Attitudes in four age groups toward sex role division in adult occupations and activities

Kindergarten, eighth grade, college, and adult subjects were presented with a list of 43 adult occupations. They indicated for each whether it should be performed by a male, female, or either. Liberality, defined in terms of the number of “either” responses, increased markedly from kindergarten to eighth grade through college and then showed a moderate decrease in the adult sample. In each age group except kindergarten there was a significant sex difference with females being more liberal. Analysis of individual roles showed that both sexes were willing to let women into prestige occupations but females were more willing than males to have household and child-caring tasks performed by both sexes.     

On the problems of being more or less the same

Sixty children aged 2–3 to 5-2 were given four quantity tasks which tested their understanding of more and same. Two tasks involved addition, two involved judgment of static quantities. One of each type of task required a manipulative response, and one of each required a yes/no judgment. The tasks involved judgments of equality and inequality. Tasks involving a manipulative response were significantly easier than those involving a yes/no judgment, indicating that the nature of the response required of the child is crucial. All other differences were negligible, indicating that the other task variables investigated do not affect the child's ability to respond correctly. The ability to make accurate responses was not strongly associated with counting ability. There was a significant difference in the children's counting responses depending on the method used to elicit it.     

任务难度对于返回抑制出现时间的影响

在返回抑制的范式下,以大学生为被斌,采用线索一靶子模式进行了两项实验.实施一发现,在觉察任务中,返回抑制在线索和靶子的时间间隔(SOA)为300ms时出现;在辨别任务中,返回抑制在SOA为700ms时出现.实验二发现在选择任务中,返回抑制在SOA为1300ms时出现.这些结果表明,随着实验任务的难度逐渐增大,返回抑制出现越来越晚.实验任务的难度是影响返回抑制出现时间的一个重要因素.     

Conditional reasoning following contradictory evidence: A developmental analysis

Recent evidence suggests that young adults do not correctly understand the logical relationship of the conditional (if p the q) as it applies to hypothesis testing, and most training procedures have not been productive. However, the introduction of contradictory evidence following faulty inferences has led to accurate inferences with conditional statements. Third and seventh grade and college studients (9, 13, and 21 years of age, respectively) were tested to assess developmental differences in improvement following contradiction training and to test whether improved performance transfers to other conditional reasoning tasks. Significant improvement in conditional reasoning was found for the young adult group following the introduction of contradictory evidence, and the positive effect of the treatment transferred across tasks. The third grade students showed no effects from the introduction of the contradiction, but the seventh graders were often confused by the introduction of the contradiction. Seventh grade and college student performances were generally worse than that of the third graders for the positive instances (p · q), but while the contradiction training improved college studients' performance it did not affect the seventh graders. The results are discussed in terms of changes in cognitive structures.     

Similarities and differences in visual and spatial perspective-taking processes

Processes for perspective-taking can be differentiated on whether or not they require us to mentally rotate ourselves into the position of the other person (Michelon & Zacks, 2006). Until now, only two perspective-taking tasks have been differentiated in this way, showing that judging whether something is to someone’s left or right does require mental rotation, but judging if someone can see something or not does not. These tasks differ firstly on whether the content of the perspective is visual or spatial and secondly on whether the type of the judgement is early-developing (level-1 type) or later-developing (level-2 type). Across two experiments, we tested which of these factors was likely to be most important by using four different perspective-taking tasks which crossed orthogonally the content of judgement (visual vs. spatial) and the type of judgement (level-1 type vs. level-2 type). We found that the level-2 type judgements, of how something looks to someone else and whether it is to their left or right, required egocentric mental rotation. On the other hand, level-1 type judgements, of whether something was in front of or behind someone and of whether someone could see something or not, did not involve mental rotation. We suggest from this that the initial processing strategies employed for perspective-taking are largely independent of whether judgements are visual or spatial in nature. Furthermore, early developing abilities have features that make mental rotation unnecessary.     

