Aspects of the theory of comprehension, memory and attention

This paper proposed a two-stage model to capture some basic relations between attention, comprehension and memory for sentences. According to the model, the first stage of linguistic processing is carried out in short-term memory (M₁) and involves a superficial analysis of semantic and syntactic features of words. The second stage is carried out in long-term memory (M₂) and involves application of transformational rules to the analyses of M₁ so as to determine the deep or underlying relations among words and phrases. According to the theory, attention is an M₂ process: preliminary analyses by M₁ are carried out even for unattended inputs, but final analyses by M₂ are only carried out for attended inputs. The theory was shown to be consistent with established facts concerning memory, attention and comprehension, and additional support for the theory was obtained in a series of dichotic listening experiments.     

SDT analysis of binary decisions and sensory intensity ratings to noxious thermal stimuli

During three sessions, each of 24 Ss responded to noxious thermal stimuli, using the following judgments: binary decision, S responded “high” or “low”; sensory intensity rating, S rated his sensory experience along a thermal intensity continuum; and concurrent report, S’s binary decision was followed by an intensity rating. The binary-decision d’ was significantly higher than the rating d′, suggesting that Ss could not maintain multiple thermal criteria in a consistent fashion. The criteria for pain obtained with single and concurrent intensity rating judgments did not differ. These results suggest that the most efficacious and valid method for the study of experimental pain is to obtain concurrent responses, and to use binary decisions to compute d’ and sensory intensity ratings to locate S’s criterion for reporting pain.     

Process thought in Tillich's eschatology

International Journal for Philosophy of Religion -     

THE APPLICATION OF GENERALIZED CORRECT SOCIAL CONTINGENCIES: AN EVALUATION OF A TRAINING PROGRAM1

Two aides operating a kindergarten-style program for institutionalized mental retardates were trained, using observer feedback, to apply generalized “correct” social contingencies to 10 defined classes of appropriate and inappropriate child behaviors. A multiple baseline design was used to demonstrate, sequentially, the effects of the training procedure upon the attending behavior of each teacher. After withdrawal of feedback, a posttraining follow-up served to assess the durability of training. For both aides, the effect of training was to increase the proportion of appropriate child behaviors attended to, compared with baseline data, and a follow-up over a number of weeks indicated that the effects of training were apparently durable.     

PROGRAMMING THE GENERALIZATION OF A GREETING RESPONSE IN FOUR RETARDED CHILDREN1

Reinforcement techniques of prompting and shaping were employed to develop hand-waving, a useful social greeting response, in four institutionalized retarded subjects. A multiple-baseline design across subjects demonstrated the reliable functioning of the training procedures. Specifically, it showed that training and maintenance of the greeting response by one experimenter was not usually sufficient for generalization of the response to the more than 20 other members of the institution staff who had not participated in the training of the response. However, high levels of generalization to staff members were recorded for three subjects over periods ranging from one to six months after a second experimenter trained and maintained the response in conjunction with the first experimenter. The fourth subject, although never receiving training by a second experimenter, showed similar results following a second training by the first experimenter.     

The sequential structure of the quantal experiment

A linear model is proposed for the interrelation of successive responses in the quantal experiment. The model is based on a direct mechanism of response linkage rather than on an indirect relation by means of fluctuations in sensitivity, because Neisser's published results implicate the former mechanism rather than the latter. The proportion of increments detected is an unbiased estimator of the detection probability and has a statistical efficiency of only 20%. In view of this unexpectedly low efficiency it is possible that rectilinear psychometric results have occurred by means of a biased, but unwitting, selection of data.     

The use of muroid rodents in the psychology laboratory

The rodent superfamily Muroidea represents a group of animals with much potential for comparative behavioral study as they are readily acquired, easy to maintain, and exist with sufficient ecological and behavioral diversity to enhance the likelihood of significant results. The superfamily includes Old World rodents, gerbils, hamsters, and a considerable variety of New World rats, mice, and voles which inhabit all 48 adjacent United States. Potential uses of muroid rodents, their taxonomy, and their husbandry are described with particular reference to the 28 species that have been maintained in the author’s laboratory. Although research on muroid behavior is just beginning, available data already support the proposed utility of these animals in behavioral research.