The determinants of beliefs in human nature

This study set out to examine which of a range of ‘demographic’ factors best predicted peoples' beliefs in the heredity vs environmental determinants of specific features in human nature. Ss' sex, age, education, class, voting pattern and religion were related to their beliefs in the heredity vs environmental determinants of six human characteristics: physical characteristics, psychological skills, personality, beliefs, psychological problems and physical problems. Both univariate and multivariate analyses demonstrated the close relationship between the independent demographic variables, particularly education and voting pattern, and the dependent belief variables, particularly personality and beliefs. The literature on correlates of political beliefs was examined and related to the findings in this study.     

Facilitation of retention by white noise.

Second and fifth grade subjects were given three verbal tasks: serial, free recall, or paired-associate learning. Retention tests were administered immediately after the acquisition phase or following a long delay. Half the subjects were exposed to a 2-min period of bursts of white noise (arousal) immediately prior to the retention test. The finding of primary interest was that white noise produced substantial improvement in performance relative to a control condition. This effect may be more pronounced for long-term memory than for short-term memory. Although older children exhibited better long-term memory than younger subjects, no interaction of age with arousal condition was observed.     

Memory scanning of shapes,colors, and compounds: A comparison of retarded and nonretarded adults

Three experiments were performed to assess memory scanning of shapes, colors, and shape-color compounds by retarded and nonretarded people. Attributes comprising compounds provided either redundant or nonredundant information. Large retarded-nonretarded differences in reaction time were obtained. In contrast to previous reports of slow scanning of digits and nonsense shapes by retarded people, scan rates for shapes and colors did not differ between groups. Retarded subjects were not characterized by a deficient scan rate. Although compound stimuli required twice as many attributes in their repersentation as did simple stimuli, they were not scanned more slowly, indicating that per item scan rate is not determined by the number of attributes required to define each item. Both groups were able to exploit redundant relevant information to achieve faster processing than in simple conditions. Decision rules for rejecting compound stimuli comprised one, two, or more binary tests. Groups did not differ in speed of performing elementary binary test(s).     

Cue selection in verbal discrimination learning of retarded subjects.

A series of experiments was conducted to examine cue function in trigram verbal discrimination learning by retarded subjects. The issue was to determine the factors that control attention in this type of learning situation. The two variables of chief interest were trigram meaningfulness and reinforcement history. The major general conclusion was that retarded subjects employ complex cue selection strategies in solving a verbal discrimination involving compound verbal stimuli. Major findings were as follows: (a) Retarded subjects exhibit a response bias in favor of words over nonsense trigrams; (b) relatively little active cue selection based on meaningfulness was observed; (c) a compound stimulus discrimination was more difficult to learn than a discrimination involving single verbal stimuli; (d) compound and single stimuli may be processed differently in original discrimination learning; (e) cue position probably controls attention in compound discrimination learning; and (f) a frequency theory of verbal discrimination learning is supported by these data.     

Transformative Choice,Practical Reasons and Trust

Abstract

In this article I reflect on the question of whether we can have reason to make transformative choices. In attempting to answer it, I do three things. First, I bring forward an internalist account of practical reasons which entails the idea that agents should deliberate to the best of their ability. Second, I discuss L.A. Paul’s views on transformative choice, arguing that, although they present a real problem, the problem is not as profound as she believes it is. Third, I argue that, given the situation in which we face transformative choices (a situation of principled uncertainty though not cluelessness), trust is an appropriate response to transformative choices, and that when one’s trust that one’s current desires will be fulfilled in making a transformative choice is reasonable, one has a reason to make it. Thus, trust turns out to be a crucial response to a profound problem each of us will face during our lives.     

Slow brain potentials in the CNV-paradigm

Slow brain potentials were recorded during the foreperiod of a reaction time task, and the effects of instructions governing the trade-off between speed and accuracy were investigated. One brain potential, a slow negative shift preceding S₂, was largely attenuated under accuracy instructions. It is suggested that this shift is dependent on a motor response and that its amplitude reflects the level of motor preparation. Two other brain potentials, a slow positive and a slow negative wave, seem to depend on the psychological properties of S₁. Enhanced amplitudes were found, when S₁ provides information, besides its warning function.     

