Breakdowns in flexible use of information: Intelligence-related differences in transfer following equivalent learning performance

Groups of retarded and nonretarded children were investigated as they learned three rules underlying problems adapted from the Raven Progressive Matrices Test: rotation, imposition, and subtration. The interest was in evaluating group differences in the ease with which the original set of rules was learned and the flexibility with which these rules were transferred to modified contexts. In the case of either learning or transfer, the metric of performance was the amount of aid, specifically the number of computer-generated graduated hints, needed for each subject to solve the problems. The groups were matched on their entering competence to deal with the rules under scrutiny, and also on mental age. No group differences were obtained as the subjects learned the original set of rules. However, on subsequent occasions when required to make flexible use of those rules, clear group differences emerged; and those differences increased as the similarity of the training and test contexts decreased. The results were seen as consistent with theories that emphasize transfer flexibility as one potential source of individual and comparative differences in intelligence.     

The Relationship of Pregnancy Status to Job Satisfaction: An Exploratory Analysis

Forty-three women who had worked outside of the home prior to becoming pregnant and had returned to the same place of employment after the birth of their children participated in the study. To do so, they responded to a two-part questionnaire asking about their work lives (e.g., level of job satisfaction before, during, and after their pregnancies) and demographic characteristics (e.g., occupation). The results indicated that their job satisfaction was significantly greater before their pregnancies than either during or after their pregnancies. Job satisfaction during pregnancy had a significant, positive correlation with satisfaction with organizational maternity leave policies. Perceived reactions from women's coworkers and supervisors were also examined. Implications for these findings for organizations are discussed. Limitations of the study, and how they might be rectified in future research, are also addressed.     

A method for quantifying focused versus overview behavior in AOI sequences

We present a new measure for evaluating focused versus overview eye movement behavior in a stimulus divided by areas of interest. The measure can be used for overall data, as well as data over time. Using data from an ongoing project with mathematical problem solving, we describe how to calculate the measure and how to carry out a statistical evaluation of the results.     

Correlations Between Handshape and Movement in Sign Languages

Sign language phonological parameters are somewhat analogous to phonemes in spoken language. Unlike phonemes, however, there is little linguistic literature arguing that these parameters interact at the sublexical level. This situation raises the question of whether such interaction in spoken language phonology is an artifact of the modality or whether sign language phonology has not been approached in a way that allows one to recognize sublexical parameter interaction. We present three studies in favor of the latter alternative: a shape-drawing study with deaf signers from six countries, an online dictionary study of American Sign Language, and a study of selected lexical items across 34 sign languages. These studies show that, once iconicity is considered, handshape and movement parameters interact at the sublexical level. Thus, consideration of iconicity makes transparent similarities in grammar across both modalities, allowing us to maintain certain key findings of phonological theory as evidence of cognitive architecture.     

Subjective shortening in humans' memory for stimulus duration

Three experiments investigated memory for stimulus duration in humans using a modification of a delayed-matching technique previously used to study event memory in pigeons. In a session of 48 discrete trials subjects were presented with a sample stimulus (a 500-Hz tone with mean duration of 400 msec) then a comparison stimulus (the same duration as the sample, or longer or shorter), after a delay that was 1 to 10 sec in Experiments 1 and 2, and 2 to 16 sec in Experiment 3. After the comparison had been presented, subjects judged whether the sample and comparison had the same duration (a YES/NO decision, Experiment 1), or whether the comparison was longer, shorter, or of the same duration as the sample (Experiments 2 and 3). Overall, mean number of correct responses changed little with increases in the delay, but the change of number of correct responses with delay was markedly different on trials in which the sample and comparison were the same, the comparison was shorter, or the comparison was longer. In general, accuracy declined with increasing delay in the first case, remained constant in the second case, and increased when the comparison was longer than the sample. Examination of the types of errors made on the different sorts of trials (Experiment 3) suggested that the data were produced by two mechanisms: (1) subjective shortening of the sample as the delay between sample and comparison increased, and (2) a time-order error to respond that the sample was longer than the comparison. Overall, it appears that humans' working memory for duration exhibits a subjective shortening effect similar to that previously found in pigeons.