Artificial intelligence and metaphor making: Some philosophic considerations

This article argues that the metaphors presently employed in describing artificial intelligence represent the use of personification and anthropomorphism. They attempt to develop an isomorphic relationship between the human mind and a computer’s logic. It is suggested that an analogic metaphor is more appropriate in describing this relationship and is more epistemologically correct. Dr. Carrier is an assistant professor of organizational behavior at the School of Management, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York 12180. His current research interests include the behavioral and philosophic aspects of artificial intelligence and expert computer systems in work situations, and the behavioral perceptions of decision processes in the workplace.     

Integration of women into the U.S. military

This study reports male attitudes toward women beginning with the admission of women in 1976 to the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. It assesses these attitudes as a consequence of the norms of the military system and notes a trend toward more positive attitudes by successive classes since the Class of 1979. Programmatic measures to nurture and facilitate this positive trend are recommended.The author gratefully acknowledges the contribution of Dr. Steven P. Gunn, formerly of Connecticut College, to the development of this research.     

The reliability of a computer interview for drug use/abuse information

A computer interview was developed to collect information about drug use/abuse from high school students. Responses to this interview were compared with those obtained from an identical paper-and-pencil questionnaire given to the same students, in counterbalanced order. Results were comparable for the two methods, but missing data and logically inconsistent answers obtained with the paper-and-pencil questionnaire were not possible with the computer interview. The overwhelming majority of respondents preferred the computer interview as a means of data collection.     

A confirmatory analysis of the factor stability hypothesis

The procedures recently developed by Jöreskog for studying similarities and differences in factor structures between different groups were applied to data from a study designed by Thurstone to investigate the sampling stability of a hypothesized isolated configuration. The hypothesis of an isolated configuration was rejected but not by much. The results represent a restricted and unique simple structure solution with the factor loadings and uniqueness values invariant over the two samples.     

Differential reinforcement of interresponse times with controlled probability of reinforcement per response

Pigeons were presented food after interresponse times (IRTs) longer or shorter than a fixed percentage of their most recent IRTs. This procedure controlled probability of reinforcement per response while still allowing different classes of IRTs to be reinforced differentially. Support was found for IRT-reinforcement theory in that response rates were determined by the degree and direction of differential reinforcement of IRTs, but were relatively independent of probability of reinforcement per response and of the length of the control system's IRT memory. Stimulus control of these differential response rates was also demonstrated.     

Reviews of current books

Pastoral Psychology -     

Perceiver bias in the processing of deliberately asymmetric emotional expressions

Posers were requested to produce happy and sad emotional expressions, deliberately accentuated on the left and right sides of the face. Raters judged the emotional intensity of expressions when presented in original and mirror-reverse orientation. Left-side-accentuated sad expressions were rated as more intense than right-side-accentuated sad expressions. Raters were biased to judge expressions as more intense when the accentuated side was to their left. The findings indicated that the perceiver bias in weighting information from the side of the face in left hemispace extends to judgments of emotional intensity.