Calibration of probability assessments by professional blackjack dealers, statistical experts, and lay people

The question addressed in this study is whether experts are better calibrated than lay people. We investigated how well people are calibrated when they assess the probabilities of card combinations in the game of blackjack. Three groups of subjects were used: professional dealers, statistical experts, and control subjects. The results showed that experience and statistical expertise do not make people better calibrated in this task. It is argued that the concept of calibration is not wholly appropriate to describe the obtained deviations from the normatively correct responses. This is illustrated by a discriminant analysis performed on the signed deviation scores, which resulted in an almost perfect separation of the three groups, although they were overlapping with respect to calibration.     

Evoked potentials to consonant-vowel syllables

The hypothesis was tested that CV syllables (10 different consonants but the same vowel /?/) would show different evoked potential latencies and amplitudes. Differences were found which were dichotomised between plosives and other consonants. Although one difference between these two groups of consonants is the duration of that consonant, this duration difference did not adequately explain the prolonged evoked potential latencies and the reduced amplitudes for the non-plosives. However, no differences were found within the group of non-plosives, although they varied in consonant duration. It was suggested that N₁ latency and amplitude reflected processing time at an early stage of analysis of both speech and non-speech stimuli. The results show that consunants of long duration are perceived later than plosives, but well before the onset of the vowel.     

A Brief History of Jungian Splits in the United Kingdom

The institutionalizing of analytical psychology in the United Kingdom has its origins in the Analytical Psychology Club founded on 15 September 1922. It became increasingly apparent that professionalization of the Jungian movement was essential and this led to the formation of the Society of Analytical Psychology in 1946. This was followed in 1951 by the founding of the British Association of Psychotherapists. The Association of Jungian Analysts split off from the Society of Analytical Psychology in 1975–6, and this was followed in 1982 by the split between the Association of Jungian Analysts and the Independent Group of Analytical Psychologists. The Berlin Congress of 1986 saw the beginnings of a liaison body for the four London societies, which came to be called the Umbrella Group. This has organized joint conferences and workshops, but the split in 1992 between the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy and the British Confederation of Psychotherapists has posed a new threat to the growing harmony between the London societies. In the face of this threat, the Umbrella Group has not been able to articulate a common policy and strategy about the Jungian presence in the United Kingdom.     

Group differences in intelligence and speed of information-processing

Three samples of different levels of mental ability, but each of average or above- average intelligence, were administered a battery of reaction time test which measure the speed with which persons can execute various elementary cognitive processes. Discriminant analyses revealed significant differences between the groups in reaction times and intraindividual standard deviations, and univariate analyses indicated that higher ability groups tended to obtain significantly faster mean reaction times and to show significantly less intraindividual variability than lower ability groups. Groups which differed the most in mental ability differed to the greatest extent on the more complex reaction time tests but this pattern was reversed for groups which were relatively close in mean IQ. Generally, the results support the hypothesis that speed- of-processing is an important factor unferlying intelligence, but a number of puzzling findings indicate the need for continued research in this area.     

The pond-and-duckweed problem; Three experiments on the misperception of exponential growth

The representation of duckweed multiplying itself in a pond is used as a research paradigm to study underestimation of exponential growth. The advantage of this paradigm is that the growth process is presented in a direct non-numerical way. The results show that the underestimation observed in earlier studies where growth was presented by means of tables or graphs, occurs in the pond-and-duckweed situation as well. By manipulating the way the process is presented it is possible to obtain some insight into the sampling strategies used by the subjects when they subjectively extrapolate the perceived processes. These experiments lead to the conclusion that subjects base their extrapolations on three or four samples only.     

