The role of suggested size in distance responses

A number of studies have concluded that suggested size can modify perceived size, as indicated by the effect on perceived distance. At least this effect seems to occur when verbal reports are used as the measure of the judged distance of the target. The present study supports a different explanation of this phenomenon. It is hypothesized that suggested size can result in the judgment that the target is larger or smaller than normal (an off-sized judgment) where normal is specified by the suggested size. Because the observer expects that a target judged as a small or large off-sized object must be at a greater or lesser distance, respectively. than its perceived distance, the off-sized judgment can provide a cognitive modification of reported distance. This explanation was tested by measuring the perceived distance of targets using a procedure (called the head motion procedure) that, in contrast with verbal reports of distance, is very unlikely to be influenced by off-sized judgments. Measures obtained with the head motion procedure, unlike those obtained from verbal reports, did not change with changes in the suggested size. It is concluded that the size suggestions had a cognitive, not a perceptual, effect on responses to the distance (and size) of the targets.     

Influence of Message Sidedness,Pictures, and Need for Cognition on Beliefs and Behavior: The Terri Schiavo Case1

The Terri Schiavo case received intense national and international media coverage. The current investigation examined students' beliefs on whether or not Terri's feeding tube should have been removed, as well as attitudes and behavior. Students either received a persuasive message that came from the husband's perspective or the parents' perspective, crossed with a picture that either suggested Terri was interactive vs. one that suggested she was not. The results indicate that beliefs were altered by the perspective that students received, even after intense media coverage had presumably “hardened” attitudes. Students with low or high need for cognition were also influenced by pictures that either matched or mismatched the perspective they received.     

Risk-Taking by Young People in Late Adolescence Increases When They Perceive the Possibility of Their Peer “Observing Someday”

This experimental study on risk-taking by young people in their late adolescence was carried out from the perspective of peer effect. A gambling task was administered to 42 young people under the following experiment conditions: with or without the possibility that the experiment results would be disclosed at some time to their peers and information about their peers being more or less risk-oriented. The results showed that when it was suggested that the experiment results would be disclosed in some time and when the peer was perceived as more risk-oriented, there was a peer effect. However, when the peer was perceived as less risk-oriented, no peer effect occurred. The findings of this study confirmed that, while there is some room for further testing, when it was suggested that the experiment result might be disclosed to the peer, even under a condition in which only a single participant was involved, there was a peer effect, unlike in previous studies.     

Figural goodness and the predictability of figural elements

All 126 patterns composed of five dots distributed over the cells of a 3 by 3 matrix were examined for the predictability of their elements. The predictability of a given dot in a given pattern was measured as the percentage of Ss who indicated that dot as one “implied or suggested” by the subpattern composed of the remaining four dots of the pattern. The dots comprising a figurally good five-dot pattern were generally more predictable, one from the others, than the dots comprising a poor pattern. This finding accords with the Gestaltist conception of a good figure as one whose elements are well organized, and it is the state of affairs required by Garner’s hypothesis that better figures are perceived to have fewer alternatives than poorer figures. A mechanism mediating the prediction of an element of a pattern from the other elements was suggested.     

The role of the supervisor in career and organizational commitment

Supervisors are increasingly required to support employees in their learning and career development. This study investigated relationships between supervisor support activities and their subordinates' career and organizational commitment. Findings suggested that employees who saw their supervisors as giving them trust and the authority to do the job were more committed to their organization, as were those who perceived their supervisors to engage in feedback and goal-setting. This suggested the potential organizational benefits of performance feedback from managers and the importance of supervisors developing the confidence and skills to delegate effectively and have trust in their subordinates. No relationships were found between supervisor support and career identity, career resilience or career planning. The relationship between perceptions of overall supervisor support and organizational commitment was moderated by employee gender. The findings suggested a positive linear relationship between support and commitment for women, but the association between support and commitment was less straightforward in the male sample.     

Aging increases the energetic demands of episodic memory: a cardiovascular analysis

We hypothesized that older volunteers allocate more attentional resources to memory maintenance than do younger volunteers. Allocation of a resource supporting memory maintenance was inferred from performance and cardiovascular measures. Eighteen 18- to 26-year-old men and eighteen 60- to 79-year-old men performed a serial memory task both as a single task and as a dual task that added simple reaction time stimuli. Items presented early or later in the serial list created relatively low or high memory load. The results suggested that older men allocated greater attention to memory maintenance, particularly during high-memory-load items. They showed a slowing of dual-task reaction time and increased heart rate during high- vs. low-memory-load items. Cardiac and vascular reactions further suggested that memory maintenance is supported by phasic autonomic adjustments and that with age, more of this support is required for adequate maintenance of episodic memory.     

