Effects of dominance cues on attributions of sexual behavior

Many writers have suggested that dominance plays an important role in human sexuality. This proposition was examined by asking 51 females and 85 males to rate their impressions of a man and woman (photographed in the nude) who were described as having a male-dominant, female-dominant, or equalitarian relationship. Results indicated that although subjects' level of sexual arousal was unaffected by dominance, dominant individuals were perceived as more sexually active than the other stimulus persons. As expected, dominance appeared to enhance perceived masculinity, while submissiveness increased perceived femininity. Surprisingly, dominant male and female stimulus persons were not differentially evaluated. These findings were interpreted as being consistent with the assumption dominance is positively associated with sexuality.     

Item concreteness vs spatial organization as predictors of visual imagery

The relative contributions of item concreteness and interitem spatial organization to recall processes were studied by attempting to induce modality-specific interference between recall and response. Separate groups of 12 Ss learned lists of items that varied in physical or referential visual characteristics. They later signaled information about them either vocally or via a visually guided response. Some ways of presenting lists for learning that are traditionally regarded as increasing reliance on mediating imagery were effective in generating conflict between recall and the visually guided response. This effectiveness was limited to presentation conditions and list types that introduced spatial organization into the stimulus material. The concreteness of individual items was not useful in predicting visual conflict.     

When “I like you” indicates disagreement an experimental differentiation of information and affect

It was hypothesized that the independent manipulation of the informational content and the affective meaning of personal evaluations would indicate that both informational judgments and attraction responses are a joint function of the two stimulus components. In a 2 × 2 factorial design, each of 80 subjects was exposed to a videotape message from a stranger which was either affectively positive or negative and informationally positive or negative. Analysis of variance indicated that perceived similarity was influenced only by the informational variable (p < .0001) while attraction was influenced by both information (p < .0001) and affect (p < .002). It was suggested that the most inclusive theories of person perception and attraction will necessarily encompass elements of both cognitive and reinforcement formulations.     

Modal reasoning, models, and Manktelow and Over.

Manktelow and Over (1991) argue that their studies of Wason's selection task favor explanations of deontic reasoning based on mental models, but that such theories need to incorporate utilities. This theoretical note proposes a simpler explanation of the phenomena: subjects in the selection task consider only those cards that are explicitly represented in their models of the conditional, and so insight into the task depends on constructing fully explicit models. Such models for modal conditionals of the form, If p occurs then q may occur are: [formula: see text] Each line denotes a separate model, and the models represent either what is possible, or, in the deontic interpretation, what is permissible. A deontic rule is accordingly violated by the contingency: [symbol: see text] p and q, for example the rule, "If you spend more than 100 pounds, then you may take a free gift" is violated by taking the free gift (q) but not spending more than 100 pounds ([symbol: see text] p). If the rule is interpreted as a bi-conditional, then the second of the models, p and [symbol: see text] q, is also now a violation, for example spending more than 100 pounds (p) but not getting the free gift ([symbol: see text] q). Manktelow and Over's instructions lead subjects to focus on one or other of the two sorts of violations of the rule. There is accordingly no need to introduce utilities into models in order to explain the phenomena.     

Propositional reasoning by model.

This article describes a new theory of propositional reasoning, that is, deductions depending on if, or, and, and not. The theory proposes that reasoning is a semantic process based on mental models. It assumes that people are able to maintain models of only a limited number of alternative states of affairs, and they accordingly use models representing as much information as possible in an implicit way. They represent a disjunctive proposition, such as "There is a circle or there is a triangle," by imagining initially 2 alternative possibilities: one in which there is a circle and the other in which there is a triangle. This representation can, if necessary, be fleshed out to yield an explicit representation of an exclusive or an inclusive disjunction. The theory elucidates all the robust phenomena of propositional reasoning. It also makes several novel predictions, which were corroborated by the results of 4 experiments.     

Individual differences in positive and negative interpretive biases

Student subjects were given the task of writing down the spellings of a series of words (many of them homophones) presented auditorily. Some of the homophones had a negative and neutral interpretation, whereas others had a positive and neutral interpretation. Subjects low in trait anxiety (high extraversion, low neuroticism) produced more positive homophone interpretations than did those low in positive affectivity; this constitutes a positive interpretive bias. Subjects very high in negative affectivity (in terms of trait anxiety) produced more negative homophone interpretations than did those lower in trait anxiety; this constitutes a negative interpretive bias. Theoretical implications of these biases were discussed.     

The informativeness and frequency of presentation of a social stimulus as determinants of its efficacy as a reinforcer

It was demonstrated that variations in the informativeness of a social stimulus place important limitations on the generality of the proposition that deprivation heightens, while satiation lowers, responsiveness to a social stimulus. Using 60 children 5 to 6 years of age as subjects, a social stimulus (“good”) was presented at either a high or a low frequency in one of three information-value contexts (high, medium, or low). Immediately following the exposure treatment the same social stimulus was employed as a reinforcer of nonpreferred responses in a two-choice discrimination learning task. The findings indicated that the heightened efficacy of deprivation relative to satiation only held for low information value; when initial information value was high the subsequent efficacy of a social stimulus was enhanced by its initial recurrent usage. Trend analyses revealed that the effects of variations in information value were strongest within the high-frequency-of-praise treatment. Possible mechanisms underlying the significant Information Value × Frequency interaction were discussed.