Threats and promises: Reputational consequences and transfer of credibility

This study was designed to investigate the reputational consequences of making threats and promises and how they affect subsequent credibility. Eighty-eight high school girls were given predetermined information about the past behavior of their pairmates prior to receiving influence attempts from them. Each first learned that her pairmate had (1) threatened or promised in the past and then learned whether she had (2) fulfilled or failed to fulfill her threat or promise. The subject herself then received a threat or promise from her pairmate. As anticipated, threateners were viewed less favorably than promisers. These impressions were maintained when it was learned that commitments had been fulfilled, but altered decidedly when it was learned that they had not. Credibility or lack of it was found to generalize from threats to promises and from promises to threats only under some conditions. It was concluded that the fit between existing impressions and proclaimed future activity, not a person's record for past reliability, is often the critical determinant of whether or not she is judged to be credible.     

Some attributes of adjectives used by young children

Analysis of 24 spontaneous speech samples from children at 24 and 30 months revealed a correlated progression in the form, function and meaning of modifiers used with increased language development. Predicate adjectives were used to comment on transitory states of objects and predominated in the early speech samples. Attributive adjectives were used to subdivide classes or to specify among particular instances within classes on the basis of physical characteristics such as size, by use of a conventional type name, or by use of a possessive. Attributives predominated in the later speech samples. Differential use of a particular form appears to be a function of its cognitive and communicational usefulness rather than its syntactic derivation.     

Isolating the components of intelligence

In a recent volume (Sternberg, 1977b), I proposed a method called componential analysis that provides a means to isolate the components of intelligent performance. The method was described in detail, and then tested in a series of experiments. But an important question was left unanswered by this early work: Is componential analysis generalizable to tasks other than analogies? More recently, I have been investigating the generalization of the methodology to other tasks, and have also been engaged in extending the methodology in order to increase its flexibility of application. The present article (a) briefly summarizes the structure of a componential analysis, (b) describes the method of precuing, the method originally used for isolating the components of intelligence, and (c) describes new methods that have also been successful in isolating these components in a variety of reasoning tasks.     

Intelligence research at the interface between differential and cognitive psychology: Prospects and proposals

There seems to be widespread agreement among theoreticians and methodologists alike that new approaches to studying intelligence should somehow combine the differential and cognitive (information-processing) approaches that have been used in the past, and that the combination should somehow enable the investigator to isolate components of intelligence that are elementary (at some level of analysis). Researchers disagree, however, as to how the differential and cognitive approaches should be combined, and consequently, in how elementary components of intelligence should be isolated and in what they are. How does an investigator choose from among the multiple paths available for theory and research? In this article, I propose some guidelines that may help investigators make informed choices. The article is divided into three major parts. In the first, I propose guidelines for choosing from among various methodologies for studying intelligence, and then describe briefly at least some of the methods that meet (or come close to meeting) these guidelines. In the second part, I propose guidelines for the specification of subtheories (and eventually, full-fledged theories) of intelligence, and illustrate how these guidelines can be met. Finally, I describe the direction in which I believe our subtheories and methods should lead us.     

Recovery of the US representation over time during extinction

Four experiments used a conditioned suppression procedure in rats to explore changes in the US representation over time during the course of extinction. They employed two previously reported effects: reinstatement of responding to an extinguished CS by separate US presentation, and the erasure of that effect by interposed nonreinforcement of a second excitatory CS. These effects have been interpreted as enhancing and depressing the US representation, respectively. Experiment 1 found the erasing effect to decrease but still to remain substantial after over a 4-day period, suggesting a partial recovery with time of a deliberately depressed US representation. Experiment 2 implicated this change as a contributor to the phenomenon of spontaneous recovery by showing that recovery to be sensitive to erasure effects. Experiments 3 and 4 found evidence for an interaction between the state of the US representation and the amount of associative change which results from nonreinforcement of an excitatory CS. When the US representation was strong, either because of reinstatement or the passage of time, nonreinforcement of a CS was especially effective in producing associative change. When the US representation had been depressed by erasure, those nonreinforcements produced relatively less associative loss. Moreover, these effects upon associations were reasonably stable in the sense that they left asymptotic differences in the strength of associations after extinction. Together with previous findings, these results point to an important role for the US representation in the performance and learning which occurs during extinction.     

