A system for programming experiments and for recording and analyzing data automatically

A system designed for use in complex operant conditioning experiments is described. Some of its key features are: (a) plugboards that permit the experimenter to change either from one program to another or from one analysis to another in less than a minute, (b) time-sharing of permanently-wired, electronic logic components, (c) recordings suitable for automatic analyses. Included are flow diagrams of the system and sample logic diagrams for programming experiments and for analyzing data.     

Linear programming techniques for multidimensional analysis of preferences

This paper offers a new methodology for analyzing individual differences in preference judgments with regard to a set of stimuli prespecified in a multidimensional attribute space. The individual is modelled as possessing an ideal point denoting his most preferred stimulus location in this space and a set of weights which reveal the relative saliences of the attributes. He prefers those stimuli which are closer to his ideal point (in terms of a weighted Euclidean distance measure). A linear programming model is proposed for external analysisi.e., estimation of the coordinates of his ideal point and the weights (involved in the Euclidean distance measure) by analyzing his paired comparison preference judgments on a set of stimuli, prespecified by their coordinate locations in the multidimensional space. A measure of poorness of fit is developed and the linear programming model minimizes this measure overall possible solutions. The approach is fully nonmetric, extremely flexible, and uses paired comparison judgments directly. The weights can either be constrained nonnegative or left unconstrained. Generalizations of the model to consider ordinal or interval preference data and to allow an orthogonal transformation of the attribute space are discussed. The methodology is extended to perform internal analysis,i.e., to determine the stimuli locations in addition to weights and ideal points by analyzing the preference judgments of all subjects simultaneously. Computational results show that the methodology for external analysis is unbiased—i.e., on an average it recovers the true ideal point and weights. These studies also indicate that the technique performs satisfactorily even when about 20 percent of the paired comparison judgments are incorrectly specified.The authors wish to express their deep appreciation to J. Douglas Carroll and Joseph B. Kruskal for their most valuable comments on an earlier version of this paper.     

Accuracy of observational data with whole interval,partial interval,and momentary time-sampling recording techniques

The purpose of the study was to compare the accuracies obtained from whole interval, partial interval, and momentary time-sample recording procedures. Two types of accuracies were defined. Between-methods accuracy is the degree to which an observer using a particular recording method agrees with a standard using a continuous recording method. Within-methods accuracy is the degree to which an observer and a standard agree when both use the same recording method. Fifty-four undergraduate students viewed a videotape of a woman twisting her hair and recorded the occurrence or nonoccurrence of the behavior using one of the three recording methods. Tapes were divided into segments with low, intermediate, and high rates of behavior. Partial and whole interval recording obtained poorer between-methods accuracies than momentary time sampling. Results showed that whole interval and momentary time-sampling procedures yielded higher within-method accuracies than partial interval recording. Thus, momentary time-sampling recording provided the advantages of both greater representativeness and as few or fewer observer errors than whole or partial interval recording procedures. Use of the interval recording methods by researchers must be justifiable within this framework.     

A survey of psychologists employed in business and industry

Responses to a questionnaire from 78 members of the Metropolitan New York Association for Applied Psychology provided the following results. A majority of respondents found their first jobs as applied psychologists through informal networking techniques such as personal recommendations or self-starter methods such as sending out resumes. Over 75% of the respondents rated their graduate institutions as good or excellent. However, an increase in the applied focus of these programs was strongly urged, and opinions about graduate faculties were mixed. Obtaining applied work experience or relevant internships was the most often mentioned advice for seekers of similar positions.Appreciation is expressed to Harold Takooshian of Fordham University who first aroused our interests in this topic as an area for research and to Bruce Biskin of AICPA, Dennis Hawver and Tony Zinsser of the Hawver Group, Ted Grant and Michael Secunda of Manufacturers Hanover, and Tom Novak of Young & Rubicam for serving as pre-test subjects for the questionnaire of this study.     

