Cerebral lateralization in individuals diagnosed as autistic in early childhood

Early infantile autism was found to be associated with an atypical pattern of cerebral lateralization. Based on EEG measures of hemispheric activation during cognitive processing, it was found that 7 of the 10 autistic individuals tested showed a pattern of hemispheric specialization rarely seen in the normal population; namely, a “reversal” in lateralization reflective of a lack of left-hemisphere specialization for linguistic functions. Furthermore, the autistic individuals' pattern of cognitive strengths and weakness is suggestive of a selective impairment of the left cerebral hemisphere.     

Interpersonal attraction and person perception: Two tests of three balance models

Two experiments tested the adequacy of three balance models (equal-weights tetrahedron model, unequal-weights tetrahedron model, Feather model) for the p?o?x triad. In the first experiment, involving a variation of Byrne's anonymous-stranger technique, a PDP-11 computer was used to provide feedback on five attitude issues for each of the cells of a design created by five levels of the p?x variable (?2, ?1, 0, +1, +2) and five levels of the o?x variable (?2, ?1, 0, +1, +2). The dependent variable was p?o, interpersonal attraction. In the second experiment there were five-level manipulations of both p?x and o?p with an o-x (person perception) dependent variable. The correlations between obtained results and the predicted values for each of the three models were quite high (.64, .65, .61, respectively, in the first experiment and .60, .59, and .58, respectively, in the second), but the Feather model was judged least adequate. The data in the first experiment were best described by the unequal-weights tetrahedron model, and the data in the second experiment were best described by the equal-weights tetrahedron model. It was argued that avoidance of mutual dislike was responsible for the relatively greater support for the unequal-weights than equal-weights tetrahedron model in the first experiment.     

The effects of censorship and attractiveness of the censor on attitude change

The effects of censoring a communication, overriding the censor, and the attractiveness of the censor on the potential audience's attitude and desire to hear the communication were studied. Subjects were told that a speech which they were to have heard had been censored by a positively, negatively, or neutrally evaluated group. Some subjects were told that the experimenter had decided to override the censor and that they would hear the communication. Other subjects were told they would not hear the censored communication. The results indicated that censorship, regardless of the attractiveness of the censor, caused the potential audience to change their attitudes toward the position to be advocated by the communication and to increase their desire to hear that communication. These effects were interpreted as resulting from the arousal of psychological reactance. When the censor was overriden and the audience felt that they would hear the communication, their desire to hear it decreased. Further, subjects who had been told that a positively evaluated group had censored the speech changed their attitudes away from the position to be advocated by the communication while subjects who believed that a negative group had censored the speech changed their attitudes toward the position of the communication. These results were interpreted as evidence of cognitive balancing.     

The effects of control on perceived fairness of procedures and outcomes

On the basis of Thibaut and Walker's theory of procedural justice, it was predicted that subjects who experienced control through choosing a trial decision rule would be more satisfied with the outcome of a dispute and the conflict resolution procedure than would yoked subjects who were not given control. Two additional conditions were added to the design in order to investigate the extent to which control had an influence on trial evaluations independent of being allowed to discuss the rules and obtaining a preferred rule in the absence of actual choice. Regardless of role in the dispute (accuser, accused, or no knowledge) and the nature of the rule adopted, those subjects who exercised control through rule choice evaluated all aspects of the trial experience more positively than subjects who did not exercise control through rule choice. The results also revealed that discussion of the rules and obtaining the preferred rule without choice contributed positively to evaluations of the trial procedure and verdict.     

Motivational bases in mixed-motive interactions: The effects of comparison levels

The relationship between reward level and the basic motives which underlie strategic choices (competitive and noncompetitive) in a mixed-motive game was examined from two theoretical perspectives. The “regret” interpretation proposed by McClintock and McNeel was compared to an approach based upon Thibout and Kelley's concept of comparison level (CL). Two independent variables, CL and Reward, were manipulated by varying the payoff rates in two playing series of the MDG. Initially, 50 iterations were played for high (4¢ per point) or low ($\text{1}\text{5¢}$ per point) incentive to provide subjects with outcomes upon which to base their CL's. The Reward manipulation was introduced in 150 subsequent trials of the game with subjects playing for 8¢ or 1¢ per point. The results show that the absolute magnitude of reward did not influence the extent of cooperative or competitive behavior. On the other hand, the magnitude of reward relative to CL was significantly associated with the degree of cooperative behavior—supra-CL outcomes yielding a higher frequency of cooperative behavior than infra-CL outcomes.     

The effect of combined arousal states on attitude change

An experiment was devised in which subjects either were given a choice or were given no choice to listen to a counter-attitudinal communication. For half the subjects (Interrupt condition) the tape of the communication broke during the concluding sentence of the speech. The other half of the subjects (No Interrupt condition) heard the speech in its entirety. A recall measure indicated that subjects in the Interrupt condition recalled significantly more arguments made in the communication than subjects who heard the complete speech. This was interpreted as being a Zeigarnik effect caused by arousal created by the interruption. The choice manipulation should have created dissonance and motivated attitude change. Consistent with dissonance theory, measures of attitude change showed that greater attitude change toward the position of the speech occurred in the Choice condition than in the No Choice condition. In addition, an interaction in which significantly greater change occurred in the Choice-Interrupt condition than any of the other conditions was obtained. Since both the choice and interruption manipulations were hypothesized to be arousing, it was speculated that, in the Choice-Interrupt condition, the arousal created by the cognitive inconsistency and by the interrupted task may have combined to yield the increased attitude change. The conditions under which arousal states might combine were discussed.     