Planning and acting

A new theory of problem solving is presented, which embeds problem solving in the theory of action; in this theory, a problem is just a difficult action. Making this work requires a sophisticated language for-talking about plans and their execution. This language allows a broad range of types of action, and can also be used to express rules for choosing and scheduling plans. To ensure flexibility, the problem solver consists of an interpreter driven by a theorem prover which actually manipulates formulas of the language. Many examples of the use of the system six given. including an extended treatment of the world of blocks. Limitations and extensions of the system are discussed at length. It is concluded that a rule-based problem solver is necessary and feasible, but that much more work remains to be done on the underlying theory of planning and acting.     

Some effects of gaze on subjects motivated to seek or to avoid social comparison

In a conceptual replication and extension of Sarnoff and Zimbardo's study (Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 1961, 62, 356–363), subjects were motivated to seek (Fear Arousal) or avoid (Embarrassment Arousal) social comparison. They were then required to affiliate with another person who either encouraged social comparison by gazing directly at the subject or discouraged it by averting his gaze. This other person was either an appropriate reference person (similar saate) or irrelevant for social comparison purposes. As predicted, Fear subjects liked a companion who looked at them and felt less tense in his presence, while Embarrassed subjects preferred the person who looked away. This interaction occurred only in the Appropriate Reference Person condition, a result consistent with an explanation based on social comparison processes.     

The extinction of within-compound flavor associations

Three experiments studied extinction of the associations which are formed between two flavors presented in a simultaneous compound. In Experiment 1 those associations were identified by a sensory preconditioning procedure in which the poisoning of one element of the compound led to the rejection of the other element. Separate presentation of either element between their joint occurence and the poisoning of one element sharply attenuated the rejection of the other element. That attenuation was interpreted in terms of the extinction of within-compound associations. Experiment 2 obtained similar results with an alternative extinction procedure in which the elements of the original compound were presented in other compounds. Experiment 3 obtained similar results when the existence of the within-compound associations was determined by an alternative assessment procedure in which one element of the compound was made more attractive by the induction of a specific hunger. These experiments suggest that within-compound associations can be extinguished when the elements are separately presented outside of the compound. Experiments 2 and 3 make less plausible an alternative interpretation of the effects of separate element presentation in terms of reduction of the novelty of the element. The findings may be taken as implying that the elements of a simultaneously presented compound are joined by a single symmetrical association which acts at various points during a sensory preconditioning experiment.     

The case of the disappearing disagreements: A reply to Yussen

S. R. Yussen (1984, Developmental Review, 4, 139–144) and I have few disagreements. The major one seems to be in what the purpose of my article (R. J. Sternberg, 1984, Developmental Review, 4, 113–138) should have been. I believe the article fulfills my own purpose, if not Yussen's.     

Second-order conditioning of Pavlovian conditioned inhibition

Two experiments are reported which investigated the conditioning of inhibition to a neutral stimulus as a result of its repeated pairing with a previouslyconditioned inhibitor. Both experiments employed a conditioned suppression technique with rat subjects. Experiment 1 detected the second-order inhibition through the retarded acquisition of concurrently administered excitatory conditioning. Experiment 2 found similar retardation in the acquisition of excitatory fear conditioning following previous second-order conditioning of inhibition to the stimulus. Implications are discussed for theories of the nature of inhibition and for second-order conditioning as an assessment technique.     

Intervention and sleeper effects: A reply to Clarke and Clarke

The evolution of the concept of “sleeper effects” is traced from the work of C. I. Hovland, A. A. Lumsdaine, and F. D. Sheffield, Experiments on Mass Communication. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Univ. Press, 1949, to the present time. The concept originally referred to the delayed emergence of attitude change in persuasibility research. It has also been used in developmental investigations, with attendant theoretical problems that have not been fully addressed. These problems are examined, with the recommendation that the social psychologist's sleeper effect should be modified to meet developmental needs and renamed “delayed treatment effects”. Such effects are highly relevant to recent findings from studies of early childhood intervention programs.     

Novelty-seeking,novelty-finding,and the developmental continuity of intelligence

This article suggests that novelty-seeking and novelty-finding, as well as the ability to learn and reason with novel kinds of concepts, are critical aspects of intelligence at all ages from infancy, onward. The results of studies by Lewis and Brooks-Gunn and by Fagan and McGrath regarding intelligence in infancy are reviewed, and these results are found to be compatible with some of my own results regarding intelligence in adulthood. It is suggested that a major aspect of intelligence, attitude toward and performance with novel kinds of concepts, is continuous in nature throughout the life span, although by necessity, they must be measured in different ways at different times of life.     

