In most previous studies of verbal probabilities, participants are asked to translate expressions such as possible and not certain into numeric probability values. This probabilistic translation approach can be contrasted with a novel which-outcome (WO) approach that focuses on the outcomes that people naturally associate with probability terms. The WO approach has revealed that, when given bell-shaped distributions of quantitative outcomes, people tend to associate certainty with minimum (unlikely) outcome magnitudes and possibility with (unlikely) maximal ones. The purpose of the present paper is to test the factors that foster these effects and the conditions in which they apply. Experiment 1 showed that the association of probability term and outcome was related to the association of scalar modifiers (i.e., it is certain that the battery will last at least…, it is possible that the battery will last up to…). Further, we tested whether this pattern was dependent on the frequency (e.g., increasing vs. decreasing distribution) or the nature of the outcomes presented (i.e., categorical vs. continuous). Results showed that despite being slightly affected by the shape of the distribution, participants continue to prefer to associate possible with maximum outcomes and certain with minimum outcomes. The final experiment provided a boundary condition to the effect, showing that it applies to verbal but not numerical probabilities.

We investigated the contribution of visual imagination to the cognitive mapping of a building when initial exploration was simulated either visually by using a passive video walk-through, or mentally by using verbal guidance. Building layout had repeating elements with either rotational or mirror symmetry. Cognitive mapping of the virtual building, determined using questionnaires and map drawings, was present following verbal guidance but inferior to that following video guidance. Mapping was not affected by the building's structural symmetry. However, notably, it correlated with small-scale mental rotation scores for both video and verbal guidance conditions. There was no difference between males and females. A common factor that may have influenced cognitive mapping was the availability of visual information about the relationships of the building elements, either directly perceived (during the video walk-through) or imagined (during the verbal walk-through and/or during recall). Differences in visual imagination, particularly mental rotation, may thus account for some of the individual variance in cognitive mapping of complex built environments, which is relevant to how designers provide navigation-relevant information.

This study responded to a need for an updated set of film clips for the elicitation of emotion. Previous such stimuli are not only dated, but are limited in that they have been validated using participants from a narrow age range, which is problematic given conflicting reports regarding age differences in self-reported emotion elicited in a laboratory setting. The present study aimed to develop a new film stimulus set standardised on a wide age range of participants, while investigating age differences in self-reported emotion in response to film clips. An ancillary aim was to standardise film clips that were with and without dialogue. Two researchers composed a shortlist of 60 clips that were chosen to elicit six target emotions of amusement, anger, disgust, fear, happiness and sadness, as well as a neutral state. Each of the 109 participants (55 males, 54 females), aged between 18 and 88 years (M = 44.94) viewed all 60 clips. Self-reported emotional experience was measured using a computerised Visual Analogue Scale. Age differences were observed whereby participants aged 46–88 reported more intense positive and negative emotions in response to film clips than participants aged 18–45. Consistent with previous research, difficulties were found in eliciting the target emotion of anger. A success index was calculated for each film that took into consideration the mean rating on the target emotion and the degree to which the film elicited only the target emotion. We present a list of film clips recommended for future research.

The major contributions of operationism have been negative, largely because operationists failed to distinguish logical theories of reference from empirical accounts of language. Behaviorism never finished an adequate formulation of verbal reports and therefore could not convincingly embrace subjective terms. But verbal responses to private stimuli can arise as social products through the contingencies of reinforcement arranged by verbal communities.

In analyzing traditional psychological terms, we need to know their stimulus conditions (“finding the referent”), and why each response is controlled by that condition. Consistent reinforcement of verbal responses in the presence of stimuli presupposes stimuli acting upon both the speaker and the reinforcing community, but subjective terms, which apparently are responses to private stimuli, lack this characteristic. Private stimuli are physical, but we cannot account for these verbal responses by pointing to controlling stimuli, and we have not shown how verbal communities can establish and maintain the necessary consistency of reinforcement contingencies.

