An oscilloscopic point-plotter interface for 8-bit microcomputers

An inexpensive interface capable of driving high-resolution point-plotting systems is described. Specific examples of modifications to the electronic hardware are detailed for the Rockwell Aim 65, but the design is readily adaptable to most commercially available 8-bit microcomputers. Some comparisons are drawn between salient features of raster-scan and of point-plotting display systems.     

A factor analytic validation of Holland's Vocational Preference Inventory

A principal components analysis was applied to a 135-item pool of the Holland Vocational Preference Inventory, Sixth Revision. The sample consisted of a cross section of 100 men and 200 women college students under the age of 25 yr. An eight-factor structure was defined for each of the sexes which is discussed in relation to Holland's clinically based scales, sex differences and criterion groups as defined by choice of major subject. The a priori clinical scales were partially upheld with differences attributed to the characteristics of the sample and sociopolitical time context during which the test was administered. A new scale emerged relating to an interest in professions involving law and politics.     

Passage organization and imposed learning strategies in comprehension and recall of connected discourse

Ninety-nine Ss were assigned randomly to learn a passage comprised of six paragraphs in which the statements were organized by concept name, or concept attribute, or in which the statements were scrambled. Each complete passage contained the same 36 statements. These treatments were orthogonally crossed with instructions to employ a name clustering strategy, an attribute clustering strategy, or a subjectively determined organizing strategy. Three learning trials were administered, each of which was followed by free recall. Passages organized by concept name were found to result in greater recall than passages organized by attributes. The name clustering strategy was more dominant than the attribute clustering strategy, lncongruence between passage organization and advocated clustering strategy resulted in greater recall than did congruency. Implications of these results for cognitive processing of information are discussed     

A theory of perceived risk and attractiveness

People judged both the attractiveness and risk of lotteries to win or lose money. The lotteries were designed to test whether risk and attractiveness judgments show systematic deviations from the simple sum of probability-by-utility-products analogous to (S)EU theory. Our results led to an alternative combination rule for probability and outcome information, with a relative weight averaging component and a configural (i.e., sign- or rank-dependent) probability weighting component. Ratings of risk and attractiveness were negatively correlated, but the two tasks showed systematic differences in the rank order of judgments. Both judgments could be fit by the same configural relative weight averaging model, but with different parameters (especially the sign-dependent probability weighting functions). Risk judgments were more sensitive to the probability of losses and zero outcomes compared to attractiveness judgments, which were more sensitive to the probability of gains. There were individual differences on the extent of this difference in probability weights between risk and attractiveness judgments.     

Luria-nebraska neuropsychological battery: High rates of false positives for geriatirc subjects

This study examined false positive rates obtained for two normal adult age groups, using three different methods for interpreting performances on the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery (LNNB). Among normal subjects ages 18 to 30 and ages 65 to 85, false positive rates were found to range from 3.9% to 7.7% for younger subjects and 13.5% to 32.7% for older subjects. Significant differences were found between the proportion of false positives in each age group on each method of interpretation. A lack of agreement was found between the three different methods of interpretation concerningwhich subjects should be classified as impaired. Further analysis was performed by dividing older subjects into two groups, ages 65 to 70 and over 70. False positive rates for subjects over age 70 were found to range from 20.7% to 41.4%. Significant differences were also found between the proportion of false positives in each of these two groups.     

Context availability and the recall of abstract and concrete words

Predictions of an automatic-imagery, strategic-imagery, and context-availability hypothesis of concreteness effects in free recall were examined. In each experiment, recall of abstract and concrete words controlled for rated context availability was compared with the typical situation in which context availability is confounded with imageability. In Experiment 1, a directed intentional-recall task produced concreteness effects in recall. Experiment 2 compared concreteness effects in recall following three orienting tasks: imagery rating, context-availability rating, and a directed intentional-memory task. Concreteness effects in the context-availability-controlled condition were found following the imagery-rating and the directed intentional-memory tasks, but not after the context-availability-rating task. In Experiment 3, subjects reported the strategies that they used to encode the list. Subjects reporting an imagery strategy showed concreteness effects for words controlled for rated context availability, but those not reporting it did not. These results support a strategic-imagery view of concreteness effects in free recall.     

Intrinsic motivation and education: Competence in context

Our research program involving both laboratory and everyday activities suggests that there may be multiple goals relevant to interest in a task, and these goals include but are not limited to achieving a particular level of competence. The same information and feedback can thus either aid or obstruct intrinsic motivation, depending on its match with how students define the goals of their involvement. Furthermore, this potential flexibility in activity definitions allows individuals to purposely explore different routes to interest to maintain their motivation to perform relatively uninteresting, but perhaps important, activities. Intrinsic motivation thus appears to be created and maintained through an ongoing temporal process, with individuals potentially having an active as well as passive role in the process. This suggests that the potential to foster interest in education may not depend solely on the ability and efforts of educators or educational materials, but also on the ability and efforts of the individual student.The research described in this paper was funded by grants to the first author from the Spencer Foundation, and the Biomedical Research Support Grant Program, Division of Research Resources, National Institutes of Health (BRSG S07 RR07092). Portions of the research and preparation of this article were also facilitated by a grant awarded to Carol Sansone and Cynthia A. Berg from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and National Institute on Aging (HD25728). We would like to thank Mark Lepper for his helpful comments on a previous version of this article.