Developmental differences in the role of detail in picture recognition memory

Two experiments assess the effect of the amount of physical detail in pictures on picture recognition memory. Children and adults were presented simple and complex line drawings. A “same-different” recognition test followed in which the distractor items were original pictures from the presentation phase with the amount of physical detail altered. For second- and fourth-grade subjects, recognition sensitivity, measured in terms of d′, was similar for pictures in the simple and complex presentation conditions. For adults, however, recognition sensitivity was greater for pictures in the simple than complex presentation condition. This finding with adults was replicated in Experiment 2. Interpretations of this age difference in picture memory processing are discussed, as well as the constraints imposed by various dependent measures used in picture memory studies.     

An empirical test of the covariation analysis in causal attribution

The present investigation was designed to reveal the cognitive inference processes associated with both detection and utilization of covariation information in causal attribution. Male undergraduates were (a) informed that a test was easy or difficult and shown a videotape in which (b) the test-taker's performance was high or low, and (c) covariation between the test-taker's effort expenditure and trial-by-trial outcome was present or absent. High performance was attributed to the test-taker's effort and ability, whereas low performance was attributed to the difficulty of the test. However, recognition of the covariance relationship decreased the attribution of high performance to ability and of low performance to test difficulty and increased the attribution of low performance to effort. Effort attribution in the high performance condition was independent of covariation information. The results are discussed in terms of the relationship between covariation information and typical beliefs about the causes of achievement outcomes.     

Developmental changes in conditional reasoning: Linguistic or logical?

This study investigated reasoning with abstract conditional sentences as a function of age. Subjects from third-grade to eleventh-grade were required to evaluate the conclusion of several conditional arguments. The results confirmed the previously established finding that performance improves with age, particularly between 11 and 15 years. This finding could be interpreted to indicate that individuals become more logical as they get older. However, another possible interpretation is that the meaning of a conditional sentence like pthenq for naive Ss may not always be given by the truth function pq true, $\text{p}\text{q}$ false, $\text{p}\text{q}$ true, and $\text{p}\text{q}$ true. Further analysis suggested that at 9 years individuals treat the connective in the sentence, ifpthenq, as if it were either a conjunctive or a biconditional, that the conjunctive meaning disappears with increasing age and after 13 years is gradually superceded by the conditional.     

Interpreting social-sexual behavior in a work setting

The influx of women into the work force, especially into nontraditional jobs, has facilitated interest in the topic of sexual harassment and, more generally, sexuality at work. Survey research data show disagreement about the interpretation of interactions between the sexes at work. This study was designed to learn more about the way people interpret ambiguous, but potentially sexual, interactions between the sexes in a work setting. Respondents were asked to evaluate a vignette depicting such an interaction. The vignettes were composed so that three dimensions were manipulated: the sex of the initiator of the behavior, the status of the initiator relative to the target, and the type of behavior. These manipulated dimensions, along with the sex of the respondent, were used as variables to examine the respondent's interpretation of the vignettes. Four-way ANOVAs showed that the independent variables were related to the evaluation of the relationship between the initiator and the target, the evaluation of the behavior, the appropriateness of the behavior, and the likelihood of the behavior. Men interpreted the vignettes more positively than did women. Incidents initiated by women were viewed more positively. Those initiated by persons with higher status than the target were seen less positively. Respondents, especially women, considered incidents that included touching to be negative. This was especially so when the touching was combined with a comment on work, and this effect was exacerbated when the behavior was initiated by a male and/or higher status person.     

Morning and evening people: Examination of an identifying scale and of social- and self-perceptions of personality differences

An experiment was conducted aimed first at establishing the reliability and validity of a measure of individual differences in sleeping schedules. Two samples of subjects completed a questionnaire concerning their sleeping behavior which was scored according to the diurnal or nocturnal pattern of their responses. The scores were then used to classify subjects as morning people or evening people. Both the internal reliability and cross-time reliability of the scale were assessed and found to be high. In addition, three indices of construct validity, obtained 4 months after the administration of the scale, supported its validity. In a second part of the experiment, subjects classified as either morning or evening people rated themselves on a set of behavioral and personality dimensions. Another sample of subjects indicated their perceptions of morning people and evening people in general, along the same dimensions. It was found that subjects did have strong beliefs about personality and behavioral differences between morning people and evening people. However, the self-perceptions of the actual morning and evening people did not differ, thereby casting doubt on the validity of popular stereotypic perceptions about the two groups.     

