; see record 1999-11644-004) to support their contention that "science can never be fully free of values". The current author states that Crosby and colleagues misinterpreted his position. Specifically, the author believes that the question of whether science is value-loaded or value-free is pointless because the scientific enterprise consists of a variety of independent activities. Discussion centers on the implications of the fact/value dichotomy, science and politics. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)