The causal structure of situations: The generation of plausible causal attributions as a function of type of event situation

The causal structures for each of four types of situations—interpersonal failure, noninterpersonal failure, interpersonal success, and noninterpersonal success—were explored and compared. A first group of subjects generated plausible causes for five specific situations in each of the four general types of situations. A second group of subjects provided similarity data on these causes, which were used in a cluster analysis of the causes. A third group of subjects rated the generated causes on each of six dimensions reported in the attribution literature: changeability, locus, stability, intentionality, globality, and controllability. Analyses of the clusters of causes and the ratings revealed (a) different types of causes were generated for different types of situations, (b) different types of situations led people to generate causes that differ in dimensional location, (c) the various causal dimensions were highly intercorrelated. These findings were applied to A. W. Kruglanski's (Psychological Review, 1980, 87) model of attribution processes. In addition, implications for the study of interpersonal situations and for the cognition-motivation debate over “self-serving” bias in attribution were discussed. Finally, several methodological issues were examined.     

A constant error in the perception of brief temporal intervals

Ss were presented two stimuli of equal duration separated in time. The parrs of stimuli were vibrotactile, auditory, or visual. The Ss adjusted the time between the two stimuli to be equal to the duration of the first stimulus. The results show that for stimulus durations ranging from 100 to 1,200 msec, Ss set the tune between the two stimuli too long and by a constant amount. For vibrotactfle stimuli, the constant was 596 msec; for auditory stimuli, 657 msec; and for visual stimuli, 436 msec. Changing the intensity of the vibrotactile stimuli did not change the size of the constant error. When Ss were presented two tones with a burst of white noise between the tones and adjusted the duration of the white noise to be equal to the duration of the first tone, the white noise was not adjusted too long by a constant amount. The results suggest that there is a constant error in the perception of unfilled relative to filled temporal intervals.     

On the degree of attention and capacity limitation in tactile processing

Two conditions were used to evaluate Os’ ability to detect near-threshold vibrotactile stimuli. In both conditions, a signal was presented at one of three skin loci, the O stating which locus received the stimulus. In the simultaneous condition, there was a single observation interval during which a signal occurred at one of the three loci. In the sequential condition, there were three observation intervals presented successively at 800-msec intervals, with a signal presented at one of the three loci during one of the three observation intervals. Each observation interval was associated with a particular locus. Theories postulating attentional control and limitations of capacity during this type of vibrotactile information processing predict performance to be inferior in the simultaneous condition, since that condition requires sharing of attention among the three possible sources of tactile stimulation. The data showed performance to be identical in the two conditions. This result not only disconfirms the single-channel model proposed by Franzen, Markowitz, and Swets (1970), but also argues for an unlimited-capacity nonattention model of tactile perceptual processing. The results are in accord with similar findings for visual processing by Shiffrin and Gardner (1972).     

Vibrotactile letter recognition: The effects of a ma king stimulus

A series of experiments examined the effect of masking stimuli on the ability of observers to recognize letters of the alphabet through their fingertips. The letters were generated on the 6 × 24 vibrotactile array of the Optacon, a reading aid for the blind. Letter recognition was interfered with by the presence of masking stimuli occurring at the same site on the skin either before (forward masking) or after (backward masking) the target letter had been presented. In general, backward masking interfered with letter recognition more than did forward masking. Backward masking was particularly effective for letters in which the information critical for identification is located on the right side of the letter. Presenting the letters reversed resulted in more forward masking for those letters with critical information now located on the left side. Increasing the time between the target letter and the masking stimuli resulted in improved letter recognition. The implications of the results for tactile reading are discussed.     

Convergence between statistically derived behavior problem syndromes and child psychiatric diagnoses

The relations between scores on statistically derived behavior problem syndromes and DSM-III diagnoses were examined for 270 clinically referred children aged 6 through 16. Each child's parent completed the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and was administered the NIMH Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children (DISC)-a structured interview covering DSM-III diagnostic criteria. Numerous behavior problems scales scored from the CBCL were significantly related to one or more diagnoses. The strongest relations were between scores on the Hyperactive, Delinquent, and Depressed scales and diagnoses of Attention Deficit Disorder, Conduct Disorder, and Depression/Dysthymia, respectively. This convergence supports the validity of some syndromal constructs common to both assessment paradigms.This research was supported in part by NIMH grant no. MH37372 and by NIMH contract no. RFP-DB-81-0027. The first author is supported by a Faculty Scholar's Award from the William T. Grant Foundation. The authors wish to thank Tom Achenbach and Russ Barkley for their valuable comments on an earlier draft.     

