Focus of attention,self-esteem,and the attribution of causality

An experiment was conducted to investigate how actors' attributions of causality are affected by their expectancy about the outcome of an action and their observation of the actual outcome while in a state of high or low objective self-awareness. In the presence or absence of a camera, subjects delivered therapeutic instructions which were expected to have a positive or a negative effect and which resulted in a positive or a negative effect on a supposedly phobic patient. Principal findings were that (1) attributions to self were greater under high objective self-awareness for positive relative to negative outcomes, (2) attributions to the patient were relatively great under high objective self-awareness when a positive outcome was expected but a negative outcome actually occurred. The results are discussed in terms of the joint role of focus of attention and self-esteem processes in the attribution of causality and in terms of their relationship to Duval and Wicklund's (1973) “focus of attention” attributional analysis.     

Alexia without agraphia: An experimental case study

A 51-year-old right-handed male experienced reading difficulty and an upper right visual field cut after a head injury. The patient's letter naming was impaired and word naming was painstakingly slow. Words were decoded in a letter by letter sequence and performance varied directly with word length. Apart from his reading difficulties the patient was linguistically competent. He was sensitive to manipulations of word frequency and orthographic regularity. He wrote spontaneously and could identify the written counterpart to a spoken word with relative ease. Computerized axial tomography revealed damage to the posterior temporal-parietal region of the left hemisphere.     

Classification and perceptual development: Exploring issues about integrality and differential sensitivity

Pre- and elementary-school children, 4 and 11 years of age, were given a classification task similar to those given in research testing an account that posits a developmental shift from integral to separable perception. The development of perceptual sensitivity and its role in determining similarity and dimensional classifications was assessed with the variables of predisposed and distinctiveness-based salience. The results indicated that the level of perceptual sensitivity to the dimensions in the task determined the frequency of types of classifications. Children in both age groups made both kinds of critical classifications as a function of predisposed and distinctiveness-based salience.     

The effect of training procedures on the overlearning reversal effect in young children

The performance of 80 preschool children on a reversal problem was studied as a function of amount of training and type of training procedure used during acquisition and reversal. In the extinction phase of reversal learning, subjects given a correction procedure during the reversal problem made fewer perseverative errors than subjects given noncorrection. In the reversal midplateau phase of reversal learning, overtraining facilitated reversal learning for subjects receiving noncorrection during the acquistion problem, but not for subjects receiving correction. A shift in training procedure between acquisition and reversal increased the number of subjects who reached criterion immediately after perseveration. Since these results are difficult to explain in terms of traditional learning theories, an alternative response-switching strategy explanation was proposed.     

The effect of pretraining and feedback on the reasoning of young children

Three experiments are reported in which kindergarten and first-grade children were given one-trial multidimensional reasoning tasks that were modifications of those used by T. C. Toppino (1980, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 30, 496–512). In the first two experiments, the nature of the stimulus compounds (partitioned or unitary) was varied in a series of tasks of increasing complexity. First-grade children (Experiment 1) and kindergarten children (Experiment 2) performed extremely well on all of the tasks presented. Experiment 3 was designed to identify factors that contribute to these high levels of performance, relative to those obtained under the conditions used by Toppino (1980). The results indicated that a combination of feedback information and preliminary experience with simple forms of the tasks are sufficient to produce the high performance levels, and that the verbal labeling of stimulus components is not an essential constituent of the training.     

A developmental study of the effect of familiarity on short-term visual memory

An attempt was made to specify whether previously reported limitations on young children's full-report capacity lay in a smaller amount of available information, in a shorter trace duration of information in visual information storage (VIS), or in poorer coding of information into permanent storage. Five- and 8-year-olds and adults were shown an eight-item array of figures. followed at varying intervals by an indicator signaling the subject to report the figure to which the indicator had pointed. The effects of three levels of familiarity or “labelability” were examined. While no age differences were revealed in amount of information available nor in the trace duration of information in VIS, strong age differences emerged in coding of information into permanent storage. Data on latency to verbal labeling and familiarity suggested that verbal labeling could not account for the age trends. Rather, the differences seemed to lie in the use of organized visual coding and rehearsal strategies by adults and their relative lack of use by children.     

