The relationship between vocational interest differentiation and career undecidedness

Fifty-four female and thirty male students over 20 years old were administered the Career Decision Scale and the six occupational scales of the Vocational Preference Inventory in order to test the hypothesis that indecision is negatively related to occupational interest differentiation in an adult population. Interest differentiation did not appear to be a reliable indicator of vocational undecidedness.     

The role of ability and effort in attributions for sport achievement1

In an initial attempt to assess the applicability of Weiner's (1972) attribution model to sport-related behavior, the effects of ability (high versus low), effort (high versus low) and outcome (success versus failure) on causal attributions were investigated. After riding a bicycle ergometer, subjects were asked to attribute the cause of their increased or decreased performance to ability, effort, task difficulty and/or luck. The results indicated that successful outcomes were attributed to both ability and effort and that unsuccessful outcomes were attributed to a lack of ability but not a lack of effort. While the task was seen as easier following success, the perception of low effort mediated this relationship. The results were interpreted to support a situationally specific conceptualization of sport achievement. First, whereas a motivational bias appears to preclude low ability attributions in intellectual pursuits, such is not the case with a novel physical task contingent on strength and muscular endurance. It was suggested that physiologically related ability may be viewed as relatively unstable. Second, relative to intellectual tasks, sport-related effort may be more salient and more quantifiable and may exert a greater influence on subsequent attributions for sport achievement. Finally, support was obtained for the assertions that affect is codetermined by both effort and ability and that expectancy discrepant performance is accounted for largely by perceptions of task difficulty.     

Two-component schedules of differential-reinforcement-of-low-rate

Two-component schedules of differential-reinforcement-of-low-rate were presented, where the contingencies specified separately two minimum interresponse times, t₁ and t₂, required for reinforcement, depending on whether the interresponse time was initiated by, in one case, a reinforced response (t₁) or, in the other, a nonreinforced response (t₂). A distinctive pattern of responding developed on each of the two contingencies. Duration of an interresponse time approximated t₁ when the t₁ contingency was in effect, and t₂ when the t₂ contingency was in effect. This relationship persisted even when t₂ was shorter than t₁, and responding at a higher rate on the t₁ contingency would have greatly increased the rate of reinforcement. Increasing the value of t₂ resulted in both longer interresponse times on the t₁ contingency, and a higher probability of a response-burst on those occasions when the contingency switched from t₁ to t₂. The results indicated that both reinforced and nonreinforced responses functioned as discriminative events in determining the duration of following interresponse times.     

Interval of time uncertainty in visual detection

The effects of increasing the length of an interval of continuous temporal uncertainty (ITU) on the detectability of visualsignals were investigated in a ‘Yes/No’ detection situation. Ss were uncerlain about when a signal might occur within a given observalion interval, the duration of which was varied. Longer intervals of uncertainty resulted in a decrement in detectability, which was shown to be directly attributable to increased false alarm rates. It was suggested that observers have more opportunities for confusing signals with noise. The time course of detectability within a givenITU was also investigated, but there were no significant variations.     

Stability of Q-sort attachment security from age two to five

The current report demonstrates reliability and stability of Q-sort attachment security in a sample of 46 mothers and their children seen by two observers at age two and again at age four to six years. Security scores were correlated between ages (r=.44), and a high proportion of item-by-item correlations between ages were also significant.     

Describing behavior in small groups with the Datamyte event recorder

A technology for coding and analyzing behavior in human groups is described. The behavior code is based on the scoring of verbal and physical contacts, emotional affect, and commands and complies. The code is reasonably valid and produces sufficiently high levels of observer agreement. Currently available computer programs for analyzing frequencies, rates, and proportions of behavior, as well as equity and reciprocity in behavioral transactions, are discussed. The development of programs for analyzing more microscopic features of interaction is also noted.     

Species differences in temporal control of behavior II: human performance

Human subjects responded on two panels. A differential-reinforcement-of-low-rate schedule with a limited-hold contingency operated on Panel A. In Condition 1, responses on Panel B produced a stimulus on the panel that signalled whether reinforcement was available on Panel A. In Condition 2, responses on Panel B briefly illuminated a digital clock. In both conditions, performance on Panel A was very efficient; with few exceptions, Panel A was pressed only when reinforcement was available. Thus, in effect, a fixed-interval schedule operated on Panel B. In Condition 1, a “break-and-run” response pattern occurred on Panel B; with increasing temporal parameters, the duration of the postreinforcement pause on Panel B increased linearly while overall response rate and running rate (calculated by excluding the postreinforcement pauses) remained approximately constant. In Condition 2, the response pattern on Panel B was scalloped; the postreinforcement pause was a negatively accelerated increasing function of schedule value, while overall response rate and running rate were negatively accelerated decreasing functions of schedule value. The performance of subjects in Condition 2, but not in Condition 1, was highly sensitive to the contingencies in operation, and resembled that of other species on the fixed-interval schedule.     

Inhibiting function of reinforcement: magnitude effects on variable-interval schedules

In two experiments, the performance of rats under constant-probability and arithmetic variable-interval schedules respectively was compared when the concentration of a liquid reinforcer was varied within sessions; in other sessions, half of the reinforcers were randomly omitted. When the discriminative function of the reinforcer as a signal for a decrease in the probability of reinforcement was attenuated (the constant-probability schedule) the postreinforcement pause duration was nevertheless an increasing function of reinforcer magnitude. This relationship was also present, but more marked, when the temporal discriminative function of the reinforcer was enhanced (the arithmetic schedule). These results suggested that reinforcement has an unconditioned suppressive effect on the reinforced response distinct from any discriminative function it may acquire. The reinforcement-omission effect, where response rate accelerates following omission, was observed when the reinforcer functioned as an effective temporal discriminative stimulus, but not when such temporal control was absent.