Personality correlates of occupational status according to Holland types

The present investigation sought to identify personality correlates of occupational status. Because occupational status is a direct function of occupation, the relationship between personality and status was examined both within and across occupational groups using Holland's 1973 typology. Four two-way analyses of covariance of 16PF (Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire, Form A) second-order personality factors were performed using data from 175 employed adult males. No single personality factor was associated with status across occupational types. Among Social occupations, the low-status group had higher Extraversion and lower Anxiety scores than the high-status group. In general, the relationship between personality factors and occupational types provided additional confirmation of Holland's theory using an employed adult sample.     

Examiner differences on actual WISC protocols

Interrater differences in scoring actual WISC protocols were determined for three different IQ levels. In general, differences among the 94 examiners tended to be within an acceptable range as established by the SE_m; varince on two Verbal subtests occasionally exceeded their corresponding SE_m. Also, examiner's demographic characteristics were not a major consistent source of variance in scoring WISC protocols.     

Converging evidence for the functional significance of imagery in problem solving

Two kinds of explanations have been offered for the process by which three-term series problems are solved, one in terms of linguistic principles and the other in terms of visual-spatial imagery. Two experiments are reported in which three different classes of operations are brought to bear on the problem: (1) Manipulation of stimulus attributes (characteristics of problems), (2) manipulation of variables that selectively encourage or inhibit the use of imagery (facilitating instructions; the suppression of visualization by reading), and (3) measurement of relevant individual differences (spatial-reasoning ability). All of the results indicate that imagery plays a functional but not a necessary role in the solution of three-term series problems; it is suggested that imaginal representation is functional because it reduces the load on memory. An adequate explanation of problem-solving will have to address certain general issues, such as the diversity of forms of cognitive representation and differences within and between individuals in the choice of problem-solving strategies.     

Memory scanning for words in visual images

This study attempts to replicate an experiment reported by Seamon (1972). In the present investigation, as in the study by Seamon, the scanning of short-term memory was compared when its contents were rehearsed words vs. a mental image. Memory sets were composed of either one, two, or three words. In the relational imagery group, subjects were required to form a single interactive mental scene of the entities which the memory set words represent. Nonimagery subjects were given instructions to covertly rehearse the memory set. In both groups, the usual memory set size (m) effect was obtained, i.e., reaction time (RT) increased linearly with m. Moreover, the set size effect was the same for both groups. This latter finding stands in marked contrast to the result obtained by Seamon; he found no effect of set size when subjects were given interactive imagery instructions. Because of the failure to replicate Seamon, an additional group of subjects were given imagery instructions. For this latter group, some of the procedural discrepancies between the relational imagery group of the present study and the corresponding group in Seamon’s study were resolved. Also, in this additional group, the set size effect was examined as a function of the subjects’ ratings of the quality of the images which they had formed. The same set size effect was found for this additional group, and the effect was independent of image quality.     

Storage and retrieval processes in sentence memory

Two experiments investigated how much time Ss take to verify a sentence with respect to a set of subject-verb-object (SVO) propositions they had learned. Three triplets of SVOs provided differing degrees of equivocation, including (1) unique SVOs, (2) a V with 3 SOs, and (3) an SV with 3 Os. A general class of models was proposed regarding the representation of prepositional trees in memory and an algorithm by which a probe tree might be verified against a set of trees in memory. In Expt I, verification times were least for Condition (1), slower and equal for Conditions (2) and (3). In Expt II, a fourth condition, an SO with 3 Vs, produced verification times as slow as those in Condition (3). Of several models considered, the closest-fitting one assumed parallel search processes proceeding simultaneously from S, V, and O positions of the probe, scanning through memory trees structered according to the HAM (Human Associative Memory) theory of Anderson and Bower.     

Developmental trends in children's component selection

A new method is introduced for assessing children's component selection—i.e., the disposition to attend to a single feature of multifaceted stimuli. Eight-year-old children were found to exercise component selection to a lesser degree than 4-year-olds; while children at both age levels attended primarily to one stimulus component (shape), the older children showed a moderate amount of attention to a secondary redundant feature (color) as well. However, a comparable age difference in attention deployment was not observed when a single stimulus dimension (shape) was “relevant” in two variant tasks. These results imply a developmentally increasing ability to distinguish between conditions in which attending to redundant stimulus information can and cannot be useful. That this ability undergoes little further development beyond age 8 was suggested in a second experiment with 8- and 12-year-olds in which the three tasks produced relatively similar developmental trends in performance.