Behavioral inference in young children

Three experiments are reported on behavioral inference in children of 3 to 5 years of age. In each experiment the children learned two separate sequences of behavior which they were required to put together in the final test stage in order to obtain a reward. In the first experiment moderate levels of behavioral inference were obtained, although a relatively high proportion of children failed to respond in the test phase. In the second experiment different instructions were used in the test phase, the number of nonresponders was greatly reduced and a much higher proportion of children showed behavioral inference. The third experiment obtained similar results under conditions which excluded the possibility of mediation during a memory test, which was included in the previous experiments. It was concluded that behavioral inference is found, under suitable conditions, in children as young as 3-years-old, and that reports by other investigators of failure to find such inference up to the age of about 8 were due to problems with apparatus and instructions.     

Preference and response suppression under different correlations between shock and a positive reinforcer in rats

A lever-press response by rats was reinforced by food in two successively presented types of trial signalled by different discriminative stimuli. When responding was punished by a shock in one type of trial, a groups for which the shock always preceded the reinforcer by .5 sec (positive correlation) showed less suppression in those trials than a group which received the shock and food separated in time (negative correlation). When, in a second experiment, rats were given a choice between food alone in one end of a shuttle box and either positively or negatively correlated shock and food in the other on a concurrent schedule, the group receiving the negatively correlated shock showed a greater preference for the food alone end. On the basis of a third experiment in which a tone was substituted for the shock in the choice situation, it was argued that the effect of correlation was not simply due to the stimulus properties of the shock. A final experiment demonstrated that when shock punishment is administered during extinction of the lever-press response, the rate of extinction is slower if the shock has been previously paired with the food reinforcer. Pairing a shock with food seems to attenuate the intrinsic aversiveness of the shock through Pavlovian counterconditioning.     

A search for contrast effects in discrete-trial discrimination learning by pigeons

Behavioral contrast has often been observed in free-operant experiments with pigeons, rarely in discrete-trial experiments with rats. Although Jenkins (1961) and Terrace (1963) have reported a discrete-trial contrast effect in pigeons, a series of experiments reported here found no evidence that latency of responding to S+ in a discrete-trial situation was reliably decreased by alternating reinforced trials to S+ with nonreinforced trials to S?. Latency of responding to S+ was affected neither by the length of the preceding intertrial interval (within the range of 10–60 sec), nor by whether the preceding trial had been to S+ or to S?. The results of two of these experiments suggested that the appearance of positive contrast in Jenkins's experiment was a consequence of differences in the variability of the intertrial interval experienced by control and discrimination groups. In two final experiments, employing standard free-operant procedures, contrast was observed as an increase in rate of responding to S+, but not as a decrease in latency of the first response on each S+ trial. The implication is that contrast effects are more readily observed with the rate measures of free-operant experiments than with the latency measures of discrete-trial experiments.     

Autonomous processes in comprehension: A reply to Marslen-Wilson and Tyler

A criterion which has been proposed for distinguishing minds from computing systems is examined from the point of view of some current work on computer induction.     

Conditioned inhibition is not the symmetrical opposite of conditioned excitation: A test of the Rescorla-Wagner model

Rescorla and Wagner's (1972) linear associative model of learning predicts that a neutral stimulus will become weakly excitatory if it is paired with a conditioned inhibitor and the compound is not reinforced. If the inhibitor is not allowed to extinguish during these pairings, the model predicts that the neutral stimulus will become strongly excitatory. Rescorla (1971) has presented some evidence to support the former prediction of a weak effect. Experiment I tested the latter prediction of a strong effect using rats in a conditioned emotional response paradigm, and found no evidence that the pairings made the neutral stimulus excitatory. Experiment II replicated Rescorla's results, but showed that even on a relearning test the experimental group learned no faster than a novel stimulus control group.     

