Handling negative inputs: On the plausible equity formulae

Equity research has been based on defining formulae that do not necessarily imply the hypotheses thought to have been derived from them and that are not consistent with empirical data cited as supporting equity theory. Neither Adams' (1965) ratio definition nor Walster et al.'s (1970, 1972, 1973) formula satisfy the fundamental criterion that, when equity holds, outcome should be an increasing function of input. Six formulae that do satisfy this fundamental criterion (including Adams' ratio definition restricted to positive ratios, Walster et al.'s revision of their formula, three formulae generated by a simple constructive procedure, and an exponential definition) are compared with respect to 11 other criteria and with respect to their predictions of the results of two thought experiments.     

Subjective responses to alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages by alcoholic respondents

Changes in the subjective response to alcohol following electrical aversive conditioning have been studied through the use of the semantic differential (Costello, 1974; Costello et al., 1974a, 1974b; Hallam et al., 1972; Miller et al., 1974; Miller et al. 1973). As pointed out by the Costello group and by Kaplan (1972) there are several problems with this technique. The midpoint of the 7-point scale may be psychologically impossible to define if the subject does not perceive the adjectives pairs as mutually antagonistic. It is frequently assumed that the adjective pairs are bipolar, based on the original work of Osgood et al. (1957). Recent evidence (Costello, 1974; Costello et al., 1974a, 1974b) has demonstrated that the scales used by Hallam et al. (1972) were in fact, not bipolar.The stimuli used by Costello and coworkers were an alcoholic and a non-alcoholic slide, following the work of Hallam et al. (1972). Recent studies (Miller et al., 1974; Miller et al., 1973; Wilson, 1973) have utilized rating the taste of real alcohol, as opposed to slides, in order to measure the effectiveness of behavioral therapies in alcoholism. The subject is asked to taste several beverages, some of which have alcohol, and rate the taste of each drink on a set of semantic differential adjective pairs. Miller et al. (1974), found that while the actual amount of pre-therapy alcoholic beverage consumed predicted which subjects did better at 6 months outcome, the semantic differential ratings did not. One reason might have been that the scales were not bipolar and thus the semantic measurement was highly unreliable.The purpose of the present study was to replicate the Costello studies, using real beverages, alcoholic and non-alcoholic as the stimuli.     

List-strength effect: II. Theoretical mechanisms

Ratcliff, Clark, and Shiffrin (1990) examined the list-strength effect: the effect of strengthening (or weakening) some list items upon memory for other list items. The list-strength effect was missing or negative in recognition, missing or positive in cued recall, and large and positive in free recall. We show that a large number of current models fail to predict these findings. A variant of the SAM model of Gillund and Shiffrin (1984), involving a differentiation hypothesis, can handle the data. A variant of MINERVA 2 (Hintzman, 1986, 1988) comes close but has some problems. Successful variants of a variety of composite and network models were not found (e.g., Ackley, Hinton, & Sejnowski, 1985; Anderson, 1972, 1973; Metcalfe Eich, 1982; Murdock, 1982; Pike, 1984). The results suggest constraints on the future development of such models.     

Episodic generation can cause semantic forgetting: Retrieval-induced forgetting of false memories

In two experiments, we tested whether false recognition and false recall were prone to retrieval-induced forgetting, using the retrieval practice paradigm (Anderson, Bjork, & Bjork, 1994). Participants encoded lists of cue-target word pairs associated with a nonpresented, critical theme word and then engaged in retrieval practice for half of the word pairs from half of the lists. As expected, unpracticed targets from practiced lists were recognized (Experiment 1) and recalled (Experiment 2) less well than those from unpracticed lists. In addition, false recognition and false recall of critical items associated with practiced lists was lower than false recognition and false recall of items associated with unpracticed lists. We argue that false memories are prone to inhibitory mechanisms engendered by the retrieval practice paradigm. The results are consistent with the claim that semantically activated critical themes interfere with the episodic retrieval of list words and that inhibition decreases the activation level of these interfering memory representations during retrieval practice.     

