Regret and disappointment in taxpayer reporting decisions: An experimental study

This paper reports on experiments which test whether factors such as regret or disappointment influence taxpayer compliance decisions. Previous tests of regret and disappointment theory have been based upon the common-ratio effect in which probabilities vary while outcomes are held fixed. In contrast, our experiments involved trials in which the outcomes were allowed to vary. Previous tests had mainly found evidence of regret effects and to a lesser extent were supportive of disappointment. In contrast, we were able to reject simple theories of both regret and disappointment. A second experiment produced evidence which indicates that whether or not rejected risky alternatives are resolved has no significant influence on subjects' choices. One would expect that regret could only occur when a subject learns the outcome of a non-chosen option. Hence this result can be seen as evidence against regret theory. We shall argue that there is a possible interpretation of regret theory which is compatible with this result.     

Influence of a televised model's vocalization pattern on infants

To assess the influence of a televised model's vocalizations on the vocal patterns of infant viewers, 32 infants at 6 months of age were presented either a televised adult model repeating a novel phoneme pattern (/ba/ba/ba/ba) or a control televised presentation of adult conversation selected from typical daytime programming. Sequential analyses of infant vocalizations revealed that infants exposed to the televised model altered their vocalization pattern, as indicated by a significant increase over base line levels in their production of a patterned series of discrete vocalizations. Infants exposed to the televised conversation showned no increase in this pattern of vocalization, and none of the infants in the study produced the novel phoneme (/ba/). The results indicate that televised presentation of discrete, repeated vocalizations can have an influence on the vocalization pattern of infants. The potential role of television in infant development is discussed.     

Suppression of VMH-lesion-induced reactivity and aggressiveness in the rat by stimulation of lateral septum, but not medial septum or cingulate cortex

Animals made vicious with bilateral ventromedial hypothalamic lesions had bipolar electrodes implanted unilaterally in the lateral septum, medial septum, or cingulate cortex. Four days later, the animals' reactivity and aggressiveness were evaluated 5 min before, during, and 5 min after stimulation at 20 micronA (60 Hz, sine wave). Lateral septal stimulation suppressed reactivity and aggressiveness by almost 80% compared with pre- and poststimulation levels. Stimulation of neither the cingulate cortex nor the medial septum produced a change reliably different from that seen in unstimulated control animals. Further tests with stimulation of the lateral septum at the 20-micronA level showed that neither rewarding self-stimulation nor disruption of ongoing water drinking was produced. These results are congruent with evidence from lesion studies that the lateral septum normally acts to suppress reactivity and aggressiveness in the rat; they do not support previous suggestions that the medial septum is involved in the modulation of these behaviors.     

Duration and rate of reinforcement as determinants of concurrent responding

The duration and frequency of food presentation were varied in concurrent variable-interval variable-interval schedules of reinforcement. In the first experiment, in which pigeons were exposed to a succession of eight different schedules, neither relative duration nor relative frequency of reinforcement had as great an effect on response distribution as they have when they are manipulated separately. These results supported those previously reported by Todorov (1973) and Schneider (1973). In a second experiment, each of seven pigeons was exposed to only one concurrent schedule in which the frequency and/or duration of reinforcement differed on the two keys. Under these conditions, each pigeon's relative rate of response closely matched the relative total access to food that each schedule provided. This result suggests that previous failures to obtain matching may be due to factors such as an insufficient length of exposure to each schedule or to the pigeons' repeated exposure to different concurrent schedules.     

Affiliation of opposite-sexed strangers

This study examined the effects of a subject's sex and affiliative tendency and the other's physical attractiveness on the cross-sexual interaction of strangers. Although previous studies showed that one's interest in an opposite-sexed other is a function of the other's physical attractiveness, the actual behavior of individuals in the presence of attractive and unattractive others had not been systematically examined. Subjects were individually placed in a 5-min waiting situation with a physically attractive or unattractive target of the opposite sex who behaved in a standard way. Conversations were recorded and subsequently analyzed; subjects also provided their impressions of the targets following the waiting period. Physical attractiveness of the opposite-sexed other did not significantly influence the subject's verbal affiliative behavior, but the combined influence of a subject's sex and affiliative tendency was predictive of cross-sexual affiliation. Although physical attractiveness did not account for differences in affiliative behavior, subjects preferred attractive over unattractive targets as potential dates or marriage partners.     

The stages of acquisition in stimulus fading

Pigeons were exposed to a stimulus fading procedure in which control of responding was transferred from red and black stimuli to lines of different angular orientation. After superimposing one line on the red stimulus and the other line on the black stimulus, the intensity of the lines was gradually increased and that of the red stimulus was gradually reduced. Probes consisting of red and line stimuli presented separately were used during the course of fading to assess control exerted by each element of the compound. As the lines were faded in, they did not acquire control of responding. As red was faded out, control of responding was acquired first by the lower intensity red stimuli in combination with the line stimulus, and finally by the angular orientation of the lines. Probes also determined the point at which the line stimuli, presented alone, would maintain a high degree of stimulus control. The results demonstrated that new stimuli in fading acquire dimensional control of responding in two sequential stages. Acquisition of stimulus control in fading was explained in terms of attenuation of stimulus blocking.