Task-specific strategies of mental “rotation” of facial representations

The effects of task demands on the visual comparison of facial patterns and of comparable nonfacial patterns were explored in two studies. The studies yielded two primary findings. First, faces, despite their holistic properties, are not rotated faster than comparable non-face-like patterns, although subjects’ judgments of them were uniformly more rapid than judgments for nonfaces. Second, the nature of the same-different judgment task required of subjects had a large effect on the pattern of results obtained: When stimuli were compared to their mirror images, results indicative of mental “rotation” were obtained. When stimuli were compared on the basis of similarity of individual features, the pattern of results was very different. This one manipulation produced effects that exceeded those of all of the other manipulations, including that of rotation.     

Social intimacy: An important moderator of stressful life events

Two studies were conducted to explore the role of social intimacy in predicting the individual's response to stress. In the first study the experimenter reinforced the experimental subjects' verbalizations during an interview on a fixed schedule for the first 3 minutes, withdrawing reinforcement for the final 4 minutes. The control group received reinforcement on a fixed schedule for the total 7 minutes. Subjects scoring low on a measure of intimacy disclosed less personal material during the withdrawal period in the experimental condition than in the control condition in contrast to high scoring subjects who maintained their level of disclosure for both parts of the interview. In the second study, previously experienced life change events were assessed. Individuals lacking a current intimacy were found to be prone to higher levels of emotional disturbance especially when many previous negative or few positive life change events had occurred.     

Effects of media violence on viewers' aggression in unconstrained social interaction

This article provides a meta-analytic review of the experimental effects of media violence on viewers' aggression in unstructured social interaction. In the reviewed experiments, children or adolescents were exposed to violent or control presentations and their postexposure behavior was coded for aggression during spontaneous social interaction. Exposure to media violence significantly enhanced viewers' aggressive behavior when the findings were aggregated across studies, but the effect was not uniform across investigations. Only suggestive evidence was obtained concerning moderators of the effect: Marginally stronger relations were obtained in those studies using a cross-section of the normal population of children (vs. emotionally disturbed children) and in those studies conducted in laboratory settings (vs. other contexts).     

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.     

Sensation seeking and financial risk taking in everyday money matters

The present study investigated the degree to which the previously established relationship between sensation seeking and risk taking associated with gambling could be extended to everyday financial matters (e.g., personal banking activities). The subjects, classified into high and low sensation seekers, were asked to make a series of everyday financial decisions that varied in their degrees of risk. Overall, the results indicate high sensation seekers displayed greater risk-taking tendencies in everyday financial matters than low sensation seekers. This difference in everyday financial risk taking between high and low sensation seekers was also found within each gender group. Implications and suggestions for future research involving sensation seeking in other personal and professional financial decision-making areas are also presented.     

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.