Developmental change in visual information processing under backward masking

Four-year-olds, eight-year-olds, and college students were compared with respect to their speed and strategy for processing form information in a pointing-recognition task. The target form arrays, varying in size from one to four forms, were presented tachistoscopically, followed by a masking array at varying intervals. No age differences in processing speed were found on single-item arrays, but four-year-olds were progressively slower as array size increased. A selective processing condition resulted in longer processing times for all Ss but was differentially more difficult for four-year-olds. Under the full report conditions, all Ss showed a parallel independent processing strategy as array size increased from one to two items, but four-year-olds did not apply this strategy as efficiently as older Ss. As array size increased from two to four items, only adults and eight-year-olds continued to show parallel independent processing, up to a limit. This age difference in processing strategv for the largest arrays may underlie age differences that have been found in short-term memory capacity.     

Developmental changes in apportionment of study time among items in a multitrial free recall task

First grade, third grade, and college Ss attempted to memorize a single set of items over the course of 5 trials, each trial consisting of a 45-sec study period followed by a free recall test. On all trials but the first, S was allowed to have available during his study period only half of the total set of items, but was free to select whichever items he wished to include in this half. Third grade and college Ss were significantly more prone than first grade Ss to select for study items not recalled in the immediately preceding recall test. The results suggest that the strategy of deliberately concentrating one's study activities on the less well mastered segments of materials to be learned, like other elementary memory strategies (e.g., rote rehearsal), cannot automatically be assumed to be part of a young child's repertoire of learning techniques.     

Self-esteem,need for approval,and reactions to personal evaluations

In accordance with theoretical predictions concerning the reactions of high and low self-esteem individuals, Ss with low self-esteem scores showed an increase in liking for a positive evaluator of self and a decrease in liking for a negative evaluator of self. Ss with high self-esteem scores and low Marlowe-Crowne scores did not show a significant change in liking for either a positive or negative evaluator of self. Ss with high self-esteem scores and high Marlowe-Crowne scores showed a pattern of reaction similar to that of low self-esteem Ss. It was suggested that a sizable percentage of high self-esteem scorers should be reclassified as low self-esteem. This subgroup seems to obtain high scores on a self-esteem inventory by presenting themselves in an overly favorable as opposed to honest manner (the defining characteristic of a high Marlowe-Crowne scorer) but shows behavior patterns similar to low self-esteem individuals.     

Active selection of items to be remembered: The role of timing

A series of experiments was carried out in which Ss were required to extract critical stimuli from a stream of nine spoken inputs, presented at various rates, and report on these after the presentation of each list. The critical items were normally digits at positions 2, 4, 6, and 8 in the input sequence. Subjects were required to employ either an “active” extraction strategy, aimed at achieving temporary storage only of items to be remembered, or a “passive” strategy, involving storage of all inputs with subsequent extraction of critical items. The initial experiment showed that the active strategy markedly improved performance efficiency as the presentation rate decreased; passive performance remained relatively stable. Experiments 2 and 3 indicated that the level of active performance was higher when critical items were categorically different from unwanted items. There were indications that this effect was independent of the effect of changes in the presentation rate.The final experiments in the series showed that when Ss were denied the opportunity of predicting the time of arrival of critical items active performance hardly benefitted from a reduction in rate.A “controlled activation” process is proposed as a basis for S's ability to modulate his state of alertness, so as to maximize receptivity for critical stimuli arriving at well-defined points in time.     

