Time Records in Human Maze Learning and their Comparison with Maze Records

Nine measures of role-taking in the tradition of Flavell and two measures of classification were administered to 64 boys and girls in India in four age groups: 6–7, 7–8, 8–9, and 9–10 years. The results lend cross-cultural support to the hypothesis that certain classification skills underlie this type of role-taking ability. The inappropriateness of searching for developmental relationships with some parametric statistics was also demonstrated with these data. The influence of two types of role-taking question on role-taking ability was also assessed. Role-taking questions were asked after the Ss had seen a cartoon sequence. On one type of role-taking question (a “next” question) Ss were asked how another child would think the cartoon ended if shown only the beginning. On the other type of role-taking question (a “before” question) Ss were asked how another child would think the cartoon began when shown only the end. Cartoon content was shown to influence role-taking ability in response to “next” questions.     

Maze-Construction and the Rolling-Ball Maze

George W. Hartmann. Gestalt Psychology: A Survey of Facts ana Principles. New York: Ronald Press, 1935. Pp. 325. Reviewed by R. W. Husband.     

The Wall-Seeking Tendency and Maze Learning in the White Rat

A partial replication and extension of the semantic differential was used to test the effects of modified middle interval instructions on rotated factor loadings derived from Ss' responses. The partial replication is in good agreement with the findings published by Osgood et al. (5). However, the results from Ss responding to the modified middle interval instructions differ markedly from those in published and control conditions, yielding an interpretable fourth factor suggesting the achievement of more subtle nuance of meaning.     

A New Maze Technique

E. D. Adrian. The Mechanism of Nervous Action. Philadelphia: Univ. Pa. Press, 1932. Pp. x+103. Reviewed by Clarence H. Graham.     

The Problem of the Condition of Arousal of the Pure Sensation of Cutaneous Pain

In order to develop scales representing curiosity-arousing components of pictures (slides) of either common objects or random shapes, a total of 56 college student Ss rated both sets of material on nine dimensions. Factor analyses indicated that the nine dimensions could be reduced to two factors. In order to test the ability of these factors to predict memorial performance and exploratory behavior, an additional 80 undergraduates were then tested for recognition or free looking time (FLT) of either object or random shape slides. Separate regression equations, using FLT and recognition performance as criterion measures, were computed. The present results not only indicate stability in visual exploratory scaling plus redundancy among various attributes of visual stimuli, but also suggest that behavior can be considered as elicited by two separate attributes of visual stimuli.     

Group Psychotherapy in the Treatment of Acute Emotional Disorders

The authors have constructed a Dutch version of Yalom's “Questionnaire for Curative Factors.” This Dutch version has been administered to 134 participants of 22 psychotherapy groups in various psychiatric services in the Netherlands. Results concerning validity and reliability of the instrument are presented, as well as concerning the homogeneity of the hypothesized “factors.” Differences between types of groups and categories of group members were tested by means of techniques of analysis of variance (ANOVA). Multiple regression analysis was applied in order to detect variables of differential qualities on one or more factors. Only the factor identification, neglected in literature on curative factors, was highly predictable.     

Human Learning on a Four-Section,Elevated, Finger Maze

Forty Ss learned 10 sentences composed of adjective, noun, verb, and adverb and were subsequently tested for their recall of the sentences and their ability to generate new sentences based on an association rule for words within the sentences. The rule could be discovered from the sentences learned and was comparable to grammatical rules for sentence structure. Subjects also rated the meaning of the words from the sentences before and after learning. Eight Ss were in each of five experimental conditions, which differed in terms of the degree to which the words in the 10 sentences were in a natural language order. The five orders were natural, reversed, 20% random, 50% random, and 100% random orders.

The results showed that the closer the sentence order was to natural language order, the more Ss recalled the sentences they learned and the more accurately they generated unlearned sentences, apparently as a result of discovering and using the association rule. Another finding was that the rated evaluative meaning of words changed in a predictable direction, toward the mean rating of the words associated with each word. Such meaning conditioning appears to be an automatic process comparable to classical conditioning in that it is unaffected by the order of words within sentences and occurs for different word forms.     

