Individualized learning environments: Intra- and interpersonal consequences

This study examines the effects of individual goal structures on the intra- and interpersonal behavior of 120 fourth-grade children. Each group of four children was introduced to one of two individualized learning programs: (a) workbook materials color-coded according to level of difficulty (allowing implicit comparisons among children as to progress), and (b) materials not coded according to difficulty (discouraging comparisons). In both learning programs, children worked individually (at story writing) and were rewarded for the work. Results indicate that boys, but not girls, who were rewarded equally for doing good work in an individualized setting but who start and end at a lower step than other more frequently took away a toy from those peers with whom they compared themselves than did boys who were rewarded equally for good work and where there were no comparisons. Boys as a group, regardles of condition, gave more prize tickets to themselves than to others and gave more prize tickets to themselves than girls gave either to themselves or others. Both boys and girls appear to adopt the evaluations of their work given by the experimenter and appear to be influenced thereby in later prized-giving to themselves and to others.     

A psychoanalytic reinterpretation of the effectiveness of systematic desensitization: Fact or fiction?

Silverman, Frank and Dachinger (1974) found support for their hypothesis that the effectiveness of systematic desensitization (SD) resides in its activation of unconscious, merging fantasies. Their subjects were subjected to a variant of SD. in which a procedure aimed at stimulating a fantasy of ‘merging with mother’ was substituted for muscle relaxation. This pro- cedure consisted of the tachistoscopic subliminal exposure of the symbiotic gratification stimulus mommy and i are one(experimental) or neutral stimulus people walking (control). The aim of the present study was to replicate their work with special reference to demand characteristics. using as subjects snake phobics. SD with a symbiotic gratification stimulus was not more effective than SD with a neutral stimulus, which may be explained by the fact that the neutral stimulus in the present study snake and I are one was more relevant than the neutral stimulus in the Silverman et al. study. Moreover, subjects with a therapy-set improved significantly more than subjects with a research-set.     

Children and adults' distance estimations in a large-scale environment: effects of time and clutter

In two experiments adults (mean age = 19-5), sixth graders (mean age = 11-8), fourth graders (mean age = 9-8), and second graders (mean age = 7-8) walked a straight line distance through a large-scale environment. Subjects were then asked to estimate the time taken to traverse each half of the walk and to estimate the distance between objects seen along the walk. In Experiment 1 each half of the walk was traversed in the same amount of time but contained a different number of objects (clutter). Time and distance estimates were related, but were not affected by the number of intervening objects encountered between locations. In Experiment 2 subjects again encountered a different number of objects along each half of the walk but each half was traversed in varying amounts of time. Again, time and distance estimates were related, and there was no clutter effect. There were no consistent developmental differences across the two experiments. It was concluded that (1) Thorndyke's clutter effect does not occur across all types of spatial cognition tasks, and (2) children and adults tend to relate time and distance across a variety of distance estimation tasks.     

Protection motivation and self-efficacy: A revised theory of fear appeals and attitude change

The effects of fear appeals on persuasion were investigated in a factorial experiment that was designed to test a combined model of protection motivation theory and self-efficacy theory. As predicted, the probability of a threat's occurrence and the effectiveness of a coping response both had positive main effects on intentions to adopt a recommended preventive health behavior. More importantly, the findings provided support for self-efficacy expectancy as a fourth component of protection motivation theory: Self-efficacy had a direct influence on intentions and interacted with two other variables of protection motivation theory. The interaction effect was interpreted in terms of two new decision-making strategies that people use when confronted with a fear appeal: a precaution strategy and a hyperdefensiveness strategy. In addition, the results replicated previous findings on the relationship between self-efficacy expectancy and outcome expectancy. A model incorporating protection motivation theory and self-efficacy theory is presented as a possible general model of attitude change.     

The effects of social motives on behavior in social dilemmas in two cultures

Subjects in Santa Barbara, California, and Groningen, The Netherlands, participated in a seven-person social dilemma game, presented in terms of a conservation of resources problem. Prior to their decision making in the social dilemma game, subject's social motive (altruistic, cooperative, individualistic, competitive) was assessed by means of two different classification procedures. On the basis of previous research findings American subjects were expected to display relatively more competitive social motives, and Dutch subjects relatively more cooperative ones. However, no indications of crosscultural differences were found neither with regard to the distribution of social motives nor with regard to the amount of resources taken for self in the social dilemma game. In both locations, competitive subjects took most resources for self, individualistic subjects took next most, cooperative subjects took less than individualists, and altruistic subjects took the least. In addition to predictive validity, indices of the convergent validity of two social motive assessment procedures were described.     