The relationship of mathematics self-efficacy expectations to the selection of science-based college majors

The major purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship of mathematics self-efficacy expectations to the selection of science-based majors in college males and females. Based on results obtained from a pilot sample of college students, an instrument assessing mathematics self-efficacy expectations was developed. The items used in the mathematics self-efficacy scale included everyday math tasks, math problems, and math-based college courses. Subjects, 153 female and 109 male undergraduates, completed the mathematics self-efficacy scale, the Bem Sex Role Inventory, an adapted version of the Fennema-Sherman Mathematics Attitudes Scales, and a questionnaire concerning their college major choices. Results indicated that mathematics self-efficacy expectations were significantly related to the extent to which students selected science-based college majors, thus supporting the postulated role of cognitive mediational factors in educational and career choice behavior. In addition, the math-related self-efficacy expectations of college males were significantly stronger than were those of college females. Implications of the findings for the process of educational and career decision-making are discussed.     

The effects of active choice,shock duration,shock experience,and probability on the choice between immediate and delayed shock

The choice between immediate and delayed shock was investigated in three experiments with college students. Some Ss were required to choose between a longer-duration shock immediately and a shorter-duration shock later. Immediate, as opposed to delayed, choices were more frequent when: (a) Ss were required to choose the immediate or the delayed shock in contrast to other procedures in which Ss were required to choose immediate shock or passively wait for automatic shock to occur, (b) the duration of the immediate shock was reduced, (c) the S was given prior experience with shock, and (d) the probability of the immediate shock was reduced. Under some circumstances, shock delay and anxiety increased the frequency of immediate choices.     

Applications of self-efficacy theory to the understanding and treatment of career indecision

The present study was designed to investigate the utility of Bandura's self-efficacy theory to the understanding and treatment of career indecision. More specifically, the study involved the development of a measure of self-efficacy expectations with regard to 50 tasks or behaviors required in career decision making and the examination of the relationships of career decision-making self-efficacy to several components of vocational indecision. A total of 346 subjects, 154 students attending a private liberal arts college and 193 students attending a large state university, were administered the measure of career decision-making self-efficacy expectations and the Career Decision Scale (Osipow, Carney, Winer, Yanico, & Koschier, Columbus, Ohio: Marathon Consulting and Press, 1980). In addition, Scholastic Aptitude Test verbal and math scores were obtained for the liberal arts students, and American College Test math and English subtest scores were obtained for the state university students. Results indicated first that college students in general express considerable confidence in their ability to complete the tasks necessary to make career decisions. In addition, however, the strength of students' career decision-making self-efficacy expectations was strongly and negatively related to overall levels of career indecision and was, in particular, related to the component of indecision described as a lack of structure and confidence with respect to career decisions. Relationships of career decision-making self-efficacy expectations to ability level were negligible. Based on the findings of this study it is suggested that the concept of career-related self-efficacy expectations provides a useful framework for the understanding, assessment, and treatment of at least some of the antecedents to vocational indecision.     

Age differences in organization and recall: The effects of training in categorization

An alternating sort/recall task was employed to train fourth graders and college students in organizational strategies. Free-sorting Ss, at both age levels, sorted a group of words into two to seven categories. Analyses of final sorting patterns indicated reliable differences between the children and adults. The organizational schemes thus developed by the free-sorting Ss were taught, by means of a yoking procedure, to other Ss. Results indicated that the recall of fourth graders was improved when they were forced to learn the sorting patterns developed by the older Ss. Similarly, impairment in the recall of college students was observed when they were required to sort according to the organization employed by the fourth graders. These findings imply that changes in organization can result in changes in recall performance.     

