Locus of control,perceived responsibility for prior fate,and helping behavior

One-hundred-and-sixty adolescents participated in two studies designed to investigate the relationship between $\text{I}\text{E}$ and helping behavior as mediated by the perceived cause of another's need. In the first study, Ss were given the opportunity to help, either “indirectly” or “directly,” a supervisor who had been over- or underpaid in a prior similar task. Internals helped more in the “direct” help than the “indirect” help conditions but their helping behavior and their perceptions of their supervisors were not consistent. The perceptions of the externals were relatively consistent with their greater help of the “overpaid” supervisor. In study 2, the Ss were given additional information to increase the possibility of their making causal attributions as a function of the supervisor's prior fate. Once again, the external subjects' helping behavior reflected their perception of their supervisor's merit. The internal subjects exhibited relatively little helping behavior regardless of their supervisors' prior fate or perceived competence.     

Interal locus of control as a value

Internal and external subjects, who previously filled out Rotter's (1966) I-E scale, were asked to score the I-E scale of “another student”. Subjects were exposed to “an other's” score of either 0, 5, 10, 16, or 23, and were asked to rate themselves and the “other” on an evaluative questionnaire. It was predicted that ratings of the “other” would increase in positivity to the extent the “other” scored as an internal. A reverse direction was predicted for an index of negative evaluations. The predictions were confirmed. The results suggest that internal locus of control is a societal value. The findings did not support either Hannah's (1973) hypothesis that internals are more responsive to a need for social approval, or Byrne's (1969) similarity hypothesis.     

The effects of self-monitoring and self-reported consistency on the consistency of personality judgments made by strangers and intimates

How consistent are strangers' and intimates' judgments of stimulus people's personalities, and how is this interjudge consistency affected by stimulus persons' assessed self-monitoring and self-reported behavioral consistency? To answer these questions, 38 stimulus subjects rated themselves on the personality dimensions of extraversion and anxiety and also rated their cross-situational consistency on these dimensions. Strangers, friends, mothers, and fathers of stimulus persons also rated them on extraversion and anxiety. The results indicated that: For judgments of anxiety there was lower interjudge consistency for high than for low self-monitoring stimulus subjects. For judgments of extraversion there was no difference in interjudge consistency for low and high self-monitoring stimulus subjects. The results also showed that anxiety was a more “private” trait in that intimates' but not strangers' judgments correlated with stimulus subjects' self-reported anxiety (r = .50 and r = .11, respectively), while extraversion was a more “public” trait in that both intimates' and strangers' judgments correlated with stimulus subjects' self-reported extraversion (r = .42 and r = .51, respectively). These results suggest that self-monitoring of stimulus persons affects interjudge consistency of peroonality judgments particularly for “private” traits such as anxiety, which are most subject to expressive control and inhibition.     

Aphasics' selective deficits in appreciating grammatical agreements

This study attempted to dissociate in aphasic patients different aspects of grammatical capacity. Subjects were asked to evaluate sentences containing violations of agreements between pronouns and verbs. Agreements which are considered primarily structural in nature were violated (e.g., a surface object case like “them” placed in a surface subject sentential slot) while other violated agreements seemed to involve both structural and semantic information (e.g., lack of agreement between a pronoun and a verb in terms of the number of people performing the act). These violations were couched in one of three types of sentential frames which varied in terms of syntactic complexity (e.g., active declarative vs. passive syntactic voices). The results revealed that Broca's aphasics found agreement violations difficult to detect in complex syntactic frames. They were quite successful at detecting even violations of the largely structural “case” type of agreement, however, when couched in simpler syntactic frames. Fluent aphasics encountered more difficulty detecting violations of agreements involving both semantic and structural information than agreements which were primarily structural in nature, that is, regardless of the syntactic frame. These unique performance profiles suggest that Broca's aphasics may be agrammatic only with respect to certain aspects of a sentence's structure, and that fluent aphasics may also experience some selective—but different—grammatical deficits.     

Guilty knowledge versus innocent associations: Effects of trait anxiety and stimulus context on skin conductance

A simulated lie detection procedure was used to investigate skin conductance responsivity among self-reported skin responders. Subjects were grouped according to reported trait anxiety as measured by Lykken's Activity Preference Questionnaire and then engaged in either a mock crime or a neutral activity. The “crime” gave subjects “guilty knowledge,” and the neutral task provided “innocent associations” to relevant stimuli imbedded in each scenario. Subjects were then interrogated using Lykken's Guilty Knowledge technique. Anxiety classification, guilty vs. innocent treatment, and type of stimulus were manipulated in a 2 × 2 × (2) factorial design. Results for differential responsivity scores showed significant main and interaction effects. Low-anxiety subjects showed almost no effects, but highly anxious subjects responded strongly in the “guilty” rather than the “innocent” treatment. Contrary to previous findings, results showed a substantial—but qualified—relationship between self-reported anxiety and electrodermal responsivity. Also, the Guilty Knowledge technique with rank scoring yielded 97.5% correct classification.     