Homemaking-role quality and the psychological well-being and distress of employed women

This paper examines the quality of employed women's experience in the homemaking-role and its relationship to their psychological well-being and distress. The subjects (N=403) were drawn from a random stratified sample of women, ages 25 to 55, who were employed as social workers or licensed practical nurses. Positive homemaking-role experience was associated with increased psychological well-being and lowered psychological distress. These associations were affected by the quality of the subjects' experiences in the paid work-role. Thus the favorable association of positive homemaking-role quality with psychological well-being and distress was enhanced by positive paid work-role quality, suggesting that the relationship of homemaking-role quality to the psychological outcomes is influenced by the effects of paid work-role quality on psychological well-being and distress.Data for this paper were collected as part of a larger project funded by the National Institute on Occupational Safety and Health (1 RO1-OHO-1968). The initial analyses and writing of this paper took place at the Center for Research on Women, Wellesley College, and was supported by NIMH postdoctoral training grant no. MH-17058-053. We would like to express special thanks to the late Grace K. Baruch for her enthusiastic support and encouragement of this paper.     

Daily management of work and family goals in employed parents

This study uses one-week time-sampling information from 104 employed parents with pre-school children to examine the association between daily workloads, control strategies, and goal progress. In addition, it examines relationships between work- and family-goal progress and important stress indices such as positive/negative affect and cortisol levels. Multilevel models indicate that family-specific control strategies fostered daily family-goal progress whereas work-specific control strategies were unrelated to daily work-goal progress. Furthermore, employed parents who successfully pursued their work and family goals as part of their daily life routines reported concurrent higher positive and lower negative affect. Only family-goal progress was associated with reduced cortisol secretion whereas work-goal progress was not. Our findings illustrate the usefulness of examining the dynamic interplay between daily workloads, control strategies, goal progress, and stress in the daily lives of employed parents and suggest that the underlying mechanisms may be domain-specific.     

Attributional change and the importance of baseline recording

This single case study illustrates how attention to baseline measures prevented premature conclusions regarding the impact of a conditioning procedure upon aggressive, acting-out behavior. Five disruptive behaviors were initially delineated so that frequency distributions could be obtained. During the course of this 15-day observational period, a significant reduction in the number of these aggressive responses was noted. The proposed conditioning procedure was therefore never required. Explanations as well as implications regarding the observed alteration in behavior were discussed.     

Change technology and the implementation of automation in mental health care settings

The problem of clinician resistance to automated systems in mental health care delivery settings is discussed. It is argued that this resistance is a natural part of the change process, an indicator of an inadequate change strategy. The theory of change is briefly reviewed. Previous efforts to install automated systems in mental health care delivery settings are discussed in terms of change theory. Suggestions for incorporating the technology of change into the implementation process are proposed.     

Stimulus-response compatibility in the programming of speech

Subjects chose between sequences of one syllable (e.g.,/gi/vs./bi/), two syllables (e.g.,/gibi/ vs./gubu/), and three syllables (e.g.,/gibidi/ vs. gubudu/), when/i/sequences were signaled by high-pitched tones and/u] sequences were signaled by low-pitched tones (high compatibility), or the reverse (low compatibility). Choice times were additively affected by sequence length and compatibility. A second experiment showed attenuated compatibility effects for sequences with different vowels in the first and second syllables. These results replicate previously reported results for choices between finger sequences, which suggests that the same programming methods are used in both output domains. Evidently, choices between response sequences can be achieved by selecting a distinguishing parameter and assigning it in a serial fashion to partially prepared motor subprograms.     

Personality characteristics and profiles of employed and outplaced executives using the 16PF

This article examines the psychological profiles of recently terminated executives. The 16PF was used to explore the personality characteristics of outplaced executives. It hypothesizes that recently terminated executives have fundamentally different personality profiles than those of employed executives. The personality profiles of recently terminated executives were compared to personality profiles of a normative group of employed business executives and the personality profiles of a group of executives terminated in 1982. Results indicated that recently terminated executives are identifiable as statistically different from employed executives on 4 of the 16 personality factors. There was no statistical difference between recently terminated executives and the 1982 sample, however, recently terminated executives demonstrated fewer discrepancies from employed executives. Outplacement firms and psychologists working with recently terminated executives need to assist their clients in exploring and modifying these personality profile differences.     

