The numbers game: Gender and attention to numerical information

Research suggests that males outperform females on standardized tests of math ability from early adolescence onward. Several explanations for this difference focus on the different experiences of females and males with numerical information. We reasoned that males have more experience with numerical information than females because typical male interests (e.g., sports) are more likely to involve numerical information than typical female interests (e.g., physical appearance). Thus, we predicted that males would attend more to numerical information than would females, at least when the information was presented in a male-related or gender-neutral context. Females were expected to attend more than males when the context was female-related. Results using White/Caucasian subjects provided some support for these predictions. Implications for future research on the relationship between the gender-linkage of math materials and gender differences in math performance are discussed.     

Conditional Control of Fluid Consumption in an Occasion Setting Paradigm Is Independent of Pavlovian Associations

Drug states, flavors, and contextual cues were each trained as conditional discriminative stimuli to control a saccharin-LiCl association. In transfer tests, drug states transferred control over consumption to other flavored solutions and to food. Contexts and flavors transferred control only to other flavored solutions. Pavlovian control groups given direct pairings of context-LiCl or flavor-LiCl did not show reliable transfer. However, these control groups did show greater or the same aversion to the specific context or flavor predicting LiCl compared to the context or flavor discrimination groups. The dissociation of the discrimination and Pavlovian groups on transfer versus preference tests suggests that performance on the occasion setting task cannot be due to simple excitation or learning about a unique compound cue. Data from extinction procedures provide further support for the dissociation between simple excitation and occasion setting.     

Influence of subject and interviewer characteristics on the reliability of young adults' self-reports of drinking

The influence of subject and interviewer characteristics on the reliability of self-reports of alcohol consumption among young adults was investigated. Data were gathered from black and white college students of both sexes (N's=24) using a time-line procedure. The results snowed that these young adults provided highly reliable self-reports regarding their use of alcohol. Test-retest correlations for a criterion interval of 90 days were .96, .93, and .97 for the numbers of abstinent, moderate-drinking, and heavy-drinking days, respectively. Analyses also showed that white female subjects generally provided more reliable reports of abstinent and heavy-drinking days and that white female interviewers gathered more reliable reports across the three drinking disposition categories. These findings suggest that nonalcoholic young adults' retrospective reports of their drinking behavior can be reliably assessed using the time-line methodology. Future research is required to determine the validity of these self-reports and to understand the differential influence of subject and interviewer characteristics on the levels of reliability found.     

Postdecision evaluation of choice alternatives as a function of valence of alternatives,choice, and expected delay of choice consequences

The effects of valence of alternatives, choice, and expected delay of choice consequences on postdecision evaluations of choice alternatives were studied by either giving subjects a choice between two experimental tasks (both either pleasant or unpleasant) or assigning subjects their initially preferred task. Crosscutting valence and choice, subjects expected either no delay, 10-min delay, or 30-min delay before engaging in the task. All subjects evaluated both tasks immediately after the delay instructions but before experiencing the actual delay. Results confirmed the expected dissonance effect; that is, an upward evaluation of the chosen alternative and a downward evaluation of the rejected alternative, relative to no-choice conditions. Moreover, the relative upward evaluation of the chosen alternative increased as the expected delay decreased. Valence was not found to interact with other variables. The results are discussed in terms of differential salience of choice alternatives.     

Anorexia and conditioned taste aversions in the rat

The present study examined whether or not certain anorexic agents produced flavor aversions. Rats showed comparable anorexia when injected with lithium chloride, ammonium sulfate, arginine·HCl, and d-glucose. Only lithium chloride produced a flavor aversion to either a novel liquid or food. Only arginine was found to interfere with the formation or recall of an association. The effects of the other chemicals were discussed in terms of the relationship between anorexia and induced sickness.     

Effects of schedule and magnitude of reinforcement under conditions of thirst motivation

In contrast to a recent finding (Macdonald, G. E., & De Toledo, L. Learning and Motivation, 1974, 5, 288–298.) the results of three experiments investigating various partial reinforcement (PRF) manipulations under conditions of thirst motivation demonstrated strong similarity to analogous manipulations involving food reward. Specifically, for animals receiving water reinforcement, PRF was shown to generate greater resistance to extinction than continuous reinforcement (Expt 1 & 3), the schedule of reinforcement was shown to interact with level of acquisition (Expt 1 and 2), and the magnitude of the partial reinforcement extinction effect was shown to be a function of reward magnitude (Expt 3). These results provide strong evidence that mechanisms which operate in partial reinforcement situations are highly similar, regardless of the type of appetitive reinforcement.     

Subjective contours in stereoscopic space

Stereoscopic depth and subjective contour clarity were manipulated by varying the type of monocular configuration as well as magnitude and direction of disparity. The clarity of the subjective contours was influenced significantly by both magnitude and direction of disparity and by the type of monocular configuration. Subjective contours were always less clear when the objective monocular contour was discontinuous regardless of disparity. Stereoscopic depth estimates varied directly with magnitude and direction of disparity; however, depth magnitude reports were truncated when the disparity was carried by discontinuously defined patterns.