Psychophysical scaling of stimulus similarity in 3-month-old infants and adults

The ability of 3-month-old infants to discriminate novel components of a prefamiliarized stimulus was assessed using an operant paradigm. Subjects were familiarized with the standard stimulus (five-component mobile) in three daily conditioning sessions and then were exposed to a comparison mobile containing from zero to four novel components substituted for familiar elements at the outset of a fourth daily session. Although a reliable reduction in mean number of footkicks was found only when an extreme number of components was substituted, log-log plots of infant response as a function of degree of novelty indicated that discriminability was described by a power function. Adult judgments of the similarity between the standard mobile and each degree of novelty were also described by a power function, suggesting a common basis may underlie the perception of similarity in the two groups. The finding of a power function for infant response to visual novelty is consistent with reports of similar discriminability functions in infant olfaction and audition. However, duration of visual fixation increased nondifferentially to all test stimuli, irrespective of degree of novelty. The latter finding is inconsistent with predictions arising from the visual attention literature.     

Relative preference for external and self-controlled reinforcement in monkeys

Monkeys were tested for their relative preference for self-monitored and externally imposed systems of reinforcement. One monkey clearly preferred to self-reward his own performances. whereas a second monkey favored slightly the externally administered system but displayed a small gradual shift toward self-reward as the sessions progressed. Unlike previous findings. unmerited self-reward did not result in rapid discarding of self-imposed performance requirements. The level of work output and the interactive effects of multiple reinforcement control are possible operative factors in sustaining self-imposed contingencies long after punishment for unmerited self-reward has been discontinued.     

Acceptance of Help as a Function of Similarity of the Potential Helper and Opportunity To Repay1

College students were given the task of making an object from balloons while being observed by someone who they were told had highly similar values (similar conditions) or highly dissimilar values (dissimilar conditions). Later they were to observe while the other made an object from wire coat hangers that were already unwound (no opportunity to repay conditions) or were not unwound (opportunity to repay conditions). In preparation for the subject's task, the balloons had to be blown up and the other offered to help. The number of balloons the subject gave the other was the measure of acceptance of help. An interaction between similarity and opportunity to repay was found. As hypothesized, acceptance of help was greater when the potential helper was similar than when he was dissimilar only when the opportunity to repay was anticipated; when no opportunity to repay was expected, the reverse was found.     

Pictorial concreteness and mode of elaboration in children's learning

Paired-associate learning by children was investigated as a function of age (4 vs 7 yr), stimulus type (line drawing, color photograph, or object) and mode of elaboration (visual or verbal). Photographs and objects were associated with more learning than drawings at both ages and with both types of mediational elaboration. Only indirect evidence could be obtained for the prediction that differences among the three types of pictorial stimuli decrease with age. A previously reported Age × Elaboration interaction suggesting a relative disadvantage of visual elaboration for the younger children was not replicated.     

An analysis of factors affecting traditional family expectations and perceptions of ideal fertility

This study examines: 1) the conditions giving rise to variation in sex-role orientation and the perceived cost of having children; and 2) the role these variables play as mechanisms linking antecedent variables to perceptions of ideal fertility. Data are drawn from a metropolitan area (Oklahoma City) sampling of 401 adults. Antecedent variables of sex, employment status, age, education, exposure to metropolitan living, and religious traditionalism--though correlated with ideal fertility--have no direct effects on that variable. Rather, the effects of these variables on fertility are mediated through sex-role orientation and the perceived cost of having children. The study confirms that there is a great deal of variation in the perception of a woman's place in comtemporary society and much of this variation is predictable. Education and exposure to metropolitan living both have influences which result in more egalitarian sex-role orientations, while traditional beliefs reinforce traditional sex-role orientations. Younger people also are more likely than older ones to be egalitarian. On the average, women are less traditional in their sex-role orientations than men and employed women are less traditional than unemployed women. Thus, the 2 strongest predictors of sex-role orientation are age and education. Sex role orientation and the perceived cost of having children both exert strong influences on the number of children thought to be ideal.     

Clothing: Communication, Compliance, and Choice

This study looks at some effects of five different styles of women's clothing: Formal Skirt, Formal Pants, Casual Skirt, Casual Pants, and Jeans. There were no significant differences in compliance to a request to fill out a questionnaire made by experimenters dressed in the five clothing styles, although experimenter age and sex effects were found. Ratings of photographs of the five dress styles indicate that a model was viewed by both male and female subjects as most happy, successful, feminine, interesting, attractive, intelligent, and wanted as a friend when wearing a Formal Skirt outfit and as least so when wearing Jeans. She was also seen as more active when wearing pants as compared with a skirt. Subjects' reasons for choosing what clothing to wear did not indicate that how one will appear to others is the major factor in clothing selection. It appears that clothing does communicate something about the wearer but may influence behavior toward her primarily in the absence of other information about her status.     

The analysis of three-way contingency tables by three-mode association models

TheRC(M) association model (Goodman, 1979, 1985, 1986, 1991) is useful for analyzing the relationship between the variables of a 2-way cross-classification. The models presented here are generalizations of theRC(M) association model for 3-way tables. The family of models proposed here, 3-mode association models, use Tucker's 3-mode components model (Tucker, 1964, 1966; Kroonenberg, 1983) to represent either the three factor interaction or the combined effects of two and three factor interactions. An example from a study in developmental psychology (Kramer & Gottman, 1992) is provided to illustrate the usefulness of the proposed models.I thank Stanley Wasserman, Laurie Kramer, Ulf Böckenholt, Larwence Hubert, Jeffrey Tanaka, and five anonymous reviewers for valuable comments.     

The predictable instability of psychological distress in college students: A comment on Flett,Vredenburg, and Krames

Flett, Vredenburg, and Krames (1995) claim that their data support the view that the apparent instability in distress among college students is artifactual. However, they have merely demonstrated that distress among college students is an unstable phenomena. Their argument that changes in distress scores have statistical rather than substantive explanations erroneously assumes that instability in distress scores is equivalent to error of measurement.     

Archetypes and Gender: Goddesses,Warriors, and Psychological Health

This article describes the principles and assumptions of Jung's archetypal psychology and how they have been adopted and modified by feminist counselors and the mythopoetic men's movement. It critiques each of these revisions of Jungian archetypal psychology and provides suggestions to counselors for modifying and implementing concepts and techniques that are based in archetypal psychology.