Stereotypes of males and females in two occupations

Male and female raters evaluated a male or a female civil engineer or custodian on six characteristics. Factor analysis identified three orthogonal dimensions in these ratings: Rationality, Emotionality, and Likability. Rationality correlated highly with occupational prestige, while Emotionality was uncorrelated with prestige. Likability ratings exposed an interaction between sex of rater and sex of ratee, female raters finding females in these occupations far less likable than males. It is concluded that the sex of an occupational incumbent may have important effects on stereotypical image associated with that individual.     

The effects of exemplary and cognitive models and self-rehearsal on children's interrogative strategies

Children aged 6, 8, and 10 years were exposed to three types of training procedures aimed at increasing their use of constraint-seeking questions and enhancing their problem-solving efficiency. One group observed an exemplary model who merely illustrated several constraint-seeking questions. Another group observed a cognitive model who, prior to asking each of her constraint-seeking questions, verbalized her strategy for formulating constraint-seeking questions and integrating the information gained from such questions. A third group received a combination of cognitive modeling and self-rehearsal training in which the children repeated statements representing key features of the constraint-seeking strategy before asking questions on a series of training items. Cognitive modeling alone was the most successful training procedure, effecting changes in both constraint-seeking questioning and problem-solving efficiency for children of all three age groups. Differences between cognitive and exemplary models were most notable among the youngest children, who appeared to require the additional guidance afforded through the verbalizations of the cognitive model.     

What causes the spacing effect? Some effects of repetition,duration, and spacing on memory for pictures

Three experiments examined effects of the spacing of repetitions on memory for pictures. In Experiment I, the duration of the first presentation (P(1)) was manipulated, as was P(1)-P(2) spacing. The effect of spacing on judged frequency was independent of P(1) duration. In Experiment II, pictures were given M massed presentations just prior to the P(M)-P(M+1) spacing interval. The form of the spacing curve was independent of M. Neither experiment confirmed the prediction of "overhabituation," derived from the habituation-recovery explanation of the spacing effect. In Experiment III, subjects made both duration and frequency judgments. The duration judgment results were not consistent with the notion that subjects remember multiple massed presentations as single occurrences of especially long duration. Some evidence from Experiments I and III suggests that an interrupted stimulus is recognized better than one that is not interrupted-a finding that, if replicable, would support the habituation-recovery account of the spacing effect.