Lexical Association and False Memory for Words in Two Cultures

This study examined the relationship between language experience and false memory produced by the DRM paradigm. The word lists used in Stadler, et al. (Memory & Cognition, 27, 494–500, 1999) were first translated into Chinese. False recall and false recognition for critical non-presented targets were then tested on a group of Chinese users. The average co-occurrence rate of the list word and the critical word was calculated based on two large Chinese corpuses. List–level analyses revealed that the correlation between the American and Taiwanese participants was significant only in false recognition. More importantly, the co-occurrence rate was significantly correlated with false recall and recognition of Taiwanese participants, and not of American participants. In addition, the backward association strength based on Nelson et al. (The University of South Florida word association, rhyme and word fragment norms, 1999) was significantly correlated with false recall of American participants and not of Taiwanese participants. Results are discussed in terms of the relationship between language experiences and lexical association in creating false memory for word lists.     

Selective attention fails to alter the dichotic listening lag effect: evidence that the lag effect is preattentional

Berlin et al. (1973) reported that either stimulus from a dichotic pair of consonant-vowel syllables is processed preferentially when its presentation is delayed by 30-60 ms. In the first of three experiments with 60 normal right-handed adults, we replicated the Berlin et al. "lag effect," but only for asynchronies between 60 and 90 ms. In Experiment 2 subjects focused attention selectively on one ear. The results indicated that focused attention and stimulus asynchrony have additive effects: Performance improved at the attended ear irrespective of stimulus asynchrony, but the lag effect remained unchanged relative to the divided-attention condition. Experiment 3 entailed a signal detection task that allowed separate analysis of detection and localization accuracy. As in previous studies, selective attention to one ear increased the accuracy of localization but not detection at the attended ear. Both dependent measures indicated a lag effect that remained invariant as attention was manipulated. These findings imply that the lag effect is attributable to a preattentional stage of auditory processing.     

Retrieval dynamics in recognition and list discrimination: Further evidence of separate processes of familiarity and recall

Two experiments tested the hypothesis that the time course of retrieval from memory is different for familiarity and recall. The response-signal method was used to compare memory retrieval dynamics in yes-no recognition memory, as a measure of familiarity, with those of list discrimination, as a measure of contextual recall. Responses were always made with regard to membership in two previous study lists. In Experiment 1 an exclusion task requiring positive responses to words from one list and negative responses to new words and words from the nontarget list was used. In Experiment 2, recognition and list discrimination were separate tasks. Retrieval curves from both experiments were consistent, showing that the minimal retrieval time for recognition was about 100 msec faster than that for list discrimination. Repetition affected asymptotic performance but had no reliable effects on retrieval dynamics in either the recognition or the list-discrimination task.     

False recognition and word length: A reanalysis of Roediger,Watson, McDermott,and Gallo (2001) and some new data

Roediger, Watson, McDermott, and Gallo (2001) reported a multiple regression analysis of the variables that predicted rates of false recall and recognition across lists in the Deese/Roediger— McDermott paradigm. They concluded that false recollection was predictable from the backward associative strength of critical words and list words and the veridical recall level of list words, with no independent contribution of frequency, concreteness, or length of critical words. A reanalysis of their data shows that critical word length does contribute to false recognition when it is measured relative to the length of other words in the list. Relative word length in the form of an unsignedz-score has a larger correlation with false recognition than any of the variables used by Roediger et al. and is also independently predictive of false recognition. This relationship was confirmed by the results of two recognition experiments in which false positives were significantly less frequent for words of lengths that never occurred in a studied list than for words of lengths that did occur in the study list.     

The syllable-based word length effect and stimulus set specificity

The word length effect is the finding that a list of items that take less time to pronounce is better recalled on an immediate serial recall test than an otherwise equivalent list of items that take more time to pronounce. Contrary to the predictions of all major models of the word length effect, Hulme, Suprenant, Bireta, Stuart, and Neath (2004) found that short and long items presented within the same list were recalled equally as well as short items presented in lists of just short items. Different results were reported by Cowan, Baddeley, Elliot, and Norris (2003), who found that mixed lists were recalled worse than pure short lists, but better than pure long lists. The experiments reported here suggest that the different empirical findings are due to properties of the stimulus sets used: one stimulus set produces results that replicate Cowan et al., whereas all other sets tested so far yield results that replicate Hulme et al.     

