Information-gathering strategies in hypothesis-testing

Three experiments were conducted to investigate the informational factors affecting the kinds of questions people ask for testing a hypothesis about another's personality. In Experiment 1, subjects formulated by themselves questions to test either the hypothesis that the interviewee is polite or the hypothesis that he is impolite. The boundary of the hypothesis was set either at an extreme or at an intermediate point on the trait dimension. Experiment 2 also varied the location of the boundary, but the hypotheses concerned extroversion-introversion and subjects chose questions from a predetermined list of questions that asked either about extroverted features or introverted features and that were either low or high in diagnostic value. Both studies found that subjects preferred to ask about features that are consistent with the hypothesis only when the boundary was extreme. In contrast, diagnostic features were preferred in all conditions. Experiment 3 showed that subjects' judgment of the diagnosticity of the various kinds of questions for discriminating at different boundaries paralleled subjects' preferences among these questions. These results were interpreted as providing support for the diagnostic strategy in social information gathering.     

Self-assessment and task performance

The present study tested the idea that the amount of effort expended in task performance is a function of the amount of uncertainty in one's ability level the resulting outcomes are expected to reduce. Two determinants of expected uncertainty reduction were manipulated: prior uncertainty about one's ability level and the diagnosticity of the task. Subjects first performed an initial task and then received fictitious feedback to manipulate their prior uncertainty. To induce low uncertainty, the feedback implied that the subjects are highly likely to have either low, intermediate, or a high level of ability. To induce high uncertainty, the feedback implied that the various ability levels were equally probable. Subjects then performed a task whose perceived diagnosticity regarding the ability under consideration was varied. As expected, subjects who were highly uncertain about their ability level performed better than subjects who were relatively certain they possessed either low, intermediate, or a high level of ability. Performance also improved with task diagnosticity, and the effect of task diagnosticity on performance was more pronounced when prior uncertainty was high than when it was low. Past research on the relationship between prior feedback and subsequent performance was discussed in light of the present results and a self-assessment model of achievement behavior.     

A disposition-behavior congruity model of perceived freedom

Three experiments were conducted to test a disposition-behavior congruity model of perceived freedom. The model was applied to attributions of freedom to actors who possess one of several dispositions and who can choose a behavior that is congruent or incongruent with this disposition. The model posits that attributions of freedom to an actor can be predicted from the conditional probabilities that the actor would choose each behavior available to him if he possessed the disposition congruent with it. This hypothesis was supported. However, contrary to expectations, the contribution to judgment of each conditional probability was not a function of the probability that the actor actually possessed the behavior-congruent disposition.     

A hierarchical model for the structure of vocational interests

In this study a hierarchical model for the structure of vocational interests is proposed. Theoretical and methodological considerations, reanalysis of the C. E. Lunneborg and P. E. Lunneborg (Journal of Vocational Behavior, 1975, 7, 313–326) data, and an alternative interpretation of existing findings suggest that this model accounts for the interrelations among the vocational interest fields better than the hexagonal-circular models, or the four-factorial structure proposed by Lunneborg and Lunneborg (1975). The implications of this hierarchical model for vocational theory and some applications in vocational guidance are discussed.     

Yesterday,today and tomorrow

1260 American subjects were timed as they responded to one of the three questions (‘What day of the week is today?’ (Tod question), ‘What day of the week was yesterday?’ (Y question), and ‘What day of the week will tomorrow be?’ (Tom question)) at one of three times of the day (early morning, mid-day and the late evening). Response times as a function of the day on which the question was posed defined an inverted U-curve for all questions in all three conditions. The Tod question always triggered the fastest responses. In the morning, responses to the Y question were faster than responses to the Tom questions, whereas in the evening the converse was the case. At mid-day responses to the Y question were faster than responses to the Tom question at the beginning of the week and slower than those at its end. The patterns of introspection associated with the responses also defined reversed U-functions. The results are interpreted in the framework of a multi-channel spreading activation model.     

