Using on-line and CD-ROM database archives as an adjunct to teaching survey research methods

Many undergraduate courses in research methods include a section on surveys. A number of practical issues can interfere with the design and implementation of student survey research and often preclude the completion of well-designed survey studies. This paper examines the use of on-line and CD-ROM databases as an alternative to student-designed survey instruments. Problems faced by student survey researchers can often be addressed by the use of such databases, rather than by “live” surveys. Data from experimental research collected on line are also available and downloadable for analysis, providing even greater flexibility for analysis. Advantages and problems of using archival databases in the teaching of survey research are considered. A brief list of databases that may be suitable for student research is provided, and a list of URLs, including where and how to obtain archives, is given.     

Writing programs on the Apple for the student psychology laboratory: Routines,subroutines, and sources of information

Writing programs for the student psychology laboratory on the Apple II series of microcomputers presents the programmer with a number of problems. Among these are increasing program execution speed, obtaining precise response and interval timing, reducing program memory requirements, obtaining efficient disk I/O, providing good error trapping, and presenting clear screen displays. Since Applesoft BASIC is not equipped with many of the desirable features of a more advanced language, ways to solve these problems are not obvious. This paper suggests a number of potential solutions and provides additional sources of information.     

Writing high-quality statistical software for Apple II microcomputers

The purpose of this paper is to describe some principles and techniques that programmers should consider when trying to improve or create a statistical package. Four computational issues are discussed: accuracy, speed, computing probabilities, and error trapping. A single-array data structure is proposed for use within the program. Several other input-output issues are covered, including menus, command languages, questions, data input and editing, CRT and printer formatting, and graphics.     

Integrating a computer component into the student psychology laboratory: Problems and prospects

This paper presents some commonly occurring problems associated with integrating a computer component into student psychology laboratories. Implementation of a computer component requires consideration of differences among students, objectives and teaching style of the instructor, course level and content, and courseware to be used. These factors are examined with respect to how they can affect the success of an attempt to use computers in the instructional laboratory.     

Problems with evaluation of courseware for instruction in psychology

Recent trends in courseware evaluation have stressed the importance of program characteristics ancillary to the learning process, such as the use of menus. Although attention to these aspects of programming may improve the appearance and ease of use of software, the primary consideration in the selection of instructional software is whether it can provide instructional content to the students who use it. This can best be determined by the instructor alone, who may often find it necessary to write programs to suit specific instructional needs. Such programs are in wide use and are often better than commercially available sets designed by professionals.     

Individualism, Externalism and Idiolectical Meaning

Semantic externalism in contemporary philosophy of language typically – and often tacitly – combines two supervenience claims about idiolectical meaning (i.e., meaning in the language system of an individual speaker). The first claim is that the meaning of a word in a speaker’s idiolect may vary without any variation in her intrinsic, physical properties. The second is that the meaning of a word in a speaker’s idiolect may vary without any variation in her understanding of it. I here show that a conception of idiolectical meaning is possible that accepts the “anti-internalism” of the first claim while rejecting (what I shall refer to as) the “anti-individualism” of the second. According to this conception, externally constituted idiolectical meaning supervenes on idiolectical understanding. I begin by trying to show that it is possible to disentangle anti-internalist and anti-individualist strands of argument in Hilary Putnam’s well-known and widely influential “The Meaning of ‘Meaning’.” Having once argued that the latter strand of argument is not cogent, I then try to show that individualism (in the sense above) can be reconciled with perhaps the most plausible reconstruction of Putnam’s well-known and widely accepted “indexical” theory of natural kind terms. Integral to my defense of the possibility of an individualist externalism about idiolectical meaning are my efforts to demonstrate that, pace Putnam, there is no “division of linguistic labor” when it comes to the fixing the meanings of such terms in a speaker’s idiolect. The fact that average speakers sometimes need defer to experts shows that not reference, but only reliable recognition of what belongs in the extension of a natural kind term is a “social phenomenon.”

Wittgenstein (1958, 14).

     

Here's looking at you,kid: attention to infant emotional faces in mothers and non‐mothers

Infant facial cues play a critical role in eliciting care and nurturance from an adult caregiver. Using an attentional capture paradigm we investigated attentional processing of adult and infant emotional facial expressions in a sample of mothers (n = 29) and non‐mothers (n = 37) to determine whether infant faces were associated with greater task interference. Responses to infant target stimuli were slower than adult target stimuli in both groups. This effect was modulated by parental status, such that mothers compared to non‐mothers showed longer response times to infant compared to adult faces. Both groups also responded more slowly to emotional faces, an effect that was more marked for infant emotional faces. Finally, it was found that greater levels of mothers' self‐reported parental distress was associated with less task interference when processing infant faces. These findings indicate that for adult women, infant faces in general and emotional infant faces in particular, preferentially engage attention compared to adult faces. However, for mothers, infant faces appear to be more salient in general. Therefore, infant faces may constitute a special class of social stimuli. We suggest that alterations in attentional processing in motherhood may constitute an adaptive behavioural change associated with becoming a parent.     

When All Is Considered: Evaluative Learning Does Not Require Contingency Awareness

We argue that the effects of evaluative learning may occur (a) without conscious perception of the affective stimuli, (b) without awareness of the stimulus contingencies, and (c) without any awareness that learning has occurred at all. Whether the three experiments reported in our target article provide conclusive evidence for either or any of these assertions is discussed in the commentaries of De Houwer and Field. We respond with the argument that when considered alongside other studies carried out over the past few decades, our experiments provide compelling evidence for a theory that posits a dissociation between evaluative learning and contingency awareness.