A listener's investigation of printed word processing.

Examines the time course of lexical access in written-word recognition by comparing words with early and late uniqueness points (UPs). Three experiments, which used a normal (simultaneous) presentation of the letters under 3 different tasks (gender classification, naming, and semantic classification) provided no evidence for sequential processing. Rather, a small advantage in favor of words with late UP was found, which may be interpreted in terms of the lower n-gram frequencies of early-UP words. Exp 4 supported this interpretation and discussed an alternative interpretation in terms of parafoveal preview of the initial letters. A last experiment, which used an incremental presentation of the word letters, gave rise to a UP effect comparable in size to that obtained in an auditory study, suggesting that a temporal distribution of the signal is a sufficient condition for directional processing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Countercontrol treatment of sleep-maintenance insomnia in relation to age.

Administered countercontrol behavioral therapy for sleep-maintenance insomnia to 34 insomniacs (aged 35–78 yrs) in small groups. 22 Ss received immediate and 12 received delayed treatment. Three self-report measures of sleep disruption were collected on daily sleep diaries at baseline, termination of treatment, 1-mo follow-up, and 12-mo follow-up. Although amount of time awake at night was correlated with age, response to treatment was not. Even though older Ss experienced more time awake after sleep onset prior to treatment, they were able to profit from therapy as well as the younger insomniacs. Countercontrol therapy reduced the sleep complaint for the total group by about 30% at the end of treatment, with gradual improvement continuing through a 4-wk follow-up. It is suggested, however, that sleep-maintenance insomnia may be more difficult to treat than sleep-onset problems. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

MMPI and race: A controlled study.

A 4-way, mixed-model, repeated-measures ANOVA; 13 1-way, balanced-cell ANOVA; and chi-square analyses of scales, items, high-points, number of scales with T?≥?70, and 4 high-scale categories were performed on MMPI results of 462 Black and White psychiatric patients matched for sex, age, residence, employment, years of education, marital status, socioeconomic status, and hospital status. Contrary to what has been reported previously, results indicate no differences beyond chance for any of the dependent variables. This finding is attributed to unique initial matching on crucial variables. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychological factors in diabetes and its treatment.

Reviews the psychological factors of diabetes with respect to etiology, psychological impact and adjustment to the disease, family dynamics, and psychological programs to aid diabetes management. Stress appears to influence metabolism both directly and indirectly. Little evidence exists for a consistent pattern of traits that typifies diabetes or poor management of the disease. Several studies have shown diverse psychological problems related to diabetes, especially in the area of social problems and peer relationships among juveniles. A variety of psychological interventions may be helpful in the care of diabetes; however, none of these are conclusively useful. Research should clarify the role of stress and stress management and focus on psychological factors related to metabolic control. Treatment research needs careful specification of interventions and measurement of both behavioral and metabolic outcomes so that connections among them may be assessed. (97 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The time course of braille word recognition.

Skilled blind readers read French nouns with the uniqueness point in different locations, presented in unabbreviated braille, and either pronounced each item (Exp 1) or classified it as to gender (Exps 1–3). As in previous studies with spoken words, effects of uniqueness point location on recognition reaction time (RT) were taken as demonstrating on-line lexical access. For braille words, significant effects were obtained in Exp 1 in the 2 tasks. In Exp 2, blind Ss demonstrated comparable relative uniqueness point effects for gender classification of braille and of spoken words, showing that on-line lexical access is not specific to speech. Exp 3 showed that the effect of uniqueness point location is limited to the higher frequency words. Finally, mean finger scanning speed did not differ between the pre- and post-uniqueness point regions of the words. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Spatial effects in speech perception in the absence of spatial competition

Two synthetic speech syllables, differing in pitch, were presented over one loudspeaker situated at one of the following azimuths: 0 degrees (in from of the subject); 45 degrees, 90 degrees, and 135 degrees to the left or to the right; and 180 degrees. The subject's task was to report the high-pitch syllable. The pattern of performance can be described in terms of two component effects: a decreasing anterior-posterior gradient, and right-side advantage. Competition between messages from one direction only appears to be as effective in determining auditory spatial effects as competition between spatially distinct sources.