Repetition effects in associative false recognition: Theme-based criterion shifts are the exception, not the rule

Previous reports have demonstrated that false memory for the critical items of associative lists decreases when lists are studied multiple times (Benjamin, 2001). In three experiments, we explored two hypotheses that might account for false memory reductions with repetition. Under an identification hypothesis, repetition decreases false memory because participants realise that critical items are absent from the list at encoding and thus reject them at test. Under a criterion shift hypothesis, repetition decreases false memory because it increases the discriminability of studied words from lures, causing participants to set a higher response criterion for positive recognition responses. Results uniquely supported the criterion shift hypothesis. Furthermore, results showed that participants only changed their criterion on separate recognition tests, not on an item-by-item basis within a single recognition test. The failure to establish separate criteria within a test increased false memory for repeated lists.     

Norms for word lists that create false memories

Roediger and McDermott (1995) induced false recall and false recognition for words that were not presented in lists. They had subjects study 24 lists of 15 words that were associates of a common word (called the critical target or critical lure) that was not presented in the list. False recall and false recognition of the critical target occurred frequently in response to these lists. The purpose of the current work was to provide a set of normative data for the lists Roediger and McDermott used and for 12 others developed more recently. We tested false recall and false recognition for critical targets from 36 lists. Despite the fact that all lists were constructed to produce false remembering, the diversity in their effectiveness was large--60% or more of subjects falsely recalled window and sleep following the appropriate lists, and false recognition for these items was greater than 80%. However, the list generated from king led to 10% false recall and 27% false recognition. Possible reasons for these wide differences in effectiveness of the lists are discussed. These norms serve as a useful benchmark for designing experiments about false recall and false recognition in this paradigm.     

Biofeedback and reinforcement to increase heterosexual arousal in homosexuals

Relatively few procedures exist for developing heterosexual arousal in the treatment of sexual deviation (Barlow, 1973) although several recent studies suggest this is a necessary component of treatment (Feldman and MacCulloch, 1971; Bancroft, 1970; Barlow, 1974).In recent years, biofeedback techniques have been applied to many types of disorders (Blanchard and Young, 1974). Basic to biofeedback technology is the notion that providing a person with feedback (or immediate information) of a bioelectric response enables him to learn (gain) self-control of that response. These responses traditionally have been considered involuntary and include heart rate (Scott et al., 1973a). blood pressure (Benson et al., 1971), stomach acid pH (Welgan. 1972), and electroencephalographic activity (Sterman, 1972), In the present experiments, biofeedback and its attendant technology was applied to the problem of generating heterosexual arousal in homosexual males.Frequently, in biofeedback research, reinforcement has been used in addition to feedback in attempting to teach self-control of a response. In fact, an alternate way of conceptualizing and describing the biofeedback research is in terms of operant conditioning (e.g., Weiss and Engel, 1971: Scott et al., 1973b). In one sense, however, feedback and reinforcement are inextricably confounded: the delivery or non-delivery of a reinforcer provides the S with information about the rightness or wrongness of his response and hence, binary feedback about it. Likewise, if feedback or knowledge of whether the response has reached a criterion level or not is effective in leading to a change in the response, then feedback functions as a reinforcer. Reinforcement, however, may be viewed as providing both information about the response (feedback) plus an incentive to change it in the desired direction in addition to any incentive provided by successful performance of a task. Thus, if one provides Ss with a separate, functionally defined reinforcer in such a way that no additional information about the response is conveyed, it becomes possible to detect additive effects of reinforcement over feedback effects. Such was the second purpose of this study.Several recent analogue experiments with volunteers have reported success in modifying erections through feedback and/or reinforcement. Price (1973) found that heterosexual volunteers who received analogue visual feedback as well as binary feedback, provided by a colored light once the needle had passed a pre-set criterion, showed a shorter latency to peak erection and maintained criterion erection longer than a control group receiving no feedback. Both groups were listening to erotic audio tapes. Rosen (1973) demonstrated significant suppression of tumescence in a group of heterosexual volunteers provided with response contingent signal lights. A group receiving non-contingent feedback did not show this effect. In a technical paper, Laws and Pawlowski (1973) have suggested audio feedback of tumescence as a treatment for deficits in sexual arousal.In the clinic, Harbison, Quinn and McAllister (1970), in an uncontrolled case study, reported increasing heterosexual responsiveness in homosexuals through reinforcement of erection. In one of their homosexual patients they were able, over a long series of trials, to increase erection to a heterosexual stimulus (female slide) through rewarding progressively larger responses with sips of iced lime after the patient was water deprived. In addition to the reinforcement, this S was given feedback, of sorts, in that a light was flashed for each successful trial. A second homosexual patient was similarly rewarded for maintaining progressively longer and clearer fantasies of heterosexual behavior. Since other treatments were also applied and no experimental analysis was performed, it is not possible to evaluate the effectiveness of the procedure.In the present experiment the separate effects of feedback and reinforcement to increase heterosexual arousal in homosexuals was experimentally evaluated using single case experimental design methodology (Barlow and Hersen, 1973). Since each experiment was somewhat different in design and purpose, each will be described separately.     