Hemisphere functioning and motor imitation in autistic persons

Previous research has found that a high proportion of autistic individuals exhibit an atypical pattern of hemispheric specialization suggestive of impaired left hemisphere functioning: namely, right hemisphere dominance for both verbal and visual-spatial processing. Studies of brain-damaged persons have suggested that the left hemisphere is specialized for the use of nonverbal gesture. Since a major characteristic of autism is an impairment in the use of gesture, it was predicted that autistic persons would also show atypical hemispheric specialization for motor imitation. To test this hypothesis, hemispheric activation was measured using EEG recordings of alpha rhythm in autistic and matched normal control subjects during four motor imitation tasks. Autistic subjects showed significantly greater right hemisphere activation during the imitation tasks, than normal subjects. This pattern was particularly evident in younger autistic subjects and during oral, rather than manual, imitation tasks.     

Seniority in the generational transition of laboratory groups: The effects of social familiarity and task experience

The determinants of leadership seniority in laboratory groups were investigated in two experiments. In both experiments a procedure was used in which individual group members were periodically replaced throughout 7 generations. The individuals within the groups folded origami products and traded with other groups so as to earn quarters. In the first experiment the effect of social familiarity on seniority was investigated by comparing a set of standard groups with a set of rotational groups in which the group members moved from group to group between generations and thus always interacted with strangers. There was less seniority in the rotational groups. In the second experiment the effect of experience on seniority was investigated by comparing a set of standard groups with a set of experienced groups in which the new group members were recruited from the standard groups. There was less seniority in the experienced groups. It was found in both experiments, in agreement with previous research, that over generations the subjects earned increasing amounts of money and worked with increasing speed and efficiency.     

Sex,masculinity—feminity,and intelligence

Masculine and feminine subgroups of males and females were selected from samples of high school and college students on the basis of composite scores from several M—F scales. They were compared on intelligence as measured by a verbal test, Terman's Concept Mastery Test, and a nonverbal test, D-48. Results did not support previous findings of sex differences in intelligence but showed that masculine subgroups of both sexes scored higher of the nonverbal test.     

How shall we study individual differences in cognitive abilities?—Methodological and theoretical perspectives

Selected studies in recent research literature are examined with regard to (a) their methodological adequacy in establishing dimensions of individual differences in information-processing abilities, and (b) the theoretical problems involved in inferring psychological processes from individual difference dimensions. Many methodological inadequacies are noted, including use of small Ns, questionable procedures in establishing variables (e.g., use of raw difference scores), improper or inadequate use of factor analysis and other multivariate statistical techniques, and poor presentation of results. On the whole, little progress has been made thus far in identifying psychological processes through research in individual differences, even though this research approach is viable and potentially useful. Serious theoretical difficulties arise in attempting to infer the nature and operation of psychological processes merely from the identification of individual difference trait dimensions. Promising research, however, is represented by studies in which an effort is made to analyze tasks into their components, to vary task characteristics, and/or to consider the strategies that individuals can employ in performing the tasks.     

Deprivation level affects extinction of a conditioned taste aversion

Hooded rats were conditioned to avoid drinking saccharin by following exposure to saccharin with injection of cyclophosphamide, a drug that produces visceral upset. Extinction trials were then given by presenting saccharin without cyclophosamide injections with the rats under low (10 hr) or high (23 hr) fluid deprivation. The aversion extinguished in fewer trials in rats under high deprivation.     

Preference for modes of dispute resolution as a function of process and decision control

Research on procedural justice has suggested that the distribution of control among participants can be used to classify dispute-resolution procedures and may be an important determinant of preference for such procedures. This experiment demonstrates that control can be meaningfully divided into two components: control over the presentation of evidence and control over the final decision. The experiment placed subjects (law students and undergraduates) in a situation of conflict and varied two between-subjects factors: (1) Role, whether subjects expected to role-play third parties (law students) or litigants (undergraduates), and (2) Orientation, whether individuals focused on equity claims (appeals to a norm of fairness) or legal claims (appeals to a strict, legal interpretation of events). As a control, a third-party neutral-orientation condition was included. In addition, subjects were presented with four dispute-resolution procedures which varied in third-party control over the presentation of evidence (Process Control) and third-party control over the final decision (Decision Control) as within-subjects factors. Results revealed that both litigants and third parties preferred high rather than low third-party decision control. Litigants with an equity orientation preferred low third-party control over the presentation of evidence, particularly when third parties had high rather than low decision control. Third parties and litigants with a legal orientation preferred low rather than high third-party process control only when there was high third-party decision control. Litigant preferences were more affected by variation in process control than variation in decision control while third-party preferences were more affected by variation in decision control than in process control. As a check on external validity, military judges given a neutral orientation were asked to evaluate and express preferences for the four dispute-resolution procedures. Their results were not detectably different from those of the law students who role-played third parties in the main portion of the study.