R E A D I N G S K I L L S P R A C T I C E - U N I T O N E
New Society
RESEARCH DIGEST
New Society 7 November 1986
What use is psychology?
1.
Ordinary people who know nothing about psychology can predict the results of psychological experiments with reasonable accuracy on their own common sense. This finding that most hard-won psychological knowledge is in fact self-evident comes from John Houston , of the University of
California at Los
Angeles
( Psychological
Reports , vol.57,
No.2, page 567).
2.
Houston, a psychologist himself, placed a poster which read "Earn $5 by answering 21 questions about behaviour" in a local park on a Sunday afternoon. He got 50 respondents who had never read a book on experimental psychology or studied the subject, and they completed a questionnaire consisting of 21 questions each of which embodied a principle relating to the working of the memory.
3.
For example, they were asked how pigeons would behave if they expected food to be left on a particular windowsill because this had been so over a long period, and then found it empty one day. And they were asked which words in a word list were easiest to remember after they had been read aloud by somebody else.
4.
Of the 21 items, 16 were answered correctly more often than chance would have predicted. Older and better educated people were more likely to be correct
But one question, where the correct experimentally verified answer seems to contradict common sense, received significantly more wrong answers than might have been expected by chance.
5.
Houston concludes that psychology is, at least partly, "a system of self-evident information." But he points out that what psychology does offer is precise measurement of such phenomena and a theoretical explanation.
Source: Haarman,
Leech, Murray, Reading
Skills for Social
Sciences, OUP, 1988
New Society 6 June
1986
Eating people is wrong a.
Attitudes to the
Russians among
1

Americans shifted dramatically immediately after the shooting down of the Korean civilian airliner in 1983, according to a very small study carried out by David
Krus of
Arizona State
University
( Psychological
Reports , vol.59, No.1, page 3). b.
The attribution of atrocities to other nationalities has long been regarded as a very effective measure of attitude, and one of the most significant attributions of atrocity is the accusation of cannibalism. c.
A study of the popularity of other nationalities had been carried out shortly before the KAL incident. Krus then administered a modified version of his test to 39 students immediately after the incident. d.
The students were asked to read a fictitious passage which described a
New Zealand airliner crashing en route to the
South Pole.
There were
264 passengers on board, representing 21 nationalities.
When the rescue party arrived half the passengers were dead and had been partially eaten by the survivors.
Which nationalities would be most likely to commit cannibalism in the period of hardship and starvation following the crash? e.
The Russian passengers
2
New Society 25 April
1986 were rated fifth most likely to eat human flesh before the shooting down of the airliner, but jumped to the top immediately afterwards. Not surprisingly, the English and white
Americans were consistently seen as least likely to resort to cannibalism.

Too relaxed to read?
1 Backward readers can be helped more by teaching them to read than by teaching them to relax, according to
Cristopher Sharpley, of Monash
University, Australia, and Steven Rowland, of the Scot's School,
Australia ( British
Journal of
Educational
Psychology , vol.56, part 1, page 40).
2 Previous studies have suggested that backward readers experience stress caused by anxiety at failure, and that their learning can be improved by teaching relaxation.
3 The study involved
50 nine to eleven year old children, in five small primary schools, in four country towns in
New South Wales.
The children were divided into five groups. One group were taught to lower their muscle tension by using electromyographic biofeedback (which involves electrodes attached to a forearm and to a visual display dial); the second was given relaxation training; and the third had remedial teaching based on phonics and comprehension. In addition, one of two control groups had daily reading tests (as did the three experimental groups) and the other did not.
4 The children's accuracy, speed and comprehension in reading were measured for two weeks, then the different treatments were given for five weeks. The results showed that only the group which had received remedial teaching improved in reading accuracy. No group improved in reading speed – and this even decreased for the group which experienced biofeedback.
5 All the experimental groups showed gains in comprehension, as did the first control group, suggesting that this was an effect of increased reading practice.
6 The authors suggest that reducing stress may have worked against any improvement in reading (an optimum level of stress being necessary for successful learning), or that teaching the children to relax
7 reduced the attention they gave to their reading.
So while the relaxation may be of general benefit, reducing the symptoms of stress seems to be less helpful than reducing its cause – failure.
3