Gender-related aspects of occupational prestige

Prestige of six occupational clusters was studied in relation to gender of the 369 college students who rated the prestige and to gender of imagined jobholders. Subjects rated on a scale of 1–5 the prestige of 30 occupations while envisioning women or envisioning men holding those jobs. Occupations were classified as either female professional, male professional, female nonprofessional, male nonprofessional, neutral professional, or neutral nonprofessional. Classification into these clusters was on the basis of percentage of women and men presently in each occupation and perception of each occupation's sex type, as well as whether college preparation was necessary. Prestige ratings were analyzed by a 2 (rater gender) × 2 (jobholder gender) × 6 (occupational cluster) repeated measures ANOVA. Main effects were obtained for gender (p < .05) and occupational cluster (p < .0001), as well as for the interactions of cluster and rater gender (p < .0001), cluster and jobholder gender (p < .0001), and the three-way interaction of cluster, rater gender, and jobholder gender (p < .01). The significant findings (particularly the interaction between occupational cluster and jobholder gender) seem to indicate that status is not inherent in sex-typed occupations, but is in part a function of the gender of the person imagined to be holding the job, and of the gender of the rater.     

Volitional step execution is an ineffective predictor of recovery performance after sudden balance loss across the age range

Rapid stepping to preserve stability is a crucial action in avoiding a fall. It is also an important measure in the assessment of fall-resisting skills. We examined whether volitional step execution correlates with recovery stepping performance after sudden balance loss for adults of different ages. In addition, we investigated whether volitional step performance can discriminate between individuals with high and low balance recovery capabilities, i.e. between those making single versus multiple steps after balance perturbation. Healthy adults (28 young, 43 middle-aged and 26 older; 24 ± 4, 52 ± 5 and 72 ± 5 years respectively) performed a single step in the anterior direction volitionally in response to a mechanical stimulus to the heel. In a second stepping task, participants experienced sudden anterior balance loss in a lean-and-release protocol. For both tasks, an optical motion capture system was used to assess stepping kinematics. We found on average 28% shorter reaction times, 46% faster maximal step velocities and 48% higher rates of increase in base of support across all participants after sudden balance loss compared to volitional stepping (p < 0.001). There was a significant age-related decline in recovery stepping performance after sudden balance loss: 24/26 older, 15/43 middle-aged and none of the younger adults required two or more steps to regain balance (p < 0.001). Multiple- compared to single-steppers had on average 23% shorter step lengths and 12% lower maximal step velocities for the lean-and-release task (p < 0.01). Multiple-steppers also had reduced rates of increase in base of support for both stepping tasks (14% for balance recovery and 11% for volitional stepping). Furthermore, in examining the relationship between the results of the two tasks, only weak to moderate correlations were observed for step velocity and rate of increase in base of support (0.36 ≤ r ≤ 0.52; p < 0.001). Thus, performance in volitional step execution has a low potential to explain variability in recovery response after sudden balance loss in adults across the lifespan and hence seems less suitable to be used to identify deficiencies in reactive stepping responses necessary to cope with sudden balance disturbances.     

Processing of identity and position information in normal and disabled readers

Processing of identity and position information was investigated in normal and disabled readers at two grade levels (third/fourth grade and sixth grade). Two partial-report tasks were used. The identity task consisted of visual presentation of a five-letter array, followed by a probe letter. Subjects responded yes for a match and no for a mismatch (identity response). The identity + position task was identical except that an additional response was required on correct yes trials: subjects reported the position of the probe letter in the array (position response). Both grade level and reading ability differences were found on the identity response measure, but not on the position response measure. Results were inconsistent with the hypothesis that disabled readers have difficulties in processing order information. Reader ability differences in identity processing attenuated somewhat with age. Serial position functions for both identity and position responses suggested the presence of a left-to-right scanning operation in both age and ability groups. Reader ability differences in processing letter identities were discussed in the context of current theories of reading acquisition.     

