Concreteness and imageability

Previous research has shown that the positive effect of imageability upon recall is confined to abstract items. In Experiment I it was found that imageability would affect the recall of concrete items if subjects were instructed to use imagery in their memorizing. This suggested that imagery is not usually employed in remembering concrete items. In Experiment II subjects were asked to categorize items on the basis of their meaning. A majority showed sorting related to the concreteness of the items, but very few showed sorting related to imageability. In Experiment III it was found that the concreteness of an item correlated with the time taken to produce a free associate to it, but that its imageability did not. It was concluded that concreteness is a feature of lexical organization, and not a measure of the image-arousing quality of verbal material.     

Book reviews

MELTON. A. W. and MARTIN, E. (Eds). coding Processes in Human Memory. Wahsington, D. C.: V. H. Winston and Sons. 1973. Pp. xiv + 448. £ 5.54.

ADOLFSON, J. and BERGHAGE, T. E. Peception and Performance Underwater. New york: Wiley Interscience. 1974. Pp. xx + 359. £ 10.60.

SCHWARTZ, M. Psysiological Psychology. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofs. 1973. Pp. 484. $ 7.65.

VALENSTEIN, E. S. Brain Control. New York: Wiley. 1973. Pp. 407. £ 6.40.

GOODMAN, I. J. and SCHEIN, M. W. (Eds). Birds: Brain and Behaviour. New York: Academic Press. 1974. Pp. 457. £ 10.00.

STONE, L. J., SMITH, H. T. and MURPHY, L. B. The Competent Infant. London: Tavi-stock Press. 1974. Pp. 1314. £ 11.00.     

Mutual visual regard during mother-infant play.

Mutual visual regard was observed in 48 mother-infant dyads during a 6-min. play session. Infant-mother dyads containing 4 mo. -olds displayed significantly more mutual visual regard than dyads containing 6- or 8-mo.-olds. In addition, the more time infants spent in face-to-face interaction with mother, the more smiling they engaged in. No sex difference were observed.     

A test of the effectiveness of the differential-reinforcement-of-low-rate schedule

Pigeons and rats were used in a yoked-control design that equated the reinforcement distributions of differential-reinforcement-of-low-rate and variable-interval schedules. Both a between-subjects design and a within-subjects design found response rate higher for the variable-interval schedule than for the differential-reinforcement-of-low-rate schedule, thus demonstrating the effectiveness of the differential-reinforcement-of-low-rate contingency. The interresponse-time distributions were unimodal for all subjects under the variable-interval schedule and bimodal for pigeons under the differential-reinforcement-of-low-rate schedule. The interresponse-time distributions for rats under the differential-reinforcement-of-low-rate schedule were also bimodal in three of four cases but the height of the modes at the shorter interresponse times were small in both absolute value and in relation to the height of the modes at the shorter interresponse times of the pigeons' distributions.     

The dimensions of career and work orientation in college women

The purpose of this study was to clarify the meaning of the construct, career orientation. Fourteen presumed measures of career orientation as well as Super's Work Values Inventory were administered to college women. Analysis of the relationships among these variables identified two relatively independent clusters. The first cluster most closely approximated the usual definition of career orientation. Career-oriented women were found to be highly career motivated and perceived the career role as primary in their adult lives. The second cluster was called work orientation. This orientation characterized women with well-defined occupational aspirations who placed a high value on both the career role and marriage-family responsibilities in their future. Work-oriented women tended to choose traditionally feminine occupations in contrast to the career-oriented women whose aspirations included higher level and less traditional occupations.     

The focusing of responsibility: An alternative hypothesis in help-demanding situations

The ‘diffusion of responsibility’ hypothesis as an explanation of helping behavior (or lack of same) is qualified by suggesting that the hypothesis applies only in non-interacting situations. It is hypothesized that interacting groups who are aware of a help-demanding situation actually focus the responsibility and, therefore, take action as a group more rapidly than will a non-interacting group. Evidence is gathered in a contrived help-demanding situation employing a 2 × 3 (sex × condition) in which three conditions — alone, non-interacting (pseudo) groups, and interacting groups — are used. The evidence substantiates the major hypothesis. Speculation is also presented concerning the relationship of the ‘alone’ condition to the interacting and non-interacting groups and concerning sex effects.     

Verbal learning: Incremental vs. all-or-none theory

The incremental and all-or-none theories of verbal learning are compared by means of a little-used but methodologically superior variation of the “drop-out” paradigm with paired associates. Earlier experiments purporting to be relevant to the controversy are rejected as failing to offer a conclusive distinction between the two theories. The results presented here are taken to support the incremental theory. It is suggested that irregularities in the results of this and other experiments are caused by several intrusive factors, and a “dual-factor” hypothesis which was put forward to account for these irregularities is questioned on logical and methodological grounds.