APPROACHING THE
TEXT
WORKSHEET 1
These brief research reports appeared in a weekly magazine (New Society) addressed to an educated public. Though less detailed and specialist than the examples of academic research reports given elsewhere in this course book, they are similar to the latter in the type of information they contain.
► Before reading the reports, indicate the kinds of information you would expect to find in a research report.
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
_________-
Scanning
► Scan the reports in order to answer the following questions:
1. Which researcher paid his subjects to participate in his research?
John Houston , of the University of California at Los Angeles,
What use is Psychology .
2.
Which study was carried out in Australia?
Too relaxed to read. Cristopher Sharpley, of Monash University, Australia, and
Steven Rowland, of the Scot's School, Australia (British Journal of Educational Psycho log
3.
Which study made use of a questionnaire?
The researcher of John Hpuston used questionnaires .What use is psychology.
4.
Which study involved dividing the subjects into groups?
Cristopher Sharpley study ‘ Too relaxed to read “
5.Which study used the fewest subjects? How many?
Eating people is wrong- 39 students immediately after the incident.
Familiarity with the genre or text type which is being read is of considerable help in approaching any text. If the reader is aware of the kind of information which is likely to be found, and its probable position in the text, his expectations are heightened and he can process the information in the text more quickly and efficiently.
WORKSHEET 2
Skimming for text structure
► Skim each article and complete the flow charts below by inserting one of the following headings (indicating various types of information) in each box.
Indicate also the paragraph(s) which contain the information. (Headings have been inserted for the first report.)
Procedure – General assumptions (including previous work on the subject) –
Conclusions – Summary (including researcher/s and publication) – Results
What use is psychology?
Summary par. 1
Eating people is wrong Too relaxed to read?
summary par. 1,2 conclusions par. 7
Procedure par. 2 procedure par. 3,4 procedure par. 3,4

Results par. 4
Conclusions par. 5
results par.5
conclusions par. 7
General assumptions par. 2
results par 5, 6
Summary par.1
INTENSIVE
READING
WORKSHEET 3
WORKSHEET 4
Results
Checking understanding
► Read carefully the research report "What use is psychology?" and answer the following questions?
1.
What common characteristic did Houston's subjects have?
The responders had never read a book or anything about the experimental psychology .
2.
What common characteristic did his questions have? All the
In common all the questions relate to the memory .
3.
How can the higher incidence of wrong answers to one of the question be explained?
The correct experimentally verified answer contradicted the common sense of the respondents .
4.
What use, then, is psychology, according to Houston?
Psychology offers precise measurement of such phenomena and a theoretical explanation.
Information extraction
► Read carefully the research report "Eating people is wrong" and complete the table below:
Title of research
Researcher and affiliation
Published in
Purpose of research
When conducted
Procedure
Eating people is wrong
David Krus of Arizona State University
Psychological Reports vol. 59, No. 1, page 3
To verify changes in attitude towards national groups
1983, shortly before the KAT incident and a modified version immediately after the incident
The respondents were asked to read a passage which described an airplane crash. There was some specific information about the planes course, the number of the passengers, the nationalities the passengers were dead and had been partially eaten by the survivors. Then they asked the respondents to rare which nationalities would be most likely to commit cannibalism in the period of hardship and starvation following the crash.
The Russian passengers were rated fifth most likely to eat human flesh before the shooting down of the airliner, but jumped to the top immediately afterwards. Not surprisingly, the English and white
Americans were consistently seen as least likely to resort to cannibalism.

