Separate factor analyses of the McCarthy Scales for groups of black and white children

Factor analyses of the McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities (MSCA) were performed on separate groups of black (N = 124) and white (N = 688) children, aged 3.0 to 7.6 years, to assess the comparability of the underlying structures and to evaluate the construct validity of the MSCA for each racial group. Little Jiffy I (principal components) solutions produced four factors for the blacks and three for the whites. Each “white” factor had a coefficient of congruence of .85–.93 with one “black” factor, indicating the close similarity of the solutions. In addition, the factors which emerged for the blacks and whites corresponded to several of the scales constituting the MSCA, offering evidence of the instrument's construct validity for each racial group. The results of the study should enhance the use of the McCarthy Scales for assessing young children of all races.     

Mechanical advantage in the size-weight illusion

When a hand-held object is lifted by wrist flexion, the lifting system composed of muscles, bones, and the object lifted constitutes a third-class lever. Therefore, objects require greater lifting force as they are supported further distally The small can of the DeMoors size-weight illusion cans is usually supported further distally than the large one, possibly influencing their relative perceived weight When Ss are required to lift the small can through a shorter lever than the large one, there is a significant shift of judgments toward a reversal of the SWI in a paired-comparison situation. It is concluded that mechanical advantage does influence weight judgments and that biomechanical factors should be considered whenever weight judgments are made.     

CHANGING RACIAL ATTITUDES IN ADOLESCENTS AN EXPERIMENTAL ENGLISH STUDY1

Cent trente-six sujets âgés de 14 à 16 ans (88 de race blanche et 48 de race noire) ont suivi, dans six écoles anglaises, un enseignement systématique destiné à accroître la compréhension des problèmes raciaux et à réduire les préjugés et l'intolérance. Les élèves de race blanche furent comparés à des groupes contrôles appariés du point de vue de l'âge, du sexe, du niveau scolaire et des résultats initiaux à une ?chelle de racisme (R). Après l'enseignement expérimental, les résultats des garçons blancs à l'échelle R vont en décroissant légèrement, tandis que la chute est nettement plus accusée chez leurs condisciples féminins. Aucun changement n'apparaît dans le groupe contrôle. Les scores des filles de race noire augmentent légèrement mais non significativement; ceux des garçons noirs diminuent de façon significative.     

Student Political Campaigners: Who Campaigns and What Effect Does It Have on Them?

What characterizes students who become involved in political campaigns and what effects does their campaigning have on them? During a 2-week election recess, about one-third of the students at Princeton University chose to campaign. Those students who did so were liberal rather than radical in their political orientation. Those who participated seemed predisposed to campaign because they thought campaigning was an effective way of bringing about the changes that they sought. Campaigners were more likely than their fellow students to have engaged in political activity before. Such efforts may be evidence of their beliefs that political activity causes change, or might have been the forming experience for those beliefs. If the candidate for whom the student campaigned won the election, the student by and large strengthened or maintained his original attitudes about the efficacy of campaigning. If his candidate lost, the student became more pessimistic about the efficacy of campaigners whose candidates won also changed in an internal direction on a personal-control subscale of Rotter's (1966) internal-external scale; those whose candidates lost tended to change in an external direction.     

Audience reaction as a determinant of the speaker's self-persuasion

This paper tests effects of audience feedback on speaker attitudes. One hundred and seven male subjects with initial beliefs on both sides of an issue (women's role) were assigned to speak for or against their own position; then an “audience” provided one of three types of feedback (speaker was sincere, speaker was insincere, no feedback) in a 2 × 2 × 3 design. Subjects who received sincere feedback showed greater change in the direction of their speech than did those who received insincere feedback. No feedback treatments resulted in intermediate change. This sincere > no feedback > insincere ordering of means held for both pro- and counterattitudinal speakers and for both pretest attitudes. A main effect for pretest attitude was also obtained. Two additional control groups allow for a separate analysis of the effects of (1) preparing and delivering the speech, and (2) audience reaction to the speech.     

The two-flash threshold: An evaluation of critical-duration and visual-persistence hypotheses

The two-flash threshold is reduced by increasing the duration of both pulses of light or light adapting the eye. Increasing the duration of the first pulse also decreases the two-flash threshold, contrary to what a critical-duration explanation of the threshold would predict. Decreasing the duration of the second pulse increases the threshold when the second pulse is very brief. Light adapting the eye under such conditions serves to increase the two-flash threshold, unlike the effect adaptation has when a long second pulse is used.