The psychological causality implicit in language

We are concerned with the causality implicit in English verbs that name interactions, either mental or behavioral, between two persons, verbs such as like, notice (mental), and help, cheat (behavioral) in such a context as Ted—Paul. Using four different methods, we show that adult native speakers think of causality in such verbs as unequally apportioned between interactants. For behavioral (or action) verbs greater causal weight is given to the Agent argument of the verb (e.g., Ted in Ted helps Paul) than to the Patient argument (Paul). For mental (or state) verbs greater causal weight is given to the Stimulus argument of the verb (e.g., Paul in Ted likes Paul) than to the Experiencer argument (Ted). For English verbs of the type studied, derivational adjectives often exist (e.g., helpful, cheating, likable, noticeable). Such adjectives are attributive to one or the other argument of the verb base (Agent or Patient; Stimulus or Experiencer). We show that the direction of causal attribution in the adjective (e.g., helpful is attributive to Ted the Agent; likable is attributive to Paul the Stimulus) predicts the primary causal weightings assigned in our experimental tasks. We also show that in the English language adjectives derived from action verbs are almost attributive to the Agent and adjectives derived from state verbs to the Stimulus. Because certain facts about English morphology predict certain ways of thinking about causality, our main finding may seem to be a Whorfian one, a demonstration that language affects thought. However, we argue that it is not that but rather a demonstration that two modes of thought (the Agent-Patient Schema and the Stimulus-Experiencer Schema) affect language use. We suggest that the schemas are universals of human thought.     

Psychological reactivity to discrepant events: Support for the curvilinear hypothesis

80 male and 60 female infants were observed under 5 a priori judged levels of discrepancy to assess whether sustained attention was linearly or curvilinearly related to degree of discrepancy from an experimental standard. Following habituation, $\text{7}\text{1}\text{2}$-month-old infants were exposed to either the repetition of the standard, a minimal, first- or second-level moderate discrepancy, or a novel stimulus having no relation to the standard. The related stimuli, varying in elongation, were sphere, pear, club, and cylinder-shaped objects; the novel stimulus was a different colored, tooth-like object. 80 infants observed the sphere as the standard and the cylinder as the second-level moderate discrepancy; 60 infants were exposed to the reverse order with the cylinder as the standard. The use of different stimuli at each discrepancy level controlled for specific stimulus effects. Habituation and recovery of responding were observed in an operant paradigm. Lever pressing, fixation, and vocalization increased most to the second-level moderate stimuli and decreased most to the familiar and novel objects; fretting was highest to the redundant stimuli and lowest to the moderate objects. There were no stimulus main effects or interactions. The results support the hypothesis of a curvilinear relation between stimulus discrepancy and sustained attention, excitement, and preference.     

Expectancy confirmed again: A computer investigation of expectancy theory

A computerized attempt to replicate Aronson and Carlsmith's test of expectancy theory was conducted. Generally, subjects performed consistent with their expectancy, although the effect of expectancy was strongly attentuated by an overall achievement orientation. The results contradict the hypotheses that experimenter bias, demand characteristics, or differential recall of performance mediate the effects of expectancy upon performance.     

An empirical application of confirmatory factor analysis to the multitrait-multimethod matrix

Though most social psychologists are aware of the use of factor analysis as an exploratory method to uncover latent dimensions, factor analysis can also be used in a confirmatory mode to test specific hypotheses. A confirmatory solution is unique and cannot be rotated. One possible use of confirmatory factor analysis is with the multitrait-multimethod matrix. Jaccard, Weber, and Lundmark's (1975) multitrait-multimethod matrix of two traits and four methods is analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis. Given the very small sample size the analysis is primarily illustrative. A simple two factor model with errors of measurement correlated across measures using the same method satisfactorily fits the data. Both discriminant and convergent validity are high and none of the methods has higher reliability or less correlated measurement error. The reliability of measures estimated by maximum likelihood factor analysis is lower than the test-retest reliability since method variance is subtracted out. Confirmatory factor analysis is recommended over the Campbell-Fiske criteria.     