Classification of concatenation measurement structures according to scale type

A relational structure is said to be of scale type (M,N) iff M is the largest degree of homogeneity and N the least degree of uniqueness (Narens, 1981a, Narens, 1981b) of its automorphism group.Roberts (in Proceedings of the first Hoboken Symposium on graph theory, New York: Wiley, 1984; in Proceedings of the fifth international conference on graph theory and its applications, New York: Wiley, 1984) has shown that such a structure on the reals is either ordinal or M is less than the order of at least one defining relation (Theorem 1.2). A scheme for characterizing N is outlined in Theorem 1.3. The remainder of the paper studies the scale type of concatenation structures 〈X, ?, ° 〉, where ? is a total ordering and ° is a monotonic operation. Section 2 establishes that for concatenation structures with M>0 and N<∞ the only scale types are (1,1), (1,2), and (2,2), and the structures for the last two are always idempotent. Section 3 is concerned with such structures on the real numbers (i.e., candidates for representations), and it uses general results of Narens for real relational structures of scale type (M, M) (Theorem 3.1) and of Alper (Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 1985, 29, 73–81) for scale type (1, 2) (Theorem 3.2). For M>0, concatenation structures are all isomorphic to numerical ones for which the operation can be written $\text{x°y = yf(}\text{x}\text{y}\text{)}$, where f is strictly increasing and $\text{f(x)}\text{x}$ is strictly decreasing (unit structures). The equation f(x^?)=f(x)^? is satisfied for all x as follows: for and only for ? = 1 in the (1,1) case; for and only for ?=kⁿ, k > 0 fixed, and n ranging over the integers, in the (1, 2) case; and for all ?>0 in the (2, 2) case (Theorems 3.9, 3.12, and 3.13). Section 4 examines relations between concatenation catenation and conjoint structures, including the operation induced on one component by the ordering of a conjoint structure and the concept of an operation on one component being distributive in a conjoint structure. The results, which are mainly of interest in proving other results, are mostly formulated in terms of the set of right translations of the induced operation. In Section 5 we consider the existence of representations of concatenation structures. The case of positive ones was dealt with earlier (Narens & Luce (Journal of Pure & Applied Algebra27, 1983, 197–233). For idempotent ones, closure, density, solvability, and Archimedean are shown to be sufficient (Theorem 5.1). The rest of the section is concerned with incomplete results having to do with the representation of cases with M>0. A variety of special conditions, many suggested by the conjoint equivalent of a concatenation structure, are studied in Section 6. The major result (Theorem 6.4) is that most of these concepts are equivalent to bisymmetry for idempotent structures that are closed, dense, solvable, and Dedekind complete. This result is important in Section 7, which is devoted to a general theory of scale type (2, 2) for the utility of gambles. The representation is a generalization of the usual SEU model which embodies a distinctly bounded form of rationality; by the results of Section 6 it reduces to the fully rational SEU model when rationality is extended beyond the simplest equivalences. Theorem 7.3 establishes that under plausible smoothness conditions, the ratio scale case does not introduce anything different from the (2, 2) case. It is shown that this theory is closely related to, but somewhat more general, than Kahneman and Tversky's (Econometrica47, 1979, 263–291) prospect theory.     

Cognitive processing and cognitive ability: A multivariate validity investigation

What are the underlying sources of cognitive ability differences and of cognitive growth? Recent attention has focused on the experimental isolation of cognitive processing factors in the explanation of performance differences on complex tasks, and a number of research studies show a substantial relation between processing parameters and ability differences. Several validity issues—convergent process measures, differential ability prediction, and multiple levels of analysis—have not been addressed empirically, and these concerns are the focus of this study. Sixty eighth graders (30 F, 30 M) and 60 adults (30 F, 30 M) participated in verbal and spatial assessments, and in six experiments over two sessions. Three experiments were designed to estimate memory retrieval processing and three to estimate mental rotation processing. Two strategy parameters were derived also from these experiments. Within the processing tasks, there was modest convergence for eighth graders but negligible convergence for adults. More importantly, relationships between the processing parameters and the ability indices failed substantially to conform to the theoretically predicted convergent/discriminant pattern. Regression analyses also provided support for these disconforming patterns. The viability of explaining developmental and/or individual] differences using cognitive processing variance is explored.     