Pacifism as a moral ideal

Conclusion In conclusion I would like to forestall one potential misunderstanding. As I have described it the pacifist ideal may seem so difficult to attain that it may seem closed off from the aspirations of ordinary human beings; and there is no doubt that few people are likely to attain this ideal to any great degree. This accords with our intuition that true, by which I think we mean paradigm pacifists, are rare indeed. But ideals can be sought, as well as attained, to greater or lesser degrees. So there are many ordinary people who regard themselves as pacifists because they avoid violence more scrupulously than most. On my analysis their claim might well be true.This paper was originally written for the Gandhi-King Society Meeting held in April of 1984 at the Western Division Meeting of the APA. I am greatful to Greg Rich, Albert Flores, and others who have helped me with their comments.     

Empirically based assessment of the behavioral/emotional problems of 2- and 3- year-old children

The aim was to determine whether ratings of 2- and 3-year-olds could yield more differentiation among their behavioral/emotional problems than the internalizing-externalizing dichotomy found in previous studies. The 99-item Child Behavior Checklist for Ages 2–3 (CBCL/2–3) was designed to extend previously developed empirically based assessment procedures to 2-and 3-year-olds. Factor analyses of the CBCL/2–3 completed by parents of 398 2- and 3-year-olds yielded six syndromes having at least eight items loading 30 and designated as Social Withdrawal, Depressed, Sleep Problems, Somatic Problems, Aggressive, and Destructive. Second-order analyses showed that the first two were related to a broad-band internalizing grouping, whereas the last two were related to a broad-band externalizing grouping. Scales for the six syndromes, two broad-band groupings, and total problem score were constructed from scores obtained by 273 children in a general population sample. Mean test-retest reliability r was 87, 1-year stability r was 69, 1-year predictive r with CBCL/4–16 scales at age 4 was 63, 2-year predictive r was 55, and 3-year predictive r was 49. Children referred for mental health services scored significantly higher than nonreferred children on all scales. A lack of significant r's with the Minnesota Child Development Inventory, Bayley, and McCarthy indicate that the CBCL/2–3 taps behavioral/emotional problems independently of the developmental variance tapped by these measures.This research was supported by March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation Grants 12–88 and 12–186, a Faculty Scholars Award from the W.T. Grant Foundation, and a Biomedical Research Support Grant from the University of Vermont College of Medicine.     

A comparison of discrimination and identification of vibrotactile patterns

Both discrimination and identification tasks have been used to assess subjects' abilities to perceive vibratory spatial patterns presented to the skin. The present study examined discrimination and identification performance under comparable conditions. In Experiment 1, subjects attempted to discriminate a pair of patterns on some blocks of trials and to identify both members of a pair on other blocks. For both tasks, the time between the members of the pair was varied. Discrimination performance could be predicted accurately from identification data. Analysis of performance on identification trials indicated that subjects used discriminability information to identify pairs. In Experiment 2, discrimination and identification were compared when the temporal separation between patterns was fixed and a masking stimulus followed each pattern after a variable delay. Results suggest that temporal masking, rather than the time available for processing pattern information, is the major limitation in both discrimination and identification of sequences of tactile patterns.     

Roles of the qualities and locations of stimuli and responses in simple associative learning

The Quality-Location Phenomenon is defined by the previous research of Lawicka (1964 and 1969) in which dogs easily learn go/no-go tasks to differences in stimulus quality and go-left/go-right tasks to differences in stimulus location whereas the opposite pairings of tasks and stimulus attributes are difficult to learn. The Lawicka-Konorski explanation in terms of drive differentiation and response selection is described, and a new hypothesis, the Quality-Location Hypothesis, is offered. This hypothesis states that the quality of a stimulus best serves as a cue for the quality of a response, whereas the location of a stimulus best serves as a cue for the location of a response. The evidence for the hypothesis is reviewed, and experimental considerations for its evaluation are mentioned.