Storage and later recognition of exemplars of concepts

This paper concerns the problem of abstraction: whether when we encounter several exemplars of a concept, we retain only the abstracted concept, only the exemplars, or both. Although many studies concur that both are stored, a recent article argued strongly that only the abstracted concept is stored. The present study, aimed at replication of this recent finding, follows the earlier procedural details but adds appropriate controls and uses simpler material. A set of 24 exemplars of four concepts, in the form of four-tuples of letters and numbers, was presented to Ss who, after presentation, rated a larger set of exemplars for recognition. One group of Ss experienced the conceptual exemplars; control group Ss experienced items that were similar in composition but not exemplars of a concept. Two major results appeared: Unlike the study on which this was based, all Ss were able to distinguish those items that were originally experienced from those that were not. And, the more completely an exemplar fit the concept (the longer the item), the more confident the S was that it had been presented. In contrast, in the control condition, the longer the item, the more confident the S was that it had not been presented earlier. Two models are described to account for these results. One is based on the S's initial storage of the exemplars in a concept-plus-correction format; the other is based on a procedure whereby the S can make recognition judgments without having previously abstracted and retained the concepts.     

The role of imagery in the evaluation of sentences

Reaction time was the dependent variable in this sentence verification experiment. Simple sentences, which were either true or false, were constructed such that in some cases it was easy to form an image of the sentence, and in other cases forming an image was difficult. Ss' ratings were employed to select low- and high-imagery sentences. It was found that high-imagery sentences could be verified more rapidly than low-imagery sentences. Instructions which did not mention imagery were given to some Ss while others were specifically asked to employ imagery, but the reaction times of these two groups of Ss did not differ. It was concluded that imagery facilitates the process of sentence verification and that models of this process which restrict themselves to purely semantic operations are incomplete.     

Optional shift behavior as a function of age and dimensional dominance

An optional reversal-nonreversal shift task for which the relevant color or form cues were either dominant or nondominant was presented to 320 Ss, 6 through 20 years of age. Dominance, as defined in terms of relative cue similarity, was related to initial learning and shift behavior for kindergarten and third-grade Ss; but not for sixth-grade and college Ss. The speed of initial learning and percentage of reversal shifts was related to age when the nondominant dimension was relevant. There were no developmental differences when the dominant dimension was relevant.     

The empirical violation of conservation laws and its relation to structural change

Concrete operational Ss were provided empirical evidence of nonconservation of discontinuous quantity and weight. The findings were that few Ss accepted this evidence. This was interpreted as supporting the organismic-developmental claim that lower forms of reasoning are transformed into structurally more advanced forms. It was also found that (1) probing provides a more accurate assessment of Ss' operational levels, (2) one can empirically distinguish between logicomathematical and physical knowledge, and (3) the former is understood by Ss to be nomically necessary and the latter, in the case of weight, may not be.     

A developmental comparison of the processing of two types of visual information

Simple geometric forms and spatial position markers were tachistoscopically presented to Ss from four age groups (ranging from five years to adult) who responded by recreating the visual array with magnetic tokens.The basic findings were: (a) Ss remembered item positions better than identities; (b) no asymptote of position recall was reached by any age group when up to five position markers were presented; (c) when required to process identity information, position memory suffered, younger Ss showing the greatest decrement; (d) with unlimited viewing time, the pattern of results relating identity and spatial recall was not altered; (e) recall was better for the locations of position markers than for locations of geometric items.The results supported an hypothesis of separate processing mechanisms for spatial location and identity information. Improvement with age seems to result from an increasing ability to integrate the functioning of these separate mechanisms.     

Free recall and retrieval speed of categorized items by kindergarten children

Kindergarten Ss were presented with 16 pictorial items in four category sets or a partially random ordem with one item from each category composing the four presentation sets. The pictures were presented either on conceptually related background pictures or on white backgrounds. The categorically grouped presentation facilitated free recall performance, both in terms of number of items recalled and the speed with which the items were recalled, and increased the amount of clustering in recall. Categorical clustering in recall was associated with shorter within- than between-category intervals and for those Ss who recalled items from each of four categories successively, the over-all temporal pattern in recall closely approximated that found with adults. No background effects were found.     

