The Situational Facilitation of Interpersonal Attraction: A Three-factor Hypothesis1

A theoretical analysis of observations of natural and man-made disasters, festive social events, and task-oriented crash programs led to a three-factor hypothesis of attraction facilitation. It was proposed that interpersonal attraction toward strangers is facilitated when there is emotional arousal, sharing, and out-of-role behavior. In a laboratory investigation (N= 120), postexperimental attraction toward a dissimilar stranger increased when all three factors were present but not when only two of the three factors were present (p < .01). Consistent with the reinforcement-affect model of attraction, increased attraction toward the stranger in the three-factor conditions was paralleled by more positive feelings about the experiment in the three-factor than in the two-factor conditions. Knowledge of the variables underlying facilitation effects could be utilized on a societal basis to create attraction-enhancing occurrences.     

Note on decision time/movement time relationships in normal and depressed subjects.

It has been suggested that under normal conditions, there is no relationship between decision and movement time components of response latency. However, for normal Ss, induced elevation of decision time produces conpensatory reductions in movement time. Psychomotor retardation, commonly observed in depressive patients, shows in the main, elevations for decision time. Such patients should also produce compensatory reductions in movement time. This was found not to be so. While 15 controls exhibited no relationship between decision and movement times, 30 depressive Ss exhibited a positive one. The result was discussed in terms of a post hoc postulate of motivational deficit among depressive patients.     

Use of the titles Ms., Miss,or Mrs.: Does it make a difference?

In a study of sexism and language 112 persons at a shopping mall were asked to read a paragraph about an achieving woman who was either given the title Miss, Mrs., or Ms., or not given a title. Persons receiving the paragraph with the Ms. title rated the woman as less honest. No effect of the title variation was obtained on a number of other rating dimensions. The results were interpreted as reflecting public acceptance of the use of the Ms. title.     

Predictors of Young Adolescents’ Math Grades and Course Enrollment Intentions: Gender Similarities and Differences

Gender differences and similarities in the relations of key constructs in Eccles and colleagues (Wigfield & Eccles, 2000) model of achievement were examined as predictors of math grades and enrollment intentions for Grade 9 boys (n = 263) and girls (n = 277). A number of gender similarities were found, particularly in the prediction of math grades. There were, however, two gender-specific paths: for girls, a direct path from competence beliefs to enrollment intentions, and for boys, a direct path from prior math grades to enrollment intentions. In addition, for boys, the path from utility value to enrollment intentions was stronger than it was for girls. These differential predictive patterns were found even though girls and boys reported similar levels of math utility and girls had lower math competence beliefs. For girls, competence beliefs were a significant predictor of both intentions and current math grades, which indicates the central role of competence beliefs.     

Foraging behaviour in domestic pigs (Sus scrofa): remembering and prioritizing food sites of different value

This experiment investigated whether domestic pigs can remember the locations of food sites of different relative value, and how a restricted retrieval choice affects their foraging behaviour. Nine juvenile female pigs were trained to relocate two food sites out of a possible eight in a spatial memory task. The two baited sites contained different amounts of food and an obstacle was added to the smaller amount to increase handling time. On each trial, a pig searched for the two baited sites (search visit). Once it had found and eaten the bait, it returned for a second (relocation) visit, in which the two same sites were baited. Baited sites were changed between trials. All subjects learnt the task. When allowed to retrieve both baits, the subjects showed no preference for retrieving a particular one first (experiment 1). When they were allowed to retrieve only one bait, a significant overall preference for retrieving the larger amount emerged across subjects (experiment 2). To test whether this preference reflected an avoidance of the obstacle with the smaller bait, 15 choice-restricted control trials were conducted. In control trials obstacles were present with both baits. Pigs continued to retrieve the larger bait, indicating they had discriminated between the two food sites on the basis of quantity or profitability and adjusted their behaviour accordingly when the relocation choice was restricted. This suggests for the first time that domestic pigs have the ability to discriminate between food sites of different relative value and to remember their respective locations.     

Book reviews

New Religious Movements in the United States and Canada. A Critical Assessment and Annotated Bibliography Compiled by Diane Choquette Greenwood Press, London, 1985 £39.95 pp.235

Knowledge, Belief and Witchcraft: Analytic Experiments in African Philosophy. B. Hallen and J.O. Spdipo. Ethnographica, London, 1986. Pp 1–38

Sectes Nouvelles. Un regard neuf.. Jean‐Francois Mayer. Paris: Les Editions du Cerf, 1985. ISBN 2–204–02458–9. 130 pp.

Restoring die Kingdom: The Radical Christianity of the House Church Movement. Andrew Walker Hodder and Stoughton, London, Sydney, Aukland, Toronto, 1985 298 pages (P/B) £5.95

Bhagwan: The God that failed . Hugh Milne. London: Caliban Books. ISBN 1 85066 0069. £12, 316pp.

Is There a New Imbalance in the Jewish‐Christian Relation?. Antonio Barboso da Silva Uppsala University, Uppsala 1985. 220 pages

Sociological Theory, Religion and Collective Action. Roy Wallis and Steve Bruce The Queen's University Press, Belfast, 1986 i‐xi, 395 pp. Hdbk.

The Way of the Heart: The Rajneesh Movement. Judith Thompson & Paul Heelas Aquarian Press, Wellingborough, pp. 142, £5.99     

Learning artificial orthographies: Further evidence of a nonanalytic acquisition procedure

Previous research (Byrne, 1984) showed that adults who learned to read an orthography representing phonetic features (voicing, place of articulation) did not readily obtain usable knowledge of the mapping of phonetic features onto orthographic elements, as evidenced by failure to generalize to partially new stimuli. The present Experiment 1 used a different method of detecting learning savings during acquisition. Subjects learned a set of complex symbols standing for phones, with the elements representing voicing and place. In a second acquisition set, the signs for voicing were reversed. Learning speed was not affected, which was consistent with the claim that feature-element links went unnoticed in initial acquisition. In Experiment 2, some subjects were instructed to "find the rule" embodied in the orthography. None did, and acquisition rates were no different from those of uninstructed subjects. In Experiment 3, subjects had 4 h of training on the orthography, with consistent feature-symbol mapping for half of the subjects and arbitrary pairings for the remainder. No reaction time advantage emerged in the consistent condition, which is further evidence of nonanalytic acquisition. The results are related to data from children learning to read.