MacLeod‐Morgan (1979) found a significant relationship between hypnotizability and EEG hemispheric specificity. Hemispheric specificity is defined as the extent to which the alpha ratio between hemispheres changes during lateralized task performance. The present study was designed to replicate and extend this finding. EEG was recorded bilaterally from 44 subjects during performance of two right‐ and two left‐hemisphere discontinuous tasks from MacLeod‐Morgan (1979), and four new comparable continuous tasks. As predicted, significant differences were found in hemispheric specificity between low and high hypnotizables especially during the continuous tasks.

This study examined age-related changes in the child's application of the principle of majority rule in group decisions. Following a problem posed by Moessinger (1981), we enquired whether children routinely apply the majority rule when the majority consists of a shifring (variable) set of members across decisions, and alternate between majority and minority when the majority and minority is Jixrd, i.e. consists of the same individuals each time. In Geneva, Moessinger found that 8-year-olds failed to discriminate between fixed and shifting majorities, while most 13-year-olds (75 per cent) did so. An altered replication was conducted in Australia modifying Moessinger's procedure to control for extraneous variables such as 'set' and the need for variety in choice. It was found that on the task 7 per cent of 8-year-olds, 20 per cent of 10-year-olds, 32 per cent of 12-year-olds, and 39 per cent of 14-year-olds discriminated on a behavioural criterion between fixed and shifting majorities. Ten per cent of 8-year-olds, 40 per cent of 10-year-olds, 52 per cent of 12-year-olds, and 55 per cent of 14-year-olds made the discrimination on Moessinger's cognitive 'reason' criterion. The results show that development of the conceptual distinction between fixed and shifting majorities is gradual and continuous.

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