The spelling-sound correspondences in written Persian are always consistent, but some of the words include vowels as a fixed part of their spelling (phonologically transparent words), whereas for other words the vowels are typically not specified (phonologically opaque words). Two speeded naming studies show that semantic relatedness and word frequency affect performance (a) on both classes of words when the context excludes nonwords, and (b) affects opaque words but not transparent words when nonwords form part of the context. A further study shows that (a) transparent words yield word frequency effects when nonwords are absent from the context, and (b) the frequency effect disappears when nonwords form part of the context. The data favor a flexible multiple route model of word recognition whose operation is inconsistent with both the orthographic depth hypothesis and the definitional facts of parallel distributed processing.

Results are discussed in terms of the now replicated effect that repressors present a highly positive and optimistic self-image, despite cognitive and behavioural data suggesting that their coping style is psychologically unhealthy. In addition, it is argued that many findings in the repressive coping style literature can be parsimoniously explained through main effects of anxiety or social desirability alone (i.e., without invoking a construct that combines the two).

No abstract

The present study examined the manner in which Turkish readers read aloud words printed in shallow (transparent) Turkish orthography. The first experiment showed that when the set consists of only word stimuli there is a significant word-frequency effect. This indicates that readers had made reference to lexical information for naming. The result of a second experiment, on the other hand, showed that when an equal number of nonwords are embedded in the stimulus set the word-frequency effect disappears. This indicates that readers had made reference to nonlexical information for naming. These results support the ideas that: (a) the preferred route for naming amongst readers of Turkish script is lexical, regardless of the orthographic-phonological transparency; and (b) the naming process is indeed a flexible one in which task demands may affect the nature of the route used for naming. The above findings are discussed in relation to research on shallow and deep (nonshallow) orthographies .

In all, 212 British and 154 Iranian students estimated their own, their parents’, and their siblings’scores on the Gardner (1983) seven multiple intelligences. Men tended to rate their own mathematical and spatial intelligence higher than did women. Iranian students thought they themselves had lower mathematical but higher spatial, musical, and intrapersonal intelligence compared with British students The Iranians rated their fathers’ mathematical and spatial IQs lower but their interpersonal and intrapersonal IQs higher than did British students. The Iranians rated their mothers’ IQs significantly lower than did the British on six of the seven scales. Results for siblings showed far fewer gender and interaction effects but many effects of culture, particularly for first brothers. Iranians rated the intelligence of their first brothers higher than did the British on six of the seven scales. Iranians tended to be more in favor of tests and more willing to acknowledge race and gender differences.

The effects of the surrounding programme environment and level of involvement upon children's memory (year 6 primary school, mean age 11.1, SD ¼ 0.4, 48 boys and 69 girls) for television advertisements was examined by manipulating the degree of congruency between the production genre of the programme and the advertisements embedded within it. In Experiment One (n ¼ 56) the ad-break comprised either all cartoons (n ¼ 4) or all non-cartoons (n ¼ 4). In Experiment Two (n ¼ 61) cartoon and non-cartoon advertisements were equally represented in each ad-break. After viewing, participants provided evaluative ratings of the programme and completed memory tests for advertisements, using prompted recall and brand-recognition tasks. Memory performance overall was better for cartoon advertisements than for non-cartoon advertisements, with the latter being poorly remembered when presented in the non-cartoon programme. In Experiment Two, the programme had no effect on overall recall of advertising, but was related to brand recognition, which was better for advertisements placed in the cartoon programme. Free recall of non-cartoon advertisements was best when placed in the cartoon programme, while free recall only of cartoon advertisements was best when placed in the non-cartoon programme. The measures of audience involvement (programme ratings) did not show any significant correlation with memory for advertising.

Previous work on single-word naming in university-level readers has shown that semantic factors affect the naming of/0w frequency words both in an alphabetic script like English, which is often irregular in terms of the spelling-sound correspondences, and in the syllabic Japanese Kana script, in which the spelling-sound correspondences are consistent. The present experiment shows that a semantic factor (imageability) affects naming time to both lowand high-frequency words in an alphabetic script (Persian) when the word is opaque (vowels not specified) but not when it is transparent (vowels specified). Other characteristics of opaque words that promote the use of semantics are discussed. At least in some orthographies, semantics play a larger role in single-word naming than previously thought.

The orthographic depth hypothesis holds that words in scripts whose spelling—sound correspondences are entirely consistent (transparent) are recognized by computing a phonological code prior to lexical access. In contrast, the universal hypothesis holds that words in all scripts are recognized by utilizing visual orthographic information to access the mental lexicon. The present experiment examines the issue of whether orthographic—phonological transparency of Persian words affect the decision in a lexical decision task, because the orthographic depth and the universal hypothesis make different predictions. Persian script enables contrast of words reflecting extremes of orthographic opaqueness and transparency. This is because, the spelling—sound correspondences in written Persian are always consistent, but only some of the words include vowels as a fixed part of their spelling, (transparent words), whereas for other words the vowels are typically not specified (opaque words). The result of the lexical decision task found that for higher frequency words the Reaction Times (RTs), were as fast for both opaque and transparent words, although RTs to lower frequency transparent words were faster than matched opaque words. These data offer support for the universal hypothesis, and are inconsistent with the orthographic depth hypothesis.