The effects of perceptual pretraining on concept identification and preference

The effects of perceptual pretraining on preferences and concept identification performance in five- and eight-year-old Ss were investigated. The results indicated that perceptual pretraining facilitated performance on a concept identification task with a non-preferred relevant cue for the five-year-olds, but not for the eight-year-olds. However, perceptual pretraining did not affect preference in either age group and Ss were as consistent in their preference responding before and after perceptual pretraining as was a control group that had not received perceptual pretraining. Preferences were highly consistent in both age groups over a one week period. Perceptual pretraining was interpreted to increase the usability of the less preferred dimensions for the younger Ss, and to leave the affective preference response unaltered in both groups.     

Avoidance conditioning as a function of appetitive stimulus pretraining: Response and stimulus transfer effects

Pretrained appetitive discriminative stimuli were used as warning signals in subsequent avoidance learning. In Expt 1 identical responses were required in pretraining and in avoidance learning. An appetitive S+ facilitated avoidance learning in rats in comparison to S? or a stimulus previously uncorrelated with food. In Expt 2, the type of response in pretraining and in avoidance learning was varied. Groups with homogeneous responses in the two situations replicated Expt 1 results, whereas groups with different responses in pretraining and avoidance learning failed to show an advantage when S+ served as warning; in the heterogeneous response groups, S? was as effective as S+. Inhibitory factors in the heterogeneous groups were discussed as an explanation for these results.     

Differential effects of pretraining influences on readiness to change

Training and development are integral to organizational change but are difficult to accomplish effectively in dynamic and complex work environments. Such environments can lead to nonoptimal training conditions that reduce individuals' readiness to change and training effectiveness. On the basis of the transtheoretical model of change (J. O. Prochaska, C. C. DiClemente, & J. C. Norcross, 1992), the authors examined pretraining influences (choice, social support, and motivation to learn) on readiness to change under nonoptimal training conditions. They examined specific dimensions of readiness to change rather than a global readiness to change construct. Participants were 183 driving under the influence (DUI) offenders participating in a court-mandated, alcohol-related Weekend Intervention Program. Perceived choice to attend training, social support, and motivation to learn affected readiness to change when individuals were resisting, considering, acting on, or maintaining behavior or attitude change. These effects were also dependent on age. Results suggest how training effectiveness could be improved when trainees are least likely to learn.     

The effects of amount of processing on recall and recognition

Johnson-Laird, Gibbs and de Mowbray (1978) and Ross (1981) have argued that amount of processing, as indexed by the overall number of decisions a subject makes, provides a good predictor of incidental memory performance. Conversely, McClelland, Rawles and Sinclair (1981) have provided evidence that it is normally the number of positive decisions rather than the overall number of decisions per se that determines level of recall. The present study replicated and extended the findings of McClelland and his colleagues. In free recall (Experiment 1 and 3), cued recall (Experiment 3) and recognition in the presence or absence of context cues (Experiments 2 and 3), an account based on number of positive decisions provided by far the better explanation. Experiment 3 also revealed that the experimental manipulations had a somewhat greater effect on recall than recognition. This is explained in terms of Tulving and Pearlstone's (1966) distinction between availability and accessibility. It is suggested that words associated with negative decisions are not only less accessible in memory, there are also fewer of them available for recall and recognition.     

The effects of sex and sex-role concept on self-disclosure

Socialization into traditional sex-role concepts has been offered as an explanation of sex differences in self-disclosure. The present experiment tested a derivation of this hypothesis: Androgynous males would self-disclose more intimately than sex-typed males. A 2×2×2×2 factorial design was used with sex of subject, sex-role concept of subject, sex of target person, and disclosure level of target person as the independent variables. The results failed to demonstrate an overall difference between androgynous and sex-typed males, while significant sex differences and a strong reciprocity effect were obtained. With both male and female subjects, androgynous subjects did disclose more than sex-typed subjects when the target person had exhibited high disclosure. The findings are discussed in terms of two hypotheses: (1) compliance to a social norm regarding male disclosure to strangers; (2) flexibility of the disclosing behavior of androgynous subjects.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association, Washington, D.C., March 1978. The authors are indebted to two anonymous reviewers for their suggestions concerning this article.     

The integration of visual and functional classifications in concept formation

Summary Simple motor responses of different similarity were assigned to geometric figures of different similarity. Subsequently, subjects had to learn hierarchical classifications of visually similar or dissimilar figures which were associated with either similar or dissimilar responses. In this way, the visual and the functional similarity of the conceptually united figures were orthogonally varied. It was found that visually similar figures are conceptually classified fastest regardless of their functional similarity. In contrast, functional similarity has a considerable impact on the hierarchical classification of visually dissimilar figures. Functionally similar figures are conceptually faster classified than dissimilar ones. From the results we conclude that concepts are autonomously formed as mediating representations in stimulus-response coordinations. The hierarchical organization of concepts is thereby based on the sequential organization of both the visual input and the behavioral output. Further consequences of this approach are discussed.Portions of this research were presented at the International Symposium on Structure and Function of Human Memory, in Memoriam Hermann Ebbinghaus, Berlin, July 1985     

The effects of acoustic and semantic similarity on concept identification

Since both acoustic and semantic similarity exert an influence on memory, the role of memory in concept identification (CI) was investigated by varying the acoustic and semantic similarity of the stimuli used in the CI task. Varying acoustic similarity had no effect on CI, but CI was significantly impaired when the dimensions of a CI task were semantically similar.