The psychological representation of musical pitch in a tonal context

In this series of experiments, evidence was found for a complex psychological representation of musical pitch. The results of a scaling study, in which subjects judged the similarities between pairs of tones presented in an explicitly tonal context, suggest that musical listeners extract a pattern of relationships among tones that is determined not only by pitch height and chroma, but also by membership in the major triad chord and the diatonic scale associated with the tonal system of the context. Multidimensional scaling of the similarity ratings gave a three-dimensional conical structure around which the tones were ordered according to pitch height. The major triad components formed a closely related cluster near the vertex of the cone; the remaining diatonic scale tones formed a less closely related subset farther from the vertex; and, the nondiatonic tones, still farther from the vertex, were widely dispersed. The results also suggest that, in the psychological representation, tones less closely related to the tonality are less stable than tones closely related to the tonality, and that the representation incorporates the tendency for unstable tones to move toward the more stable tones in time, reflecting the dynamic character of musical tones. In the similarity ratings of the scaling study, tones less related to the tonality were judged more similar to tones more related to the tonality than the reverse temporal order. Furthermore, in a delayed recognition task memory performance for nondiatonic tones was less accurate than for diatonic tones, and nondiatonic tones were more often confused with diatonic tones than diatonic tones were confused with nondiatonic tones. These results indicate the tonality-specific nature of the psychological representation and argue that the perception of music depends not only on psychoacoustic properties of the tones, but also on processes that relate the tones to one another through contact with a well-defined and complex psychological representation of musical pitch.     

Logical competence and transitive inference in young children

Five-year-old children were trained on the length relationships between the adjacent members of a five-term series of sticks. They were then tested on their abilities (1) to judge the length relationships between nonadjacent pairs of the series, and (2) to incorporate an unseen novel stick into the series through inference. Children who were trained with sticks of markedly different lengths succeeded on the first test but not the second; they apparently relied on memory for the absolute lengths of the sticks. Children in the other groups succeeded on both tests. The critical factor in inducing the use of seriation and transitivity seemed to be the elimination of alternative solutions.     

Frustration,attribution of blame,and aggression

In contrast to most recent studies of human aggression, multiple measures of naturally occurring aggressive behavior were examined in a realistic and involving setting. Consistent with attributional formulations, it was found that aggression increased in accord with attributions of blame, and that more blame was attributed to another in response to inadequately justified thwartings than to adequately justified thwartings. As anticipated, anger, other-directed attributions of blame, and other-directed aggression were greatest in response to unjustified (illegitimate) thwartings. Justified (legitimate) thwartings produced intermediate anger and intermediate levels of blame and aggression internally and externally. Self-caused (internal) thwartings, ostensibly caused neither by the other's disposition nor by situational factors, produced the least anger and other-directed aggression but the most self-blame/self-aggression. In addition, unexpected thwartings produced independently more anger than did expected thwartings, and high-drive thwartings produced independently less other-directed aggression than did low-drive thwartings. The results are discussed with reference to both the need and the potential for studies of human aggression which employ more ecologically valid settings and measures of aggressive behavior.     

Self-directed attention and the comparison of self with standards

Several theorists have assumed that self-directed attention causes a comparison between one's present behavior or state and whatever is salient and relevant as a standard of comparison. Indirect evidence bearing on this assumption was gathered in a series of four studies by monitoring subjects' tendencies to access concrete information needed to make such behavior-standard comparisons. Self-focus was varied in two of these studies by experimental manipulations: a mirrored surface, and a live observer. In the other two studies, self-focus was operationalized in terms of subjects' dispositional tendencies to direct attention to themselves (self-consciousness). Consistent with expectations, in Experiments 1 and 2, self-directed attention led to increased frequency of referring to drawings of geometric figures when attempting to reproduce them. In Experiments 3 and 4, self-focused attention increased subjects' tendencies to seek out information about ostensible performance norms reflecting the behavior of other subjects, also as predicted.     

Interacting plans

The paper explores certain phenomena which arise in stories, conversations, and human activity in general when the plans of two individuals are formed and carried out in an interactive situation. A notation system for representing interacting plans is introduced and applied in the analysis of a small portion of “Hansel and Gretel.” The analysis illustrates how a single actor plan can be modified by the needs of cooperative interaction with others and how cooperative interactive episodes can be transformed and used deceptively by one party in achieving his or her own covert goals.     

