THE REDUCTION OF STEALING IN SECOND GRADERS USING A GROUP CONTINGENCY1

Three classes of second graders served as subjects in this study of the effects of two types of intervention programs upon stealing: (1) an antistealing lecture with no specific contingency implied, and (2) a direct group contingency applied, whereby children were rewarded with (a) extra free time for no thefts, (b) allowed normal free time if stolen items were returned, and (c) punished with loss of free time if stolen items were not returned. A multiple-baseline design across the three classes showed the group contingency to be effective in reducing stealing behavior; the anti-stealing lecture was ineffective.     

Book reviews

Wyer, Robert S., Jr. Cognitive Organization and Change : an Information Processing Approach. Potomac, Maryland: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 1974. Pp. 502. £10.50.

Egan, J. P. Signal Detection Theory and ROC Analysis. New York: Academic Press. 1975. Pp. 277. £9.75. ISBN

Aldis, O. Play-Fighting. New York: Academic Press. 1975. Pp. 319. £8.75.

Warburton, D. M. Brain Behaviour and Drugs. London: John Wiley. 1975. Pp. 280. £6.95. ISBN 0471 91991 8.

Grieve, D. W., Miller, D., Mitchelson, D., Paul, J. and Smith, A. J. Techniques for the Analysis of Human Movement. London: Lepus Books. 1975. Pp. 177. £5.50.     

Predicting Perceptions of Victimization

Male and female subjects rated female victims of misfortune after observing videotapes of the victims detailing their injuries to doctors. Contrary to predictions of just wortd theory, subjects derogated culpable victims more than innocent victims. When observers identified with the victim, through political ties, derogation was reduced. It was concluded that responses to victims are described by a balance theory framework in which the observer's relationships to the victim and the victimizing agent determine whether (s)he will react to victims with sympathy or derogation. It was further concluded that these relationships can be predicted from an understanding of the social and political context shared by the perceiver and the victim.     

Blocking of incidental information in young children

Methods of increasing learning efficiency through a blocking technique were examined in young children. An experimental group of children was trained on an initial task with one relevant dimension, followed by redundancy training in which an incidental dimension also became relevant. A control group given only redundancy training was compared to this group to test how much the experimental subjects blocked or screened out the incidental dimension. In order to increase blocking, three methods were used: a preset transfer problem, an overtraining on the initial task, and a delay following training. The most important finding was increased blocking through the Preset Condition. Overtraining and Delay Conditions had no effect. In addition, more slow learners on the initial task learned about the incidental dimension than fast or intermediate learners. Also, fewer subjects given form on the initial task learned about the incidental dimension than those given color. The Combined Blocking, Delay, and Overtraining group showed partial blocking, while the Preset group demonstrated complete blocking. No developmental differences occurred. The results were interpreted using a modification of Trabasso and Bower's attention model (Attention in learning: Theory and research. New York: Wiley, 1968).     

Role and justice considerations in the attribution of responsibility to a rape victim

This study was designed to assess the extent to which social role and “just world” considerations would affect perceptions and attributions of responsibility to a rape victim. The rape victim was either a topless-bottomless dancer, a social worker, or a Catholic nun, and she was either acquainted or unacquainted with her assailant. In the acquainted condition, the dancer was attributed the greatest and the nun the least amount of responsibility, indicating that social role factors can govern the range of attributional judgments which might be made in any given instance. However, unacquainted victims were ascribed more responsibility for the rape than were acquainted victims, a difference which was significant when the victim was the nun. The latter findings are discussed in terms of Lerner's just world hypothesis. Significant sex differences were found in subjects' perceptions of and responses to the rape incident and, contrary to earlier findings, no relationship was found between victim attractiveness and punitiveness toward the wrongdoer.     

Altering the Shape of Punishment Distributions Affects Decision Making in a Modified Iowa Gambling Task

Neuroeconomics research has shown that preference for gambling is altered by the statistical moments (mean, variance, and skew) of reward and punishment distributions. Although it has been shown that altered means can affect feedback‐based decision making tasks, little is known if the variance and skew will have an effect on these tasks. To investigate, we systematically controlled the variance (high, medium, and low) and skew (negative, zero, and positive) of the punishment distributions in a modified version of the Iowa Gambling Task. The Iowa Gambling Task has been used extensively in both academic and clinical domains to understand decision making and diagnose decision making impairments. Our results show that decision making can be altered by an interaction of variance and skew. We found a significant decrease over trials in choices from the decks with high variance and asymmetrically skewed punishments and from the decks with low variance and zero skew punishments. These results indicate that punishment distribution shape alone can change human perception of what is optimal (i.e., mean expected outcome) and may help explain what guides our day‐to‐day decisions. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.