Second year treatment outcome of alcoholics treated by individualized behavior therapy: Results

Second year treatment outcome results are reported for 69 of 70 male alcoholics who, while hospitalized at Patton State Hospital, served as subjects in an experiment evaluating ‘Individualized Behavior Therapy (IBT)’ techniques. Subjects were initially assigned to either a controlled drinking or non-drinking (abstinence) treatment goal. and were then randomly assigned to either an experimental group receiving IBT or a control group receiving conventional state hospital treatment oriented towards abstinence. Previously reported results found that IBT subjects functioned significantly better than control subjects throughout the first year of follow-up. Second year follow-up results found that IBT subjects treated with a controlled drinking goal functioned significantly better than their respective control subjects on a variety of measures, including drinking behavior. Differences between IBT subjects treated with a non-drinking goal and their control subjects did not retain statistical significance during the second year of follow-up. Individual drinking profiles are presented for all subjects. Only subjects treated by IBT with a goal of controlled drinking engaged in a substantial amount of limited, non-problem drinking during the second year interval, and those subjects also had more abstinent days than subjects in any other group. The nature of adequate follow-up procedures and measures is discussed. Implications of these findings for alcoholism treatment are considered.     

Health-related information seeking as a function of health-related locus of control and health value

Two studies were conducted testing the hypothesis that health-related information seeking is a joint function of a person's locus of control beliefs and the value placed on health. Using a health-related measure of locus of control, internal subjects who valued health highly relative to other terminal values (cf. Rokeach, 1973) chose more pamphlets about the particular health condition, hypertension, than did internal-low health value subjects or externals regardless of their health value. Little evidence was found to support the proposition that subject differentially chose pamphlets according to author characieristics (i.e., male or female, doctors or nurses).     

Perceived tachistoscopic duration and early visual processing in preschool children and adults

Two experiments further explored the Avant et al. (1975) finding that stimulus familiarity influences prerecognition processing to generate differences in the apparent duration of tachistoscopic flashes. The first experiment tested for developmental differences in the effects of upright versus 90°, 180°, and 270° rotations of a single letter or number upon the apparent duration of pre- and postmasked 30- and 50-msec flashes with adults and 4- and 5-year-old children. All age groups judged upright presentations to be of briefer duration. These differences in apparent duration were interpreted to index the automaticity of contacts between stimulus inputs and their memory representations. Failure of the children to recognize the letter and number in any orientation indicates that contact between stimulus inputs and memory representations precedes allocation of attention to the presented stimulus. The second experiment explored the influence of spatial structures which are not coded verbally by testing effects of good and poor dot pattern Gestalts on the apparent duration of tachistoscopic flashes. Adults discriminated between apparent durations of good and poor Gestalts but 4- and 5-year-olds did not. Apparent duration differences in the two experiments showed that spatial pattern structure and familiarity with verbal stimuli influence early visual processing in different ways.     

Extension of the taste-test analogue as an unobtrusive measure of preference for alcohol

The utility of the taste-test analogue for obtaining an unobtrusive measure of preference for alcohol was examined. Thirty-two male undergraduates participated in each of two taste-rating tasks. In each task. subjects were presented with two beakers containing beverages they were to rate. Although one container was labeled “Alcohol”, and the other was labeled “Orange Juice”, both actually contained only orange juice. Subjects rated the beverages differently on 52% of the dimensions for which ratings were completed. Furthermore, subjects estimated that they had consumed an average of over three ounces of alcohol in the combined taste tests. Wider use of the analogue preference test may have significant value in the study of the determinants of human alcohol drinking behavior.     

The effect of orthographic structure on word recognition in a visual search task

The effect of the orthographic structure of the stimulus field on the visual search performance of third graders (8-8 years), sixth graders (11-7 years) and adults was investigated in three experiments. In Experiment 1, where the predesignated target was one word, subjects of all ages searched equally fast through fields consisting of words, pseudowords, and nonwords. In contrast, subjects of all ages displayed effects of orthographic structure when searching for instances of a semantic category (Experiment 2) or for three words (Experiment 3). Subjects searched faster through nonwords than through pseudowords and faster through pseudowords than through words. The use of orthographic structure to facilitate search did not increase with age, suggesting that children of the youngest age group were already making maximal use of intraword redundancy.     