Timing in the motor programming of typing

In developing a theory of motor programming of skilled performance it has been suggested that an abstract, structural representation in the program specifies both a sequence of responses and expressive features of the sequence, such as timing, stress and intonation, which are mapped separately into the response output. In the case of typing, which does not require expressive features, it has previously been assumed that response timing is governed more simply by a timekeeper providing a stochastically regular beat. Two sets of specially constructed texts were given to a fast typist and the results support the idea that skilled typing is paced by a regular beat. They also show that there were systematic rhythmic departures from the beat, which arose from contingencies of keyboard movement but were not the simple consequences of these; rather they may be regarded as structured anticipations of the contingencies, and as such are analogous to the expressive features of speech and playing music.     

Exploring the usage of supervised driving automation in naturalistic conditions

This study reports usage of supervised automation and driver attention from longitudinal naturalistic driving observations. Automation inexperienced drivers were provided with instrumented vehicles with adaptive cruise control (ACC) and lane keeping (LK) features (SAE level 2). Data was collected comparing one month of driving without support to two months where drivers were instructed to use automation as desired.On highways, level 2 automation was used respectively 63% and 57% of the time by Tesla and BMW users, with peak usage during slow stop-and-go traffic (0–30 km/h) and higher speeds (>80 km/h). On roads with speed limits below 70 km/h, automation was used less than 8%, and use on urban roads was incidental rather than habitual. Automation usage increased with time in trip, but no clear time of day effects were found. Head pose data could not classify driver attention, and we recommend gaze tracking in future studies. Head pose deviation was selected as alternative indicator for monitoring activity. Comparing among forms of automation usage on the highway, head heading deviation was smallest during ACC use, but did not differ between automation and baseline manual driving. Head heading deviation during manual driving was smaller in the baseline than the experimental phase, which suggests that motives for manual highway driving may be attention related. Automation usage did not change much over the first 12 weeks of the experimental condition, and there were no longitudinal changes in head pose deviation.     

Procedure for the recording of psychosocial relations in adolescence

A procedure permitting more detailed recording of the complex pattern of mental processes involved in the formation of social relations between young people is presented. The content and structure of the procedure are explained and advice regarding the analysis of the result is given. Recording is based on describing external behaviour using four alternative forms of behaviour (aggressive, dominant, submissive and cooperative), motivational aspects by means of a list of motives and emotional background experiences for specific situations. The alternative forms of behaviour are more closely described, using initial results from studies involving 824 subjects.     

Modified recording procedure for the determination of I/t-curves with arterial pulse recording and acoustic signal generation

I/t-curves were derived by means of a piezo-electric transducer. To receive the minimum responses more than just optically, an amplifier, which was coupled to a transducer, generated an acoustic signal. This modified technique serves to objectivity of the minimum response, which is important in the recording of the I/t-curves. As has been shown in a great number of tests, this procedure has proved to be useful in practice.     

Spare time use and psychological well-being in employed and unemployed young people

Results are presented from a longitudinal study of school leavers spanning the years 1980–1987. Those who were unemployed in 1987 reported spending relatively more of their spare time doing nothing in particular than those who were employed, although the groups did not differ in their reported use of spare time when they were at school. Also there were no differences in reported spare time use between those employed in satisfactory jobs and those employed in unsatisfactory jobs. As other studies have shown, in the unemployed spare time spent in purposeful activities with other people was positively correlated with psychological well-being. Similar associations were observed in the dissatisfied employed, although not in the satisfied employed. The results suggest that purposeful use of spare time may play a buffering role in coping with the stresses of both unemployment and unsatisfactory employment.