The Effects of Visual Orientation on the Maze Learning Ability of the White Rat

Since most studies which employ sociometric measures have either ignored the sensitivity of these measures to changes in group structure or have failed to indicate the relative sensitivity of the different types of measures across time and at different age levels, a way to categorize sociometric responses according to the usefulness in reflecting changes both across time and at various age levels was hypothesized. A total of 607 students in grades four through eight responded to a sociometric questionnaire. These responses were analyzed by obtaining test-retest correlations for choices given, choices received, and reciprocal choices. The results indicate that reciprocal choices are less affected by age and time changes than all other ways of interpreting sociometric data.     

Dimensions of adolescent psychopathology

A factor-analytic study of parent ratings of 253 male and female adolescents between the ages of 13 and 17 referred for psychiatric and delinquent problems is reported. Parents rated their children on the Adolescent Form of the Louisville Behavior Checklist. One hundred thirty-seven items were intercorrelated and subjected to a principal component factor analysis and nine factors were rotated to varimax solution. The nine factors were named: Egocentric-Exploitive, Destructive-Assaultive, Social Delinquency, Academic Disability, Adolescent Turmoil, Apathetic Isolation, Neuroticism, Dependent-Inhibited, and Neurological or Psychotic Abnormality. A second-order analysis revealed two broad-band Internalizing and Externalizing dimensions. The factors were shown to be similar to but different from DSM III categories as well as from other factor-analytic studies of adolescents. This study indicates that much research will be required before a consensus can be reached on the basic dimensions of psychopathology of adolescence.     

A Comparative Analysis of the Effects of Alienation on Public and Private School Females

The levels of alienation of American female school students (N = 431; 256 public, 175 private) were assessed to determine the extent of the influence of the school environment on the student's level of alienation and the dimensions of isolation, normlessness, and powerlessness. It was hypothesized that substantially different school settings would have no significant effects because student alienation is influenced by a series of complex environmental factors. The Dean Alienation Scale (1961) was used to assess levels of alienation. There were no significant differences in terms of total alienation and powerlessness. Private school students, however, were more isolated (p < .001) and public school students had higher levels of normlessness (p < .05).     

Psychological Sense of University Membership: An Adaptation Study of the PSSM Scale for Turkish University Students

The Psychological Sense of School Membership Scale (PSSM) is a widely used instrument to assess the sense of belonging to a school among adolescents. Despite its widespread use in middle and high school students, to date no particular adaptation study has been conducted for its use among university students. For this reason, the present study conducted an adaptation of the PSSM scale for these students. Five hundred and nine students at a Turkish university voluntarily participated in the study, and the PSSM Scale's factor structure was examined by exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, identifying three factors representing the students' sense of university membership with acceptable internal consistencies: acceptance by faculty members (.70), belonging (.75), and acceptance by students (.76). The internal consistency of the 18-item scale was calculated as .84. As hypothesized, the convergent and discriminant validity of the scale was also tested. The self-report sense of belonging and degree of satisfaction with the university were positively correlated with the three dimensions of the scale. Also, the scores regarding the students' intention to drop out of university along with loneliness were negatively correlated with all the dimension of the PSSM scale.     

Sex of Experimenter and Intelligence as Factors in Maze Learning: A Further Comparison of Maze and Sex Differences

(Murphy, Lois Barclay. Social Behavior and Child Personality. New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1937. Pp. 333.)     

