Generality of persistence: The role of stimulus and response factors in persistence to punishment

Previous research has shown that intermittent punishment of a response increases its persistence to continuous punishment and that intermittent punishment training in one situation produces persistence to continuous punishment in other situations. Experiment 1 showed that as long as the instrumental response and punishing stimulus were held constant from intermittent to continuous punishment marked differences between these situations had no decremental effect on persistence. Experiment 2 showed that intermittent punishment training of one response resulted in substantial persistence to continuous punishment of a different and apparently incompatible response and that such response change had no more than a marginal effect on persistence. The results were seen as requiring some revision to the traditional conditioning-model interpretation of persistence to punishment.     

Orientations toward relationships: Choosing a situation in which to begin a relationship

An investigation was conducted to examine how individuals choose situations in which to initiate relationships. It was hypothesized that individuals' self-monitoring orientation and the characteristics of their relationship partners would interact to determine situation choices. Accordingly, low- and high-self-monitoring men were asked to rate their preferences for interacting in romantic and nonromantic situations with particular types of partners. The characteristics of the partners were varied along two dimensions: physical attractiveness and personality desirability. Results demonstrated that low-, relative to high-, self-monitoring individuals' preferences for interacting in romantic situations were more influenced by the personality characteristics of potential partners. In contrast, high-, relative to low-, self-monitoring individuals' preferences for interacting in romantic situations were more influenced by the physical attractiveness of potential partners. Neither of these effects occurred when preferences for nonromantic situations were assessed. Implications of these differences for the initiation, maintenance, and dissolution of relationships were discussed.     

The use of English stress assignment rules by children taught either with traditional orthography or with the initial teaching alphabet

This experiment examines children's use of spelling conventions as a guide to pronunciation, and their ability to handle stress assignment rules. The subjects, 7-year-old school children, of whom half had learned to read and write using traditional orthography (t.o.) and half had learned using the initial teaching alphabet (i.t.a.), read out short simple sentences each containing a two-syllable nonsense word. The grammatical category and the spelling of the nonsense words were varied systematically. It was found that, in assigning stress, both groups of children were influenced by phonemic and grammatical features in a manner similar to that predicted by Chomsky and Halle (1968), but they differed in their handling of the silent final e. It was the i.t.a. children whose use of this orthographic device was more in accordance with Chomsky and Halle's theory, despite their relative lack of experience with it. A comparison with Smith and Baker's (1976) adult subjects indicated substantial differences between adults and children, particularly in their treatment of words with a lax final vowel.     

The role of vivid information in fear appeals and attitude change

Fear-arousing persuasive communications frequently incorporate so many types of information that the results can be difficult to interpret. R. Nisbett and L. Ross' (1980, Human inference: Strategies and shortcomings of social judgment, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall) analysis of informational vividness offers an attractive conceptual framework that identifies and predicts the effects of several types of information that have been confounded with other variables in fear appeal studies. Thus, the first purpose of this factorial experiment was to investigate the persuasive impact of three types of vivid information frequently used in fear appeals: emotional interest, concreteness, and proximity. It was predicted that vivid information would be more persuasive than pallid information. The results disclosed that emotionally interesting information was highly effective in changing intentions to seek protection from the depicted health threat. Also, the impact of information of high emotional interest and greater temporal and spatial proximity was enhanced with the passage of time, but information of low emotional interest and proximity diminished over time. Additional findings indicated that concrete, specific information was memorable and affected beliefs. The data rejected the hypothesis that memorial availability mediated the effects of vivid information. Implications for designing and strengthening fear appeals were discussed.     

An analysis of two central stages underlying responding to personality items: The self-referent decision and response selection

A technique for isolating substages in a processing sequence (Sternberg, 1969) was used to examine two central stages in a postulated model of responding to personality items. The Self-Referent Decision (SRD) stage, where item content is compared to stored memory elements, and the Response Selection Stage, where the output of the SRD is mapped into available response alternatives, were analyzed to determine if they could be seen as separate stages. Results indicated that a modular model that viewed these two stages as being separate was supported. These results were also discussed in relation to existing models of item responding processes and the dichotomous/Likert response format issue.     