WORKSHEET 5
Group
Information extraction
► Read carefully the research report "Too relaxed to read?" and complete the table below.
Phase 1 of experiment (2 weeks)
Procedure for all groups The accuracy, speed and comprehension in reading were measured for two weeks, then the different treatments were given for five weeks.
Phase 2 (5 weeks)
Procedure
1
Accuracy
No improvement
Results
Speed decrease
Comprehension
Improved
2
3
4 Control group
5 Control group
Electromyographic biofeedback
Relaxation training
Remedial healing based on phonic and compehension nothing
Daily reading tests
No improvement improvement
No improvement
No improvement
No improvement
No improvement
No improvement
No improvement improvement improvement
No improvement improvement
Conclusions:B ackward readers can be helped more by teaching them to read by teaching them to relax.
LANGUAGE
WORK
► In preparation for the following activity, re-read the three research reports and underline all the verbs.
Note that the single sections of the reports are usually characterized by a particular verb tense.
For example, the section regarding general assumptions will normally include verbs in the present tense, used to express "general truths" or describe a situation, or verb in the present perfect, used in this case to imply present relevance of a past event. If a section regarding the purpose of the research is included, we are likely to find the infinitive of purpose (e.g. "To determine whether 'x' was true, a questionnaire was distributed…") or alternative linguistic forms ("For the purpose of…", "In order to…"). Sections on procedure and results will predictably make wide use of the past or past perfect tense, while comments and conclusions may include forms expressing possibility or probability ("'x' may occur…") "'y' may have depended on…"), or present or future tenses ("When 'x' is the case, 'y' will occur…"). Notice also the frequency of passive forms ("Subjects were asked to complete…", "50 questions were answered…").
WORKSHEE
T 6
(converse)
(know)
Identifying tense patterns
► Complete the research report below by inserting the appropriate tense of the verbs in brackets. (Remember that certain tenses are recurrent in the different sections of a research report, as described above.) Use one form expressing probability or possibility.
When foreigners converse in English, their bodies seem to do likewise. Researchers have known for some time that Arabs,

(prefer)
(keep)
(study)
(talk)
(tell)
South Americans, and Eastern Europeans prefer close conversational encounters, while Asians, Northern Europeans and North Americans keep their distance
.
In the most recent study, 35 Japanese and 31 Venezuelan students who had studied English before coming to America, and 39 American students each had to talk to someone from his or her own country about hobbies or sports. Half of the foreign students were told to speak in their native language, the others to speak in English.
(ask), (talk) The participants were asked to sit down when they were talking
(have to)
(perform)
(sit)
(be)
(place) change)
(appear) and had to arrange their own chairs. Speaking their native languages, each group performed as expected. The Venezuelans seat closest (32.2 inches apart on average), the
Americans were in between (35.4 inches), and the Japanese placed their chairs farthest apart (40.2 inches). But the spacing had changed dramatically for the foreign students speaking
English. The Venezuelans sat an average of 7.9 inches farther away than their countrymen speaking Spanish – farther away, in fact, than the
(move) Americans. The Japanese students moved their chairs an average of 1.6 inches closer than the Japanese who were speaking Japanese.
Why did the English speaking Venezuelans choose such a large
(speculate) distance? Perhaps, the researchers speculated, because
(know) they were not sure of the American "distance norms… They knew the proper direction to move, but not how far." Why did the English- speaking Japanese make a smaller adjustment? The researchers
(suggest), (be) suggested that this was due to the fact that they did not
(do) speak English as well as the Venezuelans.
The research was by Nan Sussman, a psychologist at the International Council on Education for Teaching, Washington, D.C. with
Howard
Rosenfield, a psychologist at the University of Kansas.
A report appeared in The Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology , Vol.42, No.1
Adapted from an article in Psychology Today , July 1982.
WORKSHEET 7
1.
2.
3.
4.
Checking understanding
► Making reference to the text, decide whether the statements below are true or false.
Each of the participants spoke to someone from a different country. F
All the foreign students spoke in English T
The participants positioned their own chairs. T
The language spoken by each participant did not affect the result of the experiment. F
VOCABULARY WORK AND WORD BUILDING
► Find the words in the text, decide the word class, and write it and the translation of the word in the space provided.
► Then complete the table by forming other words using appropriate suffixes if necessary. Consult your dictionary both for this task and for the rest of the vocabulary practice.
VOCABULARY WORK
Word and
Location Class Transl. Synonym(s
)
Antonym(s
)
WORD BUILDING
Noun Verb Adj.
A d v

