Encoding dimensions of subject-performed tasks

Summary In an experiment modelled upon the classical paradigm on release from proactive interference (PI), subjects were required to remember series of actions they had performed (e.g., roll the ball, fold the paper). The objects involved in these subject-performed tasks (SPTs) served as a basis for build-up and release of PI. The objects used in the first few trials of the experiment belonged to the same class (e.g., parts of the body), causing a build up of PI. A shift to a different class of objects (e.g., kitchen utensils) along four different dimensions (taxonomic category, weight, color, and size) was introduced to cause a release of PI. On the basis of PI-release experiments with words it was expected that shifts in taxonomic category would result in a greater release than shifts within any of the physical dimensions. However, the results revealed that the amount of PI release was, in general, larger than expected, and essentially the same for all four dimensions investigated. The results are discussed in terms of the nature of the memory representation of SPTs, and with regard to possible processing differences between SPTs and verbal information. In addition, methodological suggestions for furthering the understanding of the encoding and storage of action events are advanced.     

Measuring defensiveness against future anxiety: Telepression

This study attempted to create an analogue through which the concept oftelepression (or futurity defensiveness) could be measured. A total of 54 undergraduate college students participated in the study; 27 experimental subjects were exposed to a “threatening” lecture on world ecology and 27 control subjects to a “neutral” lecture. Major hypotheses were generally confirmed using the Rappaport Time Line (RTL), a spatial representation of temporal experience. Experimental subjects showed a dramatic increase in “past” emphasis and a tendency to constrict present and future time zones on specific temporal indices on the RTL. Results are interpreted as confirming that psychological defense operates in terms offuture anxiety, much as defenses work on the avoidance of the past.     

Measuring the quality of life: Why,how and what?

In this paper three questions concerning quality of life in medicine and health care are analysed and discussed: the motives for measuring the quality of life, the methods used in assessing it, and the definition of the concept. The purposes of the study are to find an ethically acceptable motive for measuring the quality of life; to identify the methodological advantages and disadvantages of the most prevalent current methods of measurement; and to present an approach towards measuring and defining the quality of life which evades the difficulties encountered and discussed. The analysis comprises measurements both in the clinical situation concerning individual patients and in research concerning whole populations. Three motives are found for evaluating the quality of human life: allocation of scarce medical resources, facilitating clinical decision making, and assisting patients towards autonomous decision making. It is argued that the third alternative is the only one which does not evoke ethical problems. As for the methods of evaluation, several prevalent alternatives are presented, ranging from scales of physical performance to more subtle psychological questionnaires. Clinical questionnaires are found to fail to provide a scientific foundation for universally measuring the quality of life. Finally, the question of definition is tackled. The classical distinction between need-based and want-based theories of human happiness is presented and discussed. The view is introduced and defended that neither of these approaches can be universally preferred to the other. The difficulty with the need approach is that it denies the subjective aspects of human life; whereas the problem of the want approach is that it tends to ignore some of the objective realities of the human existence. In conclusion, it is argued that the choice of methods as well as definitions should be left to the competent patients themselves — who are entitled, if they so wish, to surrender the judgement to the medical personnel. Technical factors as well as the requirements of respect for autonomy and informed consent support this conclusion.     

Binary choice reaction time as a criterion of motor equivalence: Further evidence

In a previous study Heuer (1982) found shorter binary choice RTs for finger movements of the right hand when the alternative movement with the left hand was of the same form that in case of different forms. Contrary to expectation there was no corresponding effect if the fingers used were the same of different ones. This result was replicated for right hand RTs as well as left hand RTs and for male and female subjects, using a different experimental design. It is discussed in respect to different preparatory processes in the foreperiod.     

MENTAL ARITHMETIC IN AFRICA AND AMERICA: STRATEGIES,PRINCIPLES, AND EXPLANATIONS*

Mental arithmetic abilities were studied among unschooled African adults and American college students. A set of problems tested the use of the four basic arithmetic operations. Performance was analyzed for: strategies, implicit arithmetic principles, and explicit explanations of the principles. Both groups showed accurate mental arithmetic strategies related to the base ten structure of their native counting systems. The American students' mental strategies additionally made use of algorithms based on written place values. Several principles were implicit in the calculation strategies of both groups, and both used these principles to short-cut calculations. Though the African subjects did not, the American subjects did describe these abstract principles in explicit common language or algebraic expressions. Relationships between schooling and cognition are discussed.     

Responding to indirect speech acts

Indirect speech acts, like the request Do you know the time?, have both a literal meaning, here “I ask you whether you know the time,” and an indirect meaning “I request you to tell me the time.” In this paper I outline a model of how listeners understand such speech acts and plan responses to them. The main proposals are these. The literal meaning of indirect speech acts can be intended to be taken seriously (along with the indirect meaning) or merely pro forma. In the first case listeners are expected to respond to both meanings, as in Yes, I do—it's six, but in the second case only to the indirect meaning, as in It's six. There are at least six sources of information listeners use in judging whether the literal meaning was intended seriously or pro forma, as well as whether there was intended to be any indirect meaning. These proposals were supported in five experiments in which ordinary requests for information were made by telephone of 950 local merchants.     

Indirect social influence: Change in judgmental process or anticipatory conformity?

In three experiments, subjects imposed sentence in a criminal case before and after reading the harsh sentence imposed by the trial judge. They then read and imposed sentence in another case. In one experimental condition the subjects anticipated learning the judge's sentence in Case 2; in the other condition they were told not to anticipate learning the judge's sentence. Control subjects made their judgments without ever seeing the judge's sentence. Direct influence was the change in sentences within cases; indirect influence was the difference between initial sentences in Cases 1 and 2. Though direct influence was minimal and not significant, indirect influence was substantial, and was greater in the anticipation than no-anticipation than control conditions, indicating that both modification of the judgmental process and anticipatory conformity were operating. Indirect influence may then reflect a change of either type, depending on a number of methodological and other factors.