“John thinks that Mary thinks that…” attribution of second-order beliefs by 5- to 10-year-old children

Understanding of second-order belief structures by 5- and 10-year-old children was assessed in acted stories in which two characters (John and Mary) were independently informed about an object's (ice-cream van's) unexpected transfer to a new location. Hence both John and Mary knew where the van was but there was a mistake in John's second-order belief about Mary's belief: “John thinks Mary thinks the van is still at the old place”. Children's understanding of this second-order belief was tested by asking “Where does John think Mary will go for ice cream?” Correct answers could only be given if John's second-order belief was represented, since all shortcut reasoning based on first-order beliefs would have led to the wrong answer. Results suggested unexpected early competence around the age of 6 and 7 years, shown under optimal conditions when inference of second-order beliefs was prompted.     

Semantic focus and sentence comprehension.

Reaction time to detect a phoneme target in a sentence was found to be faster when the word in which the target occurred formed part of the semantic focus of the sentence. Focus was determined by asking a question before the sentence; that part of the sentence which comprised the answer to the sentence was assumed to be focussed. This procedure made it possible to vary position of focus within the sentence while holding all acoustic aspects of the sentence itself constant. It is argued that sentence understanding is facilitated by rapid identification of focussed information. Since focussed words are usually accented, it is further argued that the active search for accented words demonstrated in previous research should be interpreted as a search for semantic focus.     

Habituation in children within a behavior suppression paradigm

Using an instrumental response suppression paradigm, Experiment 1 demonstrated habituation and long-term retention of habituation to a tone stimulus in third-grade children, but specificity of habituation was not obtained when a new tone stimulus was presented. In Experiment 2 first graders showed specificity of habituation to auditory stimuli on the response suppression measure whereas fifth graders did not. However, both age groups evidenced specificity when a skin conductance measure was employed. In addition, specificity of habituation was not affected by amount of training at either age level. Experiment 3 demonstrated specificity of habituation in fifth graders on the response suppression measure when a cross-modality stimulus change was introduced. Implications of these data for analyses of habituation and traditional learning are discussed.     

Neonatal sucking: Effects of quantity of the response-contingent fluid upon sucking rhythm and heart rate

The temporal organization of neonatal nutritive sucking and heart rate were studied in two consecutive 4-min periods to analyze the effects of two quantities of response-contingent fluid. One group of newborns experienced only the larger amount, a second experienced the smaller, and two other groups experienced both in counterbalanced order. Cumulative pausing time and intersuck intervals (sucking rate within bursts) were both affected by the amount of fluid delivered at each response. At the start of sucking bursts, heart rate accelerated to a stable level. Within-burst heart rates were higher with increased quantity of contingently delivered fluid. The results are discussed in relation to the distinction between nutritive and nonnutritive sucking and to previous findings on the effects of fluid sweetness upon sucking.     

Developmental differences in mental rotation.

A reaction time paradigm was used to investigate developmental differences in ability to rotate and compare imaginal representations. Third grade, fifth grade, and college students (ages 9, 11, and 20 years, respectively) were required to determine whether a letter of the alphabet was presented in its backward or normal position. Letters were presented at 0, 60, 120, 180, 240, or 300° orientations from upright. Subjects were given no advance information about a test letter, or they were given identity and orientation information. In the no information condition, reaction time increased for all age groups as a function of the departure in orientation of the test letter from an upright position. In the advance information condition, reaction time remained uniform across orientation for only the college subjects. The developmental implications of these findings are discussed.     

Activation of bipolar prototypes in attribute inferences

The present study examined how prototypes, as organizational principles of knowledge about persons, affect attribute inference judgments. A distinction is drawn between bipolar and unipolar categories. Two questions are addressed: First, whether only one or both prototypes of bipolar categories like extraversion-introversion are activated in making inference judgments, and second, whether information about the applicability of a stimulus item to a target is processed differently than information about the inapplicability of the stimulus item. The results support the hypothesis that only one prototype is activated and that this is the affirmative one, irrespective of whether the stimulus information is applicable or inapplicable to the target person. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

Dogmatism and information gathering in personality impression formation

Subjects were assigned the task of forming an impression of another person with information being gathered from two conflicting sources. One half were given a positive first impression, and one half were given a negative first impression before allowing them to select additional information. Final ratings were made when Ss indicated that they had taken sufficient information. Dogmatic Ss took in less information before passing “final judgment,” gave more extreme stability ratings, expressed greater liking for their agreed-with source, and showed a trend toward a preference for explaining away impression-discrepant information rather than to withhold judgment.     