Qualities of color vision in infancy.

Four-month-old infants attended differentially to eight equally bright, monochromatic spectral lights; that is, they discriminated colors. Moreover, infants showed the same pattern of differential attention regardless of experimental group (different groups of infants saw different subsets of all possible pairings of colors) or experimental method (paired comparisons or single stimulus). In general, the differential attention of infants to colors parallels the ratings of the pleasantness of those same colors by adults. Finally, infants looked significantly longer at color category centers than at color category boundaries. These results suggest that looking at this early stage of infancy can better be understood in terms of preference rather than in terms of stimulus categorization. The results also provide further evidence for a neural excitation model of early visual attention.     

Intimacy in response to direct gaze

Believing that they were participating in a study of encounter groups, male and female subjects were encouraged to deliver a personally revealing monologue to a same-sex listener whose visual behavior had been “programmed” by the experimenter. In the four experimental conditions, designed to explore the role of gaze as a stimulus, as a potential reinforcer, and as a source of feedback, the listener provided (a) continuous direct gaze; (b) direct gaze contingent upon intimate statements; (c) continuous gaze aversion; or (d) gaze aversion contingent upon intimate statements. The intimacy of the speaker's monologue was rated by a “blind” observer, the listener, and the speaker himself. Direct gaze, whether constant or contingent, appeared to promote intimacy between females and reticence between males, while gaze avoidance had the opposite effects. The only raters who disagreed with this assessment were the male speakers, who felt that they had been most intimate in the two direct gaze conditions. Positive feelings including liking for the listener and task satisfaction also were associated both with self-revelation and with direct gaze among females but not among males.     

Startbox-goalbox confinement durations as determinants of self-punitive behavior

Two levels of confinement duration (5 or 60 sec) in either startbox or goalbox were factorially combined with presence or absence of shock during extinction of a runway escape response in a self-punitive paradigm under a spaced-trials procedure. All groups were equated for amount and temporal spacing of handling before and after each trial. Shocked rats were more resistant to extinction than nonshocked rats only when startbox confinement was short. When startbox confinement was long, shock facilitated extinction. Long goalbox confinement enhanced running speed for shocked rats, but only in the presence of shock. It was suggested that duration of startbox confinement affects strength of conditioned fear, with long confinement leading to its extinction.     

Sequencing in social repair: A Markov grammar of children's discourse about transgressions

A Markov grammar was developed to account for the sequence of conversational moves in discourse about transgressions. This discourse interrupts ongoing activity and functions to repair the social fabric when inappropriate or awkward behavior has attracted the attention of interactants. A corpus of 1248 such interchanges, obtained in 90 hr of observation in kindergarten through fourth grade classrooms, was the basis of the grammar. Beginning with theoretical assumptions about the canonical form of these interchanges, the process of grammar development was explicitly described and the direction given by pragmatic considerations (such as attaining a balance between parsimony and accuracy) was discussed. The resultant grammar accounted for 83% of the corpus and served as a framework within which age and context effects on the discourse were explored. Loglinear analyses of multiway contingency tables at each transition point in the grammar revealed that the presence vs absence of an adult in the interchange affected the relative preferences for different alternatives at one juncture, but that subjects' ages did not influence the sequencing of discourse as described by the model. The overall approach was considered in relation to the more traditional uses of Markov models and its strengths, weaknesses, and future promise for discourse analysis were discussed.     

Developmental patterns in the encoding and combination of logical connectives

A total of 224 subjects in grades 2, 4, 6, 8, high school, and college solved problems requiring comprehension of the logical connectives and, or, if-then, only if, and if and only if, as well as the terms is and is not. Half the subjects were required merely to encode the connectives; the other half were required to combine as well as encode them. Problems were presented in two replications (over two sessions) via two different content vehicles. Quantitative analyses revealed significant effects of task, age, session, and connective, with comprehension of different connectives developing at different rates. In general, comprehension of the conjunctive connective was easiest; comprehension of the conditional and biconditional connectives was most difficult. Qualitative analyses indicated just how the logical connectives were interpreted at each grade level, and also investigated individual differences within each grade level.