Accuracy (1, n precizie precision imprecisio n accuracy par.1)
Accusation (2,2) noun acuratie indictiment discharge accusativ e
-
To accus
Administered
(2,3) v A conduce
, a administ dispensed ra noun neliniste troubled fail calm adminstr ation anxiety e
To admi nistra te
- Anxiety (3,2)
Behave (1,3)
Comprehension
(3,3)
Concludes (1,5) v n v
A se comport a priceper e
Termina
, concluzi oneaza carry understandi ng close misbehave behaviou missunder standing indefinite r compreh ension conclusio n
To beha ve
To comp rehen d
To concl ude
Contradict (1,4)
Correctly (1,4)
Experimental
(1,2)
Measurement
(1,5)
Partially (2,4)
Predict (1,1) vb adv adjec tive n adjec tive vb
A contrazi ce
Exact, corect experim ental oppose rightly observation al masura size
To agree contradic tion
To contr adict
To incorrectly correctitu de theoretical experime nt corre ct
To exper iment inaction measure To meas ure partial incomplete complete partially To
A anticipate remember predictio part
To
Psychological
(1,1) adjec tive prezice psiholog ic mental physical n psycholo gy predi ct
To psyc holog ize accurate accusatory administrable - anxious behaviouristi c comprehensi ve conclusive accurately accusingly anxiously
- comprehens ively conclusivel y contradictory cpntradictor ily correct experimental experiment ally measurable measurably partial predictive correctively partially predictively psychological psychologic ally

OBSERVATIONS ON TEXT TYPE BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT
Function: To summarize an extended research project for the general reader
Structure: Although individual examples may deviate somewhat from the general model, the report normally includes the following sections:
A Brief summary
 of the main points of the research, including researchers and place of
B General assumptions publication
 remarks or other background information where the author introduces the subject and may
C Purpose of the research report the state of present knowledge or current beliefs
D Procedure or method regarding the subject of the research
 where the aim of the present investigation is explained
 in which the various steps of the research project are explained, the
E Results of the research subjects described and the means of gathering the data are set forth (e.g.
F Conclusions/ comments through questionnaires, interviews, experiments, and so on)
 including what new information, if any, emerged from the analysis of data
 including general remarks regarding the findings of the research and their relevance in some larger context
Aspects of In the research report we will tend to find language with a descriptive, not evaluative, language: function, and therefore a prevalence of nouns and verbs and a low density of adjectives. See pg. 5 above for a discussion of recurrent tense patterns in research reports
1.

EXTENSION
The Tense System (Review)
Introduction
There are three classes of verbs in English:
1.The auxiliary verbs
The verbs do, be and have are used as auxiliary verbs to form different sentences.
Do a.
Do is used as an auxiliary verb to form negative and question forms of the present simple and did is used in the past simple :
Present Simple Past Simple
Negative I don’t
understand. I didn’t agree.
They don’t
like it. He didn’t
pass.
She doesn’t
cut meat. They didn’t like it.
Question Do they like it? Did they enjoy it?
What does he want? When did they arrive?
Don’t
you want to come?
Don’t we go to the
same school?
Doesn’t she know him? b.
Do is only used in the positive to give emphasis to a verb
Present Simple Past Simple
She isn’t lazy. She I did try to phone, does try hard. but there was no
answer. c.
Do is used in tag questions and short answers
Present Simple Past Simple
You think it’ll work, It worked, don’t you? didn’t it?
He knows I’m here, doesn’t
he?
A: You don’t want to go A: Who made the
Do you ? cake?
B. I do . B. Jack did.
Be f.
Be as an auxiliary + past participle (ing ) is used to form continuous tenses:
Alice is writing a book.
We were going for a walk.
I’ve been trying to get hold of you for a week.
We’ll be leaving soon.
b. Be + past participle (ed etc.) is used to form passive sentences:
Paper is made from wood.
My car is being repaired at the moment.
He was injured in a car accident.
I’ll be finished soon.
They’ve been robbed .
Have
Have as an auxiliary + past participle (ed etc.) is used to form perfect tenses:
I’ve never been
there before.
By the time we arrived they had left.
Will you have finished by lunch time?
2. Modal auxiliary verbs
Modal auxiliary verbs are auxiliary because they “help” other verbs, but unlike do, be and have
(which only help to form tenses) modal auxiliaries have their own meanings. They express certainty, ability, possibility and advice.
He must be at least sixty. ( certainty)
I can’t
swim . (ability )
It migh t rain this afternoon. (possibility )
You should rest for a few days (advice )
The modal auxiliary verbs are: can, could, may, might, will, would, shall, should, must, ought, need.
3. Full verbs
Full verbs are all the other verbs in the language, for example go, walk, think, help, eat.