The nature of curiosity in children

This study examined several behaviors claimed to reflect curiosity in order to determine whether there are one or more types of curiosity. A secondary purpose was to examine the relations between the one or more types of curiosity and sex, social class, intelligence, achievement level, and ratings of personality traits. In two individual sessions 84 American first-grade boys and girls were administered five tasks which measured observation of complex and simple stimuli, preference of complex and simple stimuli, preference for the unknown, structure of meaning, and object exploration. A normalized Varimax factor analysis allowed the extraction of five factors: manipulatory curiosity, perceptual curiosity, conceptual curiosity, curiosity about the complex, and adjustive-reactive curiosity. Only the first factor was related to a demographic variable, sex. The nature of the factors and their theoretical and practical significance are discussed.     

Social judgments of spurious and causal relations between attributes and outcomes

People can learn about relations between attributes and outcomes by observing the attributes and outcomes of others, but, as this experiment indicates, such learning is not always veridical. Each subject received information about the ages, educations, and salaries of groups of employees in a fictitious corporation. Within a group, either age or education was related to salaries and the two attributes were either orthogonal or correlated. In each case, subjects judged the strength of the causal relation between each attribute and salaries. The results confirmed our hypothesis that observers are more likely to view a causally relevant attribute as irrelevant, and a causally irrelevant attribute as relevant, when relevant and irrelevant attributes are correlated. However, this tendency seemed to be mediated by subjects' bias to prefer education as an explanation of salary differences: That is, when age and education were correlated, subjects tended to view education as relevant even when it was irrelevant and age as irrelevant even when it was relevant. The results suggest that when attributes are correlated, factors extraneous to observed data may have a major influence on inferred attribute-outcome associations.     

Individualized learning environments: Intra- and interpersonal consequences

This study examines the effects of individual goal structures on the intra- and interpersonal behavior of 120 fourth-grade children. Each group of four children was introduced to one of two individualized learning programs: (a) workbook materials color-coded according to level of difficulty (allowing implicit comparisons among children as to progress), and (b) materials not coded according to difficulty (discouraging comparisons). In both learning programs, children worked individually (at story writing) and were rewarded for the work. Results indicate that boys, but not girls, who were rewarded equally for doing good work in an individualized setting but who start and end at a lower step than other more frequently took away a toy from those peers with whom they compared themselves than did boys who were rewarded equally for good work and where there were no comparisons. Boys as a group, regardles of condition, gave more prize tickets to themselves than to others and gave more prize tickets to themselves than girls gave either to themselves or others. Both boys and girls appear to adopt the evaluations of their work given by the experimenter and appear to be influenced thereby in later prized-giving to themselves and to others.     

Subjective ratings of credibility following brief exposure to desensitization and pseudotherapy

Forty-two Ss were selected as if they were to participate in an analogue desensitization experiment. They then listened to taped excerpts of desensitization and pseudotherapy and responded to a questionnaire assessing the relative credibility of the two treatments. Desensitization was found to be more credible than pseudotherapy. The implications of this finding for previous and future research are discussed.     

Self-directed activity and cognitive development

Both in constructivist theories of development and in educational applications of such theories, self-directed activity is aleged to play a critical role in the developmental process. The purpose of the present study was to subject this popular assertation to empirical examination. Subjects were fourth- and fifth-graders who showed no formal operational reasoning. Subjects assigned to an experimental condition were matched with yoked-control partners of the same sex and grade. An additional group of subjects was assigned to a simple control condition. Experimental and yoked-control subjects were given opportunities to solve problems requiring formal operational reasoning over a three-month period. The procedure for experimental subjects differed from that for yoked-controls only in that experimental subjects selected the particular information-seeking activities they would engage in. Yoked-control subjects carried out the same activities that had been chosen by their experimental partners. Both groups showed significant progress in the construction of new reasoning strategies, but experimental subjects showed greater progress than yoked-controls. The enhanced progress of the experimental subjects, it is suggested, was due to the increased presence of anticipatory schemes regarding the outcomes of their actions. These anticipatory schemes allowed subjects to better “make use of”, in the cognitive sense—in other words, assimilate into a theoretical framework—the data yielded by the experiments, and thus they gained more from their experience.