Interviewer evaluations of interviewee nonverbal behavior

Personnel representatives (N = 52) were shown one of four videotaped job interviews in which the verbal content of the 16-min interview was identical, but the interviewee's nonverbal behavior was manipulated. A “low nonverbal” interviewee was defined by minimal eye contact, low energy level, lack of affect and voice modulation, and a lack of speech fluency. The “high nonverbal” interviewee demonstrated the opposite behavior on each of these components. The subjects were asked to rate the videotaped candidates on dimensions previously identified as critical in influencing a job interviewer's decisions. Nonverbal behavior was found to have a significant effect on almost every rating made by subjects in this study. After reviewing the entire 16-min interview, 23 of the 26 subjects who saw the “high nonverbal” candidate would have invited him/her for a second interview. All 26 of the subjects who saw the “low nonverbal” candidate would not have recommended a second interview.     

Competition and cooperation between groups and between individuals

Groups and individuals were compared in two experiments. In the first, two same-sex individuals or two same-sex dyads played 10 trials of a Prisoner's Dilemma matrix game (PDG) for money. Play between individuals was more cooperative and less competitive than play between groups. In the second experiment subjects played 10 trials of either PDG or mutual-fate-control (MFC) matrices. For the MFC matrix the competitive choice, which reduces the opponent's outcomes, but has no effect on own outcomes, reflects a desire to increase one's relative advantage over the opponent. Although cooperation was greater for MFC, for both PDG and MFC matrices groups were more competitive and less cooperative than individuals. A large component of the groups-individuals effect is attributed to the greater desire of groups to “win” or avoid “losing” to the opponent, regardless of their absolute outcomes.     

Processing of locatives “in,” “on,” and “under” by aphasic patients: An analysis of the regression hypothesis

The present study investigated the comprehension of aphasic subjects as to locative prepositions “in,” “on,” and “under.” Patients had to locate a movable object with reference to a stationary referential object in order to achieve the spatial relations requested under oral instructions. The influence of two types of contextual relations between the objects in each stimulus pair on the subjects' performances was examined. Spatial relations were biased by the conventional knowledge of the most normal relationship between the two elements in everyday life in Experiment 1; in Experiment 2, perceptivomotor constraints constituted the contextual bias. Analyzing the patients' responses in the light of developmental strategies did not lend support to the regression hypothesis. Broca's aphasics were sensitive to the two contextual factors investigated; Wernickes' performances were affected only by the perceptivomotor contextual bias. The results are discussed with reference to earlier studies on the differential syntactical comprehension skills of Broca's and Wernicke's aphasics in sentence-picture matching tasks and production tasks.     

Learning on a response continuum: Comparison of a linear change and a functional learning model

Two reinforcement schedules were used to compare the predictive validity of a linear change model with a functional learning model. In one schedule, termed “convergent,” the linear change model predicts convergence to the optimum response, while in the other, termed “divergent,” this model predicts that a subject's response will not converge. The functional learning model predicts convergence in both cases. Another factor that was varied was presence or absence of random error or “noise” in the relationship between response and outcome. In the “noiseless” condition, in which no noise is added, a subject could discover the optimum response by chance, so that some subjects could appear to have converged fortuitously. In the “noisy” conditions such chance apparent convergence could not occur.The results did not unequivocally favor either model. While the linear change model's prediction of nonconvergence in the divergent conditions (particularly the “noisy” divergent condition) was not sustained, there was a clear difference in speed of convergence, counter to the prediction inferred from the functional learning model. Evidence that at least some subjects were utilizing a functional learning strategy was adduced from the fact that subjects were able to “map out” the relation between response and outcome quite accurately in a follow-up task. Almost all subjects in the “noisy” conditions had evidently “learned” a strong linear relation, with slope closely matching the veridical one.The data were consistent with a hybrid model assuming a “hierarchy of cognitive strategies” in which more complex strategies (e.g., functional learning) are utilized only when the simpler ones (e.g., a linear change strategy) fail to solve the problem.     