Verbal responses to private stimuli may be maintained through appropriate reinforcement based on public accompaniments, or through reinforcements accorded responses made to public stimuli, with private cases then occurring by generalization. These contingencies help us understand why private terms have never formed a stable and uniform vocabulary: It is impossible to establish rigorous vocabularies of private stimuli for public use, because differential reinforcement cannot be made contingent upon the property of privacy. The language of private events is anchored in the public practices of the verbal community, which make individuals aware only by differentially reinforcing their verbal responses with respect to their own bodies. The treatment of verbal behavior in terms of such functional relations between verbal responses and stimuli provides a radical behaviorist alternative to the operationism of methodological behaviorists.

Research regarding learning in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients has been mixed. Learning capacity might be better indexed using a score that reflects the interaction between the learning slope and total recall, referred to as the Cumulative Word Learning (CWL) score. We compared a group of AD patients to normal participants using a traditional index of learning and the CWL score that were derived from the Hopkins Verbal Learning Test – Revised (HVLT-R). The HVLT-R is a supra-span, list-learning test containing 12 words from three semantic categories. The results indicated that the sample of AD patients performed within the average range, using the traditional learning z score. Although mild AD patients were not found to differ from controls in the traditional learning z score, a significant difference was noted for the CWL score. The moderate AD patients differed from the normal controls in both learning measures. Furthermore, unlike the traditional learning score, the CWL score was a significant predictor of overall cognitive functioning, as indexed using their Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score. Thus, the CWL score might be a more sensitive indicator overall of total learning capacity and may be useful in staging Alzheimer’s disease because of increased resilience to floor effects. (JINS, 2009, 15, 730–739.)

Integrating information in space and time is a central feature of episodic memory. Although disturbance of the binding processes in episodic memory is well established in patients with schizophrenia, data on working memory (WM) remain discrepant. In a change detection procedure, two target displays of pairs of letters located in cells of grid were successively presented. Participants attempted to detect changes in binding information (i.e., recombination of studied features) or feature information (i.e., a novel letter and/or a novel spatial location). Recombinations consisted of features belonging to the same display (intradisplay) or different displays (interdisplays). Results showed that patients demonstrated overall lower performance, with no specific deficit for recognizing bound information or feature information. In addition, patients did not demonstrate deficits for interdisplay recombinations or intradisplay recombinations. Patients’ ability to remember temporal occurrence of stimuli was not affected. Together, these results suggest that in patients with schizophrenia, binding processes in WM are not specifically disturbed. (JINS, 2009, 15, 597–605.)

Neuropsychological research indicates that the left hemisphere plays a dominant role in verbal production and processing, while the right hemisphere plays a dominant role in nonverbal production and processing. This study sought to examine the effects of such differential hemispheric specialization on personality and social competency. Ten left hemisphere damaged (LHD) stroke patients, 11 right hemisphere damaged (RHD) stroke patients, and 7 neurologically normal (NHD) patients were videotaped while engaging in social interaction with their spouse and an interviewer. Segments of the interactions were independently coded by two observers. Patients and spouses were rated with respect to their level of social competency and the extent to which they were characterized by 10 personality adjectives (e.g., outgoing, warm). Ratings for the personality items were summed to create an aggregate score. Analysis of these scores revealed both LHD and RHD patients to have lower (i.e., more negative) mean scores than NHD patients, suggesting that stroke patients as a whole were seen as socially impaired. Analysis of the socially competent item revealed particular LHD deficits; LHD patients were seen as less socially competent than both RHD and NHD patients. Spouses of LHD, RHD, and NHD patients, in contrast, did not differ in observer-rated social behavior. (JINS, 1998, 4, 447–455.)

Verbal auditory agnosia implies the failure to recognize sounds in a patient who is nevertheless not deaf. We present a child referred to the ENT outpatients for suspected hearing loss investigation. At one point she had grommets inserted on the basis of a flat tympanogram but with no effect. All hearing tests, including electrocochleography and distraction tests, revealed normal hearing thresholds. At the age of three years and three months, and on direct questioning of the parents, we discovered that the child responded remarkably well to music. Paediatric neurologists made the diagnosis of verbal auditory agnosia. The condition is very similar to another acquired language disorder called Landau-Kleffner syndrome. It is unusual for such a case to present primarily to an ENT surgeon.