Congruence and consistency derived from the circular and the hierarchical models as predictors of Occupational Choice Satisfaction

Peiser and Meir (Journal of Vocational Behavior, 1978, 12, 270–278) tested the predictability of Occupational Choice Satisfaction (OCS) using Holland's constructs of congruence and consistency as applied to Roe's classification of occupations and the circular structure of vocational interests. In the present study congruence and consistency are applied to the same data, but the constructs are defined according to the hierarchical model for the structure of interests (I. Gati,Journal of Vocational Behavior, 1979, 15, 90–106). The hierarchical and the circular models are found to be of similar efficiency in predicting OCS by congruence and by consistency. Each model, however, has its unique and distinctive predictions, and thus they seem to complement each other rather than to compete.     

The layman's use of trait and behavioral information to predict behavior

This study investigated conditions that determine subjects' preferences for information about another person's traits versus his specific past behavior in order to predict his future behavior. The similarity-dissimilarity between the situation for which past behavior was available and the one to which predictions had to be made strongly influenced the choice of specific behavioral information versus more general trait information. As expected, behavioral information was preferred most when the situation to which behavior had to be predicted was highly similar to the one for which the past behavioral data were available. On the other hand, more general trait information was preferred in predicting to situations that were not directly similar to those for which past behavioral information was available. The effect of the temporal span covered by available information was also explored.     

A developmental study of the role of word order in comprehending Hebrew

Monolingual Hebrew-speaking subjects, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 11 years old, as well as adults, were asked to interpret utterances consisting of two nouns and a verb. Some utterances included only word order cues while others included direct object marker and subject-verb gender agreement cues. Even though Hebrew word order is relatively free, when subjects used word order as an interpretive cue they generally assigned sentence relations according to the dominant SVO order of modern Hebrew. This trend was less strong for the interpretations of NNV utterances than of NVN and VNN utterances. There was no evidence of a developmental sequence for word order strategies. In addition, there was no evidence that word order, for any age group, was necessarily a dominant cue for assigning sentence relations when other linguistic information was available.     

Piaget's theory of space perception in infancy.

Piaget's theory of space perception in infancy is presented in the format of a hypothetico-deductive system. Eleven hypotheses are defined, regarding the perception of the agent of visual change; shape and size constancy; depth; and the perception of higher-order relationships among spatial elements. The proof Piaget offers for each hypothesis is presented in the following steps: behavioral evidence, interpretation in terms of inner states; inferences and generalizations. Presuppositions underlying the arguments are explicated. Critical notes are inserted whenever appropriate. Some general conclusions are briefly discussed.     

Children's ability to integrate class information

Coordination and integration of class information was examined using a multidimensional similarity judgment task in which four- and nine-year old children rated the similarity of pairs of stimuli sharing either one or two atribute values. Half the children at each age were assigned to an attention condition requiring they label relevant stimulus atributes before making their similarity ratings. The other children were in the nonattention condition, and rated similarity without labelling the attributes. The results indicated that four-year-olds in the attention condition and nine-year-olds in both conditions integrated class information in making their similarity judgments. Performance of the four-year-olds in the non-attention condition tended to improve across trials; they appeared to integrate class information on later trials.     

Lateralization effects in lexical decision tasks

Subjects were timed as they judged whether items presented to them were English words or not. Comparisons were made between responses to nouns and to verbs, on the one hand, and between concrete and abstract nouns, on the other hand. No asymmetries were found.     

Measuring women's interests using Holland's vocational classification

A Hebrew interest inventory for females in Israel, based on Holland's 1966 1973 vocational classification, was examined on 322 female pupils and 167 working females. Results showed that: (a) with the exception of the Conventional and Enterprising fields, subjects occupied in a field had their highest interest score in that field; (b) for all six interest fields, the highest interest score was the score of those who were engaged in that field; (c) in a smallest space analysis, the activities, competencies, and occupation sections of the interest inventory formed the Investigative, Realistic, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional circular arrangement; (d) a correlation of .38 between interest score and job satisfaction was found.     

Memory functioning as related to developmental changes in bases of organization

Two series of object drawings classifiable according to either color or conceptual category were used: one to assess dimensional salience and the other to assess free recall, clustering, and cued recall. Parallel shifts in dimensional salience and the dominance of these dimensions as organizing principles in memory were investigated in nursery school and second- and fifth-grade children. Nursery school children manifested color salience, whereas the two older groups manifested conceptual salience. Above chance clustering according to the salient dimension in each age group and some increase in the size of organization units as a function of age were found. Within age groups, neither amount nor dimension or clustering were related to amount of recall. In each group, more words were accessed by salient than by nonsalient cues. Effectiveness of nonsalient cues depended on the order of presentation for young children, whereas for older chilren they were ineffective regardless of order. Implications of these findings for encoding and retrieval processes in children were discussed.     

