David Owen Robinson

The role of bigram frequency in the perception of words and nonwords

Adult subjects decided whether strings of four, five, or six letters formed words or nonwords. Words and nonwords were equally probable stimuli, and there were equal numbers of stimuli of high and low mean bigram frequency. Half the words were common and half occurred rarely i[~ printed English. Mean bigram frequency had no effect on subjects’ response times for common words and for nonwords, but the reaction times for rare words were significantly longer for words of high mean bigram frequency than for words of low mean bigram frequency. This result may be accounted for by a modification of Rumelhart and Siple’s (1974) model of word perception to include the mapping of simple features to units which correspond to common spelling patterns.

AN OUTCOME EVALUATION OF PRISON-BASED TREATMENT PROGRAMMING FOR SUBSTANCE USERS

This paper briefly documents the results of a broad-based implementation of substance user treatment programs within the Federal correctional system in Canada.

The human newborn's sucking behavior for sweet fluids as a function of birthweight and maternal weight*

The paper presents previously unpublished data related to the study of Engen, Lipsitt, and Peck (1974) . It assesses the effects of infant birthweight and mothers pregnant weight on a newborns responsiveness to sweet fluids. Heavy mothers tended to give birth to heavy infants, but even when this correlation was partialed out, it was observed that heavy babies sucked at faster rates for a sugar solution than did light babies.

Cocaine: Magical Drug or Menace?

Cocaine has attracted much attention as a recreational drug and some advocates have acclaimed it as both pleasurable and safe. This paper reviews the available evidence concerning the drugs physiological and psychological safety. Few deaths are attributed to cocaine, but its use is presently restricted by very limited supplies. Use of the drug may possibly result in liver and respiratory problems and may lead to paranoid psychotic conditions. There are many deficiencies in our knowledge of the effects of this drug.

Use of Spelling-to-Sound Rules in Reading

The present study investigated the use of spelling-to-sound rules by second-graders, fifth-graders, and adults in the reading of novel words. Specifically, the study was concerned with the pronunciation of the vowel of monosyllabic synthetic words. Two classes of rules were studied: context-free rules, in which the pronunciation of a single-letter vowel or vowel digraph is invariant across context, and context-sensitive rules, in which the pronunciation of the vowel is dependent upon subsequent letters of the word. The performance of children and adults on the context-free stimuli indicated that beginning as well as mature readers make use of spelling-to-sound correspondence rules in the pronunciation of novel words and that the tendency to use such rules increases with age. The context-sensitive rules were not generally used; subjects tended to give the most common pronunciation for a vowel regardless of context. However, when a pronunciation other than the most common one was used for a vowel, it tended to be used in the context predicted by the context-sensitive rules. Two models of the use of spelling-to-sound rules in reading were proposed.

Urine Analysis for Methadone Programs: A Client-Centered Computer-Based Automated Technique

Urine surveillance of opiate addicts in methadone treatment programs is an important feature of contemporary treatment techniques. The purposes of urinalysis were defined by Nightingale, Michaux and Platt (1972): To yield clinical information to the counselor. To encourage the client’s abstinence from illicit use. To symbolize the counselor’s interest in the client’s progress.

Where the elite meet

This essay is a tongue-in-cheek rationale for and analysis of technical conferences.