The compatibility of spatial and non-spatial relationships

This experiment reverses the procedure used by Hedge and Marsh (1975) who obtained two-choice RTs to a relevant stimulus attribute (colour) in the presence of an irrelevant attribute (location). On the basis of their finding that RT was faster when the colour and location of the correct response button were both the same, or both different from that of the stimulus, they concluded that performance is facilitated where the same logical process ‘same’ or ‘alternative’ can be applied to both attributes. The ‘Simon effect’ it was suggested may be explained by this process.Earlier work by the author had suggested performance is facilitated where the same recording rule applies to all the spatial relations in the task. Performing Hedge and Marsh's experiment with location as the relevant attribute failed to replicate their finding. This result limits the generality of their explanation to tasks where spatial relationships are the ‘irrelevant’ variable.     

Major memory for microblogs

Online social networking is vastly popular and permits its members to post their thoughts as microblogs, an opportunity that people exploit, on Facebook alone, over 30 million times an hour. Such trivial ephemera, one might think, should vanish quickly from memory; conversely, they may comprise the sort of information that our memories are tuned to recognize, if that which we readily generate, we also readily store. In the first two experiments, participants’ memory for Facebook posts was found to be strikingly stronger than their memory for human faces or sentences from books—a magnitude comparable to the difference in memory strength between amnesics and healthy controls. The second experiment suggested that this difference is not due to Facebook posts spontaneously generating social elaboration, because memory for posts is enhanced as much by adding social elaboration as is memory for book sentences. Our final experiment, using headlines, sentences, and reader comments from articles, suggested that the remarkable memory for microblogs is also not due to their completeness or simply their topic, but may be a more general phenomenon of their being the largely spontaneous and natural emanations of the human mind.     

Reinforcement magnitude and responding during treatment with differential reinforcement

Basic findings indicate that the amount or magnitude of reinforcement can influence free-operant responding prior to and during extinction. In this study, the relation between reinforcement magnitude and adaptive behavior was evaluated with 3 children as part of treatment with differential reinforcement. In the first experiment, a communicative response was shaped and maintained by the same reinforcer that was found to maintain problem behavior. Two reinforcement magnitudes (20-s or 60-s access to toys or escape from demands) were compared and found to be associated with similar levels of resistance to extinction. The relation between reinforcement magnitude and response maintenance was further evaluated in the second experiment by exposing the communicative response to 20-s or 300-s access to toys or escape. Results for 2 participants suggested that this factor may alter the duration of postreinforcement pauses.     

Use of static and dynamic media to simulate environments: a meta-analysis

This article is a review of studies on how strongly responses from static media (such as color slides) and dynamic media (such as virtual reality models) compared to onsite evaluations or to each other. Eighty-four empirical findings were found. 6,323 participants and 967 environments were included in the review. The overall correlation of subjective responses obtained either onsite or by viewing static color simulations was r = .86. The overall correlation of subjective responses obtained either onsite or by viewing dynamic simulations was r = .83. The overall correlation of subjective responses obtained either from static or dynamic media was r = .82. It is suggested that both types of simulation generate statistically equivalent results and so a choice of simulation media should be based on efficacy rather than concerns about validity.     

The influence of object-image velocity change on perceived heading in minimal environments

When human observers move forward and rotate their eyes, a complex pattern of light flows across the retina. This pattern is referred to as retinal flow. A model has been proposed to explain how humans perceive their direction of self-movement (or heading) from (1) static depth, (2) direction of image motion, and (3) whether image velocity undergoes acceleration or deceleration (Wang & Cutting, 1999). However, findings from past research in which sparse or minimalist stimuli were used have suggested that not all of the information to which participants are sensitive is captured within the scope of this model. In particular it has been suggested that the magnitude or size of image velocity change may be of significance beyond simply whether image velocity could be categorized as speeding up (i.e., accelerating) or slowing down (i.e., decelerating). In two experiments, the influence of this factor on heading judgments under minimal conditions was investigated. Evidence was found in support of the idea that the rate of image velocity change can influence judgments of the direction of self-movement in minimalist conditions.     

An analysis of training programs in school psychology

The 85 institutions below indicated that they have a graduate training program in school psychology or that one may acquire certification although there is no formal program as such. The information was supplied in response to a questionnaire by a representative of each institution and is current as of March, 1967. The list is far from complete. Several institutions with known programs failed to respond to the questionnaire and their names are not included.

As suggested by Smith (1964), the institution should be contacted directly for further information.     

Effects of a favor and liking on compliance

A laboratory experiment was conducted to examine the effects of a favor and of liking on compliance with a request for assistance from a confederate. Liking for the confederate was manipulated, and male subjects then received a soft drink from the confederate, from the experimenter, or received no favor. Compliance with the confederate's request to purchase some raffle tickets was measured, as was liking for the confederate. The results showed that the favor increased liking for the confederate and compliance with his request, but the effect of manipulated liking was weak. Detailed ratings of the confederate as well as correlational data suggested that the relationship between favors and compliance is mediated, not by liking for the favor-doer, but by normative pressure to reciprocate.     

Effects of social influence in a recognition task of auditory intensity: a temporary shift in criterion.