The influence of component participation and role models on goal acceptance, goal satisfaction, and performance

The present investigation examined the effects of different types of participation (choice) and role models in goal setting on goal acceptance, goal satisfaction, and performance. It was hypothesized that choice in setting a goal and a strategy to achieve the goal would positively benefit goal acceptance, performance, and goal satisfaction. In addition, it was predicted that a role model would differentially influence an individual's goal acceptance, goal satisfaction, and performance. One hundred twenty male college students working on a class scheduling task were exposed to either a high- or low-performing role model and given various amounts of choice in the goal-setting process. The results of two-way analyses of variance demonstrated that goal acceptance, goal satisfaction, and performance were highest for individuals given choice over their goal and their strategy to achieve the goal. In addition, the results demonstrated that an individual exposed to a high-performing role model outperformed and had higher goal acceptance and satisfaction than an individual exposed to a low-performing model. The results are discussed as a means for clarifying the effects of different types of choice in the goal-setting process and the importance of role-provided information in influencing an individual's performance.     

Learning techniques for alcohol abuse

Eighteen month follow-up data are presented for two projects evaluating the effectiveness of learning techniques for treating alcohol abuse and achieving moderation using three groups of subjects-inpatient alcoholics, outpatient alcoholics and problem drinkers. Subjects received various combinations of the following procedures: videotape self-confrontation of drunken comportment, blood alcohol concentration discriminating training, aversion training for overconsumption, avoidance practice, behavior counseling and alternatives training, and alcohol education. While the loss of subjects was considerable between 12 and 18 months follow-up, the data were very similar. Subjects in all groups improved in terms of reductions in alcohol intake and on drinking-related variables. Significant between-groups differences in favor of subjects whose training included actual experience in drinking moderately were found only for the inpatient alcoholics. In this research, the best candidate for moderation was the less chronic. younger drinker with a relatively lower alcohol intake, a more stable vocational record and no history of hospitalization for alcohol abuse or physical deterioration from drinking. We believe that the techniques with the greatest potential for the prevention and treatment of alcohol abuse are videotape self-confrontation, blood alcohol discrimination training, and alcohol education/alternatives training.     

Effects of personal causation and perceived control on responses to an aversive environment: The more control,the better

A laboratory experiment was conducted to investigate the effects on reactions to aversive noise of three types of personal control: control over the initiation of noise, control over its termination, and combined control over both initiation and termination. On an attention-to-detail measure which occurred concurrently with noise stimulation, subjects' error rates decreased linearly as degree of control increased. Likewise, on a post-noise measure of task persistence, subjects' performance rates increased linearly across the three conditions as degree of control increased. Results were discussed in terms of Seligman's theory of learned helplessness and deCharms' theory of personal causation, and the motivational effects of personal control were emphasized.     

Lithium-mediated disruptions of latent inhibition: Overshadowing by the unconditioned stimulus in flavor conditioning

In a series of experiments, the ability of a single lithium preexposure to disrupt CS effectiveness was assessed using a latent inhibition procedure. Lithium preexposure administered proximal (90 min) to a saccharin familiarization trial reduced latent inhibition whereas a similar administration more distal (360 min) to flavor familiarization failed to do so. Additional experiments demonstrated that this socalled “US overshadowing” effect was not attributable to sensitization (Experiment 2), excitatory backward conditioning (Experiment 3), or state dependency (Experiment 4). The implications of US overshadowing for proximal US-preexposure effects are discussed.     

S+ versus S− Fading in prompting procedures with autistic children

The purpose of this investigation was to assess the relative effectiveness of two prompt-fading procedures for teaching difficult visual discriminations to autistic children. Both prompt procedures involved within-stimulus fading where manipulation occurred on the relevant component of the discrimination. One procedure involved fading first along the S+ stimulus, while holding the S? stimulus constant. The other procedure involved fading first along the S? stimulus, while holding the S+ stimulus constant. Eight autistic children were each taught two discriminations, one by each of the prompt procedures. Results indicated that for all but one child, the discriminations were acquired significantly faster, with fewer errors, when the S+ stimulus was faded first. These findings are related to the literature on the effects of stimulus novelty on selection and learning.     