Paired associate learning: Data on pair difficulty and variables that influence difficulty

Two hundred pairs of five-letter words were produced randomly from all five-letter words in Thorndike and Lorge (1944). The difficulty of each pair was established for paired associate learning by having 50 subjects learn lists of 20 pairs. The difficulty of a pair was found to be highly reliable and was not influenced by the particular list in which it was learned. Frequency of response terms was positively related to learning, but the frequency of the stimulus terms was not. Two-syllable five-letter words were learned more rapidly than one-syllable five-letter words. Two 20-pair lists were constructed, one consisting of homogeneous pairs of average difficulty and the other of 10 very easy pairs and 10 very difficult pairs. As anticipated, performance on the latter list was initially better than that on the former, with the performance on the two lists converging over trials. The difficulty of the pairs as determined by paired associate learning was unrelated to misses on a recognition test, but the false alarms decreased as difficulty decreased.     

Spacing and lag effects in free recall of pure lists

Repeating list items leads to better recall when the repetitions are separated by several unique items than when they are presented successively; thespacing effect refers to improved recall for spaced versus successive repetition (lag > 0 vs. lag = 0); thelag effect refers to improved recall for long lags versus short lags. Previous demonstrations of the lag effect have utilized lists containing a mixture of items with varying degrees of spacing. Because differential rehearsal of items in mixed lists may exaggerate any effects of spacing, it is important to demonstrate these effects in pure lists. As in Toppino and Schneider (1999), we found an overall advantage for recall of spaced lists. We further report the first demonstration of a lag effect in pure lists, with significantly better recall for lists with widely spaced repetitions than for those with moderately spaced repetitions.     

Item and order information in subject-performed tasks and experimenter-performed tasks

This study investigated the enactment effect from the perspective of the item-order hypothesis (e.g., M. Serra & J. S. Nairne, 1993). The authors assumed that in subject-performed tasks (SPTs), item encoding is improved but order encoding is disrupted compared with experimenter-performed tasks (EPTs), that order encoding of EPTs is only better in pure lists, and that the item--order hypothesis is confined to short lists. Item information was tested in recognition memory tests, order information in order reconstruction tasks, and both item and order information in free-recall tests. The results of 5 experiments using short (8 items) and long lists (24 items) in a design with list type (pure, mixed) and encoding condition (EPT, SPT) as factors supported the hypotheses.     

Maintaining disulfiram ingestion among outpatient alcoholics: a security-deposit contingency contracting procedure

