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Few tools for research in proper names have been available-specifically, there is no large-scale corpus of proper names. Two corpora of proper names were constructed, one based on U.S. phone book listings, the other derived from a database of Usenet text. Name frequencies from both corpora were compared with human subjects' reaction times (RTs) to the proper names in a naming task. Regression analysis showed that the Usenet frequencies contributed to predictions of human RT, whereas phone book frequencies did not. In addition, semantic neighborhood density measures derived from the HAL corpus were compared with the subjects' RTs and found to be a better predictor of RT than was frequency in either corpus. These new corpora are freely available on line for download. Potentials for these corpora range from using the names as stimuli in experiments to using the corpus data in software applications.Proper names present an interesting puzzle to psychology. Although very important for adequate social performance, for instance, memory for proper names is inferior to memory for other types of information (Cohen & Burke, 1993). McWeeny, Young, Hay, and Ellis (1987) found that last names that connote some occupation (e.g., "Joe Baker went to the store") are more difficult to recall than if the actual occupation had been used ("The baker went to the store"). Burgess and Conley (1998) uncovered other interesting aspects of memory for proper names. They demonstrated, in the hyperspace analogue to language (HAL) semantic model of memory, that proper names cluster tightly in high-dimensional memory space, that ambiguity in proper names draws a name out of this pure name space toward words with more semantic depth, and that proper name semantic neighborhoods can encode information such as gender, It seems clear that proper names involve the storage and retrieval of important cognitive information; however, it has only lately been an area of broader investigation. Three of the 11 chapters in the recent volume Corpus Processingfor Lexical Acquisition deal with the issues involved in the representation of proper names (Boguraev & Pustejovsky, 1996). Cohen and Burke edited a special issue of Memory that contained papers on the experimental, neuropsychological, and theoretical aspects ofproper names. These examples provide evidence that research in proper names in all areas of psychology could be a rich field of inquiry. This research was supported by a NSF Presidential Faculty Fellow Award SBR-9453406 to C.B. We thank Maureen Keeney and Janet Eakins for their work in data collection. More information about research at the Computational Cognition Lab, a HAL demo, and reprint information can be found at http://HAL.ucr.edu. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to P. Conley, Psychology Department, 1419 Life Sciences Bldg., University of California, Riverside, CA 92521-0426 (e-mail: patrick@cassandra.ucr.edu).Unfortunately, the tools necessary to perform research in proper names are somewhat lacking. Specifically, ...

Four experiments were conducted to determine whether the Hyperspace Analogue to Language (HAL) model of semantic memory could differentiate between two different populations. An analysis ofthe differences in densities (or average distances between word neighbors in semantic space) in HAL matrices-generated from text corpora derived from younger and older adults-confirmed that HAL was able to distinguish between the two age groups. This difference was again detected when structured interview data were used to build the corpora. Athird experiment, designed to test the specificity of HALin detecting differences between groups, did not detect any difference in the densities of the memory representations when older adults generated both the test corpora. The final experiment, conducted on the language of adults with Alzheimer's and normal adults, again demonstrated that HAL could discriminate between the two populations. These results suggest that HALis capable of modeling, on the basis of changes in mean density, some of the differences between populations without modifying the model itself but, rather, by changing the text corpus from which the model creates its representations in semantic space.The ability to adequately discriminate between populations is one of the foundations of psychological research. Detecting differences between groups allows researchers to isolate those variables that systematically change between the groups, permitting a better understanding of the processes and relationships between variables within the system under study. Even within the specific domain of cognitive psychology, the list of potential group contrasts is endless: younger and older adults, children and adults, adults with schizophrenia and normal adults, patients with Alzheimer's and normal controls, to name a few. Computational models have much to offer such research. First, computational models require the explicit operationalization of variables. Such operationalization itself often reveals confounds and hidden variables previously left unconsidered and allows for explicit testing of the contribution ofeach variable to the global performance of the model. Second, computational models often allow competing theories of differences between groups to be compared directly. Finally, computational approaches allow the modeling of processes that would be difficult to measure or even detect in actual human participants.Computational models to date have primarily been used in specific domains, such as the effects of aging on cognition. For instance, Hannon and Hoyer (1994) demonThis paper received the Castellan Award for best student submission at the 1999 conference ofthe Society for Computers in Psychology. The research was supported by an NSF Presidential Faculty Fellow Award SBR-9453406 to c.B. We thank Guila Glosser and Susan Kemper for providing us with the interview transcripts and subject data reported in this paper. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to P. Conley, Psychology Department, University of...

Applying to graduate school presents a novel situation to students. Paradoxically, they need to be both aggressive and discriminating researchers. Without a schema for determining what information is essential and how to acquire it, students are more prone to abort their research too soon, make costly decision errors, and make the graduate application process more worrisome than is necessary. The Psychology Graduate Applicant's Portal offers such a schema for filtering through the masses of information on the application process. The Portal assists students in researching, decision making, managing time, and handling anxiety. Existing Resources for the Graduate Applicant There are, of course, many very helpful sources of information-several that academic advisors would consider essential for a student to consult. It is difficult to imagine a student not consulting the American Psychological Association's (APA, 2000) Graduate Study in Psychology. This reference work is a complete listing of graduate programs in the United States and Canada that contains each program's admission requirements, median scores on GPA and admission exams, and application and acceptance statistics. One of the most helpful sections of Graduate Study in Psychology is the categorization of the graduate programs by program area (developmental, clinical, cognitive, etc.). This resource provides an important starting point for a student in locating and narrowing down the range of schools to consider. There are two other resources that provide a broad range of information for the prospective graduate applicant: APA's (1993) Getting In and Patricia Keith-Spiegel's (1990) Complete Guide to Graduate School Admission. These two books are very similar, and the authors present comprehensive overviews of the steps required in deciding to apply to graduate school that can be simplified to the following areas of knowledge: (1) choosing which programs to apply to, (2) the steps in the application process itself, and (3) what to do when you hear back from the schools. One important contribution of these books is that they suggest a timeline for all the application steps and the various components of the decision-making process. This is important for the prospective applicant, since time management can be difficult in a novel and uncertain situation. Other sources of information are the myriad Web sites, mostly sponsored by individuals in psychology departments, that contain information about applying to graduate school. The goal of most of these sites is to provide some kind of basic information to the undergraduates who are at the host institution. The information on such sites is rarely comprehensive and often consists of links to other sites, rather than content.