Attentional deficit in learning-disabled children: evidence from visual half-field asymmetries

The structural theory of cerebral lateralization has been typically used to explain hemispheric asymmetries. However, the attentional model of brain functioning may help resolve some of the inconsistent findings with groups of learning-disabled children. To test this hypothesis, a visual half-field paradigm for word recognition was employed in a group of 26 learning-disabled and 26 normal children matched for sex, chronological age, and handedness. Three experimental conditions (unilateral, cued unilateral, and bilateral) and two word error types (visually and acoustically confusable words) were analyzed. The results indicated that normals produced the expected RVHF superiority under all experimental conditions, but the learning-disabled produced the expected RVHF superiority only under the cued unilateral condition. Learning-disabled children also made significantly more visually and acoustically confusable errors than normals and unlike normal children increased the number of acoustic errors in the RVF under bilateral stimulation. These results provide evidence that learning-disabled children may process information inefficiently and have brain activation patterns that are more susceptible to attentional effects.     

Response-contingent stimulation as a treatment for developmental failure in infancy

An 8-month-old infant with a developmental quotient of $\text{1}\text{1}\text{2}$ months was given response-contingent stimulation using a pressure-sensitive pillow which turned an overhead mobile. The subject learned to control the mobile by kicking the pillow, and concurrently began smiling at both the mobile and her mother for the first time. After mastering three contingencies on arm, head, and leg movement, she displayed what appeared to be a Piagetian coordinated secondary circular reaction, in which one response provided 4 seconds of access to another contingency. Although the subject remains severely retarded, the results suggest that some forms of developmental delay may be treated at least in part as a failure to develop contingency awareness.     

Teaching autistic children to use extra-stimulus prompts

Autistic children often do not transfer from extra-stimulus prompts, and thus do not utilize a frequent learning aid. It has been hypothesized that this is due to stimulus overselectivity; a failure to respond to simultaneous multiple cues. This study was designed to determine if autistic children who initially respond only to single cues can be taught a set to respond to two cues and subsequently utilize an extra-stimulus (pointing) prompt. Four autistic children were pretested to determine if they could learn a complex visual discrimination by either trial and error or an extra-stimulus prompt fading procedure. Since they did not, the children were then taught to respond to two cues through a multiple-cue training procedure and subsequently tested to determine if they could now utilize a pointing prompt. Results indicated that while all four children initially did not transfer from an extra-stimulus (pointing) prompt, they did so subsequent to multiple-cue training. The results are discussed in terms of implications for treatment (remediating overselectivity) and in relation to normal child development.     

Effects of initial success or failure in a stressful or relaxed environment on subsequent task performance

Forty male and 40 female undergraduate subjects worked on anagram problems in either a stressful or a relaxed environment after having experienced either success or failure on a similar task. Internal arousal, which was expected to be minimal following success in a relaxed setting and maximal following failure in the stressful environment, was assumed to bear an inverted U-shaped relation to performance. Consistent with the implications of these assumptions, achievement in a stressful setting was lower following initial failure than following initial success, while initial failure in a relaxed environment facilitated subsequent performance. The interpretation of these results was supported by the effects of the experimental variables on indirect measures of arousal as well as by the relationship between direct measures of arousal and task performance. In addition, the achievement of female subjects tended to be facilitated by failure while the performance of males was consistently debilitated by it.     

Developmental trends in the use of perceptual and conceptual attributes in grouping,clustering, and retrieval

In Experiment I, two tasks were administered to children aged 4, 5, and 9 in order to investigate preference for perceptual versus conceptual attributes in grouping of common objects, and in various aspects of memory. The grouping task revealed a clear chronological progression: color and form determined the youngest children's grouping about equally; form dominated in the 5-year-olds; and most of the oldest children grouped primarily by conceptual attributes. In the memory task, three lists—one organized by color, one by form, one by superordinate category—were presented for free, followed by cued recall. Clustering showed the developmental shift from color to form to concept, while cued recall showed conceptual superiority at all ages. Experiment II replicated the memory task, yielding the same results. The results were discussed in terms of the relative abstractness and predictability of conceptual versus perceptual attributes and the difficulty of abstraction in encoding and the function of predictability in retrieval.