Writers and critics: Two types of vocational consciousness in the art system

Vocational interests, personality, work environment, and background of authors and critics, male and female, in children's literature are examined in terms of Holland's theory of vocational types, supplemented with concepts of an art system and styles of consciousness. On SVIB indicator scales, both authors and critics score as artistic types with “consistent” profiles, but authors are more “differentiated.” Critics have stronger social interests and less aversion to conventional activities, appropriate to their position as gate-keepers in the art system. In work style there are again common features, but authors describe themselves as having “alternative” states of consciousness, where critics emphasize their social roles and rationality. Both groups have peaks on Achievement via Independence (CPI), but the critics are more socially ascendant, efficient, and conventional. Most critics have full-time employment under institutional auspices; most writers do not. Difference in occupations of fathers of authors and critics are consistent with interest patterns of the subjects. Several personality and background findings, including interactions between sex and field, are interpreted as supporting the usefulness of supplementing Holland's theory.     

The role of nonlinguistic stimuli and semantic relations in children's acquisition of grammatical utterances

Eighteen children, randomly assigned to one of six conditions, were trained in the use of two-word subject-verb (e.g. “mommy go”) utterances. The groups differed in (1) the number of different semantic relations theoretically underlying the subject-verb utterances on which the children were trained, and (2) the extent to which these semantic relations were associated with nonlinguistic events. The results indicated that the children acquired the subject-verb utterance forms more readily when they were also exposed to the events to which the utterances actually referred. Provided that the subject-verb utterances were related to ongoing events, the number of relations “underlying” these utterances did not appear critical. These results suggest that the child's acquisition of novel and grammatical utterances describing nonlinguistic stimuli highly similar to those in his natural environment are amenable to experimental control.     

Word production and comprehension in Alzheimer's diseáse: The breakdown of semantic knowledge

Relatively mildly impaired patients with suspected Alzheimer's disease (N = 14; Verbal IQ = 96) and normal controls of similar age and education (N = 11) were administered tests requiring production (naming and fluency) and comprehension of single words. Word comprehension was assessed on a superordinate level (rating words for degree of “pleasantness”) and on a more specific level (matching abstract pictorial representations with printed words denoting objects, actions, emotions, and modifiers). Performance on standardized measures of semantic knowledge (Vocabulary and Similarities subtests of the WAIS) was also evaluated. The naming and fluency abilities of the Alzheimer's patients were found to be highly correlated (r = .80) and impaired. Naming errors often consisted of semantic field errors which were either hierarchically or linearly related to the target name. In comparison with normals, verbal fluency was characterized by a tendency to generate proportionally more category names concurrent with reduced production of items within a category. Single-word comprehension was also impaired, except when judgments of affective meaning were required. It was argued that these results suggest that Alzheimer's disease may lead to a specific disruption in semantic knowledge characterized by a difficulty in differentiating between items within the same semantic category concurrent with the relative preservation of broader categorical information.     

Causes of young children's confusion of same and different

Three experiments are reported that explore 3-year-olds' and adults' understanding of the words, same and different. In the first, 3-year-olds selected a bead that was “the same color as” or “a different color from” a target bead. In the second, 3-year-olds selected a bead that was “the same in some way as” or “different in some way from” a target bead. Contrary to results reported previously, the majority of consistent responders chose a bead identical with the target in response to the different instruction in both experiments. The rates of both incorrect different responding and incorrect same responding were greater in Experiment II than in Experiment I. In Experiment III, adults chose objects that were “the same as” or “different from” a target; unlike the children, they never chose a target-identical object in response to different instructions. It is argued that children and adults treat same and different differently, and that children's task performance is influenced by three factors: semantic, pragmatic, and nonlinguistic.     

The relative accessibility of semantic and deep-structure syntactic concepts

Three experiments were conducted to determine the relative accessibility of semantic and deep-structure syntactic concepts. In Experiment 1, which employed a concept-formation task, subjects learned the concept “deep-structure subject” more slowly than the case concept “experiencer.” In Experiments 2 and 3, which employed a new recognition memory procedure, subjects performed more poorly when the sentences to be remembered were differentiated on the basis of deep-structure syntactic relations than when they were differentiated on the basis of semantic relations. These results favor Fillmore’s case grammar, or another semantically based theory, rather than the “standard theory” of Chomsky in a model of linguistic behavior.     

