Is recognition accuracy really impaired when the target is repeated in the display?

Bjork and Murray (1977) have presented a feature-specific interactive channels model that predicts perceptual interference between letters presented simultaneously in visual displays. Maximum interference is predicted when a target letter is presented with an identical letter. In their experiment, Bjork and Murray found support for their model, but their results could have occurred artifactually from response biases of their subjects. Santee and Egeth (1980) used a different paradigm that eliminated the possibility of this particular response bias and reported that their data supported the feature-specific model. However, the present paper shows that analysis of their data by Santee and Egeth was incomplete and the comparisons inappropriate. In two experiments that used the Santee and Egeth paradigm, we failed to find support for the feature-specific model when more detailed analyses of the data were undertaken. In a third experiment, one that used the Bjork and Murray paradigm, but with control of response bias, no significant or suggestive evidence was found that feature similarity between noise and target letters affected recognition of the latter.     

Differential thermometer for studying cerebral asymmetry

A device for measuring differences in temperature between the two sides of the head is described. The unit can be used for studying individual differences in cerebral asymmetry.     

Organizational school psychology: Issues and considerations

School psychologists have been encouraged to become actively involved in facilitating organizational change in public schools. Activities such as organization development, administrative-centered consultation, training of multidisciplinary teams, program planning, and program evaluation have been considered as important aspects of school psychology. However, when the practice of school psychology at the organizational level of public schools is considered as a distinct area, a range of conceptual and practical issues become apparent: (a) What is the nature and scope of organizational-level practice of school psychology? (b) Under what conditions may this kind of professional effort be useful, to whom, in what ways? (c) What are the knowledge and skills necessary for effective organizational-level practice? These issues are addressed in this article through delineation of the emerging area of “organizational school psychology (OSP),” an approach to school psychology practice which complements more established approaches that focus directly on the individual child or on groups of children.     

Study habits and Eysenck's theory of extraversion-introversion

Predictions derived from Eysenck's theory of personality were tested in two samples by relating extraversion scores to library study locations, frequency of study breaks, and self-report of factors which influence study location. The predicted main effects for study location were found, with extraverts occupying locations that provided greater external stimulation. Positive correlations were consistently found between extraversion and preferred level of noise, preferred level of socializing opportunities, and rated importance of socializing opportunities. The prediction that extraverts would take more frequent study breaks was supported in Sample 1 but not replicated in Sample 2. The data are interpreted as providing direct support for Eysenck's theory of behavioral differences and mixed indirect support for his theory of neurological differences between introverts and extraverts.     

Self-consciousness, outcome expectancy, and persistence

A study investigated persistence as a function of two variables: the disposition to be self-attentive (called private self-consciousness) and outcome feedback on a prior task that was described as closely related to the target task. More specifically, subjects first completed a concealed-figures test and were told that their performances were either very good or very poor. The second test, which ostensibly measured the same abilities, was an insolvable design problem that is commonly used to measure persistence. Feedback concerning prior outcomes had a direct influence on expectancies for the second task, but persistence on that task was a joint function of feedback and self-consciousness. That is, favorable feedback led to greater persistence than did unfavorable feedback, but only among subjects high in self-consciousness. This finding replicates and extends the results of several previous studies. Discussion centers on the relationship between the present research and an earlier experiment which yielded apparently different results.     

A software system for real-time control of psychological experiments

This paper describes an all-purpose experimental system, “APES,” for use in a microprocessor-controlled behavioral pharmacology laboratory. APES is an assembly language program that can run on any of the DEC PDP-11 family processors under an RT-11 single-job operating system. Its main purpose is the real-time control of psychological experimentation. The capabilities of the system are: (1) system generation of all operant or Pavlovian conditioning paradigms, (2) collection and storage of both behavioral and physiological data in a machine-readable format for later statistical analysis, and (3) operation that can be accomplished by individuals who have no computer programming experience.     

Internal standards revisited: Effects of social comparisons and expectancies on judgments of fairness and satisfaction

Two studies examined the effect of two comparison processes on perceptions of fairness and satisfaction. Rewards relative to others (social comparison) and relative to expectancies (expectancy comparison) were orthogonally varied while absolute level of reward was held constant. Both studies showed, contrary to previous theory, that only social comparisons are related to perceived fairness, yet both comparisons are significantly related to satisfaction in an additive manner. Social comparisons explained more variation in satisfaction and dominated responses to more specific measures of affect. Partial support for specific predictions derived from equity theory and expectancy theory are reported. The overall results are interpreted as demonstrating the importance of the salience of frames of reference in reward evaluation.Estabilished practices create expectations, and since men have traditionally received greater rewards than women for the same services, they expect disproportionate rewards and tend to be disappointed if they do not get them. But these expectations have nothing to do with investments, and neither are they rooted in a conception of justice. (Blau, 1964, p. 195)     

Anticipation of future interaction and the bystander effect

Previous research suggests that people are slower to offer help in an emergency when there are other witnesses than when there are not. This finding has come to be known as the bystander effect. In research that has demonstrated this effect, however, the other witnesses were invariably anonymous others who had no relationship with the subject and with whom the subject probably did not expect to interact again. The present research examined the hypothesis that the expectation of participating in subsequent face-to-face interaction with other bystanders would cause the bystander effect to be minimized. Female college students were led to believe either that they would have no personal contact with the other participants in an ostensible group discussion, or that the participants would be involved in a later face-to-face discussion session. Each subject then participated in what she believed to be an anonymous discussion via intercoms, involving either one person or five persons beside herself. During this period, an ostensible co-subject experienced a choking fit. Help was offered more quickly among subjects who expected future interaction than among those who did not. In the no future interaction condition, latencies to help were longer in six-member than in two-member groups, but the comparable difference, although in the same direction, was not reliable among subjects who expected interaction. Presence of male “co-subjects” in an exploratory condition failed to inhibit helping. Discussion centers on the broader implications of the findings.