Semantic and associative factors in probability learning with words

Using a probability-learning technique with a single word as the cue and with the probability of a given event following this word fixed at .80, it was found (1) that neither high nor low associates to the original word and (2) that neither synonyms nor antonyms showed differential learning curves subsequent to original learning when the probability for the following event was shifted to .20. In a second study when feedback, in the form of knowledge of results, was withheld, there was a clear-cut similarity of predictions to the originally trained word and the synonyms of both high and low association value and a dissimilarity of these words to a set of antonyms of both high and low association value. Two additional studies confirmed the importance of the semantic dimension as compared with association value as traditionally measured.     

Anchoring and relational judgments by young children and retardates

In five experiments using as dimensions brightness, texture, facial happiness, height, and weight, young children (ages 3.4 to 5.3 years) rendered bipolar judgments of stimuli intermediate in value between alternately given extreme anchors. Consistent relational shifts away from the anchors were found for all dimensions judged, and these effects proved virtually independent of children’s ages, the sequential orders of stimulus and anchor presentation, or the provision of overt visual memory props. Evidence of relational judgment within the narrower range of the test stimuli alone was also found. Essentially similar relational judgments were replicated with a sample of severe adult mental retardates.     

Knowledge-based classification of ill-defined categories

In this paper, I report an exploratory study which investigated the role that prior knowledge plays in influencing classification learning. Under neutral or knowledge-imposing instructions, subjects learned to classify exemplars into categories that either were or were not linearly separable. Linearly separable categories are those categories whose members can be correctly classified based on an additive summation of weighted attribute information. Following category learning, the subjects were given transfer tests. A major finding was that knowledge facilitated the learning of linearly separable categories but interfered with the learning of not linearly separable categories. Quantitative analyses revealed that the knowledge facilitated category learning of the linearly separable categories by influencing the storage and reliance on both prototypical and exemplar information.     

Cross-generational stability of gender differences in sexuality

A sample of 4767 people (roughly representative of Britain) replied to a sex questionnaire issued within the pages of a National newspaper. Respondents were divided into two broad age-groups (above and below thirty) in order to assess the impact of the women's movement on traditional gender differences basic to the so-called ‘double standard’. Men emerged as markedly more interested in casual encounters and sexual variety than women, and there was no sign at all that this difference has diminished among the modern generation. An analysis of reported sexual difficulties indicated that young people have gained little benefit from all the sex manuals and advice that are available today: the problems persist in exactly the same proportion as with the older generation. Of particular interest was the frequency with which women in both age-groups reported boredom and disinterest in sex as problematic.