Effects of objective self-awareness on attribution of causality

Two experiments were conducted to test the proposition that attribution of causality will be determined by the focus of attention. In Expt I Ss responded to 10 hypothetical situations, each presenting the possibility that either the S or someone else might be the cause of a negative consequence. After each situation was presented, the S was asked to estimate in percentages the extent to which he was causal in bringing about the negative consequence. In order to reduce experimentally the degree of attention focused toward the self, approximately half of the Ss were required to engage in a motor activity while replying to the questions. The procedure of Expt II differed from the first in two respects: (1) There were five hypothetical situations with positive consequences as well as five with negative consequences, and (2) for approximately half of the Ss a stimulus was introduced that would direct their attention to themselves, rather than to the environment. The results of both experiments indicated that attribution of causality to the self was greater when attention was focused on the self, and in the second experiment it was found that this effect operates independently of whether the consequences are good or bad.     

Decision processes in children's recognition memory

Kindergarteners and third graders were given a continuous recognition memory task involving two-digit numbers. In addition, a rating scale consisting of photographs of various facial expressions was used to obtain confidence judgments from the Ss. Conventional analyses as well as signal detection analyses of the data revealed the following results: (a) the overall performance of the third graders was superior to that of the kindergarteners; (b) memory strength decreased as the number of intervening items increased; (c) there was no difference in the forgetting rates of the two grade levels; (d) the third graders exhibited a more liberal response bias than the kindergarteners; (e) both the hit rate (probability of correctly labeling an old stimulus as old) and the false-alarm rate (probability of incorrectly labeling a new stimulus as old) increased across blocks of items; (f) the increases in the hit rate and the false-alarm rate over blocks were due to a change in criterion from a relatively conservative level to a more lenient one; (g) the lower the S's level of confidence in judging an item as old, the lower was the probability of that item actually being old; (h) the third graders were better than the kindergarteners at gauging the accuracy of their recognition responses. It was concluded that with respect to recognition memory, chidren as young as $\text{5}\text{1}\text{2}$ years old are capable, to some extent, of monitoring their own memory states.     

Complexly fractionated syllogistic quantifiers

Consider syllogisms in which fraction (percentage) quantifiers are permitted in addition to universal and particular quantifiers, and then include further quantifiers which are modifications of such fractions (such as “almost 1/2 the S are P” and “Much more than 1/2 the S are P”). Could a syllogistic system containing such additional categorical forms be coherent? Thompson's attempt (1986) to give rules for determining validity of such syllogisms has failed; cf. Carnes &; Peterson (forthcoming) for proofs of the unsoundness and incompleteness of Thompson's rules. Building on Peterson (1985), the coherence of such a syllogistic can, however, be demonstrated with an algebra which provides its semantics; e.g., “almost 1/2 the S are P” is represented as “?(3(SP)?SP)”.     

Children's acquisition and reversal behavior in a probability learning situation as a function of programed instruction,internal-external control,and schedules of reinforcement

A three-choice, contingent task was used with 192 fifth and sixth graders in a 2 × 2 × 3 factorial design combining instruction (programed instruction on selected probability concepts vs no programed instruction), locus of control (internal vs external), and schedules of reinforcement (33, 66, and 100%). The dependent measures were the percentage of correct acquisition responses, of correct reversal responses, and of pattern responses, as well as posttests on probability concepts. The major findings of the study were associated with schedule of reinforcement. In acquisition and reversal, Ss under 100% reinforcement during acquisition tended to maximize the greatest, followed by the 66 and 33% conditions, in that order. The ordinal relationship among schedules was the exact reverse of the maximizing approach for the pattern responses. A partial reinforcement effect was obtained in reversal. Evidence indicated that programed instruction and locus of control affected maximizing behavior, patterning behavior, and resistance to extinction (though these variables did not interact with reinforcement schedule in the predicted direction). Finally the posttest data showed that instructed Ss did learn more relative to noninstructed Ss.     