Need for uniqueness,self-schemas,and thought as moderators of the false-consensus effect

L. Ross and his colleagues (L. Ross, D. Greene, & P. House, 1977, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 32, 880–892) have demonstrated the tendency for people to expect peer similarity in behavior, termed the “false-consensus” bias. The present study was concerned with factors that might affect the generality of this bias. Specifically, we looked at the impact of level of need for uniqueness (C. R. Snyder & H. L. Fromkin, 1977, Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 5, 518–527), existence of a self-schema (H. Markus, 1977, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 35, 63–78), and thought on expectations of peer similarity. It was predicted that thought would polarize the estimates of high and low N Uniq individuals in opposite directions, but only when the individual possessed a self-schema along the relevant behavioral dimension. The results for behaviors reflecting independence supported this prediction. Discussion centered around limits of the false-consensus bias, along with consideration of the complexities involved in the link between availability factors and interpersonal judgments.     

Three theories of self-disclosure exchange

The present study tested predictions derived from equitable exchange, social attraction, and normative information theories of self-disclosure. Variables relevant to each theory were manipulated orthogonally in the following factorial design: (1) intimate vs. superficial vs. no confederate disclosure, (2) positive vs. negative evaluation delivered by the confederate, and (3) intimate vs. non-intimate disclosure as normative for the experimental situation. Groups in which the subject was exposed to one of the independent variables in the absence of the others were included, to yield 18 cells with 10 female subjects per cell. The findings conformed to equitable exchange theory, in that subjects were more willing to disclose to a high- than a low-revealing partner. However, disclosure appeared to be suppressed in response to low disclosure, rather than enhanced by intimate disclosure. Also, true reciprocity of disclosure did not occur, in that subjects did not completely match the intimacy of the confederate. Normative information proved to be a potent determinant of disclosure tendency. No support was found for social attraction theory. Although confederate evaluation was the best predictor of interpersonal attraction, it was the poorest predictor of intent to disclose. Attraction was not found to parallel disclosure level.     

Abortion as a stigma: in the eyes of the beholder

The purpose of this study was to investigate social perceptions of a man who impregnated a woman and advised her to have an abortion, and those of a woman who had an abortion. Each subject rated one of four persons on a social distance measure: either a man involved in an abortion, a woman having had an abortion, a male control target, or a female control target. Both abortion targets were perceived less favorably than the control targets. The female abortion target was rejected more by male subjects than by female subjects, and the male abortion target was more rejected by females than by males. While holding permissive attitudes toward abortion was related to willingness to meet the female abortion target, restrictive attitudes toward abortion predicted willingness to meet the male abortion target. Variables related to stigmatization of the man were lack of identification, restrictive attitudes toward abortion, and perceived responsibility. Restrictive attitudes toward women's rights and roles in this society and restrictive attitudes toward abortion predicted stigmatization of the woman. It is suggested that shifting one's attention from characteristics of the stigmatized to observers' characteristics provides a useful perspective on the stigmatization process.     

Birth order and introversion-extraversion

The relationship between birth order and introversion-extraversion was investigated. Subjects were 70 male and 77 female undergraduates, all from three-child families. The measure of introversion employed was the Social Introversion Scale (Scale 0) of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. A two-way analysis of variance indicated that first borns were more introverted than either middle-horns or last-horns, with no difference between the latter two groups. It was suggested that inconsistent results in this area may be due to the use of different measures of introversion.     

Mental age and cognitive stage in young handicapped and at-risk children

This research addressed the question of whether stage-related patterns of early cognitive development, reported for normally developing children in the first two and a half years of life, may also characterize the development of at-risk and handicapped children when mental age rather than chronological age is used to organize the data. Performance on a psychometric infant test and two neo-Piagetian-based stage measures was assessed for 95 at-risk and handicapped children. Mental age predicted cognitive level of performance for levels 1 to 3, representing the first year and a half of development, but did not predict the highest level, symbolic functioning. In addition, transition points between levels were observed at mental ages similar to the chronological ages when these transitions have been reported for normally developing infants, for all but the last level. The significance of the correspondence between the psychometric measure and the stage measures is discussed and several alternatives for the breakdown at the highest level are considered.