When parting is such sweet sorrow: The comprehension and appreciation of oxymora

Three experiments examined the comprehension and appreciation of figurative phrases known as oxymora (e.g.,intense apathy, loyal opposition). Experiment 1 showed that adjective-noun pairs in which the noun term is the hyponym of the adjective terms' antonym were judged by readers as the most poetic. Experiment 2 found that these same types of phrases were the easiest to understand. Experiment 3 demonstrated that interpreting oxymora requires more than the simple combination of the adjective and noun terms' semantic components. These findings provide additional evidence on the influence of conceptual knowledge for both theories of complex conceptual combinations and for theories of figurative language understanding.     

Shattering the illusion of control: Multi-shot versus single-shot gambles

The illusion of control refers to a phenomenon whereby people believe their chances of success at a task are greater than would be warranted by objective analysis. This article raises two questions. First, how robust is the illusion of control? Second, how might the illusion be ‘shattered?’ Previous experimental demonstrations involved situations that can be likened to unique or single-shot gambles. If, however, the phenomenon is robust, it should occur in repeated or multi-shot gambles in which the outcome depends on a series of gambles involving the same underlying random process. It should also appear in single-shot gambles that are framed so as to superficially resemble multi-shot gambles. We label this the strong illusion of control hypothesis. On the other hand, because people have a better appreciation of probabilistic concepts in tasks they are able to represent as relative frequencies, the introduction of a multi-shot or ‘pseudo-multi-shot’ context might cue people to the random nature of the task, thereby shattering the illusion. The weak illusion of control hypothesis holds that the illusion of control will occur in single-shot but not in multi-shot or pseudo-multi-shot gambles. Two studies are reported that support the weak hypothesis. Alternative explanations are considered and implications are discussed.     

Associative transfer and stimulus selection in classical conditioning of the rabbit's nictitating membrane response to serial compound CSs

Four experiments were conducted to determine whether in conditioning to a serial compound, CS1-CS2-UCS, there are (a) associative mechanisms operating to extend conditioning beyond the bounds of a CS-UCS contiguity gradient and (b) stimulus selection processes acting to attenuate the potency of CS-UCS contiguity. In Experiments 1 and 2, the CS2-UCS interval was held at .35 sec while the CS1-UCS interval was varied across groups from .75 to 2.75 sec. CS1 test trials revealed substantial CR acquisition at all CS1-UCS intervals. Moreover, Experiment 2 indicated that when the contribution of cross-modal generalization from CS2 to CS1 was factored out, there still remained a substantial level of conditioning, which Experiment 3 indicated was attributable to an associative mechanism like higher-order or sensory conditioning. The observation of CR acquisition at CS1-UCS intervals of 4.75, 8.75, and 18.75 sec in Experiment 4 suggested that serial compound training yields conditioning to CSs located well beyond the single CS contiguity gradient for the rabbit's nictitating membrane response. Experiments 1 and 2 also indicated the presence of stimulus selection processes because, at the shorter CS1-UCS intervals (.75 and 1.25 sec), the levels of test-trial responding to CS2 fell below those observed to the less contiguous CS1.     

Stress experienced by women doctoral students,need for support,and occupational sex typing: An interactional view

The present study was concerned with emotional stress experienced by women doctoral students as an interactive function of type of department and personal need for support. Subjects were women registered as doctoral students at a large state university in the fall semester of 1975. Of the total, 86 were from female minority departments, 177 from egalitarian departments, and 114 from female majority departments. Stress from time pressures, marital pressures, and overall stress were all found to be interactive functions of need for support and type of department. The female minority group showed the strongest relationship between need for support and each of the three significant stress variables. Implications of these findings for women in graduate school are discussed.This study was supported in part by a grant from Division 9 of the American Psychological Association and by the Measurement and Evaluation Center at the University of Texas at Austin. It was based on a dissertation, under the direction of H. Paul Kelley, submitted in partial fulfillment of the doctoral degree at the University of Texas at Austin. The author wishes to thank Lucia Gilbert and Charles Holahan for their helpful comments on an earlier draft of this article.     

The role of syntactic context in word recognition

This study examines the role of syntactic information in word recognition. Subjects made a word-nonword decision regarding a target string that was preceded by a syntactically appropriate word, a semantically related word, or an unrelated word. In Experiment 1, with syntactic and semantic trials assigned to separate blocks, syntactically and semantically appropriate context significantly reduced lexical decision for subsequent target words, compared with unrelated contexts. In Experiment 2, the syntactically and semantically primed trials were either blocked separately or mixed within the same block. Significant syntactic and semantic effects were both observed in the blocked condition, but only the semantic effect was obtained in the mixed condition     

Authorial intentions and metaphor comprehension

Three experiments investigated the role of authorial intentions in metaphor comprehension. In these studies, subjects read metaphoric (e.g., A family album is like a museum), literal (e.g., An art gallery is like a museum), and anomalous (e.g., A tortoise shell is like an art gallery) comparisons and rated their degreeof meaningfulness (Experiment 1), made speeded decisions as to whether each phrase was meaningful or not (Experiment 2), or wrote out interpretations of each comparison statement (Experiment 3). The subjects were tolt that the comparisons were written either by famous 20th century poets or by a computer program that randomly generated the statements from a list of words. Our general hypothesis was that knowing that intentional agents (the poets) authored the different comparisons should facilitate subjects' comprehension of the metaphors. Experiment 1 showed that subjects rated both metaphoric and literal comparisons as being more meaningful in the poet condition than when these statements were supposedly written by computer. Experiment 2 demonstrated that subjects were faster in making their meaningfulness judgments for metaphors in the poet condition than in the computer context, but that subjects were also slower in rejecting anomalous comparisons when these were supposedly written by the poets. Experiment 3 indicated that subjects produced more meanings or interpretations for comparisons presumably written by poets than by computer. These results highlight the improtance of implied, authorial intentions in understanding metaphorical statements. We discuss the implications of this work for psycholinguistic theories of figurative language comprehension, as well as for theories of literary interpretation.     

We've come a long way,maybe: College students' plans for work and family

Young men and women today face considerable choices as they plan for family and work. We explore college students' educational preparations, as well as their attitudes, orientations, and expectations for work and family. Although we find some changes toward a more gender-equal society, we also find potential conflicts which these individuals will have to face as they attempt to combine work and family roles. Women and men are doing equally well in college, both men and women have equal commitments to work roles, and both value family. However, both men and women expect that women will play a more prominent role in the family and men a stronger role in the workplace. The orientation and plans of these college students do not anticipate symmetrical relationships in which both men and women share household and work responsibilities.We are grateful to Brenda K. Hawks, Sue Curry Jansen, and Judith Lasker for their careful readings of earlier drafts of this paper. Special thanks go to the students in SR377/477 for their major contribution in collecting the data which are analyzed herein.     

Children as witnesses: A comparison of lineup versus showup identification methods

The goal of this study was to compare children's and adults eyewitness identification accuracy when presented with an array of possible suspects (‘lineup’) versus one suspect (‘showup’). Kindergarten children and adults were shown a slide show of a staged theft and subsequently asked whether, of the photo or photos shown them, the perpetrator was present or not. Children were more likely than adults to identify the perpetrator correctly when that suspect was present in the lineup or showup. Children were also more likely than adults to make an incorrect identification of another person when the perpetrator's photo was not present in the lineup or showup. Because false positive identification errors are more difficult to detect with the showup than the lineup, use of the showup may be less appropriate with child witnesses than with adults due to children's greater tendency to make positive identifications.