Effects of type and amount of feedback upon hypothesis sampling systems among 7- and 8-year-old children

Second- and third-grade children (age 7 to 9 years) received a series of discrimination-learning problems containing verbal probes for hypotheses. The children received either (a) verbal-directional feedback in which the correct stimulus complex was indicated, (b) verbal feedback in which they were told whether they were correct or wrong, or (c) material feedback in which a marble was moved by the experimenter following choice responses. The three types of feedback were combined with three amounts: right-wrong, wrong-blank (blank = no feedback), and right-blank, to yield a 3 × 3 factorial design. Children in the verbal-directional right-wrong and wrong-blank conditions showed systematic problem-solving strategies in about 80% of their problems, while those in the remaining cells showed strategies in only 32 to 43% of theirs. The most prevalent processing error among children in the latter conditions was failure to resample according to a local consistency criterion following errors.     

Information processing in reading-disabled and nondisabled children

Reading disabled and nondisabled children (13-14 years of age) were presented lists of 10 words each at different rates (one word per 1, 2, and 4 sec), and immediately after the last word of each list they recalled the words in any order. Recall of the first few words presented from each list (the primacy effect) was lower in reading-disabled than nondisabled children, and slower presentation rates increased the primacy effect in both groups. These findings suggest that reading-disabled children are not completely failing to use elaborative encoding but are using less effective elaborative encoding than nondisabled readers. With all presentation rates, recall of the last few words (the recency effect) was comparable in both groups, suggesting that older reading-disabled children encode and recognize the stimuli and that elaborative encoding is deficient in reading-disabled in spite of adequate stimulus encoding and recognition.     

Age related changes in the effectiveness of name and visual codes in recognition memory

In the first of three studies college, third grade, and kindergarten Ss were able to determine that two stimuli presented 700 msec apart were the same more quickly if they were visually identical than if they shared the same name. If 3000 msec elapsed between stimulus presentations third grade and college Ss responded at the same rate in making both types of matches, whereas kindergarten Ss appeared to continue to respond more quickly in making visual matches. Study II was an unsuccessful attempt to replicate the kindergarten finding. A warning signal, presented 500 msec prior to the second stimulus, reduced RTs at both interstimulus intervals, but no significant differences in making visual and name matches occurred. In Study III first-graders, responding either with or without a warning signal, were found to respond like the older Ss in Study I. The warning signal again reduced RT at both intervals. The results suggest that Ss across a wide age range are able to use the visual properties of a stimulus for only a very brief period as the basis for making matching judgments.     

Generality of persistence: The role of stimulus and response factors in persistence to punishment

Previous research has shown that intermittent punishment of a response increases its persistence to continuous punishment and that intermittent punishment training in one situation produces persistence to continuous punishment in other situations. Experiment 1 showed that as long as the instrumental response and punishing stimulus were held constant from intermittent to continuous punishment marked differences between these situations had no decremental effect on persistence. Experiment 2 showed that intermittent punishment training of one response resulted in substantial persistence to continuous punishment of a different and apparently incompatible response and that such response change had no more than a marginal effect on persistence. The results were seen as requiring some revision to the traditional conditioning-model interpretation of persistence to punishment.     

Recognition memory for objects in very young children: The effect of shape and label similarity on preference for novel stimuli

In two studies, 88 children 12 to 38 months of age were briefly shown 24 common objects on familiarization trials. On subsequent test trials, these objects reappeared paired with novel objects. On one-third of the test trials pairs were similar in shape, on another third of the test trials pairs shared a common label, and on the remaining test trials pairs were unrelated. Looking times for each of the two objects on test trials were measured. All but the youngest age group showed significantly longer looking times for novel than for familiar objects for all three kinds of test pairs. However, for 19- to 31-month-olds preference for novel stimuli in the common Label Condition, although significant, was less than preference for novel stimuli when shape was similar or when unrelated stimuli were paired. Recognition in the oldest group was unaffected by condition. The results suggest a developmental period during which label or conceptual similarity has a special significance for recognition, and are discussed within theoretical frameworks concerning the very young child's developing semantic and categorization skills.