Shaping of three-man teams on a multiple DRL-DRH schedule using collective reinforcement

Five three-man teams were conditioned to a multiple DRL-DRH schedule during five daily sessions of 3 hr each. The teams were conditioned on the basis of their cumulative response rate regardless of the contributions of individual members. Two individually conditioned Ss were run under a similar schedule for comparison. Although all teams demonstrated some differentiation of response rate under the two legs of the schedule, this difference was not achieved as rapidly, nor was it as stable, as the differentiation in rates achieved in individually conditioned Ss. Team members displayed a variety of response rates as a result of collective team conditioning. Often, individual response rates interfered with obtainment of team reinforcement. The individual team members displayed little S^D control in comparison with the individually conditioned Ss. In general the results suggest that collective reinforcement is highly inefficient in comparison with procedures employing individual feedback.     

Effectiveness of debriefing after a stress-producing deception

This experiment was carried out to determine if after deceiving Ss an E had sufficient credibility to effectively debrief the Ss. Ss in two stress groups were given false information indicating that when a signal light came on they would receive painful electric shocks. Ss in a no-stress group were not told about shocks. After being given the threatening instructions, Ss in one of the stress groups were debriefed concerning the deception (but the “shock electrodes” were not removed) while Ss in the other group were not debriefed. After this the signal light came on for all groups. Arousal was measured by pulse rates and self-reports. The results revealed that (a) the instructions about electric shocks increased the arousal levels of the two stress groups relative to the no-stress group, thus indicating that the deception was effective, and (b) after the signal light came on the stress group which had not been debriefed continued to show a high degree of arousal while the stress group which had been debriefed showed a reduction of arousal to the same low level of arousal as the no-stress group, thus indicating that the process of debriefing had been effective.     

Quantitative and qualitative aspects of memory for picture stimuli

Children aged approximately 8.5–9.5 years were shown either names (NP), or pictures (PP), of objects, for each of which they located the corresponding likenesses among an array of alternatives. Written recall and identification accuracy were assessed at 5 hr and 3 days after presentation. As predicted, NP produced significantly superior recall to PP. The rate of identification for recalled items among Ss in PP was significantly higher than that for NP. This result was interpreted as supporting the view that the superiority of NP in recall derives from the fact that Ss may rely upon retrieval from either name or image of each item whereas those in PP must depend upon image alone. This interpretation was extended to take two unexpected findings into account: (i) the superior overall identification accuracy engendered by PP, particularly at the longer time interval; (ii) the relatively weak relationship between identification accuracy and recall scores among matching Ss.     

Judgments of recency for long sequences of pictures: the absence of a developmental trend

Recency judgments were examined for four groups (N = 40 per group) aged 7, 8, 10, and 18 years. The Ss were required to choose either the near or far item on a series of test pairs embedded within a long sequence of single inspection items. No age effects were found. Performance was more accurate the longer the separation between the original presentation of the two test items and the shorter the lag from the most recently presented item to the test. Implications for general and developmental theories of memory were discussed. The data supported the hypothesis that tasks, which do not require deliberate mnemonic strategies, are not developmentally sensitive.     

Stimulus hierarchy generalization in systematic desensitization

A group of snake phobic Ss were desensitized to the first 5 items of a standard 7 item snake fear hierarchy in which the items were ordered on the basis of distance from a snake. This group and a no-treatment control group (which did not receive the desensitization) were treated for fear of all the hierarchy stimuli in terms of ratings both before and after the desensitization. The Ss rated their fear responses to all the stimuli as presented to them in (1) real form (2) by slide, and (3) in imaginal form. The results verified all four experimental hypotheses: (1) The experimental Ss showed greater fear reduction than the control Ss to both the training stimuli (the stimuli on which desensitization done) and the generalization stimuli (the other two stimuli), (2) The systematic desensitization (SD) group showed (a) more fear reduction to the last training stimuli than to the lower generalization stimulus and (b) more to the latter than to the higher generalization stimulus, (3) The SD group showed less fear reduction to the generalization stimuli in their real form than in both the slide and imaginai modalities (in the desensitization each stimulus presentation was done first in slide form and then in imaginal form), and (4) There were significant overall individual differences in generalization of fear reduction to the generalization stimuli.