Time urgency and the Type A behavior pattern: Implications for time investment and psychological entrapment

Type A's have been described as more time urgent than Type B's, and research indicates that they underestimate the passage of fixed time intervals. The present study examined the implications of these differences in time perception for decisions where time is a resource that can be invested. Type A's and B's were given an initial stake of $4 and provided the opportunity to invest some or all of that amount for the chance to win an additional $2. Investment occurred as a function of time, with subjects believing they would win the additional $2 if a counter reached a randomly determined number. Each unit increment on the counter also resulted in the loss of 1¢ from the initial stake, thus as the counter progressed, goal attainment became more certain, but expenses also increased. Subjects could stop the counter at any time and keep the remainder of their initial stake or continue to invest until the initial stake was depleted (the counter was programmed to never hit the “jackpot”). Half of the subjects could monitor the counter directly, while the other half could not and had to rely on their subjective time estimates. Results indicated that when objective time passage cues were present, Type A's and B's did not differ in their investment decisions. When subjects had to estimate time passage, however, Type A's invested far more than Type B's. These results indicate that under appropriate conditions, Type A's are more susceptible than Type B's to psychological entrapment.     

Further evidence on androgyny and interpersonal flexibility

The component scales from which Bem's index of psychological androgyny is derived are better thought of as measures of dominance and nurturance, rather than “masculinity” and “femininity.” When the Bem scales were administered to 202 male and female college students, along with eight scales that form an interpersonal circumplex, it was once again found that stereotyped, near-stereotyped, and androgynous classifications on the Bem index generalized to sex-role stereotype classifications on other dimensions of interpersonal behavior, as well. Moreover, the Bem index was found to be based on the best available combination of orthogonal interpersonal scales for measuring sex-role stereotypy. In this recent sample of college students, the hypothesis that Bem's index of androgyny reflects the more general construct of interpersonal flexibility was confirmed for both male and female subjects. The recognition that Bem's index of androgyny is specific to the interpersonal domain should encourage others to develop androgyny indices in other domains such as temperatment, interests, and cognitive styles.     

On this,that, and the other: Nonegocentrism in very young children

The development of comprehension and production of spatial deictic terms “this/that”, “here/there”, “my/your”, and “in front of/behind” was investigated in the context of a hide-and-seek game. The first three contrasts are produced according to the speaker's perspective, so comprehension requires a nonegocentric viewpoint. The contrast “in front of/behind” is produced relative to the hearer, i.e., production is nonegocentric. The subjects were 39 children, rangin in age from 2.5–4.5 years, and 18 college undergraduates. The 2.5-year-old children were best at those contrasts which do not require a shift in perspective. The 3- and 4-year-old children were adept at switching to the speaker's perspective for comprehension of the terms requiring this shift, i.e., were nonegocentric. Four-year-olds were also capable of nonegocentric production of “in front of/behind”.     

The legalization of the school psychologists’ world

Discusses the increasing tendency of legal rules to shape school psychologist's conduct. Court cases, legislation, and empirical studies treating with this issue are analyzed. The article suggests that “the legalization of the school psychologist's world” may afford an opportunity to reshape, in more “non-formal” and collegial ways, relationships with other school professions, students, and parents.     

Surface form and memory in question answering

Speakers tend to repeat materials from previous talk. This tendency is experimentally established and manipulated in various question-answering situations. It is shown that a question's surface form can affect the format of the answer given, even if this form has little semantic or conversational consequence, as in the pair Q: (At) what time do you close. A: “(At)five o'clock.” Answerers tend to match the utterance to the prepositional (nonprepositional) form of the question. This “correspondence effect” may diminish or disappear when, following the question, additional verbal material is presented to the answerer. The experiments show that neither the articulatory buffer nor long-term memory is normally involved in this retention of recent speech. Retaining recent speech in working memory may fulfill a variety of functions for speaker and listener, among them the correct production and interpretation of surface anaphora. Reusing recent materials may, moreover, be more economical than regenerating speech anew from a semantic base, and thus contribute to fluency. But the realization of this strategy requires a production system in which linguistic formulation can take place relatively independent of, and parallel to, conceptual planning.     

Alcoholic Korsakoff patients' retrieval from semantic memory

Alcoholic Korsakoff patients' rate of retrieval from semantic memory was investigated. It was found that their rate of retrieval from “lexical” semantic memory was nearly normal, but their rate of retrieval from “conceptual” semantic memory was impaired. In addition, an attempt to “prime” their lexical semantic memory by requesting the same category to be searched on adjacent trials met with failure. It was concluded that Korsakoff patients' lexical storage is probably organized normally, but their conceptual organization is not. Parallels with these patients' episodic memory impairments are discussed and possible interactions between episodic and semantic memory are proposed.