Why do people perform thrilling activities? A study based on reversal theory

The present study was aimed at testing the assumption based on reversal theory, according to which people perform frightening activities to induce high anxiety, which in turn can give rise to pleasant excitement, provided that a metamotivational reversal occurs. The Tension and Effort Stress Inventory was administered to 46 individuals just before and just after a frightening ride on a cable (Fantasticable). A 30-subject control group was given the same inventory in a safe context, with a 2-min. rest between the two periods of completion. Ratings of Tension Stress, Anxiety, and overall Unpleasant Emotions were significantly decreased after the ride for the Fantasticable group. Conversely, significant increases in Preferred Arousal, Excitement, Transactional Emotions, and overall Pleasant Emotions were found after the ride. Also, pre-activity anxiety correlated with postactivity excitement (r = .79) for the Fantasticable group only. This supports the reversal theory contention about how one's involvement in arousal-seeking leisure may improve one's emotional state. No time effect was noted in the ratings for the control group, suggesting an association of participation in a frightening activity and emotional enhancement.     

An estimate of the Flynn Effect: changes in IQ and subtest gains of 10-yr-old French children between 1965 and 1988

The significant increase in IQ in the industrialised countries during recent decades, known as the eponymous Flynn Effect, tends to be given numerous explanations (progress in schooling, television, nutrition, etc.). One way of studying this effect consists of assessing in which subtests the change in IQ takes place. Using the comparison among 120,000 French children on an intelligence test in 1965 and the results of 8640 children on the same test in 1988, Greenfield's hypothesis is discussed: that television and other media using graphical representations have induced an improvement in spatial and visual capacities to the detriment of capacities relating to vocabulary. The results are compatible with Greenfield's hypothesis, although other explanations are still possible.     

Mapping Response Repertoires

In his triangular model, Moscovici (1970, 1984) maintained that subjects do not have direct relations with the Object; rather, they have repertoires consisting of others’ responses, and these responses mediate the subject's relation with the Object. The present study examines response repertoires. We asked 114 participants to cite significant others and describe these others’ opinions about electromagnetic radiation, to indicate their own response on this issue, and to situate this response vis-à-vis the responses of the significant others described. Our results show that, even if some participants had restricted repertoires consisting of similar and rare responses, more than three-quarters of the participants had extended repertoires consisting of varied, shared, and consistent responses.     

The long-term effect of relational information in classification learning

This study examines the long-term effect of mutual information in the learning of Shepardian classifications. Mutual information is a measure of the complexity of the relationship between features because it quantifies how the features relate to each other. For instance, in various categorisation models, Type VI concepts—originally studied by Shepard, Hovland, and Jenkins (1961)—are unanimously judged to be the most complex kind of 3-D Boolean concepts. This has been largely confirmed by empirical data. Yet, it is apparently inconsistent with the fact that this concept entails the greatest amount of mutual information of all the 3-D Boolean concepts. The present study was aimed at verifying whether individuals can use relational information, in the long run, to devise easier strategies for category learning. Subject performance was measured repeatedly for 1 hour on either successive Type VI concepts (using different features between problems) or successive Type IV concepts. The results showed that shortly after the second problem, Type VI concepts became easier to learn than Type IV ones. The gap between the mean per-problem error rates of the two concepts continued to increase as the number of problems increased. Two other experiments tended to confirm this trend. The discussion brings up the idea of combining different metrics in categorisation models in order to include every possible way for subjects to simplify the categorisation process.     

Double foot‐in‐the‐door,social representations,and environment: application for energy savings

This study aims to determine the most effective procedure to bring individuals to adopt pro‐environmental behaviors, specifically to make energy savings for several weeks. A link was established between two fields of research traditionally separated in social psychology literature: free will compliance and social representations theories. An experiment was carried out to test the effectiveness of several simple and double foot‐in‐the‐door procedures, activating central or peripheral cognitions of the social representation of energy savings. Basically, the results indicate that the most effective procedure is the double foot‐in‐the‐door, which activates central cognitions. Twice as many participants accepted the target request and three times as many actually performed the expected behavior with this procedure.