A watched pot sometimes boils: a study of duration experience

The ‘watched pot’ phenomenon — the lengthening of duration experience when one is attentively and perhaps impatiently waiting for some event to occur — was studied in three experiments. In them, each observer attended for a duration of 270 sec to a liquid-containing beaker on an electrical burner. Observers who were told that the experiment concerned time perception (prospective paradigm) reproduced the duration as longer than those told that it concerned visual perception (retrospective paradigm). In the prospective paradigm, reproductions were longer if the liquid did not boil than if it did, and an interruption (task-unrelated questioning) shortened reproductions if the liquid did not boil but had no effect if it did. In the retrospective paradigm, if there was boiling or questioning or both, reproductions were longer than if there was neither. Results have implications for hypotheses about duration experience.     

Validation of the sensation scale,a measure of subjective physiological responses to alcohol

The Sensation Scale was originally constructed to measure the subjective experience of physiological changes following alcohol consumption. Reduction of the original scale of 31 variables on the basis of face validity resulted in six ‘factors’ comprising 26 variables and one ‘other’ factor. These sortings are shown to have good interrater reliability. Furthermore, evidence is presented from two experiments that five of the six factors discriminated between nonalcoholic male subjects who drank either a beverage containing a moderate dose of alcohol or a nonalcoholic beverage.     

Spiral aftereffect duration as a correlate of impulsiveness

In a correlational analysis impulsiveness (Imp), assessed by means of a questionnaire concerned with speed of judgment and decision making, was found to be negatively related to spiral aftereffect (SAE) duration. However, this relationship was present only in a sample of subjects with high neuroticism scores. In this group SAE duration was also positively related to debilitating anxiety. A parallel was seen between Imp and Heymans' “Secondary function,” a personality dimension which was similarly operationalized in a visual aftereffect experiment. Some other SAE correlates are also discussed.     

Alcohol consumption by college women following exposure to unsolvable problems: Learned helplessness or stress induced drinking?

Three experiments were intended to examine the relationship between alcohol, depression and learned helplessness. In Study I, more female undergraduate heavy drinkers than light drinkers were found to have critically elevated scores on a depression index. A sex difference in the relationship between drinking and depression is suggested since male depressives were equally distributed among drinking categories. In Studies II and III, female undergraduates were given unsolvable problems in a learned helplessness paradigm. Relative to controls these subjects reported increased depressive and hostile affect and drank more beer in a taste rating task. However, we failed to find deficits in anagram solution with those subjects given the learned helplessness manipulation. Specific questions are raised regarding the boundary conditions of learned helplessness while implications bearing on stress-related alcohol consumption are discussed.     

Stimulus control over sex-typed play in cross-gender identified boys.

Discriminative stimulus control over masculine and feminine sex-typed play behaviors was investigated in five boys, aged 5–8 yr, with “childhood crossgender identification.” Reliable observational measures of play were obtained with two sets of toys: (a) “dress-up toys” (girls' apparel vs boys' apparel), and (b) “affect toys” (maternal-nurturance play vs masculine-aggression play). With an ABA reversal intrasubject design, certain stimulus conditions (e.g., presence of father, mother, male, or female stranger) were found to be discriminative for reliable changes in sex-typed play. Sex-typed play was found to vary as a function of the social stimulus situation and as a function of the type of play response required. All children played predominantly feminine while alone in the playroom. While no single environmental stimulus was consistently discriminative for masculine play across children, at least one stimulus condition was found for each subject under which he played predominantly masculine.     

Pecking and feeding in chicks

Pecking is not controlled by nutritional state in a newly hatched chick, but by 3 days posthatch it normally is. This paper tests the hypothesis that first a chick must learn that pecking leads to ingestion; then, other (nonlearned) processes are automatically responsible for differential pecking rates to nutritive and nonnutritive items. The first experiment shows that experience pecking and ingesting sawdust is sufficient for differential pecking to develop. The second experiment shows that swallowing without pecking (using a force-feeding technique) does not lead to differential pecking. The third experiment shows that pecking without swallowing (using sand glued down to the floor) also does not lead to differential pecking. Finally, the last experiment shows that food deprivation affects pecking rate only after pecking and ingestion have been associated. These results support the above hypothesis that pecking followed by ingestion leads to the “attachment” of the pecking response to the feeding system. Motivational independence of pecking and the hunger system, the association of pecking with ingestion, and the development of behavior systems are discussed. It is concluded that the function of a behavior may not be related to its causes.