Hobbits and orcs: Acquisition of a sequential concept

Subjects solved the hobbits-orcs problem repeatedly until they made no errors on two successive solutions. Groups varied in the kind of feedback given after errors. Further support was obtained for Thomas' (this journal) conclusion that subjects organize the sequence of moves in small subsequences, rather than individual moves. Differences between feedback groups suggested that the organization is oriented forward in the problem, and this contrasts with GPS' retroactive organization of this problem. Comparison between feedback groups also leads to the conclusion that subjects learned from positive information indicating which response is correct, rather than by a process of eliminating errors or sampling new strategies after errors. Analysis of acquisition data agreed with the hypothesis of all-or-none learning at individual states, except for one state where the additional complexity was related to an ambiguity about backward moves. The general pattern of results was invariant over a change in the characters of the problem (men and elves) designed to produce a reversal of relationship between the characters concerning who was prevented from outnumbering whom.     

Transfer of training: Effects of successive pretraining of components in a dimension-abstracted oddity task

An experiment was conducted investigating the effects of training two components of a dimension-abstracted oddity problem, oddity responding and attention. All Ss were given a series of three problems. Type of oddity training was manipulated on Problem 1, and Ss learned (1) an oddity response in a problem whose format was the same as the final transfer problem, (2) an oddity response in a problem whose format was different from the final problem, or (3) no oddity response. Attention training was manipulated on Problem 2. The results indicated that Ss given same format oddity training and appropriate attention training were able to integrate that information on the final problem, that the probability of transferring the oddity response learned on Problem 1 to Problem 3 depended upon the similarity of the task formats, and that the two trained components tended to combine in an interactive fashion.     

Reading skill and the minimum distance principle: A comparison of listening and reading comprehension

Experiment I compared the listening and reading comprehension of sentences which follow the Minimum Distance Principle, e.g., John tells Bill to bake the cake, and of those which do not, e.g., John promises Bill to bake the cake. Third, fourth, and fifth graders were tested. Support for Chomsky's Stage analysis of mastery of the Minimum Distance Principle was found for the listening but not for the reading task. Reading skill level was found to be positively correlated with Stage and a significantly better predictor of promise performance than was age or IQ. Experiment II investigated the effect of the composition of the experimental presentation list on performance by comparing comprehension when the list contained only promise or tell sentences with that obtained when the list contained both types of sentences. For half the subjects, performance differed as a function of the list composition: Implications of these findings for the assessment of the development of language competence are discussed.     

Age differences in memory span

Five-year-olds recalled fewer items than adults in memory-span tasks involving both familiar and unfamiliar faces. This occurred even though the use of rehearsal and recoding strategies was minimized for adults. This residual age difference may be partially accounted for by two further processing limitations in children. The five-year-olds needed more time than adults to name a face (Experiment 1) and to encode a face (Experiment 2). In order to test whether limitations in children's initial recognition and stimulus-identification processes could account for recall performance, Experiment 3 reduced adults' exposure duration in the memory-span task. This led to a drastic reduction in the age difference. Other factors contributing to remaining age differences included adults' adaptability in using various alternative encoding and retrieval strategies which elevated their recall performance.     

Misconceptions about the Fishbein model: Reflections on a study by Songer-Nocks

Songer-Nocks has questioned the generality and sufficiency of Fishbein's model of intentions. It is shown that her conclusions reflect a basic misunderstanding of the model and its implications. Several misconceptions are identified and an attempt is made to clarify some of the theoretical and methodological issues involved.     

Children's cognitive maps of large-scale spaces: Effects of exploration,direction, and repeated experience

Kindergarteners and third graders (mean ages 5–10 and 8–9 years) repeatedly encountered a model town and then constructed the town from memory. In Experiment 1, the effect of different types of exploration on the development of a cognitive map was assessed. Children who were directed to walk within the town placed buildings more accurately than children who had walked along the town's perimeter. Children who walked within the town and were directed to the spatial relationships among buildings had the highest placement accuracy. Third graders were more accurate than kindergarteners across the three types of exploration. In Experiment 2, children were permitted to explore the town alone for an unlimited amount of time. Under these conditions, third graders still placed buildings more accurately than kindergarteners. A comparison of Experiments 1 and 2 indicated that children developed more accurate cognitive maps when motor activity and attention were directed by the experimenter as opposed to being directed by the child. Accuracy improved with repeated walks and constructions in both experiments, and the results of Experiment 3 suggested that constructing facilitated the development of the cognitive map as much as walking. It was concluded that third graders' cognitive maps were more accurate than kindergarteners' maps due to differences in the speed of acquisition and storage of spatial information.     

Exposure and response prevention in the natural environment: A comparison with obsessive-compulsive patients

Thirteen obsessive-compulsive clients were treated with different methods of response prevention. Four experimental conditions were obtained through a 2 × 2 factorial design, in which the two main variables were varied: (1) gradual treatment vs flooding; and (2) modeling vs no-modeling. Clients were treated at their homes, three times weekly. Each session lasted 2 hr. Results at the post-test revealed, that modeling was superior to no-modeling (p < 0.05) on avoidance-other compulsions, therapist-rating only. On anxiety-main compulsions, clients rating the gradual method of treatment had been superior to flooding (p < 0.05). No other significant differences were found.     

