Children's ability to integrate class information

Coordination and integration of class information was examined using a multidimensional similarity judgment task in which four- and nine-year old children rated the similarity of pairs of stimuli sharing either one or two atribute values. Half the children at each age were assigned to an attention condition requiring they label relevant stimulus atributes before making their similarity ratings. The other children were in the nonattention condition, and rated similarity without labelling the attributes. The results indicated that four-year-olds in the attention condition and nine-year-olds in both conditions integrated class information in making their similarity judgments. Performance of the four-year-olds in the non-attention condition tended to improve across trials; they appeared to integrate class information on later trials.     

Power implications of touch in male—Female relationships

Nancy Henley argues that nonreciprocal touch in male—female relations is used by men as a status reminder to keep women in their place. This study examines Henley's argument by exposing 60 observers to photographs of male—female interactions and asking them to rate the pictured actors on the degree to which each dominates the interaction. The interactions differ across two dimensions: status differences evident in the age and dress of the participants (female higher vs. equal vs. male higher) and who is touching whom (female toucher vs. no toucher vs. male toucher). Results of the study support but qualify the status reminder argument. Nonreciprocal touch reduces the perceived power of the person being touched whether the high-status or the low-status person is doing the touching and whether the man or the woman is being touched. Thus, nonreciprocal touch can be used by high-status men to remind lower-status women of their subordinate positions. But it can also be used by lower status women to undermine the status claims of higher status men. In the equal status interactions, nonreciprocal touch does not alter power perceptions as systematically. This finding suggests that without other status cues evident in the relationship, touch alone is insufficient to establish a power advantage for either party.     

ARTIST: A computer system for creating and running psychology experiments

A flexible computer system for research and teaching experiments in psychology is described. Special features of the system include (1) separate phases for the generation and running of experiments, (2) facilities to control presentation of stimuli according to any factorial design, and (3) different modes of operation depending on the prior knowledge of the users. The system is evaluated both in terms of the range of experiments that can be performed and in terms of the time and effort required to create new experiments or modify old ones. General principles for designing interactive systems are discussed in the light of experiences with this particular system.     

The influence of melodic context on pitch recognition judgment

Subjects made delayed pitch comparisons between tones that were each preceded by tones of lower pitch. The pitches of these preceding tones were so chosen that in some conditions the melodic intervals formed by the standard (S) and comparison (C) combinations were identical, and in others they differed. A strong effect of melodic relational context was demonstrated. When the S and C combinations formed identical melodic intervals, there was an increased tendency for the S and C tones to be judged as identical. And when the S and C combinations formed different melodic intervals, there was an increased tendency for the S and C tones to be judged as different. These effects occurred both when the S and C tones were identical in pitch and also when these differed, and they occurred despite instructions to attend only to the S and C tones.     

Comments on “selective attention: Perception or response?“ reply

We cannot understand why Treisman and Geffen (1967) think their experiment argues against our theory (Deutsch and Deutsch, 1963). Briefly, Treisman and Geffen ask subjects to repeat and tap to certain words in one message, played to one ear, and only tap to such words when they occur in another message played to the other ear. They find that subjects neglect the words to which they only have to tap. According to our theory, stimuli with a greater weighting of importance inhibit certain outputs (such as storage, motor response) of the structures processing stimuli with a lesser weighting of importance. Now it seems to be clear that Treisman and Geffen have by their instructions (to tap and repeat one set of words and only to tap to another set of words) produced a situation in which one set of stimuli is given a larger weighting of importance than the other. It is therefore not surprising on our theory that the less important set is almost disregarded. It is instructive here to consider Lawson's (1966) very similar experiment. In this experiment the signals to which the subject has to tap do not also have to be repeated if they occur in the message which is being shadowed. (These signals are non-verbal.) Lawson's results are almost the opposite of Treisman and Geffen's, as would be expected from our theory. Treisman and Geffen have some difficulty in explaining the discrepancy. “It seems that analysis of simple physical signals precedes both the selective filter and the analysis of verbal content in the perceptual sequence, that the bottle-neck in attention arises chiefly in speech recognition where of course the information load is usually much higher. To confirm the belief that the verbal content of the secondary message was not being analysed, we find no evidence whatever of interference from secondary target words when these received no tapping response.” (We quote the last sentence as just one example of the fact that Treisman and Geffen have failed to understand our theory. It is one of the major points of this theory to explain why “secondary” messages do not cause interfernce with the “primary” message while they are being analysed.) To return now to the subject of Lawson's experiments, we would suggest that the outcome of such experiments would be the same if instead of signals, words were used in Lawson's paradigm. These words should occur on both channels and should be distinguishable by another speaking voice. The subject should be asked to respond to, but not to repeat such words. To make sure the subject is not simply responding to differences in timbre, pitch, etc., the target words should be interspersed with other words. Treisman and Geffen could not then postulate differences in information load to explain an unfavourable result.     