Dissociation of Hippocampal and Striatal Contributions to Spatial Navigation in the Water Maze

Two experiments were conducted to compare the effects of fornix/fimbria and caudate-putamen lesions in Long–Evans hooded rats (Rattus norvegicus) trained on two water maze tasks that differed in the type of spatial localization required for optimum solution. In Experiment 1, the lesioned rats and surgical controls were trained on the standard place task in the water maze (Morris, 1981) and given two postacquisition tests (a platform removal probe and platform relocation test). In Experiment 2, rats with similar lesions and control rats were trained on a modified cue navigation task. Fornix/fimbria lesions impaired a late stage of place task acquisition but did not impair acquisition of the cue task. Caudate-putamen lesions resulted in a severe place acquisition impairment and a transient cue acquisition impairment, both of which were characterized by an initial tendency to swim near the wall of the pool. Post-hoc analyses of the direction and angles of departure from the start points suggested that rats with fornix/fimbria lesions used non-allocentric spatial strategies to solve the place task. These rats also demonstrated a significantly weakened spatial bias for the former training quadrant on the platform removal probe and reduced flexibility in navigating to a novel platform location on the platform relocation test. In contrast, rats with caudate-putamen lesions showed a significant spatial bias for the former training quadrant but failed to cross the exact location within the quadrant where the platform was formerly positioned. The results suggest that the hippocampus mediates the allocentric spatial component of the water maze place task while the dorsomedial striatum may play an important role in the acquisition of the procedural aspects of both place and cue versions of the task.     

Rotation of Water in the Morris Water Maze Interferes with Path Integration Mechanisms of Place Navigation

The idea that place navigation in the Morris water maze is implemented by path integration between locations determined by landmark sighting was investigated in a 200-cm-diameter pool in which circular (7.2°/s) motion of water could be induced by tangentially arranged water jets. The rats were trained at 8 trials per day to navigate to an erectable platform which was raised after the rat had spent a criterion time in the target annulus (30 cm in diameter) in the midpoint of the NW quadrant. Asymptotic escape latency of 7 s was reached after 9 days in moving water (n= 8) and after 6 days in stationary water (n= 8). The group overtrained for 13 days in stable water performed well even after it was transferred to moving water. Changing the sense of rotation of water from counterclockwise to clockwise did not affect the asymptotic performance. The above findings show that overtrained rats rely on landmark sighting rather than on path integration. The influence of water movement reappeared when place navigation to a new target (SW) was examined in alternating 2-s periods of light (L) and darkness (D). On the first day, the latencies were 15.2 ± 1.2 and 22.8 ± 1.9 s in stable and moving water, respectively, but dropped to 10 s on the following day. The tracks generated in the L period were more tortuous than those generated in the D period and this difference was more pronounced in moving than in stable water. It is concluded that path integration mechanisms supporting navigation during intervals of darkness are impaired in moving water but that this impairment disappears in overtrained animals.     

Patterns of psychological reaction to asthma in children

Asthmatic children were matched with a group of nonasthmatic children for sex and age. Scores on content analysis scales representing nine emotional elements on their reactions were compared. Lack of emotional expression was hypothesized but not observed in the asthmatics. The main pattern of reaction identified was of directly and indirectly expressed anger and statements of helplessness, yet many expressions of competence and good feelings. This pattern did not vary according to sex or grade of the children, but only according to age. Preadolescent asthmatic children showed more depression and fewer good feelings than the younger children, and their characteristic pattern was dominated by indirectly expressed anger.The authors wish to acknowledge the contributions of Carol Preston to this research, together with the financial support received from the Australian Research Grants Scheme (Grant No. 7715046R).     

A Comparative Study of Groups of High and Low Intelligence in Learning a Maze

In accordance with the determination of base-line heart rate and running in an activity wheel, 14 Long-Evans male rats were given ten 30 minute sessions of Immobile-Avoid conditioning followed by 30 minute sessions of Active-Avoid conditioning. Control Ss were yoked to the experimental Ss.

Experimental Ss made significantly fewer responses in the immobile-avoid period and significantly more responses in the active-avoid period than did the yoked control Ss. Heart rate was correlated with skeletal activity both for experimental and control Ss. For experimental Ss, low heart rate was concomitant with a low amount of activity in the immobile-avoid period and high heart rate was concomitant with greater skeletal activity in the active-avoid period.

