The effects of explicit timing and feedback on compositional response rate in elementary school children

The effects of several variables on compositional response rate were investigated in three classrooms. After establishing baseline composition rates in each of the three classrooms, an experimental phase was introduced that consisted of: explicit timing of the children's composition period with a stopwatch, immediate feedback on the number of words each child produced, public posting of the greatest number of words written by each child to date, and instructions to try to exceed their highest score. In the second-grade classroom, these conditions were introduced, removed, and re-introduced. In two fifth-grade classrooms, these conditions were introduced according to a multiple baseline, across classes. In all cases, introduction of the experimental conditions led to a doubling of rate of words written by students and an increase in subjective quality ratings of compositions made by independent judges.     

Motivation in concurrent variable-interval schedules with food and water reinforcers

The lever pressing of four food- and water-deprived rats was reinforced on concurrent variable-interval schedules. Food reinforced one response, and water reinforced the other. Response rates in baseline were higher in the food component than in the water component. After response patterns and body weights had stabilized, the animals were given access to either food only, water only, both food and water, or neither food nor water (baseline) before daily sessions. Giving food before a session decreased per cent time in the food component, decreased overall response rates for food, and increased overall response rates for water. Giving water before a session increased per cent time in the food component, increased overall response rates for food, and decreased overall response rates for water. Giving both food and water before a session resulted in a combination of prefeeding and prewatering effects. More food and more water were consumed when both were available than when only one was available before a session.     

Subtraction and the solution of open sentence problems

This paper is concerned with the processes used by children in solving open sentence problems of the form x + u = y (Type 1) and u + x = y (Type 2). Three models for reaction times to these problems are proposed. The first assumes they are solved by an incrementing process, the second assumes a decrementing process, while the third assumes that the subject increments or decrements, depending on which is quickest. Two experiments designed to evaluate these models are reported. It is shown, by means of a series of regression analyses that the third model gives the best account of the success latencies to Type 1 problems. This model predicts that times will be a linear function of the minimum of x and y ? x. It is also shown that none of the models give an adequate account of the latency data for Type 2 problems. Some possible reasons for this difference are discussed, together with some evidence that indicates that Type 1 problems and ordinary subtraction problems are solved by the same process.     

Pup retrieving as a reinforcer in nulliparous mice

Six nulliparous female mice were trained to bar press with bar pressing reinforced by the opportunity to retrieve pups to the nest. Then, responses on one bar produced the opportunity to retrieve pups, while responses on a second bar produced sensory contact with non-retrievable pups, presented behind a screen door. All subjects emitted more responses on the bar yielding retrievable pups. When the bar-pup contingency was reversed, five subjects learned to press the opposite bar for retrievable pups. The sixth subject showed extinction of responding on the bar that had previously yielded retrievable pups, but failed to press the other bar. A major portion of the reinforcing value of pup presentation resulted from the opportunity to perform the behavior of pup retrieving. This finding supports theoretical formulations which state that the performance of species-typical consummatory behaviors should have reinforcing properties.     

NOTE ON SIMULTANEOUS DISCRIMINATION OF VISUAL ATTRIBUTES

van der H eijden A. H. C. Note on simultaneous discrimination of visual attributes. Scand. J. Psychol ., 1972, 13 , 71–72.—A tachistoscopically presented stimulus, provided it is above threshold, results in a visual image with a minimum duration of about 250 msec. In experiments on visual information processing, therefore, the results must be interpreted in terms of 'effective stimulus duration' (exposure time and duration of visual image) rather than exposure time alone.     

On the development of national attitudes in children

The present study consists of three related experiments which are concerned with the development of national attitudes in children between the ages of seven and twelve. It was predicted on the basis of a structural interpretation of Allport's three-stage developmental theory of prejudice that national attitudes will increase at first due to increasing consistency of judgment and decrease afterwards due to cognitive differentiation. The hypothesis is partially confirmed with respect to the attitudes of children towards other countries but not confirmed with respect to the attitudes of children towards people who are perceived as foreigners. A tentative explanation is offered for the last finding. It was shown moreover that the attitudes of older children display more cognitive balance than those of younger children. In connection with the last problem, a quantified modification Bf Heider's theory of balanced states was introduced.     

Sequence influence on the organization of meaningless serial stimuli: economy after all

This article provides evidence for an extension of structural information theory, a theory which describes perceptual organization formally, into a more general theory of representation that takes the role of organizations obtained earlier into account. In eight experiments, subjects study series of colored dots. Each series contained 6-8 dots of different colors, and viewing time was between 400 ms and 60 s. In several experimental procedures, subjects recalled the series presented. The experiments systematically varied the economy of the organizations of the series as described by structural information theory as well as a number of aspects of the context in which the series were presented, like order of presentation of a series, order between the series, viewing span, viewing time, and recall procedure. Recall was influenced both by the economy as well as by the context. It is shown how the context influences the relative strength of the most economical organization as compared with rival, local organizations. A structured network model is presented that accounts for the influence of both the economy and the context.     

Hemispheric specialization for voice recognition: evidence from dichotic listening

To measure lateralization of voice recognition abilities in normal subjects, listeners identified both the speaker (a famous male) and the word spoken on each trial in a dichotic listening paradigm. The voice identification task resulted in a zero ear advantage, which differed significantly from the significant right ear advantage found for word identification. This suggests that voice and word information, although carried in the same auditory signal, engage different cerebral mechanisms.     

Word identification in reading proceeds from spelling to sound to meaning

Van Orden (1987) reported that false positive errors in a categorization task are elevated for homophonic foils (e.g., HARE for A PART OF THE HUMAN BODY). Two new experiments replicate this finding and extend it to nonword homophone foils (e.g., SUTE FOR AN ARTICLE OF CLOTHING). False positive errors to nonword homophone foils substantially exceed false positive errors to nonhomophonic nonword spelling controls, showing that the phonological characteristics of the nonword foils are critical. Because nonwords are not represented in the lexicon, this new result implicates computed phonological codes as a source of the categorization errors. Additionally, in each of two experiments, matched word and nonword homophones produced virtually identical error rates. If stimulus nonword homophones are viewed as extremely unfamiliar words, compared with the relatively familiar stimulus word homophones, then our failure to observe an effect of stimulus familiarity strengthens the case that phonological coding plays a role in the identification of all printed words. The fact that the results are obtained in a categorization task that requires reading for meaning (rather than a lexical decision task) makes it difficult to avoid the conclusion that phonological mediation plays a role in normal reading of text for meaning.