Theory and Method of Social Representations

This paper gives an overview of social representation theory, definitions of the key terms and of the social processes leading to a representation and to social identity. Six empirical studies are presented and details of their methods and findings are given to illustrate this social psychological approach. These studies are about the ontogenesis of gender, the public sphere in Brazil, madness on British television, images of androgyny in Switzerland, individualism and democracy in post-communist Europe and metaphorical thinking about conception. The methods are ethnography, interviews, focus-groups, content analysis of media, statistical analysis of word associations, questionnaires and experiments. Finally, social representation theory is compared to theories of attitudes, schemata and social cognition.     

Gay Identification and Psychological Health in HIV-Positive and HIV-Negative Gay Men1

This paper reports a study of HIV-positive and HIV-negative gay men focusing on comparisons between the HIV-positive and HIV-negative on gay identification, the interrelationships among gay identification variables, and the psychological correlates of gay identification. We hypothesized that better psychological health would be related to gay self-acceptance, participating in gay organizations and groups, socializing with other gay men, and parental disclosure and acceptance of being gay. The sample was composed of 169 gay men, including 98 asymptomatic HIV-positive and 71 HIV-negative men. The findings are largely consistent with our hypotheses. A strong and consistent relationship of the gay identification measures with psychological variables was observed, explaining up to one fifth of the variance in current level of mood and self-esteem. Among the HIV-positive subjects, participating in gay organizations and groups and having parents who accepted their sexual orientation were important correlates of psychological adaptation. Despite this, 36% of subjects had parents who disapproved of their sexual orientation, and 69% of HIV-positive subjects were not in any gay organizations or groups. Among the HIV-negative subjects, gay self-acceptance and disclosing their sexual orientation to parents were associated with better psychological adjustment. These results suggest that the psychological health and outlook of gay men may be influenced by gay self-acceptance, participation in gay groups, and parental disclosure and acceptance of their children's sexual orientation.     

Temperamental consequences of infant difficultness

Two central issues pertaining to the construct of infant temperamental “difficultness” were investigated in this longitudinal project. First, the cross-time convergent validity of two parent-report measures of temperament was examined. Second, the temperamental consequences of difficultness during infancy were studied by prospectively following children from infancy to adolescence. Additionally, using MANOVA and structural equation modeling, gender comparisons were conducted to determine whether or not the construct of difficultness was similar for males and females. Analyses were based on parent reports (Ns=96−110) of infant difficultness on the Infant Characteristics Questionnaire (ICQ) when children were 18 months of age. The nine temperament dimensions of the New York Longitudinal Study model were also assessed by parent report inventories when children were 2, 3, 3.5, 5, 8, 10, and 12 years old. Results showed no pervasive evidence of gender differences in infant difficultness. Convergent validity between the ICQ and subsequent temperament measures was evidenced by significant cross-time canonical correlations reaching to moderate magnitude and significant bivariate correlations between infant difficultness and specific temperament dimensions. Temperamental difficultness during infancy predicted subsequent adverse temperamental qualities such as unadaptability and negative mood at every age from 2 through 12 years.