Relationship with people as the underlying dimension for Roe's classification of occupations

One hundred eleven subjects were asked to indicate how much relationship with people is involved in 48 occupational titles. The results support Roe's (1956) classification of occupations: differences within occupational fields were found to be smaller than differences between occupational fields (F = 8.53, P < .01). The homogeneity of Arts and Entertainment is discussed.     

A simple instrument for measuring vocational interests based on Roe's classification of occupations

A vocational interests inventory-“Ramak”-based on Roe's (1956) classification of occupations was constructed. It consisted of 72 names of occupations. Equivalent-test reliability of 0.76 was achieved. The inventory was validated on working samples and by the structure of intercorrelations. The advantages of this inventory are discussed.     

Training cooperation in the Prisoner's Dilemma

Female Ss' choices in two types of mixed-motive game situations were used to select Ss who had predominantly Own Gain and Ss who had predominantly Relative Gain goals. On the basis of simple reward notions, it was predicted that the former but not the latter would change from competitive to cooperative responding in decomposed Prisoner's Dilemma game situations when interacting with a conditionally cooperative other. Corresponding yoked controls were not expected to become cooperative. The availability of social comparison with an outcome which was smaller than the mutually cooperative outcome but larger than the mutually competitive out-come was expected to lead Own Gain Ss to more rapid learning of cooperation but not to affect the responses of corresponding yoked controls or of Relative Gain Ss. A 2 × 2 × 2 × 5 factorial design was used in which the factors were goal orientation (Own Gain vs Relative Gain), strategy of the other (conditionally cooperative vs yoked control), the availability vs unavailability of the social comparison, and trials. The results strongly supported each of the expectations. The results were discussed in terms of how the operation of the reward mechanism would be affected by the operation of some other social psychological processes.     

Testing models for the structure of vocational interests

Several studies aimed at testing the validity of Holland's hexagonal and Roe's circular models of interests showed results on which the null hypothesis of random arrangement can be rejected, and the investigators concluded that the tested models were supported. None of these studies, however, tested each model in its entirety. The present study is based on the assumption that the rejection of the null hypothesis of chance is not rigorous enough. Reanalysis of 13 data sets of published studies, using a more rigorous method, reveals that although the random null hypothesis can in fact be rejected in 11 data sets, the hexagonal-circular model was supported by only 2 data sets and was rejected by 11 data sets. The hierarchical model for the structure of vocational interests (I. Gati, Journal of Vocational Behavior, 1979, 15, 90–106) was submitted to an identical test and was supported by 6 out of 10 data sets, including 4 data sets that rejected the hexagonal-circular model. The predictions of each of the models which tend to be discontinued by empirical data were identified. The implications of the findings for the structure of interests and occupational choice are discussed.     

Interest inventories based on Roe's classification modified for negative respondents

The Ramak and Courses interest inventories (Meir, 1974; Meir, Sohlberg, & Barak, 1973) based on Roe's 1956 occupational classification, were modified for use with subjects who answer negatively to most items in the traditional forms. One hundred thirty-six males, aged 19–21, responded to the Ramak and Courses inventories with the R ? A (Refuse, Undecided, Agree) scale. The split half reliability of the modified inventories is 0.75, and their occupational structure has the same shape and arrangement as the inventories with the Y ? N scale. Negative respondents give more positive responses (p < .05) on the modified forms than on the traditional ones.     

Encoding processes in recognition and recall

The present experiments demonstrate that picture-word stimuli are differentially encoded in anticipation of a recognition test than in anticipation of a free-recall test. Subjects perform better on the retention test of which they have been informed, and different information from the stimuli is used to pass each test. These findings cannot be attributed to stimulus selection nor to pure pictorial encoding in anticipation of recognition and pure verbal encoding in anticipation of recall. Recognition is enhanced by encoding which integrates the details within each item while recall is enhanced by encoding which interrelates the items of a list.