Disulfiram is frequently prescribed to alcoholic patients as a deterrent to drinking. Although ingestion of ethanol by a disulfiram patient quickly results in an intense dysphonc reaction, the drug is not generally credited with significant value in alcoholism treatment (Mottin, 1973). It is suggested that most alcoholics simply stop taking the medication (Gerrein et al., 1973). and review articles conclude that motivation for abstinence is the crucial variable involved in successful disulfiram treatment (Ditman, 1966: Mottin, 1973).Motivation may be a characteristic of environmental contingencies rather than of individuals. If so, environmental contingencies should permit one to design into a disulfiram treatment progrim the requisite motivation to achieve therapeutic success. Contingency management procedures supporting disulfiram ingestion reported to date (Liebson et al., 1973: Haynes, 1973) have been of the sort to be imposed upon difficult populations rather than offered to general treatment applicants. Contingency contracting may represent a technique for supporting disulfiram ingestion appropriate to the broader general population of voluntary alcoholism treatment applicants. Contingency contract treatment (Homme, 1969; Stuart, 1971) is a procedure in which client and therapist mutually agree to establish an incentive for the client to achieve a behavioral goal. Contingency contracts can be viewed as a form of self-control therapy, and have been applied in a wide variety of problem areas, including school problems (Homme, 1969: Cantrell, et al., 1969). delinquency (Stuart, 1971),weight control (Mann, 1972). smoking reduction (Elliott and Tighe, 1968: Winett, 1973), drug abuse (Boudin, 1972), and alcoholism (Miller, 1972).Frequently contingency contracting involves the client's posting of a financial security deposit to serve as his incentive for achieving the agreed-upon therapeutic goal (Tighe and Elliot, 1968). This security deposit can be earned back consequent upon achieving specific goals, or sacrificed consequent upon failure. Controlled studies by Mann (1972) and by Winett (1973) have demonstrated this security-deposit procedure to be effective in enhancing weight loss and smoking reduction, respectively.We report here on our experience with application of the security deposit contracting procedure to maintaining routine disulfiram ingestion among outpatients in an alcoholism treatment program.     

非熟练中-英双语者跨语言的错误记忆通道效应

采用DRM范式以112名非熟练中-英双语者为被试进行了跨语言的错误记忆通道效应实验。实验采用三因素混合设计,根据学习通道和测验通道的不同,把被试分为4组,用由汉语与英语单词组成的DRM词表进行学习和测验。结果发现,⑴在非熟练中-英双语被试中存在错误记忆的跨语言现象;⑵非熟练中-英双语者跨语言的错误记忆存在很强的语言特异性,表现为相同语言条件高于不同语言条件、汉语高于英语;⑶在学习与测验相同语言条件下运用校正的再认分数——敏感性指标Pr,进一步探讨错误记忆的通道效应,发现了跟西方不一致的结论：即无论汉语词表还是英语词表,非熟练中-英双语者在视觉通道上的错误记忆明显高于听觉通道     

Serial learning by rhesus monkeys: II. Learning four-item lists by trial and error

Three rhesus macaque monkeys were trained to produce novel 4-item lists (A-->B-->C-->D) on which all items were displayed from the start of training. Subjects were previously trained to produce 4-item lists by adding one item at a time (A, A-->B, A-->B-->C, and A-->B-->C-->D; lists K. B. Swartz et al., 1991). Those lists could be mastered by responding to each new item last. To learn lists on which all items were displayed from the start of training, subjects had to recall the consequences of errors and correct responses to each item. Errors ended the trial; correct responses to A, B, or C allowed the trial to continue. A correct response to D produced food reward. Although the probability of executing a 4-item list correctly by chance was .04, each subject mastered 4 novel 4-item lists by trial and error. The ability of monkeys to use a trial-and-error strategy to learn novel lists provides a basis for studying the development of serial expertise in animals.     

The locus of semantic interference in the “Stroop” color-naming task

In two experiments, introductory psychology students responded in two ways to three lists of 60 words printed in different colors. The lists consisted of color words and two sets of words associated with the colors (e.g., SKY, BLOOD, etc.). When the subjects responded by naming the color in which each word was printed, it took longer for the color word list than for either list of associates, i.e., the classical Stroop interference effect. The other response required the subjects to say words from one of the association lists which corresponded to the color in which each word was printed, e.g., they saw the word BLACK (or NIGHT, or COAL) printed inred ink, and had to respond by saying “blood.” Using this response, it took longest for the subjects to complete the list of words which were the same as those required as responses. Color words were somewhat less difficult, and the other association words were completed most quickly. The results do not pinpoint the locus of interference, but clarify additional assumptions which must be accepted to maintain alternative hypotheses.