Evaluation,self-awareness,and task performance

Two contradictory hypotheses regarding the effect of self-attention or self-awareness on task performance are considered. Recent research on test anxiety indicates that self-awareness interferes with task performance by decreasing the proportion of attention paid to the task. Wicklund and Duval's (1971) theory of objective self-awareness predicts the opposite: that self-awareness will induce a person to try harder and to perform at a higher level. Experimental evidence indicates that both hypotheses are correct, each at a different level of evaluation. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for a unified social-psychological theory of evaluative self-awareness which could account for findings now classed under separate headings such as test anxiety, self-awareness, and social facilitation.     

Audience reaction as a determinant of the speaker's self-persuasion

This paper tests effects of audience feedback on speaker attitudes. One hundred and seven male subjects with initial beliefs on both sides of an issue (women's role) were assigned to speak for or against their own position; then an “audience” provided one of three types of feedback (speaker was sincere, speaker was insincere, no feedback) in a 2 × 2 × 3 design. Subjects who received sincere feedback showed greater change in the direction of their speech than did those who received insincere feedback. No feedback treatments resulted in intermediate change. This sincere > no feedback > insincere ordering of means held for both pro- and counterattitudinal speakers and for both pretest attitudes. A main effect for pretest attitude was also obtained. Two additional control groups allow for a separate analysis of the effects of (1) preparing and delivering the speech, and (2) audience reaction to the speech.     

Voltage sensing with a unijunction transistor

A voltage-sensing device with very little hysteresis and variable threshold voltage setting is described. Application of the device as a voltage-sensitive variable-duration monostable multivibrator in recording rabbit nictitating membrane conditioning is also discussed.     

Verbal reaction times to hues vs hue names and forms vs form names

Iwo choice reaction time (RI) studies were carried out in which different classes of stimuli—hues vs hue names in one study and forms vs form names in the other—occurred in independent lists of2, 4, and6 equally probable alternatives. Mean choice RIs were faster for hue names and form names than for hues and forms with4 and6 alternatives, but no significant differences were found in the2-stimulus lists. In both studies, significant list length by stimulus type (e.g., hues vs hue names) interactions indicated greater increase in mean RI with increases in list length for forms and hues than for form names and hue names. It was concluded that differential amounts of generalization of interference aceounted for the interactions. Effects of experimental variables on inferred components of RI were also examined.     

Serial position effects for tonal stimuli

Serial position effects for tones were studied in a recognition memory experiment The S was given a stimulus list consisting of several tone bursts followed by a number of test tones. Accuracy of recognition of stimulus items as a function of input position followed the classical bowed serial position curve. Memory strength was a monotonically decreasing function of position in the test list. The data were fitted with a strength theory model of memory. The fit yielded decay parameters corresponding to stimulus- and response-induced interference, which were comparable to the parameters reported for meaningful verbal material.     

Auditory overselectivity in autistic children

Autistic and normal children were trained to respond to a complex stimulus containing two auditory components. After the discrimination was acquired, the individual components were presented separately, allowing assessment of the extent to which the child's responding was controlled by one or both of the cues. The autistic children, unlike the normal children, provided evidence for stimulus overselectivity in that 6 of 8 autistic subjects responded to only one of the components. These results are consistent with those of previous studies which showed that when autistic children are presented with a complex visual or multiple-modality stimulus, they selectively respond to only one component of the complex. The present results extend the stimulus overselectivity hypothesis to the situation where all of the stimuli occur within the auditory modality. It is suggested that auditory overselectivity may partially account for autistic deficits in speech comprehension.     

Visual analysis of data in a multielement design

Ninety Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs) and 19 editorial board members evaluated hypothetical data presented in a multielement design. We manipulated the variability, trend, and mean shift of the data and asked the participants to determine if the data demonstrated experimental control. The results showed that variability, trend, and mean shift interacted to affect the participants’ ratings of experimental control. The level of agreement between participants was variable, but was generally lower than in previous research.