Three aspects of cognitive development

An attempt was made to characterize and explain developmental differences in children's thinking, specifically in their understanding of balance scale problems. Such differences were sought in three domains: existing knowledge about the problems, ability to acquire new information about them, and process-level differences underlying developmental changes in the first two areas. In Experiment 1, four models of rules that might govern children's performance on balance scale problems were proposed. The rules proved to accurately describe individual performance and also to accurately predict developmental trends on different types of balance scale problems. Experiment 2 examined responsiveness to experience; it was found that older and younger children, equated for initial performance on balance scale problems, derived different benefits from identical experience. Experiment 3 examined a potential cause of this discrepancy, that younger children might be less able than older ones to benefit from experience because their encoding of stimuli was less adequate. Independent assessment procedures revealed that the predicted differences in older and younger children's encoding were present; it was also found that these differences were not artifactual and that reducing them also reduced the previously observed differences in responsiveness to experience. It was concluded, therefore, that the encoding hypothesis explained a large part of the developmental difference in ability to acquire new information.     

Cooperative education,career exploration,and occupational concepts for community college students

Super's self-concept theory of career development and Jordaan's construct of vocational exploratory behavior were used to investigate the outcomes of a college cooperative education program. The effects of an internship were compared with those of a classroom experience with regard to change in similarity between self- and occupational pictures (incorporation scores). A measure of incorporation was administered to 85 students who worked during one quarter, and 99 students who were enrolled in classes during the same period. Both groups increased in incorporation for prospective occupation (t = .01, p > .10). For the internship group no difference was found between increase in incorporation for first- and second-choice occupation (t = .24, p > .10), while for the classroom group the increase in incorporation for prospective occupation was significantly greater than for second-choice (t = 2.80, p < .01). This result was discussed in light of the implication that the internship stimulated vocational exploratory behavior. Roe's system of occupational classification revealed an unexpected lack of relationship between first- and second-choice occupations. These findings were discussed in relation to the career development of the working-class community college sample.     

注意控制和短时存储对音位流畅性和语义流畅性的影响

工作记忆的中央执行系统具有注意控制和短时存储的功能。采用双任务范式,探讨了中央执行系统的注意控制和短时存储对言语流畅性的影响。实验1考察了中央执行系统的转换和抑制功能对音位流畅性和语义言语流畅性的影响。结果表明,中央执行系统的转换和抑制功能对两种言语流畅性的影响相当。实验2考察了中央执行系统的注意控制资源和短时存储资源对两种言语流畅性的影响。结果表明,语义流畅性更依赖于短时存储资源,音位流畅性更依赖于注意控制资源。研究还发现,被试完成语义流畅性任务的策略更易受概念系统的特性影响,完成音位流畅性任务的策略更易受语言的特点影响。在实验研究的基础上,作者提出了工作记忆影响言语流畅性的理论模型     

Mental rotation of static and dynamic figures

Previous studies comparing performance on standard (i.e., static) and dynamic spatial test items have concluded that the two item types measure different abilities. Such conclusions about the uniqueness of static and dynamic spatial abilities seem premature, however, since only a limited number of dynamic spatial tasks have been utilized in research and these have differed markedly from their static counterparts. In the present studies, tasks were designed to require a common mental operation (mental rotation) under static and dynamic conditions. Correlations between static and dynamic performance ranged from .80 to .90. This appears to suggest that the emergence of a unique dynamic ability factor depends on the utilization of certain specialized tasks (e.g., arrival time tasks) with mental operations much different than those required by conventional spatial tests. In other words, it is apparently the requirement for different cognitive processes and not the processing of stimulus motion per se that distinguishes performance onsome dynamic tasks from performance on some standard static tasks.     

Judgments of differences and ratios of numerals

Each subject performed two tasks, dividing a line segment so that either (a) theratio of subjective lengths corresponded to the ratio of the magnitudes of two numerals or (b) thedifference in length was proportional to the numerical difference. Had subjects actually performed two operations on the same scale, the responses would have been nonmonotonically related. Instead, data for the two tasks were nearly identical and ordinally compatible with either a ratio or a subtractive model. The ratio model implied scale values for numerals that were a positively accelerated function of numerical value, inconsistent with previous results. With a nonlinear response function for graphic length, the subtractive model fit well, yielding scale values that were a negatively accelerated function of numerical value and a linear function of previously obtained scales. These results, together with other recent findings, suggest that subjects may perform the same operation in spite of instructions to judge “ratios” or “differences” and that this operation can be best represented by a subtractive model.