The role of esteem and coping in response to a threat communication

Two experiments examined the relations among self-esteem, perceived competency to cope, and actual coping behaviors following a threat communication. Leventhal's “parallel response model” (in Advances in experimental social psychology, L. Berkowitz (Ed.), New York: Academic Press, 1970, Vol. 5) predicts that low-esteem subjects will show deficits in both competency and coping behaviors. Experiment 1 manipulated threat level of a tetanus communication. Low-esteem subjects showed coping deficits on measures of free associations, free recall, fatalism, and coping. Threat groups differed only on fear and danger measures. Experiment 2 manipulated the fear level of an antismoking film and used false feedback to alter perceived competency. Positive feedback increased perceived competency to quit smoking among low-esteem subjects only. Without feedback, low-esteem subjects reduced smoking less than high-esteem subjects; positive feedback reversed the pattern. The discussion argued that, consistent with Leventhal's model, the low-esteem coping deficit has two independent causes: (1) excessive concern with fear, and (2) inadequate perceived competency.     

Self-punitive behavior with changing percentages of reinforcement: The proper role of discrimination

Past research on self-punitive behavior has been interpreted as supporting a theoretical éxplanation based on a vicious circle rather than a discrimination hypothesis. Using rats, Melvin (1964) found that self-punitive behavior is not reduced when discrimination is aided by changing the percentage of shock trials from acquisition to extinction. This past research is inconclusive because it is based on a misinterpretation of what is the critical discrimination for extinction, namely the new response-punishment contingency. Using humans, the present study provides evidence that subjects can and do discriminate the change in percentage, but continue to show self-punitive behavior until they make the discrimination that responding results in shock rather than escape.     

On the self-perception explanation of the overjustification effect: The role of the salience of initial attitude

An experiment was conducted to examine the proposition, derived from self-perception theory, that the “overjustification” effect would be mitigated if initial attitudes toward the task were made salient. Children engaged in a target activity with or without the promise of reward for doing so. Half the children were shown a photograph of themselves freely engaging in the target activity in an earlier session so as to remind them of their intrinsic interest in the task. The other children were not shown such a photograph. Consistent with the predictions. expected reward decreased subsequent intrinsic interest only when initial attitudes were relatively nonsalient. The findings demonstrate the relevance of self-perception processes to the “overjustification” effect.     

Aggression and power restoration: The effects of identifiability and timing on aggressive behavior

The study was designed to demonstrate that one function of aggression is the restoration of power. It was predicted that, after an individual had his power reduced, greater aggression would be emitted when the individual could be identified as the attacker by his victim than when he could not. It was felt that only when the aggressor was identifiable could he completely restore his power vis-à-vis the victim. A second aim of the study was to investigate the effects of timing of aggression on the intensity of aggression. It was predicted that in a learning situation, if aggression were utilized solely as a teaching device, greater aggression would be emitted by the “teacher” when the “learner” made mistakes early as opposed to late in the task. However, if the individual were motivated to restore his power by aggressing, greater aggression would occur when the mistakes were made late since having to wait should frustrate the teacher's desire to restore power through aggression. The design of the study was a 2 × 2 × 2 factorial in which subjects were either insulted or not, given the opportunity to aggress either anonymously or when clearly identified, and able to aggress either early or late in a learning task. The results supported the power-restoration hypothesis: Subjects who were insulted aggressed more when identifiable than when anonymous. Also, there was greater aggression in the early as opposed to late conditions under all circumstances except in the insultidentifiable condition.     

The role of attentional resources in automatic detection

The question of whether an automatic detection task requires the use of limited-capacity resources was investigated in a series of dual-task experiments. The automatic task required subjects to detect a consistently mapped target digit in a display of letters. This task was paired with a variety of concurrent visual discriminations that could either occur in close proximity to the automatic target or in a disparate display area. The main finding was that accuracy in each task was higher in conditions allowing attention to be shared than when it had to be divided between separate areas. These results indicate that detection of automatic targets depends on the allocation of spatial attention to the target's area.     

The effects of retention interval on preschool children's short-term memory of verbal items

The short-term recall of word-triads was tested, comparing retention over three types of intervals within 24 preschoolers. Retention was significantly lower in the 16 sec unfilled interval condition than in the immediate test condition. This result, predicted from preschoolers' rehearsal deficiency, differs from those obtained in previous adult and child studies. A filled interval condition, requiring irrelevant verbal activity during the 16 sec period, significantly reduced recall from that of the unfilled interval condition. Recognition of the word items on a subsequent recognition test was greater than chance and was not affected by interval condition. This suggests that the condition effects in short-term recall did not disrupt the long-term storage of the items.     