These results support the position that heart rate is secondary to responses of the somatic-motor system and that heart rate during immobile-avoid or active avoid conditioning is more closely related to the level of somatic-motor activity than to the emotional stress which purportedly motivates instrumental avoidance behavior.     

Maturational Changes in Canadian Adolescents' Cognitive Attitudinal Structure Concerning Marijuana

Thirty-four items concerning marijuana use were administered three times to a cohort of Canadian high school students between Grades 11 and 13, in 1977 (n = 439), 1978 (n = 419), and 1979 (n = 167). These items were designed to measure four distinct constructs: attitude, perceived peer approval or disapproval, concern about risks, and symbolic protest against conventional society. A cross-sectional factor analysis of the Grade 13 data supported the hypothesized factor structure, as had earlier work with college students. However, analogous analyses on the Grade 11 and Grade 12 data contradicted the hypothesized factor structure. Most notably, separate factors for positive and negative attitude appeared in the Grade 11 and 12 analyses. The data were interpreted primarily in terms of maturational changes, largely through elimination of alternative interpretations by internal analyses and previous findings. Implications were discussed for adolescent cognitive-attitudinal development, attitude theory, and analysis of panel data.     

Latent Extinction in a Multiple-T Maze within Heterogeneous and Homogeneous Environments

This investigation found support for the general hypothesis that prior social experience influences current perception of historically relevant cues. Male college Ss, matched for quality of prior maternal evaluation, were separated into those (N = 40) who rated their fathers positive in their evaluations of them (HN) and those (N = 38) who rated their fathers as more negative (LN). These groups did not differ in their perception of maternal evaluative cues when presented alone. When paternal evaluative cues were presented as distractors, selective attention to maternal cues was more disrupted for the LN group. Deployment of attention to task-irrelevant paternal cues, as inferred from intrusions, did not differ for the HN and the LN groups. However, the LN subjects did demonstrate a negative qualitative bias in those intrusion errors which came from the task-irrelevant paternal set, whereas HN subjects showed a positive qualitative bias. Both biases were in keeping with paternal evaluative histories. Greater disruption of LN task performance may have been the result of responses, such as anxiety, associated with their negative bias.     

Chunking by Proximal Arm Cues Facilitates Rats′ Performance in the Radial Maze

Three experiments showed that training rats to chunk a 16-arm radial maze into striped and wire mesh (gridded) arms facilitates their spatial working memory for arm locations. Rats were trained to visit eight unblocked baited arms of a 16-arm radial maze (half-maze run) and then were exposed to the complete maze to sample the remaining eight baited arms (whole-maze run). The initially exposed eight arms were either all striped or all gridded on alternating trials for half the rats (Arm Cue Relevant, ACR group). The remaining rats (Arm Cue Irrelevant, ACI group) received a mixture of striped and gridded arms on their half-maze runs. Following this phase of segmented trials, all rats were exposed only to all 16 arms over a series of trials in the first two experiments. In the third experiment, the initial eight arms were either all striped or all gridded on alternating trials for all rats. During some second, whole-maze runs, however, all arms contained the same proximal cue. ACR rats made fewer reentries than ACI rats in all phases of all experiments. This difference was maintained over increasing delays between half- and whole-maze runs in the first experiment, changes in arm cue and blocking configurations in the second experiment, and removal of differential arm cues in the third experiment.     

Local Identity and the Role of Individual Differences in the Use of Natural Resources: The Case of Water Consumption1

A field study assessed the role of social value orientation (SVO) and identification with the local community on water conservation behavior in Italy. Participants (N = 758) completed a self‐reported questionnaire, during summer and Easter time. It was expected that SVO and local identification would affect cooperation in conserving water resources. Consistent with the hypotheses, the highest levels of voluntary cooperation were detected among prosocial persons with high local identity, while the lowest levels of cooperation were detected among proself persons with low local identity. Other factors (e.g., perception of local authority's legitimacy, place of residence, severity of water scarcity condition) did not affect the hypothesized interaction. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.