Two ways of learning associations

How people learn chunks or associations between adjacent items in sequences was modelled. Two previously successful models of how people learn artificial grammars were contrasted: the CCN, a network version of the competitive chunker of Servan‐Schreiber and Anderson [J. Exp. Psychol.: Learn. Mem. Cogn. 16 (1990) 592], which produces local and compositionally‐structured chunk representations acquired incrementally; and the simple recurrent network (SRN) of Elman [Cogn. Sci. 14 (1990) 179], which acquires distributed representations through error correction. The models' susceptibility to two types of interference was determined: prediction conflicts, in which a given letter can predict two other letters that appear next with an unequal frequency; and retroactive interference, in which the prediction made by a letter changes in the second half of training. The predictions of the models were determined by exploring parameter space and seeing howdensely different regions of the space of possible experimental outcomes were populated by model outcomes. For both types of interference, human data fell squarely in regions characteristic of CCN performance but not characteristic of SRN performance.     

Factor structure of the Treatment Evaluation Inventory: Implications for measurement of treatment acceptability

The Treatment Evaluation Inventory (TEI), a frequently used measure of treatment acceptability, was used by 164 undergraduates to rate the acceptability of each of the following treatments: differential reinforcement of other behavior, exclusionary time-out, overcorrection, medical restraint, contingent electric shock, and physical restraint. TEI ratings of each treatment type were grouped separately, variance-covariance matrices were formed and compared, and data were subjected to factor analysis. The results indicated that the factor structure of the TEI varied with the treatment it was used to evaluate. Item analysis of the TEI indicated a high degree of internal consistency, although item-total correlations varied between rated treatments. The findings suggest that although the TEI is a reliable instrument, sensitive assessment of the treatment acceptability construct probably requires multidimensional measurement.     

Charting the process of change: A primer on survival analysis

Survival analysis is a powerful and useful technique for understanding qualitative change. This article provides a practical, nontechnical introduction to the use of survival analysis for social scientists. Important issues in using survival analysis are discussed, including research design, data preparation and management, and data analysis. Attendance data from a self-helf organization are used to illustrate common survival analysis tasks such as describing the overall survival and hazard functions, examining covariate effects, and modeling the form of the hazard function over time. An appendix that discusses the strengths and weaknesses of current survival analysis computer programs is included. Editor's note: Edward Seidman served as action editor for this article while serving as Associate Editor for Methodology.I thank William Davidson, Susan Englund, Bruce Rapkin, Kurt Ribisl, and three anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on earlier drafts. The example data presented here were collected with the support of an NIMH grant (MH37390) awarded to Julian Rappaport and Ed Seidman.     

Spatial representation of a two-dimensional pattern

The purpose of this study was (a) to determine if vision and kinesthesis contribute differentially to the coding of a specific two-dimensional pattern and (b) to identify the effect of repetition on the spatial representation of this pattern. The reproductions of a specific pattern presented visually were compared with those of a pattern presented kinesthetically. The results showed that vision and kinesthesis had contributed equally to the coding of the directional components of the pattern. However, there was dominance of visual information over kinesthetic information when coding the distance between the intersecting points of the pattern, especially at the beginning of the process. Generally speaking, the visual or kinesthetic repetition, or both, have increased favourably the precision with which a specific pattern was reproduced in distance and direction.     

Sex differences and effects of aging on visuomotor coordination.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of aging on men and women in processing information required to reproduce direction and distance on a visuomotor task. Subjects (45 men and 45 women) selected from three age groups (25-34 yr., 45-54 yr., 65-74 yr.) were required to estimate blindly the exact criterion location of a target-point they had identified under one of the following conditions: visual, kinesthetic, and visuokinesthetic. Errors in direction (degrees) and in distance (cm) were recorded. The analysis of the total variability in responding (E) indicated that the women of the 65- to 74-yr. age group were significantly less accurate in estimating distance than were the men of the two older age groups (45 to 54 yr., 65 to 74 yr.) and less accurate than were the women of the 25- to 34-yr. age group. No significant differences in estimating distance were found among the three age groups of men. No significant differences for direction were found between men and women.     

Setting phenotypes in a mutual help organization: Expanding behavior setting theory

Expands Barker's theory of behavior settings by proposing an additional method of classifying settings based on their functional/behavioral aspects--the setting phenotype. Although behavior setting theory has been widely hailed as a revolutionary contribution to behavioral science, it has had limited impact on general psychology. This may be due in part to a reliance on a purely structural method of classifying behavior settings--the setting genotype. Behavioral data were collected from 510 meetings of 13 self-help groups from a mutual help organization for persons with problems in living. A cluster analysis was performed to uncover meaningful behavioral patterns among the groups. Four phenotypes were identified: personal, impersonal, small talk, and advising. Mutual help group phenotype was found to be related to a set of setting characteristics as well as to overall rated change of group members. The results are discussed in light of the significance of the phenotype construct for making behavior setting theory more relevant for social scientists.     

Methodological naturalism in the sciences

International Journal for Philosophy of Religion - Creationists have long argued that evolutionary science is committed to a dogmatic metaphysics of naturalism and materialism, which is based on...