Differential Correlates of Positive-Based and Negative-Based Incentives in Motivation

We studied the distinction between two contrasting types of positive incentive value, one type based on approaching positive affect (positive-based value or PBV), the other on avoiding negative affect (negative-based value or NBV). Indices of the two types were highly correlated with each other, but structural equations modeling also suggested different patterns of relationships for the two. NBV increased and PBV decreased when goals were perceived as necessary rather than freely chosen. Frequent prior attainment of a goal was associated with reduced PBV but had no clear relation to NBV. Results were qualified by interactions with motivational orientation of raters, but the NBV—PBV contrast may be functional and may overlap with other theoretical distinctions in the literature.     

Sugar consumption,locomotion, task orientation,and learning in preschool children

A challenge design was employed to investigate the effect of sucrose consumption on the behavior of 12 preschool children. On separate experimental days, subjects were tested individually with either a challenge sucrose drink (2 gm/kg body weight) or a placebo drink sweetened with aspartame. Fifteenminute observations of each child during free play were made at 15, 45, and 75 minutes after ingestion of the drink. Assessment with a paired- associate learning task was made before ingestion and at 30, 60, and 90 minutes after ingestion. This study was a partial replication and extension of one of the few studies in the literature that has found an effect of sucrose on the behavior of normal children. On all dependent measures (locomotion, task orientation, and learning), the study failed to obtain significant differences between the two conditions.     

Advanced computing in psychology

In 1984, the National Science Foundation began a large initiative to provide the scientific community with access to Class VI computers. With the support of the NSF Program on Memory and Cognitive Processes, the Federation of Behavioral, Psychological and Cognitive Sciences invited a group of scientists to a workshop that considered the advanced computational needs of several areas of psychological, behavioral, and cognitive sciences. This paper presents a summary of the conference deliberations.     

Memory strategies in children with learning disabilities

Memory strategies were examined among children, 7–13 years old, with diagnosed learning disabilities, in order to investigate whether they perform in appropriately active and efficient ways. The children were grouped at two age levels and administered tasks of serial recall and free recall. A strategy-training session was conducted on the second task. On the serial recall, neither age group showed evidence of rehearsal, in contrast to previous studies. On the free recall task, the younger children's performance was consistent with the mediation deficiency hypothesis, while the older children improved in sorting, clustering, and recall following training; i.e., they showed a typical production deficiency. There was support for considering this sample of learning disabled children as inactive learners, with potential developmental change. Serial recall improved with age, and the older children's production deficiences in free recall appeared to be ameliorated with training in organizational strategies.     

Development of ability to perceive and produce pictorial depth cue of overlapping.

The perception of the pictorial depth cue of overlapping was studied in children 3, 5, and 7 yr. old. Both a sequential and a simultaneous picture/object-matching task were used to test sensitivity. All age groups successfully perceived the depth relation information provided by pictorial overlapping. Height on the picture plane, which projectively covaries with overlapping, was not consistently used as a depth cue by any age group. Children's drawings were also analyzed for the presence of distance information. The drawings of the 3- and 5-yr. old children contained no overlapping cues and indicated a general lack of understanding of the third demension behind the picture plane. Seven-yr.-old children showed the beginnings of this understanding through their use of size perspective and height on the picture plane as depth cues. For all ages the production of the overlapping cue lags behind its perception.     

Differential patterns of preference for modified linear perspective in children and adults

Two experiments were designed to investigate the development of a preference for minimal convergence in pictures. Pictures varying in degree of convergence from conic to parallel were observed three at a time under two conditions: monocularly at the correct station point for the conic projection, and freely with unconstrained view. Subjects were children in nursery school (age: 4 years) and first grade (age: 6 years), and adults in college. Subjects were asked to choose the “best” picture. In the correct station point condition the younger children preferred the most conic picture, while adults chose the most parallel projection significantly more frequently than either remaining choice. First-grade children were in transition between these two modes of responding. In the free view condition, the younger children showed no strong preferences, while older children and adults preferred parallel projections significantly more frequently than more convergent pictures. Results were interpreted in context of the development of the “Zoom effect,” an assumption of appropriate viewing distance 10 times as great as the size of the pictured object.     

A Chinese critique on Western ways of warfare

I will argue that there are two pervasive and enduring Western attitudes towards warfare: one involves the romanticism of violent conflict, the other concerns moral justification for it. These stand in sharp contrast to the traditional Chinese attitude as put forward in the Chinese classic treatises on warfare, the Sun‐tzu and Sun Pin. I will reference similar concerns articulated in the Taoist and, to a lesser extent, Confucian classics both to confirm and clarify this position. Using the combination of some of the most important and influential texts with the most relevant to our topic, I will attempt to identify and explicate what I will call “the traditional Chinese attitude toward warfare” as a critique of the two widespread Western attitudes. Finally, I will explore the implications of the West abandoning its romantic and moralistic attitudes.