The effects of responses of another person or a computer occurring prior to the subjects' responses in tasks to recognition model which assumed that subjects shifted their decision criteria temporarily on each trial. A parameter representing the amount of criterion shift reliably estimated sensitivity to social influence. When the social sensitivity parameter was estimated from the data, discriminative ability, defined as d', was unaffected by the presence of social influence. Principal components analyses suggested that social sensitivity and discriminative ability represented essentially orthogonal components of subjects' decision behavior.     

Opposition to Affirmative Action: Racial Affect and Traditional Value Predictors Across Four Programs1

Research on white opinions of such compensatory policies as busing and affirmative action has suggested that prejudice is the primary determinant of policy attitudes (Jacobson, 1985; McConahay, 1982). Often, however, racism is measured in a manner that confounds prejudice with values and concerns about justice. A study was conducted in which undergraduates (N= 185) were told that one of four affirmative-action programs for black students would be implemented at their university either in the following year or in 5 years. We found that: (a) support varied considerably across programs and was greater when implementation was imminent; (b) separate operationalizations of race prejudice and dispositional justice beliefs accounted for equal, and at times greater, variance in affirmative action opinions relative to a measure of symbolic racism; and (c) correlates of policy endorsement, including dispositional justice beliefs but not racial affect, varied from program to program. It is suggested that future research should explicitly distinguish race prejudice from values as predictors. It is also suggested that justice concerns, particularly regarding policy specifics, are important predictors of affirmative action attitudes that to date have largely been overlooked.     

Mental representation of length and weight series and transitive inferences in young children

Forty-eight second graders (8 years of age) were trained on length or weight relationships between adjacent members of a five-term series of colored objects. Feedback was visual and of either minimal or strong salience. Differences in weight were assessed by either a balance scale or a spring scale. Results showed that more salient visual feedback reduced the learning effort for length but not for weight comparisons. After training children were tested on all possible object pairs. Children's comparisons of items by length were very accurate in contrast to their comparisons by weight. An explanation for these findings is suggested by the data from a group of 6-year-olds who were trained on two independent pairs of a four-term series. Test results showed that subjects spontaneously encoded absolute lengths but tended to ignore information about the absolute weight of objects. It is suggested that high test accuracy depends on stimulus material for which the absolute values of the relevant dimension are encoded. The implications for taking test performance as an indicator of “transitive reasoning” ability are discussed.     

“直觉调整差误”偏向对贝叶斯推理成绩的影响

采用贝叶斯推理问题作为实验材料,探讨被试解决贝叶斯推理问题的启发式策略,从认知偏向的角度分析该问题的困难原因。结果发现:(1)贝叶斯推理问题解决过程中的可得性启发与后验概率估计过程中的直觉调整差误密切相关;(2)贝叶斯推理问题解决过程中文、理科被试都同样会产生直觉调整差误偏向;(3)贝叶斯推理问题解决过程中的后验概率估计值和对推理问题中包括虚报率信息的命题的可得性测量所得主观概率之间存在显著的负相关。     

The Role of Fixation Position in Detecting Scene Changes Across Saccades

Target objects presented within color images of naturalistic scenes were deleted or rotated during a saccade to or from the target object or to a control region of the scene. Despite instructions to memorize the details of the scenes and to monitor for object changes, viewers frequently failed to notice the changes. However, the failure to detect change was mediated by three other important factors: First, accuracy generally increased as the distance between the changing region and the fixation immediately before or after the change decreased. Second, changes were sometimes initially missed, but subsequently noticed when the changed region was later refixated. Third, when an object disappeared from a scene, detection of that disappearance was greatly improved when the deletion occurred during the saccade toward that object. These results suggest that fixation position and saccade direction play an important role in determining whether changes will be detected. It appears that more information can be retained across views than has been suggested by previous studies.     

Liberation or Poverty? An Indirect Assessment of the Impact of Potential Future Events on Society

A methodology is proposed and tested which suggests that one can evaluate the potential impact of future decisions or events on various societal groupings (poor vs. rich; black vs. white) by correlating the values promoted by the event or decision with the values desired by the societal groupings. It is assumed that the correlation represents the potential value satisfaction of the event for the societal grouping. Nine judges were asked to rate the contributions of two events to 18 social values. The values of six societal income groupings from "Under $4,000" to "Over $15,000" (Rokeach & Parker, 1970) were correlated with the values judged to be promoted by the two events. One event suggested that U.S. monies be shifted from military spending to urban aid; as expected, the values promoted by this event were more highly correlated with those of lower income groups than with those of higher income groups. The second event suggested that women have equal opportunities in professional and managerial jobs; as expected, the values of higher income groups would be served more by this event than would the values of lower income groups. This study substantiates that the assessment methodology proposed is feasible, meaningful, and that raters make consensual and reliable judgments that discriminate the events as predicted. It was also found that the value-satisfaction index is correspondent with the public opinions of societal groupings toward events similar to those used in this study.