The Effect of Penalty upon Frequency of Stuttering Spasms

One of the features with which the psychologist must constantly deal when investigating stuttering is the great amount of variation in the frequency of stuttering blocks or spasms. Steer 1 has shown that frequency of stuttering spasms is, at least to a certain degree, a function of the type of speech situation. Van Riper and Hull2 showed a progressive decrease in frequency of spasms as the stutterer adapted to any given speech situation. However, little knowledge was gained from these experiments as to what factors in the situations were responsible for the variations in frequency

A Study of Handedness

Simultaneous writing of both hands on a variable angle board showed large differences in performance between thoroughly right and left handed groups, the non-dominant hand producing mirror-script or mirror-patterning. A measure of amount of laterality by means of the angle at which mirroring occurred was shown. A recheck of Jasper\u27s work on the phi-phenomenon as a measure of laterality gave corroborative results. The use of the Japanese Illusion as an indication of laterality was shown to be invalid. Failure of the non-dominant hand to reverse at a sound signal when both were describing opposite circles was demonstrated

The Use of Sheep Wool in Nest Construction by Hawaiian Birds

Reports were scanned in black and white at a resolution of 600 dots per inch and were converted to text using Adobe Paper Capture Plug-in.The utilization of sheep wool as a nesting material was examined from 1969 through 1975 on the island of Hawaii. Of the 10 bird species studied, six incorporated wool into their nests. Both introduced and endemic birds use wool, with a significantly greater usage by endemic birds. Use of wool in nest construction appears correlated with the intricacy of the nest that a species builds, with a significant difference between degree of usage in complex and simple nests. Roughly built nests, like those of the Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis), contained no wool whereas the complex nest of the Elepaio (Chasiempis sandwichensis) had a great deal of wool. Wool is apparently used by the birds because it is a readily available material in certain areas, and because of its binding quality. The wool is gathered from tufts that snag on branches as the sheep pass or from dried skins on the ground. The amount of wool utilized in each nest varies both interspecifically and intraspecifically, but in all nests only the body of the nest contained wool, the lining always being of other materials. A separate study was conducted to determine if wool is used only when available nearby or is a sought-after material. Only the Elepaio was found to consistently travel distances to procure wool, whereas the other species studied used it only when available within their territories.This work was supported by the Frank M. Chapman Memorial Fund, the International Council for Bird Preservation, NSF grant GB 23230, and The World Wildlife Fund