Choosing sides: The left and right of the normal brain.

One view of brain organization holds that the left cerebral hemisphere controls language processes, while the right hemisphere deals with various nonverbal activities such as visuospatial tasks. It is argued that a substantial proportion of the population deviates from this modal model, and that the investigation of individual differences in brain organization through careful studies of neurologically intact Ss is critical to the understanding of cerebral function. Deviations from the modal model are seen as normal and genetically determined, rather than pathological in origin. It is suggested that different functions, such as handedness, language, and visuospatial ability, are lateralized by relatively independent mechanisms, and therefore can be dissociated. Evidence for a positive relation between brain lateralization and cognitive ability is presented. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The changing face of the CPA Annual Meeting: 1960–1980.

Documented changes in the Canadian Psychology Association's annual conventions over the period 1960–1980 by feeding information from convention programs into a database and analyzing the results. It was found that the average number of papers presented at the meeting grew from 75 to 400, there was a decrease in the number of papers on experimental psychology and an increase in papers on developmental and social psychology, and that the proportion of papers given by women and given in French has remained relatively stable at 20 and 5%, respectively. (French abstract) (2 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)