The Analysis of Verbal Explanations for Marital Separation: Implications for Attribution Theory1

The main purpose of this study was to analyze the structure and content of real-life attributions, using these data to examine some important theoretical and empirical issues in attribution theory. The causal attributions examined came from free-response verbal protocols of explanations for marital separation of 29 males and 33 females living in New Zealand. Respondents gave causal importance weghts to the attributions from their verbal protocols, utilizing the technique of subjective magnitude estimation. Ipsative data, representing perceived causal responsibility for different attribution targets (self, ex-spouse, external factors, etc.), were derived from these weights, and the impact a range of independent variables exerted on these derived free-response attribution percentages was examined. Evidence is presented which supports the validity and reliability of this technique. The normative data gathered was found to be both consistent and inconsistent with different aspects of attribution theory. The implications for attribution theory are discussed.     

The dissolution of “classical ethnoscience”

„Ethnoscience”︁ in the early 1960s provides a prototypical case of an elite specialty. With easy access to recognition, there was only a loose confederation, not at all the kind of tightly knit social network with a garrison worldview typifying revolutionary groups. Elite specialities both grow and dissolve more rapidly than revolutionary groups; they require less commitment, and concomitantly offer less resistance to competitors. Ethnoscience lacked a single leader and was never monolithic.     

Gamma is a Measure of the Accuracy of Predicting Performance on One Item Relative to Another Item,not of the Absolute Performance on an Individual Item Comments on Schraw (1995)

The recent paper by Schraw ( Measures of feeling-of-knowing accuracy: a new look at an old problem , Applied Cognitive Psychology, 1995, 9, 321—332) is flawed by several inaccuracies and by Schraw's failure to distinguish between two fundamentally different aspects of the accuracy of metacognitive predictions: (1) calibration (aka absolute accuracy, defined in terms of whether the predicted value assigned to a single item is followed by the occurrence of that value on the criterion test), and (2) resolution (aka relative accuracy, defined in terms of whether the predicted performance on one item relative to another item is followed by the occurrence of that ordering of the two items on the criterion test). Because of these (and other) problems, his recommendations seem misleading and counterproductive.     

Kant's Musical Antiformalism

According to the orthodox view of Kant's philosophy of music, Kant is the founder of musical formalism, the view that music is pure, contentless form, and appreciated as such. On this orthodox view, Kant is an innovator in philosophy of music, though his views are confused and sometimes contradictory. Sometimes, we are told, Kant indicates that music is a fine art and sometimes that it is merely an agreeable art. None of the orthodox position is correct. Kant's views on music are familiar, even a little old fashioned for their time. His views are consistent. He believes that some music is fine art and that the fine arts are imitative arts. Imitative arts have content, and Kant believes that at least some music has content. Our views on Kant's philosophy of music ought to be thoroughly revised.     

Re-exposure to reinforcement in Context A during treatment in Context B reduces ABC renewal

Previous work from our laboratory showed that intermittently re-exposing rats to reinforcement for lever pressing in a training (A) context, while eliminating lever pressing in a second (B) context, increased ABA renewal of lever pressing relative to rats that experienced only Context B during response elimination. In the current study, we replicated these procedures while assessing renewal in the presence of a novel context (i.e., ABC renewal). Unlike the findings described above, renewal was reduced in the group that experienced re-exposure to Context A during lever-press elimination relative to rats that experienced only Context B. These findings suggest that alternating between contexts associated with reinforcement and extinction during treatment reduces the probability that organisms will respond in novel contexts. These outcomes may be the result of discrimination and/or generalization processes. Moreover, this training procedure may offer a potential mitigation strategy for ABC renewal.     

Boys Just Don’t! Gender Stereotyping and Sanctioning of Counter-Stereotypical Behavior in Preschoolers

Sex Roles - Although children start to adopt gender stereotypes by the age of three, there is less evidence about how early they start to sanction other children’s counter-stereotypical...     

Diazepam-induced impairment of a go-no go successive discrimination

Diazepam (2.0 and 4.0 mg/kg, but not 1.0 mg/kg) administered in eight acquisition sessions significantly impaired the light-cued successive discrimination of male Sprague-Dawley rats. In two postdrug (vehicle) sessions, groups previously treated with the drug demonstrated good recovery in discrimination. An analysis of response components indicated that the impairment was due to the failure of drugged subjects to inhibit or withhold responses during the no go periods of the task. These findings are consistent with a "disinhibitory hypothesis" of drug impairment. The similarity of the present findings to those previously reported with chlordiazepoxide suggests that such effects are a generalized characteristic of the benzodiazepine class of drugs.