Arousal and paired-associate learning

Walker and Tarte (1963) postulate that at short retention intervals high arousal paired-associates are reproduced more poorly than low arousal items. Walker and colleagues believe that this hypothesis is confirmed by their paired-associate learning studies. However, results of these paired-associate learning studies are position confounded artifacts. Better recall of low arousal items at short-term retention is caused by the coincidence of the recency effect and low arousal at the end of the trial. When these position effects are controlled there is no action decrement for the high arousal paired-associates. To test this assumption, the Kleinsmith and Kaplan study (1963) was replicated and two other variations were conducted. In these three studies with 76 subjects, which were tested at two minutes or 1 week, the action decrement occurs only when the two position effects coincide.     

Grading the ‘cultural literacy’ project

The essay examines the argument advanced by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., for instituting ‘cultural literacy’ as a fundamental priority of schools. A number of confusions and equivocations in Hirsch's reasoning are identified, and the propensity of his project to indoctrinate is exposed. Among the features of Hirsch's argument shown to be troubling are his shifting construal of ‘language’, his inconsistency about the requirements of cultural literacy, and his uncritical relation to traditional images of the American past and present. The upshot is to raise the question why Hirsch's project has elicited wide support and praise.     

Referenzsemantik in der Partnermodellierung

How can we explain that an assertion on something perceived can be understood in the same manner by somebody who cannot perceive that scene? This problem bases the interest in computational linguistics in how listener modeling could possibly be harmonized with reference semantics. Mental images substituting real perception appear as a way out. The architecture of the listener model has to be adapted to the creation and use of such pictorial data structures. Furthermore, the relation between the latter and a verbal (i. e., propositional) representation must be understood. The resulting architecture of a listener model with reference semantics can be employed to solve communicational problems from three general classes in a better way, as is demonstrated by an example implementation.     

Abortion ethics: rights and responsibilities

Abortion considerations require deep reflection on law, convention, social mores, religious norms, family contexts, emotions, and relationships. I have three arguments. First, a liberal “right to choose” framework is inadequate because it is based on individualist notions of rights. Second, reproductive freedoms should be extended to all women. Third, abortion ethics involves a dialectical interplay between rights and responsibilities, and between social, cultural, and particular contexts, and is best understood in terms of moral praxis.     

Book notes

Mana: Revue de Sociologie et d'Anthropologie Caen: Department of Sociology, University of Caen, Esplanade de la Paix, 1400 Caen, France. 242 pp, 81 FF (in France, inch postage)

Desh Pardesh: The South Asian Presence in Britain Roger Ballard, ed., 1994 London: Hurst & Co. 296 pp., £9.95 (pb) ISBN 1–85065–092–6

Religions et sécurité international Jean‐François Mayer, 1995 Bern: Office Central de la Défense Series: Études relatives à la politique de sécurité, No. 2/1995 143 pp.

Essential Teachings His Holiness the Dalai Lama London: Souvenir Press, 1995 152 pp., £9.99 (hb) ISBN 0–285–63273–6

Voices of Islam John Bowker, 1995 Oxford: Oneworld Publications 188 pp., £8.95 ISBN 1–85168–095–0

A Short History of the Bahá'i Faith Peter Smith, 1996 Oxford: Oneworld Publications 168 pp., £5.95 (pb) ISBN 1–85168–070–5

A Short History of Islam William Montgomery Watt, 1996 Oxford: Oneworld Publications 156 pp., £5.95 (pb) ISBN 1–85168–109–4

Dictionary of the Middle East Dilip Hiro, 1996 Basingstoke: Macmillan 367 pp., £14.99 (pb) ISBN 0–333–65926–0

The Hebrew Bible Dan Cohn‐Sherbok, 1996 London: Cassell 257 pp., £55.00 (hb), £13.99 (pb) ISBN 0–304–33702–1 (hb), 0–304–33703‐X (pb)

The Puzzle of God Peter Vardy, 1995 London: Fount/Harper Collins 240 pp., £7.99 ISBN 0–00–627965–1     

Studies in social influence IV: Minority influence in a context of original judgments

This research was devoted to the studv of minoritv influence in a context of originality of judgments. It was stimulated by a consideration of the role pla-ved by the normative context in influence processes. In most research, this implicitlv underlies the phenomena studied. Thus, studies of social control have naturally appealed to the objectivity context. Innovation, in the social milieu in which it is involved, frequentlv implies an originality context. We hoped to study experimentally its effects on the process of social change. To this end, five experimental conditions were created, in which the originality norm was introduced in different ways – by experimental instructions, by influencing the perception of his own creativity by each individual and by using the time factor to encourage the fuller acceptance of this norm. In each condition, a consistent minority defended a deviant response in a colour perception task (the experimental paradigm used in our previous research using an objectivity context). The originality context affected the development of minority influence. Judgment based on perceptual evidence was abandoned to a significant degree, and new influence behaviours appeared. Individuals followed the minority or avoided the conflict by apparently original compromise responses. They were able to adopt several modes of response in the destructured way during the experiment, as they could oppose the minority by adopting a counter-norm. Although these reactions depended on the way in which the originality norm was introduced, theprimary role in this process was nevertheless played by the minority, which provided the pole of attraction and persuasion in the group.     

Studies in social influence III: Majority versus minority influence in a group

This experimental study was aimed at investigating the mechanisms of influence involved in the two functionally opposed phenomena of innovation and conformity. We have been concerned for several years with the former of these two phenomena because of its intrinsic importance and the limited amount of research devoted to it. In the present article we have attempted not only to analyse the position more thoroughly, but also to compare the effects of innovation with those of conformity. In particular, we have endeavoured to show that behavioural style acts as a general source of influence in the two phenomena under consideration, where manifest judgments are concerned. On the other hand, the latent effects of influence may be different in the two cases of innovation and conformity. To investigate these questions, we developed an experimental design consisting of three parts. The first part was intended to study manifest influence on a quasi-physical judgment based on a cultural truism. The second part was aimed at the study of latent modifications in the perceptual-cognitive code as a result of influence. The third, in the form of a postexperimental questionnaire, was intended to provide information about various aspects, including the perception of the agent of influence by subjects. The main function of the experimental manipulations was to vary the minority or majority relationship of the agent of influence within a group, and its behavioural style, consistent or inconsistent. Our main findings indicate that behavioural consistency is the main factor behind the influence exerted by both majority and minority. But whereas, in conformity, influence is limited to modifying manifest judgments, in innovation, it changes the perceptual-cognitive code underlying such judgments.