Developmental study of a haptic illusion in relation to Piaget's centration theory.

Age differences have previously been found in the magnitude of the visual Horizontal-vertical illusion with an L figure. The present study examined the haptic judgments of an L figure among subjects across the ages of 6, 7, 9, 11, 12, 13, and 20 years. Significant differences in amount of haptic illusion were found. The developmental function was curvilinear, decreasing from the 6-year-olds to 7-year-olds, and then increasing from 7-year-olds to a peak among 11-year-olds, followed by a decline to adulthood. Variation in the size of the illusion was also found to be related to the rate at which subjects of a particular age group typically move the limb in scanning the figure. The similarity of the haptic function to that obtained previously for the visual L figure was discussed in relation to Piaget's Centration theory.     

What it means to be general cultural

Published and unpublished research with the Vocational Interest Inventory based on Anne Roe's interest scheme supported separating the General Cultural area out of the RIASEC framework. It emerged as a distinct fusion of certain verbal-artistic and social tendencies, and, as an occupational group, takes social scientists away from Roe's Science group. General Cultural provides a bridge in career counseling between interests and cognitive variables because of the repeated association of CUL scores with academic achievement and persistence.     

Stimulus control in a simple instrumental task: The role of internal and external stimuli

Two experiments using rats in a straight alley runway task tested the hypothesis that standard stimuli such as tones and lights (“external” stimuli) and schedule-generated aftereffect stimuli (“internal” stimuli) operate similarly and are similarly subject to the compounding rules specified by R. A. Rescorla and A. R. Wagner (In A. Black & W. Prokasy (Eds.), Classical conditioning II: Current theory and research. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1972). The experimental task was an instrumental analog of the classic blocking experiment (L. J. Kamin, In M. R. Jones (Ed.). In Experiment 1, blocking of an external discriminative stimulus by a different asymptotic discrimination was accomplished. In Experiment 2, blocking of an internal stimulus discrimination by an asymptotic external stimulus discrimination was obtained. The present results support the view that internal and external stimuli are indeed similar and function in the same manner with regard to blocking of stimulus control.     

The proper role of clusters in mathematical models of continuous recall

Previous research has shown that the number of words cumulatively recalled (N) at time (t) is a negatively accelerated function that reaches an asymptote as t → ∞. Research has also shown that the increase in N with t occurs in bursts or clusters. Several models purport to account for this cumulative recall curve in terms of cluster characteristics. The present research shows that previous models have not in fact successfully linked continuous recall to cluster characteristics. This research demonstrates that cluster models need to employ three empirical characteristics of clusters: T_b, the time between clusters; T_w, the average time between words within a cluster; and W_c, the number of words within a cluster. It is shown that these three quantities determine the cumulative recall curve, and these three quantities may in turn be characterized by four parameters. Of these four parameters, only three actually characterize the cumulative recall curve. Two parameters determine the initial slope and final asymptote of the curve, while a third parameter, which we introduce for the first time, characterizes the curve's shape. This latter parameter may be interpreted as the ratio ofthe time spent in retrieving and discarding a cluster that has been previously recalled to the amount of time spent in retrieving and outputting a newly encountered cluster. It is pointed out that previous success in fitting the cumulative recall data with a two-parameter function may be explained by the fact that this parameter lies in a restricted range about unity. Further experimental work is suggested to elucidate the behavior of this new parameter. Two models are then proposed to account for these characteristics of clusters and the shape of the recall curve.     

The influence of incongruity and preexposure on the familiarity effect in visual selection of children

A consistent finding in the literature concerning visual selection is that Ss will spend more time viewing unfamiliar stimuli than stimuli with which they have been familiarized. In the present experiment, the relationship between the magnitude of this familiarity effect and the level of stimulus incongruity was examined and found to be monotonic and increasing. In addition, amount of stimulus preexposure had no significant effect on the magnitude of the familiarity effect. Furthermore, there was no overall difference in Ss' preference for familiar and unfamiliar stimuli. Results are interpreted as supporting a theory of visual selection based on information-conflict resolution.