English Tense Usage
English tenses have two elements of meaning:
TIME – Is the verb action present, past or future?
ASPECT – How does the speaker see the verb action?
Examples
She’s talking on the phone
.
TIME – present
ASPECT – activity in progress now
I saw a good film last night.
TIME past
ASPECT – action completed at a specific time
Have you ever seen “Gone with the
Wind”?
TIME – before now
ASPECT – the exact time when is not important. The question asks about an experience at any time in the past.
I’ll give you my phone number.
TIME – immediate future
ASPECT – spontaneous intention
I’m going to give Helen a plant for her birthday .
TIME – future
ASPECT – planned action
These are two aspects in the English tense system; they are called continuous and perfect .
Continuous aspect
1.
The continuous aspect expresses the following ideas: a. activity in progress
Don’t interrupt me. I’m thinking
. Why aren’t you working?
I was going out of the hotel when someone tapped me on the shoulder.
Don’t phone her at 8.00. She’ ll be having dinner.
Why don’t you stop reading now? You’ve been reading all day. b. temporary activity
We’re living
in a hotel until we can find a house to buy.
You’re being very silly today . Usually you are so sensible. c. possibly incomplete activity
Who’s been eating my sandwich?
(Compare: Who’s eaten my sandwich?)
I was writing the report on the plane.
(Compare: I wrote the report on the plane).
2 There are four main groups of state verbs that are rarely used in continuous tenses. This is because they have the idea of permanency and completeness, which conflicts with “b’ and “c” above.
Verbs of mind and thinking:
Believe, think, assume, consider, understand
Suppose expect agree know remember forget
Verbs of emotion:
Like love detest envy hate hope prefer wish want
Verbs of having and being:
Belong own depend contain cost seem appear need have
Verbs of the senses:
See hear taste smell
3 Some of these verbs can be used in continuous tenses when the verb expresses an activit y, not a state.
However, the meaning changes slightly.
Compare the use of simple and continuous tenses in the following pairs of sentences:
I think it’s a great idea
. (“think” as opinion i.e. a state )
He’s thinking of emigrating
(“think” as mental process, i.e. an activity)
I see what you mean.
(“see” meaning
“understand”)
I’m seeing Jenny this afternoon . (“see” meaning “meet”)
This soup tastes delicious . (a state).
I’m tasting the soup to see if it needs more salt .
( an activity)
I expect you’d like something to eat (“expect” meaning “suppose”)
She’s expecting a baby
. (She’s pregnant).
Perfect aspect
The perfect aspect expresses the following ideas: a.
The exact time of the verb action is not important.

I’ ve bought a new car.
Have you seen my wallet anywhere.
I’ve lost it. b.
The action is completed before another time.
Have you ever been to America? (sometime before now)
When I arrived, he had already left (some time before I arrived)
I’ll have finished
the report by tonight (some time before tonight)
The Present Perfect, Past Perfect and Future
Perfect could perhaps be named “ Beforepresent”, “Before-past” and “Before-future” to give a more accurate description.