Knowledge of one's own responding and the relation of such knowledge to learning: A developmental study

First-, third-, fifth-grade children, and college students (ages 6, 8, 10, and 19 years) acquired a paired-associate list under the study-test procedure to a one error-less trial criterion. In addition, as each pair was presented the individual indicated whether he/she had that pair correct on the immediately preceding trial (postdiction responses). The data were interpreted in terms of a discrimination-utilization hypothesis which postulates that individuals discriminate their own correct and incorrect responses on a given trial and use this information for distributing processing effort on the subsequent trial. Analyses involving the accuracy of postdiction responses, the relation of postdiction accuracy to acquisition, and the consideration of the acquisition data in terms of a two-stage model led to the conclusion that older children and adults may use the discrimination-utilization strategy but younger children tend not to use it, probably because of both mediation and production deficiencies.     

Effects of computer-mediated vocational guidance procedures: Accuracy of self-knowledge

To assess the effectiveness of vocational guidance procedures proposed for inclusion in a computer-based vocational exploration system, 128 11th-grade male subjects were randomly assigned to three experimental groups and a control group. One group was given a computer-generated accuracy of self-knowledge feedback, another group was taught on occupational classification scheme, a third group experienced both. Measures of self-knowledge showed increased accuracy about intelligence, but not about interests, after treatments that included the feedback. Increases were largely due to changes in subjects who originally underestimated their intelligence. A delayed posttest indicated that the increases did not persist.     

Self-observation versus flooding in the treatment of agoraphobia

The effects on agoraphobia of (1) self-observation with a minimum of therapeutic intervention. (2) flooding, (3) a combination of flooding and self-observation, and (4) no-treatment control were compared. Assessments were made at the beginning of treatment, during and at the end of treatment and at the follow-up three months later. They were carried out by the therapist (in vivo) measurement; phobic anxiety and phobic avoidance scale) by an independent observer (phobic anxiety scale and phobic avoidance scale) and by the client (phobic anxiety scale; phobic avoidance scale: FSS; social anxiety scale; SDS and I-E scale).Self-observation, flooding and flooding/self-observation resulted in significant improvement on several variables, whereas the no-treatment control group did not improve. No difference in effectiveness was found between the self-observation and flooding treatments. In addition, the results suggest that a combined flooding/self-observation treatment is more effective than each of the individual treatments.     

Distance distortions in children's cognitive maps: an examination of the information storage model

Second graders (mean age = 7-8), fourth graders (mean age = 9-8), and sixth graders (mean age = 11-11) walked two paths located in and around their school. Children in the Unsegmented condition estimated the distance and time taken to walk a path that was relatively undifferentiated in terms of the number of qualitatively different areas of the school through which it passed. Children in the Segmented condition made the same estimates for a path that went through different areas (segments) of the school (i.e., cafeteria, hall, vestibule, and outside the building). Children at all three grade levels estimated that the distance traversed in the Segmented condition was longer than the distance in the Unsegmented condition. This difference was not significant on the time measure. It was concluded that (1) paths with a large number of segments are perceived as being longer than paths of the same length with fewer segments, (2) distances along paths with few segments are underestimated, (3) distances along paths with many segments may be overestimated as a function of developmental level, and (4) only younger children may have used time to estimate distance.     

Effects of vicarious consequences on imitation and recall: Some developmental findings

Two experiments were conducted using a multiple-item list in which each item consisted of a pair of pictures. The model indicated which member of each pair she preferred and was either positively reinforced, negatively reinforced, or received neutral consequences. The S then indicated his preferences (imitation test). Following the imitation test, each S was asked to recall the model's choices. Age was an independent variable in both experiments. Imitation scores of the children, preschool to sixth-grade age range, were strongly influenced by differential vicarious reinforcement. Vicarious reward increased imitation and vicarious punishment decreased it. College students' imitation scores were only minimally influenced by differential vicarious reinforcement. Within- and between-subjects variations of vicarious reinforcement had similar effects. Recall scores were surprisingly high and were not significantly influenced by differential vicarious reinforcement. Interestingly, age and percentage of correct recall were negatively correlated.     

Imaginative role-playing,need for achievement,and perceived outcome in relation to occupational status

Forty-four male and 44 female subjects, divided on the basis of their need for achievement scores, responded to three short verbal cues in which the central character was either male or female. The three cues (store clerk, social worker, and author) were chosen in order to maximize status differences and to minimize masculinity-femininity differences. In responding to each cue, subjects had to imagine themselves in each role. subjects rated each character on semantic differential scales to provide impressions of personality. Ratings were found to be a function of sex of the subject and need for achievement level, as well as status of the occupation. However, no significant effects were associated with the sex of the role.